Steve Jobs

In light with the passing of a great man, Steve Jobs, founder and former CEO of Apple, my school showed us a video of Mr. Jobs talking to an audience during the commencement rites of a university. At the beginning, I thought that I would be forced to listen to a boring speech about things I don’t care about again; I thought, “Who wants to hear stories about another person’s life”? But as soon as the talk started, I figured myself that I was wrong.

       Steve Jobs talked about three stories about his life. The stories were about how bad events in his life led to great ones. He said that our time is limited, so we should not waste it by living other people’s lives. That we should not care about what other people say because it is not their lives that we’re living. The stories he told illustrated how his lows resulted to the highs of his life. For example, when he drooped out of college, many people thought that it was the worst decision that he did. However, according to him, dropping out of his classes allowed him to chose only the things that he wanted to learn which helped him build one of the most admired companies of today, Apple.            

       His message really struck a place in my heart. For a person who is still unsure of what she will be doing in the future or is unsure whether she is taking the correct paths in life. His speech reassured me that I should trust my decisions. That no matter how bad they may be today, it is still up to me to turn those bad decisions into good ones that will help me in the future. Job’s speech also made me realize that it is not how you perform at school or how good your grades are, and that what’s most important is how you take those things you learn at school and apply them in real life.

        Listening him talk, it dawned to me that it is really up to me. That whatever decisions I make now will definitely affect what I will be in the future. That even though I think that it is still too early for me to think about my future plans, it is never too early to decide on what you want to be in the future because the little things you do today will determine what kind of life you will be living five, ten, or twenty years from now.