In his 2005 Stanford University commencement address, Steve Jobs offers some of his life wisdom to graduates by sharing three personal stories. In the first story, Job discusses what it takes for an individual to ‘connect the dots’ in his or her life. He explains how one can only connect the dots looking backward, not forward. People can never accurately predict the future and determine exactly how things are going to work out and why. They only see how ‘the dots’ connect in moments of reflection when the past can be viewed objectively. Steve Jobs explains to graduates that the key to reducing anxiety about the outcome of their future is to be faithful to something that is personally meaningful. Whether that means trusting in karma, god, or anything else is up to individual preference, but it is necessary in order to maintain the believe that one’s future will work out alright.
1. Connecting the Dots
Jobs recounts how ‘connecting the dots’ took form in his life. Despite his incredible professional success, his early adult life path was neither easy nor clear. He explains how he dropped out of Reed college after the first six months of enrollment. He simply could not justify attending classes, especially ones that did not interest him, when it was costing his financially-struggling parents all of their life savings. However, while he realized that attending college in a traditional manner was too costly, there was still knowledge to be gained if he stayed on campus as a non-student.
He decided to remain at Reed, living here and there with friends, and routinely ‘dropping in’ on classes that piqued his interest. In reference to sneaking into cool classes, Steve Jobs claimed that “much of what I stumbled into following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on”. He recalls how attending a calligraphy course gave him wisdom on typography and the effect of beautiful text. This is what ultimately provided him the inspiration to make the Mac during his time at Apple, which was “the first computer with beautiful typography” and multiple typefaces with proportionally spaced fonts.
2. Dealing with Love and Loss
In his second story, Steve Jobs identifies his relationship with love and loss. He says the secret to doing great work is to actually love the work one is involved in doing. He recalls how he started Apple in his parents’ basement at age 20 because he had an extreme passion for what he was doing. This passion led to resounding success until life threw him a metaphorical curveball. He was fired from his own company at 30 years old. However, he did not let this apparent loss sway him from pursuing his passions.
Jobs exclaimed how “the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again”. The situation forced him to redirect his efforts, and he started Pixar which eventually came to be known as the most successful animation studio. Moreover, he maintained a passion for computing and was later on brought back to Apple after his initial rejection, when they purchased his company NeXT. Ultimately, Jobs attributes love for his work as the defining factor that has resulted in his continued success and happiness. He leaves this story on the note that “it is as important for people to love their work as much as they love their lovers”.
3. Confronting Death
Jobs’ final story revolves around death and the impact that it had on his mentality. He shares how he was diagnosed with cancer and the doctor instructed him to get his affairs in order. Jobs realized that what he had received was a polite death notice, and that he would have to share the difficult news with his loved ones. The finality of death forced him to analyze his day-to-day life. He says he realized the importance of having the mentality that each day should always be lived to satisfaction, as if it was the final day on earth.
Steve Jobs then directs his experience toward the viewers and challenges them to think of whether or not they are satisfied with their present life. If the answer is “no” for too many days in a row, Jobs states, then it is time to make a change in one’s life. He assures the crowd that nobody wants to die, not even people who want to go to heaven. That is why it is so important to see the value in one’s time, and to live life presently and to the fullest capacity possible. Luckily, the cancer that Steve Jobs had mentioned in this speech was was a rare form that was treatable by surgery. He was able to live healthily for a bit longer, and it taught him a valuable lesson. Jobs concludes the speech by urging the graduates to “stay hungry, stay foolish”.
How does this wisdom relate to me and my thesis project?
I can certainly relate to Steve Jobs on his first topic. While I never dropped out of school, I initially struggled greatly at TCNJ and was not seeing the personal value in my engineering studies. It was not until I changed majors to interactive multimedia (IMM) and starting attending classes that really inspired me, that I truly recognized the value college education had for me. My interest in IMM subject matter inspired me to pursue an individual study in electronic music and now a thesis project focussed on music production.
At the time of major transition, I felt like a failure because I was not succeeding at my original goal of attaining an engineering degree. However, now I can see the dots connect in my past. If I had not struggled I would have never tried new classes, met exceptional faculty who inspired me, or become so interested in interactive multimedia. I would never have opened myself up to all the learning experiences and personal connections that drive my academic pursuits today.
I can also relate to Steve Jobs’ experiences with love, loss, and death. While I have never had a direct encounter with death, I was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder during my sophomore year at college. These conditions led to a tenuous mental health situation that derailed my academic progress and resulted in my hospitalization for about a week. The major depression I was experiencing at the time made it seem as though I had been delivered a death sentence. I struggled with the knowledge that many individuals with these conditions are confronted with the danger of suicide.
However, I was largely able to overcome these conditions through cognitive restructuring, defining my self-narrative, adopting an attitude of gratitude, and finding work that I love. Currently I am engaged as a full-time student and WordPress web developer at TCNJ. I have developed coping skills and manage my conditions daily to the point that most people would not know I struggle unless I told them.
Like Jobs, I realize that a life well lived, is a life that contains meaningful and lovable work. No matter what one struggles with, this fact remains true. I love web development because it is challenging work that is both technical and creative, and it allows me to leverage some of my best strengths. This is why I continue to value the work I perform on college websites and the WordPress support/trainings I provide to TCNJ professors, students, and faculty. I also love songwriting and music production, which are subjects where I am driven to increase my knowledge and develop advanced skills. That is why I am currently engaged in producing an original 10-song hip-hop LP for senior thesis.
I know my senior thesis project will be rewarding because I am currently a little foolish in that there is so much to learn, but I am ready since I am hungry for the knowledge. Perhaps, this is the very reason I was inspired to call my project “More Knowledge” by Emcee (Kyle) Lee. Just as rapper KRS-ONE said in an interview on the popular Netflix original series “Hip Hop Evolution”, it was the hunger that drove him to perform and succeed while living and struggling in the South Bronx.