Steve Jobs의 2005년 스탠포드대 졸업식 축사

Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

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.

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?

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 lady. 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.

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.

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 5¢ 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:

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.

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.

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.

My second story is about love and loss.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My third story is about death.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

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Steve Job's Speech in Stanford Ceremony

View an amazing speech by Steve Jobs in Stanford University's graduation ceremony in ...
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-204609026222503944 -

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주간동아 2007.07.03 592호(p. 62 ~ 65)에서 발췌
 
 
 
[성공학 강좌]

 
‘단순 명쾌’ 잡스 vs ‘상세 유쾌’ 게이츠
 
美언론, 프레젠테이션 천재 2인의 연설 비교 … 문장 난이도·종합 이해도 등에서 잡스 후한 점수
 
 

 
스티브 잡스의 프레젠테이션은 매우 간단명료하다.
 
미국에서 2006년 판매된 차량의 30%가 아이팟 연결장치를 탑재했다. 프레젠터로서 잡스의 가장 큰 장점은 단순하면서도 명쾌하다는 것. 잡스는 프레젠테이션에 파워포인트 대신 애플의 키노트란 프로그램을 사용한다. 하지만 그가 어떤 프로그램을 사용하느냐는 중요하지 않다. 파워포인트도 충분히 훌륭한 프로그램이기 때문. 잡스의 프레젠테이션 슬라이드는 키워드와 키 비주얼뿐이다. 한 장의 슬라이드에 한 장의 이미지, 한 단어, 한 문장뿐이다. 이것이 프레젠테이션의 전달력과 효과를 높여준다.

이들의 프레젠테이션을 통해 얻을 수 있는 교훈은 분명하다. 즉 단순화(Simplicity), 치밀함(Subtlety), 간결함(Elegance), 함축성(Suggestive), 자연스러움(Naturalness), 여백(Empty space), 편안함(Stillness), 삭제(Eliminating) 등의 키워드가 효과를 배가한다는 것이다.

요즘은 비즈니스맨에게 프레젠테이션을 잘하는 것이 선택사항이 아니라 핵심 역량으로 떠올랐다. 그만큼 프레젠테이션 시대가 성큼 다가온 것이다. 그럼에도 프레젠테이션 능력을 향상시키기 위한 노력은 충분치 않다. 더 좋은 프레젠테이션을 하기 위한 투자도 부족해 보인다.

빌 게이츠와 스티브 잡스 가운데 어느 한쪽을 편들고 싶은 생각은 없다. 그러나 누구의 프레젠테이션을 따르는 것이 더 도움이 될지 생각해보기 바란다.

잡스와 게이츠의 졸업식 축사 대결
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흡인력은 잡스, 메시지 중요성은 게이츠 ‘멋진 무승부’
정현상 기자 doppelg@donga.com

2007년 6월7일 미국 하버드대학 졸업식이 열린 캠퍼스 광장. 이 대학 중퇴자이기도 한 마이크로소프트사 빌 게이츠 회장이 연단에 오르자 졸업생과 교수, 초청인사 등 1만5000여 명이 일제히 일어나 박수로 맞이했다. 광장 뒤편 초록이 무성한 나무들 사이에도 사람들이 빼곡히 들어서 그의 연설을 청취했다.

“나는 이 말을 하기 위해 30년 이상을 기다렸다. ‘아버지, 제가 늘 말했지요. 졸업장을 받으러 반드시 돌아올 거라고.’(웃음과 박수) 참 적절한 때 하버드가 내게 학위를 주니 정말 고맙다. 내년에는 직업을 바꿀 계획인데, 이력서에 대학 졸업 학력을 넣을 수 있게 됐으니 정말 잘된 일이다.(웃음과 박수)”

입학 34년 만에 명예법학박사 학위를 받게 된 게이츠 회장은 이런 ‘오프닝 코멘트(opening comments)’로 청중의 시선을 사로잡기 시작했다. “크림슨(하버드대 학생 신문)이 나를 하버드에서 가장 성공한 중퇴자라고 부르니 행복하다”는 등의 유머를 동원해 앞부분에서는 거의 10초마다 한 번씩 웃음과 박수가 터졌다.

이렇게 청중이 그의 가벼운 ‘유혹 문구(hook)’에 빠져들 무렵 게이츠 회장은 슬쩍 ‘불평등’과 ‘창조적 자본주의’라는 진지한 화제로 넘어갔다. 전체적으로 무거운 내용이었지만 그의 연설은 청중을 사로잡았다. 졸업식 참석자뿐 아니라 외신을 타고 전 세계로 퍼져 수많은 사람에게 감동을 안겨줬다.

게이츠, 하버드대서 인류 불평등 해결 방법 제시

게이츠 회장은 이번 연설문을 작성하기 위해 2006년 12월부터 골머리를 앓으며 연설문을 여섯 차례나 뜯어고쳤다고 ‘월스트리트저널(WSJ)’이 보도했다. 이 신문은 또 게이츠 회장이 5월 말 워렌 버핏을 만나 연설 목소리와 제스처에 관한 비법을 전수받았다고 덧붙였다.

게이츠 회장이 이렇게 공을 들인 이면에는 라이벌인 애플사 스티브 잡스 회장의 스탠포드대학 졸업식 연설(2005년 6월)이 있다는 얘기가 흘러나오고 있다. 잡스 회장의 이 연설은구글비디오 인기 순위 ‘톱 100’ 안에 들 정도였고, 국내에서도 누리꾼 사이에 화제가 됐다.

두 사람은 이래저래 라이벌이다. 나이도 52세로 동갑내기고, 정보기술(IT)업계의 양대 산맥이다. 초창기부터 주도권 다툼을 벌여온 경쟁자다 보니 공개석상에서 같이 모습을 드러낸 적도 거의 없다. 한때 두 사람이 반목하는 모습이 자주 포착되기도 했다. 게이츠 회장은 “매킨토시가 그랬듯 아이팟(iPod·애플이 발매한 MP3플레이어)도 오래 못 갈 것”이라고 약을 올렸고, 이에 잡스 회장도 “MS는 기업과 소비자를 불행하게 만드는 악덕 기업”이라며 받아쳤다.

다시 게이츠의 연설로 돌아가보자. 높은 톤에 갈라지는 목소리는 그가 연설 잘하는 정치가나 배우가 아님을 확인하게 했지만, 오프닝 ‘후크’에 빠져든 청중은 점점 그의 연설에 몰입했다.

“이 세상에 수백만의 사람들을 절망으로 떨어뜨린 건강과 부, 기회의 끔찍한 불평등이 있다는 것을 알지 못한 채 하버드를 떠났다. 인간애의 위대한 진보는 어떻게 불평등을 없애느냐에 달려 있다. 여러분(하버드대 학생들)처럼 세상에서 가장 큰 특권을 누리는 사람들이 아무 특권 없는 이들의 삶에 대해 알아야 하지 않겠는가.”

무엇보다 그는 이날 창조적 자본주의(creative capitalism)로 지구적 문제를 해결할 수 있다고 주장했다. 즉 우리가 가난한 사람을 위해 쓸 수 있는 시장의 힘(market forces)을 확장한다면 심각한 불평등에 시달리는 사람을 도울 수 있다는 것이다. 그는 자본주의의 두 기둥인 시장과 기술 혁신을 잘 활용하면 가난과 불평등, 질병의 문제를 해결할 수 있다고 제시했다.

25분간의 연설은 좌중을 휘어잡기에 충분했다. 거기에 잡스 회장이 있었다면 게이츠 회장의 입가엔 회심의 미소가 퍼졌을지도 모를 일이다. 그러면 게이츠 회장이 그토록 마음에 두고 있었다는 잡스 회장의 스탠포드대학 연설은 어땠을까.

잡스 회장 역시 대학을 졸업하지 못했다. 그래서 그는 “태어나서 이렇게 대학 졸업식을 가까이 보는 것은 처음”이라는 말로 연설을 시작했다. 이어 “오늘 나는 내 인생의 세 가지 화제를 들려드리고 싶다. 그게 전부다”라고 강조했다. 즉 겸손함을 통해 화제의 전달 효과를 배가하려 했다. 그가 전하는 세 가지 화제는 다음과 같다.

첫째 화제는 점을 잇는 것에 관한 것이다. 나는 미혼모의 아들로 태어나 노동자 가정에 입양됐고, 리드대학에 입학했지만 학비가 너무 비싸 6개월 만에 그만뒀다. 빈 병을 팔아 먹을 것을 사고, 친구 집 마룻바닥에서 잠을 자기도 했다. 그러면서 비정규 청강생으로 서체 관련 과목을 듣기 시작했다. 당시는 그런 것이 실제 응용되리라고는 생각지 못했다. 그러나 10년 뒤 최초의 매킨토시 컴퓨터를 만들 때 그것을 다 이용할 수 있었다. 즉 학창시절에는 미래를 내다보면서 점을 이을 수 없었지만 돌이켜보면서 점을 이을 수 있었다. 지금 잇고 있는 점이 미래 어떤 시점에 서로 연결될 것이라는 믿음을 가져야 한다.

둘째 화제는 사랑과 상실이다. 애플 공동창업자인 스티브 우즈니액과 나는 차고에서 회사를 시작해 10년 뒤 20억 달러 매출에 직원 4000명을 거느리게 됐다. 그러나 우즈니액과의 견해 차이로 나는 창업자이면서도 해고되고 말았다. 참담한 심정이었지만 그때 어떤 것이 떠올랐다. 나는 아직도 내가 하는 일을 사랑하고 있다는 것이었다. 그래서 가벼운 마음으로 새롭게 일을 시작할 수 있었다. 내 인생에 가장 창조적인 시기였다. 5년 뒤 나는 픽사(Pixar)를 차려 세계 최초의 컴퓨터 애니메이션 ‘토이 스토리’를 만들었다. 그리고 애플로 복귀했다. 어려운 시기에 나를 이끌어간 것은 내 일을 사랑한 점이다.

잡스, 스탠퍼드대서 개인의 희망과 미래 위한 충고

셋째 화제는 죽음에 관한 것이다. 열일곱 살 때 나는 ‘만일 당신이 매일의 삶을 마지막 날처럼 산다면 언젠가 당신이 제대로 살았다는 것을 알게 될 것이다’라는 구절을 읽었고, 이후 33년 동안 매일 아침 거울을 보면서 ‘만일 오늘이 내 인생의 마지막 날이라면 오늘 내가 하려는 일을 하게 될까?’라고 물었다. ‘아니오’라는 대답이 여러 날 연속해서 나오면 변화가 필요하다는 것이다. 1년 전 췌장암 진단을 받고 수술과 회복 과정을 거치며 아주 가까이서 죽음을 경험했다. 죽음 앞에서는 외부의 기대들, 자부심, 좌절과 실패의 두려움 같은 것이 아무것도 아니기 때문에 진정으로 중요한 것만 남게 된다. 여러분의 시간은 한정되어 있다. 그러니 다른 사람의 삶을 사느라고 시간을 허비하자 말라. 당신의 마음과 직관을 따라가는 용기를 가져라. 늘 갈망하고, 우직해라(Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish).’

빠르고 또렷한 발음에 강력한 카리스마가 느껴지는 잡스 회장의 연설은 흡인력이 강하다. 비즈니스 커뮤니케이션 교육기관 C&A Expert 김경태 사장은 “원고 전달력과 청중 이해도, 연설 기법 등에서는 잡스가 게이츠보다 10배는 더 뛰어나다”고 평가했다.

잡스가 연설에서 개인의 희망과 미래를 발견하기 위한 충고를 중심에 뒀다면, 게이츠는 인류가 안고 있는 영원한 숙제인 불평등을 해결할 수 있는 방법론을 내놓았다. 그래서 두 연설을 비교해보건대 흡인력에서는 잡스가 승리했지만, 메시지의 중요성에선 게이츠가 더 높은 점수를 따 결국은 ‘멋진 무승부’가 됐다고 할 수 있다.