Steve Jobs’ commencement address to the graduating students ofStanfordUniversityin 2005 is surely one of most quoted speech of our time. Why am I going to quote the same here then? Ok, the answer is – as we aim to be with you in every journey of yours, where planning is needed, we want to share with you every bit of learning that we come across and found useful. This often quoted speech is surely a guide to plan our life better.

The speech was so tightly bound that you have to read it fully – each word. It was not politically motivated, neither it was a promotion of any kind – its’ ‘straight from the heart’ approach was so vivid, that it touches you – it makes you laugh, cry, wonder, think, introspect. Saying that the speech was ‘tightly bound’ and ‘each word is important’, still I have tried here to do some editing and present an excerpt from the speech. Pardon me, Mr. Jobs.

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When we follow our hearts, we often do strange things, which seem quite unrelated from each other. You can resemble them with scattered dots in a piece of paper. But if you keep following your heart, one day you would surely be able to connect those dots and form a bigger picture.

“ … Again, 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. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

We all face bad times, worse times. We feel so unlucky, feel as if there is no tomorrow. Jobs was once fired from Apple, the very company that he himself had formed. Jobs was out and “very publicly out”. It was humiliating, devastating.

“ … Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

Jobs had seen death very closely. In 2004 he was diagnosed with a very rare sort of pancreatic cancer. Life had come to an end, literally. Know he cannot escape from this certainty (i.e. death), he rather lived(!) with it. He made most out of it! In the same speech he mentioned “death is very likely the single best invention of Life”.

“ … 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. 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.”

“ … 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. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Jobs had concluded his speech by remembering something from his teen age days.

“ … When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.”