Friday, May 22, 2009

If Today Was Your Last Day on Earth

This is the season of graduations. We've all heard at least commencement speakers. Some boring, some inspirational. Sure, there was Ellen DeGeneres' Tulane speech last week, and President Obama's Notre Dame speech. But, we selected Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University. 



Why?

We as a species are story tellers and Steve Jobs spins a wonderful tale. He's not eloquent. He reads from his notes. His presentation isn't stellar. But, his words and thoughts are powerful. This speech changed my opinion of Steve Jobs. That's powerful - changing minds. 

At first I thought I'd watch this 15-minute piece for a few minutes, but gradually, I was drawn in and wanted to hear more. And I stayed until the very end.

Among other things, Steve said, "If you live every day as though it is your last, one day you will be right. If what you are about to do today is different than what you would do if this was your last day, then something has to change."

3 comments:

Events by Evonne said...

Wow, what a powerful and inspirational speech! I LOVE Steve Jobs (as my friends and I call him "El Jobso") and I just finished reading "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman not too long ago. It was really interesting!

J Sav said...

Steve Jobs started out with a persona as a brilliant renegade who did not suffer fools lightly. No one reported that, over the last 25 years, he has married, been a great Dad, has mellowed and done good deeds. Go Steve Go.

Events by Evonne said...

Maybe someone needs to write "The Third Coming of Steve Jobs"! :)