Entrepreneur. Businessman. Inventor. Industrial Designer. Not to mention he was one of the most famous of them all. Steve Jobs was an American icon, and he left a lasting impact on the world through his miraculous advice. Many of his most famous quotes came from his Commencement Speech at Stanford University in July of 2005. His speech was beautifully written and organized into three emotional stories from his life, and tied together in the end so well he made it seem as though his life unraveled perfectly. He discussed the topics of love, loss, and failure, which are considered emotional topics to open up about. Through emotion, Steve Jobs conveyed his message in a unique and impactful way. Steve Jobs used all the necessary rhetoric devices of ethos, logos, and pathos. However, he used pathos arguably more than ethos and logos in this famous commencement speech to spread his message that to experience success, one needs to believe in spirit, themselves, and that they deserve that desired happiness. Jobs uses the rhetorical device of pathos most commonly in his speech. Through his short explanations of life experiences, he connected to the audience on a deeper and more personal level. Pathos is described to appeal to the audience’s emotions, which is exactly what Jobs’ specialty is. Steve Jobs’ second topic in the speech that he discussed was failure/loss. Jobs explained that he created a company named Apple with another individual, and they were fairly successful, until they hired a new boss they thought was talented and capable of co-managing the company. As soon as that boss’ views differed from Jobs’ views, they “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” (Jobs 11). When Steve Jobs explains this experience to his audience, he connects with them. Every individual has had their fair share with failure, so they understand the feelings behind it. Therefore, they share something with the speaker. That creates a strong use of pathos in his commencement speech. Steve Jobs also shares his story with disease, more specifically pancreas cancer. Everyone has gone
Steve Job’s commencement speech in 2005 at Stanford University, which is one of the best university in our country was very memorable and inspiring for Stanford graduates and also for audience listening to speech. In his speech, Jobs inspires students and audience to pursue their dreams and always to follow their heart no matter what even though things don’t always go according to plan and never give up. Steve Job is mainly known for his contributions in the technological world but along with that he is also recognized for his world-renowned presentations. Jobs’ simplicity in delivery and extensive use of rhetoric makes his speech effective and comparable to speeches of famous narrators. In this commencement speech, Jobs uses simplicity in the structure of his speech along with the use of rhetoric such as ethos and pathos besides usage of personal stories to make this speech effective in inspiring his audience and making it memorable.
1. In his speech, Steve Jobs presents several elements of pathos. Write down five of the examples that involve Jobs’ use of pathos and explain why he shares these elements with the audience.
This essay is about the elements of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, in Steve Jobs Harvard commencement speech. The element of Ethos is covered in his talks about dropping out of college, in his first story. The element of Pathos is covered in his story about his brush with death. And Logos is covered all through the story, and is mainly hinted at when he talks about being fired from Apple, and then becoming the CEO of three companies.
“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” (Jobs). At Stanford University’s 2005 graduation ceremony, Steve Jobs was invited to give a speech that would serve an impact on those beginning their lives. Throughout the speech, Jobs elaborated on the background story of his life, successes, and failures, which all pertained to the true purpose of his speech. His stories and lessons had the ability to grasp the audience due to his consistent use of pathos, repetition, antitheton, and logos, all of which were enveloped into a short and simple structure that supported his statements regarding how individuals should live their own lives. Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech contains rhetorical devices that all contribute to his exertion of life-changing advice that could benefit all individuals of society striving for success.
At age 50, Steve Jobs gave the 2005 Commencement address to the graduating class of Stanford. Throughout his speech, he references both his real world examples of rhetoric, and allowed the class to question their own path in life. His speech was both on his path towards failure and success, and his story on how he transformed from a college dropout to the CEO of Apple Computers and Pixar Animation. By utilizing all techniques of rhetoric, including logos, pathos, and ethos, he allows the students to be experience to his story and allows them to go down a blank path in life.
One element that contributes to Steve Jobs’ ethos is the fact that he is so successful in his career. Already knowing who Steve Jobs was, he led the audience to the appeal that we is successful because of his company in which he worked hard for. One of the first things he mentioned in his speech to make it so he is comes off as smart when he says he created Apple, a multi-billion dollar company, and Pixar, the “most successful animation studio in the world.” This adds on to his knowledgeable self, creating validity because the people listening view Jobs as being high in the successful level and makes the audience believe him. Jobs continues with his reliability by saying that he was a college dropout and still went on to be extremely successful.
A Rhetorical Analysis of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech for Stanford University's Graduating Class of 2005: Jobs titled his speech "You've got to find what you love." Steve Jobs is best known as an American entrepreneur, inventor and industrial designer. He was the cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. and founder, CEO and chairman of Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs and cofounder of Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak are wildly recognized as pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.
Jobs began his speech by allowing all who were present inside of his personal life. The newborn baby, Jobs had been put up for adoption. His birth mother wanted him to go to a family that had attended college. The adopting parents never attended college; they were a part of the working class. They did, however, promise that Jobs would one day attend college. By letting the audience in on such a personal subject Jobs demonstrates pathos, the use of an emotional appeal to the audience. More than just an emotion, dealing with sympathy toward his young life was used throughout the speech. Jobs also snuck in some humor, such as, “And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s possible that no personal computer would have them” (2). Jobs used emotion to grasp the audience’s attention throughout the discourse.
In the text of the commencement speech he had made at Stanford University in 2005, it states, “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” (Jobs). Steve Jobs was left with nothing. He had spared each and every penny for he was truly left on his own with nothing. Pathos is most effectively used in Jobs’s commencement speech because it lets the reader know and feel what he feels. Another use of the rhetorical device, pathos, was the idea of death which was brought up by Jobs when he had shared his experience of being the closest to death he had ever been. Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer, and was told he had only months to live. At this point of his life, Jobs realized how precious time can be. Following the previous quote, the commencement speech said by Steve Jobs at Stanford University, states “This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept”(Jobs). Death was certainly a topic many feel desolation towards. It makes you realize how precious time is and how it has to be treasured. Steve Jobs uses pathos, here, by making the reader feel anxious and sad. The audience feels anxious or stressed out, for thinking about the time they have left on
Steve Jobs’s commencement speech was chiefly aimed at inspiring the Stanford graduates to follow their dreams once they go out into the real world. Jobs looked to guide his primary audience with him “[wanting] to tell [them] three stories from [his] life” to teach them lessons about starting up, love, loss, and death. Aside from the principal audience, the orator also geared his speech toward the thousands of entrepreneurs who aim for prosperity. He explained in multiple instances where he “didn’t know what to do,” but later bounced back and his life got “better and better.” Furthermore, Jobs appealed to millennials when he purposely incorporates jokes about “Windows [copying] the Mac” and mentioning that he was “very publicly out” of his own company. These news stories engage millennials because they would have knowledge of these moments through word of mouth or different news outlets. With over twenty-seven million views on this speech to date, Steve Jobs conveyed his encouraging message to multiple rhetorical audiences who sympathized with Jobs’s hardships.
On his commencement speech to Stanford students on June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple computers and PIXAR animations, used carefully crafted inspirational anecdotes and rhetorical devices like ethos and pathos to move his audience to explore, follow their dream and do what they love no matter the odds.
“It turned out that being fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to me,” said Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was a successful, college dropout. In his speech How to Live Before You Die he explains his journey to success. Steve gave his speech to the graduating class of 2005 from Stanford College. Throughout his speech, he uses trust, emotion, and facts to persuade the grads to find what they love and pursuit it.
Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, Pixar, and NeXT says, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do” during the June 12, 2005, Stanford University commencement address. Jobs gives a speech about his life and the hardships he experienced to further motivate the college graduates to reach their dreams by doing what they love and to succeed even as they get knocked down. Jobs tells the audience. “Your time is limited,” meaning that, when doing something they love, they must keep at it because time is of the essence, and life is too short to hate doing whatever they do or are going to do every day. Taking the audience through the events of his life, Jobs speaks with a humorous and hopeful tone. Steve Jobs successfully
Steve Jobs chooses to present his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 with an unpretentious, humble tone stating this is the closest he has ever gotten to his actual college graduation. This tone of unpretention and humility makes it clear the speech will not be filled with hyperbole or "when I was your age" platitudes. Instead the humor and humility and set the foundation for a blatantly honest journey through his life and the need to concentrate on ones' passions and beliefs above all else. He takes the audience through his own academic journey, making sure to show them it was highly nonconformist in structure yet directly aligned to what mattered most to him. He said these years at Reed College helped to understand typography, which led to the development of proportionally-spaced fonts on the Apple Macintosh, a technological first. He can't resist taking a jab at Microsoft during this stage of the speech, staying like many other Apple innovations, Windows also stole this aspect of font design. The students loved it and erupt in applause and laughter. He's clearly connected with the audience and allowed them into his life. He then progresses to discuss what death means to him, in poignant terms, prescient of his own untimely passing. He wraps up the speech by telling the audience to "stay young, stay foolish" and never to take anyone else's expectations as your own limits to reality. As one of the
Steve Jobs, Co-Founder and CEO of Apple and Pixar Animation, delivered the Stanford University Commencement Address in June 2005 titled “How to Live Before You Die.” During this speech, Steve Jobs shared three separate stories about what made him the person he became.