ENCORE 217
Again, passion is a central theme in Jobs’s life. Jobs is con-
vinced that he’s successful because he followed his heart, his
true passion. There’s a lot of truth to it. Remember, none of his
presentation techniques will work if you don’t have genuine
passion for your message. Find the one thing you love to do so
much that you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over
again. Once you do, you’ll have found your true calling.
My third story is about death.This sentence begins the most poignant section of the speech.
Jobs recalls the day doctors told him he had pancreatic can-
cer. He thought he had three to six months to live. The cancer
turned out to be a very rare, curable form of the disease, but the
experience left an indelible impression on Jobs.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven
don’t want to die to get there.Jobs always has fun. He finds a way to inject humor into a mor-
bid subject.
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 oth-
ers’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.This paragraph is an example of a powerful rhetorical device
called anaphora, repetition of the same word(s) in consecutive
sentences. Think of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream that
... I have a dream... I have a dream today.” Great political
speakers from Churchill to King, from Reagan to Obama, have
all used anaphora to structure strong arguments. As Jobs dem-
onstrates, this classic sentence structure need not be reserved for
political leaders. It is available to any person who wants to com-
mand an audience.