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Steve Jobs Commencement Speech Analysis

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Stanford University is known for its emphasis on entrepreneurship. Its location in the heart of Silicon Valley has definitely helped shape that image. Stanford alumni have started companies like Google, Netflix, and Paypal. Apple, the most valuable company in the world today, was founded in Silicon Valley in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech to the graduating class of Stanford. In his speech, Jobs’ speech uses emotion and his ethos in his life story to connect to the students, parents, and family members to tell them that you should never stop pursuing your dreams, no matter the circumstances. Jobs begins his speech telling the listeners that “I never graduated from college. Truth …show more content…

Graduates, family members, friends, and college faculty all know what it’s like to fail on some level. This message though is directed towards the graduating class. They are the ones with the most ahead of them in life. Jobs then argues that its up to us to learn from those mistakes and failures and turn them into something positive. “[I]t turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. [...] It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” If someone as successful as Jobs fails publicly and is able to realize it’s a good thing, anyone can turn any failure into a positive. Jobs is using is ethos here to tell the audience that there is no failure that is too big. He connects to the feelings of the audience and tells them that that feeling of failure isn’t the end, it’s a new beginning. The final story is about the preciousness of life. “[F]or 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.” Jobs begins his final story with his belief that everyone should always do what they want. This is made more clear when he says, “About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.” Cancer has affected nearly everyone. Most people have a friend or family member

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