You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect. You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma.

Steve Jobs delivered this line during his commencement address to Stanford University’s graduating class on June 12, 2005. In the speech’s first section (“Connecting the Dots”), he recounts dropping out of Reed College, continuing to “drop in” on classes that interested him, and later discovering that seemingly impractical experiences—especially a calligraphy course—proved unexpectedly useful when designing the Macintosh’s typography. The quote frames his broader message to graduates: major life and career choices often feel uncertain in the moment, and their coherence or value may only become clear in retrospect.

Jobs argues that meaning in a life or career is largely retrospective: decisions and accidents rarely form an intelligible pattern while you are living them, but they can later be understood as a chain of causes and consequences. The practical implication is a counsel of faith under uncertainty—continue acting, learning, and choosing without demanding immediate proof that each step “makes sense.” By naming “gut, destiny, life, karma,” he broadens the idea beyond religion to any sustaining framework of trust. The quote’s significance lies in legitimizing non-linear paths and reframing setbacks or detours as potential future assets.

1) “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”
2) “So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
3) “You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”