In Part 1 of this module, you viewed a video of the late Steve Jobs telling three personal stories at a commencement in 2005. Please use your blog to discuss what makes his stories memorable. What makes them powerful? You may find reading the transcript of his speech to be useful in thinking about these questions. When you have completed your blog posting, please provide the link to us and the topic selected within this thread.
Steve Jobs is undeniably a great public speaker and storyteller. His stories are relatable to everyone, and it’s always impressive to hear someone who is that far removed from everyday blue collar workers telling stories about his life that people can understand. What these three examples of Jobs’ storytelling powerful, I think, is that they are essentially subtle Buddhist tracts.
His first story is about loss and finding one’s true identity. That loss is his college career, and he uses that loss to grow and become the man who will found Apple shortly thereafter. His second story also deals with loss, which he mentions in the story’s preface. Again, he uses this failure to drive him to become a better person. His third story is about death, or at least the prospect of it. He eventually weaves his cancer diagnosis into a tale about following your dreams.
On paper, the topics of these stories don’t relate very well to their lessons, but Jobs effortlessly creates threads between them in a way that you wouldn’t expect. I mentioned Buddhism above, as Jobs is a noted Buddhist, he follows the idea that pain and suffering are unavoidable aspects of life - through this pain and suffering people can experience true growth. This is basically the thesis of his speech.
Content aside, he is pleasant to listen to. I doubt many Fortune-500 Presidents or Commencement Addresses are as timeless and interesting as this one. That’s really what makes this special. Despite being a mogul in the technology industry, he makes sure that this advice will still work 100 years in the future. Unlike his products that need to be upgraded almost annually, this speech will stand the test of time. I think that really illustrates the importance of storytelling - my iPod won’t be around by the time I graduate, but this speech will resonate with me forever. True connections are made through human interaction, not USB cables.
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