"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
In one of the most-watched commencement speeches of all time, Steve Jobs got candid about what his first cancer diagnosis taught him.
In one of the most-watched commencement speeches of all time, Steve Jobs got candid about what his first cancer diagnosis taught him.
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00:00And yet, death is the destination we all share.
00:04No one has ever escaped it.
00:06And that is as it should be.
00:08Because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
00:21Truth be told, I never graduated from college.
00:26And this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
00:32About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer.
00:36I had a scan at 7.30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.
00:42I didn't even know what a pancreas was.
00:45The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable,
00:50and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.
00:54My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order,
00:59which is doctor's code for prepare to die.
01:02It means to try and tell your kids everything
01:06you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them in just a few months.
01:10It means to make sure everything is buttoned up
01:13so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.
01:16It means to say your goodbyes.
01:20I lived with that diagnosis all day.
01:23Later that evening, I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat,
01:27through my stomach and into my intestines,
01:30put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.
01:34I was sedated, but my wife, who was there,
01:37told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope,
01:40the doctors started crying,
01:42because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer
01:45that is curable with surgery.
01:47I had the surgery, and thankfully, I'm fine now.
01:51This was the closest I've been to facing death,
02:02and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades.
02:05Having lived through it, I can now say this to you
02:08with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept.
02:13No one wants to die.
02:16Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.
02:20And yet, death is the destination we all share.
02:24No one has ever escaped it.
02:27And that is as it should be,
02:29because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
02:33It's life's change agent.
02:35It clears out the old to make way for the new.
02:38Right now, the new is you.
02:41But someday, not too long from now,
02:43you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
02:47Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true.
02:51Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
02:56Don't be trapped by dogma,
02:58which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
03:01Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.
03:06And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
03:10They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
03:14Everything else is secondary.
03:28When I was young, there was an amazing publication
03:31called the Whole Earth Catalog,
03:33which was one of the Bibles of my generation.
03:36It was sort of like Google in paperback form
03:3835 years before Google came along.
03:41It was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
03:46And then, when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
03:50It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.
03:54On the back cover of their final issue
03:58was a photograph of an early morning country road,
04:01the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.
04:05Beneath it were the words,
04:08Stay hungry, stay foolish.
04:11It was their farewell message as they signed off.
04:14Stay hungry, stay foolish.
04:17And I have always wished that for myself.
04:20And now, as you graduate to begin anew,
04:24I wish that for you.
04:26Stay hungry, stay foolish.
04:29Thank you all very much.