Commencement Speech Notes

Introduction

Speaker: Honored to be speaking at a graduation ceremony at Stanford University.
Mention of personal background: Speaker never graduated from college.
Focus: Sharing three life stories.

Dropped out of Reed College after 6 months but stayed as a drop-in.
Adoption story: Biological mother insisted on college-educated parents.
Dropped out due to financial strain and lack of clear purpose.
Post-dropout: Attended interesting classes like calligraphy.
Learned about typography, influencing the design of the Macintosh computer years later.
Key Message: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; only looking backwards."
Importance of trusting in future connections and following intuition.

Founded Apple with Wozniak in a garage at the age of 20.
Apple grew into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.
Fired from Apple at age 30 after a vision clash with hired CEO.
Post-firing: Started NeXT, Pixar, and found personal happiness.
Pixar became a successful animation studio; NeXT's technology contributed to Apple's revival.
Key Message: "Find what you love. Don't settle."
Importance of loving your work for satisfaction and success.

Inspired by a quote about living each day as the last.
Experienced a cancer scare with a curable type of pancreatic cancer.
Reflections on mortality: Death as a life changer.
Key Message: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
Encouragement to follow one's heart and intuition.

Reference to the "Whole Earth Catalog" and its message: "Stay hungry, stay foolish."
Final wishes for the graduates: To stay curious and open-minded.