Class 11 English Lesson 14: How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs

 

Essay: How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs (page 261)

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcZDWo6hiuI

About the Essayist

Steven Jobs (1955-2011) 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. The then CEO of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs’ speech 'How to Live Before You Die' adopts a three-way structure and uses autobiographical anecdotes to communicate a message of flexibility and personal integrity. This inspiring speech was delivered at Stanford University's 2005 commencement address.

Gist of the Essay

In his famous 2005 Stanford Commencement speech, How to Live Before You Die, Steve Jobs shares three personal stories that teach powerful life lessons. He talks about trusting your journey (connecting the dots), embracing failure and following passion (getting fired from Apple and starting over), and accepting mortality (his cancer diagnosis). Jobs urges listeners to live authentically, follow their hearts, and not waste time living someone else's life. His core message is: “Stay hungry, stay foolish”—keep learning, stay curious, and live fully before it's too late.

Summary of the Essay

This essay, “How to Live Before You Die,” is a motivational speech which has been delivered by the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer and Pixar, Steve Jobs, on 12^th June 2005. This speech encourages not only the students of Stanford University but also the many people around the world. Here, in this speech, Steve Jobs relates three different stories based on his life, which played a vital role in shaping the experiences and journey of a successful career.

First story: Connecting the dots

The first part of Steve Jobs’ speech is about connecting the dots. Here, in this first story, he has narrated about his birth, adoption scene, and later struggle when he was young, he felt the need to make meaning of his life. He had different experiences, but they started to make sense in the end. So, connecting the dots is related to connecting life experiences to get the meaning of it. According to him, his biological mother was an unwed college graduate student who decided to put him up for adoption before his birth, so later he was adopted by the parents who were undergraduates, but persuaded his biological mother to send him to college someday.

Steve joined an expensive college named Reed College at the age of 17, but later he dropped out of Reed College because he was not interested in the normal classes. He was fascinated by beautiful posters and wanted to join the Calligraphy instructions. So, he decided to join the Calligraphy instruction at Reed College, but after 10 years, he used his knowledge of calligraphy as his skill when he was designing his first Macintosh computer. He designed the first computer with beautiful typography, and later on, his hardship turned out to be priceless. By looking back, he got the idea of how different dots kept on connecting themselves and supported him to reach his real destination. His decision to drop college, starting his course of interest, his experiences, hardship, trust in Karma, etc., moved along with his steps like different dots and made him successful.

Second Story: Love and Loss

The second story is about love and loss. Here, in this part, he has narrated his story related to the love and passion for his work and the loss of his company. Being successful at an early age, he and his friend Woz started the Apple Company in his parents’ garage. They worked hard and in 10 10-year period, the small company turned into a 2-billion-dollar company with 4000 employees. Later, he was fired from his own company, so he started NeXT Company, and after NeXT, he started Pixar Company, which used to create computers with animated features. Later on, Apple bought the NeXT company.

Moreover, he returned to Apple Company and mixed both technologies with his new vision. These incidents helped him to see life from a different perspective and be able to dominate the IT market with his new vision, so he wants to relate the message not to lose faith, love your work, and keep looking for the work that satisfies you.

Third Story: Death

The last or the third story is about death. Here, in this story, he has narrated his death. He shares his experiences with cancer. He suffers from pancreatic cancer, but he has never lost his hope. He was able to remove his cancer surgically. He says that we should enjoy every day as our last day. He says our time is limited, so we shouldn’t waste it. We should utilize it before we die. Similarly, we mustn’t follow the crowd, but instead, we should follow our heart. He also requests all keep moving and exploring our potential.

 

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcZDWo6hiuI&t=96s

Understanding the text

a.      What is the story about Steve Jobs’ birth?

Steve Jobs was given birth by an unwed college graduate student. She decided to put her baby up for adoption during her pregnancy. She wanted her baby to be adopted by an educated family. Initially, a lawyer’s family was ready to adopt Steve Jobs. But, when he was born, the lawyer’s family insisted on adopting him as they had changed their minds to adopt a girl. Later, a mechanic named Paul Jobs and his wife, Clara Jobs, adopted him with a promise that one day they would send him to college to study.

b.     What does he mean when he says, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”?

By saying “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”, he wants to make it clear to all of us that our success and failures rely on how we learn lessons from our experience. Life is full of suspense, and anything can happen at any time. Everyone has been a failure once in their life. Learning from the failures and building ourselves up helps to achieve success in the future. Taking his example, he had also faced a lot of failures in his life. He was dumped by his girlfriend. He also failed to get a job at McKinsey. He wasted his four precious years without getting support from anyone. But he became successful at last.

It proves that in our life, we shouldn’t be worried about our failure; instead, we should learn from it because one day all the dots (our experience) will be connected to bring something great.

c.      What happened when Steve Jobs turned 30?

When Steve Jobs turned 30, he was fired from Apple Company because he hired someone whom he thought was very talented to run the company. But for the first year or so, things went well, and their visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually, they had a falling out. When they did, the Company Board of Directors fired him from the job.

d.     Jobs contends that you need to love to do what you do to be great at it. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Yes. I agree with Jobs’ statement, as we must love what we do to become great. He started Apple Company, but he had to leave later. Then, he continued with more creative ideas because he loved his work. He started NeXT and made it so good that Apple finally bought it.

e.      Is death life’s greatest invention?

Yes, death is life’s greatest invention; death is inevitable, and nobody lives forever. Nobody wants to die, but everyone shares this intellectual concept. Instead of being worried about death, one should look at how he/she could do great until they survive. 

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