Thank you.
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
six months but then stayed around as a drop
in for another 18 months or so before I really
quit.
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 far more interesting.
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 and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical
application in my life, but 10 years later
when we were designing the first macintosh
computer, it all came back to me.
If I had never dropped out, personal computers
might not have had 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.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow
connect in your future.
Because believing that the dots will connect
down the road will give you the confidence
to follow your heart even when it leads you
off the well worn path.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early
in life.
Woz and started Apple in my parents' garage
when I was 20 and in ten years Apple had grown
from just the 2 of us in a garage into a 2
billion dollar company with over 4000 employees.
And then I got fired.
What had been the focus of my entire adult
life was gone.
I really didn't know what to do for a few
months.
I felt that I had let the previous generation
of entrepreneurs down.
I'd been rejected but I still loved what I
did.
I didn't see it then, but 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.
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
it's now the most successful animation studio
in the world.
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.
Your work is gonna 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.
As with all matters of the heart, you'll know
when you find it.
My third story is about death.
If you live each day as if it was your last,
some day you'll most certainly be right.
For the past 33 years, I've looked in the
mirror every morning and asked myself: If
today were the last day of my life, would
I wanna do what I am about to do today?
Because almost everything, all external expectations,
all pride, all fear of embarassment or failure,
these things just fall away in the face of
death.
Remembering that you are going to die is the
best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking
you have something to lose.
There is no reason not to follow your hearts.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living
someone else's life.
Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown
out your own inner voice.
Have the courage to follow your heart and
intuition: They somehow already know what
you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.
Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Thank you all very much.
