STEVE JOBS: Thank you.

I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement

from one of the finest universities in the word.
!SO"#$BITE O% &'EE(I#)*
JOBS: Truth be tod+ I never ,raduated from coe,e+ and this is the cosest I've ever
,otten to a coe,e ,raduation.
!SO"#$BITE O% -.")'TE(*
JOBS: Today+ I want to te you three stories from my ife. That's it. #o bi, dea. Just
three stories. The first story is about connectin, the dots. I dro//ed out of (eed &oe,e
after the first si0 months+ but then stayed around as a dro/1in for another 23 months or so
before I reay 4uit. So why'd I dro/ out5 It started before I was born. 6y bioo,ica
mother was a youn,+ unwed ,raduate student+ and she decided to /ut me u/ for ado/tion.
She fet very stron,y that I shoud be ado/ted by coe,e ,raduates+ so everythin, was a
set for me to be ado/ted at birth by a awyer and his wife.
E0ce/t that when I /o//ed out+ they decided at the ast minute that they reay wanted a
,ir. So my /arents+ who were on a waitin, ist+ ,ot a ca in the midde of the ni,ht
askin,: 7e've ,ot an une0/ected baby boy. $o you want him5 They said: Of course. 6y
bioo,ica mother found out ater that my mother had never ,raduated from coe,e and
that my father had never ,raduated from hi,h schoo. She refused to si,n the fina
ado/tion /a/ers. She ony reented a few months ater when my /arents /romised that I
woud ,o to coe,e. This was the start in my ife.
.nd 28 years ater+ I did ,o to coe,e. But I naivey chose a coe,e that was amost as
e0/ensive as Stanford+ and a of my workin,1cass /arents' savin,s were bein, s/ent on
my coe,e tuition. .fter si0 months+ I coudn't see the vaue in it. I had no idea what I
wanted to do with my ife and no idea how coe,e was ,oin, to he/ me fi,ure it out.
.nd here I was s/endin, a of the money my /arents had saved their entire ife. So I
decided to dro/ out and trust that it woud a work out O9. It was /retty scary at the
time+ but ookin, back+ it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
!SO"#$BITE O% -.")'TE(*
JOBS: The minute I dro//ed out+ I coud sto/ takin, the re4uired casses that didn't
interest me and be,in dro//in, in on the ones that ooked far more interestin,. It wasn't
a romantic. I didn't have a dorm room+ so I se/t on the foor in friends' rooms. I
returned &oke bottes for the five1cent de/osits to buy food with+ and I woud wak the
seven mies across town every Sunday ni,ht to ,et one ,ood mea a week at the 'are
9rishna tem/e. I oved it. .nd much of what I stumbed into by foowin, my curiosity
and intuition turned out to be /riceess ater on.
-et me ,ive you one e0am/e. (eed &oe,e+ at that time+ offered /erha/s the best
cai,ra/hy instruction in the country. Throu,hout the cam/us+ every /oster+ every abe
on every drawer was beautifuy hand1cai,ra/hed. Because I had dro//ed out and didn't
have to take the norma casses+ I decided to take a cai,ra/hy cass to earn how to do
this. I earned about serif and sans serif ty/efaces+ about varyin, the amount of s/ace
between different etter combinations+ about what makes ,reat ty/o,ra/hy ,reat.
It was beautifu+ historica+ artisticay subte in a way that science can't ca/ture+ and I
found it fascinatin,. #one of this had even a ho/e of any /ractica a//ication in my ife.
But 2: years ater+ when we were desi,nin, the first 6acintosh com/uter+ it a came
back to me. .nd we desi,ned it a into the 6ac. It was the first com/uter with beautifu
ty/o,ra/hy. If I had never dro//ed in on that sin,e course in coe,e+ the 6ac woud
have never had muti/e ty/efaces or /ro/ortionay s/aced fonts. .nd since 7indows
;ust co/ied the 6ac+ it's ikey that no /ersona com/uter woud have them.
!SO"#$BITE O% .<<-."SE*
JOBS: If I had never dro//ed out+ I woud have never dro//ed in on that cai,ra/hy
cass+ and /ersona com/uters mi,ht not have the wonderfu ty/o,ra/hy that they do. Of
course+ it was im/ossibe to connect the dots ookin, forward when I was in coe,e+ but
it was very+ very cear ookin, backwards 2: years ater.
.,ain+ you can't connect the dots ookin, forward. =ou can ony connect them ookin,
backwards. So you have to trust that the dots wi somehow connect in your future. =ou
have to trust in somethin,+ your ,ut+ destiny+ ife+ karma+ whatever+ because beievin,
that the dots wi connect down the road wi ,ive you the confidence to foow your heart
even when it eads you off the we1worn /ath and that wi make a the difference.
6y second story is about ove and oss. I was ucky+ I found what I oved to do eary in
ife. 7o> and I started .//e in my /arents' ,ara,e when I was ?:. 7e worked hard+ and
in 2: years .//e had ,rown from ;ust the two of us in a ,ara,e into a @? biion
com/any with over A+::: em/oyees. 7e'd ;ust reeased our finest creation+ the
6acintosh+ a year earier+ and I had ;ust turned B:+ and then I ,ot fired. 'ow can you ,et
fired from a com/any you started5 7e+ as .//e ,rew+ we hired someone who I thou,ht
was very taented+ to run the com/any with me. .nd for the first year or so+ thin,s went
we. But then our visions of the future be,an to diver,e and eventuay we had a fain,
out. 7hen we did+ our board of directors sided with him. .nd so at B:+ I was out 1 and
very /ubicy out. 7hat had been the focus of my entire adut ife was ,one+ and it was
devastatin,.
I reay didn't know what to do for a few months. I fet that I had et the /revious
,eneration of entre/reneurs down+ that I had dro//ed the baton as it was bein, /assed to
me. I met with $avid <ackard and Bob #oyce and tried to a/oo,i>e for screwin, u/ so
bady. I was a very /ubic faiure+ and I even thou,ht about runnin, away from the vaey.
But somethin, sowy be,an to dawn on me+ I sti oved what I did. The turn of events at
.//e had not chan,ed that one bit. I had been re;ected+ but I was sti in ove+ and so I
decided to start over. I didn't see it then+ but it turned out that ,ettin, fired from .//e
was the best thin, that coud have ever ha//ened to me. The heaviness of bein,
successfu was re/aced by the i,htness of bein, a be,inner a,ain+ ess sure about
everythin,. It freed me to enter one of the most creative /eriods of my ife.
$urin, the ne0t five years+ I started a com/any named #eCT+ another com/any named
<i0ar+ and fe in ove with an ama>in, woman who woud become my wife. <i0ar went
on to create the words first com/uter animated feature fim+ DToy Story+D and is now the
most successfu animation studio in the word.
!SO"#$BITE O% .<<-."SE*
JOBS: In a remarkabe turn of events+ .//e bou,ht #eCT+ and I returned to .//e+ and
the technoo,y we deveo/ed at #eCT is at the heart of .//e's current renaissance. .nd
-aurene and I have a wonderfu famiy to,ether. I'm /retty sure none of this woud have
ha//ened if I hadn't been fired from .//e. It was awfu1tastin, medicine+ but I ,uess the
/atient needed it.
Sometime ife 1 sometimes ife is ,oin, to hit you in the head with a brick+ don't ose
faith. I'm convinced that the ony thin, that ke/t me ,oin, was that I oved what I did.
=ou've ,ot to find what you ove+ and that is as true for your work as it is for your overs.
=our work is ,oin, to fi a ar,e /art of your ife+ and the ony way to be truy satisfied is
to do what you beieve is ,reat work+ and the ony way to do ,reat work is to ove what
you do. If you haven't found it yet+ kee/ ookin, and don't sette. .s with a matters of
the heart+ you' know when you find it. .nd ike any ,reat reationshi/+ it ;ust ,ets better
and better as the years ro on+ so kee/ ookin, 1 don't sette.
!SO"#$BITE O% .<<-."SE*
JOBS: 6y third story is about death. 7hen I was 28+ I read a 4uote that went somethin,
ike: If you ive each day as if it was your ast+ someday you' most certainy be ri,ht.
!SO"#$BITE O% -.")'TE(*
JOBS: It made an im/ression on me. .nd since then+ for the /ast BB years+ I have ooked
in the mirror every mornin, and asked mysef+ if today were the ast day of my ife+
woud I want to do what I am about to do today5 .nd whenever the answer has been no
for too many days in a row+ I know I need to chan,e somethin,. (ememberin, that I' be
dead soon is the most im/ortant too I've ever encountered to he/ me make the bi,
choices in ife. Because amost everythin,+ a e0terna e0/ectations+ a /ride+ a fear of
embarrassment or faiure+ these thin,s ;ust fa away in the face of death+ eavin, ony
what is truy im/ortant. (ememberin, that you are ,oin, to die is the best way I know to
avoid the tra/ of thinkin, you have somethin, to ose. =ou are aready naked. There is no
reason not to foow your heart.
.bout a year a,o+ I was dia,nosed with cancer. I had a scan at 8:B: in the mornin,+ and it
ceary showed a tumor on my /ancreas. I didn't even know what a /ancreas was. The
doctors tod me this was amost certainy a ty/e of cancer that is incurabe+ and that I
shoud e0/ect to ive no on,er than three to si0 months. 6y doctor advised me to ,o
home and ,et my affairs in order+ which is doctor's code for /re/are to die. It means to try
and te your kids everythin, you thou,ht you'd have the ne0t 2: years to te them in ;ust
a few months. It means to make sure everythin, is buttoned u/ so that it wi be as easy as
/ossibe for your famiy. It means to say your ,oodbyes.
I ived with that dia,nosis a day. -ater that evenin,+ I had a bio/sy+ where they stuck an
endosco/e down my throat+ throu,h my stomach and into my intestinesE /ut a neede into
my /ancreas and ,ot a few ces from the tumor. I was sedated+ but my wife who was
there tod me that when they viewed the ces under a microsco/e the doctors started
cryin, because it turned out to be a very rare form of /ancreatic cancer that is curabe
with sur,ery. I had the sur,ery and+ thankfuy+ I'm fine now.
!SO"#$BITE O% .<<-."SE*
JOBS: This was the cosest I've been to facin, death+ and I ho/e it's the cosest I ,et for a
few more decades. 'avin, ived throu,h it+ I can now say this to you with a bit more
certainty than when death was a usefu but /urey inteectua conce/t+ no one wants to
die. Even /eo/e who want to ,o to heaven+ don't want to die to ,et there+ and yet...
!SO"#$BITE O% -.")'TE(*
JOBS: ...death is the destination we a share. #o one has ever esca/ed it+ and that is as it
shoud be+ because death is very ikey the sin,e best invention of -ife. It's ife's chan,e
a,ent. It cears out the od to make way for the new. (i,ht now the new is you+ but
someday not too on, from now+ you wi ,raduay become the od and be ceared away.
Sorry to be so dramatic+ but it is 4uite true. =our time is imited+ so don't waste it ivin,
someone ese's ife. $on't be tra//ed by do,ma+ which is ivin, with the resuts of other
/eo/e's thinkin,. $on't et the noise of others' o/inions drown out your own inner voice.
.nd most im/ortant+ have the coura,e to foow your heart and intuition. They somehow
aready know what you truy want to become. Everythin, ese is secondary.
!SO"#$BITE O% .<<-."SE*
JOBS: 7hen I was youn,+ there was an ama>in, /ubication caed The 7hoe Earth
&atao,+ which was one of the bibes of my ,eneration. It was created by a feow named
Stewart Brand+ not far from here in 6eno <ark+ and he brou,ht it to ife with his /oetic
touch. This was in the ate 'F:'s+ before /ersona com/uters and deskto/ /ubishin,+ so it
was a made with ty/ewriters+ scissors+ and <oaroid cameras. It was sort of ike )oo,e
in /a/erback form BG years before )oo,e came aon,. It was ideaistic+ overfowin, with
neat toos and ,reat notions.
Stewart and his team /ut out severa issues of The 7hoe Earth &atao,+ and then when it
had run its course+ they /ut out a fina issue. It was the mid12H8:s+ and I was your a,e.
On the back cover of their fina issue was a /hoto,ra/h of an eary mornin, country road+
the kind you mi,ht find yoursef hitchhikin, on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it
were the words+ stay hun,ry. Stay fooish. It was their farewe messa,e as they si,ned
off. Stay hun,ry. Stay fooish. .nd I have aways wished that for mysef. .nd now+ as
you ,raduate to be,in anew+ I wish that for you. Stay 'un,ry. Stay fooish. Thank you a
very much.