It's interesting to see how some hardships and some choices we have made or will make can deeply change our lifes for ever. I'm not really comfortable with the idea of destiny ; I prefer to believe we all have the possibility to make of our lifes what we want them to be. It would be despairing if we could not influence anything about our existence. But I do consider that we should have faith in what we really want to do and what we really want to be. If you are confindent and you trust in your projects and your expectations, even if nobody takes you seriously, never mind ; work hard to do what you LIKE. I do think the worst thing about life is having regrets, so as Steve Jobs said in his emotional speech adressed on 12th June 2005 to the graduated students of Stanford, "Stay hungry. Stay foolish".
Listening or reading this text you will be able to better understand why and how Steve Jobs became what he is today ; the charismatic CEO of one of the most innovative and succesful companies of the Silicon valley.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
