DOSHISHA ESS
Steve Jobs
「The Commencement Address」
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."
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. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. 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.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy. 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 thankfully, I'm fine now.
No one wants to die. And yet death is the destination we all share. And that is as it should be. 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.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. 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.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. 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. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road. 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, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.