In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a commencement speech at Stanford University. I wasn't at Stanford's graduation that year, but last year I was asked to watch this speech in English and write my response. That was the first time I had heard Jobs' speech, and while it was aimed at inspiring an audience of college graduates, I directed some of that inspiration at my soon-to-be-graduating self. Many aspects of his speech were inspiring, but some stood out to me more than others. To begin his speech, Jobs tells the audience that he will tell three stories: one about connecting the dots, the second about love and loss, and the third about death. From each of these stories I took away something inspiring. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first story about connecting the dots I found ironic, because in it Jobs talks about how he dropped out of college six months after starting freshman year despite being talking to a group of graduates from a very expensive university and prestigious. He says he did it because he didn't see the value in it and didn't want to continue wasting his parents' money. He then goes on to say that he stayed there for another eighteen months to take courses that really interested him before he actually quit, getting to the point that you should always follow your curiosity. After taking a calligraphy class, he explains that the Macintosh had beautiful fonts and so did all the other personal computers that followed it. From this story, I found Jobs' underlying message of always following your curiosities very inspiring and I have taken this into account in my life. I took it as saying that if you pursue what interests you, you will eventually succeed. In his second story about love and loss, he talks about being fired from Apple, the company he founded and built. He says, “…what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating…I felt I had let down the previous generation of entrepreneurs, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me " (Works, 2005). He goes on to say that after this disappointment, he went on to create Pixar which was later purchased by Apple. He had persevered and lost everything he had worked for, and because of that he still ended up on top. Not only did I find Jobs' perseverance in the story inspiring, but also his use of a falling baton metaphor. This made his situation very relatable to any audience because anyone can understand the feeling that must come from it. Finally, in his third story about death, Jobs tells how he once read a quote along the lines of how he should live each day as if it were his last, and so he did. He then went on to talk about his cancer diagnosis and how he survived, but now he had a better understanding that any day could be his last. Towards the end of his story he tells the audience, “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your inner voice, and most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition, they somehow already know what you really want to become, everything else is secondary” (Jobs, 2005). his call to action addressed to the public a following this advice in their lives was an inspiration to everyone to really take to heart what he was saying . I would like.
tags