In his speech, Steve Jobs told Stanford's graduating class of 2005 three stories from his life. Jobs first told the class about his college experience, how he dropped out after a year but stayed on campus to take a few classes. Jobs was no longer taking the classes required by the university, he was taking the ones he wanted using them as tools to better himself as an individual. Jobs chose classes that would better his Self similar to how someone can choose their faith to find and better themselves. He proceeded to tell the class how even though he didn't finish college or know what he wanted to do with his life, you need to have faith that the dots in your life will connect somehow. Believing and trusting in life, or religion, give you faith to keep going through life each day. As a college senior getting ready to graduate myself I know its scary to think about what will come in the rest of my life once I leave Lawrence but its reassuring to hear things like Jobs' speech ensuring that all of the dots will connect and to simply have faith that they will.
Steve then told the class about how he was fired from Apple, the company he and Woz had started. Even though he was bitter that his own company fired him, Jobs loved what he did which gave him courage to start over. As a result Jobs started a few more companies (like Pixar) that eventually ended up bringing him back to Apple. Again his message was clear, even though you might get shot down, don't lose faith. The most successful people aren't successful because their firs idea worked perfectly, they hit some bumps in the road too but never lost faith and didn't give up on what they loved. Steve Jobs would never have been as successful of a person if he had lost faith every time he hit a bump in the road. I think this is perfectly fitting for a commencement speech because all of these students are about to be thrown into the real world where their first job or plan might not work out but that keeping faith will help them work through the hard times.
The last part of Jobs' speech was about his battle with cancer. Steve told the class to leave each day like it could be your last and to ask themselves one thing each day: will you like what you're going t do today? He told the class to remember you'll all be dead soon, don't fall into the trap of living in fear of doing something; time is limited so don't waste it. Its kind of scary to be so blatantly reminded that you will die but Jobs does it in a way to encourage the class to not hold back and live in fear of death or of what could happen but to go out there and make things happen while you have the time and opportunity.
Jobs ended his speech by telling everyone to follow their hearts and intuition because somehow they know what you want. This is a perfect summary of Jobs' points; he is telling everyone to keep faith and believe in what they do because one day you'll be dead, so don't give up. Basically he just wants everyone to have faith in not only life itself but also in what everyone does with their lives. Even though this speech might not seem to be related to religion it is in the aspect of having faith in something; without something to believe in or have faith in, getting through life (both the good times and the bad times) can be difficult.
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