
文字稿
[applause] Thank you. [掌声] 谢谢。
[applause] I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. [掌声] 今天,能与你们一同参加这所世界顶尖大学的毕业典礼,我感到无比荣幸。
[applause] [掌声]
Truth be told, I never graduated from college, 说实话,我从未从大学毕业,
and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. 这是我离大学毕业最近的一次。
[laughter] [笑声]
Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life. 今天,我想讲述我人生中的三个故事。
That's it. 就这样。
No big deal. 没什么大不了的。
Just three stories. 仅三个故事。
The first story is about connecting the dots. 第一个故事是关于如何把生命中的点点滴滴串连起来。
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, 我在里德学院只读了六个月就退学了。
but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. 但之后我又以兼职的形式待了大约18个月,才真正辞职。
So why did I drop out? 那么,我为何选择退学呢?
It started before I was born. 这一切在我出生之前就已开始。
My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, 我的生母是一位年轻的未婚研究生,
and she decided to put me up for adoption. 她决定把我送去领养。
She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, 她强烈认为我应该被大学毕业生收养。
so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. 因此,我出生后的一切都已安排妥当,将由一位律师和他的妻子收养。
Except that when I popped out, 只不过当我蹦出来时,
they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. 他们在最后一刻决定,他们真的想要一个女孩。
So my parents, who were on a waiting list, 我的父母当时在等待名单上,
got a call in the middle of the night asking, 半夜接到电话问,
"We've got an unexpected baby boy. 我们意外得了个男宝宝。
Do you want him?" 你想要他吗?
They said, "Of course." 他们说:“当然。”
My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. 我的生母后来发现,我的养母根本没有上过大学,我的养父甚至连高中都没毕业。
She refused to sign the final adoption papers. 她拒绝签署最终的收养文件。
She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college. 几个月后,她才勉强同意,因为我的父母保证我会去上大学。
This was the start in my life. 这是我人生的起点。
And 17 years later, I did go to college, 17年后,我确实上了大学,
but I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford. 但我天真地选择了一所几乎和斯坦福一样昂贵的大学。
And all of my working class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. 我工薪阶层的父母的所有积蓄都花在了我的大学学费上。
After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. 六个月后,我看不出它有什么价值。
I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. 我完全不知道自己的人生想要做什么,也不清楚大学如何能帮我找到答案。
And here I was, 而我就在这里,
spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. 花光了父母毕生积蓄的所有钱。
So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay. 于是我决定退学,并且相信这一切都会顺利解决。
It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, 当时确实挺吓人的,但回想起来,
it was one of the best decisions I ever made. 这是我做过的最好的决定之一。
The minute I dropped out, 我一退学,
I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting. 我可以不再上那些必修却无趣的课程,转而旁听那些看起来更有意思的课。
It wasn't all romantic. 并非一切都那么浪漫。
I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. 我没有宿舍,只能睡在朋友房间的地板上。
I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with. 我为了买食物,把可乐瓶退回去换五分钱的押金。
And I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. 每个星期天晚上,我都会步行七英里穿过市区,去哈瑞·克里希纳神庙享用一周唯一的一顿美餐。
I loved it. 我很喜欢它。
And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. 我跟随好奇心和直觉所涉足的许多事物,后来都成了无价之宝。
Let me give you one example. 让我给你举个例子。
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. 当时的里德学院提供了可能是全国最好的书法教育。
Throughout the campus, every poster, 校园内,每一张海报、
every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. 每个抽屉上的标签都用手写书法精美地标注着。
Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, 因为我退了学,不用去上常规课程,
I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. 我决定参加书法班学习这门技艺。
I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, 我学习了衬线字体和无衬线字体的知识。
about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, 关于调整不同字母组合之间的间距
about what makes great typography great. 关于优秀排版的要素。
It was beautiful, historical, 它美丽,富有历史感,
artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture. 艺术上微妙之处,科学难以捕捉。
And I found it fascinating. 我觉得这非常有趣。
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. 这一切在我生活中毫无实际应用的可能。
But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, 但十年后,在设计第一台Macintosh电脑时,
it all came back to me. 一切都回到了我的记忆中。
And we designed it all into the Mac. 我们将这一切设计都融入了Mac之中。
It was the first computer with beautiful typography. 这是第一台拥有精美字体的电脑。
If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, 如果我没有在大学里旁听过那门课程,
the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. Mac电脑就不会拥有多种字体或比例间距字体。
And since Windows just copied the Mac, 既然Windows只是模仿了Mac,
it's likely that no personal computer would have them. 很可能没有个人电脑会配备它们。
[applause] [掌声]
If I had never dropped out, 如果我从未辍学,
I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class. 我本不该去上那门书法课。
And personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. 个人电脑可能就不会有如今这般出色的排版效果。
Of course, 当然
it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. 在大学时,我无法预见未来如何将点滴串联起来。
But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. 但十年后回首,一切都变得非常、非常清晰。
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. 再次强调,你无法预知未来,将点滴串联起来。
You can only connect them looking backwards. 你只能在回顾时将它们联系起来。
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. 所以你必须相信,这些点滴会在你未来的某一天串连起来。
You have to trust in something. 你必须相信某些东西。
Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. 你的直觉、命运、人生、业力,随便你怎么称呼。
Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path. 因为相信这些点滴会在未来串连起来,会给你信心去追随你的内心,即使它引领你离开寻常的道路。
And that will make all the difference. 这将带来天壤之别。
My second story is about love and loss. 我的第二个故事是关于爱与失去。
I was lucky. 我很幸运。
I found what I loved to do early in life. 我很早就找到了自己热爱的事业。
Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. 我和沃兹在我父母的车库里创办了苹果公司,那时我20岁。
We worked hard and in ten years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a two billion dollar company with over 4,000 我们辛勤工作,十年间,苹果从车库里的两个人发展成了一家拥有四千多名员工、价值二十亿美元的公司。
employees. 员工
We just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, 我们刚刚推出了我们的杰作——麦金塔电脑。
a year earlier and I just turned 30. 一年前,我刚满30岁。
And then I got fired. 然后我被解雇了。
How can you get fired from a company you started? 你怎么会被自己创立的公司解雇呢?
Well, 好的,
as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me. 随着苹果公司的发展,我们聘请了一位我认为非常有才华的人来与我共同管理公司。
And for the first year or so things went well. 在最初的一年左右,事情进展得很顺利。
But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. 然而,我们对未来的愿景开始产生分歧,最终我们闹翻了。
When we did, our board of directors sided with him. 当我们这么做时,我们的董事会站在了他那边。
And so at 30 I was out. 于是,30岁的我离开了公司。
And very publicly out. 而且非常公开地出柜了。
What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating. 我成年后生活的重心就此消失,这让我感到无比痛苦。
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. 几个月来,我真的不知道该怎么办。
I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down. 我觉得自己辜负了上一代企业家的期望。
That I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. 我在交接棒时掉了接力棒。
I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. 我见到了戴维·帕卡德和鲍勃·诺伊斯,并试图为自己把事情搞得如此糟糕而道歉。
I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley. 我曾公开地遭遇失败,甚至一度考虑逃离硅谷。
But something slowly began to dawn on me. 但我逐渐意识到了一些事情。
I still loved what I did. 我依然热爱我所做的事。
The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. 苹果公司的变故丝毫没有改变这一点。
I'd been rejected but I was still in love. 我被拒绝了,但我依然爱着。
And so I decided to start over. 于是我决定重新开始。
I didn't see it then but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. 当时我并未意识到,但事实证明,被苹果公司解雇是我人生中可能发生的最好的事情。
The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. 成功的沉重被重新成为初学者的轻松所取代。
Less sure about everything. 对一切都更加不确定。
It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. 这让我得以进入一生中最富创造力的阶段。
During the next five years I started a company named Next. 接下来的五年里,我创办了一家名为NeXT的公司。
Another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. 另一家公司名为皮克斯,我遇见了后来成为我妻子的那位非凡女性。
Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, 皮克斯随后制作了世界上第一部电脑动画长片,
Toy Story. 玩具总动员
And is now the most successful animation studio in the world. 如今已成为全球最成功的动画工作室。
In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought Next and I returned to Apple. 在出人意料的转折中,苹果收购了Next,我也因此重返苹果。
And the technology we developed at Next is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. 我们在Next开发的技术,正是苹果如今复兴的核心所在。
And Loreen and I have a wonderful family together. 洛琳和我共同拥有一个美好的家庭。
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. 我确信,如果我没有被苹果公司解雇,这一切都不会发生。
It was awful tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. 这药味道糟糕,但我想病人需要它。
Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. 有时候,生活会给你当头一棒。
Don't lose faith. 不要失去信心。
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. 我深信,让我持续前进的唯一动力就是我对自己所做的事情的热爱。
You've got to find what you love. 你必须找到你所爱的东西。
And that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. 工作如此,爱人亦然。
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. 你的工作将占据你生活的一大部分。
And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. 真正获得满足的唯一途径,就是去做你认为是伟大的工作。
And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. 成就一番伟业的唯一途径就是热爱自己的事业。
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. 如果你还未找到,继续寻找,不要安于现状。
As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. 如同所有心灵的追求,当你找到它时,你自会知晓。
And like any great relationship, 如同任何伟大的关系一样,
it just gets better and better as the years roll on. 随着时间的推移,它只会变得越来越好。
So keep looking. 所以继续寻找吧。
Don't settle. 不要将就。
[Applause] My third story is about death. [掌声] 我的第三个故事与死亡有关。
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, 十七岁时,我读到一则格言,大意是:
"If you live each day as if it was your last, 如果你把每一天都当作生命中的最后一天去生活,
someday you'll most certainly be right." 总有一天你肯定会是对的。
[Laughter] [笑声]
It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, 这给我留下了深刻印象,自那以后的33年里,
I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, 我每天早上都会照镜子,问自己,
"If today were the last day of my life, 如果今天是我生命的最后一天,
would I want to do what I am about to do today?" 我今天要做的事,是我真正想做的吗?
And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, 每当连续多日答案都是“不”时,
I know I need to change something. 我知道我需要做出一些改变。
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. 记住我即将死去,是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言,它帮我做出了生命中的重大抉择。
Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, 因为几乎所有事情,所有外界的期待,所有的骄傲,
all fear of embarrassment or failure, 所有对尴尬或失败的恐惧,
these things just fall away in the face of death, 在死亡面前,这些事物都变得无足轻重。
leaving only what is truly important. 只留下真正重要的东西。
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. 记住你终将死去,是我所知避免陷入患得患失困境的最佳方法。
You are already naked. 你已经一丝不挂了。
There is no reason not to follow your heart. 没有理由不追随你的内心。
About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. 大约一年前,我被诊断出患有癌症。
I had a scan at 7.30 我在7:30做了扫描。
in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. 早晨的扫描结果明确显示我的胰腺上有一个肿瘤。
I didn't even know what a pancreas was. 我甚至不知道胰腺是什么。
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. 医生告诉我,这几乎肯定是一种无法治愈的癌症,我预计只能再活三到六个月。
My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, 我的医生建议我回家,把自己的事情安排妥当。
which is doctor's code for "prepare to die." 这是医生们用来表示“准备迎接死亡”的暗语。
It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them in just a few months. 这意味着要在短短几个月内,尝试告诉孩子们你原以为未来十年才会慢慢告诉他们的一切。
It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. 这意味着确保一切安排妥当,以便尽可能减轻家人的负担。
It means to say your goodbyes. 这意味着你要告别了。
I lived with that diagnosis all day. 我整天都想着那个诊断结果。
Later that evening, 那天晚上晚些时候,
I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, 我做了个活检,他们把内窥镜伸进了我的喉咙。
threw my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas, 把胃扔进肠子里,把针插进胰腺里,
and got a few cells from the tumor. 并从肿瘤中取出了一些细胞。
I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, 我被麻醉了,但当时在场的妻子
told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, 他们告诉我,在显微镜下观察细胞时,
the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. 医生们开始哭泣,因为结果发现这是一种非常罕见的胰腺癌,可以通过手术治愈。
I had the surgery, and thankfully, I'm fine now. 我做了手术,谢天谢地,现在没事了。
[Applause] [掌声]
This was the closest I've been to facing death, 这是我离死亡最近的一次。
and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. 我希望这是未来几十年内我离它最近的一次。
Having lived through it, 经历过这一切,
I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. 如今,死亡对我而言已不再只是抽象的概念,而是有了更切实的体会,因此我可以更加肯定地告诉你这一点。
No one wants to die. 没有人想死。
Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. 即便是想去天堂的人,也不愿以死亡为代价到达那里。
And yet, death is the destination we all share. 然而,死亡是我们共同的目的地。
No one has ever escaped it. 无人能逃脱它的掌控。
And that is as it should be, 理应如此。
because death is very likely the single best invention of life. 因为死亡很可能是生命最伟大的发明。
It's life's change agent. 它是生命的变革推动者。
It clears out the old to make way for the new. 辞旧迎新。
Right now, the new is you. 此刻,新生的就是你。
But someday, not too long from now, 但总有一天,在不久的将来,
you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. 你终将老去,被时光淘汰。
Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. 抱歉说得这么夸张,但事实确实如此。
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. 你的时间有限,所以不要浪费生命过别人的生活。
Don't be trapped by dogma, 不要被教条所束缚。
which is living with the results of other people's thinking. 这就是生活在他人思考结果中的状态。
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. 别让他人的意见淹没了你内心的声音。
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. 最重要的是,要有勇气追随自己的内心和直觉。
They somehow already know what you truly want to become. 他们早已洞悉你内心真正渴望成为的模样。
Everything else is secondary. 其他一切都是次要的。
When I was young, 当我年轻时,
there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, 曾有一本令人惊叹的出版物,名为《全球概览》。
which was one of the Bibles of my generation. 这是我这一代人的圣经之一。
It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand, 它是由一个名叫斯图尔特·布兰德的人创造的。
not far from here in Menlo Park. 离这里不远的门洛帕克。
And he brought it to life with his poetic touch. 他以诗意的笔触赋予了它生命。
This was in the late 60s, 这是在60年代末,
before personal computers and desktop publishing. 在个人电脑和桌面出版出现之前。
So it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. 这一切都是用打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机完成的。
It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 这就像是平装版的谷歌。
35 years before Google came along. 在谷歌问世之前的35年。
It was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. 它充满理想主义,充斥着精巧的工具和伟大的理念。
Stuart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog. 斯图尔特和他的团队出版了数期《全球概览》。
And then, when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. 然后,当它完成了自己的历程,他们出版了最后一期。
It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. 那是20世纪70年代中期,我和你年纪相仿。
On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, 在他们最后一期的封底上,印着一张清晨乡间小路的照片。
the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. 那种你如果够大胆,可能会搭便车遇到的。
Beneath it were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." 其下写着:“求知若饥,虚心若愚。”
It was their farewell message as they signed off, "Stay hungry, 这是他们告别时的寄语:“求知若渴,
stay foolish." 保持愚蠢。
And I have always wished that for myself. 我一直以来都希望自己能够如此。
And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. 现在,当你们毕业重新起航,我衷心祝愿你们如此。
Stay hungry, Stay foolish. 求知若饥,虚心若愚。
Thank you all very much. 非常感谢大家。
[Applause] [掌声]
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