Edible Apple

We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas, Steve Jobs once famously said.

And even more famous than that quote is Jobs’ entire 2005 commencement address at Stanford where the Apple CEO delivered an inspiring speech that traced his life as a young tech enthusiast all the way up to his bout with Cancer and his triumphant return to Apple.

And now it appears that Raisa Bogatyreva, Ukrain’s Secretary of National Security and Defense, decided to follow in Jobs’ footsteps by shamelessly stealing his great and arguably legendary Stanford graduation speech, sometimes word for word.

Focus Ukraine illustrates the blatant plagiarism by juxtaposing excerpts from Bogatyreva’s  speech with similar ones made by Jobs. The translation is at times awkward but Google Translate does a good enough job of conveying the Ukrainian official’s blatant act of plagiarism.

Raisa Bogatyreva: Knowledge, that you’ve got today in these walls, your character, fate, life, or at least karma, will help you to find the right answer.

Steve Jobs: You’ll have to stand on something. On your character, fate, life, karma, anything.

—
Bogatyreva: I am honored to be here with you today, the day when the graduates receive diplomas. In one of the best higher educational institutions of our country … I want to share with you today the findings of my own life and my own political experience. There are three conclusions. Nothing is absolutely tremendous. There are three conclusions.

Jobs: I am honored to be with you today at the presentation of diplomas of one of the best universities in the world … I tell you three stories from my life. Just three stories. Nothing grand. Just three stories.

—
Bogatyreva: Death approached me very closely. Closer than it is now, at my age, having lived through that moment, I can tell you – nobody wants to die.

Jobs: This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die.

—

Bogatyreva: You need to find something you like. Your work is important for the most part of your life. The only way to be completely satisfied with your life is to do what you think is real, great work. Conclusion: Search for what you love. Keep looking until you find it.

Jobs: You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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.

—

Bogatyreva: Sorry for the drama, but it’s true. Time a person has is very limited. And so the concslusion from my own experience suggests the following – do not live someone else’s life, do not waste your time. Do not fall into the trap of dogma, which advises to live other people’s thoughts. Do not let the nose of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and in your intuition. They miraculously know what you want in life.

Jobs: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

—

Bogatyreva: Up to 33 years, I was not paying attention to the saying: If you live each day like the last, ever to do it.

Jobs: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

—

In the wake of this non-scandal, that’s really more humorous than anything, the Ukrainian Security Counsel has attempted to spin the faux pas by explaining that Jobs in an inspiration to Bogatyreva and that she might have mistakenly put some of Jobs’ words into her own speech.

Below is a video comparison of the two speeches. Any Ukranian speakers care to comment?

HT: The Next Web