Celebrating the 20th Anniversary: Re-watching Jobs' Legendary Speech That Still Resonates Today

Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University is incredibly famous for being the place where he said, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish."

This year marks the 20th anniversary, and I suddenly felt like watching that speech again, so I went to see it.

I started writing this note with the feeling that those who have seen it before should watch it again, and those who haven't should definitely check it out. However, since that alone felt a bit lacking, I'd like to include my own thoughts on what I felt after watching this video in the second half.

👇 Watch the video here

There were only three messages Jobs conveyed in his speech.

1: Connecting the Dots
Jobs dropped out of college but continued to audit classes. Since he no longer needed to earn credits, he took classes based on pure interest, which led him to take a calligraphy class (the art of writing letters beautifully).
This became an important "dot" in his life that later led to the adoption of beautiful fonts when the Mac PC was created.
(He also gets a laugh by saying, "Windows copied the Mac, so beautiful fonts ended up being adopted by PCs all over the world.")

▼ Points & Lessons
・Dots only exist in the past.
・You might wonder, "What is the point of this?" at the time, but it is important to follow your intuition.
・It is important to create many dots. The shortest path is not always the best.

2: Love & Loss

Jobs was fired from Apple, the company he built himself.
However, he reflects that this was a great opportunity to challenge himself with something new that he could pour his passion into.
(That is how the animation company Pixar was born.)

Whether it's about work or a life partner, find what or who you can truly love; compromise is forbidden.
He says that when you meet what you truly want to do or the right person, you will know it intuitively.

▼ Points & Lessons
・You only live once. Compromise is forbidden! Live a life you are satisfied with.
・Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise. Even things that seem desperate should be faced with the belief that, looking back later, you will realize they were necessary hardships.

3: About Death

When Jobs was 17, he saw a quote like this:
"If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." (The audience laughs.)

Since then, Jobs has looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" and if the answer remained "No" for too long, he would change his environment.
In the face of death, all fears and risks become insignificant.
If you are conscious of death, there is no reason not to act according to your heart.

▼ Points & Lessons
・By being conscious of death, you become able to make decisions that are honest with your heart.
・This also resonates with one of my favorite quotes: "If you were to die tomorrow, would your way of living change? How long do you intend to live with your current way of life?" (by Che Guevara. A similar passage also appears in Kotaro Isaka's "The End of the Fools".)

Summary

What was consistent throughout Jobs' speech was:
・Follow your heart and do what you want to do
・And your heart already knows the answer
・Nothing that happens in life is a waste
The famous "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" appears at the end of the video, but it is said that these were not Jobs' own words, but words written in the final issue of a magazine he loved to read.

All three stories were accompanied by Jobs' own real-life experiences, making it a very moving speech.
If you haven't watched the video yet, please do.