"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 the dots will 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."
(Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)
"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.
"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."
(Stanford U commencement address, June 2005)
"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."
"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."
(Business Week interview, May 1998)
After dropping out of college, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn 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 10 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 firts computer with beautiful typography."
(Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)
"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 embarressment or failure - these 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. ...Stay hungry. Stay foolish."
(Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)
Articles for further reading:
NY Times -- Steve Jobs: Designer First, CEO Second
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-designer-first-c-e-o-second/
Washington Post -- Steve Jobs and the Idea of Letting Go
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/steve-jobs-and-the-idea-of-letting-go/2011/10/05/gIQAWxNqOL_story.html
NPR To The Point show on 10-6-2011
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp
Stanford U commencement address June 2005 (via NPR)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/06/141120359/read-and-watch-steve-jobs-stanford-commencement-address
On the otherhand, listening to Kurt Andersen on Charlie Rose - They point out that Jobs was self-centered: did not care that sending jobs to China could hurt US workers; was not interested in philanthropy - had no social conscience re his fellow man. Sounds like a creepy guy.
ReplyDelete