Life Stories that Connect Us all

Steve Jobs was a co-founder of Apple, creator of Mac, chairman of Pixar, and was also known for public speaking. His most famous speech is his “2005 Stanford Commencement Address”. The three stories he told the college graduates of Stanford were informative, uplifting, and were filled with importance.

Jobs’ first story is about “connecting the dots” (Stanford University). Jobs tells us about how he was adopted and sent to college. He did end up going to college but did not stay to graduate.

When he was at Reed College, he did pop in for a calligraphy class from time to time, and it eventually did him some good. Although he did not graduate from college, his college experience and calligraphy class did help him into creating the Macintosh computer with a close friend and having it skyrocket around the world and made very popular. Stanford University says, “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 they do”. He is explaining how if he never dropped out, he never would have went to this class. If he never went to this class, the Macs would never have been created or had beautiful typography. It is all about connecting the dots to your life. He connects to the students saying all the roads you take in your life; you take for a reason.

His second story is about “love and loss” (Stanford University). Afters the Macs launched, Jobs and his partner were going separate ways on how the Mac was going to improve. Jobs got fired, even though he was a founder. Jobs may have been fired, but he still loved what he did with computers. He realized this after going through the slum for a few months after he was fired. Jobs decided to start a new company called NeXT. After a few years, NeXT was bought from Apple after Apple was struggling and Jobs was working with Apple again. Jobs also found his wife as he also worked for Pixar and got married. Pixar became very successful. It was a depressing and wonderful time for him. None of these events would have happened if he never got fired. Stanford University states, “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”. Jobs says this as he explains his rough patch in life. He may have been out of a job for a little while, but he still loved what he did so he started doing it again, but with someone different. Jobs connects to the graduates by saying to keep doing what you love, no matter how many times you get thrown down.

Steve Jobs last story is about “death” (Stanford University). Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. Before the doctors scanned him, they said to get all his preparations in order, and it is inoperable. Later that year, he gets scanned and turns out, it was a rare form of cancer that could be cured and operable. He underwent surgery and is now okay. In that time period, he kept thinking to himself he was going to do and if this was his last day on Earth, did he like what he was doing. If the answer was no, he changed something he did. Stanford University writes, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”. Jobs came very close to death, although he did not want to die. No one is ready to die. If you do not like what you are doing with your life or where you are in life, change it. Jobs connects to his audience by telling us to not settle for what you have, if you do not like something, change it.

Steve Jobs went through a lot in his life and wanted to share with these Stanford graduates three important stories that were also uplifting and informative. Connecting the dots, love and loss, and death were his main themes to his life experience. He wanted to connect to the students so they could understand the hardships of life and its bonuses so they could live happy, whether they succeed or fail.”

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