William Deresiewicz 斯坦福大学演讲5篇

第一篇：William Deresiewicz 斯坦福大学演讲

William Deresiewicz 斯坦福大学演讲：不要在不断的优秀里走向平庸

William Deresiewicz 2010年在斯坦福大学的演讲：

我的题目提出的问题，当然，是一个传统地面向人文科学的专业所提出的问题：学习文学、艺术或哲学能有什么实效价值（practical value）？你肯定纳闷，我为什么在以科技堡垒而闻名的斯坦福提出这个问题呢？大学学位给人带来众多机会，这还有什么需要质疑的吗？

但那不是我提出的问题。这里的“做（do）”并不是指工作（job），“那(that)”并不是指你的专业（major）。]我们不仅仅是我们的工作，教育的全部也不仅仅是一门主修专业。（We are more than our jobs, and education is more than a major.）教育也不仅仅是上大学，甚至也不仅是从幼儿园到研究生院的正规学校教育。我说的“你要做什么”的意思是你要过什么样的生活（what kind of life are you going to lead?）？我所说的“那”指的是你得到的正规或非正规的任何训练，那些把你送到这里来的东西，你在学校的剩余时间里将要做的任何事。

我们不妨先来讨论你是如何考入斯坦福的吧。

你能进入这所大学说明你在某些技能（skills）上非常出色。你的父母在你很小的时候就鼓励你追求卓越（excel）。他们送你到好学校，老师的鼓励和同伴的榜样激励你更努力地学习。除了在所有课程上都出类拔萃之外，你还注重修养的提高，充满热情地培养了一些特殊兴趣。你用几个暑假在本地大学里预习大学课程，或参加专门技能的夏令营或训练营。你学习刻苦、精力集中、全力以赴。所以，你在数学、钢琴、曲棍球等众多方面都很出色。

掌握这些技能当然没有错，全力以赴成为最优秀的人也没有错。错误之处在于这个体系遗漏的地方：即任何别的东西（everything else）。我并不是说因为选择钻研数学，你在充分发展话语表达能力的潜力方面就失败了；也不是说除了集中精力学习地质学之外，你还应该研究政治学；也不是说你在学习钢琴时还应该学吹笛子。毕竟，专业化的本质就是要专业性。可是，专业化的问题在于它把你的注意力限制在一个点上，你所已知的和你想探知的东西都限界于此（it narrows your attention to the point where all you know about and all you want to know about）。真的，你能知道的一切就只是你的专业了。

专业化（specialization）的问题是它让你成为专家（specialist），切断你与世界上其他任何东西的联系，不仅如此，还切断你与自身其他潜能的联系（It cuts you off, not only from everything else in the world, but also from everything else in yourself.）。当然，作为大一新生，你的专业才刚刚开始。在你走向所渴望的成功之路的过程中，进入斯坦福是你踏上的众多阶梯中的一个。再读三年大学，三五年法学院或医学院或博士，然后再干若干年住院实习生或博士后或助理教授。总而言之，进入越来越狭窄的专业化轨道。你可能从政治学专业的学生变成了律师或者公司代理人，再变成专门研究消费品领域的税收问题的公司代理人。你从生物化学专业的学生变成了博士，再变成心脏病学家，再变成专门做心脏瓣膜移植的心脏病医生。

再次，做这些事没有任何错。只不过，在你越来越深入地进入这个轨道后，再记得你最初的样子（remember who you once were）就益发困难了。你开始怀念那个曾经谈钢琴和打曲棍球的人，思考那个曾经和朋友热烈讨论人生和政治以及在课堂内容的人在做什么。那个活泼能干的19岁年轻人已经变成了只想一件事的40岁中年人。（The 19-year-old who could do so many things, and was interested in so many things, has become a 40-year-old who thinks about only one thing.）难怪年长的人这么乏味无趣。（That's why older people are so boring.）“哎，我爸爸曾经是非常聪明的人，但他现在除了谈论钱和肝脏外再无其他。”（“Hey, my dad's a smart guy, but all he talks about is money and livers.”）

还有另外一个问题。

或许你从来没有想过当心脏病医生，只是碰巧发生了而已。随大流最容易，这就是体制的力量。（It's easy, the way the system works, to simply go with the flow.）我不是说这个工作容易，而是说做出这种选择很容易。或者，这些根本就不是自己做出的选择。你来到斯坦福这样的名牌大学是因为聪明的孩子都这样（because that's what smart kids do.）。你考入医学院是因为它的地位高，人人都羡慕。你选择心脏病学是因为当心脏病医生的待遇很好。你做那些事能给你带来好处，让你的父母感到骄傲，令你的老师感到高兴，也让朋友们羡慕。从你上高中开始，甚至初中开始，你的唯一目标就是进入最好的大学，所以现在你会很自然地从“进入下个阶段”的角度看待人生（you naturally think about your life in terms of “getting into” whatever's next）。“进入”就是能力的证明，“进入”就是胜利。先进入斯坦福，然后是约翰霍普金斯医学院，再进入旧金山大学做实习医生等。或者进入密歇根法学院，或高盛集团（GoldmanSachs）或麦肯锡公司（McKinsey）或别的什么地方。你迈出了这一步，下一步似乎就必然在等着你。

也许你确实想当心脏病学家。十岁时就梦想成为医生，即使你根本不知道医生意味着什么。你在上学期间全身心都在朝着这个目标前进。你拒绝了上大学预修历史课（AP history）时的美妙体验的诱惑，也无视你在医学院第四年的儿科学轮流值班时照看孩子的可怕感受。

但不管是什么，要么因为你随大流，要么因为你早就选定了道路，20年后某天醒来，你或许会纳闷到底发生了什么：你怎么变成现在这个样子，这一切意味着什么。不是它是什么，不在于它是否“大画面”（big picture）而是它对你意味着什么。你为什么做它，到底为了什么。这听起来像老生常谈，但这个被称为中年危机（midlife crisis）的“有一天醒来”（“waking up one day”）一直就发生在每个人身上。

不过，还有另外一种情况，或许中年危机并不会发生在你身上。

让我通过告诉你们一个同伴的故事来解释我的意思吧，即她没有遭遇的情况。几年前，我在哈佛参加了一次小组讨论会，谈到这些问题。后来参加这次讨论的一个学生给我联系，这个哈佛学生正在写有关哈佛的毕业论文，讨论哈佛是如何给学生灌输她所说的“自我效能”（self-efficacy），一种相信自己能做一切的意识。自我效能或更熟悉的说法“自我尊重”（self-esteem）。她说在考试中得了优秀的有些学生会说“我得优秀是因为试题很简单。” 但另外一些学生，那种具有自我效能感或自我尊重的学生，考试得了优秀会说“我得优秀是因为我聪明。”

再次，认为得了优秀是因为自己聪明的想法并没有任何错，不过，哈佛学生没有认识到的是他们没有第三种选择（a third alternative）。当我指出这一点时，她十分震惊。我指出，真正的自尊意味着最初根本就不在乎成绩是否优秀。真正的自尊意味着对此问题的足够认识：尽管你在成长过程中的一切都在教导你要相信自己，但你所达到的登记，还有那些奖励、成绩、奖品、录取通知书等所有这一切，都不能来定义你是谁（defines who you are）。

她还说，这个年轻的女孩子说哈佛学生把他们的自我效能带到了世界上，如她所说的“创新”（innovative）。但当我问她“创新”意味着什么时，她能够想到的唯一例子不过是“世界大公司五百强的首席执行官”（“being CEO of a Fortune 500”）。我告诉她这不是创新，这只是成功（that's just successful），而且是根据非常狭隘的成功定义而认定的成功而已。真正的创新意味着运用你的想象力，发挥你的潜力，创造新的可能性。（True innovation means using your imagination, exercising the capacity to envision new possibilities.）

但这里我并不是在谈论技术创新，不是发明新机器或者制造一种新药，我谈论的是另外一种创新，是创造你自己的生活（inventing your own life）。不是走现成的道路而是创造一条属于自己的道路。（Not following a path, but making your own path.）我谈论的想象力是道德想象力（moral imagination；眠按：这个是心理学专业名词）。“道德”在这里无关对错，而是与选择有关。道德想象力意味着创造自己新生的能力（envision new ways to live your life）。

它意味着不随波逐流（going with the flow），不是下一步要“进入”什么名牌大学或研究生院。而是要弄清楚自己到底想要什么，而不是父母、同伴、学校、或社会想要什么。即确认你自己的价值观（own values），思考迈向自己所定义的成功的道路，而不仅仅是接受别人给你的生活(simply accepting the life that you've been handed)，不仅仅是接受别人给你的选择。当今走进星巴克咖啡馆，服务员可能让你在牛奶咖啡（latte）、加糖咖啡（macchiato）、特制咖啡（espresso）等几样东西之间做出选择。但你可以做出另外的选择，你可以转身走出去。当你进入大学，人家给你众多选择，或法律或医学或投资银行和咨询以及其他，但你同样也可以做其他事，做从前根本没有人想过的事(something that no one has thought of before)。

让我再举一个反面的例子。

几年前我写过一篇涉及同类问题的文章。我说，那些在耶鲁和斯坦福这类名校的孩子往往比较谨慎，去追求一些稳妥的奖励。我得到的最常见的批评是：教育项目“为美国而教”（Teach for America）如何？从名校出来的很多学生毕业后很多参与这个教育项目，因此我的观点是错误的。我一再听到TFA这个术语。“为美国而教”当然是好东西，但引用这个项目来反驳我的观点恰恰是不得要领，实际上正好证明了我想说的东西。“为美国而教”的问题或者“为美国而教”已经成为体系一部分的问题，是它已经成为另外一个需要“进入”的门槛。

从其内容来看，“为美国而教”完全不同于高盛或者麦肯锡公司或哈佛医学院或者伯克利法学院，但从它在精英期待的体系中的地位来说，完全是一样的。它享有盛名，很难进入，是值得你和父母夸耀的东西，如果写在简历上会很好看（it looks good on your résumé），最重要的是，它代表了清晰标记的道路（a clearly marked path.）。你根本不用自己创造，什么都不用做，只需申请然后按要求做就行了，就像上大学或法学院或麦肯锡公司或别的什么。它是社会参与方面的斯坦福或哈佛，是另一个栅栏，另一枚奖章。该项目需要能力和勤奋，但不需要一丁点儿的道德想象力。

道德想象力是困难的，这种困难与你已经习惯的困难完全不同。不仅如此，光有道德想象力还不够。如果你要创造自己的生活（invent your own life），如果你想成为真正的独立思想者（truly autonomous），你还需要勇气：道德勇气（moral courage）。不管别人说什么，有按自己的价值观行动的勇气，不会因为别人不喜欢而试图改变自己的想法。具有道德勇气的个人往往让周围的人感到不舒服。他们和其他人对世界的看法格格不入，更糟糕的是，让别人对自己已经做出的选择感到不安全或无法做出选择。只要别人也不享受自由，人们就不在乎自己被关进监狱。可一旦有人越狱，其他人都会跟着跑出去。

在《青年艺术家的肖像》（A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man）中，詹姆斯•乔伊斯（James Joyce）让主人公斯蒂芬•迪达勒斯（Stephen Dedalus）就19世纪末期的爱尔兰的成长环境说出了如下名言“当一个人的灵魂诞生在这个国家时，有一张大网把它罩住，防止它飞翔。你会给我谈论民族性、语言和宗教。我想冲出这些牢笼。”（“When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.You talk to me of nationality, language, religion.I shall try to fly by those nets.”）

今天，我们面临的是其他的网。

其中之一是我在就这些问题与学生交流时经常听到的一个术语“自我放任”（“self-indulgent”）。“在攻读学位过程中有这么多事要做的时候（so many other things），试图按照自己的感觉生活难道不是自我放任吗？”“毕业后不去找个真正的工作（getting a real job）而去画画难道不是自我放任吗？”

这些是年轻人只要思考一下稍稍出格（a little bit different）的事就不由自主地质问自己的问题。更糟糕的是，他们觉得提出这些问题是理所应当（feel compelled）的。许多学生在毕业前夕的未来探索中跟我说，他们感受到来自同伴那里的压力（the pressure they felt from their peers），需要为创造性的生活或思想生活辩护（to justify a creative or intellectual life）。好像自己已经走火入魔了似的：抛弃确定无疑的东西是疯了，认为思想生活可行是疯了，想象你有权尝试是疯了。（You're made to feel like you're crazy: crazy to forsake the sure thing, crazy to think it could work, crazy to imagine that you even have a right to try.眠按：“羊霸王”比更外界的压力更厉害。）

想象我们现在面临的局面。这是美国社会的贫困——思想、道德和精神贫困的最明显症状，美国最聪明的年轻人竟然认为听从自己的好奇心行动就是自我放任。你们得到的教导是应该上大学，但你们同时也被告知如果真的想得到教育，那就是“自我放任”。如果你自我教育的话，更糟糕。这是什么道理？进入证券咨询业是不是自我放任？进入金融业是不是自我放任？像许多人那样进入律师界发财是不是自我放任？搞音乐，写文章就不行，因为它不能给人带来利益（what good does that really do anyone）。但为风险投资公司工作就可以。追求自己的理想和激情是自私的，除非它能让你赚很多钱。那样的话，就一点儿也不自私了。（It's selfish to pursue your passion, unless it's also going to make you a lot of money, in which case it's not selfish at all.）

你看到这些观点是多么荒谬了吗？这就是罩在你们身上的网，就是我说的需要勇气的意思。这是永不停息的过程（a never-ending process）。在两年前的哈佛事件中，有个学生谈到我说的大学生需要重新思考人生决定的观点，他说“我们已经做出了决定，我们早在中学时就已经决定成为能够进入哈佛的高材生。”我在想，谁会打算按照他在12岁时做出的决定生活呢？(who wants to live with the decisions that they made when they were 12?)让我换一种说法，谁愿意让一个12岁的孩子决定他们未来一辈子要做什么呢？或者一个19岁的小毛孩儿？

你能做出的决定是你现在想什么，你需要准备好不断修改自己的决定。

让我说得更明白一些。我不是在试图说服你们都成为音乐家或者作家。成为医生、律师、科学家、工程师或者经济学家没有什么不好，这些都是可靠的、可敬的选择（valid and admirable choices）。我想说的是你需要思考它，认真地思考（think about it hard）。我请求你们做的，是根据正确的理由做出你的选择。我在敦促你们的，是认识到你的道德自由（moral freedom）并热情拥抱它。

最重要的是，不要过分谨慎。（Don't play it safe.）去拒否（RESIST）我们社会给予了过高奖赏的那些卑怯的价值观的诱惑：舒服、方便、安全、可预测的、可控制的。这些，同样是罗网。最重要的是，去拒否失败的恐惧感。是的，你会犯错误。可那是你的错误，不是别人的。你将从错误中缓过来，而且，正是因为这些错误，你更好地认识你自己。由此，你成为更完整和强大的人（a fuller and a stronger person）。

人们常说你们年轻人属于“后情感”一代（a “postemotional” generation），我想我未必赞同这个说法，但这个说法值得严肃对待。你们更愿意规避混乱、动荡和强烈的感情（avoid messy and turbulent and powerful feelings），但我想说，不要回避挑战自我（the challenging parts of yourself），不要否认欲望和好奇心（the desires and curiosities）、怀疑和不满（the doubts and dissatisfactions）、快乐和阴郁（the joy and the darkness），它们可能改变你预设的人生轨迹。大学刚开始，成年时代也才刚开始。打开自己，直面各种可能性吧。这个世界的深广远超你现在想象的边际。这意味着，你自身的深广也将远超你现在的想象。

What Are You Going to Do With That?

By William Deresiewicz

The essay below is adapted from a talk delivered to a freshman class at Stanford University in May.The question my title poses, of course, is the one that is classically aimed at humanities majors.What practical value could there possibly be in studying literature or art or philosophy? So you must be wondering why I'm bothering to raise it here, at Stanford, this renowned citadel of science and technology.What doubt can there be that the world will offer you many opportunities to use your degree? But that's not the question I'm asking.By “do” I don't mean a job, and by “that” I don't mean your major.We are more than our jobs, and education is more than a major.Education is more than college, more even than the totality of your formal schooling, from kindergarten through graduate school.By “What are you going to do,” I mean, what kind of life are you going to lead? And by “that,” I mean everything in your training, formal and informal, that has brought you to be sitting here today, and everything you're going to be doing for the rest of the time that you're in school.We should start by talking about how you did, in fact, get here.You got here by getting very good at a certain set of skills.Your parents pushed you to excel from the time you were very young.They sent you to good schools, where the encouragement of your teachers and the example of your peers helped push you even harder.Your natural aptitudes were nurtured so that, in addition to excelling in all your subjects, you developed a number of specific interests that you cultivated with particular vigor.You did extracurricular activities, went to afterschool programs, took private lessons.You spent summers doing advanced courses at a local college or attending skill-specific camps and workshops.You worked hard, you paid attention, and you tried your very best.And so you got very good at math, or piano, or lacrosse, or, indeed, several things at once.Now there's nothing wrong with mastering skills, with wanting to do your best and to be the best.What's wrong is what the system leaves out: which is to say, everything else.I don't mean that by choosing to excel in math, say, you are failing to develop your verbal abilities to their fullest extent, or that in addition to focusing on geology, you should also focus on political science, or that while you're learning the piano, you should also be working on the flute.It is the nature of specialization, after all, to be specialized.No, the problem with specialization is that it narrows your attention to the point where all you know about and all you want to know about, and, indeed, all you can know about, is your specialty.The problem with specialization is that it makes you into a specialist.It cuts you off, not only from everything else in the world, but also from everything else in yourself.And of course, as college freshmen, your specialization is only just beginning.In the journey toward the success that you all hope to achieve, you have completed, by getting into Stanford, only the first of many legs.Three more years of college, three or four or five years of law school or medical school or a Ph.D.program, then residencies or postdocs or years as a junior associate.In short, an ever-narrowing funnel of specialization.You go from being a political-science major to being a lawyer to being a corporate attorney to being a corporate attorney focusing on taxation issues in the consumer-products industry.You go from being a biochemistry major to being a doctor to being a cardiologist to being a cardiac surgeon who performs heart-valve replacements.Again, there's nothing wrong with being those things.It's just that, as you get deeper and deeper into the funnel, into the tunnel, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember who you once were.You start to wonder what happened to that person who played piano and lacrosse and sat around with her friends having intense conversations about life and politics and all the things she was learning in her classes.The 19-year-old who could do so many things, and was interested in so many things, has become a 40-year-old who thinks about only one thing.That's why older people are so boring.“Hey, my dad's a smart guy, but all he talks about is money and livers.” And there's another problem.Maybe you never really wanted to be a cardiac surgeon in the first place.It just kind of happened.It's easy, the way the system works, to simply go with the flow.I don't mean the work is easy, but the choices are easy.Or rather, the choices sort of make themselves.You go to a place like Stanford because that's what smart kids do.You go to medical school because it's prestigious.You specialize in cardiology because it's lucrative.You do the things that reap the rewards, that make your parents proud, and your teachers pleased, and your friends impressed.From the time you started high school and maybe even junior high, your whole goal was to get into the best college you could, and so now you naturally think about your life in terms of “getting into” whatever's next.“Getting into” is validation;“getting into” is victory.Stanford, then Johns Hopkins medical school, then a residency at the University of San Francisco, and so forth.Or Michigan Law School, or Goldman Sachs, or McKinsey, or whatever.You take it one step at a time, and the next step always seems to be inevitable.Or maybe you did always want to be a cardiac surgeon.You dreamed about it from the time you were 10 years old, even though you had no idea what it really meant, and you stayed on course for the entire time you were in school.You refused to be enticed from your path by that great experience you had in AP history, or that trip you took to Costa Rica the summer after your junior year in college, or that terrific feeling you got taking care of kids when you did your rotation in pediatrics during your fourth year in medical school.But either way, either because you went with the flow or because you set your course very early, you wake up one day, maybe 20 years later, and you wonder what happened: how you got there, what it all means.Not what it means in the “big picture,” whatever that is, but what it means to you.Why you're doing it, what it's all for.It sounds like a cliché, this “waking up one day,” but it's called having a midlife crisis, and it happens to people all the time.There is an alternative, however, and it may be one that hasn't occurred to you.Let me try to explain it by telling you a story about one of your peers, and the alternative that hadn't occurred to her.A couple of years ago, I participated in a panel discussion at Harvard that dealt with some of these same matters, and afterward I was contacted by one of the students who had come to the event, a young woman who was writing her senior thesis about Harvard itself, how it instills in its students what she called self-efficacy, the sense that you can do anything you want.Self-efficacy, or, in more familiar terms, self-esteem.There are some kids, she said, who get an A on a test and say, “I got it because it was easy.” And there are other kids, the kind with self-efficacy or self-esteem, who get an A on a test and say, “I got it because I'm smart.” Again, there's nothing wrong with thinking that you got an A because you're smart.But what that Harvard student didn't realize—and it was really quite a shock to her when I suggested it—is that there is a third alternative.True self-esteem, I proposed, means not caring whether you get an A in the first place.True self-esteem means recognizing, despite everything that your upbringing has trained you to believe about yourself, that the grades you get—and the awards, and the test scores, and the trophies, and the acceptance letters—are not what defines who you are.She also claimed, this young woman, that Harvard students take their sense of self-efficacy out into the world and become, as she put it, “innovative.” But when I asked her what she meant by innovative, the only example she could come up with was “being CEO of a Fortune 500.” That's not innovative, I told her, that's just successful, and successful according to a very narrow definition of success.True innovation means using your imagination, exercising the capacity to envision new possibilities.But I'm not here to talk about technological innovation, I'm here to talk about a different kind.It's not about inventing a new machine or a new drug.It's about inventing your own life.Not following a path, but making your own path.The kind of imagination I'm talking about is moral imagination.“Moral” meaning not right or wrong, but having to do with making choices.Moral imagination means the capacity to envision new ways to live your life.It means not just going with the flow.It means not just “getting into” whatever school or program comes next.It means figuring out what you want for yourself, not what your parents want, or your peers want, or your school wants, or your society wants.Originating your own values.Thinking your way toward your own definition of success.Not simply accepting the life that you've been handed.Not simply accepting the choices you've been handed.When you walk into Starbucks, you're offered a choice among a latte and a macchiato and an espresso and a few other things, but you can also make another choice.You can turn around and walk out.When you walk into college, you are offered a choice among law and medicine and investment banking and consulting and a few other things, but again, you can also do something else, something that no one has thought of before.Let me give you another counterexample.I wrote an essay a couple of years ago that touched on some of these same points.I said, among other things, that kids at places like Yale or Stanford tend to play it safe and go for the conventional rewards.And one of the most common criticisms I got went like this: What about Teach for America? Lots of kids from elite colleges go and do TFA after they graduate, so therefore I was wrong.TFA, TFA—I heard that over and over again.And Teach for America is undoubtedly a very good thing.But to cite TFA in response to my argument is precisely to miss the point, and to miss it in a way that actually confirms what I'm saying.The problem with TFA—or rather, the problem with the way that TFA has become incorporated into the system—is that it's just become another thing to get into.In terms of its content, Teach for America is completely different from Goldman Sachs or McKinsey or Harvard Medical School or Berkeley Law, but in terms of its place within the structure of elite expectations, of elite choices, it is exactly the same.It's prestigious, it's hard to get into, it's something that you and your parents can brag about, it looks good on your résumé, and most important, it represents a clearly marked path.You don't have to make it up yourself, you don't have to do anything but apply and do the work—just like college or law school or McKinsey or whatever.It's the Stanford or Harvard of social engagement.It's another hurdle, another badge.It requires aptitude and diligence, but it does not require a single ounce of moral imagination.Moral imagination is hard, and it's hard in a completely different way than the hard things you're used to doing.And not only that, it's not enough.If you're going to invent your own life, if you're going to be truly autonomous, you also need courage: moral courage.The courage to act on your values in the face of what everyone's going to say and do to try to make you change your mind.Because they're not going to like it.Morally courageous individuals tend to make the people around them very uncomfortable.They don't fit in with everybody else's ideas about the way the world is supposed to work, and still worse, they make them feel insecure about the choices that they themselves have made—or failed to make.People don't mind being in prison as long as no one else is free.But stage a jailbreak, and everybody else freaks out.In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce has Stephen Dedalus famously say, about growing up in Ireland in the late 19th century, “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.You talk to me of nationality, language, religion.I shall try to fly by those nets.” Today there are other nets.One of those nets is a term that I've heard again and again as I've talked with students about these things.That term is “self-indulgent.” “Isn't it self-indulgent to try to live the life of the mind when there are so many other things I could be doing with my degree?” “Wouldn't it be self-indulgent to pursue painting after I graduate instead of getting a real job?” These are the kinds of questions that young people find themselves being asked today if they even think about doing something a little bit different.Even worse, the kinds of questions they are made to feel compelled to ask themselves.Many students have spoken to me, as they navigated their senior years, about the pressure they felt from their peers—from their peers—to justify a creative or intellectual life.You're made to feel like you're crazy: crazy to forsake the sure thing, crazy to think it could work, crazy to imagine that you even have a right to try.Think of what we've come to.It is one of the great testaments to the intellectual—and moral, and spiritual—poverty of American society that it makes its most intelligent young people feel like they're being self-indulgent if they pursue their curiosity.You are all told that you're supposed to go to college, but you're also told that you're being “self-indulgent” if you actually want to get an education.Or even worse, give yourself one.As opposed to what? Going into consulting isn't self-indulgent? Going into finance isn't self-indulgent? Going into law, like most of the people who do, in order to make yourself rich, isn't self-indulgent? It's not OK to play music, or write essays, because what good does that really do anyone, but it is OK to work for a hedge fund.It's selfish to pursue your passion, unless it's also going to make you a lot of money, in which case it's not selfish at all.Do you see how absurd this is? But these are the nets that are flung at you, and this is what I mean by the need for courage.And it's a never-ending process.At that Harvard event two years ago, one person said, about my assertion that college students needed to keep rethinking the decisions they've made about their lives, “We already made our decisions, back in middle school, when we decided to be the kind of high achievers who get into Harvard.” And I thought, who wants to live with the decisions that they made when they were 12? Let me put that another way.Who wants to let a 12-year-old decide what they're going to do for the rest of their lives? Or a 19-year-old, for that matter? All you can decide is what you think now, and you need to be prepared to keep making revisions.Because let me be clear.I'm not trying to persuade you all to become writers or musicians.Being a doctor or a lawyer, a scientist or an engineer or an economist—these are all valid and admirable choices.All I'm saying is that you need to think about it, and think about it hard.All I'm asking is that you make your choices for the right reasons.All I'm urging is that you recognize and embrace your moral freedom.And most of all, don't play it safe.Resist the seductions of the cowardly values our society has come to prize so highly: comfort, convenience, security, predictability, control.These, too, are nets.Above all, resist the fear of failure.Yes, you will make mistakes.But they will be your mistakes, not someone else's.And you will survive them, and you will know yourself better for having made them, and you will be a fuller and a stronger person.It's been said—and I'm not sure I agree with this, but it's an idea that's worth taking seriously—that you guys belong to a “postemotional” generation.That you prefer to avoid messy and turbulent and powerful feelings.But I say, don't shy away from the challenging parts of yourself.Don't deny the desires and curiosities, the doubts and dissatisfactions, the joy and the darkness, that might knock you off the path that you have set for yourself.College is just beginning for you, adulthood is just beginning.Open yourself to the possibilities they represent.The world is much larger than you can imagine right now.Which means, you are much larger than you can imagine.William Deresiewicz is a contributing writer for The Nation and a contributing editor at The New Republic.His next book, A Jane Austen Education, will be published next year by Penguin Press.

第二篇：乔布斯斯坦福大学演讲

乔布斯斯坦福大学演讲

苹果公司的创业经历令人震撼，史蒂芬乔布斯有自己的成功学。史蒂芬乔布斯在斯坦福大学的演讲中就为学生们谈到自己的创业历程以及自己成功的一些感触。下面让我们一起通过以下的史蒂芬乔布斯演讲稿来领悟。史蒂夫乔布斯斯坦福大学毕业典礼上演讲

一定要找到你热爱的

我很荣幸能在今天与你们一起参加一个世界上最优秀的大学的毕业典礼。我从来没有从大学毕业。说实话，今天是我最离大学毕业最近的一次。今天，我想给你们讲我生活中的三个故事。就是这样。没什么大不了的。只是三个故事。

第一个故事是关于把我生活中过去的点点滴滴联系起来。

在过了最初的六个月后，我便从Reed学院辍学了。但是，在我真正离开那里前，我又呆了大约18个月。我为什么辍学呢?

这一切在我出生前就开始了。我的亲生母亲是一个年轻的未婚大学生。她决定把我送给别人收养。她坚持认为，我应该被有大学学历的人收养。所以，一切本来都已经安排好了，我将会被一个律师和他的妻子收养。但是当我出生以后，律师夫妇在最后一分钟决定他们真正想要的是一个女孩。所以，我的养父母，本来是在等候的名单上的。他们在半夜接到了一个电话，“我们有一个意料之外的男婴。你们想要他吗?”他们回答说：“当然。”我的亲生母亲后来发现我的养母从来没有从大学毕业，而我的养父高中都没有毕业。她拒绝在最终的领养文件上签字。过了几个月后，我的养父母向她保证我将来会上大学后，她才同意了。

17年后，我确实上大学了。但是我天真的选择了一个几乎和斯坦福一样昂贵的学院。我工薪阶层的父母的所有积蓄都花在了我的学费上。六个月后，我看不到这有任何价值。我不知道我的一生想要做什么。我不知道大学如何能帮我找到这一问题的答案。而且我在这里花费着我父母一生所有的积蓄。所以，我决定辍学，而且相信所有的这一切都会解决的。在当时，这个决定是非常令人害怕的。但是，回过头来看，这是我做过的最好的决定之一。在我辍学的那一刻，我可以不再去上我不感兴趣的课程，而去上那些看起来有趣的课程。

这并不浪漫。我没有宿舍，所以我睡在了朋友房间的地板上。我回收可乐瓶，用得到的5美分买吃的。我会在每星期天晚上步行7英里穿过城市到HareKrishna寺庙去好好吃一顿。我喜欢那的饭。我凭着好奇心与直觉所遇到的一切，很大一部分在后来被证明是无比珍贵的。让我给你们举一个例子：

那时，Reed学院提供了当时可能是全国最好的书法课程。在校园里，每一个海报，每一个抽屉上的标签都是优美的手写字。因为我辍学了，不用再去上正常的课程，我决定上书法课，去学学如何写书法。我学会了serif和sanserif字体，学会了改变不同字母组合间的间隔，知道了是什么使字体变得优美。这一切都很优美，有历史感，具有科学无法获得的艺术的精巧。我发现这一切令人着迷。

对书法的学习看起来没有任何机会在我的一生中得到实际的应用。但是，10年后，当我们设计第一台Macintosh电脑时，这一切就又重现了。我们把字体的设计都放入了Mac，第一个有着优美字体的电脑。如果我没有在学校学书法课程，Mac就不可能有多种字体或者按适当比例间隔的字体。因为Windows只是照搬了Mac，有可能没有任何个人电脑会有这样的字体。如果我没有辍学，我就不会选那个书法课程，个人电脑就有可能没有今天这样优美的字体。当然，当我在大学时，把我当时的一点一滴串起来并不能预测到我后来的结果。但是，当10年后再回头看，这一切非常，非常清楚。

当然，你不能把事情联系在一起而预测未来。你只能回过头来再把它们联系起来。所以，你一定要相信那些点点滴滴在将来一定会以某种形式联系起来。你一定要相信一些事情你的直觉、命运、生命、因缘，无论是什么。这一方法从没有让我失望过。它对我的生活至关重要。

我的第二个故事是有关热爱与失去。

我很幸运，在生命中的最初阶段就找到了自己热爱做的事情。在我20岁的时候，Woz和我在我父母的车库里创建了苹果公司。我们非常努力。10年内，苹果从一个只有我们两个人的车库公司成长到20亿美金，有4000员工的公司。当时我刚刚满30岁，就在一年前，我们发布了我们最杰出的创造Macintosh。然后，我被解雇了。你怎么能被你自己创立的公司解雇呢?哎，当苹果公司逐渐发展，我们雇了一个我认为非常有才华的人来和我一起运作公司。第一年，都还不错。但是，随后我们对未来的想法就开始有了分歧。最终我们闹翻了。当我们闹翻的时候，董事会站在了他的一边。结果是，我在30岁的时候被踢出了公司，而且是以尽人皆知的方式被踢出。我成年以来整个生活的中心没有了，这是毁灭性的。

有几个月的时间，我真的不知道做什么好。我觉得我辜负了把接力棒传递给我的上一代的创业者。我找到DavidPackard和BobNoyce并向他们道歉，为我把事情搞得如此之糟道歉。我是一个众所周知的失败。我甚至想到从硅谷逃走。但是慢慢的我才开始意识到我仍旧热爱我所作的事情。在苹果所发生的事情丝毫没有改变这一点。我被拒绝了，但是，我仍旧爱着。所以，我决定重新开始。

在那时我并没有认识到，但是实际上，被苹果解雇是对我来说最好的事情。成功所带来的沉重感被重新开始，对一切都不确定的轻松感所代替。这一切解放了我，让我进入了一生中最有创造性的一段时间。

之后的5年，我创办了一家叫NeXT的公司和另外一家叫Pixar的公司，还爱上了一个非常好的女人，后来她成为了我的妻子。Pixar创造了世界上第一部电脑动画电影，玩具总动员。现在，Pixar是世界上最成功的动画工作室。在经历了种种起伏后苹果买下了NeXT。我重返了苹果。我们在NeXT发展的技术是苹果目前复兴的核心。Laurene和我有一个美好的家庭。

我相当确信，如果我没被苹果解雇，这一切之中的任何事情都不会发生。这是一计苦药，但是我想我这个病人需要它。有时候，生活象用板儿砖拍头一样打击你。别失去信心。我深信当时唯一让我支持下去的原因就是我热爱我所作的一切。你一定要找到你所热爱的。这对你的事业是这样，对你的爱人也是如此。你的事业将会占据你生活的很大一部分，你真正得到满足的唯一途径就是去做你坚信是伟大的事业。而做伟大的事业的唯一途径就是热爱你所作的一切。如果你还没有找到，继续找。不要妥协。就像其他一切需要用心灵去感受的事物，当你找到的时候，你会知道的。就象任何美满的伴侣关系，随着时间的推移，事情会变得更美好。所以，继续找吧，直到你找到。不要妥协。

我的第三个故事是有关死亡的。

在我17岁的时候，我读到一段话，大概是“如果你按照生活的每一天都好象是你生命的最后一天那样活着，总有一天你会确信你的方向是对的。”这句话给我留下了深刻的印象，从那以后，在之后的33年里，我每天早晨都会对着镜子问自己“如果今天是我生命的最后一天，我还会去做我今天将要做的事情吗?”而每当连续几天我的回答总是“不”时，我知道我需要做些改变。

记住很快我将离开人世，这是帮助我做重大决定的最重要的工具。因为几乎任何事情所有外界的期望，所有的自尊，所有对失败或丢脸的恐惧在死亡面前都会烟消云散，只剩下那些真正重要的东西。记住你会死去，这是我所知的避免陷入患得患失的陷阱的最好的方式。你已经赤条条无牵挂。你没有任何原因不去追随你的内心。

一年前我被诊断为癌症。早晨7点半我做了扫描。扫描清楚的显示在我的胰脏上有一个肿瘤。我都不知道胰脏是什么。医生们告诉我几乎可以肯定这类癌症是无法治愈的。我应该不会活过3到6个月。我的医生建议我回家把后事准备好，这也是医生对准备去死的说法。也就是在几个月的时间里对你的孩子说所有的事情，那些你曾经认为你会有下一个10年的时间去说的一切。也就是说确保一切安顿停当，让你的家人尽可能的从容一些。也就是你的告别。

我带着这一诊断结果生活了一整天。晚上，我做了活组织检测。他们把内窥镜插下我的喉咙，穿过我的胃，进入肠子，用一根针穿入我的胰脏从肿瘤上提取一些细胞。我被麻醉了。但是我的妻子在现场。她告诉我，当他们在显微镜下看过之后，医生们喊叫起来。因为这原来是一种极为罕见形式的胰腺癌，可以通过手术治愈。我做了手术，现在我已经没事了。

这是我面临死亡最近的一次。我希望这也是我今后几十年内最近的一次。经历过这一切，现在我可以更确信的对你说这一切，死亡不仅仅是一个有用但抽象的概念。

没人希望死。即使是想进入天堂的人们也不想通过死亡进入那里。但是，死亡是我们共同的目的地。没有人能逃脱。死亡就是这样。因为死亡也许是生命中最好的发明。它是生命改变的媒介。它清理老的，给新的让出路。现在，你们就是新的。但是，不久，你们会慢慢变成老的，然后被清理掉。原谅我这种非常直白的说法，但是，这是事实。

你的时间是有限的。所以不要浪费你自己的时间去过别人的生活。不要被教条所禁锢，被动接受别人思想的结果。不要让他人意见的噪音盖过你自己内心的声音。最重要的是，有勇气去追随你的内心与直觉。你的内心和直觉早已洞察了你真正想做的。其他的一切都不重要。

当我年轻的时候，有一本优秀的刊物叫The Whole Earth Catalog, 是我们那一代的圣经之一。一个叫Stewart Branch的人在离这不远的Menlo Park用他诗人般的灵感创造了这一刊物。当时是60年代末，还没有个人电脑和桌面出版系统。所以，这本刊物全部是用打字机，剪刀和宝利来相机做出来的。这好像是纸上的Google,但在Google出现前35年：它是理想主义的，充满了简洁的工具与伟大的想法。

Stewart和他的团队出版了几期The Whole Earth Catalog。他们最终完成了自己的使命，出了最后一期刊物，时间是70年代中期。当时我正处在你们的年纪。在刊物封底，是一幅清晨乡间路的照片。如果你乐于冒险搭便车旅行就会看到这一种景象。在照片下面有一句话“保持渴望。固执愚见。”(“Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.”)这是他们的告别语。保持渴望。固执愚见。我一直这样勉励我自己。现在，当你们毕业，有新的开始，我同样勉励你们。

保持渴望。固执愚见。

多谢你们!

第三篇：乔布斯斯坦福大学演讲

于乔布斯，在2005年斯坦福大学的演讲就是他最好的自传。

你得找出你的所爱。

今天，有荣幸来到各位从世界上最好的学校之一毕业的毕业典礼上。我从来没从大学毕业。说实话，这是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。今天，我只说三个故事，不谈大道理，三个故事就好。

第一个故事，是关于人生中的点点滴滴怎么串连在一起。

我在里德学院（Reed college）待了六个月就办休学了。到我退学前，一共休学了十八个月。那么，我为什么休学？

这得从我出生前讲起。我的亲生母亲当时是个研究生，年轻未婚妈妈，她决定让别人收养我。她强烈觉得应该让有大学毕业的人收养我，所以我出生时，她就准备让我被一对律师夫妇收养。但是这对夫妻到了最后一刻反悔了，他们想收养女孩。所以在等待收养名单上的一对夫妻，我的养父母，在一天半夜里接到一通电话，问他们「有一名意外出生的男孩，你们要认养他吗？」而他们的回答是「当然要」。后来，我的生母发现，我现在的妈妈从来没有大学毕业，我现在的爸爸则连高中毕业也没有。她拒绝在认养文件上做最后签字。直到几个月后，我的养父母同意将来一定会让我上大学，她才软化态度。十七年后，我上大学了。但是当时我无知选了一所学费几乎跟史丹佛一样贵的大学，我那工人阶级的父母所有积蓄都花在我的学费上。六个月后，我看不出念这个书的价值何在。那时候，我不知道这辈子要干什么，也不知道念大学能对我有什么帮助，而且我为了念这个书，花光了我父母这辈子的所有积蓄，所以我决定休学，相信船到桥头自然直。当时这个决定看来相当可怕，可是现在看来，那是我这辈子做过最好的决定之一。当我休学之后，我再也不用上我没兴趣的必修课，把时间拿去听那些我有兴趣的课。

这一点也不浪漫。我没有宿舍，所以我睡在友人家里的地板上，靠着回收可乐空罐的五先令退费买吃的，每个星期天晚上得走七里的路绕过大半个镇去印度教的 Hare Krishna神庙吃顿好料。我喜欢Hare Krishna神庙的好料。追寻我的好奇与直觉，我所驻足的大部分事物，后来看来都成了无价之宝。举例来说：

当时里德学院有着大概是全国最好的书法指导。在整个校园内的每一张海报上，每个抽屉的标签上，都是美丽的手写字。因为我休学了，可以不照正常选课程序来，所以我跑去学书法。我学了serif与san serif字体，学到在不同字母组合间变更字间距，学到活版印刷伟大的地方。书法的美好、历史感与艺术感是科学所无法捕捉的，我觉得那很迷人。

我没预期过学的这些东西能在我生活中起些什么实际作用，不过十年后，当我在设计第一台麦金塔时，我想起了当时所学的东西，所以把这些东西都设计进了麦金塔里，这是第一台能印刷出漂亮东西的计算机。如果我没沉溺于那样一门课里，麦金塔可能就不会有多重字体跟变间距字体了。又因为Windows抄袭了麦金塔的使用方式，如果当年我没这样做，大概世界上所有的个人计算机都不会有这些东西，印不出现在我们看到的漂亮的字来了。当然，当我还在大学里时，不可能把这些点点滴滴预先串在一起，但是这在十年后回顾，就显得非常清楚。

我再说一次，你不能预先把点点滴滴串在一起；唯有未来回顾时，你才会明白那些点点滴滴是如何串在一起的。所以你得相信，你现在所体会的东西，将来多少会连接在一块。你得信任某个东西，直觉也好，命运也好，生命也好，或者业力。这种作法从来没让我失望，也让我的人生整个不同起来。

我的第二个故事，有关爱与失去。

我好运－年轻时就发现自己爱做什么事。我二十岁时，跟Steve Wozniak在我爸妈的车库里开始了苹果计算机的事业。我们拼命工作，苹果计算机在十年间从一间车库里的两个小伙子扩展成了一家员工超过四千人、市价二十亿美金的公司，在那之前一年推出了我们最棒的作品－麦金塔，而我才刚迈入人生的第三十个年头，然后被炒鱿鱼。要怎么让自己创办的公司炒自己鱿鱼？好吧，当苹果计算机成长后，我请了一个我以为他在经营公司上很有才干的家伙来，他在头几年也确实干得不错。可是我们对未来的愿景不同，最后只好分道扬镳，董事会站在他那边，炒了我鱿鱼，公开把我请了出去。曾经是我整个成年生活重心的东西不见了，令我不知所措。

有几个月，我实在不知道要干什么好。我觉得我令企业界的前辈们失望－我把他们交给我的接力棒弄丢了。我见了创办HP的David Packard跟创办Intel的Bob Noyce，跟他们说我很抱歉把事情搞砸得很厉害了。我成了公众的非常负面示范，我甚至想要离开硅谷。但是渐渐的，我发现，我还是喜爱着我做过的事情，在苹果的日子经历的事件没有丝毫改变我爱做的事。我被否定了，可是我还是爱做那些事情，所以我决定从头来过。

当时我没发现，但是现在看来，被苹果计算机开除，是我所经历过最好的事情。成功的沉重被从头来过的轻松所取代，每件事情都不那么确定，让我自由进入这辈子最有创意的年代。

接下来五年，我开了一家叫做NeXT的公司，又开一家叫做Pixar的公司，也跟后来的老婆谈起了恋爱。Pixar接着制作了世界上第一部全计算机动画电影，玩具总动员，现在是世界上最成功的动画制作公司。然后，苹果计算机买下了NeXT，我回到了苹果，我们在NeXT发展的技术成了苹果计算机后来复兴的核心。我也有了个美妙的家庭。

我很确定，如果当年苹果计算机没开除我，就不会发生这些事情。这帖药很苦口，可是我想苹果计算机这个病人需要这帖药。有时候，人生会用砖头打你的头。不要丧失信心。我确信，我爱我所做的事情，这就是这些年来让我继续走下去的唯一理由。你得找出你爱的，工作上是如此，对情人也是如此。你的工作将填满你的一大块人生，唯一获得真正满足的方法就是做你相信是伟大的工作，而唯一做伟大工作的方法是爱你所做的事。如果你还没找到这些事，继续找，别停顿。尽你全心全力，你知道你一定会找到。而且，如同任何伟大的关系，事情只会随着时间愈来愈好。所以，在你找到之前，继续找，别停顿。

我的第三个故事，关于死亡。

当我十七岁时，我读到一则格言，好像是「把每一天都当成生命中的最后一天，你就会轻松自在。」这对我影响深远，在过去33年里，我每天早上都会照镜子，自问：「如果今天是此生最后一日，我今天要干些什么？」每当我连续太多天都得到一个「没事做」的答案时，我就知道我必须有所变革了。

提醒自己快死了，是我在人生中下重大决定时，所用过最重要的工具。因为几乎每件事－所有外界期望、所有名誉、所有对困窘或失败的恐惧－在面对死亡时，都消失了，只有最重要的东西才会留下。提醒自己快死了，是我所知避免掉入自己有东西要失去了的陷阱里最好的方法。人生不带来，死不带去，没什么道理不顺心而为。

一年前，我被诊断出癌症。我在早上七点半作断层扫描，在胰脏清楚出现一个肿瘤，我连胰脏是什么都不知道。医生告诉我，那几乎可以确定是一种不治之症，我大概活不到三到六个月了。医生建议我回家，好好跟亲人们聚一聚，这是医生对临终病人的标准建议。那代表你得试着在几个月内把你将来十年想跟小孩讲的话讲完。那代表你得把每件事情搞定，家人才会尽量轻松。那代表你得跟人说再见了。

我整天想着那个诊断结果，那天晚上做了一次切片，从喉咙伸入一个内视镜，从胃进肠子，插了根针进胰脏，取了一些肿瘤细胞出来。我打了镇静剂，不醒人事，但是我老婆在场。她后来跟我说，当医生们用显微镜看过那些细胞后，他们都哭了，因为那是非常少见的一种胰脏癌，可以用手术治好。所以我接受了手术，康复了。

这是我最接近死亡的时候，我希望那会继续是未来几十年内最接近的一次。经历此事后，我可以比之前死亡只是抽象概念时要更肯定告诉你们下面这些： 没有人想死。即使那些想上天堂的人，也想活着上天堂。但是死亡是我们共有的目的地，没有人逃得过。这是注定的，因为死亡简直就是生命中最棒的发明，是生命变化的媒介，送走老人们，给新生代留下空间。现在你们是新生代，但是不久的将来，你们也会逐渐变老，被送出人生的舞台。抱歉讲得这么戏剧化，但是这是真的。

你们的时间有限，所以不要浪费时间活在别人的生活里。不要被信条所惑－盲从信条就是活在别人思考结果里。不要让别人的意见淹没了你内在的心声。最重要的，拥有跟随内心与直觉的勇气，你的内心与直觉多少已经知道你真正想要成为什么样的人。任何其它事物都是次要的。

在我年轻时，有本神奇的杂志叫做Whole Earth Catalog，当年我们很迷这本杂志。那是一位住在离这不远的Menlo Park的Stewart Brand发行的，他把杂志办得很有诗意。那是1960年代末期，个人计算机跟桌上出版还没发明，所有内容都是打字机、剪刀跟拍立得相机做出来的。杂志内容有点像印在纸上的Google，在Google出现之前35年就有了：理想化，充满新奇工具与神奇的注记。

Stewart跟他的出版团队出了好几期Whole Earth Catalog，然后出了停刊号。当时是1970年代中期，我正是你们现在这个年龄的时候。在停刊号的封底，有张早晨乡间小路的照片，那种你去爬山时会经过的乡间小路。在照片下有行小字：求知若饥，虚心若愚。

那是他们亲笔写下的告别讯息，我总是以此自许。当你们毕业，展开新生活，我也以此期许你们。

求知若饥，虚心若愚。

非常谢谢大家。

‘You’ve got to find what you love

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 I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.That’s it.No big deal.Just three stories.The first story is about connecting the dots.I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.So why did I drop out? It started before I was born.My 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 the 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 father 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.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 couldn’t see the value in it.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.And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.So I decided to drop out 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 didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.It wasn’t all romantic.I didn’t 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 following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example: Reed College 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 didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do 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 can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.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 all 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 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 clear looking backwards ten years later.Again, you can’t 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 somethingI found what I loved to do early in life.Woz and I started Apple in my parents 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 creationa year earlier, and I had just turned 30.And then I got fired.How can you get fired from 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.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.I really didn’t know what to do for a few months.I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs downI still loved what I did.The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.I had been rejected, but I was still in love.And so I decided to start over.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.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.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 the most successful animation studio in the world.In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t 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.Don’t lose faith.I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.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.Don’t settle.As with all matters of the heart, you’ll 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.Don’t settle.My third story is about death.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.” 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 change something.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.Because almost everythingthese 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 are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didn’t 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 is doctor’s code for prepare to die.It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d 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.I lived with that diagnosis all day.Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, 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 that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and I’m fine now.This was the closest I’ve 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 certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die.Even people who want to go to heaven don’t 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 best invention of Life.It is Life’s 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 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 other’s 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.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 1960’s, 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.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 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.Thank you all very much.乔布斯是个天才和疯子，他每天必来到我们部门看昨天的成果，能听到他骂人，我们并不生气，因为我们知道他不允许产品上市后没有销路。

2011年8月25日，乔布斯先生宣布辞职的消息让人吃惊，我们对他的健康状况表示担心。在办公室里，也许再难听到他骂人了，只留下曾经他的那些经典的激励我们的语录——

1、不要按照用户的坏习惯去设计，也不要按照程序员的思维去设计！

1, do not according to user bad habits to design, also do not according to programmers thinking design!

2、有好的想法要坚持，不要被其他人的观点的噪声掩盖你真正的内心的声音。当你的想法站不住时，立即大度的丢弃，这其实是更是一种坚持。

2, have good ideas are going to insist, don’t be others’ opinion noise drown out your own inner voice.When your ideas stand, immediately magnanimous discard it is, and it is also a kind of persistence.3、任何一款产品都不应该带着BUG去见用户，那怕失信于媒体推迟发布时间。

3, any product are not should bring a BUG to meet users, that is afraid to betray media postpone the release of time.4、产品一定是让人感觉最新，但坚决不做小白鼠去尝试前无古人的新产品。

4, products must be feeling letting a person, but resolute don’t do new mice to try an unprecedented new product.5、把标志画那么大干吗？苹果的产品要在任何时候都让人一眼认出是苹果的产品而非是苹果的标志。

5, the sign painting so big? Apple products will at any time those who make a person recognized apple’s products rather than is the apple logo.6、比别人少用一条线获得更低的工艺成本，比别人提供多一种价值认同并获得更高的利润，这就是苹果。

6, less than others with a line acquire lower process cost more than others, and provide a kind of value identification and obtain more profits, this is an apple.7、所有的产品一定会离开苹果商店但不能离开苹果系统，我们要帮助客户持续使用苹果产品，直到寿终正寝。

7, all products will leave apple store but cannot leave apple system, we have to help customers continued use of apple products, until died.8、IBM Thinkpad如果没了小红点，那它就不是Thinkpad。MACBook如果加了小红点，那它即不是IBM Thinkpad也不是苹果MACBook了。

8, IBM Thinkpad if not a little red dot, it isn’t Thinkpad.MACBook if added little red dots, that it is not IBM Thinkpad nor apple MACBook.9、让团队中那些说“不可能”的人感到实现不了是可耻的。

9, let team for those who say “impossible” people feel not achieve them is shameful.10、品牌不是打上苹果的标志就是苹果的品质，打上苹果的标志也需要信心和对客户的承诺。10, brand is not playing apple logo is an apple quality, hit the apple logo also need confidence and commitment to customers.11、不要为别人而活，也不要为今天的自己而活，把今天的工作做好了，明天自然属于你，薪水自然比别人高。

11, don’t lived for others, also don’t live for today’s themselves, to do good work today, tomorrow natural belong to you, high salary nature than others.12、产品设计时的所有功能都是一个整体，不应该有任何理由去砍功能，破坏整体性。12, product design all the functions are a whole, should not have any reason to cut function, destroy unity.13、领袖和跟风者的区别就在于创新，你的时间有限，所以不要像亚洲人那样，浪费在模仿别人这种事上。

13, a leader and a follower innovation distinguishes between, your time is limited, so don’t like asians that, wasted in imitate others this kind of things.14、团队中那些想用Keynote（苹果的PPT）来证明自己的人只能说明你不行，请拿出解决方案。

14, team of people who want to use Keynote to prove themselves only shows that you can, please take out the solution.15、成为卓越的代名词并不是因为他有多么聪明，而在于他有多么勤劳。

15, become the pronoun of not because of his remarkable how clever, but that he is how diligent.16、东方佛学中有一句话：永远保持初学者的心态；拥有初学者的心态是件了不起的事情。16,East: “there’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘beginner’s never keep Have a beginner’s mind is a wonderful thing.17、不要小看ipod上的一颗按钮，它和别人不一样的是我们做了21个方案、84000次测试、57次改进，用户的满意源于不必要的坚持。

17, don’t look down upon a single button on the ipod, it and others are different is that we did 21 scheme, 84,000 times test, 57 times improvement, the satisfaction of customers from unnecessary insists

第四篇：Jobs斯坦福大学演讲

苹果公司创始人乔布斯去世 享年56岁

Apple founder Steve Jobs dies aged 56 [ 2011-10-06 09:53 ] 苹果公司创始人史蒂夫•乔布斯因癌症于美国时间周三去世，享年56岁。苹果公司官方网站首页目前已换成乔布斯大幅照片。网站发布的消息说：“苹果失去了一位富有远见和创造力的天才，世界失去了一个不可思议之人。”2004年乔布斯被诊断出患胰腺癌，今年8月他宣布辞去苹果公司CEO一职。乔布斯2005年在斯坦福大学的毕业典礼演讲时曾说道：“记住自己随时都会死掉，是防止你陷入畏首畏尾陷阱的最好方法……你已经一无所有了，没有理由不去追随你的心。”

Apple Inc co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, counted among the greatest American CEOs of his generation, died on Wednesday at the age of 56, after a years-long and highly public battle with cancer.Jobs' death was announced by Apple in a statement late on Wednesday.The Apple.com homepage featured a black-and-white picture of him with the words “Steve Jobs, 1955-2011”.A message on the site read: “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.”Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.“ The Silicon Valley icon who gave the world the iPod and the iPhone had resigned as CEO of the world's largest technology corporation in August, handing the reins to current chief executive Tim Cook.A survivor of a rare form of pancreatic cancer, he was deemed the heart and soul of a company that rivals Exxon Mobil as the most valuable in America.”Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives.The world is immeasurably better because of Steve,“ Apple said in a statement announcing Jobs' passing.”His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family.Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.“ Job's health had been a controversial topic for years.His battle with cancer had been a deep concern to Apple fans, investors and the company's board alike.In past years, even board members have confided to friends their concern that Jobs, in his quest for privacy, wasn't being forthcoming enough with directors about the true condition of his health.Now, despite investor confidence in Cook, who has stood in for his boss during three leaves of absence, there remain concerns about whether the company would stay a creative force to be reckoned with beyond the next year or so without its founder and visionary at the helm.The news triggered an immediate outpouring of sympathy.Among others, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he will miss Jobs ”immensely“.A college dropout, Buddhist and son of adoptive parents, Jobs started Apple Computer with friend Steve Wozniak in the late 1970s.The company soon introduced the Apple 1 computer.But it was the Apple II that became a huge success and gave Apple its position as a critical player in the then-nascent PC industry, culminating in a 1980 IPO that made Jobs a multimillionaire.Despite the subsequent success of the Mac, Jobs' relationship with top management and the board soured.The company removed most of his powers and then in 1985 he was fired.Apple's fortunes waned after that.However, its purchase of NeXTin 1997 brought him back into the fold.Later that year, he became interim CEO and in 2000, the company dropped ”interim“ from his title.Along the way Jobs also had managed to revolutionize computer animation with his other company, Pixar, but it was the iPhone in 2007 that capped his legacy in the annals of modern technology history.Two years before the gadget that forever transformed the way people around the world access and use the Internet, Jobs talked about how a sense of his mortality was a major driver behind that vision.”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,“ Jobs said during a Stanford commencement ceremony in 2005.”Because almost everythingthese things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.“ 2 ”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 are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.“ 乔布斯在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲

[ 2011-08-25 10:11 ] 这是苹果公司和Pixar动画工作室的CEO Steve Jobs于2005年6月12号在斯坦福大学的毕业典礼上面的演讲稿。

Thank you.I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.谢谢大家。很荣幸能和你们，来自世界最好大学之一的毕业生们，一块儿参加毕业典礼。老实说，我大学没有毕业，今天恐怕是我一生中离大学毕业最近的一次了。Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.That's it.No big deal.Just three stories.今天我想告诉大家来自我生活的三个故事。没什么大不了的，只是三个故事而已。The first story is about connecting the dots.第一个故事，如何串连生命中的点滴。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.So why did I drop out? It started before I was born.My biological mother was a young, unwed 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 the 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've got an unexpected baby boy.Do you want him?“ They said, ”Of course.“ My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father 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 go to college.我在里得大学读了六个月就退学了，但是在18个月之后--我真正退学之前，我还常去学校。为何我要选择退学呢？这还得从我出生之前说起。我的生母是一个年轻、未婚的大学毕业生，她决定让别人收养我。她有一个很强烈的信仰，认为我应该被一个大学毕业生家庭收养。于是，一对律师夫妇说好了要领养我，然而最后一秒钟，他们改变了主意，决定要个女孩儿。然后我排在收养人名单中的养父母在一个深夜接到电话，“很意 外，我们多了一个男婴，你们要吗？”“当然要！”但是我的生母后来又发现我的养母没有大学毕业，养父连高中都没有毕业。她拒绝在领养书上签字。几个月后，我的养父母保证会让我上大学，她妥协了。

This was the start in my life.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 couldn't see the value in it.I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life.So I decided to drop out 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 didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.这是我生命的开端。十七年后，我上大学了，但是我很无知地选了一所差不多和斯坦福一样贵的学校，几乎花掉我那蓝领阶层养父母一生的积蓄。六个月后，我觉得不值得。我看不出自己以后要做什么，也不晓得大学会怎样帮我指点迷津，而我却在花销父母一生的积蓄。所以我决定退学，并且相信没有做错。一开始非常吓人，但回忆起来，这却是我一生中作的最好的决定之一。从我退学的那一刻起，我可以停止一切不感兴趣的必修课，开始旁听那些有意思得多的课。

It wasn't all romantic.I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms.I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven 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 following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example.事情并不那么美好。我没有宿舍可住，睡在朋友房间的地上。为了吃饭，我收集五分一个的旧可乐瓶，每个星期天晚上步行七英里到哈尔-克里什纳庙里改善一下一周的伙食。我喜欢这种生活方式。能够遵循自己的好奇和直觉前行后来被证明是多么的珍贵。让我来给你们举个例子吧。

Reed College 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 didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.I learned about serif and sans-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 can't capture, and I found it fascinating.当时的里德大学提供可能是全国最好的书法指导。校园中每一张海报，抽屉上的每一张标签，都是漂亮的手写体。由于我已退学，不用修那些必修课，我决定选一门书法课上 上。在这门课上，我学会了“serif”和”sans-serif“两种字体、学会了怎样在不同的字母组合中改变字间距、学会了怎样写出好的字来。这是一种科学无法捕捉的微妙，楚楚动人、充满历史底蕴和艺术性，我觉得自己被完全吸引了。

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 all 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, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.当时我并不指望书法在以后的生活中能有什么实用价值。但是，十年之后，我们在设计第一台 Macintosh计算机时，它一下子浮现在我眼前。于是，我们把这些东西全都设计进了计算机中。这是第一台有这么漂亮的文字版式的计算机。要不是我当初在大学里偶然选了这么一门课，Macintosh计算机绝不会有那么多种印刷字体或间距安排合理的字号。要不是Windows照搬了 Macintosh，个人电脑可能不会有这些字体和字号。If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.要不是退了学，我决不会碰巧选了这门书法课，个人电脑也可能不会有现在这些漂亮的版式了。

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.Again, you can't 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 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, and that will make all the difference.当然，我在大学里不可能从这一点上看到它与将来的关系。十年之后再回头看，两者之间关系就非常、非常清楚了。你们同样不可能从现在这个点上看到将来；只有回头看时，才会发现它们之间的关系。所以你必须相信，那些点点滴滴，会在你未来的生命里，以某种方式串联起来。你必须相信一些东西——你的勇气、宿命、生活、因缘，随便什么——因为相信这些点滴能够一路连接会给你带来循从本觉的自信，它使你远离平凡，变得与众不同。

My second story is about love and loss.I was lucky.I found what I loved to do early in life.Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20.We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned 30, and then I got fired.How can you get fired from 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, and 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.I really didn't 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 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'd been rejected but I was still in love.And so I decided to start over.第二个故事是关于爱与失的。我很幸运，很早就发现自己喜欢做的事情。我二十岁的时候就和沃茨在父母的车库里开创了苹果公司。我们工作得很努力，十年后，苹果公司成长为拥有四千名员工，价值二十亿的大公司。我们刚刚推出了最好的创意，Macintosh操作系统，在这之前的一年，也就是我刚过三十岁，我被解雇了。你怎么可能被一个亲手创立的公司解雇？事情是这样的，在公司成长期间，我雇佣了一个我们认为非常聪明，可以和我一起经营公司的人。一年后，我们对公司未来的看法产生分歧，董事会站在了他的一边。于是，在我三十岁的时候，我出局了，很公开地出局了。我整个成年生活的焦点没了，这很要命。一开始的几个月我真的不知道该干什么。我觉得我让公司的前一代创建者们失望了，我把传给我的权杖给弄丢了。我与戴维德·帕珂德和鲍勃·诺埃斯见面，试图为这彻头彻尾的失败道歉。我败得如此之惨以至于我想要逃离硅谷。但有个东西在慢慢地叫醒我：我还爱着我从事的行业。这次失败一点儿都没有改变这一点。我被逐了，但我仍爱着我的事业。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.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 in my life.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 world's first computer-animated feature film, ”Toy Story,“ and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.当时我没有看出来，但事实证明“被苹果开除”是发生在我身上最好的事。成功的重担被重新起步的轻松替代，对任何事情都不再特别看重，这让我感觉如此自由，进入一生中最有创造力的阶段。接下来的五年，我创立了一个叫NeXT的公司，接着又建立了Pixar，然后与后来成为我妻子的女人相爱。Pixar出品了世界第一个电脑动画电影：“玩具总动员”，现在它已经是世界最成功的动画制作工作室了。

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.在一系列的成功运转后，苹果收购了NeXT，我又回到了苹果。我们在NeXT开发的技术在苹果的复兴中起了核心作用，另外劳琳和我组建了一个幸福的家庭。I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it.Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick.Don't lose faith.I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for 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, and don't settle.As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on.So keep looking.Don't settle.我非常确信，如果我没有被苹果炒掉，这些就都不会发生。这个药的味道太糟了，但是我想病人需要它。有些时候，生活会给你迎头一棒。不要丧失信心。我确信唯一让我一路走下来的是我对自己所做事情的热爱。你必须去找你热爱的东西，对工作如此，对你的爱人也是这样的。工作会占据你生命中很大的一部分，你只有相信自己做的是伟大的工作，你才能怡然自得。如果你还没有找到，那么就继续找，不要停。全心全意地找，当你找到时，你会知道的。就像任何真诚的关系，随着时间的流逝，只会越来越紧密。所以继续找，不要停。

My third story is about death.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.“ 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 change something.Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because 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 are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.我的第三个故事关于死亡。我17岁的时候读到过一句话“如果你把每一天都当作最后一天过，有一天你会发现你是正确的”。这句话给我留下了深刻的印象。从那以后，过去的33年，每天早上我都会对着镜子问自己：“如果今天是我的最后一天，我会不会做我想做的事情呢？”如果连着一段时间，答案都是否定的的话，我就知道我需要改变一些东西了。提醒自己就要死了是我遇见的最大的帮助，帮我作了生命中的大决定。因为几乎任何事——所有的荣耀、骄傲、对难堪和失败的恐惧——在死亡面前都会消隐，留下真正重要的东西。提醒自己就要死亡是我知道的最好的方法，用来避开担心失去某些东西的陷阱。你已经赤裸裸了，没有理由不听从于自己的心愿。

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didn't 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 is doctors' code for ”prepare to die.“ 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.It means to make sure that 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，我被诊断出患了癌症。我早上七点半作了扫描，清楚地显示在我的胰腺有一个肿瘤。我当时都不知道胰腺是什么东西。医生们告诉我这几乎是无法治愈的，我还有三到六个月的时间。我的医生建议我回家，整理一切。在医生的辞典中，这就是“准备死亡”的意思。就是意味着把要对你小孩说十年的话在几个月内说完；意味着把所有东西搞定，尽量让你的家庭活得轻松一点；意味着你要说“永别”了。

I lived with that diagnosis all day.Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach 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 doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.我整日都想着那诊断书的事情。后来有天晚上我做了一个活切片检查，他们将一个内窥镜伸进我的喉咙，穿过胃，到达肠道，用一根针在我的胰腺肿瘤上取了几个细胞。我当时是被麻醉的，但是我的妻子告诉我，那些医生在显微镜下看到细胞的时候开始尖叫，因为发现这竟然是一种非常罕见的可用手术治愈的胰腺癌症。我做了手术，现在，我痊愈了。

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, even people who want to go to Heaven don't 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 best invention of life.It's life's 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's quite true.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 heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.这是我最接近死亡的时候，我也希望是我未来几十年里最接近死亡的一次。这次死里逃生让我比以往只知道死亡是一个有用而纯粹书面概念的时候更确信地告诉你们，没有人愿意死，即使那些想上天堂的人们也不愿意通过死亡来达到他们的目的。但是死亡是每个人共同的终点，没有人能够逃脱。也应该如此，因为死亡很可能是生命最好的发明。它去陈让新。现在，你们就是“新”。但是有一天，不用太久，你们有会慢慢变老然后死去。抱歉，这很戏剧性，但却是真的。你们的时间是有限的，不要浪费在重复别人的生 活上。不要被教条束缚，那意味着会和别人思考的结果一块儿生活。不要被其他人的喧嚣观点掩盖自己内心真正的声音。你的直觉和内心知道你想要变成什么样子。所有其他东西都是次要的。

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation.It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.This was in the late 1960s, 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, overflowing with neat tools and great notions.Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.It was the mid-1970s and I was 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 hitch-hiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath 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.我年轻的时候，有一份叫做《完整地球目录》的好杂志，是我们这一代人的圣经之一。它是一个叫斯纠华特·布兰的、住在离这不远的曼罗公园的家伙创立的。他用诗一般的触觉将这份杂志带到世界。那是六十年代后期，个人电脑出现之前，所以这份杂志全是用打字机、剪刀和偏光镜制作的。有点像软皮包装的google，不过却早了三十五年。它理想主义，全文充斥着灵巧的工具和伟大的想法。斯纠华特和他的小组出版了几期“完整地球目录”，在完成使命之前，他们出版了最后一期。那是七十年代中期，我和你们差不多大。最后一期的封底是一张清晨乡村小路的照片，如果你有冒险精神，可以自己找到这条路。下面有一句话，“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢”。这是他们的告别语，“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢”。我常以此勉励自己。现在，在你们即将踏上新旅程的时候，我也希望你们能这样。保持饥饿，保持愚蠢。Thank you all, very much.非常感谢。

第五篇：斯坦福大学开学演讲

The following remarks were delivered by the President of Stanford University at the Opening Convocation on September 21, 2001.典礼上的致辞。

以下是斯坦福大学校长在2001年9月21日开学 Parents and students of the Class of 2005: 各位家长，2005届的同学们：

Good afternoon and welcome to Stanford University.Today, we celebrate the arrival of 1,717 new freshmen and transfer students.下午好！欢迎各位来到斯坦福大学。今天，我们在此欢迎1717名新生和转学生的到来。

I have struggled with the format of this Convocation and the content of this speech for the past 10 days.过去的10天，我一直颇费心思，不知这个开学典礼该用什么形式，我的发言要讲什么内容。

Since the morning of Sept.11, the campus has been uncommonly quiet.Except for two memorial services, all major events were cancelled.午以来，校园里异乎寻常的安静。除了两个纪念性的活动以外，所有的大型活动都取消了。

9月11日上

As we considered how to start a new academic year, we decided that a Convocation was, in fact, the most fitting way to resume our normal activities.后来发现开学典礼实际上是恢复正常秩序的最佳方式。

我们在考虑怎样开始新学年，Students, you represent our best hope for the future and for peace in our world.你们代表了我们世界的未来与和平的最美的希望

同学们，Americans and good-hearted people of all ages throughout the world will mourn this tragedy and carry the memory of that terrible day in their hearts.在记忆中

美国人民和全世界所有善良的人们，不论长幼，都会为这场悲剧哀悼，会将这可怕的一天永远留存

But it is your generation--more so than mine or your parents'--that will face the challenge of building a world in which such inhuman acts can never again occur.但面

临挑战的更是你们这一代，而不是我们或是你们父母这一代，你们要建设一个世界，决不容许类似惨无人道的事件再次发生。

In your time here, you will get to know people whose background, culture or beliefs are different from yours.You may find that your values--and your prejudices--are challenged.你们在这里求学的时光里，将会认识很多人，他们的背景、文化或者信仰可能与你们迥然不同，你们会发现自己的价值观以及偏见将会受到挑战。

I hope that you will discover a new understanding and appreciation for the pluralistic society in which we live and find constructive ways to contribute to the world.我们生活在一个多元的社会中，我希望你们能够从新的角度来理解和欣赏它，为世界做出建设性的贡献。

For each of you, this moment is the beginning of a new chapter in your life.对你们每个人而言，这一时刻意味着人生翻开了新的篇章。Let it also be a moment you remember as the initiation of your journey into the larger world, a time when you consider your role as a citizen and what your future contribution might be.从这一刻开始，你们将踏上一个更广阔世界的旅程，这一刻你们也将开始考虑作为一个公民你们未来应作的贡献。

You will not be expected to undertake this intellectual journey on your own.We have an exceptional faculty and staff, dedicated to the search for knowledge and understanding, who will support and encourage you in your journey.? 当然，在这样的智慧之旅上，你们不是独行者。我们有出色的师资和员工，他们致力于求知与理解，将会在旅途中支持和鼓励你们。

I hope you are proud of the accomplishments that have brought you to this important transition inyour lives.你们能取得成就，达到人生中这个重要的转折点，我希望你们能引以为豪。

I know that all of you have worked hard to get here, but let me also acknowledge the contributions of your parents, family members, teachers, mentors and friends who have supported you on your road to Stanford.Without them, the journey here would have been more difficult and less rewarding.艰辛，也不会如此卓有成效。

我知道，你们中的每个人都曾经奋发努力才能来到这里，但我也感谢父母、家人、师长和朋友的贡献，他们曾为你踏上斯坦福之路给予支持。如果没有他们，这条路将会更加

In recognition of the tremendous support and encouragement you have received from these important people in your lives, let me invite our new students to show their appreciation with a round of applause.这些人在你们的生活中举足轻重，为你们提供了巨大的支持和鼓励，我谨邀请我们的新生以热烈的掌声对他们表示感谢。

?Students, I urge you to pursue your journey at Stanford with vigor.同学们，我强烈希望你们能以无比的热情投入到斯坦福的旅程中来。I hope that this beautiful campus will provide an ideal space for contemplation and inspiration to aid you in that journey.And I hope that you will find an intellectual pursuit that excites you and engages you so much that it will keep you up at night and get you out of bed early, even on the weekend!醉其中，能在深夜苦读，能够黎明即起，甚至连周末都不例外！

我希望，这个美丽的校园会为你们提供一个理想空间，让你们沉思，找到灵感，以助你们更好的旅行。我也希望，你们能够找到一种智慧的追求，能够激励你们，让你们沉

I hope that you find a passion that matches your own talents, so that you may discover, as I did, something that you can pursue for the rest of your life with enthusiasm and joy.我希望你们能找到一种激情，无愧于自己的天分，如此你们就能像我一样，找到足以令你穷尽一生追求的目标，而且充满热情，乐此不疲。

?Students, while I cannot make any predictions about what paths each of you will take in your journey at Stanford, I urge you to begin this process of intellectual discovery, just as Sen.Leland Stanford urged at the opening day ceremonies for the first freshman class in 1891: 同学们，你们在斯坦福的旅程中将踏上什么 样的道路，我无从预言，但我强烈希望你们能够遵循李兰德坦福参议员在1891年的开学典礼上对第一届新生提出的要求来开始你们探索智慧的旅程：

?A university may be founded for you;in it, you may study for many years with all the advantages of learning.All that we can do for you is to place the opportunities within your reach;it rests with you to grasp and improve them.大学可以为你们而建立；在此，你们可以利用各种优越的学习条件进行多年的学习。我们所能做的，只是把机会放在你们伸手可及的范围内；抓住机会，利用机会，得靠你们自己。

I welcome all our new students and their parents, not just to the campus but to the Stanford family.Students, I hope your time here transforms your lives, just as it has transformed the lives of so many alumni.And, finally, I hope your time here will help to provide a foundation on which you will make your contributions to humanity and to a better future for yourselves and the generations that will follow.我欢迎所有的新生和家长来到我们的校园，并融入斯坦福家族。同学们，我希望你们在此渡过的时光能改变你们的生活，正如它改变了很多以前的校友的生活那样。最后，我希望你们在此度过的时光能够有助于你们打下良好的基础，以便你们能为人类做出贡献，为自己和后代创造更美好的未来。