Quotes- Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Part 1

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered 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, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy 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.

Part 2 can be found here

Quotes- Ultimate Prize

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
-1 Corinthians 9:24

Reading this it would appear the most important nugget of wisdom is to run in a way to get the prize, ie. try your hardest. I used to think that as well, but then you look again. The defining part of this message is knowing what the prize is, and that is important. In fact, I was talking with someone yesterday about the pros/cons of moving away from your family for more money. It all depends on what your prize is (money or being with your family?).

So for one person the prize is to do the very best they can at their job sacrificing all else. Another may value quality time with family above all else; someone else is in between. You have to know what the prize is because otherwise you aren't even running in the right race.

Quotes- Live

He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.
-Joseph Heller

Quotes- Uniqueness

At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm reading On Becoming a Leader right now by Warren Bennis. One of the key tenets of the book is that great leaders fully express themselves and hold nothing back. Why don't we? I know at times I hold myself back for fear of social repercussions, and yet it's what we as humans are attracted too. Be unique, be real.

Quotes- Slow and Steady

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts… Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day, at the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve.
- Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger long time business partner of Warren Buffett, is well known for not only being a great investor, but maintaining a long list of other interests as well. He's right, to do anything of value you must make slow measured steps. Big jumps will come, but our life and it's rewards are the accumulation of a lifetime of work. Small measured changes make a man not a flash in the pan change of course.

Quotes- Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues

Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversations.
Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.
Industry: Lose not time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; speak accordingly
Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think you deserve.
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation.
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
-Benjamin Franklin 13 virtues

I'm currently reading On Becoming a Leader and Benjamin Franklin has been used quote a few times. He was a great man who's relationships with foreign dignitaries was a crucial cog in early America. A renaissance man he did a little of everything. A renowned ladies man and partier he didn't always maintain these virtues, but isn't that what a virtue is. Something we can strive for without ever perfectly achieving.

Quotes- Dogs

Dogs live faster than we do because it takes us a whole lot longer to understand unconditional love. It doesn't take a good dog nearly so long to figure it out.
- Unknown

Pets are great. They increase your happiness, health, and overall well being. It's actually been well documented. It's nice to have a buddy to come home to that is always excited to see you. Here's to our beloved four legged friends.