Steve Job's Special Capacity to Learn From Failure

By Fareed Zakaria, CNN

Many of you have probably seen the extraordinary speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University's 2005 Commencement.  Here's an excerpt:

"So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever, because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worm path and that will make all the difference."

For my money, it's the best commencement speech I've ever read or watched. It has always struck me as so simple and yet so profound.

And I think the reason is that we live in a culture that so venerates success. People write books about it. Everyone tries to learn from it. But the essence of Steve Jobs' address was that he learned from failure. The talk is about three failures - dropping out of college, getting fired and being diagnosed with cancer. And it was about how he was able to give his life meaning, purpose and richness as a consequence.

"Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. 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."

Everyone tries to copy and learn from success. It takes a very special person to learn from failure.