How to Live Before You Die
Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)
About the author
· Steve Jobs was an American business magnate, industrial designer, investor, and media proprietor.
· He was the chairperson, chief executive officer (CEO), and co- founder of Apple Inc.
· One of the pioneers of microcomputer technology
· He was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine in 2007.
About the essay
The CEO of Apple computer, Steve Jobs’ speech ‘How to Live Before You Die’ adopts a tripartite structure and uses autobiographical anecdotes to communicate a message of resilience and personal integrity. This inspiring speech was delivered at Standford University 2005 commencement address.
Summary
Steve Jobs' Speech: "How to Live Before You Die" is a powerful and inspiring speech delivered by Steve Jobs at Stanford University's commencement ceremony in 2005. In the speech, he shares personal anecdotes from his life and career and reflects on the lessons he has learned.
Jobs begins by discussing the importance of connecting with what you love to do and following your passions. He encourages the graduates to take risks, to not be afraid of failure, and to pursue their dreams no matter what. He also emphasized the importance of having a clear vision for your future and working towards it relentlessly.
Jobs also talked about how death can be a powerful motivator, and how it can remind us to live our lives fully and to make the most of the time we have. He shared his own experience with cancer and how it helped him to appreciate life more fully.
Throughout the speech, Jobs encourages the graduates to find their purpose in life and to make the most of every opportunity. He also shares the idea that we are not guaranteed a long life, so we should make the most of the time we have and make it meaningful. He also shares the idea that it's not about the destination, but about the journey.
In conclusion, Steve Jobs' speech is a powerful and inspiring message about how to live before you die. He encourages the graduates to follow their passions, take risks, and make the most of their lives. He also highlights the importance of having a clear vision and purpose, and making the most of the time we have.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. What is the story about Steve Jobs’ birth?
He was born to a young unwed college graduate student. Prior to his birth, she decided to put him for adoption. She wanted him to be adopted by college graduates and everything was set for him to adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. But they really wanted a girl. A working-class couple was ready to adopt him, but his mother didn’t sign the contract until they promised to send him college.
b. What does he mean he says, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”?
Here, connecting the dots means accomplishing something important by taking the past as the foundation. Dots refer to our gut, destiny, life, karma and even misfortune. Skill that is considered impractical in one moment can be the foundation of success in another situation. Steve’s skill on serif and sans serif typefaces was not considered practical or applicable at first, but later on, it helped them to design the first Macintosh computer. No one knows what happens in the future, but past knowledge and experience is always guiding the present.
c. What happened when Steve Jobs turned 30?
When he turned 30, Steve Jobs faced a terribly devastating event in his life. He was publicly out from his own company as soon as he had a quarrel with the hired man who did not work well for the company, the Board of Directors sided with the man. The focus of his entire adult life was gone with this unfair dismissal.
d. Jobs contends that you need to love to do what you do in order to be great at it. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Jobs contends that we need to love to do what we do in order to be great at it. Yes, I absolutely agree with him because our work is going to fill a large part of our life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what we believe is great work. And, the only way to do great work is to love what we do. Despite our failure in our work, we will get success someday if we keep loving it.
e. Is death really life’s greatest in invention?
Yes, death is really life’s greatest invention for it clears out the old to make way for the new. It is the destination we all share; no one escapes it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
Reference to the context
a. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
“We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.”
i. Who was the baby boy?
The baby boy was recently born Steve Jobs.
ii. What does ‘do you want him?’ mean?
‘Do you want him?” means whether the couple want to adopt Steve Jobs.
iii. Who does ‘they’ refer to?
‘They’ refers to the couple who was ready to adopt him. The couple, now, is his parents.
b. Explain the following lines:
i. “You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
This line has been taken from the speech “How to Live Before You Die” given by Steve Jobs. He means, the one who has a dream of successful future, must trust in something like his gut, destiny, life, karma and even misfortune. For him, these are the dots that can be connected looking backwards. Trusting in them is the approach that makes all the difference in one’s life.
ii. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
This line has been extracted from the famous speech “How to Live Before You Die” delivered by successful person Steve Jobs. Here, Jobs is encouraging the audience to follow his/her heart and intuition right now. Humans are short-lived, so they must not be trapped by dogma. They have to let their inner voice rise at its height.
c. What does he mean by “don’t settle”?
“Don’t settle” means not to quit or lose hope. This means to keep loving the work that we believe is great. Despite the failure, one should continue his/her determination to success in his/her life. Jobs Steve has used this sentence “Don’t settle” to persuade the audience to continue loving their jobs that they think great.
d. Which style of speech is used by the speaker to persuade the audience?
The speaker, here, refers to Steve Jobs who has used personal narrative story telling technique in his speech “How to Live Before You Die” to persuade his audience. He used this style of speech to connect with his audience on an emotional level, evoking feelings such as hope, fear, and excitement, which helped to create a sense of urgency and motivation in his audience. This style of speech is also known as the emotional appeal made to persuade the audience.
e. It is not easy to motivate others. How do you think Steve Jobs’ speech is so inspiring?
Motivation is a kind of internal drive that is essential for everyone to do something appreciative in life. One of the major responsibilities of a genius is to motivate others. Steve Jobs was a genius for motivating the audience. He was known for his ability to deliver powerful and inspiring speeches. There are several reasons why his speeches were so effective at motivating others.
One reason is that he was able to clearly communicate his vision for the future and how his products fit into that vision. He was able to draw a portrait of a better world and show how his products could help people achieve their goals and aspirations.
Another reason is that he was able to connect emotionally with his audience. He told stories of his personal life full of ups and downs to help people understand the importance of his products and how they could change their lives. He was able to create a sense of excitement and anticipation, which helped to motivate people to take action and support his ideas.
He was also a master of persuasion; he knew how to use different rhetorical strategies to convince his audience that his ideas were valid and that his products could change the world. He was able to use rhetorical devices such as repetition, metaphor, and rhetorical questions to drive home his point. Additionally, he was an outstanding communicator and orator, who had the ability to connect with his audience and make them feel like they were a part of something bigger. He was able to inspire people to think differently and to believe in the power of innovation.
To conclude, he was able to make his speech all-inspiring, powerful and all-motivating using personal narrative storytelling technique. He was able to connect with his audience, communicate his vision for the future, and encourage them to take action.
f. Why do you think Steve Jobs used the personal narrative story telling technique in his speech? What influence does it have on the audience?
Steve Jobs was known for using personal narrative storytelling in his speeches. This technique can be a powerful tool for connecting with an audience and communicating a message.
One reason why Steve Jobs might have used this technique is that it allows him to connect with his audience on a personal level. By sharing personal stories and experiences, he was able to create a sense of intimacy and trust with his audience. This can make it easier for them to relate to his message and to understand the importance of his products.
Another reason why Steve Jobs might have used this technique is that it helps to create an emotional connection with the audience. By sharing personal stories that evoke emotions such as hope, fear, or excitement, he was able to create a sense of urgency and motivation in his audience. This can help to inspire people to take action and to believe in the power of innovation.
Additionally, storytelling allows to provide context and meaning to the products and ideas, it makes it easy for the audience to understand the significance of what is being said. Through storytelling, Steve Jobs was able to show how his products would change people's lives and the impact they would have on the world.
Overall, the personal narrative storytelling technique allows to humanize the message and make it more relatable to the audience. It creates an emotional connection and inspires people to take action, making it a powerful tool for motivating and persuading an audience.
Reference beyond the text
a. One of Steve Jobs mottos was: ‘Think differently’. Can this make a person succeed in life? What challenges are there in thinking differently?
One of Steve Jobs’ motto was ‘Think differently’. Jobs applied this motto in his life. His opinion about birth, death and life is quite unique. Despite devastating failure in the journey of life, he never quit his hope and kept loving what he thought was great. He persuades the audience to trust the dots that will somehow connect in one’s future. For him, this approach never let one down, rather it makes all the difference in one’s life.
"Think differently", simply is a valuable mindset for success in life, since it allows a person to approach problems and opportunities from unique and innovative perspectives. However, there are also challenges to thinking differently. One potential challenge is that others may not understand or accept new and unconventional ideas, which can make it difficult to implement them or gain support for them. One might face various obstacles due to this potential challenge. Additionally, thinking differently can also lead to failure and rejection, as not all new ideas will be successful. However, with perseverance and determination, thinking differently can open up new opportunities and lead to success.
b. What does the slogan “Stay hungry; stay foolish” mean to you?
The slogan "Stay hungry; stay foolish" is attributed to Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. To me, this slogan means that one should always strive for more and not be satisfied with current successes or knowledge. ‘Stay hungry’ means to always be in pursuit of new opportunities, new knowledge, and new experiences. It also means to stay curious, open-minded and to never stop learning. One always has to make effort to get newness.
The second half of the slogan "stay foolish" to me means, to be willing to take risks and try new things, even if they may seem foolish or unconventional at the moment. It encourages one to be creative, and not to be afraid of potential failure. It's the matter of daring and not getting prevented from making progress by what others might think or consider as the norm. It's about having a growth mindset, continuously learning and improving oneself.
c. What does it mean to be a visionary? What makes Steve Jobs different from a fortune teller?
A visionary is a person who has a clear, long-term vision of where they want to go and how to get there. In other words, a visionary refers to a person having clear vision, or a farsighted one. They have a deep understanding of the current landscape and are able to anticipate future trends and opportunities. A visionary is able to think differently and come up with innovative solutions to problems. They are also able to inspire and motivate others to join them on their journey. Steve Jobs himself is an example of visionary.
Steve Jobs is often considered a visionary because of his ability to anticipate and shape the future of technology through his leadership of Apple. He was able to see the potential of personal computers long before they were widely adopted and helped to create products that revolutionized the way we interact with technology. A fortune teller, on the other hand, is someone who claims to be able to predict the future through supernatural means, such as divination or prophecy. A fortune teller may make predictions based on what they believe will happen, rather than what they can anticipate through a deep understanding of the present and a clear vision of the future. He/she also makes prediction on the basis of the customer’s background. Therefore, it is a matter of guesswork and somehow a kind of accepted cheating.
Steve Jobs was a visionary because of his ability to anticipate and shape the future of technology through his leadership of Apple. He had a deep understanding of the current landscape and was able to anticipate future trends and opportunities. He was also able to inspire and motivate others to join his journey. He was not a fortune teller because he didn't rely on supernatural means to predict the future, instead he used data and insights to make informed decisions. And, what he invented is not the result of guesswork, neither it is a cheating.
