Steve Jobs facing cancer

On June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs told three short stories about himself in his graduation speech at Stanford University in the United States.

The first story refers to life as a child. Entered college at age 17, but dropped out soon after. He didn't know what he wanted to do next, and he didn't see how the university could help him. Still, at that stage he knew exactly what he liked and didn't like to do. After stopping school, he had more time to do what he liked. As a result, he founded Apple Kingdom with his friends when he was 20 years old.

The second story tells that after he was fired from the Apple company he founded, he lost his power, but found that he still loved his career and decided to start over. He later discovered that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to him, making him feel free and creative again. Not only did he start a new company, he fell in love with the woman who would become his wife.

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 thing 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 doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that 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 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 doctor 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, thankfully, I am 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's 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's 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 heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

It was precisely because he had faced death that he realized what was the most important thing in life. 

After Jobs passed away in 2011, his sister Mona Simpson attended the memorial service held for Jobs at Stanford University and revealed Jobs' last words when delivering a eulogy.

Before Steve Jobs passed away, he first looked at Simpson, then at his children, then at his wife, and finally at everyone and said: "Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow."

There was a smile on his face, and everything remain unspoken.