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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, it’s 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 it’s 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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Una de las nuevas, y que promete mucho, es Contentaide.  Creada por uno de los periodistas de VentureBeat (Codi Barbierri), el web te manda un informe diario de todo lo que haya pasado con la pagina en cuestion.  No solo postings, mensajes, fans y ‘me gusta’, si no tambien informacion mas interesante como tags en fotos, comentarios en mensajes y varios temas de interactividad con la pagina por parte de usuarios.

Ademas dice Babierri que la herramienta da un porcentaje de exito de cada post que se escribe contando el numero de interactividades (me gustas y comentarios) con respecto al numero de fans que tiene la pagina en cuestion.

Muy interesante y otra herramienta que viene a engrosar la lista donde ya habia otras como hiperalerts.

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Cientos de personas con sus teorías sobre a qué se va a dedicar Hipster.  La que más fuerza está cogiendo es una especie de Quora.com con geo-location.  Es decir, una comunidad alrededor de preguntas/respuestas y ‘temas de interés’ pero en la zona en la que estas.  Pero hay otras: una campaña para American Apparel, una red social para ‘Hipsters’, hasta un simple falso rumor (los famosos hoax tan de moda en internet).

En fin, yo por si acaso me he dado de alta, no vaya a ser que sea de verdad algo cool y me lo vaya a perder (además, siempre es bueno decir “fui de los primero que se dio de alta en Twitter….”)

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Gracias al uso, en ocasiones compulsivo, que hago de aplicaciones de geo-localización (Foursquare, Gowalla, DoubleDutch ), he aprendido que lo que hace a este tipo de aplicación atractivo es que el contenido sea fresco, único y genuino.

Es decir, que me voy a desayunar al restaurante de debajo de mi trabajo y decido hacer un check-in, el mismo check-in que hice ayer y antes de ayer. Obviamente, mis contactos pierden interés, lo que les hace aburrirse y probablemente dejar de usar la aplicación, o lo que es peor, dejar de ser mis amigos.

Es por esta razón que todas las empresas del sector están incluyendo herramientas para facilitar al usuario el aportar contenido único con el check-in. Es decir, que cuando decides publicar a los cuatro vientos el bar donde estas, puedes incorporar un mensaje (shout), fotos e incluso tu opinión del lugar.

Una nueva empresa que esta haciendo esto muy bien (y a la que auguro un enorme futuro) es la aplicación de fotografías  Instagram. Una aplicación que nació con la idea de ser otro clon de Foursquare, pero incluyendo fotos con efectos en los check-ins (Foursquare no incluyó esta posibilidad hasta el upgrade de finales de Diciembre).

En las primeras semanas de existencia, los creadores decidieron cambiar radicalmente la aplicación, dejar a un lado los check-ins y centrarse exclusivamente en las fotografías . Le dieron el sistema de Twitter con followers, y la misma forma de presentar el contenido.  Digamos que Instagram es un ‘Twitter de fotos’. (Si quieres saber más de su historia, aquí tienes al CEO respondiendo en Quora).

El mayor atractivo de la aplicación, seas o no seas un amante de la fotografía, es la posibilidad de crear contenido único (y cool) a través de las fotografías, poniéndole la guinda con el efecto que elijas (un par de ejemplos mios, 1 y 2). Otro ingrediente básico para el éxito, es la rápida exposición de tus creaciones, así como la posibilidad de recibir feedback de tus followers.  A mí me encanta cuando a alguien le gusta una de mis fotos, o deja un comentario.

En definitiva, Instagram es un buen ejemplo de una aplicación simple que triunfa gracias a la facilidad de compartir contenido único y genuino.

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Principalmente porque al hacerlo, las empresas consiguen tocar al cliente en su fuero interno: sus emociones.  Sea cual sea la razón que le haga a dicho cliente engancharse a dichas actividades, se convertirá en un embajador de esa marca.  Además, desde que se lanzo la Wii y los juegos sociales llegaron a los niveles actuales, todos nos estamos convirtiendo más y más en jugones.  Y, para mucho, la vida en si es un juego.

Aquí os paso la mejor presentación que he visto sobre Gamification por uno de los mayores expertos a nivel mundial, Amy Jo Kim (a la que tuve el gusto de ver en un workshop sobre el tema).

Así que, tocando todos esos palos, Gamification no será una moda, sino una parte básica de cualquier ejercicio de venta por parte de un negocio.

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Pues bien, resulta que Zynga es masiva.  La empresa de juegos online más grande del mundo, en tan solo 3 años.  Posiblemente es la empresa de juegos con el mayor número de jugadores de la historia (esto es, cuanta gente ha jugado alguno de sus juegos alguna vez).  Cada mes casi 300millones de personas en el mundo juegan a uno de sus juegos.  O, lo que es más impresionante, casi 60millones cada día!!!  Impresionante.

Hasta ahora, el rumor por aquí era que le costaba mucho inventar y hacer nuevos juegos, que no iba a repetir nunca más el éxito de Farmville (un juego que, en su punto álgido, jugaron casi 85 millones de personas diferentes en un mismo mes).  Los últimos juegos de Zynga, como Frontierville, han tenido grandes registros también, pero no inventaron mucho.  Se pensaba que sin el efecto del gran network de jugadores que ya tienen en sus juegos no podrían hacer que nuevos juegos crecieran, por lo que el techo del tamaño que alcanzarían seria el números de jugadores que tuvieran en los otros juegos.  Y que nunca tendrían un nuevo Farmville.

Pues mira por donde que no es así.  Su último juego, Cityville, tiene algunas funcionalidades de viralidad brillantes.  La idea es sencilla: te enganchas llegando hasta un punto, y a partir de ahí, o invitas a 9 amigos, o no puedes crecer tu ciudad.  Puedes jugar, puedes hacer cosas, pero no puedes crecer.  Y además las invitaciones de tus amigos deben ser aceptadas para que sean validas, por lo que se aseguran 20, 30 incluso 40 invitaciones enviadas por jugador. Si no más.  Con estas ideas, y un muy buen modelo de juego, han conseguido un juego que ayer mismo jugaron casi 19millones de personas, mas de 97millones jugaron este mes, y va camino de convertirse en un juego de unos 120millones al mes.  O incluso más.

Absolutamente espectacular, y una prueba más de que los juegos sociales (sobre todo los de Facebook) no son una moda: no han hecho más que empezar.

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Una opción que algunos están buscando es  invertir en otros negocios que estén en el entorno de Facebook.  Una de esas empresas es Snap interactive (STVI), creadores de una de las aplicaciones de ‘ligar’ más exitosas en Facebook: Areyouinterested.com Lo que hace interesante este negocio es que han creado una buena conexión del modelo típico de otros servicios similares con los ‘virtual goods’ dentro del modelo ‘freemium’.  El modelo es sencillo, pero no por ello menos brillante: busca perfiles que te gusten, puedes entablar cierta interacción con dichas personas gratuitamente, pero otras funciones (como recibir sus mensajes, chatear, etc…) necesitas créditos.  Estos créditos se consiguen interactuando con la pagina, aunque más fácil si los compras.  Y ahí está lo interesante del negocio.

La empresa ha registrado un fuerte aumento de ventas en el último trimestre (de $1.7mm a $2.7), hace unas semanas Bloomberg escribió una historia sobre ellos y, en menos de 1 mes, la acción se ha disparado: de $0.18 a más de $3.

Hay otras empresas que también tienen una gran esperanza puesta en sus negocios en Facebook y en las que se pueden invertir como EA, Monster.com o Liberty Media.

Así que ya sabéis, si no conseguís uno de los paquetes que se están vendiendo de Facebook en el mercado privado (por cierto, otra buena liada ahí que puede acabar con el SEC obligando a Facebook a salir a bolsa no más tarde de 2012, quieran o no), podéis buscar uno de estos valores asociados y jugárosla.

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Empecé a usarla, aunque no demasiado.  Últimamente no paro de escuchar que va a ser el ‘twitter’ del 2011 (básicamente, la empresa que mas prensa y crecimiento va a tener este año).  Y estoy seguro que es así.  Quién no la conozca, atentos.

Básicamente es ‘yahoo answers’ mezclado con ‘twiter’ mezclado con ‘Facebook’.  Y con un poco de ‘wikipedia’.  Un sitio donde las conversaciones ocurren alrededor de preguntas y respuestas, donde puedes seguir a expertos, que te sigan a ti, seguir ‘asuntos’ (para ver todo lo que se escribe alrededor de un tema de tu interés), y algunas funcionalidades más que la hacen adictiva (la forma en la que se organizan las preguntas y respuestas, puedes editar las mismas para hacerlas más entendibles a la comunidad, etc…).

De momento la he usado para resolver algunas dudas que tenia del iPad (la mayoría ya estaban resueltas, pero una la he tenido que preguntar y en 2 minutos tenia la respuesta; obviamente me he hecho follower del tipo en cuestión y del ‘asunto’ iPad).  Es una fuente de información brutal, y va a más.  Obviamente son expertos en ‘SEO’, y quora.com ya empieza a salir primero en muchas de las preguntas que pones en google.

Por desgracia fuera de USA es solo con invitación, así que quien quiera que me lo diga y le invito.  Quien tenga cuenta y quiera invitar, vete a http://www.quora.com/contacts?  y desde ahí lo puedes hacer.

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