Steve Jobs on Living a Life You Love and Finding Your Life Purpose

In 2005, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, gave the commencement address for graduates from Stanford University.

Jobs told us that we can’t always make sense of our life looking forward, it’s sometime only looking backwards that we can see the patterns in our life and how things are developing.

“… 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.”

Jobs shared us how – unexpectedly – being fired from Apple in 1985 actually turned out to be a blessing, as it ushered in the greatest creative period in his life.

And Jobs spoke about how, given that everyone will die one day, we should make the most of each day here. We should be ourselves, and think for ourselves, and live our own lives.

“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.”

We should think for ourselves – and, thereby, think differently.

You can view the full commencement address in the video below, and Stanford also provide a full transcript of the speech.