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How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs
Table of Contents
ABOUT SPEECH
This essay, "How to Live Before You Die," is a motivational speech that was delivered by the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer and Pixar, Steve Jobs, on June 12, 2005. He delivered this speech at the 114th commencement of Stanford University in the United States. He delivered an inspirational speech over his life-related views publicly. This speech encouraged not only the students of Stanford University but also many people around the world. In this speech, Steve Jobs related three different stories based on his life. All these three stories played very vital roles in shaping his experiences and journey towards a successful career.
DETAILED SUMMARY
How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs
The CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer and Pixar Steve Jobs's three life-related different stories were:
1. About Connecting the Dots:
2. About Love and Loss:
3. About Death:
His First Story about Connecting the Dots:
This first story is about various facts that are linked to his life. Here in the first story, he has narrated his birth, adoption scene, and later struggles. According to him, his biological mother was an unwed college graduate student who decided to put him up for adoption before his birth. She wanted her baby to be adopted by graduate parents. To adopt him, a lawyer and his wife became ready at first. But, after his birth, the lawyer's family changed their mind about adopting him because they wanted to adopt a baby girl. Later on, he was adopted by another family. His biological mother refused to sign adoption papers because she found out that the parents had never graduated from high school or college. But the parents persuaded his biological mother to send him to college someday.
Steve joined an expensive college named Reed College at the age of 17. His parents' entire savings were being spent on his college tuition. After six months, he dropped out of Reed College and even those classes because of his disinterest. He didn't have an idea about the next steps of his life. He failed to make sense of his life. He didn't get the idea of what he wanted to do with his life. The importance of college itself was a question mark. He started taking classes of his interest. During those days, he faced a lot of hardships. He joined a calligraphy class to learn about typefaces. Calligraphy was quite popular during those days. He learned serif and sans-serif typefaces. For him, the course of calligraphy turned out to be a kind of boon. After 10 years, he used his knowledge of calligraphy and his skills when he was designing the first Macintosh computer. He designed the first Macintosh computer with beautiful typography. While pursuing his curiosity and intuition, he stumbled many times, but his hardships turned out to be priceless later on. He realised everything related to dots and their connections in his life. When he looked backwards, he got the idea that different dots kept on connecting themselves to support him in reaching his real destination. His decisions about dropping college and starting the course of his interest, his experiences, hardships, gut, and trust in karma (destiny), etc. moved along with his steps like different dots. Finally, all these dots got connected and made him successful.
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His Advice in this Story:
▪︎ You can connect dots by looking backwards.
▪︎ You have to trust the connection of dots in your future.
▪︎ You have to trust in your gut, destiny, life, and karma.
His Second Story about Love and Loss:
Here in this story, he has narrated his story related to his love for his work and the loss of his company. According to him, he found whatever he loved early in his life. He and his friend Woz started the Apple company in his parent's garage at the age of 20. Their small company turned into a 2 billion-dollar company with over 4000 employees after 10 years. As the company progressed, they decided to hire a talented person to take over the company. The company did a great job in its first year. But later on, due to divergence in their visions for the future of their company, the Board of Directors fired him from his own company at the age of 30. It was quite a devastating experience for him. He even asked for an apology from David Packard and Bob Noyce for screwing up so badly. He thought as if his entire life was ruined. He felt rejected, but he began to realise that he was still in love with the work he did. He decided to start over again. After that, he entered one of the most creative periods of his life. During the next five years, he formed a new company named NeXT, and then Pixar, which turned out to be the most successful animation studio in the world, creating the first computer-animated feature film, 'Toy Story'. He even fell in love with an amazing woman.
Later on, Apple bought NeXT, and he returned to Apple again. With a mixed-technology vision, he was able to dominate the IT market.
His Advice in this Story:
▪︎ Don't lose faith.
▪︎ Love what you work with.
▪︎ Keep looking for your best work that satisfies you...don't settle.
His Third Story about Death:
In this story, Steve has narrated his story about death. At the age of 49, he suffered from pancreatic cancer. His doctors told him that he would only be able to live for 3 to 6 months. But later on, when he had a biopsy, his doctors informed his wife about the treatment of his tumour through surgery. After surgery, he was able to get rid of his pancreatic tumour. During the time of his diagnosis, he experienced his death closely. The concept of death taught him a serious lesson in his life. Death is inevitable, and nobody lives forever. Nobody wants to die, but everyone shares this intellectual concept. Death is really life's greatest invention. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. But he never lost hope. After his recovery, he kept on working very honestly, providing his best for his company, and being responsible.
His Advice in this Story:
▪︎ Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
▪︎ Listen to your inner voice instead of others' opinions.
▪︎ Follow your heart and intuition.
▪︎ Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
SHORT SUMMARY
This essay, "How to Live Before You Die," is a motivational speech that has been delivered by the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs. This speech was delivered by him at the commencement of Stanford University in 2005. In his speech, he has delivered his life-related stories to motivate people who were present at that commencement. His stories are as follows:
1. ABOUT CONNECTING THE DOTS:
Here in this story, he has shared his stories related to his birth, adoption by Paul and Clara Jobs, the obligations behind leaving Reed College, and hardships and struggles in his life. According to him, he was quite unsure about the next steps in his life. He happened to take the classes of his interest, which were the classes of calligraphy. He learned serif and san serif typefaces. His knowledge and skills in calligraphy turned out to be a boon for him. He applied his skills and knowledge of caligraphy while designing the first Macintosh computer after ten years. With the help of his friend Woz, he was able to design the first Macintosh computer with beautiful typography. He has related all the steps in his life to different dots. According to him, we can realise the connection between all these dots in our lives when we look backward. No one can connect the dots of their life looking forward. These different dots keep connecting and pave the way ahead. Along with trusting in our gut, life, destiny, or karma, we have to do our tasks expecting to have a fine future ahead.
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2. STORY ABOUT LOVE AND LOSS:
In this story, Steve Jobs has related the biggest loss of his life. According to him, at the age of thirty, he was fired from his own company by the board of directors. He didn't lose hope. His love for his tasks helped him again. His knowledge, skills, and love supported and led him towards the heights again in the tech world. He was able to establish his new company Next and the world-famous animation studio called Pixar, which created a world-famous animated feature film named 'Toy Story.' Here, he has advised all the people not to settle down their search in the matter of their desired tasks. According to him, people should love the work they do and seek their desirable works. They shouldn't settle down in their search for the best work.
3. HIS THIRD STORY ABOUT DEATH:
Here in this story, Steve Jobs has related his experience of his sickness due to pancreatic cancer at the age of forty-nine. During that time, he experienced his death closely. He got the idea about the concept of death. According to him, death is life's greatest invention. Everyone has to share this intellectual concept. Death is life's changing agent. It clears out the old and paves the way for the new. After surgery, he got rid of his pancreatic tumour. He continued his task again with full enthusiasm. In this story, he has advised all his audiences to stay hungry and foolish. According to him, we should always be eager to know and achieve important things in our lives. We should try to do a new thing in our lives with different thoughts.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs
BEFORE READING
Answer these questions:
a. What do you know about Steve Jobs’ family and economic background?
Answer:
Steve Jobs was born by an unwed college graduate student. Later on, he was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. His economic background wasn't so good. Due to a lack of money, he dropped out of Reed College.
b. Steve Jobs was a very successful man. What makes a person successful in your view?
Answer:
In my view, aim, hope, and struggle make a person successful. If a person has the aim of something and struggles to achieve it, he or she will certainly become a successful person in his or her life.
c. Steve Jobs had many doubts on how he wanted to lead his life. Do you have the same problem?
Answer:
Yes, I have the same problem. As a student, I'm still quite unsure about my future steps. I'm feeling a lack of proper guidance in my life.
UDERSTANDING THE TEXT
a. What is the story about Steve Jobs’ birth?
Answer:
Steve Jobs was born by an unwed college graduate student. She decided to put her baby up for adoption during her pregnancy. She wanted her baby to be adopted by an educated family. To adopt Steve Jobs, a lawyer's family was ready at first. But, after the birth of Steve Jobs, the lawyer's family changed their mind about adopting him. They wanted to adopt a baby girl. Later on, a mechanic named Paul Jobs and his wife Clara Jobs adopted Steve Jobs with the promise that someday they would send Steve to college for his studies.
b. What does he mean when he says, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”?
Answer:
Here in his line, he means to suggest to all of us that our successes and failures of the present time depend on our past's different dots but not on our future's dots. We realise our present life through our past's different dots, such as the hardships we faced, decisions we made, struggles we did, mistakes we committed, desires we desired, selections we made, steps we took, etc. When we look backwards, we realise the connection between all these dots in our lives. No one can connect these dots looking into the future. The determinants of our present and future are our past as well as the different dots of our lives. We can’t predict the future, but life makes sense when we look at history.
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c. What happened when Steve Jobs turned 30?
Answer:
When Steve Jobs turned 30, he was fired from his own company by the board of directors.
d. Jobs contends that you need to love to do what you do in order to be great at it. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Answer:
Yes, I agree with his opinions because our love for our work can lead us towards success. To be great at our work, it's very important for all of us to love the work we do. If we are unable to love our work, we won't succeed in it. In that situation, our work will be meaningless to us.
e. Is death really life’s greatest invention?
Answer:
Yes, death is really life's greatest invention. Death is inevitable, and nobody lives forever. Nobody wants to die, but everyone shares this intellectual concept. Death is life's changing agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. No one can defeat this concept. Everyone has to face this bitter reality.
REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
a. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
“We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.”
i. Who was the baby boy?
Answer:
The baby boy was Steve Jobs.
ii. What does ‘do you want him?’ mean?
Answer:
'Do you want him?' means a question related to Steve Jobs' adoption of his parents, Paul and Clara Jobs, who were on the waiting list to adopt the baby.
iii. Who does ‘they’ refer to?
Answer:
'They' refer to Mr. Paul Jobs and Mrs. Clara Jobs.
b. Explain the following lines:
i. “You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
Answer:
This line was delivered by the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, in his speech at Stanford University. Here in this line, Steve Jobs is advising all people about the vital role of gut, destiny, life, and karma in their lives. He advises all people to keep faith and trust in these vital aspects of their lives. According to Steve Jobs, these aspects move along with success. Trust in these aspects can lead anyone towards perfection.
ii. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Answer:
This line was delivered by the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, in his speech at Stanford University. Here in this line, he is advising people about the importance of time, which keeps on running so fast. According to him, we have to utilise our time, which is so limited. We shouldn't waste our time living someone else's life. Within this short period, we have to make the right use of our time to brighten our future. Time waits for no one. We should move ahead without wasting our time.
c. What does he mean by “don’t settle”?
Answer:
By "don't settle," he means to suggest to people not settle down in the search for the best and most satisfactory tasks that they prefer to do. He means to say that we must keep looking for our best works, which satisfy us. We should try our best to find suitable tasks. We shouldn't settle down in the matter of our desirable tasks until we find the right tasks that satisfy us.
d. Which style of speech is used by the speaker to persuade the audiences?
Answer:
To persuade the audience, a personal, informal style of speech is used by the speaker. His speech seems to be narrative, where he tries his best to motivate his audiences through his real-life-related stories.
e. It is not easy to motivate others. How do you think Steve Jobs’ speech is so inspiring?
Answer:
I think Steve Jobs' speech is so inspiring. His act of delivering life-related stories in his speech to motivate his audiences is outstanding. In his speech, he has shared the personal stories of his life that have inspired most people. His speech has various facts related to the lives of common people. His speech provides a kind of encouragement to the people to move ahead on the way to progress, no matter which family background they belong to.
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f. Why do you think Steve Jobs used the personal narrative storytelling technique in his speech? What influence does it have on the audiences?
Answer:
I think Steve Jobs used the personal narrative storytelling technique in his speech to motivate his audiences. His speech has various facts related to the hardships and struggles of life. It has a very positive influence on audiences. Through his speech, the audience has a chance to learn about the hardships and struggles behind a successful life in a real sense.
REFERENCE BEYOND THE CONTEXT
a. One of Steve Jobs mottos was: 'Think differently'. Can this make a person succeed in life? What challenges are there in thinking differently?
Answer:
Yes, this can make a person succeed in life. To change a life, we have to think and act differently. There must be a change in our thoughts. We have to try to do something different. Similar thoughts can never get the proper way ahead to change a life. There are various challenges to thinking differently. Many legends and inventors were humiliated and cut off from societies due to their nature of thinking differently. They were supposed to be insane. Thinking differently may cut people off from majorities, societies, etc. But, for change and development, we have to think differently.
b. What does the slogan “Stay hungry; stay foolish” mean to you?
Answer:
The slogan "Stay hungry; stay foolish" means "stay eager" and "be ready to try new things" to me. We should always be eager to know and achieve important things in our lives. We should try to do a new thing in our lives with different thoughts.
c. What does it mean to be a visionary? What makes Steve Jobs different from a fortune-teller?
Answer:
To be a visionary means having a positive vision or foresight about the future. Steve Jobs is quite different from a fortune teller. A fortune teller isn't right all the time. His or her predictions may be incorrect. But, as a visionary man, Steve Jobs' positive foresight about the future makes him different from a fortune teller. Due to his vision in the tech world, he was able to achieve heights in the tech world. Behind his foresight, various things played vital roles, which are as follows:
▪︎ His curiosity
▪︎ His intuition
▪︎ His different thinking
▪︎ His classes of interests
▪︎ His hardships and struggles
▪︎ His experience
▪︎ His trust in his fate
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