Steve Jobs Rhetorical Analysis

Entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, in his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, recounts three stories from his life. Jobs’ purpose is to inspire Stanford graduates to follow their heart and intuition. By utilizing rhetorical appeals in a nontraditional way, Jobs’ convinces his audience to chase their dreams.
To fully understand this speech, it is necessary to be knowledgeable of Steve Jobs’ successes. Worth an estimated $8.3 billion, he was an incredibly successful entrepreneur, business magnate, film producer, inventor, and designer. In his article, “Apple’s Visionary Redefined Digital Age,” John Markoff explains how Jobs had “led cultural transformation in the way music, movies, and mobile communications were experienced in the digital …show more content…
He and a friend started Apple at age 20 in his parents’ garage. Within 10 years, the company had grown into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. Apple had just released the Macintosh, which led to the era of personal computers. In a turn of events, Jobs was fired from a company he had built. This appeals to pathos because Jobs was now a public failure, and the audience can empathize with the devastation of losing his life’s work. Although he thought about “running away from the valley,” he loved what he did too much. Deciding to start over, Jobs realized “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.” Further appealing to pathos, the audience can relate because they are also beginners, and have the opportunity to be creative without any burden. He went on to create two companies: NeXT and Pixar. The world’s first animated feature film was released by Pixar, which became the most successful animation studio in the world, according to Jobs. The technology created at NeXT was so successful, Apple bought them out, and Jobs had his company back. Jobs appeals to logos by explaining how if he would not have gotten fired from Apple, he would have never found the creativity to create these incredibly successful companies. Finishing his second story, Job states “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the …show more content…
Jobs plays on the audience’s fear of death to encourage them to do what they love. Even though he had admirable intentions, he used death as a scare tactic. Jobs also used a faulty causality by assuming dropping out of college, getting fired, and death are the reasons he is so successful. Truth be told, we don’t know if these events actually led to his success. He may have been just as successful even if these events hadn’t occurred, there is no way for us to know. Also, Jobs stacks the deck by only showing one side of his argument; success. Although he mentioned his failures, all of his stories ultimately end with major successes. Also, not everyone is Steve Jobs. There are many people who drop out of college or are fired and never have any successes. In reality, Steve Jobs is just one of those people who have that special something that makes them different from everyone

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