The exact words
The third story
Steve Jobs organized his 2005 Stanford commencement speech around three stories. The first was about dropping out of college and following his curiosity; the second about being fired from Apple, the company he co-founded. The third was about death.
About a year earlier, Jobs had been told he had a tumor on his pancreas and, at first, that he probably had only months to live. Further tests showed it was a rare form that could be treated with surgery, and he told the graduates he was fine. But the experience had sharpened something he had believed since he was seventeen: that remembering you will die is the best way to avoid thinking you have something to lose.
It was in this part of the speech that he said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” He went on to warn against being trapped by dogma, which he described as living by the results of other people’s thinking, and against letting the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
What it means
The line is often shared as a productivity slogan, but its real subject is independence. Jobs was telling young people that their parents, teachers, peers and society would all have plans for them, and that following those plans by default is a way of wasting a short life. The urgency came from someone who had just stared at his own mortality.
Jobs died in October 2011, at 56, and this section of the speech was shared widely in the days afterward.
How to use it
The line is powerful at graduations, and it can also honor someone at a memorial who lived life on their own terms. Keep the quotation short and credit the 2005 Stanford speech; the full text is available from Stanford.
What people get wrong
A motivational slogan about productivity and not wasting time.
It is about independence, not efficiency. Jobs's point was to stop living by other people's expectations, said by a man who had just faced his own death.
Timeline
- 2003Jobs is diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
- 2004He has surgery and tells Apple staff he has been cured.
- June 12, 2005In the third story of his Stanford speech, about death, Jobs tells the graduates that their time is limited.
- October 5, 2011Jobs dies at 56. Clips of this part of the speech are shared around the world.
Use it in a speech
Questions people ask
Where did Steve Jobs say “Your time is limited”?
In his commencement address at Stanford University on June 12, 2005, in the third of the speech's three stories, which was about death.
What did he mean?
That life is too short to follow other people's expectations or conventional thinking. He urged graduates to have the courage to follow their own heart and intuition.
Why did he talk about death at a graduation?
He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and had surgery in 2004. He said facing death made it easier to ignore fear and outside expectations.
Cite this quote
These cite the original source directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.
Sources
- Stanford News, “'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says” (text of the 2005 commencement address).
- Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (Simon & Schuster, 2011).