Steve Jobs on Death - The best 4 mins you will ever spend (Stanford 2005)

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've 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 doctors code for prepare to die it means to try and 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 will be as easy as possible for your family it means to say your goodbyes i live 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 doctor 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 it's 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'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 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 drowned 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

Channel: bookreviewsimplified

Views: 730,715

Keywords: steve jobs, stanford, commencement, steve jobs quotes

Id: lR6-elnwBmM

Length: 3min 58sec (238 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2012