http://time.com/4845150/chief-justice-john-roberts-commencement-speech-transcript/

'I Wish You Bad Luck.' Read Supreme Court Justice John Roberts' Unconventional Speech to His Son's Graduating Class

Katie Reilly

Jul 05, 2017

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the commencement address at his son's ninth-grade graduation last month, bestowing advice that ran counter to many typical commencement speeches.

"Now, the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you," Roberts said. "I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty."

The graduation at Cardigan Mountain School — a New Hampshire boarding school for boys in grades six through nine — was held on June 3 and began to receive widespread coverage online after it was reported by the Washington Post.

Read Roberts' full remarks here:

Thank you very much.

Rain, somebody said, is like confetti from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning, joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement ceremony. Before we go any further, graduates, you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians. Two or three or four years ago, they drove into Cardigan, dropped you off, helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates. It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears back to an emptier and lonelier house. They did that because the decision about your education, they knew, was about you. It was not about them. That sacrifice and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not just about you. It is also about them, so I hope you will stand up and turn around and give them a great round of applause. Please.

Now when somebody asks me how the remarks at Cardigan went, I will be able to say they were interrupted by applause. Congratulations, class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone. An important stage of your life is behind you. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you it is the easiest stage of your life, but it is in the books. While you’ve been at Cardigan, you have all been a part of an important international community as well. And I think that needs to be particularly recognized.

[Roberts gave brief remarks in other languages.]

Now around the country today at colleges, high schools, middle schools, commencement speakers are standing before impatient graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things. They will say that today is a commencement exercise. ‘It is a beginning, not an end. You should look forward.’ And I think that is true enough, however, I think if you’re going to look forward to figure out where you’re going, it’s good to know where you’ve been and to look back as well. And I think if you look back to your first afternoon here at Cardigan, perhaps you will recall that you were lonely. Perhaps you will recall that you were a little scared, a little anxious. And now look at you. You are surrounded by friends that you call brothers, and you are confident in facing the next step in your education.

It is worth trying to think why that is so. And when you do, I think you may appreciate that it was because of the support of your classmates in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the dorms. And as far as the confidence goes, I think you will appreciate that it is not because you succeeded at everything you did, but because with the help of your friends, you were not afraid to fail. And if you did fail, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, it might be time to think about doing something else. But it was not just success, but not being afraid to fail that brought you to this point.

Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.

Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice, and they give some useful tips. The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. It is an odd piece of advice to give people dressed identically, but you should — you should be yourself. But you should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect, it does not mean don’t make any changes. In a certain sense, you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better. People say ‘be yourself’ because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be. But you can’t be yourself if you don't learn who are, and you can’t learn who you are unless you think about it.

The Greek philosopher Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ And while ‘just do it’ might be a good motto for some things, it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you. And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life. The best way to lose the values that are central to who you are is frankly not to think about them at all.

So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Other the last couple of years, I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well, and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is: Don’t act like it.

When you get to your new school, walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves, shoveling the snow or emptying the trash. Learn their name and call them by their name during your time at the school. Another piece of advice: When you pass by people you don’t recognize on the walks, smile, look them in the eye and say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello, and that is not a bad thing to start with.

You’ve been at a school with just boys. Most of you will be going to a school with girls. I have no advice for you.

The last bit of advice I’ll give you is very simple, but I think it could make a big difference in your life. Once a week, you should write a note to someone. Not an email. A note on a piece of paper. It will take you exactly 10 minutes. Talk to an adult, let them tell you what a stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope. Again, 10 minutes, once a week. I will help you, right now. I will dictate to you the first note you should write. It will say, ‘Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain School].’ Say: ‘I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in English. Football or soccer practice is hard, but I’m enjoying it. Thank you for teaching me.’ Put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean a great deal to people who — for reasons most of us cannot contemplate — have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said, that will take you exactly 10 minutes a week. By the end of the school year, you will have sent notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because you did, and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one else is going to carry that dividend during your time at school.

Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher, Bob Dylan. They’re almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son, Jesse, who he was missing while he was on tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful, they’re timeless. They’re universal. They’re good and true, except for one: It is the wish that gives the song its title and its refrain. That wish is a parent’s lament. It’s not a good wish. So these are the lyrics from Forever Young by Bob Dylan:

May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young

Thank you.

【A very inspiring video clip !!! A must-see!】

This five-minute video clip from voicetube is super inspiring ! 

My junior- high-school- aged pupils found it enlightening!

"Every person on this Earth has a gift."
"Do you have the courage to grab the dream that picked you, that befits you, and grips you?
Or would you let it get away and slip through?"
"There is a thief in your mind who is after your dreams. His name is doubt. "
"Just remember, there's no such thing as a smooth mountain. If you want to make it to the top,
then there are sharp bridges that must be stepped over....."  
"Because pain is life, but you can choose what type. Either the pain on the road to success,
or the pain of being haunted with regret. "   
"You cannot go back and make a brand new beginning. But you can start now and make a brand new ending."

In my opinion, this clip is more suitable for senior high school students 
and college students than junior high school learners, though 
(in terms of content) 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

The vocabulary words used are not very difficult. 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

https://tw.voicetube.com/videos/50815?ref=new

【名人畢業生演講 受用一生的名言精選】

名人畢業生演講 受用一生的名言精選

Natalie Portman 娜塔莉波曼

「請善用你們現在『對自己無所懷疑』這點，因為隨著年紀的增長，我們將越加務實，其中包括認清我們自身的能力與缺陷，而這種現實對我們而言是無益處的。」──2015年於哈佛大學

"Make use of the fact that you don't doubt yourself too much right now. As we get older, we get more realistic and that includes about our own abilities or lack thereof. That realism does us no favors." -Harvard University, 2015

J.K. 羅琳

「一個人不可能活著卻從未在任何事上失敗過，除非你活得非常戒慎恐懼、小心翼翼，但結果可能是你根本從未真正活過，在這個狀況下，你還是因為沒活過而未戰先敗了。」 ──2008年於哈佛大學

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default." - Harvard University, 2008

Steve Jobs 史蒂夫‧賈伯斯

「死亡幾乎是生命創造的最好的一個東西，它是令生命變化的媒介，它能讓老舊的人事物讓位給新的。現在，所謂的『新』就是你們。但有一天，不會太久，你們也會逐漸變舊變老，然後也被淘汰。我很抱歉我把這一切說得這麼戲劇化，但是這非常真實。你們的時間很有限，所以不要浪費時間去活別人的人生。」──2005年於史丹佛大學

"Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." – Stanford University, 2005

Oprah Winfrey 歐普拉‧溫芙蕾

「不管你將爬得多高多遠，總有些時候你會跌倒。......如果你不斷將自己推向高處......根據平均法則，更不必提還有伊卡洛斯神話，你勢必會在某個時刻殞落，這是可以預期的。而當你這麼做的時候，我希望你知道這點，記得這點：世界上根本沒有失敗這回事。所謂失敗只是生命試圖讓我們走向另一個方向。」──2013年於哈佛大學

"It doesn't matter how far you might rise. At some point you are bound to stumble. ... If you're constantly pushing yourself higher ... the law of averages, not to mention the Myth of Icarus, predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction." - Harvard University, 2013

Jerry Zucker (美國電影導演)

「沒有任何其他人對你失敗的關注會比你還大，你是唯一一個沉浸在你的人生很重要這一個點的人。對其他人來說，你的人生只是雷達螢幕上的一個小光點而已，所以繼續前進就是了。」──2003年於威斯康辛大學

"Nobody else is paying as much attention to your failures as you are. You're the only ones who are obsessed with the importance of your own life. To everyone else, it's just a blip on the radar screen, so just move on." - University of Wisconsin, 2003

Barack Obama 巴拉克‧歐巴馬

「沒有人關心你的成長過程多麼艱難，沒有人在乎你是不是遭受到歧視，而且你要記住，無論你經歷了什麼，這些跟你的祖先遭遇的苦難簡直是小巫見大巫──而如果他們都撐過來了，你也可以。」──2013年於莫爾豪斯學院

"Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too." - Morehouse College, 2013

John F. Kennedy 約翰‧甘迺迪

「我知道追求和平遠沒有追求戰爭來得引人注意且高潮迭起......但沒有任何一項任務比這個更加緊迫了。」──1963年於美國大學

"I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war…But we have no more urgent task." - American University, 1963

Jon Bon Jovi 邦喬飛

「沒有什麼比熱情更重要，無論你想要用你的人生做什麼，都一定要充滿激情。這個世界不需要更多灰暗，另一方面，我們也得不到足夠的色彩。沒有人想一輩子平庸，然而完美也不該是任何人的目標。我們永遠不會完美，但記住這三個P：熱情(Passion)+堅持(Persistence)=可能性(Possibility)。」──2001年於蒙莫斯大學

"Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate. The world doesn't need any more gray. On the other hand, we can't get enough color. Mediocrity is nobody's goal and perfection shouldn't be either. We'll never be perfect. But remember these three P's: Passion +Persistence = Possibility." - Monmouth University, 2001

Jim Carrey 金凱瑞

「我們之中許多人在選擇我們自己的人生道路時，常常依循的是被包裝成實用性的恐懼。我們真正渴望的看起來似乎遙不可及、沒有一點成功的可能性，而且去期待這件事情也顯得很可笑，因此我們從來不敢伸手向全世界索討。」──2014年於Maharishi University of Management

"So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it.” - Maharishi University of Management, 2014

Bob Knight 鮑伯‧奈特 (籃球教練)

「我從不相信運氣，我只相信準備周全。」──2010年於Trine University

"I don’t believe in luck, I believe in preparation." - Trine University, 2010

Arnold Schwarzenegger 阿諾‧史瓦辛格

「只要記住一點，如果你把手插在口袋裡，你絕對沒辦法爬上成功的梯子。」──2009年於南加州大學

"Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets." - University of Southern California, 2009

Peyton Manning 培頓‧曼寧 (美式足球員)

「當你因為天真而被斥責──而且你總有一天會──提醒批評你的人，一個業餘的人造了方舟，而專家則建了鐵達尼號。」──2014年於維吉尼亞大學

"When you are chided for your naivete—and you will be—remind your critics that an amateur built the ark and experts built the Titanic." - University of Virginia, 2014

Jeff Bezos 傑佛里‧貝索斯 (亞馬遜公司創始人)

「今天我想和你們談談關於天賦與選擇之間的差異。聰明是一種天賦，善良則是一種選擇。天賦可以讓你很輕鬆──畢竟上天已經送給你了。選擇則可能很艱難。如果你不小心，您可能會被自己的天賦蒙蔽雙眼，而如果你被蒙蔽，這很有可能會對你的選擇造成阻礙。」──2010年於普林斯頓大學

"What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy--they're given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices." - Princeton University, 2010

Sheryl Sandberg 雪莉‧桑德伯格 (企業家)

「你也必須知道，總有些外部力量在那裡，會令你躊躇、阻礙你真正擁有你的成功。......我自己就親身經歷過。當我第一次加入Facebook團隊，有一個擁有許多讀者的部落格發表了嚴重到難以置信圖畫來詆毀我。......最後，我最好和唯一的反應就只是做我的該做的工作，並把它做好。當Facebook的業績改善，垃圾話也就消失了。」──2011年於巴納德學院

"You should also know that there are external forces out there that are holding you back from really owning your success. ... I've experienced this firsthand. When I first joined Facebook, there was a well-read blog out in the Valley that devoted some incredibly serious pixels to trashing me. ... [I]n the end, my best and only response was just to do my job and do it well. When Facebook's performance improved, the trash talk went away." - Barnard College, 2011

Ellen DeGeneres 艾倫‧狄珍妮

「跟隨你的激情，保持誠實面對自己，永遠不要依循別人的路──除非你是在樹林裡而且你迷路了，然後你看到一條小徑，這種時候無論什麼狀況你都應該乖乖跟著走。」──2009年於杜蘭大學

"Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else's path unless you're in the woods and you're lost and you see a path then by all means you should follow that." - Tulane University, 2009

Michael Dell 麥可‧戴爾 (戴爾公司創始人)

「當你展開自己的旅程，你該做的第一件事就是丟掉在店裡買的地圖，然後著手開始自己畫一張。」──2003年於德克薩斯大學

"As you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own." - University of Texas, 2003

Bono 波諾 (愛爾蘭樂團U2主唱)

「這世界的可塑性比你想像的大得多，而且它正在等將它打造成形。現在，如果我是一個民謠歌手，我可能會立刻切換開關，開始唱起『如果我有一支鐵鎚』，帶動你們所有人一起唱起來搖擺起來。不過就像我說的，我來自龐克窯管樂團，所以我寧願現在拳頭裡就直接握著一支鐵鎚。」──2004年於賓州大學

“The world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape. Now if I were a folksinger I'd immediately launch into "If I Had a Hammer" right now get you all singing and swaying. But as I say I come from punk rock, so I'd rather have the bloody hammer right here in my fist.” - University of Pennsylvania, 2004

Bill Clinton 比爾‧柯林頓

「沒有人會記得反對者，到最後還留著的都是建造者，再更久之後，甚至連建造者都會被淡忘，留下的只剩他們創造的事物所帶來的漣漪，而這很好──這是一件好事。」──2010年於耶魯大學

"Nobody remembers the naysayers. In the end, all that endures are the builders, and in the end even the builders are forgotten and all that endures are the ripples of what they built, and that’s good — that’s a good thing.” - Yale University, 2010

Bill Gates 比爾蓋茲

「別讓複雜性停住你的腳步，要有行動力。承擔所有巨大的不平等，這將會變成你生命中最好的經驗之一。」──2007年於哈佛大學

"Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives." - Harvard University, 2007

Chuck Norris 查克‧羅禮士

「聖靈告訴我：『只有當你沒有從中習得教訓時，你才會真的失去什麼。』」──2008年於自由大學

"The Holy Spirit said to me, ‘The only time you lose at something is when you don’t learn from that experience." - Liberty University, 2008

Aaron Sorkin 艾倫‧索金 (美國編劇)

「這個世界不會在乎你摔倒多少次，只要比你站起來的次數少一次就可以了。」──2012年於雪城大學

"The world doesn’t care how many times you fall down, as long as it’s one fewer than the number of times you get back up." - Syracuse University, 2012

【TED Talks資料庫】

以下資源為陸芸老師分享 !  

找到一份Google文件，收集歷年來的TED演講（包括作者，演講摘要，演講日期和連結link，全部都有耶) 這簡直是大資料庫，大寶藏 !!! 不藏私大推 👍👍👍👍👍
神奇的是這文件每5分鐘會自動更新一次；雖不知是誰編輯這文件的，但這大大節省我找資料的時間，太感謝了！

*TED talks 資料庫（Google Duc) : https://goo.gl/FZe3XS

註：這份文件流傳在國外好多部落格裡(我是在Teaching withted裡看到的)http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/w/page/19958111/FrontPage

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yv_9nDl4ocIZR0GXU3OZuBaXxER1blfwR_XHvklPpEM/pub

【 Great Ted Talks】

How my son's short life made a lasting difference 
https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_gray_how_my_son_s_short_life_made_a_lasting_difference#t-6844

How barbershops can keep men healthy 
https://www.ted.com/talks/joseph_ravenell_how_barbershops_can_keep_men_healthy

How to speak so that people want to listen  
https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen

Go ahead ! Make up new words.  
https://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_go_ahead_make_up_new_words

Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids

https://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedspread#t-5120

【Steve Jobs 2005 年在史丹佛大學畢業典禮演講】

https://tw.voicetube.com/videos/10?ref=yt-video

2005年賈伯斯史丹佛演講 Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Steve Jobs 2005 年在史丹佛大學畢業典禮的演講一聽在聽, 每次聽都覺得蘊含許多的人生智慧! 在這15 分鐘的演講中, Steve Jobs 講了三個故事, 其中有些金句名言很值得深思 :) !!! 

Of course it was impossible to connect
the dots looking forward when I was in college.
But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward;
you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart
Even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved
what I did. You've got to find what you love. 
And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life,
and the only way to be truly satisfied
is to do what you believe is great work.
And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. And don't settle.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Don't be trapped by dogma which is living
with the results of other people's thinking. 
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner
voice. And most important,
have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

✿ 演講全文: 

Thank You. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out later my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college. This was the start in my life. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting. It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart Even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference. My second story is about 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 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation the Macintosh a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. And don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle. My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. 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. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and thankfully I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools, and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.