Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Steve jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

The whole world knows the success story of Steve Jobs. However, his personal background is less famous. As such, during the Stanford graduation ceremony in 2005, he told his personal story.

The core message he would like to convey, through the narration of three of his personal experiences, is that everyone has to live their life on their own terms, to do as they please, to like what they do, and finally, to persevere in looking for what they enjoy in life, as life is too short to be wasted. Thus, it is a real life lesson, a message which is addressed to everyone, whatever their occupation or social background may be.  However, Jobs’ message resonates even more with Stanford students since his first anecdote concerned his university drop-out, which, according to him, was the best decision he ever made. Thanks to that story, he underlines that an experience, a decision, even a failure, will always be useful at one time or another, although we might not see its value in the moment:  “You can’t connect the dots looking forward ; you can only connect them looking backward”.

In this respect, as a result of his university drop-out (or thanks to it!), he started to study calligraphy, which would become of great use when he designed the Mac. Through both this case study, and also through his second anecdote detailing when he was fired from Apple, Steve Jobs highlights how formative his failures have been, and how he bounced back and used them to become the famous self-made man he is today.  Therefore, he learnt from these experiences that you have to follow your heart, no matter the expectations of your entourage, and that you have to keep looking for what you like until you find it.

Additionally, Steve Jobs managed to overcome a cancer that was supposed to be lethal. It was a decisive turning-point for him because he understood that nobody should waste their time worrying over futile things, such as fame, but rather, should live their life the way they please.

Finally, through his inspiring speech delivered to an ambitious audience, set on “making it big” in life, Steve Jobs asks the daring to become innovative entrepreneurs, and to enjoy it.  

But besides his success story which is fascinating, Steve Jobs is also known for being one of the most famous speaker of the business world. Which technics does he use to make talks effective ?

What struck me at first was the academic nature of his address despite his lack of a university degree… It almost seems like Jobs is pretending to be a university graduate himself.  He corresponds perfectly to the message he is delivering, he is in tune with the audience, and he even takes the opportunity to make fun of himself ( “this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation”) and others (specifically of Windows, which “copied the Mac”).  This in turn grabs the audience’s interest of the audience (and amuses them).
Furthermore, he has a clear strategy to catch the audience’s attention : he makes it clear he will not be making a boring speech (« 3 stories of my life, that’s it. No big deal »), and uses a straightforward vocabulary and style, talking directly to the audience, so as to make a more palatable speech.  Moreover, he uses storytelling, corresponding to the stages of his life.  Jobs creates drama though repeatedly contrasting his “struggle to survive[d]” (talking about his adoption or about the period when he dropped-out from university), with his successes.  He tries to sell his dreams, showing how he was driven and motivated by such events.  His discours is entirely credible since he speaks with such emotion and enthusiasm, the two main components needed in any meaningful communication.

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