【www.shanpow.com--演讲稿】
【一】:University演讲稿
University, the stage of my dream
Do you dare to be a dreamer?
Do you have enough courage to dream alone ?
If you don't prepare to go it alone, now you have a good opportunity to dream, to dream alone for yourself, to realise your dream. It is University, the best stage of your dream.
In University, you will face all kinds of chances that help you unleash self-potenials, achieve selfworth and reach for dreams. But dreaming alone isn't enough, you must believe in your dreams and you must act. Without action, even the most grand of dreams evaporate into the air. Always remember that idle dream is to waste your life; dream that lacks of action will finally come to naught.
Have you been waiting for the right time to reach for your dreams? Lovely university days is what you have been waiting for. Have you been waiting for the right circumstances to reach for your dreams? University environment is still what you have been waiting for.
Have you been waiting for the right opportunity to reach for dreams? University can provide these opportunities for you.
My, you're patient, aren't you? You could be waiting forever, you know.
Now it's your chance, your opportunity. University is what you need and what you have been waiting for.
In University, action will be the only thing that you do all the time on campus. Countless mass organizations and millions of books in university library will make you feel better, and you will never feel empty. University relly is a wonderful place that fulfills yourself. Opportunity is a whisper that waits for your invitation, and university is your invitation to opportunity.
Now is the right time. You are in university now. Circumstances change when you take action.
Opportunity is yours for the making.
So what are you really waiting for? Stand on the stage of your dream, burn yourself,and release yourself !
【二】:英语演讲稿 My University
What is my University
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am contestant number **, who is from the college of resources and environment.
In the summer of 2 thousand and eleven, I graduated from an ordinary high school in Rizhao, and then I entered the gate of Shandong Agricultural University.
Tonight I am very glad to stand here to introduce myself and share my ideas with you all.
My topic is “What is my university”. After hearing this, you maybe tell me: your university is the Shandong Agricultural University, so easy! But I want to say, this topic includes too more. From my perspective, it includes three words.
The first word is “dream”, ladies and gentlemen, do you dream a good dream last night? Everyone has dreams about life, and different people have different dreams at different age. As a young people in the university, our dreams will guide us in the course of stepping forward during the whole life. So our dream in the university plays a crucial role in the future. Only when we set up great goals can we soar with our dreams, and only when
we remember steadily “what we want to do” can we have a wonderful life.
The second word is “confidence”, Confidence is power--the power to attract, persuade, influence, and succeed. Imagine what your life would be like if you had an abundance of
self-confidence! The books you read, the people you spend time with, and the music you listen to all influence the way you think and feel about yourself and the world around you. As a younger in university, self-confidence is one of the important factors for success. If the university is a beautiful garden, then the confidence is the sunshine warming it every minute.
The third word is “practice”, practice is “what we do” “what we do” plays a main role in our daily life. Generally speaking, everyday we are used to acquiring professional knowledge in class, reading books in the library, getting the new information from the Internet and so on. These “what we do” are broadening our view, improving our ability and changing our spirit day by day.
These are my university, so beautiful, so important! Looking forward to the future, I believe that “my university” will like fancinating flowers making my roads full of fragrant! Thank you!
【三】:大学恋爱英语演讲稿3篇
英语演讲能力是英语语言能力和交际能力的综合反映,同时又是演讲者通过语言表达思想、传递信息的有效沟通途径。下面小编整理了大学恋爱英语演讲稿3篇，供你参考。
大学恋爱英语演讲稿篇1
My college lifeI am proud of being a college student. I like my college life as it is so wonderful time in my youth. As being born in small village of the remote countryside, I didn't have a good education environment. However, I set a goal and felt confident to be a college student. After hard study, I passed the entrance examination of national college by excellent achievement. All people were proud of me, as I was the first college student in my village. I was farewell warmly by them when I came to school. I was warmly welcome by school, too. After then, I’ve felt my study is not only for myself but also for the honor of my village neighborhood and our school.The college life is wonderful. All life in school are fresh. New teachers, new classmates and fresh friends are around me. I’ve felt their friendship, wide knowledge and opening mind. The grand library, school buildings and wide playground are very attracting to me. I am very eager to learn much knowledge quickly. In high school, I was ever called as a runner before time. Now,I know I am behind time so much in fact. I hope to catch up with the time by my hard studying. Every day, you can see me get up early, doing exercise hard and go to school the first one. At night, I am the one who leaves away the library.
带翻译：
我的大学lifeI感到骄傲的大学生。我喜欢我的大学生活,因为它是如此的美好时光在我的青春。作为出生在偏远农村的小村庄,我没有一个良好的教育环境。然而,我设定一个目标,感到自信的大学生。努力学习之后,我通过了国家大学入学考试通过出色的成就。所有人骄傲的我,因为我是第一个大学生在我的村庄。我被他们告别热烈当我来到学校。我也被学校热烈欢迎。之后,我觉得我的研究不仅为自己,也为我的村庄附近和我们学校的荣誉。大学生活是美好的。在学校的生活是新鲜的。新教师,新同学和新朋友。我觉得他们的友谊,广博的知识和开放的头脑。大图书馆、学校的大楼和宽阔的操场很吸引我。我非常渴望学习很多知识。在高中,我以前称为跑步时间。现在,我知道我背后的时间太多。我希望我努力学习赶上时间的。每一天,你可以看到我早起,努力锻炼,第一个去上学。在晚上,我的人离开了图书馆。
大学恋爱英语演讲稿篇2
As it is known, when we are in high school, we all have a constant goal that is to get the entrance to college, and hard work is out of question for the following. So we gain the notice to college finally which we often dream of in the nights, which proves a proverb that the god doesn’t live up to someone who spends time and efforts, please memorize the sentence for good.
Of course one day we went to college in August or September happily and proudly, but at the same time something happened that it made your heart pounding fiercely next, by the way, that is love for many college students. And then they miss the directions and their selves as well for their lives. Next I am to express that I am neutral for falling in love in college, however I have some ideas to illustrate of my own.www.shanpow.com_university演讲稿。
Firstly, if you are passers-by, I think we will find a lot about several couples of boyfriends and girlfriends under the dorms or dim corners or in the classes without anybody for close postures, as youngsters, it is normal without asking cause about that.
Secondly, even worth mentioning is that many young boys and girls couldn’t attend classes and courses instead of traveling to some sceneries and sight places or doing other things only to turn out them loved each other.
Thirdly, especially to most of freshmen, please don’t be influenced by the phenomenon that a number of students who finds anther half called by them selves proudly, because I think persons are different from each other, different characters, backgrounds and aims.
But there is one point to obey if you actually want to have an attempt the feeling for love at first sight: it is , whenever you and I am, the learning and the work is the most principle rather than love is the first and work second, for we aren’t children and teenagers anymore, in the future society needs a comprehensive qualifications, profound and extensive knowledge persons, meanwhile in college you are in the state of half foot to society which time is a most important process to exercise and experience before stepping to complicated and complex society, and therefore we are supposed to spend much time in learning instead.
What are mentioned above are only my opinions, believing that others have more perfect for falling in love in college.
带翻译：
众所周知,当我们在高中的时候,我们都有一个恒定的目标是让大学的入口和努力工作是下列的问题。所以我们得到通知大学最后我们常常梦想的夜晚,这是一个谚语,上帝不会辜负的人花费时间和精力,请记住这句话。
www.shanpow.com_university演讲稿。 当然有一天,我们上了大学在8月或9月幸福和骄傲,但同时发生了一件事,你的心猛烈地跳动,顺便说一下,这是对很多大学生的爱。然后他们小姐的方向和他们的自我生活。接下来我来表达,我中立的恋爱在大学,但是我有一些自己的思想来说明。
首先,如果你是路人,我认为我们会发现很多关于几个男友和女友夫妇在宿舍或昏暗的角落或类没有任何亲密的姿势,作为年轻人,它是正常的没有问原因。
其次,更值得一提的是,许多年轻男孩和女孩不能上课,课程而不是去一些风景和视线的地方或做其它事情,最终他们彼此相爱。
第三,尤其是新生,请不要影响的现象,许多学生发现花药一半被他们自我骄傲,因为我认为人是不同的,不同的人物,背景和目标。
但有一点服从如果你真的想要试图一见钟情的感觉:是,只要你和我,学习和工作是最原则而不是爱是第一,工作第二,因为我们不再是儿童和青少年,在未来社会需要一个全面的资格,深刻和广泛的知识,与此同时,在大学你的脚一半社会时间是一个最重要的过程锻炼和经验之前复杂的和复杂的社会,所以我们应该花很多时间在学习。
上面提到的仅仅是我的意见,相信其他人也更适合在大学里恋爱。
大学恋爱英语演讲稿篇3
Now it is commonly held that dating in university is acceptable, which has become a hot point under discussion. Some people hold the opinion that students should put their study in the first place. Besides, fall in love with someone could causes extra spending, which is a burden for students and their parents. While others argue that dating could be good for students.
For one thing, dating could help student learn how to be more socialize. Now the phenomenon is not rare to see that students only show up in classroom, dormitory and refectory, this triangle model makes students have less chance to make now friends that will probably lead to social apathy. For that reason, we should approve of dating in university, so that students could have more motive power to go out to find someone who is fit in them. Obviously, the ability of socialize will be promoted by osmosis.
For another, there is an old saying which goes that men and women with the work and not tired. It is true that when a couple work or study together, they will feel less exhausted, because we always want to show our best side to the one we love. Besides, student couple study together is more efficient, for they have the same target and they will encouraged each other.
Taking all these factors into account, we should approve of dating in university. It could make college life more vividly, enrich student’s life style and help them to be more socializing.
现在人们普遍认为大学恋爱是可以接受的，这个现在已经成为人们谈论的焦点了。有些人认为学生应该把他们的学业放在第一位，除此之外，谈恋爱会造成额外的费用，这会成为学生和家长的负担。然而有些人认为谈恋爱是对学生有好处的。
第一，约会能让学生学会如何社交。现在学生只出现在教室，宿舍和食堂的情况并不少见，这种三角模式让学生少有机会结识新朋友，这很可能会导致社交冷淡。介于这个原因，我们应该赞成大学恋爱，这样学生就会有更多动力出去寻找合适他们的伴侣。很明显，这能潜移默化地增强他们的社交能力。
第二，有句老话说：男女搭配干活不累。这是真的，当伴侣在一起工作或者学习，他们不会那么容易觉得疲惫，因为我们总是想把最好的一面展现给心爱的人。除此之外，学生情侣一起学习更有效率，因为他们有共同的目标，还有他们会相互鼓励对方。
考虑到这些因素，我们应当赞成大学恋爱。这能让大学生活更生机勃勃，丰富学生的生活方式，帮助他们更社交化。
【四】:大学创业英语演讲稿3篇
英语演讲，是指以英语为载体，针对某个话题发表自己的意见和看法，以此来影响、感染听众，达到一种宣传目的的交际活动。小编为大家整理了大学创业英语演讲稿3篇，欢迎大家阅读。
大学创业英语演讲稿篇1
Nowadays, more and more university graduates complain that graduation does not equate to employment. They experience great difficulties finding satisfactory jobs. What is the cause of this phenomenon
In my opinion, there are four causes:
First, graduates lack experience. They spend most of their time at school studying academic subjects and lack relevant job training. Only after graduation do they realize it’s hard to find jobs.
Second, competition among graduates grows more bitter and more bitter and bitter. The supply of university graduates exceeds social demand. This results in a decreased chance for any individual graduate to find a job.
Third, some students don’t study hard. Some of them skip classes just because they have no interest in certain subjects. Some play computer games or pursue other interests. Some sleep in class or in the library. Then they leave the sheltered environment of the university campus, to discover they don’t have adequate knowledge to apply for many positions, which makes them feel lost and frustrated.
Finally, some graduates are conceited. They lack experience but ask for a high salary, which is impractical.
So, university students should try their best to change this situation. When they are in school, they should make the most of their time and put their heart into their studies. They can hold part-time jobs in their spare time to accumulate relevant work experience. They should take part in some social activities and provide themselves with special training, if possible. When they graduate and apply for jobs, they should attach more importance to accumulating experience than to their starting salary.
大学创业英语演讲稿篇2
Good afternoon! The topic of my speech today is "the youth to venture".
Very pleased to be able to discuss and offer this topic, youth, youth need to realize their life values and business isthe best way to realize their life values, So we can draw a conclusion - youth need. Business is business, difficult, As we years cold window study, we urge the mood of a weltburgergesellschaft university school. Here, we absorb the previous wisdom receiving the humanistic moral essence, the baptism. We are happy, is honored. Because we are students, we have knowledge of the oceans, swim perseverance have tenacity climbing, science is more rational traversing a colorful world.
People gave us the glorious titles, give us so much pleasure aura, gave us a hearty repaying the society, the family of the sacred duty. This is our students have conscience. In the palace of knowledge that we do with friend, a day for soul to get noble personality, to get high, let life! It sublimation Some people do, always let conscience and try our best to move yourself traction of the solid foundation of exhibition pad. However, make us sadly, in this way to light and bright, someone is easily throwing a conscience, let the dark covered himself.
Ma3 jia jue2, once the lovely children, old stories, but never thought he would personally killed died four classmates their classmates. Four not blind soul left for us, is deeply thinking. As a college student, ma3 jia jue2, this should defend their conscience of the land, positive and optimistic, overcome psychological do so. But regret is he vanished all this, let oneself with the same crime ripper platform, the ultimate let ruined his evil. He was sad, because he can't let students in their heart of conscience, thus causing a deep-rooted today that cannot be redeemed tragic.
And this one for his misfortune, or the cry for his naive and laugh, because of xianyang male freshmen in regard to the flowers on valentine's day, but he declined to girls were to choose from and to stop himself and life. He gave his people died, but he's young, sympathy, sympathy of his ignorance. As college students, no students more AD cool-headed, disposal of college students should have broad mind, it is really a college's grief.
More has an incredibly legal professional college students, in order to pay for his father, was kidnapped 20 yuan, blackmail neighbor kid cash. The arrest, but not to hurt, the disposal of the request. True, the pain is the harrowing for her so thin legal consciousness of pain, She was so easy for his wonderful future ruin the pain, As a student, she is more devoid of conscience hurts.
In the event, etc, bring us around us is shocked, is thinking. Ask: what is in our heart, we make the changes they produce quality? Is inferior, is fragile, is ignorant, I this is the answer.
Faced with the setback, career, they could not overcome by perseverance and wisdom, stupid and failure, Facing the trap they can't live, because blindly reined in one story, and fall. All crimes to produce is wrong, seemingly career, sound the mistakes of others, but I think the criticism is more shall as a student, but devoid of college friends. We are sincere, optimistic, our college, and civilization, we warmly, full of career of life, full of faith. This is the essence of us, it is our friend. Ma3 jia jue2, they threw out these, it is their grief, but we don't. Our understanding of the meaning of life philosophy, we engraved the limited life, cast into the endless for human life seeks happiness, WangShi died in light of energy, lets the human, to illuminate the generations of fire burning.
The classmate! Don't let the tragedy of silly songs, repeat, encourage repeat in this permeated with wisdom and thinking on the stage. Let us join hands to keep our conscience, in order to play the contemporary university students' fine belongs to us. Let us join hands to defend our conscience, in order to open belong to our life of contemporary college students sailing.
大学创业英语演讲稿篇3
Recently, the sub-loan crisis, Lehman Brothers bankrupt, Merrill Lynch & Co. changed hands, the continued turmoil in the global economy, global financial crises are rampant. Unemployment and employment problem faced by various countries and has become the focus of attention, following, I will explain the impact of financial crisis on college students in detail, and give some advice to college students about responding to the financial crisis. First of all, under the impact of the financial crisis, the problem of the employment becomes more and more prominent. As more and more people attach importance to education, the number of college graduates is also increasing year by year, now, the financial-crisis make more difficult in the employment of college students. Secondly, the financial crisis forced the students to change the concept of employment. In the impact of the financial crisis, the students had to change the concept of previous employment, mainly in the following two aspects:
First, students lowered the expectations of all aspects, such as high wages, good working environment, low-intensity work, and so on. Second, many college students are willing to go to small cities and rural areas to work.
Third, the financial crisis makes the cost of looking for work higher. The cost includes time, money, energy, physical costs. Most small-size company bankrupt or being-bankrupt, they canceled the original recruitment plans, and even layoffs, making the position of jobs very few. There are many students voted in resume, no echo, spent a lot of energy and time. Fourth, more and more college students pay attention to the pre-vocational training. In order to adapt to the work, enterprise more and more pay attention to the quality of talent.
University students in order to improve their competitiveness, many college students choose a pre-vocational training before work.
Fifth, more and more college Students start their own business-plan. Under the influence of the financial crisis, college students start their own business-plan with the support and assistance of schools, government and society.
Finally, under the employment pressure, an increasing number of graduates choose to further studies. In the severe employment pressure, most university graduates choose to continue to deepen their professional knowledge, in order to avoid a period of sluggish job market. Then, face the financial crisis, college students how to deal with this? I will present my views and suggestions.
(1) Students should be to maintain an optimistic attitude, see the crises, at the same time, must have the eyes of finding-machine. After a analysis of marketing, choose a good business project, with the help and assistance of society, government, schools and other organize, carry out own businesses plan. This is not only can avoid the brutal competition for jobs, and can enliven the employment environment to ease the employment pressure.
(2) To find work, attention should be paid to the individual capital accumulated. In this particular job environment, students can choose small and medium-sized company, may also be engaged in flexible employment, including temporary employment, part-time employment. In the employment process, college student must concern about the individual capital accumulated, in order to find better job.
(3) Continuing their education through the difficult period of employment. Students may choose to post-graduate studies, on the one hand, it can increase the professional knowledge, on the other hand, it can avoid the hard-time of employment-marking.
(4)College students should do the job of the training to enrich and improve themselves, and to enhance the competitiveness of their own employment and achieve self-confidence of employment.
(5) Students should change the concept of employment. Students can no longer hold the concept of previous employment to find job, can not stare at the big city and indulge in easy, comfortable job. Serving small-sized cities, towns, villages and countries should be considered.
(6) When college students look for a job, college students should make good use of social network. In China's cultural background, the use of networks of social relations is very helpful. Especially in the tight labor market environment, Specific social networks, such as: parents, relatives, classmates, friends, alumni.
(7) Students should adjust the mentality of a good employment and reduce their employment expectations, we should be employed first, and then find another good job.
(8)College students should grasp any internship opportunities to upgrade their professional knowledge and application of practical ability, in order to improve their competitiveness of employment.
Overall, under the impact of financial crisis, college students not only to changes the primary concepts in employment, but also continuously upgrade the quality and ability of their own, participate in job training to strengthen and expand their professional knowledge.
Besides, college student should make good use of the help of schools, government and social, start own businesses plan.
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3.2分钟励志英语演讲稿3篇www.shanpow.com_university演讲稿。
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【五】:毕业典礼演讲稿英文3篇
对于学生来说,英语演讲是提高其英语综合运用能力的一个重要的手段。而英语演讲稿的撰写对于英语演讲的成败起着至关重要的作用。下面小编整理了毕业典礼演讲稿英文3篇，供你参考。
毕业典礼演讲稿英文篇1
Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a ood look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude.
"In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers.
"You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I, Lawrence 'Larry' Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not.
"Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college dropout, and you are not.
"Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not.
"And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not.
"Hmm . . . you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word 'therapy.' All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy.
"You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to No. 10 or No. 11, like Steve Ballmer. But then, I don't have to tell you who he really works for, do I? And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer.
"Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, are wondering, 'Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all?' Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 19 anymore. You have a built-in cap, and I'm not referring to the mortar boards on your heads.
"Hmm... you're really very upset. That's understandable. So perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago.
"Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough: leave. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up.
"For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as surely as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me down . . ."
(At this point The Oracle CEO was ushered off stage.)
毕业典礼演讲稿英文篇2
you all are leaving your alma mater now. i have no gift to present you all except a piece of advice.
what i would like to advise is that "don’t give up your study." most of the courses you have taken are partly for your certificate. you had no choice but to take them. from now on, you may study on your own. i would advise you to work hard at some special field when you are still young and vigorous. your youth will be gone that will never come back to you again. when you are old, and when your energy are getting poorer, you will not be able to as you wish to. even though you have to study in order to make a living, studies will never live up to you. making a living without studying, you will be shifted out in three or five years. at this time when you hope to make it up, you will say it is too late. perhaps you will say, "after graduation and going into the society, we will meet with an urgent problem, that is, to make a living. for this we have no time to study. even though we hope to study, we have no library nor labs, how can we study further?"
i would like to say that all those who wait to have a library will not study further even though they have one and all these who wait to have a lab will not do experiments even though they have one. when you have a firm resolution and determination to solve a problem, you will naturally economize on food and clothing.
as for time, i should say it’s not a problem. you may know that every day he could do only an hour work, not much more than that because darwin was ill for all his life. you must have read his achievements. every day you spend an hour in reading 10 useful pages, then you will read more than 3650 pages every year. in 30 years you will have read 110,000 pages.
my fellow students, reading 110,000 pages will make you a scholar. but it will take you an hour to read three kinds of small-sized newspapers and it will take you an hour and a half to play four rounds of mahjian pieces. reading small-sized newspapers or playing mahjian pieces, or working hard to be a scholar? it’s up to you all.
henrik ibsen said, "it is your greatest duty to make yourself out."
studying is then as tool as casting. giving up studying will destroy yourself.
i have to say goodbye to you all. your alma mater will open her eyes to see what you will be in 10 years. goodbye!
毕业典礼演讲稿英文篇3
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 girl. 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 retuned 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.
