Steve Jobs斯坦福演讲[推荐5篇]

第一篇：Steve Jobs斯坦福演讲

Steve Jobs斯坦福演讲

Steve Jobs在Stanford的这段演讲十分感人，他用了他人生中的三个传奇故事，向斯坦福的毕业生，也向所有其他人讲述了他对人生的思考。

今天，我很荣幸来到世界一流的大学毕业典礼。我没有从大学毕业，老实说，这是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。今天我只说三个故事，不谈大道理，就这三个故事。

第一个故事，是人生的点点滴滴如何串在一块(Connecting the dots)我在里德学院(Reed College)念了六个月就办休学了。退学前，一共休学十八个月。我为什么要休学呢? 故事要从我出生前谈起。我的亲生母亲是大学研究生，年轻的未婚妈妈，她打算让别人收养我，更相信应该让拥有大学学历的夫妇收养我，我出生时，她就准备由一对律师夫妇来抚养我长大。但这对夫妻最后一刻反悔了，他们想要女孩。所以在等待收养名单中的一对夫妻，在半夜接到一通电话，问他们：“有一个意外出生的男孩，你们要认养他吗?”他们说：“当然。”

后来我的生母发现，我现在的妈妈从来没有大学毕业，我现在的爸爸则连高中毕业也没有，她拒绝在认养文件上签名同意。直到几个月后，我的养父母同意将来一定让我上大学，她才勉强答应。

十七年后，我真的上了大学。但我无知的选择一所学费几乎跟史丹佛（Stanford）一样贵的学校。我的蓝领阶级父母，把所有的存款都花在我的学费。六个月后，我看不出念大学的价值到底在哪里。那时候，我不知道这这辈子要干什么，也不知道念大学对我有什么帮助，而且我为了读书，花光父母毕生的积蓄，我决定休学，相信船道桥头自然直。

在那个时候，这是让人害怕的决定；但我现在看来，却是我这辈子下过最好的决定之一。休学后，再也不用上无趣的课，直接听我爱的课。只是这一点也不浪漫。我没有宿舍，我睡在朋友家的地板上，靠回收可乐瓶罐的五毛钱填饱肚子，到了星期天晚上走七哩远的陆，绕去印度教神庙吃顿大餐。但那时我追寻的兴趣，现在看来都成为无价之宝。

比如说，里德学院拥有几乎是全国最好的英文书法(Caligraphy)课程。校园里的海报，教室抽屉的标签，都是美丽的手写字。我休学去学书法了，学了serif与sanserif字体，学会在不同字母的组合间变更字间距，学到活版印刷伟大的地方。书法的历史与艺术，是科学文明无法取代的，令我深深着迷。

我从来没想过这些字，会在将来影响我的人生。但十年之后，当我们设计第一台Macintosh计算机，我的所学派上了用场。我们把这些字体都放进了Macintosh里，这是第一台能显示出漂亮字体的计算机。如果我没爱上书法课，Macintosh就不会有这么多变化的字体。

后来WINDOWS抄袭了Macintosh，如果当年我没这样做，大概世界上的计算机都不会有这种东西，不会显示出我们现在看到的美丽字体了。当然，当年还在学写字时，是不可能把这些点滴先串在一起，但是十年后回顾，一切就自然清楚的发生了。

我得强调，你不能先把这些人生点滴兜在一起，唯有将来回顾时，你才会明白这些点点滴滴是怎么串联的。你得相信现在体会的一切，未来多少会连接在一起。你得信任某个东西，直觉，命运，或是因果都好。这种做法从来没让我失望，更丰富了我的生命。

第二个故事，是爱与失去(Love and loss)我很幸运，年轻时就知道自己爱做什么。二十岁时，我跟沃兹一起在我家的车库开创了苹果计算机。拼了老命工作，苹果十年内从一间车库，两个年轻小伙子，扩展为一家员工超过四千人，二十亿美元营业额的公司。在此前一年，我们推出了最棒的作品----Macintosh，而就在我正要踏入人生的第三十个年头，我被开除了。

自己创办的公司，怎么会开除自己?好吧，当苹果计算机日益扩大，我聘请了一位在经营上颇有才华的家伙，他在头几年确实也干的不错。但我们对愿景有很不同的想法，闹到分道扬镳。董事会站在他那边，炒了我鱿鱼，还公开把我请出公司。我整个生活重心顿时消失，完全不知所措。

在这几个月里，我实在不知道如何是好，更觉得令企业界前辈失望了：他们传给我的接力棒，掉了。我找了惠普的创始人DavidPackard，英特尔的Bob Noyce，跟他们说我把事情搞砸了，甚至想离开硅谷。但我的想法逐渐变了，我发现我仍然爱着我曾做过的事业，在苹果的日子一点也没有改变我爱的事。即使人们否决我，可是我还是爱做那些事，所以我决定从头来过。那时我不知道，但现在回头来看，苹果开除我却是我人生最好的经历。从头来过的轻松替代了成功的沉重，这释放了我，让我自由自在进入我这辈子最有创意的年代。

接着的五年，我创办了NeXT，又开了Pixar，也坠入了情网。Pixar制作出世界上第一部全计算机动画电影(玩具总动员)，现在已是全球最成功的动画公司。接着我的人生大转弯，苹果购并NeXT，我重回了苹果，而NeXT发展的技术更成为反败为胜的关键。同时，我也有了幸福的家庭。

我敢打包票，苹果要是没开除我的话，这些事绝对不会发生。这是帖苦药，可是我需要这个苦。人生有时就像掉了块砖头砸到你，但不要失去信心。你找的到你的最爱，工作是如此，爱情也是如此。

第三个故事是死亡(Death)十七岁时读到的一则格言影响了我：“把每一天登当作生命中的最后一天，你终会找到人生的方向。”过去三十三年，每天我都会扪心自问：“如果今天是我人生的最后一天，那我要做些什么?”当我多天都得到“没事做”的答案，该改变了。

提醒自己快死了，是我在判断重大决定时，最重要的工具。因为几乎每件事，所有外界期望，所有名誉，所有对窘困或失败的恐惧，在面对死亡时，全都消失了，只有最重要的东西才会留下来。用死亡提醒自己，是避免陷入害怕失去的欲望陷阱，最好的方法。生不带来，死不带去，为什么不就顺心而为。

一年前，我被诊断得了癌症。早上七点半做扫描时，发现胰脏里出现肿瘤，我甚至不知道胰脏是用来做什么的。医生告诉我，这几乎确定是不治之症，大概活不到三到六个月了。医生要我回家，好好跟家人聚聚，医生面对临终的病人总是这样说。这代表你得在几个月内，把将来十年想跟小孩说的话讲完，你真的得说再见了。

我满脑子都是这个判我死刑的诊断。到了晚上做了一次切片，内视镜从喉咙伸进胃再到肠子，还插了跟针到胰脏取出肿瘤细胞。打了镇定剂之后我不醒人事，但是我太太陪着我，看着医生检查。她跟我说，当医生查看癌细胞后喜极而泣，因为那是非常少见的胰脏癌，可以用外科手术切除。我现在完全康复了。

那是我离死神最近的一刻，希望也是未来几十年最接近的一次。在生死关卡徘徊过之后，我更要告诉大家：没有人想死，即使那些想上天堂的，也想活着上天堂。但死是我们共同的终点，没人逃得过。死，更是生命最伟大的发明，是送旧迎新，传承生命的媒介。现在新生代是你们，但不久的将来，你们也会年华老去，离开人生的舞台。抱歉形容的这么戏剧化，但这是真的。

人生短暂，不要浪费时间活在别人的阴影里。不要被教条所惑，盲从教条等于活在别人的思考里。不要让他人的噪音压过自己的声音。最重要的，有勇气跟着自己的内心与直觉。

求知若渴，虚心若愚(STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH)。我总是以此期许自己。现在你们毕业了，我也以此期许你们：求知若渴，虚心若愚。

第二篇：斯蒂夫乔布斯在斯坦福演讲全文

苹果CEO斯蒂夫.乔布斯的演讲

名人励志 2009-02-04 22:49 阅读45 评论0

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以下是苹果电脑CEO斯蒂夫.乔布斯于2007年6月12日在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲.他不但让我们进入这位伟大企业家的内心深处,而且告诉我们应当怎样经营自己的人生,告诉我们从哪里来,要到哪里

去.......斯坦福是世界上最好的大学之一,我能参加各位的毕业典礼,备感荣幸,我大学只读了半年,说实话,此时算是我离大学毕业最近的一刻.现在,我想和你们分享我生命中的三个小故事.一:串起生命中的点点滴滴

我在里德大学读了6个月就退学了,这是为什么呢? 故事要从我的身世说起,我的生母是一名年轻的未婚妈妈,当时她还在读研究生,于是决定把我送人,我的养父母都是蓝领工人,为了供我上大学,他们倾其所有,在里德大学呆了半年后,我发现自己的人生漫无目标,也不知道这样读下去有什么用,为了念书,还花了父母毕生的积蓄,所以我决定退学,作出这个决定的时候,我是非常害怕,但现在看来,这是我这一生所作出的最正确的决定之一.从那一刻起,我再也不用去上那些不感兴趣必修课,我开始旁听一些比较有意思的科目,事实上这一点也不浪漫.因为没有宿舍,我只能睡在朋友房间的地板上.可乐瓶的押金是5分钱,我把瓶子还回去,然后用押金买吃的,每周日晚上，我都要步行7英里去教堂，只为了吃一顿大餐，因为我喜欢那儿的食物。

事后证明，这些由着好奇心和直觉所做的事情，大多数都是极其珍贵的经验，举一个例子，当时，里德大学拥有全美国最好的书法教育，整个校园的每一张海报，每一个抽屉上的标签，都是漂亮的手写体。由于已经退学，我选择旁听书法班，想学学怎么写出一手漂亮字，在那里，我学会了各种衬线，和无衬线字体，学会了如何改变不同字体组合之间的字间距，以及如何做出漂亮的版式，那是一种科学永远无法捕捉的美感，历史感和艺术感，我发现这太有意思了。

当时，我压根儿就没有想到这些知识有什么实际用途，但10年以后，当我们设计第一款电脑的时候，它们全派上了用场，我把它们全部设计进了MAC，这是第一台可以排出好看版式的电脑。

现在回过头来看，如果当时我没有退学，就不会去书法班旁听，苹果电脑就不会提供各种字体和等间距字体，也不会拥有如此出色的版式功能，当然，我在念大学的那会儿，不可能有先见之明，把那些生命中的点点滴滴都串起来，但10年之后，再回头看，生命的轨迹变得非常晰。

再强调一次，你不可能充满预见地将生命中的点点滴滴串联起来，只有在经历这后，你才会发现这些点点滴滴之间的联系，所以，你要坚信，你现在所经历的将在你未来的生命中串联起来。

正是这种信念，让我从未失去希望，让我的人生变得与众不同。

二：从事伟大工作的惟一方法，就是热爱这份工作 一个人最大的幸运，莫过于在他年富 力强的时候，发现了自己人生的使命，从这个意义上讲，我是幸运的。20多岁的时候，我就在自家的车库里开创了苹果电脑公司，10年后，公司已经成长为一家拥有4000多名员工，市值20亿美元的大企业，然后，我就被炒了鱿鱼。

一个人怎么可以被他所创立的公司解雇呢？这么说吧，随着苹果的成长，我们请了一个原本以为很能干的家伙和我一起管理这家公司，在头一年左右，他干得还不错，但后来，我们对公司未来的前景出现了分歧，于是我们之间出现了矛盾，由于公司的董事会站在他那一边，所以在我30岁的时候，就被踢出了局，我失去了一直贯穿在我整个成年生活的重心，打击是毁灭性的。

失业的头几个月，我真不知道要做些什么，我觉得我让企业界的前辈们失望了，我失去了传到我手上的指挥棒。我由众人景仰的企业家变成了一个彻头彻尾的失败者，当时我甚至想过逃离硅谷，但曙光渐渐出现，我不是喜欢我做过的事情，在苹果电脑发生一切丝毫没有改变我，一点都没有，虽然被抛弃了，但

我热忱不改，我决定重新开始。

我当时没有看出来，但事实证明，被苹果开掉是我这一生最大的财富，成功的沉重被凤凰涅磐的轻盈所代替，卸下包袱，我以自由之身躯进入了生命中最有创意的时期，在接下来的5年里，我开创了一家叫做NEXT的公司，接着是一家名PIXAR的公司，并且结识了后来成为我妻子的曼妙女劳伦斯，PIXAR后来制作了世界上第一部全电脑画电影《玩具总动员》，现在这家公司是世界上最成功的动画制作公司之一，后来经历一系列的事件，苹果买下了NEXT，于是 我又回到了苹果，我们在NEXT研发出的技术成为推动苹果复兴的核心动力，我和劳伦斯也拥有了美满的家庭。

我非常肯定，如果没有被苹果炒掉，这一切都不可能在我身上发生，生活有时候就像一块板砖，不断拍向你的脑袋，但你不要因此丧失信心，热爱我所从事的工作，是一直支持我不断前进的惟一理由，你要时刻清楚自己想要成为什么样的人，想要做什么，对爱人如此，对工作也要如此。

工作 将占据你生命的相当一部分，从事你认为具有非凡意义的工作，才能带给你真正的满足感，而从事一份伟大工作的惟一方法就是热爱这份工作，如果你现在还没有找到这份工作，那么请继续寻找，如同浪漫的爱情一样，伟大的工作只会在岁月的酝酿中越陈越香。

三：死亡是生命最好的一项发明

17岁那年记不得什么书上的一段话对我产生了致命的诱惑：“如果你把每一天当作生命的最后一天，总有一天你的假设会成为现实”从那时起，我每天早晨都会对着镜子扪心自问，假如今天 是我生命中的最后一天，我还会去做今天的事吗？这件事值得我去为 它投入激情吗？当一连几天答案都是否定的时候，我就知道做出改变的时候到了．

因为所有的一切，外界的期望，尊贵的地位，对失败的恐惧，对面对死亡的时候，都是烟消云散，只留下真正重要的东西，人赤条条地来，赤条条地走，没有理由不听从内心的呼唤．

两年前，我被诊断患有癌症，扫描结果清楚地显示我的肺腑出现了一个肿瘤，医生告诉我，这是一种不治之症，顶多还能活３至６个月，于是医生建议我回家，把各种事情安排妥当，这是医生对临终病人的标准用语，这意味着你的子女说的话用几个月的时间说完，这意味着你得准备向众人告别了．

我一直都着那个不容置疑的诊断结果，那天晚上做了一个切片检查，当大夫们从显微镜下观察了细胞之后，我忍不住哭了，因为那是一种非常罕见的，完全可以通过手术治疗胰脏癌，我接受了手术，现在，我已经康复了．

这是我最接近死亡的一次，在与死神擦肩而过之后，我能够肯定地告诉你们以下事实：谁也不愿意死即使是那些人想进天堂的人，然而死亡是我们共同的归宿，没人能摆脱，我们注定会死，因为死亡很可能是生命最好的一项发明，它推进生命的新陈换代．

现在，你们是新的，但在不久的将来，你们也会成为旧的，也会被淘汰，你们的时间都是有限的，所以不要按照别人的意愿去活，这是浪费时间，不要让别人聒噪声淹没了自己的心声，最主要的是要有跟着自己感觉和直觉的勇气，无论如何，感觉和直觉早就知道你到底想成为一个什么样的人，其他的都不重

要．

第三篇：乔布斯2005年斯坦福大学毕业演讲

乔布斯2005年斯坦福大学毕业演讲

史蒂夫乔布斯(Steve Jobs)2005年6 月在斯坦福大学的演讲在今天对于我们仍有很大的启发作用。这位苹果电脑公司(Apple Computer)和皮克斯动画公司(Pixar Animation Studios)首席执行官在演讲中谈到了他生活中的三次体验，这三次体验不仅在斯坦福大学的毕业生、也在硅谷乃至其他地方的技术同行中引起了巨大反响。他们将他的演讲登在互联网上，在博客上展开讨论，通过电子邮件互相发送，在全球传阅。下面给大家分享这次演讲的中英文演讲稿。

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 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 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 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.

第四篇：乔布斯的斯坦福演讲启示

乔布斯的斯坦福演讲启示：

1.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.much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on 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 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 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.2.I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life.I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley.But something slowly began to dawn on me — I 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.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.3.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 everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failurethese things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.Remembering that I am going to die is the best way to avoid the continuous thinking I have something to lose.Like I am the one who is in charge of my life.I am responsible for my day.I am responsible for how I feel and what I do.Nobody can make me feel nothing.There is no reason not to follow my heart.And there is the quote I chose to end my presentation.It went something like,work like you don’t need money;love like you ‘ve never been hurt and dance like no one is watching you.

第五篇：乔布斯斯坦福演讲英文文稿

Steve Jobs’ Speech in Stanford

(This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.)I am honored to be with you today for(at)your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.Truth be told, I never graduated from college.And 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 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 got an unexpected baby boy, do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and 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 go to college.This was a start in my life.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 far more 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.Because believing that these dots would connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.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 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 thankfully 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.4