Stay Hungry, Stay foolish

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12,2005.

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 down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. 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. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, 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. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. 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.

My third story is about death. 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 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 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.

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 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. 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

Read more: http://acme-education.learnhub.com/lesson/3427-motivational-speech-by-steve-jobs-ceo-apple#ixzz0I1bH8lKz&C

'Friendships go beyond the body, mind and heart'

Nitish Rai Gupta tells his daughter Tisha to always follow the right path by adhering to the four bonds of life.

My Darling daughter Tisha

Since your birth, I have seen you grow up and evolve everyday and the pleasure it gives me cannot be expressed in words. These early years of your life are the foundation that will help you build a strong skyscraper in the world, once you are ready. As your dad, I cannot help but feel anxious that am I not doing enough to help you live a full life.

Hence am taking this opportunity to pen down a few principles in life that will help you make the right choices irrespective of what course you decide to take your life on. Use these as guidelines and I am sure they will give you confidence and faith to do the right thing.

Nature, if studied diligently, abounds with principles that can help us lead a fulfilling life in sync with it. A great example is the process that leads to the formation of diamonds.

Technically, a diamond is made of a single element -- Carbon. Years of intense pressure and hard work converts Carbon from its softer coal version to the precious diamond form. While graphite carbon atoms are bound to each other by only three bonds, in a diamond, they manage to form a fourth bond, which results in the transformation to its glittering form.

The same is true in life as well. To shine and become invaluable, you have to strive and follow the discipline of developing all four bonds. These four bonds are: Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual bonds, which, if strengthened, will give you the strength and luminosity to live a full life.

a) Physical Bond: This concerns our physical body, its material and monetary/economic needs. It includes the need for appreciation from others and other societal achievements. Taking care of this bond would mean being physically fit, being able to fulfill the basic needs for yourself and your family.

b) Mental Bond: This can also be defined as IQ, but needs to be taken in context with knowledge, mental acumen and true education. This is what will help you keep yourself updated in your profession and solve problems.

c) Emotional Bond: This includes the ability to form meaningful and lasting relationships as well as connecting with the society as a whole. It would include ideas about strengthening self esteem, love, appreciation and being able to keep commitments and promises.

d) Spiritual Bond: This is the bond with God, our creator. It is also the basis of something unique to humans -- morality. It is this spiritual bond that leads to a principle-based life.

Thus, while taking any decision, keep in mind the perspective of these four bonds and ensure that none of them are broken. Inevitably, you would have done the right thing. Let me explain this with nine fundamental situations that human beings constantly find themselves.

1. When others mock you or try to drive you down, do not lose heart. Remember not to break the emotional and spiritual bond. Remind yourself that you have to shine like a diamond and not break any of the bonds. Just focus on what you have to do and things will be okay.

2. When doubt creeps in and you feel scared of others and what they will think, don't worry. Just strengthen your physical bond. Revamp your physical appearance and look like you mean business. How you look on the outside is a result of how you feel on the inside.
Let others gauge from how you look that you are indeed a diamond. This will help you put other people in proper perspective. They are also human beings and wonderful creations of God. So why be afraid of someone?

3. When you find yourself being dragged into an argument or a quarrel, strengthen your emotional bond. Think if it is worth it? Ask yourself honestly, is this really important enough to argue about and endanger the emotional bond? Remind yourself that you never gain anything from an argument but you always lose something.

4. When things are not going right and you feel defeated, have faith in the four bonds. Everyone in their lifetime has his/her share of setbacks. Look at them as a learning opportunity to strengthen your mental bond and as a path to forming a brilliant diamond. Toughest of steel goes through the hardest of fire.
Learn from your setbacks. Research them and use the knowledge to propel yourself forward. With the confidence that you are making a diamond, you will have the strength to step back and start afresh with a new approach. There is no reason why it should not work.

5. As you grow up, romance will be a critical part of your life. If you feel it is ebbing away, do not feel insecure. Look at this as an opportunity to strengthen the emotional and spiritual bonds in your life. Look at the good things in the person you want to love and prioritise those over petty little things. Do something special for him and do it often. This will form a strong emotional bond between you two and help you to live a complete life.

6. When your progress in your job is slowing down, don't worry. Strengthen your mental, emotional and spiritual bond with your organisation. Think 'I can do better'. When you think that, ways to do your work better will appear. It will draw on your innate strengths and switch on your creative powers. Strengthen the spiritual bond by putting service first. Other things like money will take care of itself.

7. As a parent, if things are not going right with your family, step back and think what is really bothering you. Is it the fact that your kids are not making the right choices or is it that they are not helping you fulfill your incomplete desires.

Forcing them to make choices to live a life that actually 'you' want is breaking the emotional bond that your children place in you. You need to encourage them and enable them to achieve their true potential.

On the other hand, if they are fundamentally on the wrong path, then you are duty bound to show this fact to them and try to understand why they are choosing that path. You have to tell them how they should act, rather than just snubbing and grounding them. This route might consume a lot of time and effort on your part, but it will definitely strengthen your emotional bond with your children.

8. When you feel lazy to exercise or get tempted to feast on junk food, think of its long-term implications. Doing this is actually having a direct impact on your physical bond which will prevent you from achieving your true potential and becoming a diamond. Just making that bit of extra effort to go for the 30 minute jog or to resist the temptation to eat that piece of burger will not only make you healthy but will also give you confidence in yourself

9. Finally, I have a question for you. Would you do something like badmouthing your friend if you knew with absolute surety that no one would ever come to know and there would be absolutely no harm to anyone at all?
One school of though might say that it is perfectly fine to do so in this scenario, But you will break the spiritual bond that you have with your friend.

Your friend has placed his/her trust in you even if he or she might not be able to know everything that you do or say. Your friendships go beyond the body, mind and heart. It goes to the fourth critical dimension -- the soul. Thus remaining faithful to your friends and family is a critical element to elevate your spiritual connection with them.

I sincerely hope that these principles help you make the right choices in life, wherever destiny takes you. And you must remember, no matter what, your mamma and papa are always there for you.

Love,

Papa dearest!

I love this letter .The letter appeared in rediff.com on Jan 19th 2009.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/19fathers-letter-to-daughter.htm.