第一篇：喬布斯斯坦福大學演講內容

三個故事，道盡人世滄桑起伏——喬布斯斯坦福大學演講內容

我今天很榮幸能和你們一起參加畢業典禮，斯坦福大學是世界上最好的大學之一。我沒有從大學里畢過業。說實話，今天也許是在我的生命中離大學畢業最近的一天了。今天我想向你們講述我生命中的三個故事。

不是什么大不了的事情，只是三個故事而已。

第一個故事講的是，如何將生活中細微的事情聯系在一起。

我在Reed大學讀了六個月之后就退學了，但是在十八個月以后——我真正的作出退學決定之前，我還經常去學校。我為什么要退學呢?

故事從我出生的時候講起。我的親生母親是一個年輕的，沒有結婚的大學畢業生。她決定讓別人收養我，她非常想讓我被擁有大學學歷的人收養。所以在我出生的時候，她已經做好了一切的準備工作，能使得我被一個律師和他的妻子所收養。但是她沒有料到，當我出生之后，律師夫婦突然決定改要一個女孩。所以我的生養父母(他們還在我親生父母的觀察名單上)在半夜接到了一個電話:“我們現在這兒有一個不小心生出來的男嬰，你們愿意收養他嗎?”他們回答道:“當然!”但是我親生母親隨后發現，我的養母從來沒有上過大學，我的父親甚至從沒有讀過高中。她拒絕簽這個收養合同。在幾個月以后，我的父母答應她一定要讓我上大學，她這才同意。

十七歲那年，我真的上了大學。但是我很愚蠢的選擇了一個幾乎和你們斯坦福大學一樣貴的學校，我父母還處于藍領階層，他們幾乎把所有積蓄都花在了我的學費上面。在六個月后，我已經不覺得繼續這樣有什么意義。

我不知道我想要在生命中做什么，我也不知道大學能幫助我找到怎樣的答案。但是在這里，我幾乎花光了我父母這一輩子的所有積蓄。所以我決定要退學，我覺得這是個正確的決定。不能否認，我當時確實非常的害怕，但是現在回頭看看，那是我這一生中最棒的一個決定。

在我做出退學決定的那一刻，我終于可以不必去讀那些令我提不起絲毫興趣的課程了。然后我還可以去修那些看起來有點意思的課程。

這毫不羅曼蒂克。我失去了我的宿舍，所以我只能在朋友房間的地板上面睡覺，我去撿5美分的可樂瓶子，僅僅為了填飽肚子，在星期天的晚上，我需要走七英里的路程，穿過這個城市到Hare Krishna寺廟，只是為了能吃上這個星期唯一一頓好一點的飯。但是我喜歡這樣的生活方式。

因為跟隨自己的直覺和好奇心而遇到的很多事情，到后來都體現了它們無窮的價值。讓我舉個例子吧：

Reed大學在那時提供的美術字課程也許是全美最好的。在這個大學里面的每個海報，每個抽屜的標簽上面全都是漂亮的美術字。因為我退學了，沒有受到正規的訓練，所以我決定去參加這個課程，去學學怎樣寫出漂亮的美術字。我學到了san serif 和serif字體，我學會了怎么樣在不同的字母組合之中改變空格的長度，還有么樣才能作出最棒的印刷式樣。那是一種科學永遠不能捕捉到的、美麗的、真實的藝術精妙，我發現那實在是太美妙了。

當時看起來這些東西在我的生命中，似乎沒有任何實用性。但是十年之后，當我們在設計第一臺Macintosh電腦的時候，局面就改變了。我把當時我學的那些家伙全都設計進了Mac。那是第一臺使用了漂亮的印刷字體的電腦。如果我當時沒有退學，就不會有機會去參加這個我感興趣的美術字課程，Mac就不會有這么多豐富的字體以及賞心悅目的字體間距。那么現在個人電腦就不會有現在這么美妙的字型了。當然我在大學的時候，還不可能把這些小片斷聯系起來，但是當我十年后回顧這一切的時候，來路變得如此清晰。

再一次提醒，你在向前展望的時候不可能將這些片斷串連起來;你只能在回顧的時候再將它們聯系起來。所以，你必須相信這些片斷會在你未來的某一天發揮作用。你必須要相信某些東西：你的勇氣、目標、生命、因緣。這個過程從來沒有令我失望，只是讓我的生命更加地與眾不同而已。

我的第二個故事是關于愛和損失的.我非常幸運，因為我在很早的時候就找到了我鐘愛的東西。Woz和我在二十歲的時候就在父母的車庫里面開創了蘋果公司。我們工作得很努力，十年之后，這個公司從那兩個車庫中的窮光蛋發展到了超過四千名的雇員、價值超過二十億的大公司。在公司成立的第九年，我們剛剛發布了最好的產品，那就是Macintosh。我也快要到三十歲了。在那一年，我被炒了魷魚。你怎么可能被你自己創立的公司炒了魷魚呢? 嗯，在蘋果快速成長的時候，我們雇用了一個很有天分的家伙和我一起管理這個公司，在最初的幾年，公司運轉的很好。但是后來我們對未來的看法發生了分歧，最終我們吵了起來。當爭吵不可開交的時候，董事會站在了他的那一邊。所以在三十歲的時候，我被炒了。在這么多人的眼皮下我被炒了。在而立之年，我生命的全部支柱離自己遠去，這真是毀滅性的打擊。

在最初的幾個月里，我真是不知道該做些什么。我把從前的創業激情給丟了，我覺得自己讓與我一同創業的人都很沮喪。我和David Pack和Bob Boyce見面，并試圖向他們道歉。我把事情弄得糟糕透頂了。但是我漸漸發現了曙光，我仍然喜愛我從事的這些東西。蘋果公司發生的這些事情絲毫的沒有改變這些，一點也沒有。我被驅逐了，但是我仍然鐘愛它。所以我決定從頭再來。

我當時沒有覺察，但是事后證明，從蘋果公司被炒是我這輩子發生的最棒的事情。因為，作為一個成功者的極感被作為一個創業者的輕松感覺所重新代替: 對任何事情都不那么特別看重。這讓我覺得如此自由，讓我進入了我生命中最有創造力的一個階段。

在接下來的五年里，我創立了一個名叫NeXT的公司，還有一個叫Pixar的公司，然后和一個優雅的女士相識，后來她成為了我的妻子。Pixar 制作了世界上第一個用電腦制作的動畫電影——“”玩具總動員”，Pixar現在也是世界上最成功的電腦制作工作室。在后來的一系列運轉中，Apple收購了NeXT，然后我又回到了Apple公司。我們在NeXT發展的技術在Apple的復興之中發揮了關鍵的作用。我還和Laurence 一起建立了一個幸福的家庭。

我可以非常肯定，如果我不被Apple開除的話，這其中一件事情也不會發生的。這個良藥的味道實在是太苦了，但是我想病人需要這個藥。有些時候，生活會拿起一塊磚頭向你的腦袋上猛拍一下。不要失去信心。我很清楚唯一使我一直走下去的是，我正在做的事情是我真心喜歡的。你需要去找到你所愛的東西。工作是如此，愛人亦然。你的工作將會占據生活中很大的一部分。你只有相信自己所做的是偉大的工作，你才能怡然自得。如果你現在還沒有找到，那么繼續、不要停下來、全心全意的去尋覓，當你找到的時候你就會知道的。就像任何真誠的關系，隨著歲月的流逝只會越來越緊密。所以繼續尋覓，在你找到它之前，不要停下來!

我的第三個故事是關于死亡的.當我十七歲的時候，我讀到了一句話:“如果你把每一天都當作生命中最后一天去生活的話，那么有一天你會發現你是正確的。”這句話給我留下了深刻的印象。從那時開始，過了33年，我在每天早晨都會對著鏡子問自己:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天，你會不會完成你今天想做的事情呢?”當答案連續很多次被給予“不是”的時候，我知道自己需要改變某些事情了。

“記住你即將死去”是我一生中聽到過最重要的箴言。它幫我指明了生命中重要的選擇。因為幾乎所有的事情，包括所有的榮譽、所有的驕傲、所有對難堪和失敗的恐懼，都會在死亡面前消失。我看到的是留下的真正重要的東西。

你有時候會思考你將會失去某些東西，“記住你即將死去”是我知道的避免這些想法的最好辦法。你已經赤身裸體了，你沒有理由不去跟隨自己的心一起跳動。

大概一年以前，我被診斷出癌癥。我在早晨七點半做了一個檢查，檢查清楚的顯示在我的胰腺有一個腫瘤。

我當時都不知道胰腺是什么東西。醫生告訴我那很可能是一種無法治愈的癌癥，我還有三到六個月的時間活在這個世界上。我的醫生叫我回家，然后整理好我的一切，那就是醫生準備

死亡的程序。那意味著你將要把未來十年對你小孩說的話在幾個月里面說完.;那意味著把每件事情都搞定，讓你的家人會盡可能輕松的生活;那意味著你要說“再見了”。

我整天和那個診斷書一起生活。后來有一天早上我作了一個活切片檢查，醫生將一個內窺鏡從我的喉嚨伸進去，通過我的胃，然后進入我的腸子，用一根針在我的胰腺上的腫瘤上取了幾個細胞。我當時很鎮靜，因為我被注射了鎮定劑。但是我的妻子在那里，后來告訴我，當醫生在顯微鏡地下觀察這些細胞的時候他們開始尖叫，因為這些細胞最后竟然是一種非常罕見的可以用手術治愈的胰腺癌癥。我做了這個手術，現在我痊愈了。

那是我最接近死亡的時候，希望這也是以后的幾十年最接近的一次。從死亡線上又活了過來，死亡對我來說，只是一個有用、但是純粹是知識概念的時候，我可以更肯定一點地對你們說：沒有人愿意死，即使人們想上天堂，人們也不會為此而死。但是死亡是我們每個人共同的終點。從來沒有人能夠逃脫它。本應如此。因為死亡就是生命中最好的一個發明。它將舊事物清除以便讓路給新事物。

你們現在是新的一代，但是從現在開始不久以后，你們將會逐漸的變成舊的然后被清除。這聽起來很戲劇性，但抱歉，這也很真實。

你們的時間有限，所以不要將他們浪費在重復其他人的生活上。不要被教條束縛，那意味著你和其他人思考的結果一起生活。不要被其他人喧囂的觀點掩蓋你真正的內心的聲音。還有最重要的是，你要有勇氣去聽從你直覺和心靈的指示——它們在某種程度上知道你想要成為什么樣子，所有其他的事情都是次要的。

在我年輕的時候，有一本叫做《地球目錄》的神奇雜志，它是我們那一代人的圣經之一。它是一個叫Stewart Brand的家伙在離這里不遠的Menlo Park書寫的，他象詩一般神奇地將這本書帶到了這個世界。那是六十年代后期，在個人電腦出現之前，所以這本書全部是用打字機、剪刀還有偏光鏡制造的。有點像用軟皮包裝的google，在google出現三十五年之前：這是理想主義的，其中有許多靈巧的工具和偉大的想法。Stewart和他的伙伴出版

了幾期的“整個地球的目錄”，當它完成了自己使命的時候，他們做出了最后一期的目錄。那是在七十年代的中期，你們的時代。最后一期的封底上是清晨鄉村公路的照片(如果你有冒險精神的話，你可以自己找到這條路的)，在照片之下有這樣一段話：“保持饑餓，保持愚蠢。”這是他們停刊的告別語。“求知若饑，虛心若愚”我總是希望自己能夠那樣，現在，在你們即將畢業，開始新的旅程的時候，我也希望你們能這樣：求知若饑，虛心若愚

第二篇：喬布斯斯坦福大學演講

于喬布斯，在2005年斯坦福大學的演講就是他最好的自傳。

你得找出你的所愛。

今天，有榮幸來到各位從世界上最好的學校之一畢業的畢業典禮上。我從來沒從大學畢業。說實話，這是我離大學畢業最近的一刻。今天，我只說三個故事，不談大道理，三個故事就好。

第一個故事，是關于人生中的點點滴滴怎么串連在一起。

我在里德學院（Reed college）待了六個月就辦休學了。到我退學前，一共休學了十八個月。那么，我為什么休學？

這得從我出生前講起。我的親生母親當時是個研究生，年輕未婚媽媽，她決定讓別人收養我。她強烈覺得應該讓有大學畢業的人收養我，所以我出生時，她就準備讓我被一對律師夫婦收養。但是這對夫妻到了最后一刻反悔了，他們想收養女孩。所以在等待收養名單上的一對夫妻，我的養父母，在一天半夜里接到一通電話，問他們「有一名意外出生的男孩，你們要認養他嗎？」而他們的回答是「當然要」。后來，我的生母發現，我現在的媽媽從來沒有大學畢業，我現在的爸爸則連高中畢業也沒有。她拒絕在認養文件上做最后簽字。直到幾個月后，我的養父母同意將來一定會讓我上大學，她才軟化態度。十七年后，我上大學了。但是當時我無知選了一所學費幾乎跟史丹佛一樣貴的大學，我那工人階級的父母所有積蓄都花在我的學費上。六個月后，我看不出念這個書的價值何在。那時候，我不知道這輩子要干什么，也不知道念大學能對我有什么幫助，而且我為了念這個書，花光了我父母這輩子的所有積蓄，所以我決定休學，相信船到橋頭自然直。當時這個決定看來相當可怕，可是現在看來，那是我這輩子做過最好的決定之一。當我休學之后，我再也不用上我沒興趣的必修課，把時間拿去聽那些我有興趣的課。

這一點也不浪漫。我沒有宿舍，所以我睡在友人家里的地板上，靠著回收可樂空罐的五先令退費買吃的，每個星期天晚上得走七里的路繞過大半個鎮去印度教的 Hare Krishna神廟吃頓好料。我喜歡Hare Krishna神廟的好料。追尋我的好奇與直覺，我所駐足的大部分事物，后來看來都成了無價之寶。舉例來說：

當時里德學院有著大概是全國最好的書法指導。在整個校園內的每一張海報上，每個抽屜的標簽上，都是美麗的手寫字。因為我休學了，可以不照正常選課程序來，所以我跑去學書法。我學了serif與san serif字體，學到在不同字母組合間變更字間距，學到活版印刷偉大的地方。書法的美好、歷史感與藝術感是科學所無法捕捉的，我覺得那很迷人。

我沒預期過學的這些東西能在我生活中起些什么實際作用，不過十年后，當我在設計第一臺麥金塔時，我想起了當時所學的東西，所以把這些東西都設計進了麥金塔里，這是第一臺能印刷出漂亮東西的計算機。如果我沒沉溺于那樣一門課里，麥金塔可能就不會有多重字體跟變間距字體了。又因為Windows抄襲了麥金塔的使用方式，如果當年我沒這樣做，大概世界上所有的個人計算機都不會有這些東西，印不出現在我們看到的漂亮的字來了。當然，當我還在大學里時，不可能把這些點點滴滴預先串在一起，但是這在十年后回顧，就顯得非常清楚。

我再說一次，你不能預先把點點滴滴串在一起；唯有未來回顧時，你才會明白那些點點滴滴是如何串在一起的。所以你得相信，你現在所體會的東西，將來多少會連接在一塊。你得信任某個東西，直覺也好，命運也好，生命也好，或者業力。這種作法從來沒讓我失望，也讓我的人生整個不同起來。

我的第二個故事，有關愛與失去。

我好運－年輕時就發現自己愛做什么事。我二十歲時，跟Steve Wozniak在我爸媽的車庫里開始了蘋果計算機的事業。我們拼命工作，蘋果計算機在十年間從一間車庫里的兩個小伙子擴展成了一家員工超過四千人、市價二十億美金的公司，在那之前一年推出了我們最棒的作品－麥金塔，而我才剛邁入人生的第三十個年頭，然后被炒魷魚。要怎么讓自己創辦的公司炒自己魷魚？好吧，當蘋果計算機成長后，我請了一個我以為他在經營公司上很有才干的家伙來，他在頭幾年也確實干得不錯。可是我們對未來的愿景不同，最后只好分道揚鑣，董事會站在他那邊，炒了我魷魚，公開把我請了出去。曾經是我整個成年生活重心的東西不見了，令我不知所措。

有幾個月，我實在不知道要干什么好。我覺得我令企業界的前輩們失望－我把他們交給我的接力棒弄丟了。我見了創辦HP的David Packard跟創辦Intel的Bob Noyce，跟他們說我很抱歉把事情搞砸得很厲害了。我成了公眾的非常負面示范，我甚至想要離開硅谷。但是漸漸的，我發現，我還是喜愛著我做過的事情，在蘋果的日子經歷的事件沒有絲毫改變我愛做的事。我被否定了，可是我還是愛做那些事情，所以我決定從頭來過。

當時我沒發現，但是現在看來，被蘋果計算機開除，是我所經歷過最好的事情。成功的沉重被從頭來過的輕松所取代，每件事情都不那么確定，讓我自由進入這輩子最有創意的年代。

接下來五年，我開了一家叫做NeXT的公司，又開一家叫做Pixar的公司，也跟后來的老婆談起了戀愛。Pixar接著制作了世界上第一部全計算機動畫電影，玩具總動員，現在是世界上最成功的動畫制作公司。然后，蘋果計算機買下了NeXT，我回到了蘋果，我們在NeXT發展的技術成了蘋果計算機后來復興的核心。我也有了個美妙的家庭。

我很確定，如果當年蘋果計算機沒開除我，就不會發生這些事情。這帖藥很苦口，可是我想蘋果計算機這個病人需要這帖藥。有時候，人生會用磚頭打你的頭。不要喪失信心。我確信，我愛我所做的事情，這就是這些年來讓我繼續走下去的唯一理由。你得找出你愛的，工作上是如此，對情人也是如此。你的工作將填滿你的一大塊人生，唯一獲得真正滿足的方法就是做你相信是偉大的工作，而唯一做偉大工作的方法是愛你所做的事。如果你還沒找到這些事，繼續找，別停頓。盡你全心全力，你知道你一定會找到。而且，如同任何偉大的關系，事情只會隨著時間愈來愈好。所以，在你找到之前，繼續找，別停頓。

我的第三個故事，關于死亡。

當我十七歲時，我讀到一則格言，好像是「把每一天都當成生命中的最后一天，你就會輕松自在。」這對我影響深遠，在過去33年里，我每天早上都會照鏡子，自問：「如果今天是此生最后一日，我今天要干些什么？」每當我連續太多天都得到一個「沒事做」的答案時，我就知道我必須有所變革了。

提醒自己快死了，是我在人生中下重大決定時，所用過最重要的工具。因為幾乎每件事－所有外界期望、所有名譽、所有對困窘或失敗的恐懼－在面對死亡時，都消失了，只有最重要的東西才會留下。提醒自己快死了，是我所知避免掉入自己有東西要失去了的陷阱里最好的方法。人生不帶來，死不帶去，沒什么道理不順心而為。

一年前，我被診斷出癌癥。我在早上七點半作斷層掃描，在胰臟清楚出現一個腫瘤，我連胰臟是什么都不知道。醫生告訴我，那幾乎可以確定是一種不治之癥，我大概活不到三到六個月了。醫生建議我回家，好好跟親人們聚一聚，這是醫生對臨終病人的標準建議。那代表你得試著在幾個月內把你將來十年想跟小孩講的話講完。那代表你得把每件事情搞定，家人才會盡量輕松。那代表你得跟人說再見了。

我整天想著那個診斷結果，那天晚上做了一次切片，從喉嚨伸入一個內視鏡，從胃進腸子，插了根針進胰臟，取了一些腫瘤細胞出來。我打了鎮靜劑，不醒人事，但是我老婆在場。她后來跟我說，當醫生們用顯微鏡看過那些細胞后，他們都哭了，因為那是非常少見的一種胰臟癌，可以用手術治好。所以我接受了手術，康復了。

這是我最接近死亡的時候，我希望那會繼續是未來幾十年內最接近的一次。經歷此事后，我可以比之前死亡只是抽象概念時要更肯定告訴你們下面這些： 沒有人想死。即使那些想上天堂的人，也想活著上天堂。但是死亡是我們共有的目的地，沒有人逃得過。這是注定的，因為死亡簡直就是生命中最棒的發明，是生命變化的媒介，送走老人們，給新生代留下空間。現在你們是新生代，但是不久的將來，你們也會逐漸變老，被送出人生的舞臺。抱歉講得這么戲劇化，但是這是真的。

你們的時間有限，所以不要浪費時間活在別人的生活里。不要被信條所惑－盲從信條就是活在別人思考結果里。不要讓別人的意見淹沒了你內在的心聲。最重要的，擁有跟隨內心與直覺的勇氣，你的內心與直覺多少已經知道你真正想要成為什么樣的人。任何其它事物都是次要的。

在我年輕時，有本神奇的雜志叫做Whole Earth Catalog，當年我們很迷這本雜志。那是一位住在離這不遠的Menlo Park的Stewart Brand發行的，他把雜志辦得很有詩意。那是1960年代末期，個人計算機跟桌上出版還沒發明，所有內容都是打字機、剪刀跟拍立得相機做出來的。雜志內容有點像印在紙上的Google，在Google出現之前35年就有了：理想化，充滿新奇工具與神奇的注記。

Stewart跟他的出版團隊出了好幾期Whole Earth Catalog，然后出了停刊號。當時是1970年代中期，我正是你們現在這個年齡的時候。在停刊號的封底，有張早晨鄉間小路的照片，那種你去爬山時會經過的鄉間小路。在照片下有行小字：求知若饑，虛心若愚。

那是他們親筆寫下的告別訊息，我總是以此自許。當你們畢業，展開新生活，我也以此期許你們。

求知若饑，虛心若愚。

非常謝謝大家。

‘You’ve got to find what you love

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, its 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 somethingI found what I loved to do early in life.Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.We had just released our finest creationa year earlier, and I had just turned 30.And then I got fired.How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well.But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.So at 30 I was out.And very publicly out.What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.I really didn’t know what to do for a few months.I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs downI still loved what I did.The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.I had been rejected, but I was still in love.And so I decided to start over.I didn’t see it then, but it 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, less sure about everything.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 fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple.It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.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.My third story is about death.When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.Because almost everythingthese things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.You are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didn’t even know what a pancreas was.The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die.It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.It means to say your goodbyes.I lived with that diagnosis all day.Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and I’m fine now.This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades.Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: 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.Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.Don’t be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras.It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.And I have always wished that for myself.And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.Thank you all very much.喬布斯是個天才和瘋子，他每天必來到我們部門看昨天的成果，能聽到他罵人，我們并不生氣，因為我們知道他不允許產品上市后沒有銷路。

2011年8月25日，喬布斯先生宣布辭職的消息讓人吃驚，我們對他的健康狀況表示擔心。在辦公室里，也許再難聽到他罵人了，只留下曾經他的那些經典的激勵我們的語錄——

1、不要按照用戶的壞習慣去設計，也不要按照程序員的思維去設計！

1, do not according to user bad habits to design, also do not according to programmers thinking design!

2、有好的想法要堅持，不要被其他人的觀點的噪聲掩蓋你真正的內心的聲音。當你的想法站不住時，立即大度的丟棄，這其實是更是一種堅持。

2, have good ideas are going to insist, don’t be others’ opinion noise drown out your own inner voice.When your ideas stand, immediately magnanimous discard it is, and it is also a kind of persistence.3、任何一款產品都不應該帶著BUG去見用戶，那怕失信于媒體推遲發布時間。

3, any product are not should bring a BUG to meet users, that is afraid to betray media postpone the release of time.4、產品一定是讓人感覺最新，但堅決不做小白鼠去嘗試前無古人的新產品。

4, products must be feeling letting a person, but resolute don’t do new mice to try an unprecedented new product.5、把標志畫那么大干嗎？蘋果的產品要在任何時候都讓人一眼認出是蘋果的產品而非是蘋果的標志。

5, the sign painting so big? Apple products will at any time those who make a person recognized apple’s products rather than is the apple logo.6、比別人少用一條線獲得更低的工藝成本，比別人提供多一種價值認同并獲得更高的利潤，這就是蘋果。

6, less than others with a line acquire lower process cost more than others, and provide a kind of value identification and obtain more profits, this is an apple.7、所有的產品一定會離開蘋果商店但不能離開蘋果系統，我們要幫助客戶持續使用蘋果產品，直到壽終正寢。

7, all products will leave apple store but cannot leave apple system, we have to help customers continued use of apple products, until died.8、IBM Thinkpad如果沒了小紅點，那它就不是Thinkpad。MACBook如果加了小紅點，那它即不是IBM Thinkpad也不是蘋果MACBook了。

8, IBM Thinkpad if not a little red dot, it isn’t Thinkpad.MACBook if added little red dots, that it is not IBM Thinkpad nor apple MACBook.9、讓團隊中那些說“不可能”的人感到實現不了是可恥的。

9, let team for those who say “impossible” people feel not achieve them is shameful.10、品牌不是打上蘋果的標志就是蘋果的品質，打上蘋果的標志也需要信心和對客戶的承諾。10, brand is not playing apple logo is an apple quality, hit the apple logo also need confidence and commitment to customers.11、不要為別人而活，也不要為今天的自己而活，把今天的工作做好了，明天自然屬于你，薪水自然比別人高。

11, don’t lived for others, also don’t live for today’s themselves, to do good work today, tomorrow natural belong to you, high salary nature than others.12、產品設計時的所有功能都是一個整體，不應該有任何理由去砍功能，破壞整體性。12, product design all the functions are a whole, should not have any reason to cut function, destroy unity.13、領袖和跟風者的區別就在于創新，你的時間有限，所以不要像亞洲人那樣，浪費在模仿別人這種事上。

13, a leader and a follower innovation distinguishes between, your time is limited, so don’t like asians that, wasted in imitate others this kind of things.14、團隊中那些想用Keynote（蘋果的PPT）來證明自己的人只能說明你不行，請拿出解決方案。

14, team of people who want to use Keynote to prove themselves only shows that you can, please take out the solution.15、成為卓越的代名詞并不是因為他有多么聰明，而在于他有多么勤勞。

15, become the pronoun of not because of his remarkable how clever, but that he is how diligent.16、東方佛學中有一句話：永遠保持初學者的心態；擁有初學者的心態是件了不起的事情。16,East: “there’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘beginner’s never keep Have a beginner’s mind is a wonderful thing.17、不要小看ipod上的一顆按鈕，它和別人不一樣的是我們做了21個方案、84000次測試、57次改進，用戶的滿意源于不必要的堅持。

17, don’t look down upon a single button on the ipod, it and others are different is that we did 21 scheme, 84,000 times test, 57 times improvement, the satisfaction of customers from unnecessary insists

第三篇：喬布斯斯坦福大學演講

背誦：

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.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.我可以非常肯定,如果我不被Apple開除的話, 這其中一件事情也不會發生的。這個良藥的味道實在是太苦了,但是我想病人需要這個藥。有些時候, 生活會拿起一塊磚頭向你的腦袋上猛拍一下。不要失去信心。我很清楚唯一使我一直走下去的，就是我做的事情令我無比鐘愛。你需要去找到你所愛的東西。對于工作是如此, 對于你的愛人也是如此。你的工作將會占據生活中很大的一部分。你只有相信自己所做的是偉大的工作, 你才能怡然自得。如果你現在還沒有找到, 那么繼續找、不要停下來、全心全意的去找, 當你找到的時候你就會知道的。就像任何真誠的關系, 隨著歲月的流逝只會越來越緊密。所以繼續找，直到你找到它，不要停下來！

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.Don't be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people's thinking.Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.你們的時間很有限, 所以不要將他們浪費在重復其他人的生活上。不要被教條束縛,那意味著你和其他人思考的結果一起生活。不要被其他人喧囂的觀點掩蓋你真正的內心的聲音。還有最重要的是, 你要有勇氣去聽從你直覺和心靈的指示——它們在某種程度上知道你想要成為什么樣子，所有其他的事情都是次要的。

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.And I have always wished that for myself.And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.Stewart和他的伙伴出版了幾期的“整個地球的目錄”,當它完成了自己使命的時候, 他們做出了最后一期的目錄。那是在七十年代的中期, 你們的時代。在最后一期的封底上是清晨鄉村公路的照片（如果你有冒險精神的話，你可以自己找到這條路的），在照片之下有這樣一段話：“保持饑餓,保持愚蠢。”這是他們停止了發刊的告別語。“保持饑餓,保持愚蠢。”我總是希望自己能夠那樣,現在, 在你們即將畢業，開始新的旅程的時候, 我也希望你們能這樣。

Joseph Epstein, a famous American writer, once said, “We decide what is important and what is trivial不重要的，瑣碎的 in life.We decide(so)that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do.But no matter how different the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make.We decide.We choose.And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed.In the end, forming our own destiny命運 is what ambition is about.” Do you agree or disagree with him? Write an essay of about 300-350 words entitled:

第四篇：喬布斯斯坦福大學演講

喬布斯斯坦福大學演講

蘋果公司的創業經歷令人震撼，史蒂芬喬布斯有自己的成功學。史蒂芬喬布斯在斯坦福大學的演講中就為學生們談到自己的創業歷程以及自己成功的一些感觸。下面讓我們一起通過以下的史蒂芬喬布斯演講稿來領悟。史蒂夫喬布斯斯坦福大學畢業典禮上演講

一定要找到你熱愛的

我很榮幸能在今天與你們一起參加一個世界上最優秀的大學的畢業典禮。我從來沒有從大學畢業。說實話，今天是我最離大學畢業最近的一次。今天，我想給你們講我生活中的三個故事。就是這樣。沒什么大不了的。只是三個故事。

第一個故事是關于把我生活中過去的點點滴滴聯系起來。

在過了最初的六個月后，我便從Reed學院輟學了。但是，在我真正離開那里前，我又呆了大約18個月。我為什么輟學呢?

這一切在我出生前就開始了。我的親生母親是一個年輕的未婚大學生。她決定把我送給別人收養。她堅持認為，我應該被有大學學歷的人收養。所以，一切本來都已經安排好了，我將會被一個律師和他的妻子收養。但是當我出生以后，律師夫婦在最后一分鐘決定他們真正想要的是一個女孩。所以，我的養父母，本來是在等候的名單上的。他們在半夜接到了一個電話，“我們有一個意料之外的男嬰。你們想要他嗎?”他們回答說：“當然。”我的親生母親后來發現我的養母從來沒有從大學畢業，而我的養父高中都沒有畢業。她拒絕在最終的領養文件上簽字。過了幾個月后，我的養父母向她保證我將來會上大學后，她才同意了。

17年后，我確實上大學了。但是我天真的選擇了一個幾乎和斯坦福一樣昂貴的學院。我工薪階層的父母的所有積蓄都花在了我的學費上。六個月后，我看不到這有任何價值。我不知道我的一生想要做什么。我不知道大學如何能幫我找到這一問題的答案。而且我在這里花費著我父母一生所有的積蓄。所以，我決定輟學，而且相信所有的這一切都會解決的。在當時，這個決定是非常令人害怕的。但是，回過頭來看，這是我做過的最好的決定之一。在我輟學的那一刻，我可以不再去上我不感興趣的課程，而去上那些看起來有趣的課程。

這并不浪漫。我沒有宿舍，所以我睡在了朋友房間的地板上。我回收可樂瓶，用得到的5美分買吃的。我會在每星期天晚上步行7英里穿過城市到HareKrishna寺廟去好好吃一頓。我喜歡那的飯。我憑著好奇心與直覺所遇到的一切，很大一部分在后來被證明是無比珍貴的。讓我給你們舉一個例子：

那時，Reed學院提供了當時可能是全國最好的書法課程。在校園里，每一個海報，每一個抽屜上的標簽都是優美的手寫字。因為我輟學了，不用再去上正常的課程，我決定上書法課，去學學如何寫書法。我學會了serif和sanserif字體，學會了改變不同字母組合間的間隔，知道了是什么使字體變得優美。這一切都很優美，有歷史感，具有科學無法獲得的藝術的精巧。我發現這一切令人著迷。

對書法的學習看起來沒有任何機會在我的一生中得到實際的應用。但是，10年后，當我們設計第一臺Macintosh電腦時，這一切就又重現了。我們把字體的設計都放入了Mac，第一個有著優美字體的電腦。如果我沒有在學校學書法課程，Mac就不可能有多種字體或者按適當比例間隔的字體。因為Windows只是照搬了Mac，有可能沒有任何個人電腦會有這樣的字體。如果我沒有輟學，我就不會選那個書法課程，個人電腦就有可能沒有今天這樣優美的字體。當然，當我在大學時，把我當時的一點一滴串起來并不能預測到我后來的結果。但是，當10年后再回頭看，這一切非常，非常清楚。

當然，你不能把事情聯系在一起而預測未來。你只能回過頭來再把它們聯系起來。所以，你一定要相信那些點點滴滴在將來一定會以某種形式聯系起來。你一定要相信一些事情你的直覺、命運、生命、因緣，無論是什么。這一方法從沒有讓我失望過。它對我的生活至關重要。

我的第二個故事是有關熱愛與失去。

我很幸運，在生命中的最初階段就找到了自己熱愛做的事情。在我20歲的時候，Woz和我在我父母的車庫里創建了蘋果公司。我們非常努力。10年內，蘋果從一個只有我們兩個人的車庫公司成長到20億美金，有4000員工的公司。當時我剛剛滿30歲，就在一年前，我們發布了我們最杰出的創造Macintosh。然后，我被解雇了。你怎么能被你自己創立的公司解雇呢?哎，當蘋果公司逐漸發展，我們雇了一個我認為非常有才華的人來和我一起運作公司。第一年，都還不錯。但是，隨后我們對未來的想法就開始有了分歧。最終我們鬧翻了。當我們鬧翻的時候，董事會站在了他的一邊。結果是，我在30歲的時候被踢出了公司，而且是以盡人皆知的方式被踢出。我成年以來整個生活的中心沒有了，這是毀滅性的。

有幾個月的時間，我真的不知道做什么好。我覺得我辜負了把接力棒傳遞給我的上一代的創業者。我找到DavidPackard和BobNoyce并向他們道歉，為我把事情搞得如此之糟道歉。我是一個眾所周知的失敗。我甚至想到從硅谷逃走。但是慢慢的我才開始意識到我仍舊熱愛我所作的事情。在蘋果所發生的事情絲毫沒有改變這一點。我被拒絕了，但是，我仍舊愛著。所以，我決定重新開始。

在那時我并沒有認識到，但是實際上，被蘋果解雇是對我來說最好的事情。成功所帶來的沉重感被重新開始，對一切都不確定的輕松感所代替。這一切解放了我，讓我進入了一生中最有創造性的一段時間。

之后的5年，我創辦了一家叫NeXT的公司和另外一家叫Pixar的公司，還愛上了一個非常好的女人，后來她成為了我的妻子。Pixar創造了世界上第一部電腦動畫電影，玩具總動員。現在，Pixar是世界上最成功的動畫工作室。在經歷了種種起伏后蘋果買下了NeXT。我重返了蘋果。我們在NeXT發展的技術是蘋果目前復興的核心。Laurene和我有一個美好的家庭。

我相當確信，如果我沒被蘋果解雇，這一切之中的任何事情都不會發生。這是一計苦藥，但是我想我這個病人需要它。有時候，生活象用板兒磚拍頭一樣打擊你。別失去信心。我深信當時唯一讓我支持下去的原因就是我熱愛我所作的一切。你一定要找到你所熱愛的。這對你的事業是這樣，對你的愛人也是如此。你的事業將會占據你生活的很大一部分，你真正得到滿足的唯一途徑就是去做你堅信是偉大的事業。而做偉大的事業的唯一途徑就是熱愛你所作的一切。如果你還沒有找到，繼續找。不要妥協。就像其他一切需要用心靈去感受的事物，當你找到的時候，你會知道的。就象任何美滿的伴侶關系，隨著時間的推移，事情會變得更美好。所以，繼續找吧，直到你找到。不要妥協。

我的第三個故事是有關死亡的。

在我17歲的時候，我讀到一段話，大概是“如果你按照生活的每一天都好象是你生命的最后一天那樣活著，總有一天你會確信你的方向是對的。”這句話給我留下了深刻的印象，從那以后，在之后的33年里，我每天早晨都會對著鏡子問自己“如果今天是我生命的最后一天，我還會去做我今天將要做的事情嗎?”而每當連續幾天我的回答總是“不”時，我知道我需要做些改變。

記住很快我將離開人世，這是幫助我做重大決定的最重要的工具。因為幾乎任何事情所有外界的期望，所有的自尊，所有對失敗或丟臉的恐懼在死亡面前都會煙消云散，只剩下那些真正重要的東西。記住你會死去，這是我所知的避免陷入患得患失的陷阱的最好的方式。你已經赤條條無牽掛。你沒有任何原因不去追隨你的內心。

一年前我被診斷為癌癥。早晨7點半我做了掃描。掃描清楚的顯示在我的胰臟上有一個腫瘤。我都不知道胰臟是什么。醫生們告訴我幾乎可以肯定這類癌癥是無法治愈的。我應該不會活過3到6個月。我的醫生建議我回家把后事準備好，這也是醫生對準備去死的說法。也就是在幾個月的時間里對你的孩子說所有的事情，那些你曾經認為你會有下一個10年的時間去說的一切。也就是說確保一切安頓停當，讓你的家人盡可能的從容一些。也就是你的告別。

我帶著這一診斷結果生活了一整天。晚上，我做了活組織檢測。他們把內窺鏡插下我的喉嚨，穿過我的胃，進入腸子，用一根針穿入我的胰臟從腫瘤上提取一些細胞。我被麻醉了。但是我的妻子在現場。她告訴我，當他們在顯微鏡下看過之后，醫生們喊叫起來。因為這原來是一種極為罕見形式的胰腺癌，可以通過手術治愈。我做了手術，現在我已經沒事了。

這是我面臨死亡最近的一次。我希望這也是我今后幾十年內最近的一次。經歷過這一切，現在我可以更確信的對你說這一切，死亡不僅僅是一個有用但抽象的概念。

沒人希望死。即使是想進入天堂的人們也不想通過死亡進入那里。但是，死亡是我們共同的目的地。沒有人能逃脫。死亡就是這樣。因為死亡也許是生命中最好的發明。它是生命改變的媒介。它清理老的，給新的讓出路。現在，你們就是新的。但是，不久，你們會慢慢變成老的，然后被清理掉。原諒我這種非常直白的說法，但是，這是事實。

你的時間是有限的。所以不要浪費你自己的時間去過別人的生活。不要被教條所禁錮，被動接受別人思想的結果。不要讓他人意見的噪音蓋過你自己內心的聲音。最重要的是，有勇氣去追隨你的內心與直覺。你的內心和直覺早已洞察了你真正想做的。其他的一切都不重要。

當我年輕的時候，有一本優秀的刊物叫The Whole Earth Catalog, 是我們那一代的圣經之一。一個叫Stewart Branch的人在離這不遠的Menlo Park用他詩人般的靈感創造了這一刊物。當時是60年代末，還沒有個人電腦和桌面出版系統。所以，這本刊物全部是用打字機，剪刀和寶利來相機做出來的。這好像是紙上的Google,但在Google出現前35年：它是理想主義的，充滿了簡潔的工具與偉大的想法。

Stewart和他的團隊出版了幾期The Whole Earth Catalog。他們最終完成了自己的使命，出了最后一期刊物，時間是70年代中期。當時我正處在你們的年紀。在刊物封底，是一幅清晨鄉間路的照片。如果你樂于冒險搭便車旅行就會看到這一種景象。在照片下面有一句話“保持渴望。固執愚見。”(“Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.”)這是他們的告別語。保持渴望。固執愚見。我一直這樣勉勵我自己。現在，當你們畢業，有新的開始，我同樣勉勵你們。

保持渴望。固執愚見。

多謝你們!

第五篇：喬布斯斯坦福大學演講文本全文

喬布斯斯坦福大學演講文本全文：

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.My second story is about love and loss.I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life.Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.And then I got fired.How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well.But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.So at 30 I was out.And very publicly out.What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.I really didn't know what to do for a few months.I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs downthese things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.You are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didn't even know what a pancreas was.The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die.It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.It means to say your goodbyes.I lived with that diagnosis all day.Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and I'm fine now.This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades.Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

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.Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras.It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.And I have always wished that for myself.And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.Thank you all very much.