This speech is so good, it’s joining the all time great viral pieces found on the internet. It’s so good, you almost have to think it’s a hoax. But it’s not, you can read the text of the address right here on the Stanford site: Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford
And I do recommend you read the whole thing. You won’t read a better commencement speech.
The part that everyone loves is the death part. If you haven’t read this, Steve tells an incredibly moving story of being diagnosed with terminal cancer. It turned out that the type of cancer he had was very rare and it was operable. So now he is fine. But he has the perspective of a fraternity that no one ever asks to be a member of, but once you are a member you never regret it. This near-death club is always life changing. Steve so eloquently gives his perspective. It’s so good.
Read this slowly and intentionally. Read it out loud. If there is any truth to be found in life, this is it:
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.
That’s the secret to the meaning of life. And I feel like so many people in America are trapped from being able to truly experience what he is saying. People can’t follow their heart because they are so tied to the economic machine. I feel that American society has been manipulated and sold into believing their happiness is in a certain car and in a certain sized house. It’s “The American Dream”. And it’s a total lie. Your misery and general uncomfortableness that you feel right now is not going to be cured by a boat or any item you can buy. You are going to feel the same way you do right now with or without that stuff.
I know you don’t believe that because you don’t have that dream car, or dream house. So it’s easy to imagine that is where your happiness is… just over that next money hill. But the truth is, the difference between your current feeling of desperation that you would like to turn into happiness and salvation is within you right now. Right now, right today, you have all the things you need to be happy. And actually, you might find that getting rid of some of your current things… actually having less things, is going to get you closer to your dream of happiness.
If you wanted, you could start right down your path to happiness today if you go back, reread Steve’s perscription for happiness above and make the decision to change.
Are you in a job you hate because all of your things are keeping you imprisoned there? How happy are your things really making you? Do you even know what really makes you happy? Is it your stuff? Or is it something else like, freedom, integrity, being a good citizen, being a good parent, sibling, or spouse? What if society is just making you think your things are the secret to your happiness? What if you are just being sold a bill of goods? What if your things are actually making you less happy? What if all your things caused you stress and discomfort?
Just think about it for a minute.
Maybe today is the day you decide to become happy. Maybe today is the day you stop living someone else’s life.
It’s scarey and it’s radical. But it’s your life and you have the right to live your life to your fullest potential.
You can be happy and you deserve it.
Steve had to almost die to understand this. Maybe you can learn this without all the near death terror.