In MIT speech, Tim Cook says Apple offered him a 'higher purpose'

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday delivered the 2017 commencement address for students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which he claimed that joining Apple gave him fundamental meaning in his life.

"I tried meditation. I sought guidance and religion. I read great philosophers and authors. In a moment of youthful indiscretion, I might even have experimented with a Windows PC. And obviously that didn't work," Cook said about his time before Apple. Prior to being recruited by Steve Jobs in 1998, Cook worked at two major PC companies, IBM and Compaq.

Cook said that after Jobs brought him onboard, he "finally felt aligned" with a company that "brought together challenging, cutting edge work with a higher purpose," as well as "a leader who believed that technology which didn't exist yet could reinvent tomorrow's world." He also credited the work with satisfying a personal need to "serve something greater."

"I was never going to find my purpose working some place without a clear sense of purpose of its own," Cook added. "Steve and Apple freed me to throw myself into the work and embrace their mission and make it my own. How can I serve humanity? This is life's biggest and most important question."

The executive lastly suggested that if graduates pursue a similar path, humanity has an optimistic outlook.

"Always remember there is no idea bigger than this: as Dr. Martin Luther King said, we are all bound together in a single garment of destiny. If you keep that idea at the forefront of all that you do, if you choose to live your lives at that intersection between technology and the people it serves, if you strive to create the best, give the best, and do the best for everyone — not just for some — then today all of humanity has good cause for hope."

Cook toured the MIT campus on Thursday, meeting students and faculty. A number of Apple workers are MIT graduates.

The CEO has delivered other commencement speeches in the past, reaching as far back as his start with Apple as senior VP of worldwide operations.

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25 Comments

lkrupp

said about 6 years ago

You know, we’ve been programmed to be skeptical about the motives of large corporations. The ideology that says all corporations are evil at their core has taken hold in the culture. The rich are oppressing us. Billionaires are evil and made their money on the backs of the poor. Well you know the drill. So when Cook makes this speech my skeptical, cynical antenna got a tingle. I wonder if he really believes what he says. I always think back to Steve Jobs asking John Sculley whether he wanted sell sugared water the rest of his life or join him and change the world. These guys may indeed believe what they say but do the pressures of business and the demands of shareholders eventually steer them in a different direction? This all sounds altruistic but is it? Is it all just an act? Is Apple no different than Amazon in the end? Does it really all boil down to profit and not some lofty social motivation?

apple jockey

said about 6 years ago

Cook added, "How can I serve humanity? This is life's biggest and most important question."

i believe people from all social and business strata inherently have an urge to serve a 'higher' purpose. Once they have matured or been exposed to such compassionate expression. A beautiful contribution to this pursuit was long ago postulated through the quasi scientific path of the bodhisattva. Regardless of formal, mores, or intuitive, people have an inherent desire to do good, until various social/religious/familial pressures dilute that natural human sense. At this point in our national reality, it seems a minority opinion, but under the surface people still long to pursue good works.

bobolicious

said about 6 years ago

Can it work both ways replacing bioregional, biological & cultural diversity with universal global ubiquity...? I understand Oppenheimer was brilliant, well meaning and purposeful, bent on the goal to end the unprecedented horrors of WWII, and yet when such potential finally came to pass: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac Will the potential incremental reach now extend into hifi and the living room...? Who should own any 'cloud' data - to all those facilitating or offering up their IP to 'free' services...

slurpy

said about 6 years ago

lkrupp said:

You know, we’ve been programmed to be skeptical about the motives of large corporations. The ideology that says all corporations are evil at their core has taken hold in the culture. The rich are oppressing us. Billionaires are evil and made their money on the backs of the poor. Well you know the drill. So when Cook makes this speech my skeptical, cynical antenna got a tingle. I wonder if he really believes what he says. I always think back to Steve Jobs asking John Sculley whether he wanted sell sugared water the rest of his life or join him and change the world. These guys may indeed believe what they say but do the pressures of business and the demands of shareholders eventually steer them in a different direction? This all sounds altruistic but is it? Is it all just an act? Is Apple no different than Amazon in the end? Does it really all boil down to profit and not some lofty social motivation?

Do you really think Cook has some kind of hidden malicious intent? Of course he wants Apple to be as healthy and successful as possible- and he's doing a fantastic job at that. That doesn't mean he doesn't ALSO believe that Apple can do alot of good in the world, and contribute in a ton of areas. And Apple is doing a fantastic job of that too. Yes, I do believe Cook believes what he says. I've been following him for a long time, have listened/read to every single interview and speech he's made, and have watched his public actions and what he's emphasized in Apple. He truly does seem like someone with a strong moral compass, he also happens to be excellent in his position and at running Apple. From what I've seen, so are the rest of Apple's executive team, like Schiller, Federighi, and Ive.

jdw

said about 6 years ago

Talk about putting a closing needle into the fully inflated balloon of inspiration:

"Thank you, Tim, that was terrific."
(In the most unconvincing voice possible.)

Despite that anticlimactic remark by the announcer, it was truly a superb speech that preached the core values at Apple, which in turn should inspire all of us to seek great things that are beyond ourselves. I think this is true even though I still feel Mr. Cook gets involved in political hot button issues a bit too much and should micromanage his engineering team more like Steve did, and he should do the right thing for humanity and restore the SD card in the 15" MacBook Pro in light of the fact that even the new iMacs have one. But if anything, that motivational speech may inspire some of us to break past our "what can I contribute?" fears, finally apply for a job at Apple, get hired, and then start to transform not only that company but the world. That's not possible at every company but it is at Apple.

Reach for the stars!