Steve Jobs: 'You've got to find what you love'
Apple
co-founder Steve Jobs died of respiratory arrest linked to the spread of his
pancreatic cancer. The Apple co-founder died on 5 October at the age of 56 at
his home in Palo Alto. A statement from Jobs' family said they were with him
when he died peacefully. No post-mortem examination was performed, and Jobs was
buried on Friday. In 2004, he announced that he was suffering from pancreatic
cancer. He had a liver transplant five years later. Jobs died the day after
Apple announced its latest iPhone, the 4S. On 5 October Apple said it received
more than one million pre-orders on Friday for the device, breaking a record
set by the iPhone 4 when it was released in 2010.
Some
excerpts from the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
About
a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning,
and it clearly showed a tumour 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.
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 tumour.
I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the
cells under a microscope the doctors 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 is 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 is 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.
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, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. On the back cover of their final issue was a
photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself
hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words:
"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed
off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And
now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
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