Steven Jobs 2005 Stanford commencement speech

In June of 2005, Steven Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University. This British Guardian article link contains the text of the speech with additional commentary.     He describes his background going up, why it happened to work out for him to drop out of school.  He ended up taking a class in calligraphy which ended up being very important when picking out the fonts and spacing for the word processing interface for Apple computer.  He also talks about why being fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to him.  He met his wife, he founded Pixar and it allowed him to continue to focus on what he loves.  He also discusses how the reality of death helps him make the big choices in life.  Each morning he asks himself "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"  If he he has to answer "No" to many days in a row then he has to make a change.  He encouraged the Stanford graduates to follow their heart.

I appreciate Steven Job's contribution to technology and the creative energy at Pixar.  His story of serendipity with respect to the calligraphy class continually shows up in the biographies of successful people. Continually learning and developing skills seemingly unrelated to the current task at hand often has benefits 10 to 20 years later.

                                            This is a video of his June, 2011 speech.