216 ENCORE
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it.
No big deal. Just three stories.We again see the rule of three (refer to Scene 5) playing a big
role in Jobs’s message. He draws a road map for his listeners by
telling them to expect three stories—not one or four, but three.
The structure of the speech itself is strikingly simple: opening,
three stories, conclusion.The first story is about connecting the dots.Here Jobs tells the first of three personal anecdotes. This one is
about his dropping out of Reed College after six months. Jobs
said it was scary at first but ultimately worked out, because it
allowed him to continue to take courses he was interested in,
such as calligraphy. Ten years later, he incorporated calligraphy
fonts into the Macintosh, “connecting the dots.”It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that
science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.Jobs found his passion for simplicity and design at an early age.
He discovered his core purpose, a messianic zeal to change the
world, and never looked back. Share your passion for your sub-
ject, and your enthusiasm will be contagious.My second story is about love and loss.In this section, Jobs talks about falling in love with computers
at the age of twenty and sharing that passion with his friend
“Woz.” He talked about building a $2 billion company in ten
years and then, at the age of thirty, being fired by Apple’s board
of directors.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.