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Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford University
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Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford University
The inspirational words spoken by Jobs still have greater effects on various business leaders and people around the world especially his ability to link his message and the intended audience. In the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios he said, “You’ve got to find what you love”. Steve Jobs delivered the message on June 12, 2005, he, as an elder and achiever, strives to give his audience who graduate from Stanford University some wisdoms and inspirations. In his speech, Jobs tells three stories from his life to encourage his audience unhurriedly face to their life and tenaciously pursue their love. These three stories are about “connecting the dots”, “love and lost” and “death”. Steve Jobs establishes his credibility, influence, and sometimes combines multiple rhetorical strategies to affect his audience to accept these enlightenments of life.
To entirely understand goal of Steve Jobs in creating his argument on speech, the anticipated audience, apparent purpose and context ought to be initially analyzed. This presentation is at Stanford University as commencement. The audiences include top brains from the finest universities in the world. Steve Jobs advices and enlightens the graduates who are about to face life. In context, being an achiever, he imperceptibly uses his own life stories to convince his audience because the stories are reality. Steve Jobs’ humble beginning and the fact that he never graduated indicates that he has a lower starting point than these graduates thus confirming the reality of his stories.
Steve Jobs’ ethos, pathos and the structure of speech largely influences his speeches and arguments. He presents his opinion and history as evidence that creates rhetorical backing in ethos. Steve makes himself an individual who is determined even in times of obstacles to overcome challenges that face him and make them perfect (Web). He advises his audience that failure can sometimes be good and are some of the things that make him successful. He connects well with his audience because of his success and position as a role model. Job creates a person everyone would want to become even if his fame. He develops emotional connection with his audience and this deepens the relationship and makes them to strive to become like him.
Steve Jobs tells a story concerning his battle with cancer and this works well in convincing his audience who can relate with cancer. The cancer issue brings emotion into picture and enhances a good connection with his client. It makes him prove the point that time is precious and death can actually take place anytime and further let the audience understand where he comes from (Jobs Web). Steve uses his life experiences to play upon his rhetorical strategies. In his address, he uses love and loss as universal emotions common to all humans to attract the audience attention and make the speech connect with the graduates emotionally. He tells audience to utilize their intuition and follow their hearts to become happy. He further uses repetitive structures and speaks of adversity as a road to success. Steve Jobs, just like any other prominent speaker uses emotional anecdotes to represent their own personality and history. He begins his life story with his unwed graduate mother who put him up for adoption and other clearly disadvantaged background as a poor child (Jobs Web).
Apart from using his challenges in convincing the audience, he tells the audience to believe in themselves by giving example on how he started from a simple beginning. Steve Jobs reminds the students that even the most unfortunate and poor students can achieve success in their lives. He also explains about a company he started that later grew into a big company and this reminds the grads that even them they can start off things humbly and be successful. Steve Jobs reminds the audience that they can reach greater heights if they follow their dreams just like him. He digs deep into his intimate lifestyle issues and uses pathos to tap into the grads’ feelings of sympathy. Steve Jobs proves a strong man with ability to conquer challenges and his three stories make him an example of hard work as a precursor to success (Jobs Web). Steve Jobs successfully tells three different stories representing three different rhetorical strategies to make his speech better, inspiring, and more believable to his audience. He makes the students believe that success is just within their reach and the insight offers a stronger connection for the grads. Jobs’ speech shows his audience that outlook on life is simple and that is what entails success (Web).
While proving the capability of starting from a small beginning, he nicely organizes his speech to sound connective and rhetorical. The structure of Jobs’ speech sounds connective and rhetorical because he sets it high topically by including three stories thus enabling him make his point and connect his arguments in an organized manner. Jobs did not just spill his points in random times and moments but organized them in a systematic manner making him to connect issues to an overall point of finding. Steve Jobs’ creation of language structure relates with the three stories and three varying messages including connecting the dot, love and loss and death (Web). His ability to connect the three stories with the intended messages enables his audience to follow them easily. Steve establishes his arguments with rhetorical backing and his speech is only supported through opinionated and personal experiences.
Jobs speech is easily understood because he uses simple topics and words in structuring his speech such as starting the animation studio Pixar, NeXT and bounces to Apple (Web). He shows students that challenges and adversity can make them better and stronger by explaining that his life was initially good, took a wrong turn, and eventually became much better. Jobs speech is organized in a very consistent way as he honestly, but loosely introduces his topics. As he introduces his third topic, he gives it a brief, simple, and elegant phrase, “death” and the ability to speak in a simple manner makes him appear honest and builds the logos of his argument.
Besides simplicity and word structuring, Jobs applies frankness and honesty in his speech such as the comment he makes when he talking about death. He says that “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” (Web). Jobs informs the students that the truth of the matter is that they will all die and therefore they need to utilize the time they have to ensure that they follow their passion and desires. He tells the students that they should not live with regrets by failing to do what they are best in. These forthright remarks and visible evidence that success is attainable tend to encourage the grads to follow their hearts and emphasizes on his heart-wrenching rhetoric.
Within Steve Jobs’ presentation is a structured and suggestive argument purposed in persuading his audience to follow their passion in order to achieve success. His speech was developed in a way in which life experience examples and evidences are highlighted while occasionally pairing them with powerful emotions. Besides, without his personal experience regarding the topic of success, none of these strategies would have been as effective towards his audience. Steve Jobs intertwines these multiple parts of persuasion to convince the audience of the significance of following passion. He nicely connects the three stories with his emotions leaving the graduates empowered. Steve Jobs uses emotionally charged stories as well as elegant, simple and intellect words in his speech to portray his character and eligibility that work well in addressing and motivating the graduates.
Works Cited
Jobs, Steve. “How to Live Before You Die” Stanford University. Stanford University, 14 June 2005. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. <http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html>.
Obamas State of the Unions address was full of rhetorical choices that enabled effective communication
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Obama’s State of the Union’s address was full of rhetorical choices that enabled effective communication. He largely used analogy to compare what Americans want and what America has achieved so far. The context, purpose and audience were reached so easily through the use of rhetorical choices that are full in the speech. Obama showed appreciation of the American workforce ranging from teachers, doctors and entrepreneurs. He acknowledges effort put by every professional in ensuring that he attracts their attention and let them feel appreciated (Forbes Staff Web). The president further reminds Americans that they are the people who are represented in the chamber and makes the state of the Union. This received strong applause because the audience felt the sense of belonging.
Obama points out at the outcome of the great effort put by Americans such as low unemployment rate in over five years, rebounding housing market and the reduction of deficit. This attracts attention of the audience who feel that they are part of the success and that their achievements are appreciated. Obama received cheers and round of applause from the audience because they were reminded of their achievements and told that they would take America to greater heights above the current position of America in terms of trade (Forbes Staff Web). Obama further urges everyone in the chamber to take charge and avoid resentful argument that may hinder implementation of basic functions in the American democracy. He explains that if their differences may promote the underperformance of the government then the chamber is not doing the best thing.
Obama asserted his commitment to making America work better and rebuilds the Americans trust. He challenges everyone in the chamber to take part in improving the welfare of Americans. The president told the chamber that their actions should provide opportunity for all Americans regardless of their social status. Obama acknowledges some of the challenges facing America such as increase in inequality and the fact that most Americans just work to get by and many are also unemployed. He points out at the need to reverse the negative trends and informs the chamber that they will never agree on everything.
The president makes practical proposals of moving the country forward by creating opportunities. He promises to work with everyone in the chamber to steer the growth of and development of the country. He describes a few examples such as education opportunities, work ethics and encourages businesses to invest and create jobs in America (Forbes Staff Web). The president asks the chamber to embrace the spirit of honesty at work, and encourages everyone to work together towards a better future. Obama repeatedly talked about the need to work together especially being that he was addressing the chamber that contain both the Democrats and the Republicans. This is to ensure that the politicians particularly the Republicans pay attention to the issue. He has also widely used moral reasoning to persuade his audience to do the right thing to do. He has also compared Europe, China and America to let his audience understand where they are in terms of growth, development and trade.
Works Cited
Forbes Staff. Full Text: President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address. Forbes 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2014/01/28/full-text-president-obamas-2014-state-of-the-union-address/>.
Create Guidelines and a two year Plan for Starting a New Theater Company
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Create Guidelines and a two year Plan for Starting a New Theater Company
Many artists including actors play wrights and directors often look forward to earning their own play houses. Owning a play house or theatre is a prestigious achievement that both artists and business persons dream of attaining. Successfully starting a theater is a stepwise process that requires prior planning and a clear understanding of both the internal and external factors that influence its performance in different ways. The organization of the respective theater house also plays an important role in influencing its success.
It is also important to understand the reasons behind the formation of the theater in order to align its operations to the established goals and objectives. To attain this, it is important to undertake good planning and establish a solid foundation that would yield optimal and sustainable results long after the project has been completed. This is particularly important because starting up a theater requires substantial financial and labor resources. The following guidelines offer useful insights that an individual needs to be aware of during the setting up of a new theater company.
In his research, Webb argues that although setting up an individual theatre is an exciting venture, it involves a lot of patience as well as hard work to be able to come up with desirable outcomes. Although artistic talents would be required to keep the theater running, it is vital to place equal emphasis on the business aspect of the theater. The first step towards establishing a theater pertains to making a decision or decisions about the managerial structure. Generally, the management would be responsible for making decisions regarding various aspects of the theater. They also involve themselves in making vital decisions about the kind of project that would be pursued in future. As such, it is important to determine the individuals that would assume the preceding tasks and outline their responsibilities accordingly.
The theater usually has various facets that would require managers to oversee the decision making process. It is important to highlight individuals that would be responsible for administrative work in different departments. This eliminates conflicts, ensures harmonic functioning and effective decision making. To effectively undertake this, one can review the bylaws of current theaters in a bid to understand what the procedure entails. Demarcating the boundaries for responsibilities and decision making is very important and goes a long way in boosting effective performance.
After identifying and clarifying the structure and responsibilities of the management, one should then focus on developing a mission statement. Essentially, this acts as an identity for the theater company (Mulcahy 35). It also goes a long way in shaping the future projects, activities and operations that the business would concern itself with. The mission statement needs to be not only broad but also distinctive. In essence, it should be able to identify the vision of the theater too. Since the mission is an identity of the theater, it should be original, unique and reflect its work or operations. It should effectively make the theater to stand out amongst the innumerable others that operate in the market. The mission needs to be created during the initial stages of setting up a theater in order to allow for determination of the kind of projects that would be handled by the respective theater.
After developing the mission, one should then proceed to identifying and creating a logo or a name for the theater. This is important for publicity purposes and should therefore be appealing to the target audience. The best name can be attained through brainstorming and basing ideas on creativity. Care should be taken to ensure that the name that is proposed is not in use by any local company. In his research, Webb suggests that since the name would constitute the ‘face’ of the company, it needs to be catchy and appealing. This would be in enabling the clients to remember it. Moreover, the logo needs to be memorable for easy remembrance by the clients. Fundamentally, this marks the very first step of marketing the name of the theater.
After this, the owner can then proceed to registering the theater company name with the respective local authorities (Nelson and Schwimmer 61). This step is basically aimed at ensuring that the business is legal. In addition, it is important for protecting the name of the business that an individual has chosen. During registration, one outlines the ownership state of the company with regard to whether it is a corporation, sole proprietor and so forth. This is then made public in the local paper or any other form of media such as the internet in order to inform the public about the creation of a new theater. This is also important in protecting the name of the company from future aspirants who might be interested in this.
This is then followed by the opening of a bank account for the theater. In this regard, it is widely agreed that there is no any other better way of accounting for the business finances or funds than opening a separate bank account for the respective business. This is also important because it eases financial operations. For instances, there is a possibility of some checks being written under the name of the company. It would be easier to process such checks than if they were written under the name of an individual. Arguably, having a company bank account also implies that the respective business is credible. It shows that the business is official and its owner accords it the seriousness it deserves. In most cases, this requires that the respective individual be registered in that particular city.
The individual should then proceed to signing up with appropriate and relevant service organizations (Webb 77). This is important because such organization can help the individual in different ways. It is the first step to networking within the theater industry. These are wide and varied and may include local theater alliances as well as regional or state organizations. The signing up also gives the new theater credibility and exposes it to diverse resources, services and ideas. Such organizations are also useful because they offer credible assistance with respect to creating audience development, setting up computer systems, contacting lawyers to address copy right concerns , marketing, fundraising for various art groups, providing information regarding free audition listings, undertaking ticket sales and so forth. Signing up with relative groups such as rotary groups also implies that the new theater is willing to relate in an effective manner with other organizations that are not necessarily within its field of specification.
The next step would be to make a decision with respect to whether the theater would be profit oriented or non profit oriented. Conte and Langley indicate that although this is a very difficult decision, it needs to be undertaken carefully (81). After making this vital decision, the owner should focus on making funding decisions. This entails the determination and critical evaluation of the sources of the funds in order to underscore the strengths as well as weaknesses of each. The amount of financial resources that are required by any theater company is usually depended on the plans and projects that it wishes to undertake.
After this, the owner of the theater needs to focus on strategizing any potential non-production activities. In this respect, Webb cites that while some play houses might be comfortable with doing one or two shows in a year, others prefer maintaining continual presence in order to improve they visibility and be able to acquire new audiences. Non production activities are wide and varied and typical examples include hosting staged readings, teaching classes, and actively engaging in community outreach programs.
The owner can then create and develop a database containing the name and addresses of potential clients. The database needs to be organized in order to ease its use by the relevant individuals. On completion, the owner should then focus on the audience. S/he should be conversant with the individuals who would vie the plays, what they intend to learn from the plays and how similar companies promote their plays. Usually, such information can be gained form the mailing lists of similar companies. In most cases, these comprise of audiences that the new theater might wish to attract. Finally, the owner needs to focus on the first production. The preceding steps only offer a credible basement upon which the first and following shows would be based. They need to be adhered to strictly in order to attain optimal and sustainable output.
Plan for Starting a New Theater Company
If undertaken over a period of two years, the following plan would provide the most ideal way through which the preceding steps would be implemented. Since the steps are progressive, making a decision regarding the structure and responsibilities of the management would take two months. Developing a mission can take one moth because it is not very involving. Creating the name of the company would also take one month because the process is also not so much involving. Since registering the company takes various legal steps, this can be undertaken over a period of three months.
Opening a bank account can be undertaken over a period of two months. Likewise, signing up with service organizations can also take two months. Then, making decisions with respect to either assuming a profit or non profit status can also take two months. Making funding decisions can take two months as well as strategizing potential non-production activities. Creating a client database can take three months as well as evaluating the needs of the audience. Finally, laying out the groundwork and determining when the shows would be aired can take a month. The final month can be employed by the owner to evaluate the entire process and identify any inconsistencies that can undermine effective functioning of the theater when it becomes operational.
Works Cited
Conte, David and Langley Stephen. Theater Management. USA: Quite Specific Media Group Ltd, 2007. Print.
Mulcahy Lisa. Building the Successful Theater Company. USA: Allworth Press, 2011. Print.
Nelson Reginald and Schwimmer David. How to Start Your Own Theater Company. USA: Chicago Review Press, 2010. Print.
Webb, Duncun. Running Theaters: Best Practices for Leaders and Managers. USA: Allworth Press, 2005.