Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar, at his Stanford University commencement speech in June 2005, urges us to pursue our dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself.
He talks about how you cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards – much like Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy that: “Life can only be understood backward. It must be lived forward.”
His anecdotes point to simple advice to: Find and do what you love, and never settle for less. And always to remember two basic truths:
- Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
- Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.