How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs Summary

Main Summary:

‘How to Live Before You Die’ is a motivational speech delivered by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs at Stanford University in 2005. In this speech he shows the importance of time. He says our time is limited so we should not waste it. We should utilize it before we die. We shouldn’t follow crowd. We should follow our heart and intuition. He requests all to never stop exploring our potentials.
 
The first part of Steve Jobs’ Speech/ ‘Connecting dots’:
When he was young, he failed to make meaning of his life. He felt different experiences in his life but he started to make sense in the end. So, ‘connecting dots’ is related to connecting life experiences to get meaning of it. He dropped out his Reed College. He didn’t have to take the normal classes. He was fascinated by the beautiful posters on the wall of Reed College. He wanted to join calligraphy instruction. So he decided to take calligraphy instruction at Reed College. But ten years later, he used his calligraphy skill to design the first Macintosh computer. At that time, he realized that why did he drop out of his normal classes. Life teaches different lessons but we should trust our gut, destiny, karma to get better in our life.
 
The second part of Steve Jobs’ Speech/ Love and Loss:
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees He presents his job experiences in life. Steve Jobs and Woz started the Apple Company from their parent’s garage. He was twenty when he started it. After 10 years, they became able to change Apple into a two-billion-dollar company. Later, He was fired from Apple. He started NeXT Company. After NeXT, he started Pixar Company. It used to create a computer-animated feature film. Later on, Apple bought NeXT Company. He returned to Apple. He mixed both technologies together with his new visions. These incidents helped him to see life from a different perspective. He became able to dominate the IT market with his new visions.
 
Last part of Steve Jobs’ Speech/Death:
He shares his experience with cancer. He suffered from pancreatic cancer but he never lost his hope. He became 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 should not waste it. We should utilize it before we die. We shouldn’t follow the crowd. We should follow our heart and intuition. He requests all to never stop exploring our potentials.
 
Four Major Lessons from the Speech:
  1. Use stories to tell your message to the audience. It will help your audience to make a concrete picture in their mind. In the beginning, he uses the story ‘connecting the dots.’ He emphasizes that we should trust our gut, karma, destiny, life, etc.
  2. Our business should be authentic and transparent to win the audience the heart. our transparency will help to gain the audience’s trust.
  3. Follow your heart.
  4. You should engage your audience. Enjoy your presentation so that your audience will enjoy it too.

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