Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and Honoring the Vocations of our Essential Workers

Brendan Romigh and Dr. Bob Robinson compare and contrast the commencement speeches of Apple’s Steve Jobs (Stanford 2005) with Tim Cook (Ohio State 2020). Jobs told the graduating students of Stanford “You’ve got to find what you love…Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” Cook, in light of the Coronavirus, focused on what have been called “essential workers,” people whose vocations are not necessarily “satisfying” or work that is “loved,” but work that needs to be honored nonetheless, people working in fields in order to feed their families and ours, those who stock shelves, drive city buses, clean in hospitals. How can we honor the vocations of our essential workers? How can people graduating from Stanford, Ohio State, or any other college use their agency and influence to make the work of those without as much agency better? Steve Jobs Commencement Speech, Stanford 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc Tim Cook Commencement Speech, Ohio State 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGuKhvDJWes Book cited in the podcast: Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford (The Penguin Press, 2009), available at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. This podcast is from Reintegrate. The Center to Reintegrate Faith, Life, and Vocations. Go to https://www.re-integrate.org/ for information about the work Bob Robinson does for college students, churches, and marketplace leaders. Get full access to Bob Robinson’s Substack at bobrobinsonre.substack.com/subscribe