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A very inspiring speech by STEVE JOBS (CEO of APPLE & P

Posted January 25, 2009 by hussaini787

Three Stories From My Life

As delivered by Steve Jobs

Â This is the very inspirational speech given by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, to the graduating class of Stanford University on June 12, 2005.Â

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, 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.Â

The first story is about connecting the dots.Â

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?Â

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college 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 that 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 someday go to college.Â

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 interesting.Â

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 5Â¢ 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:Â

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.Â

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, its 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.Â

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. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.Â

My second story is about love and loss.Â

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.Â

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.Â

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.Â

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.Â

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. 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 until you find it. Don't settle.Â

My third story is about death.Â

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.Â

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.Â

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.Â

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 I'm fine now.Â

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:Â

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.Â

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.Â

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, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.Â

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.Â

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.Â

Thank you all very much.

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A Few titles of Janabe Zainab (a.s.)

Posted May 26, 2008 by sheeza

The propagation, advancement and perpetuation of Islam is the result of the painstaking efforts of Hazrat Ibrahim (a.s.), Hazrat Moosa (a.s.), Hazrat lsa (a.s.), Hazrat Mohammed Mustafa (s.a.w.a.), Hazrat Abu Taalib (a.s.) and Hazrat Ali (a.s.). It was due to their endless exertions, perennial patience, forbearance and steadfastness that Islam has become what it is.

Similarly their footsteps were followed by Janabe Sarah (a.s.), Hajarah (a.s.), Aasiyah binte Muzahim (a.s.), Safura (a.s.), Janabe Maryam (a.s.), Janabe Khadija (a.s.), Janabe Fatema Zahra (s.a.). Their sacrifices are like the scintillating stars on the horizons of history. One of the contributor to this series of sacrifices was the sister of Imam Husain Ibne Ali (a.s.) - Janabe Zainab Bin Ali (a.s.). The tree of Islam which was sown by the infallible hands of Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.a.) and cultiÂvated it by their sacrifices. When the age-old enemies, in the eyes of Islam contemÂplated to uproot it, Imam Husain (a.s.) protected it by his initiative and martyrÂdom. And Janabe Zainab (a.s.) publicly lambasted and humiliated the oppressor in his very court and proclaimed the failure of every attempt that would be made to destroy Islam until Qiyamat and made the tree of Islam verdant and blooming forever.

Titles reflect the very characteristics of man. Same is applicable with the titles of great men and scholÂars. Nowadays the norms are much different the ardent devotees may give any title and with the intention of not disheartening him the same is gladly accepted. (In AI-Muntazar Shabaan Special Issue 1411 A.H. it was discussed in detail.). The scholars of Islam have mentioned some of the titles of Janabe Zainab (a.s.) in the following manner. The titles and its explanation are as follows:

Zainab:

Zainab was her name. It is the combination of two words, viz., 'Zain' (Adornment) and 'Ab' (Father), which means father's adornment. EveryÂthing is adorned in accordance with its position and prestige. There is a difference in the decoration of a hut and a palace. Similarly adornment of a king and a pauper differs. A mosque and a house too differ in the matter of adornment. For that matter, difference remains in adornment of ordinary mosque and Holy Kaaba. Apart from this, material adornment is differÂent from spiritual adornment.

The true adornment of man is synonymous with his merits and excellences.

The holy person of Hazrat Ali (a.s.) is the sum total of all the meritorious attributes and excellent charÂacteristics. A person who is adorned with all the excellent attributes in his self and if someÂbody becomes an adornment for him, then what can be said of such an adornment. How closely similar would be their personÂalities. Some writers have written that the father and the daughter were so close, so germane attached that even the alphabetical distance of 'Alif cannot set them apart. It is for this reason that in Arabic 'Zainab' is written without the alphabet 'Alif in between. Hazrat Ali was the adornment of excellences and Janabe Zainab was his adornment.

Waliyatul Allah:

Wali means leader, master of authority. If this authority is limited to shariat then it is known as 'Wilayate Tashriee' and if it extends to the whole Universe, then it is known as 'Wilayate Takvinee'. As much the character will be high the bounds of authority will be that much encompassing. Janabe Sulaiman was having the authority of conÂtrolling the breeze, while his vizier Aasif bin Barkhia was having the power of transporting the throne of Bilquees in time of batting of an eyelid. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) split the moon and Hazrat Ali (a.s.) retrieved the sun. Janabe Zainab (a.s.) is a Waliyatul Allah and this is vested with authority on the universe and moreover she also has the authority over this authority. One ordinary example of the potential of her authority is that in Kufa, when she wished to deliver a sermon, the whole atmosphere was rife with shrieking noises and ear-splitting cacophony. Men and animals, both were making a lot of noises. Nobody could have quelled such a noisy mob. Man may become dumb of fear of tyranny but same cannot be with animals. A narrator has narrated the nature of Janabe Zainab's (a.s.) power in these words:

"The moment Zainab Bin Ali gesticulated at the people, then their breathing slowed down and bells which were dangling in the necks of animals stopped ringing........" (Maqtal At Husain, Al Muqarram, pg 311, Printed at Al Bethata Press.)

This incident clearly shows the extent of authority, which Janabe Zainab (a.s.) wields over this UniÂverse. Her mere gesture was enough to quell the bedlam.

The Holy Quran has described one of the characterÂistics of the friends of Allah thus:

"The friends of Allah shall have no fear nor will they be in grief."

(Surah Yunus: 62)

Janabe Zainab (a.s.) remained patient in such trying circumstances which would have humbled even the mighty men. They would have dumped patience and become querulous. Both her patience and forbearÂance were such that she was consoling each and everybody. When Imam Zainul Abedeen (a.s.) witÂnessed the shroudless corpses of the martyrs, he wept uncontrollably, it was Janabe Zainab (a.s.) who consoled him and related a tradition from her grandfather that "Allah will construct a shrine over here and people will come to visit it."

Despite of unlimited powers bearing patiently is from the traits of Waliyatul Allah. At this juncture also she remained a prideful adornment for her father Hazrat Ali (a.s.) also despite of unlimited powers (who can retrieve sun for him few men are nothing) resigned to being dragged, while rope tied to his neck.

Aminatul Allah:

There is a difference in maintainÂing trust that of human beings in respect of material things and trust that of Divine secrets. It needs colossal fortitude and patience to be capable of keeping Divine secrets. Such secrets can be inÂquired by either the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) or Imams (a.s.). Other than infallibles none can carry any such divine secrets. Imam Husain (a.s.) assigned the secrets of Divine leadership and vicegerency to Janabe Zainab (a.s.) and thus elevated her status further. If this episode shows the sublime status of Janabe Zainab (a.s.) then it also proves her infalliÂbility, because a fallible human cannot bear the secrets of Imamat.

One of the Divine trusts is the office of Imamat. She protected the Imam of her time, and supported him. When the enemies contemplated killing him, she came in front and saved his life. In Medina Janabe Fatema (s.a.) saved the life of Hazrat AN (a.s.) and in Karbala and after Karbala Janabe Zainab (a.s.) saved the life of Ali Bin Husain (a.s.). She indeed was the successor to Janabe Zahra (s.a.).

Aalematun-Ghaira Muallamah Wa Fahimatun Ghaira Muffahamah:

A scholar without teacher and an intellectual without an instructor. Janabe Zainab (a.s.) was a scholar without a teacher and an intellectual without an explanator. This title was accorded to herby the Imam of her time, Imam Zainul Abedeen (a.s.). This shows that Janabe Zainab (a.s.) never received education from any teacher. But she was divinely blessed with knowledge and education. Allah accords such an honor to those who rightly deserve it. Which means she was gifted with 'Ilme Ladunni'. This again is further proof of her exalted position and status. Who can comprehend the position of the one who is gifted with divine knowledge? The importance of knowledge has been repeatedly mentioned in Quran and traditions. This title indicates that how much does Islam want to rise the place of the women who have knowledge. The traces of her knowledge are seen in her sermons, which she delivered at Kufa and Syria. These sermons were like the sermons of Hazrat Ali (a.s.) and that of Hazrat Fatema Zahra (s.a.). When those who had been in audience to the sermons of Hazrat Ali (a.s.), heard the sermons of Janabe Zainab (a.s.) remarked 'Has Ali come to life again?' Because her style, her oration, her delivery, depth of her meanÂing and everything reflected that of Ali (a.s.)

Sharikatul Husain:

Janabe Zainab (a.s.) was a constant companion of Imam Husain (a.s.) at every stage. She too descended from the same bloodline and lineage and also accompanied him in his trials and calamities. Companionship of an infallible Imam is not a trivial honor. The way Janabe Zahra (s.a.) shared the responsibilities of Prophethood.

Kaabatu Rezaya:

Rezaya is the plural of Raziya, which means major catastrophe. Kaaba is the House of Allah, people circumambulate around. Muslims from all over the world face towards it and come towards it. Janabe Zainab (a. s.) is the Kaaba of calamities. Difficulties and catastrophes were revolving around her and every trouble was coming to her. She was the epicenter of calamities from the very beginning, death of her grandfather, separaÂtion from mother, demise of father, death of brother and a large scale massacre of her kith and kin in Karbala. Those who were full of life at the dawn, were all slain at the decline of sun, the whole house was ruined in just one day. Her loved ones were replaced by the wrenchful sorrows of their deaths. Then from Karbala to Kufa, Kufa to Syria, Syria to Karbala, Karbala to Medina, hordes of tribulations became her fate. If the curtain of Kaaba was set on fire then her veil was snatched. If stones were catapulted on Kaaba then her back was lashed ruthlessly. If Kaaba was dishonored then she was humiliated by dragging from place to place. Such atrocities did not lower the status of Kaaba rather its honor was enhanced similarly such tortures and oppressions did not demand her but her enemies were disgraced. If even today the curtain of Kaaba has survived then even her veil of honor has remained.