In 2005, during his famous commencement
speech at Stanford University, Steve Jobs quoted a farewell message
placed on the back cover of the 1974 edition of a publication called The
Whole Earth Catalog. It read “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
This
phrase purposefully uses the negative adjectives ‘hungry’ and ‘foolish’
in a positive way. This is what gives this phrase its punch and making
it special. Taking a word, phrase or situation and contrasting how it is
normally used.
In his speech, he actually describes the back cover
of the publication saying. “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. ”
How Steve Jobs interpreted situations and phrases
is what strikes me in this speech. I was curious enough to look for that
cover of the publication and see if I can have a different
interpretation. All I saw was a picture of a lonely road in some lonely
countryside with words of no connection to the picture. Jobs saw an
early morning country road fit for hitchhiking, for adventurous minds.
Hitchhiking is a means of transport gained by asking people, usually
strangers, for a ride in their vehicles. The ride is usually, but not
always free.
Stay hungry. Stay foolish, is a phrase that encourages
one to keep a state of learning and an open state of mind. Perhaps like a
child’s, which is not spoiled by a rigid mindset. Staying hungry urges
one to always be curious to learn more and achieve more. Not settling.
Staying foolish asks one to dare to believe in oneself, just as a child
does, and dare to make unconventional decisions and choices.
This
speech made it clear to me that everyone has circumstances that tend to
distract them in a way or the other. Here was a good example, one of the
greatest minds and entrepreneurs of the planet. What set these kind of
people apart are their philosophies in life. Not what happens in their
lives but what they do with what happens. It is never the blowing of
wind that determines your destination; it is the set of the sail. The
same wind blows on us all. The wind of disaster, the wind of
opportunity, the wind of change, the economic wind.
This speech was
divided in three stories about his life and I had an opportunity to learn how
he viewed situations, and what his philosophies in life were. In the
start of every story, he asked himself a question. He was hitchhiking,
he was adventurous. He stayed hungry. He stayed foolish. This philosophy
drove him to success. Find a personal philosophy that drives you to do
the necessary things to make it in life.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
©Olegamba 2014.
