Speech
2005 Stanford Commencement Address
Steve Jobs's 15-minute commencement address, told as three stories: connecting the dots, love and loss, and death. It is where "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." reached most people.
The recording
Video from Steve Jobs Archive, a restored version of the original recording. Open on YouTube. Published text.
Quotes, in order
Each quote links to the moment it is said. A Verified source label means the words were checked against the recording; other quotes are the widely published wording of a passage, which can differ slightly from what was said.
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.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 4:48 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
4:48 of 14:26
Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 4:57 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
4:57 of 14:26
And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 5:44 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
5:44 of 14:26
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. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 6:55 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
6:55 of 14:26
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. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 9:20 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
9:20 of 14:26
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 9:38 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
9:38 of 14:26
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.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 12:12 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
12:12 of 14:26
Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 13:49 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
13:49 of 14:26
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. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
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.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
Embedded from the publisher's channel. We quote short excerpts; the recording and full text remain with their publishers.