1、I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.I never graduated from college.Truth be told,this is the closest Ive ever gotten to a college graduation.Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.Thats it.No big deal.Just three stories
2、.我很荣幸在今天在此参加各位从世界最优秀的大学之一毕业的典礼.我从未从任何一所学院毕业,老实说,这是我有生以来最贴近大学的毕业的一次经历。今天,我向告诉大家我一生中的三个故事。The first story is about connecting the dots.第一个故事是关圆点连线的。故事始于在我出生以前。我的生母是个年轻未婚的大学毕业生,她决定把我交给别人收养。她很坚持我的养父母也应该是大学毕业。于是安排好了让我在出生时被一个律师和她的妻子所收养,不过在我被正式领养前的最后一分钟,那对律师夫妇确定他们真正想要的是一个女孩。It started before I was born.My
3、biological mother was a young,unwed college graduate student,and she decided to put me up for adoption.She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.Except that when I popped out they decided at t
4、he last minute that they really wanted a girl.So my parents,who were on a waiting list,got a call in the middle of the night asking:We have an unexpected baby boy;do you want him?They said:Of course.My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my fath
5、er had never graduated from high school.She refused to sign the final adoption papers.She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.所以我那在等待批准的申请人名单上的父母在半夜接到了一个电话:“我们不小心生了个男孩儿,你们收养他吗?”“当然”我养父母回答。我的生母后来才发现,我的养母从来没有从大学毕业过,而我的养父甚至高中都没有毕业。她拒绝在领养协议上签字。直到几
6、个月之后,他们答应我的生母,将来送我去上大学,她这才同意了。And 17 years later I did go to college.But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford,and all of my working-class parents savings were being spent on my college tuition.After six months,I couldnt see the value in it.I had no idea what I wanted to
7、 do with my life and no idea how college was going to十七年后,我真的去了大学,但是我天真的选择了一所和斯坦福一样贵的大十七年后,我真的去了大学,但是我天真的选择了一所和斯坦福一样贵的大学。我工薪阶层的养父母所有的积蓄眼看着都被我花在了学费上。六个月之后,学。我工薪阶层的养父母所有的积蓄眼看着都被我花在了学费上。六个月之后,我看不到这笔费用的真实价值。我对怎样展开人生茫然不知,也不知道大学能否我看不到这笔费用的真实价值。我对怎样展开人生茫然不知,也不知道大学能否帮我什么。然而在这里我就要花光父母一声的积蓄。所以我决定退学,并相信一帮我什么。然
8、而在这里我就要花光父母一声的积蓄。所以我决定退学,并相信一切都能解决。在当时是个罕见的举动,但是回想起来,这是我所做的最好的决定切都能解决。在当时是个罕见的举动,但是回想起来,这是我所做的最好的决定之一!退学后我可以停止学习那些自己不喜欢的必修课,并开始旁听那些有趣的之一!退学后我可以停止学习那些自己不喜欢的必修课,并开始旁听那些有趣的课程。课程。help me figure it out.And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.So I decided to drop ou
9、t and trust that it would all work out OK.It was pretty scary at the time,but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didnt interest me,and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.It wasnt all roma
10、ntic.I didnt have a dorm room,so I slept on the floor in friends rooms,I returned coke bottles for the 5 deposits to buy food with,and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.I loved it.And much of what I stumbled into by followi
11、ng my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example:这并不是一种很浪漫的生活。我没有宿舍住,睡在朋友宿舍的地板上;收集空可乐瓶,每个瓶子换回押金五美分供我买食物。每周日晚上,我会穿过波特兰市区,走七英里去Hare Krishna神庙去吃顿好的(译注:Hare Krishna神庙是印度教修习场所,周日有灵修活动和免费聚餐)。我很喜欢这顿牙祭。很多在这段跟随自己的好奇心和直觉度过的日子里学到的东西,后来都让我获益匪浅。且让我给你们举个例子:Reed College
12、 at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.Throughout the campus every poster,every label on every drawer,was beautifully hand calligraphed.Because I had dropped out and didnt have to take the normal classes,I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do
13、this.I learned about serif and san serif typefaces,about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations,about what makes great typography great.It was beautiful,historical,artistically subtle in a way that science cant capture,and I found it fascinating.当时里德学院的书法课程大概是美国国内最好的了。整个校园
14、每一张海报每一张标签出自每一个创作者都是漂亮的手写字。用不着去上常规课,我就参加了一门书法课,去学写漂亮的字。学习serif和san serif(两种西文字体,比较工整的),关于在不同字组合之间的间隙的变化,以及什么使得凸版印刷伟大。书法很美,历史悠久,而且有着精妙的艺术感,为科学所无法企及,我对它入了迷。None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.But ten years later,when we were designing the first Macintosh computer,it al
15、l came back to me.And we designed it all into the Mac.It was the first computer with beautiful typography.If I had never dropped in on that single course in college,the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.And since Windows just copied the Mac,its likely that no
16、 personal computer would have them.If I had never dropped out,I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class,and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.But it was very,very
17、 clear looking backwards ten years later.这些对于我的生活毫无任何实际的用途,我也从没指望有过。可是十年之后,当我正在设计第一台Macintosh(麦金塔,苹果电脑的一个品种)电脑的时候,它们开始起作用了。我们将它们带进了麦金塔,那是第一台拥有漂亮字体的电脑。如果我没有在学校旁听过那门课程,Mac将不会有多样化的字体和适当的文字间隔,而自从Windows系统开始抄袭Mac的系统后,好像没有任何个人电脑没有用它了。如果我没有退学,我就不可能旁听书法课,这样也许个人电脑就没有现在这样精致的字体了。当然,并不是说当我在大学的时候我有前瞻意识,但是十年后再回想,
18、却是十分清楚的。Again,you cant connect the dots looking forward;you can only connect them looking backwards.So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.You have to trust in something your gut,destiny,life,karma,whatever.Because believing the dots will connect down the road will gi
19、ve you the confidence to follow your heart even when it will lead you after a well-worn path and now will make all the difference.This approach has never let me down,and it has made all the difference in my life.I was lucky I found what I loved to do early in life.Woz and I started Apple in my paren
20、ts garage when I was 20.We worked hard,and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a$2 billion company with over 4000 employees.We had just released our finest creation the Macintosh a year earlier,and I had just turned 30.And then I got fired.How can you get fired from
21、a company you started?Well,as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me,and for the first year or so things went well.But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.When we did,our Board of Directors sided with him
22、.So at 30 I was out.And very publicly out.What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone,and it was devastating.我很幸运,在人生早期就找到了喜爱的东西。20岁时我和Woz在我爸妈的车库里建立了苹果公司。我们很努力地工作,10年之后苹果电脑由最初车库中的两个人变成一家有4000多员工、价值20亿美元的公司。那个时候我们最棒的产品Macintosh刚刚推出一年,而我刚刚30岁。然后我就被解雇了。随着苹果公司的发展壮大,我们请了一个在我看来非常有才能的人来和我一起管理公
23、司。第一年一切都非常顺利。但是后来我们对于未来的看法出现了分歧,最终我们之间起了争论。争执发生之后,我们的董事会站在了他那一边。于是,30岁时我被炒掉了。一直以来都是我成年生活核心的东西,忽然不复存在了。那感觉相当可怕。I really didnt know what to do for a few months.I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down-that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.I met with David
24、 Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly.I was a very public failure,and I even thought about running away from the valley.But something slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did.The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.I had been rejected,but
25、I was still in love.And so I decided to start over.有几个月的时间,我完全不知道该干什么。我感到自己辜负了前辈企业家的期望就像接力棒交到我的手里,而我却丢掉了。我遇见了David Packard和Bob Noyce并试着为自己没有振作起来而道歉。我成了一名众所周知的失败者。我甚至想过离开硅谷。然而有一种东西慢慢照亮了我:我仍然热爱着我做过的事情。苹果的风云变幻并没有让它有些许改变。我被逐出门,但是我始终心存热爱。我决定重头再来!I didnt see it then,but it turned out that getting fired fr
26、om Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again,less sure about everything.It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.我当时并没有意识到,实际上被苹果解雇是当时发生在我身上的最好的事了。事业成功所伴随的那种沉重不见了,取而代之
27、的是重回起跑线的那种新手的轻盈。对于一切我都不再确信无疑。我获得了解放,进而开始了我一生中最富有创造力的时期。During the next five years,I started a company named NeXT,another company named Pixar,and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film,Toy Story,and is now th
28、e most successful animation studio in the world.In a remarkable turn of events,Apple bought NeXT,I returned to Apple,and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apples current renaissance.And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.Im pretty sure none of this would have happene
29、d if I hadnt been fired from Apple.It was awful tasting medicine,but I guess the patient needed it.Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.Dont lose faith.Im convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.Youve got to find what you love.And that is as true for
30、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 havent found it yet,keep looking.Dont settle.As with all matters of t
31、he heart,youll know when you find it.And,like any great relationship,it just gets better and better as the years roll on.So keep looking until you find it.Dont settle.When I was 17,I read a quote that went something like:“If you live each day as if it was your last,someday youll most certainly be ri
32、ght.”It made an impression on me,and since then,for the past 33 years,I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself:“If today were the last day of my life,would I want to do what I am about to do today?”And whenever the answer has been“No”for too many days in a row,I know I need to chan
33、ge something.我17岁那年读到过一句话,大意是这样:“假如你把每一天都当成你在人世的最后一天来过,总有一天你会发现自己是对的。”这话给我留下了印象。自那时起,33年来的每个早晨,我都对着镜子自问:“假如果今天是我这辈子最后的一天,我还会做我今天要做的这些事吗?”每当连续很多天答案都是“不会”的时候,我就知道有什么东西需要改变了。Remembering that Ill be dead soon is the most important tool Ive ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.Because
34、 almost everything all external expectations,all pride,all fear of embarrassment or failure-these things just fall away in the face of death,leaving only what is truly important.Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.You
35、are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.记住自己将不久于人世,这是我在作出人生重大选择时的一个最重要的参考工具。因为几乎所有的一切一切外界对你的期待、一切荣耀、所有对窘境和失败的恐惧它们在面对死亡的时候都黯然失色,剩下的只有真正重要的东西。在我看来,设想自己将死去是帮助你避开“我可能会失去xxx”思维陷阱的最佳方法。此时你已经赤条条一无所有,又何不随心而动?About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morni
36、ng,and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didnt even know what a pancreas was.The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable,and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order,which
37、 is doctors code for prepare to die.It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought youd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.It means to say your goodbyes.大约一年前,我被查出患有
38、癌症。早上7点半,我做了一次扫描,结果很清楚地显示出我的胰腺里有一个肿瘤。当时我连胰腺是什么都不知道。大夫们告诉我,差不多可以肯定这是一种无法治愈的癌,我估计还能再活三到六个月。我的医生建议我回家去,把事情都做个了结。这是医生的行话,这意味这试着在几月内告诉你的孩子你将在十年后告诉他们的事情;意味着确认对家人将这件事情守口如瓶,并显得尽量的自然;意味着对这个世界说再见。I lived with that diagnosis all day.Later that evening I had a biopsy,where they stuck an endoscope down my throat
39、,through my stomach and into my intestines,put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.I was sedated,but my wife,who was there,told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer
40、that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and Im fine now.一整天我的脑子里只有这个判决。当晚,我做了一次组织切片检查,他们将内窥镜伸到我的咽喉,穿过我的胃直到我的肠道,把一根针伸到我的胰腺里,从瘤子上取出一些细胞。我被打了镇定,但是我的妻子,她也在场,她告诉我他们在显微镜下看到我的细胞后,医生喜极而泣,因为医生们发现这是一种非常罕见的、通过手术可以治愈的胰腺癌。后来我做了手术,现在已经痊愈了。迄今为止,这是我距离死亡最近的一次,希望这也是未来几十年里我离死亡最近的一次。经过这一次,我可以告诉你们一些关于死亡更加明智的观点:没有
41、人想死。即使那些向往天堂的人也不愿意为了上天堂而去死。没有人想要死。但死亡是我们共同的终点,是生命最好的创造。它是生命的代谢催化剂,去除老朽,迎接新鲜。现在新鲜的是你们,但是用不了太久,某天你们会发现自己已经渐渐变得老朽,将被取代。抱歉说得这么夸张,但这是真理。This was the closest Ive been to facing death,and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades.Having lived through it,I can now say this to you with a bit more c
42、ertainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:No one wants to die.Even people who want to go to heaven dont want to die to get there.And yet death is the destination we all share.No one has ever escaped it.And that is as it should be,because Death is very likely the single be
43、st invention of Life.It is Lifes change agent.It clears out the old to make way for the new.Right now the new is you,but someday not too long from now,you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.Sorry to be so dramatic,but it is quite true.Your time is limited,so dont waste it living someo
44、ne elses life.Dont be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other peoples thinking.Dont 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.Everyt
45、hing else is secondary.When I was young,there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog,which was one of the bibles of my generation.It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park,and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.This was in the late 196
46、0s,before personal computers and desktop publishing,so it was all made with typewriters,scissors,and polaroid cameras.It was sort of like Google in paperback form,35 years before Google came along:it was idealistic,and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.环球百科目录出版了数期,生命就走到了尽头。那是在七十年代中期,我正是你
47、们这个年纪。在他们最后一期的封底,是一张清晨乡间公路的照片,那种喜欢冒险的人会去徜徉其间的小路。封底的上面写着:“求知若饥,虚心若愚。”那是他们停止发行的告别语。饥饿着,愚钝着。我一直希望自己做到这样。现在,在你们即将毕业并开始新的人生旅途的时刻,我用这句话来祝福你们。Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog,and then when it had run its course,they put out a final issue.It was the mid-1970s,and I was
48、your age.On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road,the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath it were the words:Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.It was their farewell message as they signed off.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.And I have always wished that for myself.And now,as you graduate to begin anew,I wish that for you.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish
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