Optimism at Its Finest in Our Lives

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Having a negative mindset has never gotten anyone very far in life. Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford, discusses how positivity can affect an individual’s life. Positivity can have different meanings depending on an individual’s mindset, either optimism or perseverance. Steve Jobs’s speech at Stanford argues that optimism and perseverance are the two most important traits that allows one to achieve the most he or she can within their lifetime.

Having a positive outlook during tough times is essential to receiving good results, as shown through the optimism and fearlessness within individuals.

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In Steve Jobs’s speech at Stanford, he explains, “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 inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition”(23). Jobs explains that blocking out negative opinions is essential for one to stay on the task of following their dream.

In addition, Jobs also stated, “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 workout OK”(5). This shows that Jobs being optimistic about the big risk that he took, as Jobs became very successful in the future, it eventually paid off.

Steve Jobs may not have been where he is today, without taking these risks. Furthermore, Steve Jobs said, “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”(9). This supports the idea of being fearless about one’s decisions and having hope that in the future it will be beneficial to their life.

The path of trying to reach a goal is never straight, there will always be difficulty in achieving it. From Jobs’s speech, he explained how he was fired from his own company, Apple, and how it set his life back. During the time post-fire, he discussed that it spurred a creative period in his life where he created a company called NeXT, which was eventually bought out by Apple and allowed him reentry in Apple. When Jobs got fired from his own company, he was devastated; however he did not let the setback allow him to give up, but instead decided to branch out and start all over again to get back to where he was. In addition, Jobs said, “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”(15). This reveals although things may seem negative in the moment there is always some sort of positive outcome in the end. Despite the circumstances an individual should always try and keep an optimistic outlook. In Chris Jones’s “The Essential Man,” Roger Ebert states, “We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try” (34). Ebert places a priority on the goal of contributing joy to the world for everyone's benefit. He is focused on achieving that goal, explaining that it must be reached no matter the circumstance. By pushing through the difficulties presented and being persistent resulted in a desired outcome.

Some may think that whether an individual has an optimistic or pessimistic outlook does not matter in whether or not someone lives a successful life. As shown by Hamlet, living a life of negativity is not only toxic towards the individual themselves but also towards those around them. By being alive without any reason to go on

From Steve Jobs getting fired and Roger Ebert’s sickness they have all shown examples of optimism and perseverance. Both traits of optimism and perseverance, mentioned by Steve Jobs in his speech at Stanford, are essential qualities for anyone eager to achieve any goal. Steve Jobs has been a living example of what persistent optimism and perseverance can allow one to achieve.