Commencement speeches are one of the great college traditions designed to motivate graduates as they transition to the next phase of their lives. Since we’re at the time of year when they typically happen (between April and June), this is an opportunity to review some of the best commencement speeches of all time.
Most commencement speeches are created to motivate the graduating class to embrace the future with confidence, pursue their dreams, and make a positive impact in the world. However, some are so inspiring they are remembered long after graduation.
Two speeches are consistently ranked among the top 10 of the last two decades: novelist David Foster Wallace’s address at Kenyon College in 2005, and Steve Jobs’ at Stanford University in the same year. Both speeches contained bare truths about illness and death. Wallace took his own life in 2008 and Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in 2011. Although Wallace’s speech is memorable because it reads like a first draft of a suicide note, Jobs’ offers invaluable lessons on storytelling and speech structure that you can apply to your own talks. In fact, Jobs’ commencement address is considered the most watched speech ever with 43 million views on the Stanford YouTube channel alone.
Let’s deconstruct the impact and structure of this 15-minute masterpiece whose significance remains undiminished. Delivered just one year after his cancer diagnosis, Jobs’ speech wasn’t just another inspirational talk; it was a poignant reflection on life, death, and the pursuit of passion.
Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc., was already an iconic figure in the world of technology. However, his battle with cancer had cast a shadow over his future. Against this backdrop of personal adversity, Jobs took the stage to share his wisdom with the graduating students, drawing from his own experiences to offer insights that transcended the boundaries of academia and resonated with people from all walks of life.
Jobs organized his speech in three “chunks” with a poignant story and message in each. His accounts were unvarnished and disarming and oscillated from light and humorous to dark and morbid. He started by saying humbly that he had “three stories about my life…no big deal.” His wrap-up was so sticky and memorable that it became a slogan: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
He spoke about dropping out of college and highlighted the unconventional path that led him to the pinnacle of his career. This set a tone of authenticity and relatability which instantly connected with the audience, drawing chuckles from the graduates.
Jobs took long pauses between the stories and announced the topic of each one in headline style. At the end of each story, he offered a key lesson.
Story 1: Connecting the Dots
Jobs began by recounting his own journey, emphasizing the importance of hindsight in understanding life’s twists and turns. He urged the graduates to trust their intuition and have faith that the dots would somehow connect in the future, even when the path ahead seemed uncertain. This part of the speech laid the foundation for what would follow, setting the tone for a narrative that celebrated the serendipitous nature of life.
Takeaway: You can only connect the dots looking back, not forwards. You must trust they will connect and give you the confidence to follow your heart.
Story 2: Love and Loss
In the second part, Jobs delved into the theme of love and loss to underscore the fleeting nature of existence. He spoke candidly about the public humiliation of being fired from Apple at age 30 and how that freed him to enter the most creative period of his life as founder of NeXT and Pixar. He emphasized the value of curiosity, experimentation, and nonconformity, and advised his listeners to follow their hearts and intuition rather than succumb to the status quo.
Takeaway: The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it, keep looking. Don’t settle.
Story 3: Confronting Mortality and Death
Here, Jobs took a poignant turn, revealing his battle with cancer and its profound impact on his perspective on the world. He spoke candidly about mortality, urging the audience to confront the reality of death as a motivator for living authentically. Death is “Life’s Change agent.” Jobs shared the wisdom gained from facing his own mortality, emphasizing the imperative to pursue one’s passions and not be trapped by others’ expectations.
Takeaway: Time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Wrap up: Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
This section culminated in what has become the speech’s signature phrase—”Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish,” which Jobs said came from the last issue of the defunct Whole Earth Catalog, a counterculture magazine. He implored the students to maintain a hunger for knowledge and a willingness to take risks, even in the face of failure. He encouraged them to pursue their passions with vigor, reminding them that they have the power to shape their own destinies. The speech ended with hope and possibility.
Behind the stories were four main themes, expressed in simple language and candor.
1. Authenticity: Jobs’ openness about his own struggles and failures made the stories relatable.
2. Resilience: By sharing his battle with cancer, Jobs underscored the importance of resilience in the face of adversity.
3. Purpose: You can find purpose and meaning in your life even in the face of uncertainty.
4. Courage: Jobs’ call to “Stay hungry. Stay foolish” means taking risks in pursuit of one’s dreams.
Read the full transcript and be inspired.
In essence, Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech follows a simple structure: four themes, three stories, one memorable close. Yet, every word makes for a powerful testament to the human spirit—an exploration of life, death, and the pursuit of passion that continues to resonate with millions who watch the video of the speech every year.
