第一篇:巴菲特演讲【哈佛大学毕业典礼】
巴菲特的一次演讲
(一)我想先讲几分钟的套话,然后我就主要来接受你们的提问。我想谈的是你们的所思所想。我鼓励你们给我出难题,畅所欲言,言无不尽。(原文:我希望你们扔些高难度的球,如果你们的投球带些速度的话,我回答起来会更有兴致)你们几乎可以问任何问题,除了上个礼拜的Texas A&M的大学橄榄球赛,那超出我所能接受的极限了。我们这里来了几个SunTrust(译者注:美国一家大型商业银行)的人。我刚刚参加完Coca Cola的股东大会(译者注:Warren Buffet的投资公司是Coca Cola的长期大股东之一),我坐在吉米●威廉姆斯边上。吉米领导了SunTrust多年。吉米一定让我穿上这件SunTrust的T恤到这来。我一直试着让老年高尔夫联盟给我赞助,但是都无功而返。没想到我在SunTrust这,却做的不错。吉米说,基于SunTrust存款的增长,我会得到一定比例的酬劳。所以我为SunTrust鼓劲。(译者注:巴菲特在开玩笑)
关于你们走出校门后的前程,我在这里只想讲一分钟。你们在这里已经学了很多关于投资方面的知识,你们学会如何做好事情,你们有足够的IQ能做好,你们也有动力和精力来做好,否则你们就不会在这里了。你们中的许多人都将最终实现你们的理想。但是在智能和能量之外,还有更多的东西来决定你是否成功,我想谈谈那些东西。实际上,在我们Omaha(译者注:Berkshire Hathaway公司的总部所在地)有一位先生说,当他雇人时,他会看三个方面:诚信,智能,和精力。雇一个只有智能和精力,却没有诚信的人会毁了雇者。一个没有诚信的人,你只能希望他愚蠢和懒惰,而不是聪明和精力充沛。我想谈的是第一点,因为我知道你们都具备后两点。在考虑这个问题时,请你们和我一起玩玩这个游戏。你们现在都是在MBA的第二年,所以你们对自己的同学也应该都了解了。现在我给你们一个来买进10%的你的一个同学的权利,一直到他的生命结束。你不能选那些有着富有老爸的同学,每个人的成果都要靠他自己的努力。我给你一个小时来想这个问题,你愿意买进哪一个同学余生的10%。你会给他们做一个IQ测试吗,选那个IQ值最高的?我很怀疑。你会挑那个学习成绩最好的吗,我也怀疑。你也不一定会选那个最精力充沛的,因为你自己本身就已经动力十足了。你可能会去寻找那些质化的因素,因为这里的每个人都是很有脑筋的。你想了一个小时之后,当你下赌注时,可能会选择那个你最有认同感的人,那个最有领导才能的人,那个能实现他人利益的人,那个慷慨,诚实,即使是他自己的主意,也会把功劳分予他人的人。所有这些素质,你可以把这些你所钦佩的素质都写下来。(你会选择)那个你最钦佩的人。然后,我这里再给你们下个跘儿。在你买进10%你的同学时,你还要卖出10%的另外一个人。这不是很有趣吗?你会想我到底卖谁呢?你可能还是不会找IQ最低的。你可能会选那个让你厌恶的同学,以及那些令你讨厌的品质。那个你不愿打交道的人,其他人也不愿意与之打交道的人。是什么品质导致了那一点呢?你能想出一堆来,比如不够诚实,爱占小便宜等等这些,你可以把它们写在纸的右栏。当你端详纸的左栏和右栏时,会发现有意思的一点。能否将橄榄球扔出60码之外并不重要,是否能在9秒3之内跑100码也不重要,是否是班上最好看的也无关大局。真正重要的是那些在纸上左栏里的品质。如果你愿意的话,你可以拥有所有那些品质。那些行动,脾气,和性格的品质,都是可以做到的。它们不是我们在座的每一位力所不能及的。再看看那些右栏里那些让你厌恶的品质,没有一项是你不得不要的。如果你有的话,你也可以改掉。在你们这个年纪,改起来比在我这个年纪容易得多,因为大多数这些行为都是逐渐固定下来的。人们都说习惯的枷锁开始轻得让人感受不到,一旦你感觉到的时候,已经是沉重得无法去掉了。我认为说得很对。我见过很多我这个年纪或者比我还年轻10岁,20岁的人,有着自我破坏性习惯而又难以自拔,他们走到哪里都招人厌恶。他们不需要那样,但是他们已经无可救药。但是,在你们这个年纪,任何习惯和行为模式都可以有,只要你们愿意,就只是一个选择的问题。就象本杰明●格拉姆(上个世纪中叶著名的金融投资家)一样,在他还是十几岁的少年时,他四顾看看那些令人尊敬的人,他想我也要做一个被人尊敬的人,为什么我不象那些人一样行事呢?他发现那样去做并不是不可能的。他对那些令人讨厌的品质采取了与此相反的方式而加以摒弃。所以我说,如果你把那些品质都写下来,好好思量一下,择善而从,你自己可能就是那个你愿意买入10%的人!更好的是你自己本就100%的拥有你自己了。这就是我今天要讲的。
下面就让我们开始谈谈你们所感兴趣的。我们可以从这儿或那儿举起的手开始。(二)问题:你对日本的看法?
巴菲特:我不是一个太宏观的人。现在日本10年期的贷款利息只有1%。我对自己说,45年前,我上了本杰明●格拉姆的课程,然后我就一直勤勤恳恳,努力工作,也许我应该比1%挣的多点吧?看上去那不是不可能的。我不想卷入任何汇率波动的风险,所以我会选择以日元为基准的资产,如地产或企业,必须是日本国内的。我唯一需要做的就是挣得比1%多,因为那是我资金的成本。可直到现在,我还没有发现一家可以投资的生意。这真的很有趣。日本企业的资产回报率都很低。他们有少数企业会有4%,5%,或6%的回报。如果日本企业本身赚不了多少钱的话,那么其资产投资者是很难获得好的回报的。当然,有一些人也赚了钱。我有一个同期为本杰明●格拉姆工作过的朋友。那是我第一次买股票的方法,即寻找那些股票价格远低于流动资本的公司,非常便宜但又有一点素质的公司。我管那方法叫雪茄烟蒂投资法。你满地找雪茄烟蒂,终于你找到一个湿透了的,令人讨厌的烟蒂,看上去还能抽上一口。那一口可是免费的。你把它捡起来,抽上最后一口,然后扔了,接着找下一个。这听上去一点都不优雅,但是如果你找的是一口免费的雪茄烟,这方法还值得做。不要做低回报率的生意。时间是好生意的朋友,却是坏生意的敌人。如果你陷在糟糕的生意里太久的话,你的结果也一定会糟糕,即使你的买入价很便宜。如果你在一桩好生意里,即使你开始多付了一点额外的成本,如果你做的足够久的话,你的回报一定是可观的。我现在从日本没发现什么好生意。也可能日本的文化会作某些改变,比如他们的管理层可能会对公司股票的责任多一些,这样回报率会高些。但目前来看,我看到的都是一些低回报率的公司,即使是在日本经济高速发展的时候。说来也令人惊奇,因为日本这样一个完善巨大的市场却不能产生一些优秀的高回报的公司。日本的优秀只体现在经济总量上,而不是涌现一些优质的公司(译者注:对中国而言,这样的问题何止严重10倍!)。这个问题已经给日本带来麻烦了。我们到现在为止对日本还是没什么兴趣。只要那的利息还是1%,我们会继续持观望态度。
问题:有传闻说,你成为长期资金管理基金的救场买家?你在那里做了什么?你看到了什么机会?(译者注:长期资金管理基金是一家著名的对冲基金。1994年创立。创立后的头些年盈利可观,年均40%以上。但是,在1998年,这家基金在4个月里损失了46个亿,震惊世界)
巴菲特:在最近的一篇财富杂志(封面是鲁本●默多克)上的文章里讲了事情的始末。有点意思。是一个冗长的故事,我这里就不介绍来龙去脉了。我接了一个非常慎重的关于长期资金管理基金的电话。那是4个星期前的一个星期五的下午吧。我孙女的生日Party在那个傍晚。在之后的晚上,我会飞到西雅图,参加比尔●盖茨的一个12天的阿拉斯加的私人旅程。所以我那时是一点准备都没有的。于是星期五我接了这个电话,整个事情变得严重起来。在财富的文章发表之前,我还通了其他一些相关电话。我认识他们(译者注:长期资金管理基金的人),他们中的一些人我还很熟。很多人都在所罗门兄弟公司工作过。事情很关键。美联储周末派了人过去(译者注:纽约)。在星期五到接下来的周三这段时间里,纽约储备局导演了没有联邦政府资金卷入的长期资金管理基金的救赎行动。我很活跃。但是我那时的身体状况很不好,因为我们那时正在阿拉斯加的一些峡谷里航行,而我对那些峡谷毫无兴趣。船长说我们朝着可以看到北极熊的方向航行,我告诉船长朝着可以稳定接收到卫星信号的方向航行(才是重要的)(译者注:巴菲特在开玩笑,意思是他在船上,却一直心系手边的工作)。星期三的早上,我们出了一个报价。那时,我已经在蒙塔那(译者注:美国西北部的一个州)了。我和纽约储备局的头儿通了话。他们在10点会和一批银行家碰头。我把意向传达过去了。纽约储备局在10点前给在怀俄明(译者注:美国西北部的一个州)的我打了电话。我们做了一个报价。那确实只是一个大概的报价,因为我是在远程(不可能完善细节性的东西)。最终,我们对2.5亿美元的净资产做了报价,但我们会在那之上追加30到32.5亿左右。Berkshire Hathaway(巴菲特的投资公司)分到30个亿, AIG有7个亿, Goldman Sachs有3个亿。我们把投标交了上去,但是我们的投标时限很短,因为你不可能对价值以亿元计的证券在一段长时间内固定价格,我也担心我们的报价会被用来作待价而沽的筹码。最后,银行家们把合同搞定了。那是一个有意思的时期。
整个长期资金管理基金的历史,我不知道在座的各位对它有多熟悉,其实是波澜壮阔的。如果你把那16个人,象John Meriwether, Eric Rosenfeld,Larry Hilibrand,Greg Hawkins, Victor Haghani,还有两个诺贝尔经济学奖的获得者,Myron Scholes和Robert Merton,放在一起,可能很难再从任何你能想像得到的公司中,包括象微软这样的公司,找到另外16个这样高IQ的一个团队。那真的是一个有着难以臵信的智商的团队,而且他们所有人在业界都有着大量的实践经验。他们可不是一帮在男装领域赚了钱,然后突然转向证券的人。这16个人加起来的经验可能有350年到400年,而且是一直专精于他们目前所做的。第3个因素,他们所有人在金融界都有着极大的关系网,数以亿计的资金也来自于这个关系网,其实就是他们自己的资金。超级智商,在他们内行的领域,结果是他们破产了。这于我而言,是绝对的百思不得其解。如果我要写本书的话,书名就是“为什么聪明人净干蠢事”。我的合伙人说那本书就是他的自传(笑)。这真的是一个完美的演示。就我自己而言,我和那16个人没有任何过节。他们都是正经人,我尊敬他们,甚至我自己有问题的时候,也会找他们来帮助解决。他们绝不是坏人。但是,他们为了挣那些不属于他们,他们也不需要的钱,他们竟用属于他们,他们也需要的钱来冒险。这就太愚蠢了。这不是IQ不IQ的问题。用对你重要的东西去冒险赢得对你并不重要的东西,简直无可理喻,即使你成功的概率是100比1,或1000比1。如果你给我一把枪,弹膛里一千个甚至一百万个位臵,然后你告诉我,里面只有一发子弹,你问我,要花多少钱,才能让我拉动扳机。我是不会去做的。你可以下任何注,即使我赢了,那些钱对我来说也不值一提。如果我输了,那后果是显而易见的。我对这样的游戏没有一点兴趣。可是因为头脑不清楚,总有人犯这样的错。有这样一本一般般的书,却有着一个很好的书名,“一生只需富一次”。这再正确不过了,不是码?如果你有一个亿开始,每年没有一点风险的可以挣10%,有些风险,但成功率有99%的投资会赚20%。一年结束,你可能有1.1个亿,也可能有1.2个亿,这有什么区别呢?如果你这时候过世,写亡讯的人可能错把你有的1.2个亿写成1.1个亿了,有区别也变成没区别了(笑)。对你,对你的家庭,对任何事,都没有任何一点点不同。但是万一有点闪失的话,特别是当你管理他人的钱时,你不仅仅损失了你的钱,你朋友的钱,还有你的尊严和脸面。我所不能理解的是,这16个如此高智商的能人怎么就会玩这样一个游戏。简直就是疯了。某种程度上,他们的决定基本上都依赖于一些事情。他们都有着所罗门兄弟公司的背景,他们说一个6或7西格玛的事件(指金融市场的波动幅度)是伤他们不着的。他们错了,历史是不会告诉你将来某一金融事件发生的概率的。他们很大程度上依赖于数学统计,他们认为关于股票的(历史)数据揭示了股票的风险。我认为那些数据根本就不会告诉你股票的风险!我认为数据也不会揭示你破产的风险。也许他们现在也这么想了?事实上,我根本不想用他们来作例子,因为他们的经历换一种形式,很可能发生在我们中的每个人身上。我们在某些关键之处存在着盲点,因为我们懂得太多的其他地方。正象Henry Gutman所说的,破产的多是两类人:一是一窍不通者;一是学富五车者。这其实是令人悲哀的。我们是从来不借钱的,即使有保险做担保。即使是在我只有1万块钱的时候,我也决不借钱。借钱能带来什么不同玛?我只凭我一己之力时我也乐趣无穷。一万,一百万,和一千万对我都没有什么不同。当然,当我遇到类似紧急医疗事件的情况下会有些例外。基本上,在钱多钱少的情况下,我都会做同样的事情。如果你从生活方式的角度来想想你们和我的不同,我们穿的是同样的衣服,当然我的是SunTrust给的;我们都有机会喝上帝之泉(说这话的时候,巴菲特开了一瓶可乐),我们都去麦当劳,好一点的,奶酪皇后(译者注:即DairyQueen,一家类似于麦当劳的快餐店),我们都住在冬暖夏凉的房子里,我们都在平面大电视上看Nebraska和Texas A&M(美国的两所大学)的橄榄球比赛,我们的生活没什么不同,你能得到不错的医疗,我也一样,唯一的不同可能是我们旅行的方式不同,我有我的私人飞机来周游世界,我很幸运。但是除了这个之外,你们再想想,我能做的你们有什么不能做呢?我热爱我的工作,但是我从来如此,无论我在谈大合同,还是只赚一千块钱的时候。我希望你们也热爱自己的工作。如果你总是为了简历上好看些就不断跳槽,做你不喜欢的工作,我认为你的脑子一定是进了水。我碰到过一个28岁的哈佛毕业生,他一直以来都做得不错。我问他,下一步你打算做些什么?他说,可能读个MBA吧,然后去个管理资询的大公司,简历上看着漂亮点。我说,等一下,你才28岁,你做了这么多事情,你的简历比我看到过的最好的还要强十倍,现在你要再找一个你不喜欢的工作,你不觉得这就好像把你的性生活省下来到晚年的时候再用吗?是时候了,你就要去做的(不能老等着)。(这是一个比喻)但是我想我把我的立场告诉了他。你们走出去,都应该选择那些你热爱的工作,而不是让你的简历看上去风光。当然,你的爱好可能会有变化。(对那些你热爱的工作,)每天早上你是蹦着起床的。当我走出校园的时候,我恨不得马上就给格拉姆干。但是我不可能为他白干,于是他说我要的工资太高了(所以他没有要我)。但我总是不停地bug他,同时我自己也卖了3年的证券,期间从不间断地给他写信,聊我的想法,最终他要了我,我在他那儿工作了几年。那几年是非常有益的经验。我总是做我热爱的工作。抛开其他因素,如果你单纯的高兴做一项工作,那么那就是你应该做的工作。你会学到很多东西,工作起来也会觉得有无穷的乐趣。可能你将来会变。但是(做你热爱的工作),你会从工作中得到很多很多。起薪的多寡无足轻重。不知怎么,扯得远了些。总之,如果你认为得到两个X比得到一个让你更开心,你可能就要犯错了。重要的是发现生活的真谛,做你喜欢做的。如果你认为得到10个或20个X是你一切生活的答案,那么你就会去借钱,做些短视,以及不可理喻的事情。多年以后,不可避免地,你会为你的所作所为而后悔。
序:至此,巴菲特的演讲终于过半。
问题:讲讲你喜欢的企业吧, 不是企业具体的名字,而是什么素质的企业你喜欢?
巴菲特:
我只喜欢我看得懂的生意,这个标准排除了90%的企业。你看,我有太多的东西搞不懂。幸运的是,还是有那么一些东西我还看得懂。
设想一个诺大的世界里,大多数公司都是上市的,所以基本上许多美国公司都是可以买到的。让我们从大家都懂的事情上开始讲吧(巴菲特举起他的可乐瓶),我懂得这个,你懂得这个,每个人都懂这个。这是一瓶樱桃可乐,从1886年起就没什么变化了。很简单,但绝不容易的生意。我可不想要对竞争者来说很容易的生意,我想要的生意外面得有个城墙,居中是价值不菲的城堡,我要负责的、能干的人才来管理这个城堡。
我要的城墙可以是多样的,举例来说,在汽车保险领域的GEICO(译者注:美国一家保险公司),它的城墙就是低成本。人们是必须买汽车保险的,每人每车都会有,我不能卖20份给一个人,但是至少会有一份。消费者从哪里购买呢?这将基于保险公司的服务和成本。多数人都认为(各家公司的)服务基本上是相同的或接近的,所以成本是他们的决定因素。所以,我就要找低成本的公司,这就是我的城墙。
当我的成本越比竞争对手的低,我会越加注意加固和保护我的城墙。当你有一个漂亮的城堡,肯定会有人对它发起攻击,妄图从你的手中把它抢走,所以我要在城堡周围建起城墙来。
三十年前,柯达公司的城墙和可口可乐的城墙是一样难以逾越的。如果你想给你6个月的小孩子照张像,20年或50年后你再来看那照片,你不会象专业摄影师那样来衡量照片质量随着时间的改变,真正决定购买行为的是胶卷公司在你的心目中的地位。柯达向你保证你今天的照片,20年,50年后看起来仍是栩栩如生,这一点对你而言可能恰恰是最重要的。30年前的柯达就有那样的魅力,它占据了每个人的心。在地球上每个人的心里,它的那个小黄盒子都在说,柯达是最好的。那真是无价的。
现在的柯达已经不再独占人们的心。它的城墙变薄了,富士用各种手段缩小了差距。柯达让富士成为奥林匹克运动会的赞助商,一个一直以来由柯达独占的位臵。于是在人们的印象里,富士变得和柯达平起平坐起来。与之相反的是,可口可乐的城墙与30年前比,变得更宽了。你可能看不到城墙一天天的变化。但是,每次你看到可口可乐的工厂扩张到一个目前并不盈利,但20年后一定会的国家,它的城墙就加宽些。企业的城墙每天每年都在变,或厚或窄。10年后,你就会看到不同。
我给那些公司经理人的要求就是,让城墙更厚些,保护好它,拒竞争者于墙外。你可以通过服务,产品质量,价钱,成本,专利,地理位臵来达到目的。我寻找的就是这样的企业。那么这样的企业都在做什么生意呢?我要找到他们,就要从最简单的产品里找到那些(杰出的企业)。因为我没法预料到10年以后,甲骨文,莲花,或微软会发展成什么样。比尔●盖茨是我碰到过的最好的生意人。微软现在所处的位臵也很好。但是我还是对他们10年后的状况无从知晓。同样我对他们的竞争对手10年后的情形也一无所知。
虽然我不拥有口香糖的公司,但是我知道10年后他们的发展会怎样。互联网是不会改变我们嚼口香糖的方式的,事实上,没什么能改变我们嚼口香糖的方式。会有很多的(口香糖)新产品不断进入试验期,一些以失败告终。这是事物发展的规律。如果你给我10个亿,让我进入口香糖的生意,打开一个缺口,我无法做到。这就是我考量一个生意的基本原则。给我10个亿,我能对竞争对手有多少打击?给我100个亿,我对全世界的可口可乐的损失会有多大?我做不到,因为,他们的生意稳如磐石。给我些钱,让我去占领其他领域,我却总能找出办法把事情做到。
所以,我要找的生意就是简单,容易理解,经济上行得通,诚实,能干的管理层。这样,我就能看清这个企业10年的大方向。如果我做不到这一点,我是不会买的。基本上来讲,我只会买那些,即使纽约证交所从明天起关门五年,我也很乐于拥有的股票。如果我买个农场,即使五年内我不知道它的价格,但只要农场运转正常,我就高兴。如果我买个公寓群,只要它们能租出去,带来预计的回报,我也一样高兴。
人们买股票,根据第二天早上股票价格的涨跌,决定他们的投资是否正确,这简直是扯淡。正如格拉姆所说的,你要买的是企业的一部分生意。这是格拉姆教给我的最基本最核心的策略。你买的不是股票,你买的是一部分企业生意。企业好,你的投资就好,只要你的买入价格不是太离谱。
这就是投资的精髓所在。你要买你看得懂的生意,你买了农场,是因为你懂农场的经营。就是这么简单。这都是格拉姆的理念。我6、7岁就开始对股票感兴趣,在11岁的时买了第一只股票。我沉迷于对图线,成交量等各种技术指标的研究。然后在我还是19岁的时候,幸运地拿起了格拉姆的书。书里说,你买的不是那整日里上下起伏的股票标记,你买的是公司的一部分生意。自从我开始这么来考虑问题后,所以一切都豁然开朗。就这么简单。
我们只买自己谙熟的生意。在坐的每一个人都懂可口可乐的生意。我却敢说,没人能看懂新兴的一些互联网公司。我在今年的Berkshire Hathaway的股东大会上讲过,如果我在商学院任教,期末考试的题目就是评估互联网公司的价值,如果有人给我一个具体的估价,我会当场晕倒的(笑)。我自己是不知道如何估值的,但是人们每天都在做!
如果你这么做是为了去竞技比赛,还可以理解。但是你是在投资。投资是投入一定的钱,确保将来能恰当幅度地赚进更多的钱。所以你务必要晓得自己在做什么,务必要深入懂得(你投资的)生意。你会懂一些生意模式,但绝不是全部。问题:就如你刚才所说,你已经讲了事情的一半,那就是去寻找企业,试着去理解商业模式,作为一个拥有如此大量资金的投资者,你的积累足以让你过功成身退。回到购买企业的成本,你如何决定一个合适的价格来购买企业?
巴菲特:
那是一个很难作出的决定。对一个我不确信(理解)的东西,我是不会买的。如果我对一个东西非常确信,通常它带给我的回报不会是很可观的。为什么对那些你只有一丝感觉会有40%回报的企业来试手气呢?我们的回报不是惊人的高,但是一般来讲,我们也不会有损失。
1972年,我们买了See’s Candy(一家糖果公司)。See’s Candy每年以每磅1.95美元的价格,卖出1千6百万磅的糖果,产生4百万的税前利润。我们买它花了2千5百万。我和我的合伙人觉得See’s Candy有一种尚未开发出来的定价魔力,每磅1.95美元的糖果可以很容易地以2.25的价钱卖出去。每磅30分的涨价,1千6百万磅就是额外的4百80万呀,所以2千5百万的购买价还是划算的。
我们从未雇过咨询师。我们知道在加州每个人都有一个想法。每个加州人心中对See’s Candy都有一些特殊的印象,他们绝对认这个牌子的糖。在情人节,给女孩子送See’s Candy的糖,她们会高兴地亲它。如果她们把糖扔在一边,爱理不理,那我们的生意就糟糕了。只要女孩子亲吻我们的糖,那就是我们要灌输给加州人脑子里的,女孩子爱亲See’s Candy的糖。如果我们能达到这个目标,我们就可以涨价了。我们在1972年买的See’s Candy,那之后,我们每年都在12月26日,圣诞节后的第一天,涨价。圣诞节期间我们卖了很多糖。今年,我们卖了3千万磅糖,一磅赚2个美元,总共赚了6千万。十年后,我们会赚得更多。在那6千万里,5千5百万是在圣诞节前3周赚的。耶稣的确是我们的好朋友(笑)。这确实是一桩好生意。
如果你再想想,关于这生意的重要一点是,多数人都不买盒装巧克力来自己消费,他们只是用它来做为生日或节日的馈赠礼品。情人节是每年中最重要的一天。圣诞节是迄今为止最最重要的销售季节。女人买糖是为了圣诞节,她们通常在那前后2-3周来买。男人买糖是为了情人节。他们在回家的路上开着车,我们在收音机节目里放广告,“内疚,内疚”,男人们纷纷从高速路上出去,没有一盒巧克力在手,他们是不敢回家的。
情人节是销售最火的一天。你能想像,在情人节那天,See’s Candy的价钱已经是11美元一磅了(译者注:又涨价了)。当然还有别的牌子的糖果是6美元一磅。当你在情人节的时候回家(这些都是关于See’s Candy深入人心的一幕幕场景,你的那位接受你的礼品,由衷地感谢你,祝福剩下的一年),递给你的那位(6块钱的糖),说,“亲爱的,今年我买的是廉价货”?这绝不可能行得通!
在某种程度上,有些东西和价格是没关系的,或者说,不是以价格为导向的。这就像迪斯尼。迪斯尼在全世界卖的是16.95或19.95美元的家庭影像制品。人们,更具体的说,那些当妈妈的对迪斯尼有着特殊的感情。在座的每个人在心中对迪斯尼都有着一些情愫。如果我说环球影视,它不会唤起你心中的那种特殊情愫;我说20世纪福克斯公司,你也不会有什么反应。但是迪斯尼就不同。这一点在全世界都如此。当你的年纪变老的时候,那些(迪斯尼的)影像制品,你可以放心让小孩子每天在一边看几个小时。你知道,一个这样的影片,小孩子会看上20遍。当你去音像店时,你会坐在那儿,把十几种片子都看上一遍,然后决定你的孩子会喜欢哪一部?这种可能性很小。别的牌子卖16.95,而迪斯尼的卖17.95,你知道买迪斯尼的不会错,所以你就买了。在某些你没有时间的事情上,你不一定非要做高质量的决定。而作为迪斯尼而言,就可以因此以更高的价格,卖出多得多的影片。多好的生意!而对其他牌子来讲,日子就不那么好过了。
梦想家们一直努力打造出类似于迪斯尼概念的品牌,来同它在世界范围内竞争,取代人们心中对迪斯尼的那份特殊情愫。比如,环球影视吧,妈妈们不会在音像店里买他们的片子,而放弃迪斯尼的。那是不可能发生的。可口可乐是在全球范围内和喜悦的情绪关联在一起的。不管你花多少钱,你想让全世界的50亿人更喜欢RC可乐(译者注:巴菲特杜撰出来的饮料牌子),那是做不到的。你可以搞些诡计,做折扣促销,等等,但都是无法得逞的。这就是你要的生意,你要的城墙。
第二篇:哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲
哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲
朱棣文
尊敬的Faust校长,哈佛集团的各位成员,监管理事会的各位理事,各位老师,各位家长,各位朋友,以及最重要的各位毕业生同学:
感谢你们,让我有机会同你们一起分享这个美妙的日子。
我不太肯定,自己够得上哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲人这样的殊荣。去年登上这个讲台的是,英国亿万身家的小说家J.K.Rowling女士,她最早是一个古典文学的学生。前年站在这里的是比尔?盖茨先生,他是一个超级富翁、一个慈善家和电脑天才。今年很遗憾,你们的演讲人是我,虽然我不是很有钱,但是至少我是一个书呆子。
我很感激哈佛大学给我荣誉学位,这对我很重要,也许比你们会想到的还要重要。要知道,在学术上,我是我们家的异类。我的哥哥在麻省理工学院得到医学博士,在哈佛大学得到哲学博士;我的弟弟在哈佛大学得到一个法律学位。我本人得到诺贝尔奖的时候,我想我的妈妈会高兴。但是,我错了。消息公布的那天早上,我给她打电话,她听了只说:‚这是好消息,不过我想知道,你下次什么时候来看我?‛如今在我们兄弟当中,我最终也拿到了哈佛学位,我想这一次,她会感到满意。在哈佛大学毕业典礼上发表演说,还有一个难处,那就是你们中有些人可能有意见,不喜欢我重复前人演讲中说过的话。我要求你们谅解我,因为两个理由。
首先,为了产生影响力,很重要的方法就是重复传递同样的信息。在科学中,第一个发现者是重要的,但是在得到公认前,最后一个做出这个发现的人也许更重要。
其次,一个借鉴他人的作者,正走在一条前人开辟的最佳道路上。哈佛大学毕业生、诗人爱默生曾经写下:‚我最好的一些思想,都是从古人那里偷来的。‛画家毕加索宣称‚优秀的艺术家借鉴,伟大的艺术家偷窃。‛那么为什么毕业典礼的演说者,就不适用同样的标准呢?
我还要指出一点,向哈佛毕业生发表演说,对我来说是有讽刺意味的,因为如果当年我斗胆向哈佛大学递交入学申请,一定会被拒绝。我的妻子Jean当过斯坦福大学的招生主任,她向我保证,如果当年我申请斯坦福大学,她会拒绝我。我把这篇演讲的草稿给她过目,她强烈反对我使用‚拒绝‛这个词,她从来不拒绝任何申请者。在拒绝信中,她总是写:‚我们无法提供你入学机会。‛我分不清两者到底有何差别。不过,那些大热门学校的招生主任总是很现实的,堪称‚拒绝他人的主任‛。很显然,我需要好好学学怎么来推销自己。
毕业典礼演讲都遵循古典奏鸣曲的结构,我的演讲也不例外。刚才是第一乐章——轻快的闲谈。接下来的第二乐章是送上门的忠告。这样的忠告很少有价值,几乎注定被忘记,永远不会被实践。但是,就像王尔德说的:‚对于忠告,你所能做的,就是把它送给别人,因为它对你没有任何用处。‛所以,下面就是我的忠告。第一,取得成就的时候,不要忘记前人。要感谢你的父母和支持你的朋友,要感谢那些启发过你的教授,尤其要感谢那些上不好课的教授,因为他们迫使你自学。从整体看,自学能力是优秀的文科教育中必不可少的,将成为你成功的关键。你还要去拥抱你的同学,感谢他们同你进行过的许多次彻夜长谈,这为你的教育带来了无法衡量的价值。当然,你还要感谢哈佛大学。不过即使你忘了这一点,校友会也会来提醒你。第二,在你们未来的人生中,做一个慷慨大方的人。在任何谈判中,都把最后一点点利益留给对方。不要把桌上的钱都拿走。在合作中,不要把荣誉留给自己。成功合作的任何一方,都应获得全部荣誉的90%。
电影《Harvey》中,Jimmy Stewart扮演的角色Elwood P.Dowd,就完全理解这一点。他说:‚多年前,母亲曾经对我说,‘Elwood,活在这个世界上,你要么做一个聪明人,要么做一个好人。’‛我做聪明人,已经做了好多年了。……但是,我推荐你们做好人。你们可以引用我这句话。
我的第三个忠告是,当你开始生活的新阶段时,请跟随你的爱好。如果你没有爱好,就去找,找不到就不罢休。生命太短暂,所以不能空手走过,你必须对某样东西倾注你的深情。我在你们这个年龄,是超级的一根筋,我的目标就是非成为物理学家不可。本科毕业后,我在加州大学伯克利分校又待了8年,读完了研究生,做完了博士后,然后去贝尔实验室待了9年。在这些年中,我关注的中心和职业上的全部乐趣,都来自物理学。
我还有最后一个忠告,就是说兴趣爱好固然重要,但是你不应该只考虑兴趣爱好。当你白发苍苍、垂垂老矣、回首人生时,你需要为自己做过的事感到自豪。物质生活和你实现的占有欲,都不会产生自豪。只有那些受你影响、被你改变过的人和事,才会让你产生自豪。
在贝尔实验室待了9年后,我决定离开这个温暖舒适的象牙塔,走进我眼中的‚真实世界‛——大学。我对贝尔实验室的看法,可以引用Mary Poppins的话,‚实际上十全十美‛。但是,我想离开那种仅仅是科学论文的生活。我要去教书,培育我自己在科学上的后代。
我在斯坦福大学有一个好友兼杰出同事Ted Geballe。他也是从伯克利分校去了贝尔实验室,几年前又离开贝尔实验室去了斯坦福大学。他对我们的动机做出了最佳描述: ‚在大学工作,最大的优点就是学生。他们生机勃勃,充满热情,思想自由,还没被生活的重压改变。虽然他们自己没有意识到,但是他们是这个社会中你能找到的最佳受众。如果生命中只有一段时间是思想自由和充满创造力,那么那段时间就是你在读大学。进校时,学生们对课本上的一字一句毫不怀疑,渐渐地,他们发现课本和教授并不是无所不知的,于是他们开始独立思考。从那时起,就是我开始向他们学习了。‛
我教过的学生、带过的博士后、合作过的年轻同事,都非常优秀。他们中有30多人,现在已经是教授了。他们所在的研究机构有不少是全世界第一流的,其中就包括哈佛大学。我从他们身上学到了很多东西。即使现在,我偶尔还会周末上网,向现在还从事生物物理学研究的学生请教。
我怀着回报社会的想法,开始了教学生涯。我的一生中,得到的多于我付出的,所以我要回报社会。这就引出了这次演讲的最后一个乐章。首先我要讲一个了不起的科学发现,以及由此带来的新挑战。它是一个战斗的号令,到了做出改变的时候了。
过去几十年中,我们的气候一直在发生变化。气候变化并不是现在才有的,过去60万年中就发生了6次冰河期。但是,现在的测量表明气候变化加速了。北极冰盖在9月份的大小,只相当于50年前的一半。1870年起,人们开始测量海平面上升的速度,现在的速度是那时的5倍。一个重大的科学发现就这样产生了。科学第一次在人类历史上,预测出我们的行为对50~100年后的世界有何影响。这些变化的原因是,从工业革命开始,人类排放到大气中的二氧化碳增加了。这使得地球的平均气温上升了0.8摄氏度。即使我们立刻停止所有温室气体的排放,气温仍然将比过去上升大约1度。因为在气温达到均衡前,海水温度的上升将持续几十年。
如果全世界保持现在的经济模式不变,联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)预测,本世纪末将有50%的可能,气温至少上升5度。这听起来好像不多,但是让我来提醒你,上一次的冰河期,地球的气温也仅仅只下降了6度。那时,俄亥俄州和费城以下的大部分美国和加拿大的土地,都终年被冰川覆盖。气温上升5度的地球,将是一个非常不同的地球。由于变化来得太快,包括人类在内的许多生物,都将很难适应。比如,有人告诉我,在更温暖的环境中,昆虫的个头将变大。我不知道现在身旁嗡嗡叫的这只大苍蝇,是不是就是前兆。
我们还面临另一个幽灵,那就是非线性的‚气候引爆点‛,这会带来许多严重得多的变化。‚气候引爆点‛的一个例子就是永久冻土层的融化。永久冻土层经过千万年的累积形成,其中包含了巨量的冻僵的有机物。如果冻土融化,微生物就将广泛繁殖,使得冻土层中的有机物快速腐烂。冷冻后的生物和冷冻前的生物,它们在生物学特性上的差异,我们都很熟悉。在冷库中,冷冻食品在经过长时间保存后,依然可以食用。但是,一旦解冻,食品很快就腐烂了。一个腐烂的永久冻土层,将释放出多少甲烷和二氧化碳?即使只有一部分的碳被释放出来,可能也比我们从工业革命开始释放出来的所有温室气体还要多。这种事情一旦发生,局势就失控了。
气候问题是我们的经济发展在无意中带来的后果。我们太依赖化石能源,冬天取暖,夏天制冷,夜间照明,长途旅行,环球观光。能源是经济繁荣的基础,我们不可能放弃经济繁荣。美国人口占全世界的3%,但是我们消耗全世界25%的能源。与此形成对照,全世界还有16亿人没有电,数亿人依靠燃烧树枝和动物粪便来煮饭。发展中国家的人民享受不到我们的生活,但是他们都看在眼里,他们渴望拥有我们拥有的东西。
这就是新的挑战。全世界作为一个整体,我们到底愿意付出多少,来缓和气候变化?这种变化在100年前,根本没人想到过。代际责任深深植根于所有文化中。家长努力工作,为了让他们的孩子有更好的生活。气候变化将影响整个世界,但是我们的天性使得我们只关心个人家庭的福利。我们能不能把全世界看作一个整体?能不能为未来的人们承担起责任?
虽然我忧心忡忡,但是还是对未来抱乐观态度,这个问题将会得到解决。我同意出任劳伦斯?伯克利国家实验室主任,部分原因是我想招募一些世界上最好的科学家,来研究气候变化的对策。我在那里干了4年半,是这个实验室78年的历史中,任期最短的主任,但是当我离任时,在伯克利实验室和伯克利分校,一些非常激动人心的能源研究机构已经建立起来了。
能够成为奥巴马施政团队的一员,我感到极其荣幸。如果有一个时机,可以引导美国和全世界走上可持续能源的道路,那么这个时机就是现在。总统已经发出信息,未来并非在劫难逃,而是乐观的,我们依然有机会。我也抱有这种乐观主义。我们面前的任务令人生畏,但是我们能够并且将会成功。
我们已经有了一些答案,可以立竿见影地节约能源和提高能源使用效率。它们不是挂在枝头的水果,而是已经成熟掉在地上了,就看我们愿不愿意捡起来。比如,我们有办法将楼宇的耗电减少80%,增加的投资在15年内就可以收回来。楼宇的耗电占我们能源消费的40%,节能楼宇的推广将使我们二氧化碳的释放减少三分之一。
我们正在加速美国这座巨大的创新机器,这将是下一次美国大繁荣的基础。我们将大量投资有效利用太阳能、风能、核能的新方法,大量投资能够捕获和隔离电厂废气中的二氧化碳的方法。先进的生物燃料和电力汽车将使得我们不再那么依赖外国的石油。
在未来的几十年中,我们几乎肯定会面对更高的油价和更严厉的二氧化碳排放政策。这是一场新的工业革命,美国有机会充当领导者。伟大的冰球选手Wayne Gretzky被问到,他如何在冰上跑位,回答说:‚我滑向球下一步的位置,而不是它现在的位置。‛美国也应该这样做。
奥巴马政府正在为美国的繁荣和可持续能源,打下新的基础。但是我们还有很多不知道的地方。这就需要你们的参与。在本次演讲中,我请求在座各位哈佛毕业生加入我们。你们是我们未来的智力领袖,请花时间加深理解目前的危险局势,然后采取相应的行动。你们是未来的科学家和工程师,我要求你们给我们更好的技术方案。你们是未来的经济学家和政治学家,我要求你们创造更好的政策选择。你们是未来的企业家,我要求你们将可持续发展作为你们业务中不可分割的一部分。
最后,你们是人道主义者,我要求你们为了人道主义说话。气候变化带来的最残酷的讽刺之一,就是最受伤害的人,恰恰就是最无辜的人——那些世界上最穷的人们和那些还没有出生的人。
这个最后乐章的完结部是引用两个人道主义者的话。第一段引语来自马丁〃路德〃金。这是1967年他对越南战争结束的评论,但是看上去非常适合用来评论今天的气候危机。
‚我呼吁全世界的人们团结一心,抛弃种族、肤色、阶级、国籍的隔阂;我呼吁包罗一切、无条件的对全人类的爱。你会因此遭受误解和误读,信奉尼采哲学的世人会认定你是一个软弱和胆怯的懦夫。但是,这是人类存在下去的绝对必需。……我的朋友,眼前的事实就是,明天就是今天。此刻,我们面临最紧急的情况。在变幻莫测的生活和历史之中,有一样东西叫做悔之晚矣。‛
第二段引语来自威廉〃福克纳。1950年12月10月,他在诺贝尔奖获奖晚宴上发表演说,谈到了世界在核战争的阴影之下,人道主义者应该扮演什么样的角色。
‚我相信人类不会仅仅存在,他还将胜利。人类是不朽的,这不是因为万物当中仅仅他拥有发言权,而是因为他有一个灵魂,一种有同情心、牺牲精神和忍耐力的精神。诗人、作家的责任就是书写这种精神。他们有权力升华人类的心灵,使人类回忆起过去曾经使他无比光荣的东西——勇气、荣誉、希望、自尊、同情、怜悯和牺牲。‛
各位同学,你们在我们的未来中扮演举足轻重的角色。当你们追求个人的志向时,我希望你们也会发扬奉献精神,积极发声,在大大小小各个方面帮助改进这个世界。这会给你们带来最大的满足感。
最后,请接受我最热烈的祝贺。希望你们成功,也希望你们保护和拯救我们这个星球,为了你们的孩子,以及未来所有的孩子。
第三篇:哈佛大学女校长毕业典礼演讲全文2011
哈佛大学女校长毕业典礼演讲全文(组图)作者:涂攀
2011年5月哈佛大学迎来了第360届毕业典礼。哈佛大学女校长福斯特(Drew Gilpin Faust,1947
年9月18日-,美国历史学家)在毕业典礼上发表了演讲。福斯特是哈佛大学历史上第一位女校长,也是自1672年以来第一位没有哈佛学习经历的哈佛校长。福斯特1947年出生于纽约,1964年毕业于马萨诸塞州的私立寄宿中学 Concord Academy,后就读于位于宾州费城郊外的一所女子文理学院 Bryn Mawr College;文理学院毕业后福斯特进入宾夕法利亚大学攻读历史学硕士,攻读历史硕士学位,1975年获得了宾大美洲文明专业的博士学位,同年起留校担任美洲文明专业的助教授。后由于出色的研究成果和教学,她获任历史学系教授。福斯特是一位研究美国南方战前历史和美国内战历史的专家,在美国内战时期反映南方阵营思想的意识形态和南方女性生活方面都卓有成就,并出版了5本相关书籍,其中最著名的一本《创造之母:美国内战南方蓄奴州妇女》在1997年获得美国历史学会美国题材非小说类最佳著作奖。
2001年,福斯特进入哈佛大学,并担任拉德克里夫高等研究院(Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)的首任正式院长,该学院的前身是拉德克利夫学院。2007年就任哈佛大学校长。
2011年福斯特就任哈佛大学校长届满四年,四年也是本科生完成学业的时间跨度,所以Class of 2011对于福斯特来说,有着不一样的意义。在这篇演讲中谈到了她这四年的心路历程,同时对美国教育的未来发展提出了自己的观点,其中多次提到中国的教育发展。
Commencement Address Tercentenary Theatre, Cambridge, MA May 26, 2011
Distinguished guests.Harvard faculty, alumni, students, staff, friends.As we celebrate the Class of 2011 and welcome them to our alumni ranks, I feel a special sense of connection to those who just received their “first degrees,” to use the words with which I officially greeted them this morning.I began as president when they arrived as freshmen, and we have shared the past four years here together.Four world-changing years.From the global financial crisis, to a historic presidential election, to the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring — not to mention earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes.The choices and circumstances these new alumni face are likely to be quite different from the ones they expected when they moved into Harvard Yard in September 2007.And I hope and trust that they too are transformed — shaped by all they have learned and experienced as Harvard College undergraduates.Their departure marks a milestone for me as well.One that prompts me, as Harvard enters its 375th year, to reflect on what these four years have meant for universities, and what universities must do in this time of worldwide challenges when knowledge is becoming ever more vital to our economies, our societies and to us all.Education has never mattered more to individual lives.In the midst of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for college graduates in the United States was less than half that for those with just a high school diploma.Those with bachelor degrees earn half again as much as high school graduates.Doctoral or professional degrees nearly double, on average, earnings again.And education of course brings far more than economic benefits.We believe that the graduates of institutions like Harvard are instilled with analytic and creative habits of mind, with a capacity for judgment and discernment that can guide them through a lifetime that promises an abundance of change.But education is not just about individuals.Education has never mattered more to human progress and the common good.Much of what we have undertaken at Harvard in these past four years reflects our fundamental sense of that responsibility: to educate individuals who will understand the difference between information and wisdom, who will pose the questions, and create the knowledge that can address the world’s problems, who can situate today’s realities in the context of the past even as we prepare for the future.Yet universities have been deeply affected, as events have reshaped the educational landscape in the United States and abroad.The cost of higher education has become the source of even greater anxiety for American families.At a time when college matters more than ever, it seems increasingly less affordable.Access to higher education is a national priority, and at Harvard we have significantly enhanced our financial aid policies to make sure that Harvard is attainable for talented students regardless of their financial circumstances.This is fundamental to sustaining Harvard’s excellence.More than 60% of undergraduates received financial aid from Harvard this year;their families paid an average of $11,500 for tuition and room and board.The composition of our student body has changed as a result, and we have reached out to students who previously would not have imagined they could attend.This past year, for example, nearly 20% of the freshman class came from families with incomes below $60,000.We want to attract and invest in the most talented students, those likely to take fullest advantage of their experience at Harvard College.(一名头顶阿拉伯-英语词典的阿拉伯学生)
Our graduate and professional schools recognize a similar imperative and seek to ensure that graduates are able to choose careers based on their aspirations rather than on the need to repay educational debt.The Kennedy School, for example, has made increasing financial aid its highest priority;Harvard Medical School’s enhanced financial aid policies now assist over 70% of its student body.Like American families, institutions of higher education face intensified financial challenges as well.At our distinguished public universities, pressures on state funding threaten fundamental purposes.The governor of Pennsylvania, for example, proposes cutting state appropriations for higher education by half.Leaders of the University of California system warned last week of a possible tuition increase of 32% in response to reduced state support.Some in Congress are threatening to reduce aid for needy students, and to constrain the federal funding that fuels scientific research at Harvard and at America’s other distinguished universities.By contrast, support for higher education and research is exploding in other parts of the globe.In China, for example, undergraduate student numbers have more than quadrupled in little over a decade;India has more than doubled its college attendance rate and plans to do so again by 2020.Higher education, these nations recognize, is a critical part of building their futures.As battles rage in Washington over national priorities and deficit reduction, we need to make that case for America as well.Universities are an essential part of the solution—providing economic opportunity and mobility, producing discoveries that build prosperity, create jobs and improve human lives.And American higher education—in its dedication to knowledge in breadth and depth, beyond instrumental or narrow technical focus — has proved a generator of imagination, wisdom and creativity, the capacities that serve as foundations for building our common future.When I met last year with university presidents in China, they wanted to talk not about science or technology, where we all know they have such strength, but instead about the liberal arts and how to introduce them in their country.They believed those principles of broad learning had yielded the most highly regarded educational system in the world.This year, Tsinghua University in Beijing introduced a new required course called “Moral Reasoning and Critical Thinking.” It is modeled on Professor Michael Sandel’s famous Harvard undergraduate class, “Justice,” and he lectured in that course last week.This is a time for us to convince Americans of what these Chinese educational leaders affirmed to me: that we in the United States have developed a model of higher education that is unsurpassed in its achievements and distinction, in the knowledge it has created and in the students it has produced.It must be both supported and adapted to help secure the future in which our children and their children will live.(这位老先生George Barner 是哈佛在世的最老的校友之一,1929届毕业生。按推算,老先生已经90岁以上高龄)
That future encompasses a second powerful force shaping higher education.When Thomas Friedman famously proclaimed that the world was “flat” in 2005, he drew attention to the ways in which ideas and economies no longer respect boundaries;knowledge, he emphasized, is global.Yet societies, cultures and beliefs vary in ways that affect us ever more deeply.If the world is flat, it is far from homogeneous.Universities must embrace the breadth of ideas and opportunities unfolding across the world, and at the same time advance understanding of the differences among distinctive cultures, histories and languages.(另一位年逾古稀的哈佛校友Donald Brown;1930届毕业生)
I am repeatedly struck when I meet with undergraduates at the intensity of their interest in language courses, which at Harvard now include nearly 80 languages.These undergraduates understand the kind of world they will live in, and they want to be prepared.One member of the class of 2011, who will be a Marshall scholar next year, told me about how she took up the study of Chinese at Harvard and when she traveled abroad recognized how speaking the language transformed her relationship to those she met.“When you learn a language,” she said, “you get goggles.My Chinese goggles.You have different kinds of conversations with people in their own language … we’re going to grow up in the world together in countries with such intertwined futures.We are,” she concluded, “an international generation.”
In these past four years, Harvard has reached into the world, and the world has reached into Harvard as never before.I have traveled as Harvard president on five continents.I have met with thousands of the more than 50,000 Harvard alumni who live outside the United States, and I have visited Harvard initiatives that address issues from AIDS in Botswana to preschool education in Chile to Renaissance studies in Italy to disaster response in China.Our new Harvard Center Shanghai joins 15 offices supporting Harvard faculty and student research and engagement abroad.We have over the past several years launched the university-wide China Fund, the South Asia Initiative, and an enhanced African Studies effort that recently received a coveted Title VI recognition as a National Resource Center.Undergraduate experiences abroad have more than doubled since 2003.Design School field studios reach from the favelas of Sao Paolo to the townships of Mumbai, and Harvard’s clinical and research opportunities in medicine and public health range from tuberculosis in Siberia to adolescent health in Fiji.Here in Cambridge, teaching incorporates an enhanced global perspective, from newly required international legal studies at the Law School to an international immersion experience beginning next year for all MBA students at the Business School, where 40% of case studies now have a significant international component.And we benefit from an increasingly international faculty and student body — 20% of our degree students overall.But it is not just knowledge that knows no boundaries.The world’s most critical challenges are most often borderless as well, and it is these pressing problems that attract the interest and talents of so many in our community.Universities are critical resources in addressing issues from economic growth to global health, to sustainable cities, to privacy and security, to therapeutics.To borrow a phrase from the Business School mission statement, Harvard faculty and students want to “make a difference in the world” by creating and disseminating critical knowledge.And we increasingly understand how to bring the elements of knowledge-creation together by crossing intellectual and disciplinary boundaries just as we cross international ones.I speak often of “one university,” for it is clear that we work most effectively when we unite Harvard’s unparalleled strengths across its schools and fields — and do so at every stage of the educational process, from College freshmen through our most accomplished senior faculty members.The new Harvard Global Health Institute is a case in point, engaging more than 250 faculty from across the university in addressing issues that range from post-earthquake response in Haiti and Chile to reducing cardiovascular disease in the developing world.We have established an undergraduate secondary field in Global Health, and over 1,000 College students are involved in courses, internships and related activities.Similarly, the Harvard Center for the Environment draws on graduate and undergraduate students and more than a hundred faculty, in law, engineering, history, earth sciences, medicine, health policy and business — to look comprehensively at problems like carbon capture and sequestration, or the implications of the Gulf oil spill for structures of environmental regulation.This brings us finally to innovation, a third powerful force in higher education — and in the wider world in which higher education plays such an important part.Students and faculty working together in new ways and across disciplines, are developing wondrous things — from inhalable chocolate to inhalable tuberculosis vaccine.Our undergraduates have invented a soccer ball that can generate enough power to light villages;Business School students are launching more and more start-ups;Medical School experiments have reversed the signs of aging — in mice at least.The Dean of our School of Education has been named one of the region’s foremost innovators for inventing a new degree, a doctorate in educational leadership — the Ed.L.D.— whose graduates, trained by faculty from the Business, Kennedy and Education schools, will be ready to lead change in America’s schools.New ideas and new ways of enabling those ideas to reach a wider world.That is the essence of what we are about.And we as an institution have some new ideas about how we do our own work as well.We have innovated after 350 years with governance, expanding and enhancing the Corporation.We are innovating(after almost as long)with the organization of our libraries — at the heart of how we learn and teach.We are in the second successful year of a new undergraduate curriculum.We created a new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.We are exploring new ways of teaching, with new technologies and new partners.We are integrating the arts into our teaching across fields, recognizing that the act of “making” — whether in the arts or, perhaps, engineering — is an essential part of creative learning.In the fall we will open a new Innovation Lab, to foster team-based invention that connects students across disciplines and with local entrepreneurs.Perhaps every generation believes that it lives in special times and perhaps every cohort of graduates is told just that at ceremonies like these.But both the depth of the challenges we face and the power of knowledge — and thus of universities--to address them is unprecedented.Harvard must embrace this responsibility, for it is accountable to you, its alumni, and to the wider world.Universities are among humanity’s greatest innovations and among humanity’s greatest innovators.Through universities we find a better future, where our graduates and their children and the greater global community may lead lives of peace, prosperity and purpose in the centuries to come.Thank you very much.互联网界的读者文摘
第四篇:哈佛大学女校长毕业典礼演讲全文
哈佛大学女校长毕业典礼演讲全文
Universities nurture the hopes of the world: in solving challenges that cross borders;in unlocking and harnessing new knowledge;in building cultural and political understanding;and in modeling environments that promote dialogue and debate...The ideal and breadth of liberal education that embraces the humanities and arts as well as the social and natural sciences is at the core of
Harvard’s philosophy.2011年5月哈佛大学迎来了第360届毕业典礼。哈佛大学女校长福斯特(Drew Gilpin Faust,1947年9月18日-,美国历史学家)在毕业典礼上发表了演讲。福斯特是哈佛大学历史上第一位女校长,也是自1672年以来第一位没有哈佛学习经历的哈佛校长。福斯特1947年出生于纽约,1964年毕业于马萨诸塞州的私立寄宿中学 Concord Academy,后就读于位于宾州费城郊外的一所女子文理学院 Bryn Mawr College;文理学院毕业后福斯特进入宾夕法利亚大学攻读历史学硕士,攻读历史硕士学位,1975年获得了宾大美洲文明专业的博士学位,同年起留校担任美洲文明专业的助教授。后由于出色的研究成果和教学,她获任历史学系教授。福斯特是一位研究美国南方战前历史和美国内战历史的专家,在美国内战时期反映南方阵营思想的意识形态和南方女性生活方面都卓有成就,并出版了5本相关书籍,其中最著名的一本《创造之母:美国内战南方蓄奴州妇女》在1997年获得美国历史学会美国题材非小说类最佳著
作奖。
2001年,福斯特进入哈佛大学,并担任拉德克里夫高等研究院(Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)的首任正式院长,该学院的前身是拉德克利夫学院。2007年就任哈佛大学校长。
2011年福斯特就任哈佛大学校长届满四年,四年也是本科生完成学业的时间跨度,所以Class of 2011对于福斯特来说,有着不一样的意义。在这篇演讲中谈到了她这四年的心路历程,同时对美国教育的未来发展提出了自己的观点,其中多次提到中国的教育发展。Commencement Address
Tercentenary Theatre, Cambridge, MA May 26, 2011
Distinguished guests.Harvard faculty, alumni, students, staff, friends.As we celebrate the Class of 2011 and welcome them to our alumni ranks, I feel a special sense of connection to those who just received their “first degrees,” to use the words with which I officially greeted them this morning.I began as president when they arrived as freshmen, and we have shared the past four years here together.Four world-changing years.From the global financial crisis, to a historic presidential election, to the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring — not to mention earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes.The choices and circumstances these new alumni face are likely to be quite different from the ones they expected when they moved into Harvard Yard in September 2007.And I hope and trust that they too are transformed — shaped by all they have learned and experienced as Harvard College undergraduates.Their departure marks a milestone for me as well.One that prompts me, as Harvard enters its 375th year, to reflect on what these four years have meant for universities, and what universities must do in this time of worldwide challenges when knowledge is becoming ever more vital to our economies, our societies and to us all.Education has never mattered more to individual lives.In the midst of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for college graduates in the United States was less than half that for those with just a high school diploma.Those with bachelor degrees earn half again as much as high school graduates.Doctoral or professional degrees nearly double, on average, earnings again.And education of course brings far more than economic benefits.We believe that the graduates of institutions like Harvard are instilled with analytic and creative habits of mind, with a capacity for judgment and discernment that can guide them through a lifetime that promises an abundance of change.But education is not just about individuals.Education has never mattered more to human progress and the common good.Much of what we have undertaken at Harvard in these past four years reflects our fundamental sense of that responsibility: to educate individuals who will understand the difference between information and wisdom, who will pose the questions, and create the knowledge that can address the world’s problems, who can situate today’s realities in the context of the past even as we prepare for the future.Yet universities have been deeply affected, as events have reshaped the educational landscape in the United States and abroad.The cost of higher education has become the source of even greater anxiety for American families.At a time when college matters more than ever, it seems increasingly less affordable.Access to higher education is a national priority, and at Harvard we have significantly enhanced our financial aid policies to make sure that Harvard is attainable for talented students regardless of their financial circumstances.This is fundamental to sustaining Harvard’s excellence.More than 60% of undergraduates received financial aid from Harvard this year;their families paid an average of $11,500 for tuition and room and board.The composition of our student body has changed as a result, and we have reached out to students who previously would not have imagined they could attend.This past year, for example, nearly 20% of the freshman class came from families with incomes below $60,000.We want to attract and invest in the most talented students, those likely to take fullest advantage of their experience at Harvard College.Our graduate and professional schools recognize a similar imperative and seek to ensure that graduates are able to choose careers based on their aspirations rather than on the need to repay educational debt.The Kennedy School, for example, has made increasing financial aid its highest priority;Harvard Medical School’s enhanced financial aid policies now assist over 70% of its student body.Like American families, institutions of higher education face intensified financial challenges as well.At our distinguished public universities, pressures on state funding threaten fundamental purposes.The governor of Pennsylvania, for example, proposes cutting state appropriations for higher education by half.Leaders of the University of California system warned last week of a possible tuition increase of 32% in response to reduced state support.Some in Congress are threatening to reduce aid for needy students, and to constrain the federal funding that fuels scientific research at Harvard and at America’s other distinguished universities.By contrast, support for higher education and research is exploding in other parts of the globe.In China, for example, undergraduate student numbers have more than quadrupled in little over a decade;India has more than doubled its college attendance rate and plans to do so again by 2020.Higher education, these nations recognize, is a critical part of building their futures.As battles rage in Washington over national priorities and deficit reduction, we need to make that case for America as well.Universities are an essential part of the solution—providing economic opportunity and mobility, producing discoveries that build prosperity, create jobs and improve human lives.And American higher education—in its dedication to knowledge in breadth and depth, beyond instrumental or narrow technical focus — has proved a generator of imagination, wisdom and creativity, the capacities that serve as foundations for building our common future.When I met last year with university presidents in China, they wanted to talk not about science or technology, where we all know they have such strength, but instead about the liberal arts and how to introduce them in their country.They believed those principles of broad learning had yielded the most highly regarded educational system in the world.This year, Tsinghua University in Beijing introduced a new required course called “Moral Reasoning and Critical Thinking.” It is modeled on Professor Michael Sandel’s famous Harvard undergraduate class, “Justice,” and he lectured in that course last week.This is a time for us to convince Americans of what these Chinese educational leaders affirmed to me: that we in the United States have developed a model of higher education that is unsurpassed in its achievements and distinction, in the knowledge it has created and in the students it has produced.It must be both supported and adapted to help secure the future in which our children and their children will live.That future encompasses a second powerful force shaping higher education.When Thomas Friedman famously proclaimed that the world was “flat” in 2005, he drew attention to the ways in which ideas and economies no longer respect boundaries;knowledge, he emphasized, is global.Yet societies, cultures and beliefs vary in ways that affect us ever more deeply.If the world is flat, it is far from homogeneous.Universities must embrace the breadth of ideas and opportunities unfolding across the world, and at the same time advance understanding of the differences among distinctive cultures, histories and languages.I am repeatedly struck when I meet with undergraduates at the intensity of their interest in language courses, which at Harvard now include nearly 80 languages.These undergraduates understand the kind of world they will live in, and they want to be prepared.One member of the class of 2011, who will be a Marshall scholar next year, told me about how she took up the study of Chinese at Harvard and when she traveled abroad recognized how speaking the language transformed her relationship to those she met.“When you learn a language,” she said, “you get goggles.My Chinese goggles.You have different kinds of conversations with people in their own language … we’re going to grow up in the world together in countries with such intertwined futures.We are,” she concluded, “an international generation.”
In these past four years, Harvard has reached into the world, and the world has reached into Harvard as never before.I have traveled as Harvard president on five continents.I have met with thousands of the more than 50,000 Harvard alumni who live outside the United States, and I have visited Harvard initiatives that address issues from AIDS in Botswana to preschool education in Chile to Renaissance studies in Italy to disaster response in China.Our new Harvard Center Shanghai joins 15 offices supporting Harvard faculty and student research and engagement abroad.We have over the past several years launched the university-wide China Fund, the South Asia Initiative, and an enhanced African Studies effort that recently received a coveted Title VI recognition as a National Resource Center.Undergraduate experiences abroad have more than doubled since 2003.Design School field studios reach from the favelas of Sao Paolo to the townships of Mumbai, and Harvard’s clinical and research opportunities in medicine and public health range from tuberculosis in Siberia to adolescent health in Fiji.Here in Cambridge, teaching incorporates an enhanced global perspective, from newly required international legal studies at the Law School to an international immersion experience beginning next year for all MBA students at the Business School, where 40% of case studies now have a significant international component.And we benefit from an increasingly international faculty and student body — 20% of our degree students overall.But it is not just knowledge that knows no boundaries.The world’s most critical challenges are most often borderless as well, and it is these pressing problems that attract the interest and talents of so many in our community.Universities are critical resources in addressing issues from economic growth to global health, to sustainable cities, to privacy and security, to therapeutics.To borrow a phrase from the Business School mission statement, Harvard faculty and students want to “make a difference in the world” by creating and disseminating critical knowledge.And we increasingly understand how to bring the elements of knowledge-creation together by crossing intellectual and disciplinary boundaries just as we cross international ones.I speak often of “one university,” for it is clear that we work most effectively when we unite Harvard’s unparalleled strengths across its schools and fields — and do so at every stage of the educational process, from College freshmen through our most accomplished senior faculty members.The new Harvard Global Health Institute is a case in point, engaging more than 250 faculty from across the university in addressing issues that range from post-earthquake response in Haiti and Chile to reducing cardiovascular disease in the developing world.We have established an undergraduate secondary field in Global Health, and over 1,000 College students are involved in courses, internships and related activities.Similarly, the Harvard Center for the Environment draws on graduate and undergraduate students and more than a hundred faculty, in law, engineering, history, earth sciences, medicine, health policy and business — to look comprehensively at problems like carbon capture and sequestration, or the implications of the Gulf oil spill for structures of environmental regulation.This brings us finally to innovation, a third powerful force in higher education — and in the wider world in which higher education plays such an important part.Students and faculty working together in new ways and across disciplines, are developing wondrous things — from inhalable chocolate to inhalable tuberculosis vaccine.Our undergraduates have invented a soccer ball that can generate enough power to light villages;Business School students are launching more and more start-ups;Medical School experiments have reversed the signs of aging — in mice at least.The Dean of our School of Education has been named one of the region’s foremost innovators for inventing a new degree, a doctorate in educational leadership — the Ed.L.D.— whose graduates, trained by faculty from the Business, Kennedy and Education schools, will be ready to lead change in America’s schools.New ideas and new ways of enabling those ideas to reach a wider world.That is the essence of what we are about.And we as an institution have some new ideas about how we do our own work as well.We have innovated after 350 years with governance, expanding and enhancing the Corporation.We are innovating(after almost as long)with the organization of our libraries — at the heart of how we learn and teach.We are in the second successful year of a new undergraduate curriculum.We created a new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.We are exploring new ways of teaching, with new technologies and new partners.We are integrating the arts into our teaching across fields, recognizing that the act of “making” — whether in the arts or, perhaps, engineering — is an essential part of creative learning.In the fall we will open a new Innovation Lab, to foster team-based invention that connects students across disciplines and with local entrepreneurs.Perhaps every generation believes that it lives in special times and perhaps every cohort of graduates is told just that at ceremonies like these.But both the depth of the challenges we face and the power of knowledge — and thus of universities--to address them is unprecedented.Harvard must embrace this responsibility, for it is accountable to you, its alumni, and to the wider world.Universities are among humanity’s greatest innovations and among humanity’s greatest innovators.Through universities we find a better future, where our graduates and their children and the greater global community may lead lives of peace, prosperity and purpose in the centuries to come.Thank you very much.-Drew Gilpin Faust
第五篇:2010哈佛大学毕业典礼
Commencement address by Harvard President Drew Faust Cambridge, Mass.May 27, 2010
As delivered
It is a great pleasure to be here with you today and to deliver this year’s report of the president to the alumni.My role in this gathering each spring seems to be to delay the main event — the address you are all waiting for from our distinguished honorand.It is a great honor to serve as Justice Souter’s warm-up act.I intend to do so by exploring with you for the next few minutes a set of long-held values and commitments to which we at Harvard have devoted particular attention this year.These commitments are in fact those that Justice Souter’s life and accomplishments exemplify, and I am proud to claim and honor him as an embodiment of these fundamental university values.I speak, of course, of Harvard’s long tradition of public service, going back to our 17th century roots.The University’s founders described the arc of education as one that moves from self-development to public action.John Cotton, a prominent figure in Harvard’s founding, wrote “God would have(a man’s)best gifts improved to the best advantage.” But the student, he continued, would also “see that his calling should tend to public good.” This prescription, articulated nearly four centuries ago, captures with remarkable fidelity a fundamental purpose of the modern research university, the development of talent in service of a better world.This commitment is at the heart of all we do — and at the heart of what we celebrate today as we mark the passage of more than 6,000 graduates from our precincts into wider realms of challenge and achievement.We have equipped them, we trust, with the abilities, in the words of Charles William Eliot, to go forth “to serve better thy country and thy kind.” We hope that we have equipped them as well with the capacity to lead fulfilled, meaningful, and successful lives.Yet not infrequently, these missions of private accomplishment and public duty have been seen in tension.Phillips Brooks, for whom the Phillips Brooks House for social service is named(and this is a place where Justice Souter spent time as an undergraduate)once remarked, “We debate whether self culture or our brethren’s service is the true purpose of our life.” But, he determined, the two must coexist, in a creative balance in which we develop our talents in order to share them.Brooks concluded that while, as he put it, “No man can come to his best by selfishness … no man can do much for other men who is not much himself.”
In the mid-20th century, John F.Kennedy worried about the potential conflict between “the public interest and private comfort.” Our students still struggle with these choices today.Two College seniors who have decided to join Teach for America recounted to me how hard it was to explain to their parents that they were turning down offers at J.P.Morgan and IBM.Yesterday, I attended the commissioning of ROTC cadets who are likely to find themselves soon serving the public interest in the considerable discomfort and danger of the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.For these students, however, service represents not sacrifice, but the most important form of fulfillment — in which one’s talents can be harnessed for purposes transcending one’s own individual life.A.J.Garcia, who worked in the president’s office during much of his undergraduate career, is now with Teach for America in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.He reports, “It is possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, but by far the most rewarding.At the end of every day, I might leave work mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, but it is the best type of exhaustion and … well worth the impact of closing the achievement gap one child at a time.”
Bill Gates visited Harvard last month and charged our students to bring the world’s best minds to the world’s biggest problems.We do that on the one hand through direct engagement in service like that of A.J.Garcia.But universities, their faculty, and their students play another important role in contributing to the public good.And that is through engaging those remarkable minds in discovering solutions to those biggest problems — solutions that will close the achievement gap — so we don’t have to address it one child at a time, solutions that will help deliver health care, address climate change, resolve ethnic conflict, and advance post-disaster recovery.Some serve as they discover and discover as they serve, like Paul Farmer and his work in Haiti, or Kit Parker, a faculty member in our School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a major in the U.S.Army.Late last summer, he returned from his second tour in Afghanistan.Here in his Cambridge lab, he works on tissue therapies for blast injuries, like those he has too often seen inflicted by improvised explosive devices, or IED’s.Harvard students and faculty have given us cholera vaccines and skin grafts, and the field of aquatic chemistry, the foundation for addressing water pollution.They have recently combined the latest developments in cell biology with the sociology of rural Africa to all but halt the mother-to-child transmission of AIDS in one community.A professor at the Harvard Kennedy School has shaped strategies for international climate change agreement, and his ideas have helped to reduce the causes of acid rain and lower sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants.It was a Harvard faculty member who understood early on the dangers certain financial instruments posed for ordinary Americans and devised public solutions to help them.Congress tapped her to oversee its $700 billion TARP program.Another professor has helped us to understand what compels people to save for the future.His work has fostered participation in 401(k)plans, which are now the most prevalent retirement savings vehicles in the nation.A faculty member in the Graduate School of Education has influenced how we think about teacher effectiveness, teacher recruitment, and teacher retention.He testified before a Senate committee on this topic just last month.Faculty from our School of Public Health and School of Engineering have invented an inhaler for the tuberculosis vaccine that, with no need for refrigeration or water, revolutionizes its delivery to hot, dry parts of the world.And students and faculty in the Graduate School of Design have designed post-earthquake shelters in Haiti, and developed architectural strategies to combat airborne disease in a new tuberculosis hospital they have built in Rwanda.In the Alumni Association, under the leadership of Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland, you have embraced these traditions as well, declaring public service your year-long theme.You organized a global month of service designed to mobilize all Harvard alums worldwide, and you have made an invaluable contribution to all of us by launching “Public Service on the Map,” an interactive web site connecting Harvard students, faculty, staff, and alumni to public service opportunities and experiences all over the world.Within Harvard, we have explicitly highlighted our public service mission this year through a number of special activities.In October, we held “Public Service Week,” which included a career fair, a graduate student summit, and appearances by notable Harvard alums in public life, including Governor Deval Patrick and Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who credited his PBHA experiences and a course with Robert Coles that he took as an undergraduate at Harvard as the source of his passion for service.And we are working hard to help students identify paths to public service careers.Dean Evelynn Hammonds and I created a Public Service Committee, whose membership was drawn from across the University, to recommend ways to enhance the support we give to interested undergraduates.The committee documented something we all felt must be true, namely that the most important factor drawing students into public service is the opportunity to try it out.Students involved in public service during their undergraduate years are almost twice as likely as others to enter a public service job upon graduation.Given the strong connection between such opportunities and later career and life choices, beginning next year, I plan to create the Presidential Public Service Fellowships program to honor and to fund 10 outstanding students from across the University for a summer service opportunity.Additionally, as part of an anticipated University fundraising campaign, we will include as our explicit goals doubling the current amount of funding for undergraduate summer service opportunities, and a significant increase for graduate students as well.Currently, the demand for these awards far outstrips supply.Harvard Law School has responded to expanding student interest in public service by establishing important new opportunities for civic engagement, a Public Service Venture Fund to help graduating students provide vital legal services in nonprofit and government organizations, and the Holmes Public Service Fellowships, which fund a year of service.This year’s recipients will be involved in projects ranging from public interest law in Louisiana to social and economic rights assistance in South Africa.As I looked out over the graduates’ expectant faces and colorful robes this morning — the gavels of the Law School, the Divinity School halos, the Kennedy School globes — I found myself wondering which of those students had been involved in some sort of service during their years at Harvard.Harvard contributed nearly a million hours of service to our neighboring communities last year, so I know it was the case for thousands of those sitting before me.But I believe we should expect it of all our students.We are proud of the number of today’s graduates who have, often in defiance of obstacles, decided to take jobs in public service.The proportion of seniors choosing public service upon graduation has increased over the last two years, from 17 to 26 percent.This year, nearly 20 percent of our graduating seniors applied for Teach for America, a percentage that, I am proud to say, outstrips that of any of our peer institutions.And we can see these increasing numbers at the graduate level as well.At the Law School, for example, public-sector employment for graduates is 25 percent greater than it was just two years ago.Ultimately more important than students’ brief years at Harvard is what these graduates will do with their diplomas and their lives.I would like to imagine that whatever career our graduates pursue, whether in the private or the public realm, they will choose to make service an ongoing commitment.We as a university live under the protections of the public trust.It is our obligation to nurture and educate talent to serve that trust — creating the people and the ideas that can change the world.Harvard has worked, in the words of John Cotton, to improve our graduates’ “best gifts” to the “best advantage.” Now, as Cotton did nearly four centuries ago, we charge you, in your varied fields and callings, to, in Cotton’s words, “tend to public good.” We and the world need you.