How many BORING commencement addresses have you heard in your life? I mean the speakers try hard, but the setting is just so ripe for boredom that their words hardly have a chance to crackle and pop.
Every once in a great while a speech will break through and make you go WOW. And it's usually the written version of the speech (since it's escaped the boredom vacuum of a live graduation event) that blows me away. Like the one I'd STRONGLY suggest you read from Steve Jobs, the dynamic, brilliant, visionary founder of Apple computers.
Jobs was speaking to the graduating class at Stanford and his words are so right on the money re: finding passion and living a fearless life. If you've been following along, I've been writing some articles here on the blog regarding being fearless, so it fits right in with the topic. Below is a little snipit from the speech, then there is a link to the whole thing below.
Note: When Jobs talks about "being dead soon" he's speaking to his eventual death (the same one we all face), not anything to do with his cancer, which he says he's beating.. Enjoy...
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
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