How i envy people who are doing what they like...
PS: pardon the messy article typo arrangement. I got this from en email from a friend, and too lazy to edit the whole thing
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> >Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
> >This is the prepared text of the address by Steve
> Jobs, CEO of Apple
> >Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios,
> >who spoke at Commencement on June 12, 2005.
> >
> >" I am honored to be with you today at your
> commencement from one of the
> >finest universities in the world.
> >I never graduated from college.Truth be told, this
> is the closest I've ever
> >gotten to a college graduation.
> >
> >Today I want to tell you three stories from my
> life. That's it.
> >No big deal. Just three stories.
> >
> >The first story is about connecting the dots.
> >
> >I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6
> months, but then
> >stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or
> so before I really quit.
> >
> >So why did I drop out?
> >It started before I was born. My biological mother
> was a young,unwed
> >college graduate student,
> >and she decided to put me up for adoption.
> >She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by
> college graduates, so
> >everything was all set for me to be adopted at
> birth by a lawyer and his
> >wife.
> >Except that when I popped out they decided at the
> last minute that they
> >really wanted a girl.
> >So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a
> >call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an
> unexpected baby
> boy; do you want him?"
> >They said: "Of course."
> >My biological mother later found out that my mother
> had never graduated
> >from college and that my father had
> >never graduated from high school. She refused to
> sign the final adoption
> >papers.
> >She only relented a few months later when my
> parents promised that I would
> >someday go to college.
> >
> >And 17 years later I did go to college. But I
> naively chose a college that
> >was almost as expensive as Stanford,
> >and all of my working-class parents' savings were
> being spent on my college
> >tuition.
> >After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I
> had no idea what I
> >wanted to do with my life and no idea how college
> was going to help me
> >figure it out.
> >And here I was spending all of the money my parents
> had saved their entire life.
> >So I decided to drop out and trust that it would
> all work out OK. It was
> >pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was
> one of the best decisions
> >I ever made.
> >The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the
> required classes that
> >didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the
> ones that looked
> >interesting.
> >
> >It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room,
> so I slept on the floor
> >in friends' rooms,
> >I returned coke bottles for the 5?deposits to buy
> food with, and I would
> >walk the 7 miles across town
> >every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at
> the Hare Krishna temple.
> >I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by
> following my curiosity and
> >intuition turned out
> >to be priceless later on. Let me give you one
> example:
> >
> >Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best
> calligraphy instruction
> >in the country.
> >Throughout the campus every poster, every label on
> every drawer, was
> >beautifully hand calligraphed.
> >Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take
> the normal classes, I
> >decided to take a
> >calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I
> learned about serif and san
> >serif typefaces,
> >about varying the amount of space between different
> letter combinations,
> >about what makes great typography great.
> >It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle
> in a way that science
> >can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
> >
> >None of this had even a hope of any practical
> application in my life.
> >But ten years later, when we were designing the
> first Macintosh computer,
> >it all came back to me.
> >And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the
> first computer with
> >beautiful typography.
> >If I had never dropped in on that single course in
> college, the Mac would
> >have never had multiple
> >typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since
> Windows just
> copied the
> >Mac, its likely that no personal computer would
> have them.
> >If I had never dropped out, I would have never
> dropped in on
> >thiscalligraphy class, and
> >personal computers might not have the wonderful
> typography that they do.
> >Of course it was impossible to connect the dots
> looking forward when I was
> >in college.
> >But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten
> years later.
> >
> >Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward;
> you can only connect
> >them looking backwards.
> >So you have to trust that the dots will somehow
> connect in your future.
> >You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny,
> life, karma, whatever.
> >This approach has never let me down, and it has
> made all the
> difference in my life.
> >
> >My second story is about love and loss.
> >
> >I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in
> life. Woz and I started
> >Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked
> hard, and in 10 years
> >Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage
> into a $2 billion
> >company with over 4000 employees. We had just
> released our finest creation
> >- the Macintosh - a year earlier,
> >and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How
> can you get fired from
> >a company you started?
> >Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought
> was very talented
> to run the company with
> >me, and for the first year or so things went well.
> But then our
> visions of
> >the future began to diverge and eventually we had a
> falling out.
> >When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.
> So at 30 I was
> out. And
> >very publicly out.
> >What had been the focus of my entire adult life was
> gone, and it was
> >devastating.
> >
> >I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I
> felt that I had
> let the
> >previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I
> had dropped the
> baton as
> >it was being passed to me.
> >I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to
> apologize for
> screwing
> >up so badly.
> >I was a very public failure, and I even thought
> about running away
> from the
> >valley.
> >But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still
> loved what I did.
> >The turn of events at Apple had not changed that
> one bit. I had been
> >rejected, but I was still in love.
> >And so I decided to start over.
> >
> >I didn't see it then, but it turned out that
> getting fired from Apple was
> >the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
> The heaviness of being
> >successful was replaced by the lightness of being a
> beginner again,
> >less sure about everything.
> >It freed me to enter one of the most creative
> periods of my life.
> >
> >During the next five years, I started a company
> named NeXT, another]
> company named Pixar,
> >and fell in love with an amazing woman who would
> become my wife.
> >Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer
> animated feature film,
> >Toy Story,
> >and is now the most successful animation studio in
> the world.
> >In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT,
> I retuned to Apple, and
> >the technology we developed
> >at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current
> renaissance.
> >And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
> >
> >I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if
> I hadn't beenfired from Apple.
> >It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the
> patient needed it.
> >Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.
> Don't lose faith.
> >I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me
> going was that I loved what I did.
> >You've got to find what you love. And that is as
> true for your work as it
> >is for your lovers.
> >Your work is going to fill a large part of your
> life,
> >and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do
> what you believe is great
> >work.
> >And the only way to do great work is to love what
> you do.
> >
> >If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
> >Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart,
> you'll know when you find
> >it.
> >
> >And, like any great relationship, it just gets
> better and better as the
> >years roll on.
> >So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
> >
> >My third story is about death.
> >
> >When I was 17, I read a quote that went something
> like: "If you live each
> >day as if it was your last,
> >someday you'll most certainly be right."
> >It made an impression on me, and since then, for
> the past 33 years,
> >I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked
> myself: "If today were
> >the last day of my life, would I want to do what I
> am about to do today?"
> >And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many
> days in a row, I know I
> >need to change something.
> >
> >Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most
> important tool I've ever
> >encountered
> >to help me make the big choices in life.
> >Because almost everything - all external
> expectations, all pride, all fear
> >of embarrassment
> >or failure - these things just fall away in the
> face of death, leaving only
> >what is truly important.
> >Remembering that your aregoing to die is the best
> way I know to avoid the
> >trap of thinking you
> >have something to lose. You are already naked.
> There is no reason not to
> >follow your heart.
> >
> >About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had
> a scan at 7:30 in the
> >morning,
> >and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.
> >I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors
> told me this was almost
> >certainly a
> >type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should
> expect to live no
> >longer than three to six months.
> >My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs
> in order, which is
> >doctor's code for prepare to die.
> >It means to try to tell your kids everything you
> thought you'd have the
> >next 10 years to tell them
> >in just a few months. It means to make sure
> everything is buttoned up so
> >that it will be as easy as possible
> >for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
> >
> >I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that
> evening I had a biopsy,
> >where they stuck an endoscope down my throat,
> through my stomach and into
> >my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and
> got a few cells from
> >the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was
> there, told me that when
> >they viewed the cells under a microscope
> >the doctors started crying because it> turned out
> to be a very rare
> form of pancreatic cancer that is curable
> >with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
> >
> >This was the closest I've been to facing death, and
> I hope its
> >the closest I get for a few more decades. Having
> lived through it, I can
> >now say this to you with a bit more certainty than
> when death was a useful
> >but purely intellectual concept:
> >
> >No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to
> heaven don't want
> to die
> >to get there.
> >And yet death is the destination we all share. No
> one has ever escaped it.
> >And that is as it should be, because Death is very
> likely the single best
> >invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It
> clears out the old to make
> >way for the new. Right now the new is you, but
> someday not too long from
> >now, you will gradually become the old and be
> >cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is
> quite true.
> >
> >Your time is limited, so don't waste it living
> someone else's life.
> >Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with
> the results of other
> >people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's
> opinions drown out your
> >own inner voice. And most important, have the
> courage to follow your heart
> >and intuition. They somehow already know what you
> truly want to become.
> >Everything else is secondary.
> >
> >When I was young, there was an amazing publication
> called The Whole Earth
> >Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my
> generation. It was created
> by a
> >fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in
> Menlo Park, and he
> >brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was
> in the late 1960's,
> >before personal computers and desktop publishing,
> so it was all made with
> >typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was
> sort of like
> Google in
> >paperback form, 35 years before Google came along:
> it was idealistic, and
> >overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
> >
> >Stewart and his team put out several issues of The
> Whole Earth
> >Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they
> put out a final issue.
> >It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the
> back cover of their final
> >issue was a photograph of an early morning country
> road, the kind you might
> >find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so
> adventurous.
> >
> >Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay
> Foolish."
> >It was their farewell message as they signed off.
> >Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished
> that for myself.
> >And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that
> for you.
> >
> > Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
> >
> > Thank you all very much.
