There is no question that the world has lost one of the greatest visionaries and entrepreneurs of the modern era. Ironic it is that the digital world that he helped create now stands as not only his legacy but also serves as an everlasting memorial in the “cloud.” Media platforms spread articles, pictures and videos of Steve Jobs’ life and career. One particularly popular piece of content caught my interest today-his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. His speech to the recent Stanford grads consisted of three personal stories of inspiration, optimism, pessimism and lessons given from personal strife and success.
In line with many commencement speeches, Jobs’ inspired the young grads to “reach for the stars,” ask questions, be passionate and contribute to humanity. However, subjective as commencement speeches are supposed to be, I felt that his speech touched on many lessons that could pertain to mine and others’ careers in the advertising industry. Although these lessons on how to live your life before you die could translate across all industries and careers, I think it resonates strongly within our industry.
His first story was about “connecting the dots,” and how the future is unknown and that you never know how the choices you made in the past are going to connect to the outcomes of the future. He explained that you must trust or have faith in something that allows you not to be scared of failure or the unknown. This may be far reaching and a complete degradation of the meaning this dialogue had and the lesson to be learned. However, I believe that much of advertising is selling a promise of the unknown or of ideas to advertisers and it is a fearless commitment to these creative ideas and strategies that we hold onto and validate only by the “dots” we have connected in the past.
His second story was about love and loss. Jobs’ spoke about how he was publically and embarrassingly fired from Apple, the company he helped create and build for 10 years. He went on to say that although it was tough medicine to swallow at the time, it ended up being a positive experience for him in the end. He explained that his passion for the industry and the love for what he did kept him inspired and focused on moving ahead when many would have given up. During the time after he was fired, Jobs notes it was the most creative period of his life in which he helped build Pixar and create Next, which was later bought by Apple and serves as the foundation for much of Apple’s innovations today.
As much of a “get back on the horse and try again” type of story this is, I think it holds very true to ad agency life. Although long-standing relationships with advertisers can be great for business and working relationships, it can also build agency complacency or conservancy among client thought processes. Losing clients is tough medicine, but can also make you hungry to become more creative, more innovative, and more passionate with other current and potential clients.
Steve Jobs’ final story was about the inevitability of death and the importance of having passion for your work and your significant other. I have seen from the little experience I have already, that people working within the marketing and advertising industry have an incredible amount of passion for what they do and the creative process. Personally, when I listened to this portion of the speech I took a moment to reflect and think-do I love what I do? And my answer is yes, and I think in a creative environment where you are selling your ideas and art, this is an important factor in developing the best product.
At the end of the speech, Jobs left the audience with one last quote which he wanted the students to take with them as they entered the “real world”- “Stay hungry and stay foolish.” And I don’t think any commentary is needed on how this can pertain to individuals in all branches of the marketing field.
Click here to view the Commencement Speech
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