Saturday, December 12, 2009

A Lesson for Life



This post is specially for José Luis (one of my students, who is a real a Mac geek) but it is also for all the others because there´s a big lesson for life in this speech given by Steve Jobs, CEO (=Chief Executive Officer) at Apple and Pixar Animation, at the graduation ceremony of Standford University in 2005.

Steve Jobs, who never actually graduated from college, divides his speech into three parts, each one of them equally moving:
1: Connecting the Dots: His life until his teens. He explains how every episode of your life (the dots) is relevant when you connect it with all the others; for example, how his biological mother gave him up for adoption, why he dropped out from college...His piece of advice: Follow your heart.
2: Love and Loss: Love for his job and for his wife; loss of his job: he founded Apple and was later fired from the company, so he created a new company, Next, and later another one, Pixar, whose film, Toy Story -the first animation film- was so successful that Apple decided to buy both Next and Pixar...His advice: Love what you do, don´t settle, keep looking.
3:Death. He was diagnosed with cancer, a tumor on his pancreas, apparently incurable, and he had no longer than six months to live... but, obviously - and luckily, it didn´t turn out that way. His advice: Follow your heart and your intuition. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
This is the full speech divided into two parts (each one of them about seven minutes long) and subtitled in English, but if you feel more comfortable with the subtitles in Spanish, click here.




I want to thank Mariajo, my colleague, who first let me know about this impressive speech.

9 comments:

  1. Una entrada muy interesante.

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  2. Thanks,José Luis! but...why didn´t you write it in English?

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  3. Mítico comentario de profesora de inglés.
    I don't know how to write the previous sentence in english.XDD

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  4. Sara Pardo, 2ºD08 October, 2011

    I think that the philosophy of this man for the life is a good example to all us.
    Death is something inevitable, something that treats everyone equally although we are rich, poor, more or less intelligent ... so we need to enjoy life at all times and try to get all our goals. But for doing this, we must believe that we can do it. And if ever something goes wrong, we shouldn´t lose faith and we must keep fighting, because as Steve Jobs said...there is nothing to lose.

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  5. I agree, Sara; positive people like Steve Jobs are the ones who should look up to. I hope you enjoyed the video

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  6. Antía Tacón, 1º F16 October, 2011

    It's a really moving speech; I have enjoyed it very much. I think we all should try to be as positive as Steve Jobs. We should be brave and take our own decisions, trying to enjoy everything we do. We need to fight for our dreams and choose a job which we really like: we're going to spend a lot of time at job, so we should like it if we want to be really happy. And if something is wrong, we have to think positively and look for a new chance, as Steve Jobs did when he was fired from Apple. As he says, we mustn't settle, because we only live one time!

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  7. I´m glad you enjoyed it, Antía. Judging from his speech only, Steve Jobs is certainly someone to look up to.

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  8. Emilio Mouronte09 October, 2012

    A few days ago was the first anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs, an idol for me. He was a visionary. Steve revolutionized many areas. Beauty, simplicity and sophistication are on all apple products. I totally agree with his philosophy, with his obsession for perfection and with the importance of creativity. I am convinced that the secret of Apple's success is the union of art and technology in one. Steve was the soul of Apple, and I hope that this remains so in the future.

    "Stay hungry. Stay Foolish."

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