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Merger Article: Connecting the Dots. Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford

With just one weeks before the end of the quarter and our departure for ski trip, most people here have very busy schedules. Most first year students have four exams next week, starting on Monday. Second year students are wrapping up projects and papers, and also have exams next week. And JD-MBAs are busy taking exams not just at Kellogg but also at the law school, where the final exam period is one week longer. But every weekend before finals week, an edition of the Kellogg newspaper (the Merger) comes out as a small distraction from studying. And for this edition, I was asked to write the piece on the one and only … Steve Jobs.

Just yesterday, this quarter’s Merger was released. Throughout this past Merger there were a lot of interesting articles, including one on internship perspectives from first years; another on the Marketing Competition, and even one on Fall Ball. For this edition, I was tapped to write an article about the great Steve Jobs. In some ways, it’s a tough task given so many articles have been written already. But just yesterday, my article came out.

See below for the article. And below that for Steve Jobs actual graduation speech.

Title: Connecting the Dots

Author: Jeremy C. Wilson

On June 15, 2005, only one day after taking the last final exam in college, I had the special privilege of hearing Steve Jobs deliver our commencement speech. I didn’t know it at the time, but that day Steve would go on to deliver one of the most memorable speeches in modern history. In addition to hearing more about the origins of Apple and his time at the company, we also had the thrill of hearing firsthand how the future “CEO of the Decade” navigated his way to the top and three lessons he thought we should remember for the future. I remember that June afternoon like it happened yesterday.

It was just about 8:30 am on Sunday morning. Since most people were moving out the next day, my fraternity brothers woke up early to get started on daytime “festivities” before the ceremony. By 9:00 am, graduating students were already dressed in their “wacky” costumes (think Ski Trip) and were headed over to the stadium. Families, friends and observers were waiting on the edge of their seats in the football stadium ready to begin.

At 9:30 am, the gates opened and the Class of 2005 raced on to the stadium field and indulged in their recreational activities. Nevermind that Commencement was only minutes away; and nevermind that Steve Jobs was on deck. For us, the Wacky Walk was one last chance to have some fun on campus before moving out the next day.

A few costumes stood out amongst the rest. Nine or ten people dressed up as the campus shuttle. About a dozen players from the women’s rugby team dressed in their championship uniforms. But perhaps the best costumes of all were the four iPods – all different colors and symbolic of the speaker that was about to come.

But despite those costumes, a lot of us didn’t fully grasp how big the moment truly was. We knew that Apple was a good company and that a lot of graduates went to work there after school. But that was it. We didn’t know that Apple would eventually become the most recognizable brand in the US. We didn’t know that Jobs would eventually be named the CEO of the Decade. We didn’t know that the lessons from his stories would be repeated for years to come. And we didn’t understand that the sickness he had contracted would persist.

But it all changed in the instant Jobs walked up to the stage. He thanked us for listening and gave what would soon be referred to as “The Gettysburg Address of Graduation Speeches.” A speech that would eventually be viewed over 12.5 million times on YouTube. And stories that would capture the attention of all the tens of thousands of viewers that day.

In his first story, Jobs talked about “connecting the dots.” He referenced how his biological mother put him up for adoption as a child, how as a student, he didn’t have a dorm room, so he slept on the floor in friends’ rooms. And that he never graduated from college but that coming to give that speech was the closest he ever got to a college graduation. But that looking back, he could connect the dots and see why some of those things made a difference for him along the way.

And in his last story, Jobs talked about death. He said that having recently approached death, he learned that you have to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. That “there is no reason not to follow your heart.” A message that resonated with most people in the audience.

And in that moment, I thought that I could be just like him. That I could come up with the idea for the next great startup. That I could run a $100 billion dollar company. And that I could risk it all to not only to do something different. And it wasn’t just me. Many of us did. We all believed the dots would eventually connect.

One of my classmates was quoted in the newspaper saying that the speech gave her a wave of reassurance. “I was graduating without a job in place, and I felt like a tremendous failure surrounded by all my overachieving classmates. But Steve made me believe that it would all be OK.” Another classmate noted that the speech caused her to change in careers from engineering to a Ph.D in history to follow her passion. And another quit her job at a Fortune company, drove cross-country and applied to film school. And today, all three seem pretty happy with the choices they’ve made.

Today, many people question whether Steve Jobs was a great leader or not. The first reaction after his death was “of course he was.” After all, he reinvented and grew an entire industry. He convinced the masses to pay more for a similar product. He created one of the fastest growing companies on the planet. All without having graduating from college.

On the other side of the argument, some people suggest that Jobs was hard to work with. That he was too demanding and wasn’t always a team player. And that his laser sharp focus often time resulted in being stubborn and not taking opinions from his team. And that those are not the traits of the best leaders.

But no matter which opinion you have, I’d argue that none of that really mattered when we were listening. What mattered was that when Jobs told us his story about how he defied the odds and succeeded, everyone listened. Most were in awe. Others came to tears. And some were inspired to take action that very day. And in that moment, we could sense the untapped potential within each of us.

That’s the thing about great leaders. No matter what their weaknesses are, they best ones keep you inspired. They demonstrate a sense of passion that many people lose over the years. They convey a heightened sense of emotion that most people have learned to suppress in the corporate world. They have the audacity to hope that they can make a difference and make the world a better place. And they inspire others to feel the same way. So in some ways at least, Jobs was a good leader.

The end of the Steve Jobs era begs one question. Who’s next? Who’s going to be the next one to shake things up? Who’s going to start that business that revolutionizes an industry or the world? Maybe it’s you? Maybe it’s me? Maybe someone much older or younger? Or from another country? Hard to say for certain.

But one thing is for certain, that it’s quite possible that we’ve already heard them give a great speech. Maybe at your college graduation like I did. Perhaps during one of your Kellogg classes. Or maybe it will here at Jacobs in the OLC. Perhaps you just didn’t know it at the time.

Either way, keep your eyes open. Go to as many events as you can. And attend graduation.  Because you never know who the next Steve Jobs will be.