WEBVTT
1
00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:08,219
Thank You. /
2
00:00:08,219 --> 00:00:16,759
I am honored / to be with you today / at your commencement /
from one of the finest universities / in the world. /
3
00:00:16,759 --> 00:00:22,760
Truth be told / I never graduated from college /
4
00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:29,180
and / this is the closest /
I've ever gotten to / a college graduation. /
5
00:00:29,180 --> 00:00:33,210
Today / I want to tell you / three stories from my life. /
6
00:00:33,210 --> 00:00:37,050
That's it. /
No big deal. / Just three stories. /
7
00:00:37,050 --> 00:00:42,210
The first story / is about connecting the dots. /
8
00:00:42,210 --> 00:00:45,980
I dropped out of Reed College / after the first 6 months, /
9
00:00:45,980 --> 00:00:50,610
but then stayed around / as a drop-in /
for another 18 months or so / before / I really quit. /
10
00:00:50,610 --> 00:00:53,430
So / why did I drop out? /
11
00:00:53,430 --> 00:00:56,450
It started / before / I was born. /
12
00:00:56,450 --> 00:01:03,560
My biological mother was a young, / unwed graduate student, /
and / she decided / to put me up for adoption. /
13
00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,809
She felt very strongly /
that I should be adopted / by college graduates, /
14
00:01:07,809 --> 00:01:12,940
so / everything was all set / for me to be adopted / at birth /
by a lawyer and his wife. /
15
00:01:12,940 --> 00:01:19,120
Except that / when I popped out / they decided / at the last minute /
that they really wanted a girl. /
16
00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:24,000
So / my parents, [[ who were on a waiting list, ]]
got a call / in the middle of the night /
17
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:29,030
asking: / "We have an unexpected baby boy; / do you want him?" /
18
00:01:29,030 --> 00:01:32,274
They said: / "Of course." /
19
00:01:32,274 --> 00:01:37,910
My biological mother / found out later /
that my mother / had never graduated from college /
20
00:01:37,910 --> 00:01:40,360
and that my father / had never graduated from high school. /
21
00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,630
She refused to sign / the final adoption papers. /
22
00:01:44,630 --> 00:01:50,590
She only relented / a few months later /
when / my parents promised / that I would go to college. /
23
00:01:50,590 --> 00:01:54,740
This was the start / in my life. /
24
00:01:54,740 --> 00:01:59,209
And 17 years later / I did go to college. /
25
00:01:59,209 --> 00:02:03,670
But / I naively chose a college /
that was almost as expensive / as Stanford, /
26
00:02:03,670 --> 00:02:08,810
and / all of my working-class parents' savings / were being spent /
on my college tuition. /
27
00:02:08,810 --> 00:02:12,320
After six months, / I couldn't see / the value in it. /
28
00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:15,160
I had no idea / what I wanted to do / with my life /
29
00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,650
and no idea / how college was going to help me / figure it out. /
30
00:02:18,650 --> 00:02:23,800
And here / I was spending all of the money / my parents had saved /
their entire life. /
31
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:29,439
So / I decided to drop out /
and trust / that it would all work out OK. /
32
00:02:29,439 --> 00:02:35,280
It was pretty scary / at the time, /
but looking back / it was one of the best decisions / I ever made. /
33
00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:41,440
The minute / I dropped out /
I could stop taking the required classes / that didn't interest me, /
34
00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:45,960
and begin dropping in / on the ones that looked interesting. /
35
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:51,990
It wasn't all romantic. /
I didn't have a dorm room, / so / I slept on the floor / in friends' rooms, /
36
00:02:51,990 --> 00:02:55,920
I returned coke bottles /
for the 5 cent deposits / to buy food with, /
37
00:02:55,920 --> 00:03:03,200
and / I would walk the 7 miles / across town / every Sunday night /
to get one good meal / a week / at the Hare Krishna temple. /
38
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:11,889
I loved it. / And [ much of what / I stumbled into /
by following my curiosity and intuition ]
turned out to be priceless / later on. /
39
00:03:11,889 --> 00:03:14,074
Let me give you one example: /
40
00:03:14,074 --> 00:03:20,150
Reed College / at that time offered /
perhaps the best calligraphy instruction / in the country. /
41
00:03:20,150 --> 00:03:26,890
Throughout the campus / every poster, / every label on every drawer, /
was beautifully hand calligraphed. /
42
00:03:26,890 --> 00:03:30,930
Because / I had dropped out /
and didn't have to take / the normal classes, /
43
00:03:30,930 --> 00:03:34,800
I decided / to take a calligraphy class / to learn how to do this. /
44
00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,000
I learned / about serif and san serif typefaces, /
45
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,250
about varying the amount of space /
between different letter combinations, /
46
00:03:41,250 --> 00:03:44,640
about what makes great typography great. /
47
00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:50,950
It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle /
in a way / that science can't capture, /
48
00:03:50,950 --> 00:03:53,410
and / I found it fascinating. /
49
00:03:53,410 --> 00:03:58,770
None of this / had even a hope / of any practical application /
in my life. /
50
00:03:58,770 --> 00:04:03,380
But ten years later, /
when / we were designing / the first Macintosh computer, /
51
00:04:03,380 --> 00:04:07,670
it all came back to me. /
And / we designed it / all into the Mac. /
52
00:04:07,670 --> 00:04:10,690
It was the first computer / with beautiful typography. /
53
00:04:10,690 --> 00:04:14,460
If / I had never dropped in / on that single course / in college, /
54
00:04:14,460 --> 00:04:18,600
the Mac would have never had / multiple typefaces /
or proportionally spaced fonts. /
55
00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:30,270
And / since / Windows just copied the Mac, /
it's likely / that no personal computer / would have them. /
56
00:04:30,270 --> 00:04:33,000
If / I had never dropped out, /
57
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,810
I would have never dropped in / on this calligraphy class, /
58
00:04:35,810 --> 00:04:39,749
and / personal computers might not have /
the wonderful typography / that they do. /
59
00:04:39,749 --> 00:04:44,550
Of course / it was impossible / to connect the dots /
looking forward / when / I was in college. /
60
00:04:44,550 --> 00:04:48,330
But / it was very, very clear /
looking backwards ten years later. /
61
00:04:48,330 --> 00:04:54,120
Again, / you can't connect the dots / looking forward; /
you can only connect them / looking backwards. /
62
00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,930
So / you have to trust /
that the dots will somehow connect / in your future. /
63
00:04:57,930 --> 00:05:03,550
You have to trust in something, /
your gut, destiny, life, karma, / whatever. /
64
00:05:03,550 --> 00:05:09,300
Beleiveing / that the dots will connect down the road /
will give you the confidence / to follow your heart. /
65
00:05:09,300 --> 00:05:19,500
Even when / it leads you / off the well worn-path, /
and that will make / all the difference. /
66
00:05:19,500 --> 00:05:25,230
My second story / is about love and loss. /
67
00:05:25,230 --> 00:05:29,510
I was lucky /
I found / what I loved to do / early in life. /
68
00:05:29,510 --> 00:05:33,070
Woz and I started Apple / in my parents garage /
when / I was 20. /
69
00:05:33,070 --> 00:05:36,460
We worked hard, /
and in 10 years / Apple had grown /
70
00:05:36,460 --> 00:05:41,460
from just the two of us / in a garage /
into a $2 billion company / with over 4000 employees. /
71
00:05:41,460 --> 00:05:47,560
We had just released / our finest creation the Macintosh / a year earlier, /
and / I had just turned 30. /
72
00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,250
And then / I got fired. /
73
00:05:50,250 --> 00:05:53,600
How can you get fired / from a company / you started? /
74
00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:59,880
Well, / as / Apple grew / we hired someone /
who [[ I thought ]] was very talented / to run the company with me, /
75
00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:02,970
and for the first year or so / things went well. /
76
00:06:02,970 --> 00:06:06,970
But then / our visions of the future / began to diverge /
and eventually / we had a falling out. /
77
00:06:06,970 --> 00:06:10,350
When / we did, /
our Board of Directors / sided with him. /
78
00:06:10,350 --> 00:06:14,930
So / at 30 / I was out. /
And / very publicly out. /
79
00:06:14,930 --> 00:06:19,730
[ What had been the focus / of my entire adult life ] was gone, /
and / it was devastating. /
80
00:06:19,730 --> 00:06:22,310
I really didn't know / what to do / for a few months. /
81
00:06:22,310 --> 00:06:29,610
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. /
82
00:06:29,610 --> 00:06:32,080
I met / with David Packard and Bob Noyce /
83
00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,620
and tried to apologize / for screwing up so badly. /
84
00:06:35,620 --> 00:06:39,770
I was a very public failure, /
and / I even thought / about running away from the valley. /
85
00:06:39,770 --> 00:06:46,490
But / something slowly began to dawn / on me /
I still loved / what I did. /
86
00:06:46,490 --> 00:06:50,000
The turn of events at Apple / had not changed / that one bit. /
87
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,290
I had been rejected, /
but / I was still in love. /
88
00:06:53,290 --> 00:06:56,110
And so / I decided to start over. /
89
00:06:56,110 --> 00:06:58,510
I didn't see it / then, /
but / it turned out /
90
00:06:58,510 --> 00:07:02,210
that getting fired from Apple / was the best thing /
that could have ever happened / to me. /
91
00:07:02,210 --> 00:07:07,420
The heaviness of being successful / was replaced /
by the lightness / of being a beginner again, /
92
00:07:07,420 --> 00:07:12,620
less sure about everything. /
It freed me / to enter one of the most creative periods / of my life. /
93
00:07:12,620 --> 00:07:17,590
During the next five years, /
I started / a company named "NeXT", / another company named "Pixar", /
94
00:07:17,590 --> 00:07:20,980
and fell in love / with an amazing woman /
who would become my wife. /
95
00:07:20,980 --> 00:07:25,580
Pixar went on to create /
the worlds first computer animated feature film, / "Toy Story", /
96
00:07:25,580 --> 00:07:31,180
and is now the most successful animation studio / in the world. /
97
00:07:31,180 --> 00:07:36,229
In a remarkable turn of events, / Apple bought NeXT, /
I returned to Apple, /
98
00:07:36,229 --> 00:07:41,090
and [ the technology / we developed at NeXT ]
is at the heart / of Apple's current renaissance. /
99
00:07:41,090 --> 00:07:45,080
And / Laurene and I / have a wonderful family / together. /
100
00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:49,350
I'm pretty sure / none of this would have happened /
if / I hadn't been fired / from Apple. /
101
00:07:49,350 --> 00:07:53,630
It was awful tasting medicine, /
but / I guess / the patient needed it. /
102
00:07:53,630 --> 00:07:59,500
Sometimes / life hits you / in the head / with a brick. /
Don't lose faith. /
103
00:07:59,500 --> 00:08:03,410
I'm convinced / that [ the only thing / that kept me going ]
was that I loved / what I did. /
104
00:08:03,410 --> 00:08:05,740
You've got to find / what you love. /
105
00:08:05,740 --> 00:08:09,370
And / that is as true / for your work /
as / it is for your lovers. /
106
00:08:09,370 --> 00:08:12,000
Your work is going to fill / a large part of your life, /
107
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,000
and [ the only way / to be truly satisfied ] is to do /
what [[ you believe ]] is great work. /
108
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,660
And / the only way / to do great work /
is to love / what you do. /
109
00:08:20,660 --> 00:08:24,940
If / you haven't found it yet, /
keep looking. / Don't settle. /
110
00:08:24,940 --> 00:08:28,710
As with all matters / of the heart, /
you'll know / when you find it. /
111
00:08:28,710 --> 00:08:33,460
And, / like any great relationship, /
it just gets better and better / as / the years roll on. /
112
00:08:33,460 --> 00:08:46,349
So / keep looking. / Don't settle. /