215

EEEENCORENNNCCCOOORRREEE

One More Thing

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

STEVE JOBS

S

teve Jobs keeps his audience guessing. Frequently, but

not always, he will leave the audience with “just one

more thing” before he ends a presentation. For example,

Jobs announced that he would return as Apple’s full-

time CEO (dropping the “interim” from his title) as the “one

more thing” at the conclusion of his Macworld presentation

on January 5, 2000. It is the element of surprise that audiences

have come to love and expect. Since his audience expects “one

more thing,” Jobs does not always deliver. A surprise would fail

to surprise if everyone knows it’s coming!

So, in true Steve Jobs fashion, I would like to add just “one

more thing” to this discussion. On June 12, 2005, shortly after

a bout with a rare, curable form of pancreatic cancer, Jobs gave

the commencement address at Stanford University. It became

an Internet sensation. It is one of the most popular commence-

ment addresses on YouTube, far more popular than remarks of

other famous commencement speakers such as Oprah; The Last

Lecture author, Randy Pausch; or Harry Potter’s J. K. Rowling.

Jobs crafted the speech using many of the same techniques

that make his presentations so electrifying. About the only thing

absent that day were slides. The rest is classic Steve Jobs. I have

excerpted sections to illustrate how he applied his extraordinary

messaging and presentation skills to the now famous speech. I

also urge you to watch the full speech on the Stanford website.^1