Blog + Diamonds
VIDEO SUMMARY
Mastering Life's Path: The Key Steps to a Fulfilling Journey
Hey there, Graduates & Lifelong Learners! 🎓
Ready for some life-changing wisdom? Ever thought about why Steve Jobs said, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”? 🍔🤪
Well, let’s talk life’s mysteries! 🤯
Ever pondered the secret sauce to connect life’s dots, find your passion 🌟, and embrace change like a boss? 🔄
Get ready to live life to the fullest, ditch societal norms 🙅♀️, and follow that gut feeling! 🌟
Learn how to navigate life’s challenges, face setbacks with resilience, and see how even getting fired from Apple turned into a WIN 🍏💪.
Stay tuned for an eye-opening journey into the depths of life’s most intriguing mysteries. 🕵️♂️
Ready to dive in? Hit the link, and let’s get this adventure started! 🚀👇
#StayHungryStayFoolish #LifeLessons #EmbraceChange #StayCurious
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Introduction
Description:
This step involves introducing yourself and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to address the graduating class.
Implementation:
- Begin by acknowledging the audience and expressing your honor and gratitude for being at the graduation ceremony.
- Mention the significance of the occasion and the university’s reputation.
- Keep the introduction concise and engaging.
Specific Details:
- Make a brief personal connection with the audience to establish rapport.
- Highlight the importance of the university’s graduation ceremony.
Step 2: Sharing Personal Background
Description:
In this step, you share a personal anecdote about your educational journey.
Implementation:
- Share your experience of not completing college and your role as an assistant at a university.
- Explain the circumstances that led to your decision to leave college.
Specific Details:
- Mention the university where you initially enrolled.
- Provide information about the duration you spent at the university as an assistant.
- Describe the reason behind your departure from college, which in this case is related to your adoption story.
Step 3: The Importance of Connecting the Dots
Description:
This step discusses the importance of connecting experiences and learning from the past.
Implementation:
- Emphasize the value of hindsight in understanding how different life experiences connect.
- Explain that it’s impossible to predict the future while in the midst of life’s events.
- Encourage trust in one’s instincts, destiny, or karma when faced with uncertainty.
Specific Details:
- Share personal experiences of leaving college and pursuing unconventional paths.
- Mention the significance of unexpected opportunities that arose from seemingly unrelated experiences.
- Highlight the idea that life’s dots can only be connected when looking back.
Step 4: Taking Unconventional Paths
Description:
This step delves into the decision to take unconventional paths in life.
Implementation:
- Describe the decision to leave college and trust that things will work out.
- Share experiences of challenges faced during this period.
- Explain the freedom to explore subjects of interest without the pressure of a traditional education.
Specific Details:
- Discuss living arrangements, such as sleeping on friends’ floors and earning money by returning soda bottles.
- Mention the value of following one’s curiosity and intuition.
- Use the example of taking a calligraphy class in college, which later influenced the design of the Macintosh computer.
Step 5: Believing in the Future
Description:
This step encourages belief in the future and trusting that decisions will eventually make sense.
Implementation:
- Discuss the importance of having faith in the eventual connection of life’s experiences.
- Emphasize the role of intuition and personal belief in guiding one’s decisions.
- Mention that only looking back can one see the significance of past decisions.
Specific Details:
- Share the idea that confidence in future outcomes allows individuals to follow their hearts, even when deviating from traditional paths.
- Highlight the value of trusting one’s instincts.
Step 6: Second Story: Love and Loss
Description:
This step introduces the second story, which revolves around love and loss in a professional context.
Implementation:
- Describe the early success of starting Apple in a garage.
- Explain the rapid growth of Apple and the launch of significant products.
- Mention the unexpected turn of events, including getting fired from a company one co-founded.
Specific Details:
- Provide information about Apple’s growth from a small startup to a multi-billion-dollar company.
- Share the disbelief of being fired from a company he helped create.
- Set the stage for the next part of the speech, which will likely elaborate on this turning point.
Step 7: Facing Professional Challenges
Description:
This step discusses the challenges faced in the professional world, including disagreements with a co-founder and being fired from a company.
Implementation:
- Describe the initial success of the business venture and collaboration with a talented partner.
- Explain how differences in vision for the company led to conflicts.
- Share the experience of being fired from the company at the age of 30, which had been the focus of your adult life.
Specific Details:
- Mention the involvement of the board of directors in the dispute.
- Describe the emotional impact of losing the company you co-founded.
- Share the sense of disappointment and feeling like you let down the previous generation of entrepreneurs.
Step 8: Finding Purpose and Resilience
Description:
In this step, emphasize the importance of finding purpose and resilience after a setback.
Implementation:
- Describe the period of uncertainty and not knowing what to do after being fired.
- Explain the realization that despite the setback, you still loved what you did.
- Share the decision to start over and begin new ventures.
Specific Details:
- Mention meetings with David Packard and Bob Noyce to seek advice and apologize for past actions.
- Explain the shift from the heaviness of success to the lightness of being a beginner.
- Describe the subsequent ventures, including starting Next and Pixar, as well as personal developments such as falling in love.
Step 9: Rediscovering Passion and Success
Description:
This step highlights how being fired from Apple eventually led to rediscovering passion and success in different endeavors.
Implementation:
- Discuss the creative period of life that followed, marked by the founding of Next, Pixar, and personal growth.
- Explain how Pixar achieved success with Toy Story, becoming the world’s most successful animation studio.
- Mention the surprising turn of events where Apple acquired Next, and you returned to the company.
Specific Details:
- Highlight the significance of being fired as a turning point that allowed for personal and professional growth.
- Discuss the impact of the technology developed during this period on Apple’s current success.
- Share the positive outcomes of personal life, including starting a family.
Step 10: The Importance of Loving What You Do
Description:
This step emphasizes the importance of loving one’s work and not settling for less.
Implementation:
- Explain the lesson learned about the significance of loving one’s work.
- Encourage the audience to continue searching for what they love in their careers.
- Emphasize that true satisfaction comes from doing what one believes is great work.
Specific Details:
- Use the analogy of work being similar to matters of the heart.
- Encourage the audience to persist in the search for work they are passionate about.
- Stress that finding one’s passion is worth the effort and that it will be recognizable when found.
Step 11: Living with a Sense of Mortality
Description:
This step discusses the importance of living with a sense of mortality and making decisions based on this awareness.
Implementation:
- Describe the impact of reading a quote about living each day as if it were the last.
- Explain the practice of daily reflection, asking oneself what they want to do with their life.
- Stress the significance of making important life decisions in the context of mortality.
Specific Details:
- Share the personal experience of looking in the mirror each morning and contemplating the day ahead.
- Emphasize that the awareness of mortality helps prioritize what truly matters.
- Mention how external expectations, pride, fear of embarrassment, and failure lose importance in the face of death.
Step 12: Facing a Health Diagnosis
Description:
This step discusses a significant health diagnosis and the impact it had on life decisions.
Implementation:
- Share the diagnosis of cancer and the initial prognosis.
- Explain the doctor’s advice to put affairs in order, signifying the seriousness of the diagnosis.
- Describe the process of undergoing tests and a biopsy to determine the cancer’s nature.
- Share the fortunate outcome of discovering a treatable form of pancreatic cancer.
Specific Details:
- Mention the shock and emotional impact of receiving a life-threatening diagnosis.
- Explain the medical procedures undertaken to diagnose and treat the cancer.
- Highlight the relief and gratitude of being cured through surgery.
Step 13: The Value of Perspective and Second Chances
Description:
This step underscores the importance of gaining perspective through life challenges and second chances.
Implementation:
- Discuss the shift in perspective brought about by facing the possibility of imminent death.
- Share the personal growth and appreciation for life that resulted from the experience.
- Express gratitude for the second chance at life and the opportunity to continue making a difference.
Specific Details:
- Reflect on how the diagnosis prompted a reevaluation of priorities and a focus on what truly matters.
- Emphasize the transformative power of facing mortality.
- Conclude with the idea that life’s challenges can offer valuable lessons and lead to a more fulfilling existence.
Step 14: Conclusion
Description:
This step concludes the speech by summarizing the key lessons and leaving the audience with a final thought.
Implementation:
- Summarize the main points of the speech, including the importance of following one’s passion and living with a sense of mortality.
- Leave the audience with a final thought or inspirational message.
Specific Details:
- Reinforce the idea that finding one’s passion and making meaningful choices is essential for a fulfilling life.
- Encourage the audience to embrace life with purpose and enthusiasm.
Step 15: Embracing the Concept of Death
Description:
This step emphasizes the concept of death as a universal destiny and agent of change in life.
Implementation:
- Discuss the universal fear of death and the reluctance to face it.
- Explain how death is a shared destiny and a natural part of life.
- Describe death as a transformative force that clears the way for new beginnings.
Specific Details:
- Share personal thoughts on the intellectual understanding of death.
- Emphasize that death, while difficult to accept, serves a purpose in the cycle of life.
- Discuss the idea that death allows for the renewal of life and the emergence of new opportunities.
Step 16: Living Authentically
Description:
This step encourages living an authentic life, not conforming to others’ expectations, and following one’s inner voice.
Implementation:
- Discuss the importance of living true to oneself and not trying to be someone else.
- Address the danger of conforming to external pressures and opinions.
- Emphasize the courage to follow one’s heart and intuition.
Specific Details:
- Share the idea that everyone’s time is limited, and it should not be wasted on living someone else’s life.
- Highlight the dangers of conforming to societal norms and expectations.
- Encourage the audience to have the courage to pursue their own desires and passions.
Step 17: The Catalog of the Whole Earth
Description:
This step references the “Catalog of the Whole Earth” publication and its impact on the speaker.
Implementation:
- Describe the significance of the “Catalog of the Whole Earth” during the late 1960s.
- Explain how the catalog was created using simple tools like typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras.
- Mention the catalog’s resemblance to an early version of Google.
Specific Details:
- Discuss the idealistic and innovative nature of the catalog.
- Mention Stewart Brand, the creator of the catalog.
- Highlight the message on the final edition’s back cover, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.”
Step 18: Closing Remarks
Description:
This step concludes the speech by summarizing key takeaways and offering final words of encouragement.
Implementation:
- Summarize the main points, including embracing mortality, living authentically, and staying hungry and foolish.
- Offer final words of encouragement to the graduating audience.
Specific Details:
- Reinforce the idea that embracing life’s challenges, including death, leads to personal growth.
- Encourage the audience to stay hungry for knowledge and stay foolish in their pursuits.
- Express gratitude and well wishes to the graduating class.
COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT
Opening
Thank you. I feel honored to be with you today for your graduation from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told. I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.
Connecting the 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 six 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.
Decision to Drop Out
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 the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay. 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.
Love and Loss
I had to learn to love and be loved, to give everything to others, and to allow others to give to me, to truly appreciate the joy of simple moments, to make the most of every day, and to let go of the trivial and unimportant things. 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. 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 doctor 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 it’s 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’s 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’s 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 others’ 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.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
These things have a way of disappearing in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 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. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Facing a Cancer Diagnosis
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 doctor 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.
The Significance of Death
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 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’s 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’s quite true.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
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 others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, and most important, have the courage to follow. Follow your heart and your intuition. Somehow they already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Closing
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 1960s, 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, 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 its final edition, there was a photograph of an early morning rural road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were adventurous. Beneath it were the words “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish,” which served as their farewell message. Stay hungry, stay foolish, and I’ve always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that you stay hungry and stay foolish. Thank you very much, everyone.
