Title: Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different: A Biography
Author(s): Karen Blumenthal

This gentleman needs no introduction. He never graduated out of college. In 2005, he attended a college graduation ceremony – as a Commencement speaker. He began his speech with:

“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.

The first story is about connecting the dots.”

This first story is about his life as an adopted child, dropping out of college and choosing to take a calligraphy class – which contributed to designing of the beautiful Macintosh computer – an engineering marvel – a breath-taking demonstration of creativity and innovation. His ends his first story with:

“Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. 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.

My second story is about love and loss.”

The second story talks about finding out what he loved to do, building Apple company, getting kicked out of his own company, and starting a new venture from scratch. His ends his second story with:

“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.

My third story is about death.”

The third story ends with the famous four words.

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

This book fleshes out these three stories in lucid detail. It is a fascinating tale of a life being full of creativity, confusion, conflict, innovation, mess, money and pain – all at the same time and place on this earth.

Reference: Prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs on June 12, 2005 – https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/