Steve Jobs Harvard Commencement Speech 2005

Steve Jobs never graduated from college. He was adopted by people that originally wanted a girl. His biological mother didn't want to sign the adoption papers, unless his adoptive parents promised to put him through college. Steve Jobs went to college and felt that all of this adoptive parent money was being wasted away on something he wasn't even sure he wanted to do. He had no idea what he wanted to be and didn't feel the need to be spending so much money on something that had very little effect on him. He still believes that it was the best decision he had ever made. Dropped out of college, but dropped in on classes that he thought was very interesting. Steve Jobs sat in on calligraphy courses, and when he was making the MAC it all came back to him. The calligraphy inspired parts of the computer, a computer with "beautiful typography" (Steve Jobs). If he had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in collage the MAC would have never have had the beautiful fonts it does now. Even though Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple he was fired from the company after a falling out with someone he had hired to help the company. Sometimes you need to forgive and forget. Even though Steve Jobs was fired he believed it was a great thing. Sometimes when one door closes another one opens, and that's what you always have to remember. My favorite quote that I heard him say was "you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back. So you have to trust that he dots will connect somehow in your future." (Steve Jobs) This applies to every college student out there right now. Just because you fail a paper or drop out of college, that doesn't mean your future is ruined. You get in life what you put out, and if you give it your all one day down the road it will all come together.