📖 How to Live Before You Die
📚 Understanding the Text
a. What is the story about Steve Jobs’ birth?
=> Answer: Before Steve Jobs was born, his unmarried college graduate student mother had already decided that he would be given up for adoption. Her intention was to ensure that her child would receive an education and grow up in an educated family. A lawyer’s family first accepted the idea of adopting him, but they later refused because they had expected to adopt a girl. Steve Jobs was subsequently adopted by Paul Jobs, a mechanic, and his wife, Clara Jobs. The couple assured his biological mother that they would send him to college for higher education.
b. What does he mean when he says, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”?
=> Answer: Jobs explains that the purpose of an event is not always apparent when it is happening. A person can understand how separate experiences have shaped their life only after looking back at them from a later point. For this reason, uncertainty should not make us lose confidence in our journey. Jobs' own life provides an example: he experienced rejection by his girlfriend, failed to obtain a job at McKinsey, and went through a difficult period without proper support. None of these events could be clearly understood as useful experiences at the time. In retrospect, however, they became connected with his later development and success. Thus, we should accept both failure and success as parts of life and trust that their significance may become clear later.
c. What happened when Steve Jobs turned 30?
=> Answer: When Steve Jobs turned 30, the board of directors removed him from the company he himself had helped to build.
d. Jobs contends that you need to love to do what you do in order to be great at it. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
=> Answer: I agree with Steve Jobs because genuine love for one's work creates the willingness to devote oneself to it. A person who enjoys their work is more likely to remain focused, practise continuously, and deal patiently with obstacles. Difficulties become easier to tolerate when the work itself is meaningful and interesting. Therefore, passion combined with sustained effort can help an individual become excellent in their field.
e. Is death really life’s greatest invention?
=> Answer: Yes, death can be described as life’s greatest invention because it is an unavoidable boundary of human existence. The fact that life has an end makes every moment more significant. Although the thought of death naturally causes fear, it can also remind us that our opportunities are limited. We should therefore avoid wasting our time and instead devote our lives to meaningful purposes while we are still alive.
📚 Reference to the Context
a. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
“We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?”
They said: “Of course.”
i. Who was the baby boy?
=> Answer: The baby boy was Steve Jobs.
ii. What does ‘do you want him?’ mean?
=> Answer: The phrase means that Paul Jobs and Clara Jobs were being asked whether they wanted to adopt Steve Jobs. They had been waiting to adopt a child and agreed to accept him as a member of their family.
iii. Who does ‘they’ refer to?
=> Answer: “They” refers to Mr. Paul Jobs and Mrs. Clara Jobs.
b. Explain the following lines:
i. “You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
=> Answer: Jobs believes that people need a source of faith when moving through an uncertain life. This may be one's intuition, destiny, life, karma, or anything else that provides inner confidence. Such belief can help an individual continue forward even when the outcome is unknown. When difficulties appear, confidence in one's direction can provide the strength needed to remain persistent and overcome obstacles.
ii. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
=> Answer: The statement urges people to remember that their time on earth is limited. Because life cannot be extended indefinitely, it should not be spent merely satisfying the expectations of other people. Individuals should identify their own aspirations and make choices that genuinely belong to them. Following one's own purpose allows the available time to be used in a meaningful way.
c. What does he mean by “don’t settle”?
=> Answer: Steve Jobs uses “don’t settle” to encourage people to demand more from themselves instead of accepting an unsatisfactory situation. If something does not represent the quality or potential we are capable of achieving, we should continue searching for improvement. The pursuit of a better standard requires patience and effort, but it can lead to excellence rather than an ordinary outcome.
d. Which style of speech is used by the speaker to persuade the audience?
=> Answer: The speaker delivers his ideas through a personal, informal, and narrative style. He avoids unnecessarily complicated language and communicates directly with the audience. His own life experiences provide the basis for the lessons he presents. Because the advice is connected with actual events, the speech becomes easier to understand and more persuasive.
e. It is not easy to motivate others. How do you think Steve Jobs’ speech is so inspiring?
=> Answer: The speech has a strong inspirational effect because Jobs uses his own life as evidence for the ideas he presents. His three stories contain experiences of failure, hardship, uncertainty, and sacrifice, but they also show how such difficulties can eventually contribute to success. Instead of presenting himself as someone who avoided problems, he openly describes the challenges he encountered. This honesty makes the speech realistic and relatable. His experiences demonstrate that difficult circumstances can be overcome through determination, which gives the audience encouragement.
f. Why do you think Steve Jobs used the personal narrative story-telling technique in his speech? What influence does it have on the audiences?
=> Answer: Personal storytelling allows Jobs to communicate his ideas through situations that actually happened in his life. This makes his message more concrete than a speech consisting only of advice or theories. His accounts of failure and difficulty show the audience how important lessons can emerge from real experiences. The stories also create an emotional connection between the speaker and listeners. As a result, the audience can relate his experiences to their own lives and feel encouraged to deal with difficulties instead of giving up.
🌎 Reference Beyond the Text
a. One of Steve Jobs’ mottos was: ‘Think differently’. Can this make a person succeed in life? What challenges are there in thinking differently?
=> Answer: Yes, thinking differently can support a person's success because it encourages creativity and independent judgment. A person who does not simply follow existing patterns can look at a problem from another perspective and discover new approaches. Original ideas may provide opportunities that cannot be found through conventional methods.
However, choosing a different way is often difficult because unfamiliar ideas may not receive immediate acceptance. Other people may question such ideas, criticize the person, or discourage them from taking an unusual path. To continue despite these reactions, an individual needs self-confidence, patience, and courage. Learning from experience while maintaining trust in one's abilities can help a person develop and maintain independent thinking.
b. What does the slogan “Stay hungry; stay foolish” mean to you?
=> Answer: In my understanding, “Stay hungry; stay foolish” means that we should preserve our desire to learn and achieve even after experiencing success. Completing one goal should not become the end of our ambition. We should continue exploring, asking questions, gaining knowledge, and looking for new possibilities. Remaining curious keeps us open to growth, while continued ambition encourages us to pursue higher goals instead of becoming completely satisfied with what we have already achieved.
c. What does it mean to be a visionary? What makes Steve Jobs different from a fortune teller?
=> Answer: A visionary is an individual who can see possibilities that may shape the future and is willing to work toward making those possibilities real. Vision is therefore not limited to imagining something; it also involves taking purposeful steps to turn an idea into reality.
Steve Jobs was different from a fortune teller because his connection with the future was based on creation rather than prediction. He imagined new possibilities in technology and society and then worked to develop those possibilities in reality. A fortune teller predicts what might happen, whereas a visionary takes action to influence what happens. Steve Jobs demonstrated this difference by transforming his ideas into technological developments that could affect society and people's lives.