On my blogwalk today I visited my new online friend J. Sanchez Zolliker (blog in Spanish) and was surprised to see a video of a Steve Jobs address to university students. It lasts about 15 minutes (and is subtitled in Spanish on his site). I foolishly admit that I was drawn to the video because of my regained interest for all things Apple Macintosh. I say foolishly because I am now convinced that Mr Jobs is also a very wise man.
I’ll let you judge for yourself but just wanted you to have a snippet of that speech (that I found here.) This is just one of many subjects he addressed.
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.”
If you were to die before the day was done what is really important? It’s the best question to ask yourself in order to put things into perspective and to live to the fullest. It shouldn’t be considered morbid or a question unaskable.
It’s a pure coincidence and has nothing to do with either the video or what he said but the speech was delivered on the 12th of June 2005 at Stanford. My birthday.
Glad to see you enjoyed it!