As you all know,
the world lost an extraordinary electronic and computer genius, who was
responsible for designing some of the greatest electronic equipment we use
everyday. Many of us would not be able to function in our day-to-day lives
without our MacBook Pro laptop,
iPod, iPhone, and iTunes. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs, co-founder of
Apple Computers, lost his 10-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He leaves behind
his wife, the woman of his dreams, Laurene and his children.
In Steve Jobs’
June 12, 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, entitled, “How to
Live Before You Die,” he encourages the graduates to, “have the courage to
follow your heart and intuition.” This very thorough informative speech
I choose to watch and listen to about his life, was very motivating. I felt his message was very positive and
inspiring, especially when he advised the graduates not to settle, and to
follow their dreams.“ It is very beneficial to receive encouraging
words from peers and listen to how they have persevered. It only reminds me of
an old Jerry Butler song, “Only the Strong Survive.”
Mr. Jobs began
his speech by explaining to the audience that he only had three stories, and
began telling about his life. His biological parents were two University of Wisconsin
graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. His
mother’s main concern for her son was that the family who adopted him, were to
both have college degrees. When the first couple, a lawyer and his wife changed
their minds and decided they wanted a girl, the next couple on the waiting list
were notified of his birth. They decided to adopt him, but his biological
mother found out that the mother had not completed college, and the father had
not completed high school. Because of this, she decided not to let the couple
adopt her child. She changed her mind
and signed the adoption papers after the couple promised her they would see to
it that he attended college. His
biological parents later married, and had another child.
Once he completed
high school, he attended Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, which was a
very expensive school. Six months later,
he decided to drop out because he was unsure of what he wanted to do, and he
felt guilty for wasting his parent’s savings.
Times grew very hard for the young man, who had no place to live, but on
the floor of a few friends who lived in the dorm. He talked about how he would return coke
bottles, and take the five cent deposit, to buy food. Every Sunday, he would
walk seven miles across town to the Harvey Christian Temple, to have a hot
meal. He claimed that he loved it. It was very obvious, he was determined to
not let his situation get the best of him.
Now that he had dropped out of school, he decided to drop back in and
take courses that interested him. Reed
College offered the best calligraphy courses in the country, and he decided to
take some classes. He found them to be very exciting and fascinating.” Ten years later, while he was designing the first Macintosh computer, he was
able to apply what he learned in his calligraphy classes.
In his second
story, he talked about love and lost, and how at 20 years of age he was finally
enjoying what he was doing. Things were going wonderfully at Apple, and they
had just launched their second Apple Computer. Suddenly Steve lost sight of the
companies’ future, and everything began to falter. Now 30 years of age, Steve Jobs the owner of
Apple, was asked to resign by his board of directors. As you can imagine, he was overwhelmed, and
had no idea what he was going to do next. He was disappointed with himself and
the mistakes he caused the company. After reflecting on what he had done, he
began to realize that he loved Silicon Valley, and he loved what he did. He began to feel that being fired was the
best thing that could have happened to him. This gave him the opportunity to
create something new. His creative
juices began to flow, and he started a new company called NeXT. Apple later bought NeXT, and he became CEO,
again. About a year later, he bought an animated studio from George Lucas, and
called it Pixar Animation Studio. Not only did Steve love his career he
also loved the woman of his dreams Laurene.
According to Steve, “Sometimes life’s gonna hit you in the head with a
brick. Don’t lose faith. Do what you believe.” He explained that you
need to search for your passion and it will fulfill you, and things gets better
in time. If you haven’t found it yet, you must keep striving and don’t just
give up. Now that he had this second chance, he seemed determined to succeed.
In his third story he talked about the
realization of death. Everyone is going
to die and to not waste valuable time. He read a quote, which said, “If you
live each day as if it were your last, some day you most certainly will be
right.” He felt that this quote had a very important impact on his life.
In 2003, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His doctors had
discovered a tumor on his pancreas and felt it was inoperable. He had a
procedure called an endoscopy, in which a tube is inserted through the mouth,
into the stomach, to get a biopsy of his pancreas. After looking at the test results, the
doctors were elated when they found out that they would be able to preform his
life saving surgery. Hearing the good news, he became relieved and hoped that
this was the closest he’d see death for a few decades.
In closing, as he addresses the class of
2005, he reflects on when he was their age, in the mid 1970’s. He recalls a poplar magazine, which was considered
the Bible of its time in the late 1960’s. Its called the “Whole Earth
Catalogue.” He explained that on the back cover of the last issue in the 1970’s,
was a picture and below it were the words, “Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish!” Steve
tells the graduates, “I have always wished that for myself, and now as a
graduate to begin a new, I wish that for you, 'Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish!”
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