“Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who created the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad died on Wednesday at the age of 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He stepped down as Apple chief executive in August.
And as the world reels with the news — tech admirers flocked to Apple stores worldwide on Thursday to express their sorrow — many flashed back to the 2005 commencement speech Jobs gave to a Stanford University class.
In the speech, Jobs told three stories from his life — including his feelings on being fired from Apple in 1985 — and mused on major themes like life, love and death. His comments on death seem particularly poignant”
“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 you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
“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.”
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