Commencement Speech – Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs’ commencement speech to the 2005 Stanford University graduating class.

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Key quotes from Jobs’ speech:

• You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. (That) gives you confidence to follow your heart; even if it leads you off the well-worn path.

• I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life.

• I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

• Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

• I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.

• You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle.

• 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.

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