Steve Jobs Commencement Address

With the recent death of Steve Jobs--one of the real geniuses of our time--I thought that public speaking students (and actually just about anyone) would enjoy reading a commencement speech he delivered some years ago. I think this is a wonderful speech and I tried to reprint it in the last edition of my public speaking book but, unfortunately, permission was denied. But, it's a great speech and, fortunately, readily available online. I think students will find this interesting, relevant, instructive, and inspirational.

Commencement Speech

In revising my Essential Elements of Public Speaking I wanted to include an excellent speech by Steve Jobs--a commencement speech he gave at Stanford. It's really a wonderful speech with a great message. But, Apple refused permission. For some strange reason, and even after my pleading with them, they refused to grant permission to use this speech, even though it's readily available on the Internet. At any rate, it's a speech that I think you'll find useful when covering the special occasion speech in public speaking or in fundamentals of communication.