Source: Standford University – This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

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I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

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.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. 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.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

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.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

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 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.

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. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

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.

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How to Increase Your Reading Speed by 10-15% in Just a Few Minutes

Howard attended the State University of New York at Binghamton where he majored in both Biology and Psychology. Howard became interested in Psychology during his Junior year and had to complete the four year program during his senior year. He was told it would be impossible, and that is what spurred him to develop his first accelerated learning program. Howard taught science and computers for 10 years in New York City, and then became a corporate officer in an Electrical Construction Corporation. He went on to form his own company dedicated to learning and success for all. Howard has created more than 14 brain-based learning programs. His Time-Warner book, “Super Reading Secrets”, is in its 28th reprint. Barrons books requested him to write, “Speed Reading The Easy Way,” for students. Nightingale-Conant sold over 650,000 copies of his “Mega Speed Reading” program on tape.

You may have seen Howard with Justin Timberlake, Peyton Manning, and Amy Sedaris as the spokesperson for the SONY E-Reader. Or perhaps you saw him complete the 1,500 page health care bill on Cavuto in only 50 minutes. Howard has appeared on over 1,000 radio and television programs. Red Book, Men’s Health, Bottom Line, Forbe’s FYI, and dozens of newspapers have hailed his program as a learning breakthrough.

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Take another 25 minutes or so and watch the Bonus Content Howard has provided on speed reading.

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Week 4′s Assignment:

• Information Will Be Added Here Soon – I will be sending over some suggestions for what to include in this lesson.
  

Reminder: Seniors do not talk about your stuff with your Junior, you only go over that with your Senior.

Here is what you will focus on during your calls:

1. Review with your Junior the 3-6 areas they want to focus on. (This is a good chance to change or revise if needed.)

• What you should be looking for when reviewing your Juniors 3-6 Focus Areas: Check to ensure your Juniors 3 daily actions in each area are actually actions, and if not, then brain storm on ways to help them get three solid action steps together.

Definition: Daily Action – Daily actions need to be quantifiable actions that can be measured and checked off. For example your action can’t be to “Get Healthy” this is a goal or target that you want to achieve. Here are some daily actions that will help you achieve that target: Drink 1 full glass of water first thing in the morning or do 30 minutes of cardio.

2. Ask your Junior how you can better support them as their Senior?

3. Ask your partners how you can do a better job maintaining a daily accountability call?

4. Ask your partners if they are committed to talk at least once a day, no more then 5 minutes to do a daily recap of the three things they must get done in each focus area, and feedback if any, you should know about?

5. Ask your partner if there is anything else they think is pertinent for you know in order to better help them stay accountable.

REMEMBER – Each call should be NO MORE than 30 minutes each!

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How to Improve Your Memory with Ron White, Memory Expert

Ron White is without question the nation’s #1 Memory Expert and is one of the tops in the world. He is a two time national memory champion winning the USA Memory Championship in 2009 and 2010. He held the record for the fastest to memorize a a deck of shuffled cards in only 1 minute and 27 seconds for two years.

Ron’s desire is not that you see him as the person with the best trained memory but that he teaches YOU to have the best trained memory!

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Week 3′s Assignment (Click on the link for assignment details):

• Get to know your Junior’s better! 

Having Energy – Dr. Joseph McClendon III, Ultimate Performance Specialist

Following a successful career with CBS records, Joseph McClendon III founded the Succelleration Research Group a leading consulting company that conducts Peak Performance coaching, workshops and seminars for business professionals around the world.

Joseph McClendon has also been serving as an instructor at UCLA for past seven semesters. He teaches Human Re-engineering, Leadership, Advanced communication and Human influence courses for the Engineering and Management extension program of the university.

In 1986, Joseph met and teamed up with best-selling author and speaker Anthony Robbins. After mastering the technology, he became extremely proficient in assisting people in overcoming the fears, phobias and emotional challenges that hindered their lives. After working as a trainer and then master trainer, Joseph now serves as Head trainer and instructor at Robbins acclaimed “Mastery University”, attended by business entrepreneurs, CEO‟s and people seeking a greater quality of life from 46 different nations.

The University hosts a faculty that includes leaders such as General Norman Schwarzkof, Financial genius Peter Lynch, and marketing master Jay Abraham.

Joseph McClendon is frequently called upon to provide corporate training, keynote addresses, workshops, and seminars for many fortune 500 companies in the United States as well as across Europe and Australia.

He is an expert in coaching sales business professionals in overcoming the behaviors and inner and outer obstacles, that may impede their sales results and effect their bottom line.

Joseph McClendon provides them with the influence skills and tools that give the professional the competitive advantage necessary to prosper in the market place of the new millennium.

He also co-authored with Anthony Robbins the best-selling books “Power Thoughts” and “Unlimited Power-a Black Choice”.

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Week 2′s Assignment:

• Finish Setting Up Remember the Milk
  

You will need to sign up for your free rememberthemilk.com account and download the free apps for your iPhone, Android, or Blackberry phones.

With this software not only can you create and have a way stay organized, you can also create Get-To-Do List(s) and share it with your Senior AP, who will monitor your Daily “Must-Do” List and hold you accountable to the things you “MUST” get done.

We all have many things in a day we want to get done, but certain things can get done tomorrow like vacuuming the carpets, but other things that have a firm deadline like a credit card payment that’s due today or submitting an application for a job that closes today MUST get done today and that’s what the MUST-DO list is for.

Your AP is not going to babysit you to get everything done, but they will make sure you stay on top of you for your MUST-DO list, including the 3 things that you will learn from the first session today.

A short video will be available for you shortly showing our members exactly how to sign up and how to setup their lists with maximum efficency.

For now click here to Launch Software Demo.

Next you will want to review the Guide to Get Started and FAQ pages on the Remember the Milk website.

Listen to Week 1 of myUAP.com’s 20 Minutes to Become a Better You:

• What is Accountability and How to Be the Best Accountability Partner?”

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