Mission:
develop, group and diffuse sustainable concepts of production, coherent
to the tropical reality and in service to the productive chain.
Vision and Values
Vision:
In 10 years, develop production concepts that optimize the use of
natural resources, generating healthy foods in a socioeconomically
viable and in balance with the environment.
Values:
"The group hopes to awaken the Paces genuine feeling to hear,
recognize and be useful to society by developing the qualities of
the human being and the ability to unconditionally donate to a worthy
cause."
Big
Dreamers
The fig tree is a great teacher.Does not matter what is attempted
to kill it, it drops its leaves, dwindles, it reaches all the leaves
turn yellow, but remains alive. This little life, is enough to make
your food, grow and rebuild. As is the fig tree, that spirit of
resilience should be in our spirit and dream.
If we have pride too, praises the victory will defeat it and will
break it. The arrogance, let our views inconsistent with reality,
ego-centered self. Vanity, will require actions that lead to recognition
and avail himself of view to be feasible. The instinct and emotion,
from having the conviction of attitudes necessary for a mission
established. The suffering and torment, not to feel the importance
of each fact and express our gratitude. Of all these characteristics,
we all have at some point due to human nature.
These characteristics are what make the necessary resilience, which
is formed in the first humility (admit and acknowledge their mistakes),
the wisdom to discern the right, the importance of compassion for
every human being and action, without practice there is no result
.
Living within these principles, can lead to genuine happiness, through
the feeling of gratitude in every fact lived. Living this way is
also essential for the dreamers, people with high ideals and goals.
We are all big players in the world, and in this endeavor, the path
will always be lonely, because the final decision depends entirely
on your own.
With big goals, it requires as much of our talent and commitment,
and there is a second aspect that must also be considered. Part
of what we are, is in its own right, the environment we live and
our origin. The latter governs a force majeure, because the qualities
of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents is transmitted
between generations and makes the evolution of a family.
Understanding our mission in life is to share the understanding
of the mission of our ancestors. With what we are and our origin,
in order to conviction of the reason for our existence, and becomes
as a motivating factor for resilience.
Project
Projects installed
1)Construction of a suppressive soil and productive in the cultivation
of potatoes.
Potato Project
Fighting the nomadism of potato production
In a case study of a potato producer, it was observed that the management
of chemical, physical and biological characteristics may form a
disease-suppressive soil and allow the planting of potatoes in the
same area for a long time (Tokeshi, 1997). These physical and biological
properties necessary for a suppressive soil also allow you to meet
the physiological needs of the plant to get adequate levels of productivity.
So, is being evaluated long-term agronomic management practices
that will produce a suppressive soil and have a crop of potatoes
free of disease in the same area.
Conceptual basis of this work - PDF 1.85 KB
Results of the 2006-2007 cycle - PDF 1.66 KB
Driving culture
2) Contribution from the norms of the Integrated Production of Potato
3) Management of the potato scab (Streptomyces scabies). LINK
4) Development of concepts of sustainable coffee production. LINK
5) Management of Citrus Orange.
Projects
under development
• Concept of Sustainable Production:
- Cane sugar
- Tomato
Driving
the potato project
cicle 2008/2009
Potato cultivation
Fodder cultivation
cicle 2007/2008
Potato cultivation
cicle 2006/2007
Fodder / Potato cultivation
What is PACES
History
The base value of this project began in the Brazilian territory
on 22 October 1934, when the couple Itaro Kishi Sako and arrives
at the port of Santos, and start agricultural activities in Mogi
das Cruzes after a period of manual labor on plantations in the
region of Franca-SP. The first and the second generation grew up
with the potato through the use of production techniques based on
climate and soil of their country of origin, which allowed third
generation observe the consequences of import of technology, such
as degradation of land, the lack of technology of tropical and the
high cost of production of culture. All these factors culminated
in the collapse of the family farm, nopotencial agricultural and
believing in Brazil, Sako family decided to persist in agricultural
activity initiating the development of technology produçãoque
be consistent with the tropical climate, thus appears in the 1978
Mafes as equipment agriculture. In this evolution of technology
production, the fourth generation of the family born with the dream
of developing tropical agriculture and is targeting a sustainable
world. With this idealism, the family has been perennial Sako agricultural
market and with this spirit we can see the opportunity and each
member community Esalqueana believedeeply in his dream and form
basis of concrete values for them.
The project design started from the dream the fourth generation
of the family in developing
tropical technology. In 2005, a group of students (Danilo Barbosa
de Melo, Thiago
Augusto de Moura and Henry Sako), had obtained a short experience
in the production of potatoes and an awareness of the potential
of ESALQ to develop a useful technology to producers, an initiative
was the study of culture. That same year he got the opportunity
to meet Professor Hasim Tokeshi warned that the importance of joining
the various existing knowledge in agronomy to understand the processes
of nature. So, knowing that it was important to form a multidisciplinary
team, the project came from grass to add to the design of the project
through student Felipe Pessinato Daltro, and Pedro Castro de Almeida,
with the support of Professor Moacyr Corsi. The basis of the project
is the implementation of sustainability in tropical agriculture,
the group was convinced that the matter would have to be developed
in that area and need to be bulky, with nutritional qualities, where
indicated the use of forage crops and the need for talent for their
management.
At that time, there was a partnership with IHARA Mafesas emerging
SYSTEM PLANT FORTE for growing potatoes. This project allowed the
fourth generation matures their values by monitoring the reality
of the field and emphasized the belief that companies had policies
with actions for sustainability, even in apparently gainsaying its
name, as the case is that of IHARA a manufacturer of defense and
fold the rational use and reduced use of pesticides.
Had sprung from the conviction gained the courage to not give up
even after 13 failures in the installation of the project in several
areas of the state of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Goias, until 11/09/06
with the support of teachers Paulo César Tavares de Melo
and professor José Laércio Favarin culminated in the
successful implementation of the project at ESALQ / USP.
The project had to find a port after a long period of aimless browsing
and started looking for partners for private companies that believe
in the ideal and could help us in any way he (products and developing
the concept of production) for the implementation of the experiment.
As the students were engaged in the design, values and awareness
of the mission were maturing and the team became stronger with the
support of teachers Hasim Tokeshi, Sérgio Batista Alves and
Tsuioshi Yamada.
So there are two striking features of the project, encourage the
development of mission life (dream) in its members and the development
of applied science.
Principles
advocated by Paces
2009
Symbol Paces
The fig tree is a great teacher. No matter what is attempted to
kill her, she
drops its leaves, dwindles, it reaches all the leaves turn yellow,
but remains alive.
This little life, is enough to make your food, grow and rebuild.
As is
fig, that spirit of resilience should be in our spirit and dream.
If we have pride too, praises the victory will defeat it and will
break it. The
arrogance, let our views inconsistent with reality, ego-centered
self. The
vanity, will require actions that lead to recognition and avail
himself of the view be feasible. The instinct and emotion, from
having the conviction of the necessary attitudes a mission established.
The suffering and torment, not to feel the importance of every fact
and express our gratitude. Of all these characteristics, all of
us at some.
We currently have due to human nature.
These characteristics are what make the necessary resilience, which
is formed in first by humility (admit and own up to mistakes), the
wisdom to discern the correct, the importance of compassion for
every human being and action, without practice there is result.
Living within these principles, can lead to genuine happiness, through
the sense of gratitude every fact lived. Living this way is also
essential for the dreamers, people with high ideals and goals.
We are all big players in the world, and in this endeavor, the path
is always
lonely, because the final decision depends entirely on your own.
With big goals, it requires as much of our talent and commitment,
and there is a second aspect that we should also consider. Part
of what we are, is in its own right, the environment we live and
our origin. The latter governs a force majeure, because the qualities
our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents is transmitted
between generations and makes the evolution of a family.
Understanding our mission in life is to share the understanding
of the mission
ancestors. With what we are and our origin, in order to conviction
ratio
our existence, and becomes as a motivating factor for resilience.
Agriculture
and happiness
We all need food for our health is influenced by what we eat.
To have good food in our homes, the man developed the art of farmers.
Agriculture, modifies the elements of nature for a particular purpose,
and if
discussed the use of a natural resource that deserves a great deal
of zê it because it is finite. We are blessed to be born in
a land where there is first, energy abundance, and second, to enable
water to life. These two factors, allows the loop life becomes intense
and at the same speed we can produce food.
If the food is healthy or not depends on the production techniques
employed in field and a few more steps such as transportation of
the product, its presentation in the market, etc..
But if the technique of field fails, it will not help any care by
the product, as already be condemned, so the field is a key factor
for good food. Lincoln this
correct to mention that if a town goes bankrupt and the field is
present, it will rise, and opposite is not possible. This premise
mentioned, tropical countries are able to provide food healthy production
processes more efficient the globe and without harming
natural resources, as the proper techniques needed for agriculture
requires that the maximum care of it natural resources, in other
words, ecological sustainability is mandatory in this mode.
In the second half of 2008, with great joy, we can form a soil with
maximum water infiltration, which is great for the conservation
of soil. To reach this result, there were tense moments and that
required the maximum of each member, and came to extrapolate the
limit of each one of us. I want to visit these moments tense, because
by observation and repetition, it's then that determines the success
of the goal established.
A famous Japanese writer mentions that all the people who are participating
in a work, upon reaching the 98% of the work to be done, undergoes
a profound questioning whether must complete the remaining 2% or
not. No matter the size of the work, but all activities go through
this questioning. Take the case of cleaning a house, is common in
failing to fully clean a floor, to let it shine, it is justified
as needless to such work, and the end result can be seen as a work
but of low quality. Every work of quality, is a machine expetacular,
a well-written document, a crop of potatoes is excellent for this
stage of question, the labor required of the remaining two percent.
The work of Paces, it is difficult maintain excellence in all aspects
of the project, but if all you have to succumb and have to a priority
item, will be prioritized the field (the plant or guemba), because
it is the source of our learning and life of the project.
The time of 2% that is required of us a good philosophical basis,
because it is in nature, tense, laborious, but rewarding and pleasant
to live, because it is what will determine the success the goal,
and to achieve it, the ultimate feeling of feeling useful to others,
for a work well done benefits everyone. I would like to emphasize
that when we live this percentage is also can be happy. First, we
must be aware that everything is changing, since money, people and
even good and bad times. If we are in a moment hard work and we
have some addiction, is a matter of time proves that addiction and
with the feeling of anger, which generates a dissatisfaction with
everything around us and in the end, the unhappiness. For this,
why the detachment is a necessary basis. I would also discuss that
detachment is not the absence of life, as its ultimate purpose is
to give life the people, material, object, plan, ideas, etc. and
also, the detachment is necessary to awaken the genuine sense of
feeling useful to others. If we feel the happiness of a friend,
plant tractor, as well as our happiness, we are living something
that is the rule of nature, or is, for thousands of years, many
things may have changed but the concept has never changed or change.
Want the happiness of others serves as a great stimulus for our
evolution spiritual, and all benefit. In the week of December 17,
2008, the magazine Isto é, a matter left interesting about
happiness. Fowler and Christakis, University of Harvard conducted
a study from 1983 to 2003, with 4739 people and came to the conclusion
that the happiness of one person infects others within a radius
of 800 meters and this effect decreases and is two kilometers.
Regardless of the size of the circle of people who would like to
influence, sooner or later, there will need to evolve for the good
of others, and at that time we will challenge these 2% needed for
a work, and one more consideration, as practice unless the basis
for these 2%, the greater the suffering IMAGINARY.
Professor Fukunaga mentioned that a little grief and suffering is
a great suffering is wisdom. It is a truth that thought, but it
is free will we get regretting everything that surrounds us or overcome
our difficulties and turn them into wisdom, and over a lifetime,
determine the progress of an individual. From a frequent, see people
whining and that would put the mourning in that in nature there
is not.
In the jungle, a prey to be regretting the predator becomes fodder.
Mourning was a invention of man and ourselves hold this behavior.
Towards the end of two crops of potatoes, a coffee plantation and
orange and a maize experiment, the group had to give unconditionally
to this cause. I would in all the difficult moments that the group
were to witness, never forget the spirit necessary for this work
carried out in these difficult times, being happy is also a choice
how we think, feel, act and speak.
This spirit is the same as driving a car, set the path to be trodden,
if the battery the cars will not serve, we will replace the battery
if the tire is worn, we will replace if missing fuel, we'll put!
Paces team would like to congratulate all the work done by the time
and I urge that we continue in this tasty and great fight for development
of agriculture envisioned, and reflect the spirit necessary for
that
Finally, the benefit of society.
Forming
talents: Vision Paces
Everyone has qualities that can be counted on one hand and disability
that can fill a book. The deep clear that human nature will allow
can achieve unthinkable goals and get to ask: How can this work
out?
A great master defined as 75% of all his experiments went wrong,
while 25% were successful and that managed to develop several varieties
of cane that contributed to country's energy matrix without the
addition of fertilizer nitrogen. In an interview, the president
of Panasonic mentioned that their research never went wrong, because
when the result does not correspond with the expected, of Serbia
learning to a future success, such awareness formed the progress
of Matsushita Electric Company, today, Panasonic.
As we have a number of shortcomings, is a matter of time will awaken
them, which makes
unnecessary martyr herself for a mistake. Wrong for our quality,
so we must reflect, internalize the learning and raise their heads
and continue living with their own mission building a resilient
human profile, as is the fig tree.
In fact, we are all polished stones that will turn into diamonds.
In
our every move, we can encourage the best or cripple the next and
as it proceeds a dialogue that will build or kill a talent, we have
three egos as the source: The father, the adult and child.
If a person makes a mistake and get the word immediate correction
as
"Wrong, stupid, stupid, do not do this, you do not know,"
we unconsciously killing
talent. You have to accept the mistakes and if we have the clarity
of the importance of this moment we'll worry about putting words
harmonious at the right time as "But, but what do you think
in that sense "and let people infer and conclude for themselves
that fact.
When we put a goal in our life or project, appear certain obstacles
and
deviations that were not anticipated. Of these, serve as just learning
to achieve this stated goal. When we understand this immutable law,
we feel the importance of
each error and gratitude for this moment and become a peaceful person.
With awareness of order of events, our talents will not be covered
by the shortcomings and become eagles who will fly to where our
dream is.
In the company says that bad news flies, but what we see what prevails
long term is the evolution of our real values. In Figure 1, we describe
an example. Axis X represents the age of a person, and the green
line would be how the media sees you and in line blue would be how
we are evolving. The green line ranges and we can see that those
determines their behavior over time is the blue line (critical consciousness).
So, who cares for the green line (media, image, popularity) and
neglect the blue line (critical consciousness) will in time have
failed.
To form a child is necessary messes 9 of gestation, an agronomist
5
years and a great talent can be a life. Thus, the spirit of form
requires talent
patience and a spirit of "cultivating" the qualities,
similar to the growers of pine that plant a tree and care for 25
years to harvest it.
Understanding human nature and cultivating the best of each one,
we form
talents that will contribute to the development of the country,
as well as big names in the past did.
Forming teams: self-conscious discipline and sustainability of Paces
"God, Mother Nature does not love so strongly those who have
completed a work.
Ama with extreme intensity to those in the same intensity are fighting
for
realization of a dream. As the hands of those who humbly reflect
their
and weaknesses, but that mainly keep fighting. People who have the
nature
to fight repeatedly with force, as often as necessary, to these
is that He extends hand of salvation. The most important is the
state's will to achieve something that's done. "
Kazuo Inamori (tradução Roberto Sako)
Various
bodies, one spirit
A team which offers the maximum effort to accomplish the mission
and vision of project, must be imbued with a provision for unconditional
tanger goals
established.
Prior to forming this group, it is important that the principle
leader is willing to give life to others. The poet Joaquim Osório
Duque Estrada wrote the National Anthem "
You will see that a child not your stoves to luta.Nem fears that
worship death itself "is so was built and build a country.
In this spirit cultivated, you can create a feeling
Mutual to give to others and succeed in a noble goal.
In Japanese literature, this term refers to ITAIDOOSHIN, which means
various bodies with a single spirit. When we reach that level, we
understand in full the next and compassion, we seek attitudes and
reflections allows a mutual growth.
For fear of hurting the next, or expose harsh words, we may be afraid
to
explain certain words and forget that an undesirable fact is much
more painful than the words. Mr. Inamori refers to as "Big
Love" that feeling that strengthens people and allows it to
be sustainable, the laws of nature refers to load the weight of
the own body to become entrepreneurs.
We should not delude ourselves that this level of feeling is expressed
without a phase painful, but after a series of repetitions, we understand
that the end of a hard exercise is the reward of learning and puts
forth the natural feeling of gratitude. This aware that the whole
painful experience is finite and the end there is a feeling of gratitude
keeps the calm in adverse times.
For these steps is that it can keep a group that maintains a rigidity
in
activities without losing the joy of fighting for a noble ideal.
Turning
to the contrary
In our activities, we can make mistakes that seem unforgivable or
dead.
In fact, the mistakes are only mistakes if we like, we try to expose
experience with the project.
At the end of the potato crop, there is a distribution of potatoes
to all partners who supported the project. Many are far and as the
delivery of the potato is made by mail, there the possibility of
spoils it when you get to partner. Aware of the importance in delivering
potatoes, was placed a sign indicating a durability test of the
potato in the post harvest. Thus, the person receiving the whole
potato will be impressed with his durability, and if there is damage
it, these are part of the test.
For every failure we can turn it otherwise if we accept the fact
and move on to a next step.
Cheerful
and productive
In nature, all living things compete for their survival of their
species and
life itself. It seems a drastic vision when a lion hunting prey,
but if consider the importance of all lives in the same way a grain
of rice is also giving his life for us to survive. This is the natural
cycle, and when we realize that
cycle is also immutable, we understand that the harsh environment
and energy has always been
necessary for the survival of one group.
Having goals requires bold understand the unlimited potential of
human beings.
Determine a goal and reason for this may be different, and so we
have a clarity rare what comes with each goal, which is from the
renunciation of attachment. Even with a harsh environment, you can
create a harmonious and joyful place, through the feeling of importance
of each activity of the mission.
The practice of reasoning will understand that each "problem"
or
"Opportunity for improvement" is worth gold and will bring
forth the feeling of gratitude, forming a group that manages to
give wholeheartedly to a noble cause.
In the world of sports, knew the difference between the first and
second place in Indy is only 1.7 seconds. Each place that labour
can be the difference between the first and second place.
The consequences of the timid and idolatrous In the Bible, the item
Revelation, chapter 21, verse 8 it says:
"But so far the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers,
the
fornicators, sorcerers, and idolaters and all liars, shall have
their part in the tank burning fire and brimstone: which is the
second death. "
Shy - you are afraid, timid, shameful, loose, weak.
Unbelievers: - that believeth not, faithless, godless, atheist.
Execrable: - has deep hatred, people who have great aversion.
Fornicators: - have sexual intercourse, harass, annoy.
Idolatrous: - idol worshipers who are currently representing a deity
and that
object of worship, the person who is given to great respect, or
excessive affection.
It is not intended to preaching the Bible or any other religion,
because I believe that faith is choice of free will, but what caught
my attention is when it comes to interpretation of shy and idolaters.
The bible even the timid to the idolaters and unbelievers, abhorrent
murderers, fornicators, sorcerers and liars.
Many people consider themselves shy and justified hiding behind
it, however,
point fingers to others, discriminate against people choosing their
companies.
Once a person has called me arrogant and ungrateful when I told
my
shyness, told me that if I recognized the importance and value of
people would fight shy and would run counter to them to express
recognition of the importance that they have in your life.
Since then struggle to eliminate my feelings of inferiority that
generate
shyness, and the superiority of which I take this opportunity to
pursue my hidden atrocities.
To get a correct diagnosis of facts and events in our lives
we need wisdom.
Wisdom is the ability to be able to discern the points of difference
and equality facts, matters and persons, that is, their true way
of being.
Thus idolatry is out of wisdom in relation to the object of worship.
No
understanding the true nature make mistakes which result will have
to bear, because with surely come.
Both shyness as idolatry are acts of ingenuity, which originates
in ignorance, and only the suffering will understand and accept
the fact that these paths are wrong.
If we can awaken the heart and intelligence of people to this fact
we have a
chance to awaken to the wisdom without having to go through suffering.
The solution to this is the feeling of compassion that makes use
of "4 stages of Up.
1 - OPEN - Conduct voluntary opening of people's hearts
2 - PROOF - to prove the message we want to
3 - LIGHT - Drive to the awakening
4 - LOGIN - If you completed the three stages a person will welcome
the message, it will be voluntary, not imposed.
But open the heart of a person is not always an easy work.
I always had a huge emotional conflict for my mother until after
a heart attack I find it in the ICU (intensive care unit).
When I felt that would be the last chance to understand my conflicts
while alive, my heart surrendered and the gates were opened. I understand
that the selfishness added the lack of recognition and greed always
called for more attention and forgetting the affection and the lady
who sighed the last moments are donated for me, and still was seeking
attention.
Then came light, will be one day from the heart to thank you for
bringing me to this world and not let die for lack of dedication?
And the shameful and bitter response was no!
After only 37 years old, already father of three children I understand
that my
selfishness, greed and jealousy made me blind to how much he was
loved and how much he loved her, thus, the pain of family conflicts
caused the heart attack that did open my heart, did see the ingratitude,
who promise to live the rest of his life honourably everything you
did for me, my mother.
Today I understand that the lasting deep and unconditional desire
to convey his love of son made the mother nature take its request
to withdraw them from my living through the attack heart.
The moment I felt that I would not have his love and affection stopped
blaming her and I
Wake up, Mother Nature and aware that the attachment blinding created
this situation and prevented me to promote travel to this meeting.
Some people are born this awake consciousness, but in my case I
needed a big shock.
Hence the fearful and idolaters wonder how many mothers must be
willing to
day and night with a deep desire to agree to your antidote that
is the gratitude and wisdom.
I thought
Roberto S. Sako
Speech
by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple and Pixar Animations) at graduation
Stanford students
I
am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of
the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college.
Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college
graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.
That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then
stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I
really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young,
unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for
adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college
graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth
by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided
at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents,
who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night
asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?"
They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found
out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my
father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign
the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later
when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college
that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class
parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six
months, I couldn't see the value in it. 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 work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time,
but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The
minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that
didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked
interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so 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 at the Hare Krishna
temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following
my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction
in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label
on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had
dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided
to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about
serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space
between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography
great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way
that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my
life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh
computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had
never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would
have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal
computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have
never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers
might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course
it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was
in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years
later.
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. This approach
has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my
life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz
and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked
hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in
a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We
had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh —
a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.
How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple
grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the
company with me, and for the first year or so things went well.
But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually
we 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.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I
had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had
dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David
Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so
badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running
away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me —
I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed
that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And
so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from
Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The
heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being
a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter
one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another
company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who
would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer
animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful
animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple
bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed
at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene
and I have a wonderful family together.
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. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me
going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love.
And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your
work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way
to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. 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. As with all matters of
the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship,
it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking
until you find it. Don't settle.
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 tool 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 doctor's
code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything
you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a
few months. It means to make sure 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 and 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 doctors 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 I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its 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 is 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 is 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 your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what
you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole
Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It
was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in
Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This
was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing,
so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras.
It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google
came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and
great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog,
and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their
final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the
kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.
Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay
Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you
graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
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