connecting dots

Today I want to tell you three stories from my

life. That's it. 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 before I really quit.

Looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever

made. I could stop taking the required classes that

didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones

that looked interesting.

I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the

floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the

5 cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk

seven 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. Here's one example : Reed College offered

perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.

Because I had to take a calligraphy class, I learned

about serif and san serif typefaces, about what makes

great typography great.

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. If I had never dropped in

on that course in college the Mac would have never had

multiple typefaces or for that matter even proportionally

spaced fonts.

And since Windows just copied Mac, it's likely

no personal computer would have them. Of course it

was impossible to connect the dots looking forward

when I was in college. But it was very clear looking

backwards 10 years later.

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 some things - 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 found

what I loved to do early in life. Woz (Steve Wozniak)

and I started Apple when I was 20. In 10 years Apple

had grown from just the two of us in a garage into

a $2 billion company. And then I got fired. It was

devastating.

But something slowly began to dawn on me - I

still loved what I did. And so I decided to start over.

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by

the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to

enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company

Next, another company named Pixar, and fell in love

with an amazing woman who would become my wife.

Pixar is now the world's most successful animation

studio, Apple bought Next. I returned to Apple and

the technology we developed at Next is at the heart of

Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have

a wonderful family together.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.

Don't lose faith. 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.

My third story is about death.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.

My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs

in order, which is doctor's code for 'prepare to die'.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening

I had a biopsy. 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 it's the closest I get for a few more decades.

Having lived through it, I can now say this to you :

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 other's 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.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication

called The Whole Earth Catalogue. In the final issue,

on the back cover they put a photograph of an early

morning country road. Beneath it were the words : Stay

Hungry, Stay Foolish. It was their farewell message as

they signed off. I have always wished that for myself.

And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that

for you. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

- Steve Jobs