Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
My mom had the privilege of attending Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford a few days back, and mentioned in an email to me that what he said really resonated – (paraphrased) Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
I admit I’m something of a dreamer and idealist when it comes to the possible, so this kind of talk always resonates well with me. His speech is worth the read.
Doc Searls linked to it here (by way of Dave Rogers).
Some great quotes:
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
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. Don’t settle.
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 other’s 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.







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I’ve been to a lot of commencement speeches, this is the best I have ever heard. It resonated with me, and it should with anyone who is trying to make sense out of this crazy world we live in. But it requires guts to implement Job’s vision of whom we can/should be. May we all arise to the occasion. Peace!
When I graduated from NC State University in 1996, my graduation speaker was Fred Rogers. I could not imagine a better commencement address (even though I enjoyed reading Jobs’ address). There was that same kind of personal encouragement – I remember to this day his statement to the graduates that day: “There is only one you”. It was definitely something that has stayed with me this now 9 years. I don’t have a copy of that speech, but I do have a copy of a speech that he gave at Marquette in 2001:
http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/jayoung/site/pages/default/in-memoriam:-fred-rogers
(albeit with the urban legend about the special olympics kids, but that really doesn’t detract from the message).