Apple's Partnership with Microsoft at Macworld Boston, 1997
"If we want to move forward, see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace the notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us, that's great … And if we screw up and don't do a good job, it's not somebody else's fault -- it's our fault … So the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I'm concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, and this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry, to get healthy and prosper again."
Jobs then switched to a slide of Apple's logo and Microsoft's logo together, and then got serious about Apple's "Think Differently" marketing campaign, ruminating on how Apple products are for "people who aren't just out to get a job, but for people who want to change the world."
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
Merging the themes of life, growth, and death, Jobs' 2005 commencement address to Stanford University was stirring in a way that transcends many cut-and-paste graduation speeches.
In his address, Jobs told three stories set in three pivotal moments of his life, one of the most important being when he was fired from Apple (7:14):
"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."
"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."
Jobs' speech was so inspiring, in fact, that its even been ripped off by others around the world.
Apple iPad 2 Keynote, Special Event, March 2011
Jobs' unexpected appearance at the iPad 2 event in March 2011 caused a lot of stir. He had just taken an indefinite medical leave of absence, and already people were wondering what Apple would look like post-Jobs.
Full Story: http://www.pcworld.com/article/238905/top_three_steve_jobs_speeches.html
