Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

They call him the Thomas Edison of his time, and at Stanford University in 2005 Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple gave a commencement speech to the graduating class. He began the speech telling the graduates about being an adopted baby and why some seventeen years later he made the choice to drop out of college. He attended Reed College in Oregon for approximately six months before he left.

Feeling that college was a financial burden on himself and his parents, he saw not point to attend classes that he wasn’t interested in. At the time, Jobs didn’t even understand what he wanted to do with his life. As soon as he dropped out, he began going to classes that did hold his interest.

He told the graduating class that it wasn’t as wonderful and romantic as it sounded. He had to sleep on the floors of his friend’s rooms because he didn’t have a dorm room. To eat he took coke bottles and turned them in for the five cent deposits. Every Sunday night he walked across town a distance of seven miles to the Hare Krishna temple to eat one good meal for the week. He really loved his live at that time. He said that by leading with his intuition and curiosity was a priceless gift for himself later on in life.

Whether you are a fan of Apple or not, you might even fall somewhere in between – you can’t help but pay respect to the fact that Steve Jobs was brilliant. There is also quite a bit that is unknown about him, but one this is for certain: Steve Jobs changed many lives.

Even more important, he loved what he did. He pursued his love with a deep and unrelenting passion. When he stepped down as the Apple CEO, many people took a moment to look deeper into the products of Apple. There are many Web pages that are dedicated to storylines that are planned to tell a story about the life of Apple’s determined co-founder. But that’s life in the media and business of news. It all takes planning.

One thing is for certain, the speech that Steve Jobs delivered to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford University will be forever inspired by the words he spoke and the passion in his voice. This memory may be left behind along with the legacy that is Apple Corporation, but what stands in the forefront of most minds is four simple words that have become a symbol of Jobs himself – stay hungry, stay foolish.