Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford - Truly inspiring.

Read the text version here & watch the video here.

Steve Jobs definitely deserves respect not only as a technologist and entrepreneur, but also as one of the most remarkable minds of our era.

His speech at Stanford tells three stories which end with words of advice. The stories are about his life – battles and experiences – wholesome, educating, and inspiring.

The first is about connecting the dots. This talks about how you should learn and expand your knowledge and skills without worrying of how it’ll help, because sometime in the future, everything will fit in..

“…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.”

The second is about love and loss. That you should never give up the search to find work that you truly love to do.

“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.”

The third is about death. That it is an eventuality that we all must face. That someday in the future, we will not walk the earth as we do today. The best part about creation is that the old make way for the new. Your time is limited and you must make a mark.

“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.”