第一篇:奥普拉(OPRAH)在斯坦福2008年毕业典礼上的演讲中文
奥普拉(oprah)在斯坦福2008年毕业典礼上的演讲
奥普拉·温弗瑞:
美国著名的脱口秀主持人。其主持和制作的节目《奥普拉脱口秀》(the oprah winfrey show,又译作《奥普拉·温芙瑞秀》、《奥普拉秀》、《欧普拉·温芙瑞秀》、《欧普拉秀》等),是美国历史上收视率最高的脱口秀节目。同时,它也是美国历史上播映时间最长的日间电视脱口秀节目。从1986年12月8日至今,这个节目已经走过了20多个年头,播放了多达3000多集。北京时间2009年11月20日,据国外媒体报道,在播出了23年之后,《奥普拉脱口秀》将于2011年9月9日结束。thank you, president hennessy, and to the trustees and the faculty, to all of the parents and grandparents, to you, the stanford graduates.thank you for letting me share this amazing day with you.hennessy校长,全体教员,家长,还有斯坦福的毕业生门,非常感谢你们。感谢你们让我和你们分享这美好的一天。我决定透漏一个小秘密给大家来作为这次演讲的开始。这个秘密就是kirby bumpus,斯坦福2008年的毕业生,是我的义女。所以当hennessy校长让我来做演讲时,我受宠若惊,因为自从kirby来这上学以来,这是我第一次被允许到斯坦福来。正如你们知道的那样kirby是一个非常聪明的女孩。她说,她希望大家通过她自己的努力了解她,而不是她认识谁。因此她从来不希望每一个第一次见到她的人知道她认识我。当她和她妈妈第一次来到斯坦福参加开学典礼时,我听说每个人都十分热情。他们说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king”。因为很多人都知道gayle king是我最好的朋友。
有些人走到kirby面前,对kirby说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king吗?”kirby说:“嗯,她是我妈妈。”然后人们说:“我的天啊,难道说,你认识oprah winfrey。”kirby说:“有点吧。”
i said, sort of? you sort of know me? well, i have photographic proof.i have pictures which i can e-mail to you all of kirby riding horsey with me on all fours.so, i more than sort-of know kirby bumpus.and im so happy to be here, just happy that i finally, after four years, get to see her room.theres really nowhere else id rather be, because im so proud of kirby, who graduates today with two degrees, one in human bio and the other in psychology.love you, kirby cakes!thats how well i know her.i can call her cakes.我说:“有一点。你有一点认识我”。我还有照片为证。我可以把kirby 和我骑马时的照片e-mail给你们。因此我不仅仅只是有点认识kirby bumpus。我非常高兴来到这里,因为四年来我第一次来到她的寝室。我为kirby感到自豪,因为她获得了人类生物学和心理学的双学位。这就是我多么的了解她。我可以叫她cakes。and so proud of her mother and father, who helped her get through this time, and her brother, will.i really had nothing to do with her graduating from stanford, but every time anybodys asked me in the past couple of weeks what i was doing, i would say, im getting ready to go to stanford.我为她的父母感到骄傲,她的父母给了她很大帮助,还有她的哥哥will。我对kirby大学四年真的没有什么帮助。但是在过去的几周里,每当人们问我在做什么时,我都会说:“我正准备去斯坦福” i just love saying stanford.because the truth is, i know i would have never gotten my degree at all, cause i didnt go to stanford.i went to tennessee state university.but i never would have gotten my diploma at all, because i was supposed to graduate back in 1975, but i was short one credit.and i figured, im just going to forget it, cause, you know, im not going to march with my class.because by that point, i was already on television.id been in television since i was 19 and a sophomore.granted, i was the only television anchor person that had an 11 oclock curfew doing the 10 oclock news.我就是喜欢这样说stanford(用一种奇怪的语调)。因为这是真的,我知道根本不会拿到我的学位,因为我没有去斯坦福念书。我去了tennessee 州立大学。但是我本来不会拿到我的毕业证,因为我本应该在1975年毕业,但是我少了一个学分。我认为我还是会忘了这件事。你们知道,我不会比得上我的同班同学。因为我已经上了电视。我在19岁还是大学二年级的时候就已经上了电视。我是唯一一个电视节目主持人,虽然有11点的宵禁,却做着10点钟的新闻。seriously, my dad was like, well, that news is over at 10:30.be home by 11.but that didnt matter to me, because i was earning a living.i was on my way.so, i thought, im going to let this college thing go and i only had one credit short.but, my father, from that time on and for years after, was always on my case, because i did not graduate.hed say, oprah gail—thats my middle name—i dont know what youre gonna do without that degree.and id say, but, dad, i have my own television show.严肃地说,我爸爸告诉我,“好吧,新闻10:30结束。11点之前到家。”但是这对我并不重要,因为我已经自食其力了。我在走我自己的路。所以我想,我不能让关于我大学的那件事就这么过去,我还少一个学分。但是我的父亲从那时起却成了问题。由于我没有毕业,他总是说:“oprah gail(我的中间名字),我不知道没有学位你能做些什么。”然后我说:“但是,爸爸,我已经有我自己的电视节目啦。” and hed say, well, i still dont know what youre going to do without that degree.and id say, but, dad, now im a talk show host.hed say, i dont know how youre going to get another job without that degree.他说:“好吧,但是我还是不知道没有那个学位你能干什么。”我说:“但是,爸爸,现在我已经是脱口秀的主持人了”。他还是说:“我不知道没有那个学位你怎么去找其他的工作。”
在1987年,tennessee州立大学邀请我回去做他们的毕业典礼演讲。在那时,我已经有了自己的电视节目,并加入了国家联合会。我制作了一部电影,并被奥斯卡提名,而且成立了我自己的公司harpo。可我告诉他们,我不能去演讲除非我得到那一个学分,因为我爸爸总是说没了那学位我将一事无成。so, i finished my coursework, i turned in my final paper and i got the degree.and my dad was very proud.and i know that, if anything happens, that one credit will be my salvation.因此,我完成了我的课程,上交了我的毕业论文,然后拿到了学位。我的爸爸非常的骄傲。从此我知道,无论什么事发生,那一个学分是我的救世主 but i also know why my dad was insisting on that diploma, because, as b.b.king put it, the beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take that away from you.and learning is really in the broadest sense what i want to talk about today, because your education, of course, isnt ending here.in many ways, its only just begun.但是我知道为什么我爸爸总是坚持让我获得文凭,因为,正如b.b.king所说:“关于学习的美好在于别人不会把知识从你身上拿走”学习正是我今天想说的,因为你们的教育并没有在这里结束。在很多情况下,这才是刚刚开使。roadblocks.and sometimes as full-blown crises.and the secret ive learned to getting ahead is being open to the lessons, lessons from the grandest university of all, that is, the universe itself.这个世界将会教会你们很多。我认为这个世界,这个地球,就像一个学校和我们人生的教室。有时这些课程会是弯路和障碍。有时会充满危机。我所学的应付这一切的秘密就是去勇于面对,正如我们面对大学课程一样。enrich your spirit.and, trust me, i know that inner wisdom is more precious than wealth.the more you spend it, the more you gain.这就是我们一直努力在做的,去做我们自己。我坚信你们会从每一件做过的事上学到经验,这样你们就会取得进步。这样你们丰富了心灵。相信我,内在的智慧比外在的财富更加珍贵。你越是使用它,你就得到更多。so, today, i just want to share a few lessons—meaning three—that ive learned in my journey so far.and arent you glad? dont you hate it when somebody says, im going to share a few, and its 10 lessons later? and, youre like, listen, this is my graduation.this is not about you.so, its only going to be three.今天我想和大家分享我人生的三个经验。你们难道不觉得高兴吗?你们是否会反感,当有人对你说:“我想分享一些”但事实上却是10个经验。你们肯定在想:“听着,这是我的毕业典礼,不是你的”。因此这里只有三个经验我想和大家分享。the three lessons that have had the greatest impact on my life have to do with feelings, with failure and with finding happiness.这三个经验对我的人生产生了很大影响,它们是关于感情,失败和追求幸福。
当我离开大学一年后,在baltimore我得到了一个共同主持6点新闻的机会。在那时媒体界的最大目标就是获得更大的市场,而baltimore是一个比nashville大得多的市场,因此在22岁时得到这个机会对我来说非常重要。它那时对我来说它仿佛是世界上最重要的事。and i was so proud, because i was finally going to have my chance to be like barbara walters, which is who i had been trying to emulate since the start of my tv career.so, i was 22 years old, making $22,000 a year.and its where i met my best friend, gayle, who was an intern at the same tv station.and once we became friends, wed say, ohmigod, i cant believe it!youre making $22,000 and youre only 22.imagine when youre 40 and youre making $40,000!我非常自豪,因为我终于有机会去效法barbara walters。而她正是我从业以来一直效法的对象。那时我22岁,每年挣22,000美元。我遇到了在电视台做实习生的gayle,我们立刻成了好朋友。我们说:“我的天啊,真难以置信。你在22岁时挣每年能挣22,000美元。想象一下吧,当你40岁时你每年就会挣40,000美元”篇二:奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008年毕业典礼上的演讲
奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008年毕业典礼上的演讲 feelings, failure and finding happiness 感觉、失败及寻找幸福
主题:
三个经验:
第一个经验,跟随你的心灵
第二个经验,从困难中学习
第三个经验,幸福:帮助别人 thank you, president hennessy, and to the trustees and the faculty, to all of the parents and grandparents, to you, the stanford graduates.thank you for letting me share this amazing day with you.hennessy校长,全体教员,家长,还有斯坦福的毕业生门,非常感谢你们。感谢你们让我 和你们分享这美好的一天。
我决定透漏一个小秘密给大家来作为这次演讲的开始。这个秘密就是kirby bumpus,斯坦 福2008 年的毕业生,是我的义女。所以当hennessy校长让我来做演讲时,我受宠若惊,因
为自从kirby来这上学以来,这是我第一次被允许到斯坦福来。正如你们知道的那样kirby是一个非常聪明的女孩。她说,她希望大家通过她自己的努力了 解她,而不是她认识谁。因此她从来不希望每一个第一次见到她的人知道她认识我。当她 和她妈妈第一次来到斯坦福参加开学典礼时,我听说每个人都十分热情。他们说:“我的天 啊,那是gayle king”。因为很多人都知道gayle king是我最好的朋友。有些人走到kirby面前,对kirby说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king吗?”kirby说:“嗯,她
是我妈妈。”然后人们说:“我的天啊,难道说,你认识oprah winfrey。”kirby说:“有点吧。”
i said, sort of? you sort of know me? well, i have photographic proof.i have pictures which i can e-mail to you all of kirby riding horsey with me on all fours.so, i more than sort-of know kirby bumpus.and im so happy to be here, just happy that i finally, after four years, get to see her room.theres really nowhere else id rather be, because im so proud of kirby, who graduates today with two degrees, one in human bio and the other in psychology.love you, kirby cakes!thats how well i know her.i can call her cakes.我说:“有一点。你有一点认识我”。我还有照片为证。我可以把kirby 和我骑马时的照片 e-mail给你们。因此我不仅仅只是有点认识kirby bumpus。我非常高兴来到这里,因为四年 来我第一次来到她的寝室。我为kirby感到自豪,因为她获得了人类生物学和心理学的双学 位。这就是我多么的了解她。我可以叫她cakes。and so proud of her mother and father, who helped her get through this time, and her brother, will.i really had nothing to do with her graduating from stanford, but every time anybodys asked me in the past couple of weeks what i was doing, i would say, im getting ready to go to stanford.我为她的父母感到骄傲,她的父母给了她很大帮助,还有她的哥哥will。我对kirby大学四 年真的没有什么帮助。但是在过去的几周里,每当人们问我在做什么时,我都会说:“我正 准备去斯坦福” i just love saying stanford.because the truth is, i know i would have never gotten my degree at all, cause i didnt go to stanford.i went to tennessee state university.but i never would have gotten my diploma at all, because i was supposed to graduate back in 1975, but i was short one credit.and i figured, im just going to forget it, cause, you know, im not going to march with my class.because by that point, i was already on television.id been in television since i was 19 and a sophomore.granted, i was the only television anchor person that had an 11 oclock curfew doing the 10 oclock news.我就是喜欢这样说stanford(用一种奇怪的语调)。因为这是真的,我知道根本不会拿到我 的学位,因为我没有去斯坦福念书。我去了tennessee 州立大学。但是我本来不会拿到我 的毕业证,因为我本应该在1975 年毕业,但是我少了一个学分。我认为我还是会忘了这件 事。你们知道,我不会比得上我的同班同学。因为我已经上了电视。我在19 岁还是大学二 年级的时候就已经上了电视。我是唯一一个电视节目主持人,虽然有11 点的宵禁,却做着 10 点钟的新闻。seriously, my dad was like, well, that news is over at 10:30.be home by 11.but that didnt matter to me, because i was earning a living.i was on my way.so, i thought, im going to let this college thing go and i only had one credit short.but, my father, from that time on and for years after, was always on my case, because i did not graduate.hed say, oprah gail—thats my middle name—i dont know what youre gonna do without that degree.and id say, but, dad, i have my own television show.严肃地说,我爸爸告诉我,“好吧,新闻10:30结束。11 点之前到家。”但是这对我并不重要,因为我已经自食其力了。我在走我自己的路。所以我想,我不能让关于我大学的那件 事就这么过去,我还少一个学分。但是我的父亲从那时起却成了问题。由于我没有毕业,他 总是说:“oprah gail(我的中间名字),我不知道没有学位你能做些什么。”然后我说:“但是,爸爸,我已经有我自己的电视节目啦。” and hed say, well, i still dont know what youre going to do without that degree.” and id say, but, dad, now im a talk show host.hed say, i dont know how youre going to get another job without that degree.他说:“好吧,但是我还是不知道没有那个学位你能干什么。”我说:“但是,爸爸,现在我已经是脱口秀的主持人了”。他还是说:“我不知道没有那个学位你怎么去找其他的工作。”
在1987 年,tennessee州立大学邀请我回去做他们的毕业典礼演讲。在那时,我已经有了自
己的电视节目,并加入了国家联合会。我制作了一部电影,并被奥斯卡提名,而且成立了 我自己的公司harpo。可我告诉他们,我不能去演讲除非我得到那一个学分,因为我爸爸总 是说没了那学位我将一事无成。so, i finished my coursework, i turned in my final paper and i got the degree.and my dad was very proud.and i know that, if anything happens, that one credit will be my salvation.but i also know why my dad was insisting on that diploma, because, as b.b.king put it, the beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take that away from you.and learning is really in the broadest sense what i want to talk about today, because your education, of course, isnt ending here.in many ways, its only just begun.但是我知道为什么我爸爸总是坚持让我获得文凭,因为,正如b.b.king所说:“关于学习的美好在于别人不会把知识从你身上拿走”学习正是我今天想说的,因为你们的教育并没有 在这里结束。在很多情况下,这才是刚刚开使。the world has so many lessons to teach you.i consider the world, this earth, to be like a school and our life the classrooms.and sometimes here in this planet earth school the lessons often 这个世界将会教会你们很多。我认为这个世界,这个地球,就像一个学校和我们人生的教室。有时这些课程会是弯路和障碍。有时会充满危机。我所学的应付这一切的秘密就是去勇于面 对,正如我们面对大学课程一样。我们能够充满激情的去生活和自我提高,这就是我们存在的意义。不断自我提高,去追求人 生的更高境界,去追求更高级别的怜悯和自我提高。
我记得我所受到的最大的赞扬就是当我刚刚在芝加1 ??哥开始工作时,我采访了一个记者。很多年以后我们又见面了。她对我说:“你知道吗?你一点也没有变。你变得更为自我了。” 这就是我们一直努力在做的,去做我们自己。我坚信你们会从每一件做过的事上学到经验,这样你们就会取得进步。这样你们丰富了心灵。相信我,内在的智慧比外在的财富更加珍贵。你越是使用它,你就得到更多。so, today, i just want to share a few lessons—meaning three—that ive learned in my journey so far.and arent you glad? dont you hate it when somebody says, im going to share a few, and its 10 lessons later? and, youre like, listen, this is my graduation.this is not about you.so, its only going to be three.今天我想和大家分享我人生的三个经验。你们难道不觉得高兴吗?你们是否会反感,当有人 对你说:“我想分享一些”但事实上却是10 个经验。你们肯定在想:“听着,这是我的毕业典礼,不是你的”。因此这里只有三个经验我想和大家分享。the three lessons that have had the greatest impact on my life have to do with feelings, with failure and with finding happiness.这三个经验对我的人生产生了很大影响,它们是关于感情,失败和追求幸福。a year after i left college, i was given the opportunity to co-anchor the 6 oclock news in 当我离开大学一年后,在baltimore我得到了一个共同主持6 点新闻的机会。在那时媒体界 的最大目标就是获得更大的市场,而baltimore 是一个比nashville大得多的市场,因此在 22 岁时得到这个机会对我来说非常重要。它那时对我来说它仿佛是世界上最重要的事。and i was so proud, because i was finally going to have my chance to be like barbara walters, which is who i had been trying to emulate since the start of my tv career.so, i was 22 years old, making $22,000 a year.and its where i met my best friend, gayle, who was an intern at the same tv station.and once we became friends, wed say, ohmigod, i cant believe it!youre making $22,000 and youre only 22.imagine when youre 40 and youre making $40,000!我非常自豪,因为我终于有机会去效法barbara walters。而她正是我从业以来一直效法的对 象。那时我22 岁,每年挣22,000 美元。我遇到了在电视台做实习生的gayle,我们立刻成 了好朋友。我们说:“我的天啊,真难以置信。你在22 岁时挣每年能挣22,000 美元。想象 一下吧,当你40 岁时你每年就会挣40,000美元” when i turned 40, i was so glad that didnt happen.当我真的40岁时,我很高兴这并没有成真。so, here i am, 22, making $22,000 a year and, yet, it didnt feel right.it didnt feel right.the first sign, as president hennessy was saying, was when they tried to change my name.the news 这就是我,22 岁时每年挣22,000美元,然而,这种感觉并不好。首先,正如hennessy校长
所说,当他们试图让我改名字。那时导演对我说:“没人会记住oprah这个名字。因此我们 想让你改名字。我们已经为你想了一个大家都会记住和喜欢的名字——suzie。” hi, suzie.very friendly.you cant be angry with suzie.remember suzie.but my name wasnt suzie.and, you know, id grown up not really loving my name, because when youre looking for your little name on the lunch boxes and the license plate tags, youre never going to find oprah.suzie,一个很友善的名字。你不会厌恶suzie。记住suzie吧。但是我的名字不是suzie。你篇三:oprah(奥普拉)在斯坦福2008年毕业典礼上的演讲 这个演讲延续了oprah诙谐幽默的主持风格,将了3个方面的问题:感情,失败和最求幸福(feelings, failure and finding happiness.)1.feeling: when youre doing the work youre meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what youre getting paid.you want your work to be meaningful.because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life.what you really want is to be surrounded by people you trust and treasure and by people who cherish you.thats when youre really rich.2.learn from the failure: id built that school from the outside in, when what really mattered was the inside out.what matters most is whats inside.what matters most is the sense of integrity, of quality and beauty.3.happiness: you have to live for the present.you have to be in the moment.whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now.dont live for yourself alone.this is what i know for sure: in order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have to stand for something larger than yourself.because life is a reciprocal exchange.to move forward you have to give back.and to me, that is the greatest lesson of life.to be happy, you have to give something back.the lesson here is clear, and that is, if youre hurting, you need to help somebody ease their hurt.if youre in pain, help somebody elses pain.and when youre in a mess, you get yourself out of the mess helping somebody out of theirs.not everybody can be famous.but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service篇四:奥普拉2008年在斯坦福大学毕业典礼的演讲
脱口秀女王奥普拉2008年在斯坦福大学毕业典礼的演讲
奥普拉·温弗瑞:
美国著名的脱口秀主持人。其主持和制作的节目《奥普拉脱口秀》(the oprah winfrey show,又译作《奥普拉·温芙瑞秀》、《奥普拉秀》、《欧普拉·温芙瑞秀》、《欧普拉秀》等),是美国历史上收视率最高的脱口秀节目。同时,它也是美国历史上播映时间最长的日间电视脱口秀节目。从1986年12月8日至今,这个节目已经走过了20多个年头,播放了多达3000多集。北京时间2009年11月20日,据国外媒体报道,在播出了23年之后,《奥普拉脱口秀》将于2011年9月9日结束。thank you, president hennessy, and to thetrustees and the faculty, to all of the parents and grandparents, to you, the stanford graduates.thank you for letting me share this amazing day with you.hennessy校长,全体教员,家长,还有斯坦福的毕业生门,非常感谢你们。感谢你们让我和你们分享这美好的一天。
我决定透漏一个小秘密给大家来作为这次演讲的开始。这个秘密就是kirby bumpus,斯坦福2008年的毕业生,是我的义女。所以当hennessy校长让我来做演讲时,我受宠若惊,因为自从kirby来这上学以来,这是我第一次被允许到斯坦福来。
正如你们知道的那样kirby是一个非常聪明的女孩。她说,她希望大家通过她自己的努力了解她,而不是她认识谁。因此她从来不希望每一个第一次见到她的人知道她认识我。当她和她妈妈第一次来到斯坦福参加开学典礼时,我听说每个人都十分热情。他们说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king”。因为很多人都知道gayle king是我最好的朋友。
有些人走到kirby面前,对kirby说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king吗?”kirby说:“嗯,她是我妈妈。”然后人们说:“我的天啊,难道说,你认识oprah winfrey。”kirby说:“有点吧。”
i said, sort of? you sort of know me? well, i have photographic proof.i have pictures which i can e-mail to you all of kirby riding horsey with me on all fours.so, i more than sort-of know kirby bumpus.and im so happy to be here, just happy that i finally, after four years, get to see her room.theres really nowhere else id rather be, because im so proud of kirby, who graduates today with two degrees, one in human bio and the other in psychology.love you, kirby cakes!thats how well i know her.i can call her cakes.我说:“有一点。你有一点认识我”。我还有照片为证。我可以把kirby 和我骑马时的照片e-mail给你们。因此我不仅仅只是有点认识kirby bumpus。我非常高兴来到这里,因为四年来我第一次来到她的寝室。我为kirby感到自豪,因为她获得了人类生物学和心理学的双学位。这就是我多么的了解她。我可以叫她cakes。and so proud of her mother and father, who helped her get through this time, and her brother, will.i really had nothing to do with her graduating from stanford, but every time anybodys asked me in the past couple of weeks what i was doing, i would say, im getting ready to go to stanford.我为她的父母感到骄傲,她的父母给了她很大帮助,还有她的哥哥will。我对kirby大学四年真的没有什么帮助。但是在过去的几周里,每当人们问我在做什么时,我都会说:“我正准备去斯坦福” i just love saying stanford.because the truth is, i know i would have never gotten my degree at all, cause i didnt go to stanford.i went to tennessee state university.but i never would have gotten my diploma at all, because i was supposed to graduate back in 1975, but i was short one credit.and i figured, im just going to forget it, cause, you know, im not going to march with my class.because by that point, i was already on television.id been in television since i was 19 and a sophomore.granted, i was the only television anchor person that had an 11 oclock curfew doing the 10 oclock news.我就是喜欢这样说stanford(用一种奇怪的语调)。因为这是真的,我知道根本不会拿到我的学位,因为我没有去斯坦福念书。我去了tennessee 州立大学。但是我本来不会拿到我的毕业证,因为我本应该在1975年毕业,但是我少了一个学分。我认为我还是会忘了这件事。你们知道,我不会比得上我的同班同学。因为我已经上了电视。我在19岁还是大学二年级的时候就已经上了电视。我是唯一一个电视节目主持人,虽然有11点的宵禁,却做着10点钟的新闻。篇五:奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008毕业典礼上的演讲 the stanfords had suffered the worst thing any mom and dad can ever endure, yet they understood that helping others is the way we help ourselves.and this wisdom is increasingly supported by scientific and sociological research.its no longer just woo-woo soft-skills talk.theres actually a helpers high, a spiritual surge you gain from serving others.so, if you want to feel good, you have to go out and do some good.but when you do good, i hope you strive for more than just the good feeling that service provides, because i know this for sure, that doing good actually makes you better.so, whatever field you choose, if you operate from the paradigm of service, i know your life will have more value and you will be happy.i was always happy doing my talk show, but that happiness reached a depth of fulfillment, of joy, that i really cant describe to you or measure when i stopped just being on tv and looking at tv as a job and decided to use television, to use it and not have it use me, to use it as a platform to serve my viewers.that alone changed the trajectory of my success.so, i know this—that whether youre an actor, you offer your talent in the way that most inspires art.if youre an anatomist, you look at your gift as knowledge and service to healing.whether youve been called, as so many of you here today getting doctorates and other degrees, to the professions of business, law, engineering, humanities, science, medicine, if you choose to offer your skills and talent in service, when you choose the paradigm of service, looking at life through that paradigm, it turns everything you do from a job into a gift.and i know you havent spent all this time at stanford just to go out and get a job.youve been enriched in countless ways.theres no better way to make your mark on the world and to share that abundance with others.my constant prayer for myself is to be used in service for the greater good.so, let me end with one of my favorite quotes from martin luther king.dr.king said, not everybody can be famous.and i dont know, but everybody today seems to want to be famous.but fame is a trip.people follow you to the bathroom, listen to you pee.its just—try to pee thats the fame trip, so i dont know if you want that.so, dr.king said, not everybody can be famous.but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.those of you who are history scholars may know the rest of that passage.he said, you dont have to have a college degree to serve.you dont have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.you dont have to know about plato or aristotle to serve.you dont have to know einsteins theory of relativity to serve.you dont have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.in a few moments, youll all be officially stanfords 08.you have the heart and the smarts to go with it.and its up to you to decide, really, where will you now use those gifts? youve got the diploma, so go out and get the lessons, cause i know great you know, ive always believed that everything is better when you share it, so before i go, i wanted to share a graduation gift with you.underneath your seats youll find two of my favorite books.eckhart tolles a new earth is my current book club selection.our new earth webcast has been downloaded 30 million times with that book.and daniel pinks a whole new mind: why right-brainers will rule the future has reassured me im in the right direction.i really wanted to give you cars but i just couldnt pull that off!congratulations, 08!thank you.thank you.hennessy校长,全体教员,家长,还有斯坦福的毕业生门,非常感谢你们。感谢你们让我
和你们分享这美好的一天。
我决定透漏一个小秘密给大家来作为这次演讲的开始。这个秘密就是kirby bumpus,斯坦福2008年的毕业生,是我的义女。所以当hennessy校长让我来做演讲时,我受宠若惊,因
为自从kirby来这上学以来,这是我第一次被允许到斯坦福来。正如你们知道的那样kirby是一个非常聪明的女孩。她说,她希望大家通过她自己的努力了解她,而不是她认识谁。因此她从来不希望每一个第一次见到她的人知道她认识我。当她和她妈妈第一次来到斯坦福参加开学典礼时,我听说每个人都十分热情。他们说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king”。因为很多人都知道gayle king是我最好的朋友。
有些人走到kirby面前,对kirby说:“我的天啊,那是gayle king吗?”kirby说:“嗯,她是我妈妈。”然后人们说:“我的天啊,难道说,你认识oprah winfrey。”kirby说:“有点吧。”
我说:“有一点。你有一点认识我”。我还有照片为证。我可以把kirby 和我骑马时的照片e-mail给你们。因此我不仅仅只是有点认识kirby bumpus。我非常高兴来到这里,因为四年来我第一次来到她的寝室。我为kirby感到自豪,因为她获得了人类生物学和心理学的双学
位。这就是我多么的了解她。我可以叫她cakes。
我为她的父母感到骄傲,她的父母给了她很大帮助,还有她的哥哥will。我对kirby大学四年真的没有什么帮助。但是在过去的几周里,每当人们问我在做什么时,我都会说:“我正
准备去斯坦福”
我就是喜欢这样说stanford(用一种奇怪的语调)。因为这是真的,我知道根本不会拿到我的学位,因为我没有去斯坦福念书。我去了tennessee 州立大学。但是我本来不会拿到我的毕业证,因为我本应该在1975年毕业,但是我少了一个学分。我认为我还是会忘了这件事。你们知道,我不会比得上我的同班同学。因为我已经上了电视。我在19岁还是大学二年级的时候就已经上了电视。我是唯一一个电视节目主持人,虽然有11点的宵禁,却做着10 点钟的新闻。
严肃地说,我爸爸告诉我,“好吧,新闻10:30结束。11点之前到家。”但是这对我并不重要,因为我已经自食其力了。我在走我自己的路。所以我想,我不能让关于我大学的那件事就这么过去,我还少一个学分。但是我的父亲从那时起却成了问题。由于我没有毕业,他总是说:“oprah gail(我的中间名字),我不知道没有学位你能做些什么。”然后我说:“但是,爸爸,我已经有我自己的电视节目啦。”
他说:“好吧,但是我还是不知道没有那个学位你能干什么。”我说:“但是,爸爸,现在我已经是脱口秀的主持人了”。他还是说:“我不知道没有那个学位你怎么去找其他的工作。”
在1987年,tennessee州立大学邀请我回去做他们的毕业典礼演讲。在那时,我已经有了自己的电视节目,并加入了国家联合会。我制作了一部电影,并被奥斯卡提名,而且成立了我自己的公司harpo。可我告诉他们,我不能去演讲除非我得到那一个学分,因为我爸爸总是
说没了那学位我将一事无成。因此,我完成了我的课程,上交了我的毕业论文,然后拿到了学位。我的爸爸非常的骄傲。
从此我知道,无论什么事发生,那一个学分是我的救世主
但是我知道为什么我爸爸总是坚持让我获得文凭,因为,正如b.b.king所说:“关于学习的美好在于别人不会把知识从你身上拿走”学习正是我今天想说的,因为你们的教育并没有在这里结束。在很多情况下,这才是刚刚开使。这个世界将会教会你们很多。我认为这个世界,这个地球,就像一个学校和我们人生的教室。有时这些课程会是弯路和障碍。有时会充满危机。我所学的应付这一切的秘密就是去勇于面对,正如我们面对大学课程一样。我们能够充满激情的去生活和自我提高,这就是我们存在的意义。不断自我提高,去追求人
生的更高境界,去追求更高级别的怜悯和自我提高。
我记得我所受到的最大的赞扬就是当我刚刚在芝加哥开始工作时,我采访了一个记者。很多年以后我们又见面了。她对我说:“你知道吗?你一点也没有变。你变得更为自我了。”
这就是我们一直努力在做的,去做我们自己。我坚信你们会从每一件做过的事上学到经验,这样你们就会取得进步。这样你们丰富了心灵。相信我,内在的智慧比外在的财富更加珍贵。
你越是使用它,你就得到更多。
今天我想和大家分享我人生的三个经验。你们难道不觉得高兴吗?你们是否会反感,当有人对你说:“我想分享一些”但事实上却是10个经验。你们肯定在想:“听着,这是我的毕业典
礼,不是你的”。因此这里只有三个经验我想和大家分享。这三个经验对我的人生产生了很大影响,它们是关于感情,失败和追求幸福。
当我离开大学一年后,在baltimore我得到了一个共同主持6点新闻的机会。在那时媒体界的最大目标就是获得更大的市场,而baltimore是一个比nashville大得多的市场,因此在22岁时得到这个机会对我来说非常重要。它那时对我来说它仿佛是世界上最重要的事。
我非常自豪,因为我终于有机会去效法barbara walters。而她正是我从业以来一直效法的对象。那时我22岁,每年挣22,000美元。我遇到了在电视台做实习生的gayle,我们立刻成了好朋友。我们说:“我的天啊,真难以置信。你在22岁时挣每年能挣22,000美元。想象
一下吧,当你40岁时你每年就会挣40,000美元”
当我真的40岁时,我很高兴这并没有成真。
这就是我,22岁时每年挣22,000美元,然而,这种感觉并不好。首先,正如hennessy校长所说,当他们试图让我改名字。那时导演对我说:“没人会记住oprah这个名字。因此我们
想让你改名字。我们已经为你想了一个大家都会记住和喜欢的名字——suzie。” suzie,一个很友善的名字。你不会厌恶suzie。记住suzie吧。但是我的名字不是suzie。你们可以看到,自小我就不怎么喜欢我的名字。因为当你在午餐箱和牌号寻找你的名字时,你 永远也不会找oprah。
我从小就不怎么喜欢我的名字,但是当我被告知去改名字时,我想,好吧,那时我的名字,但是suzie真的适合我吗?因此我想,它并不适合我。我不会改我的名字。我也不介意人们
是否记得住我的名字,这没什么大不了的。
然后他们还对我说他们不喜欢我的长相。那是在1976年,你的老板可以那么说。但是如果是现在的话,那就是一件很严重的事了。可是那时他们还是说:“我不喜欢你的造型。”我根本不像barbara walters。于是他们把我送到沙龙,给我烫了发。可是几天后我的头发一团糟。我不得不剃光我的头发。此时他们更不喜欢我的造型了。因为作为一个光头黑人坐在摄影机
前,我肯定不漂亮的。
比光头更令我讨厌的是我不得不把播报别人遭受的痛苦作为我的日常工作。我深知我期待去
观察,我的内心告诉我,我应该做些什么了。我需要为他人提供帮助。
正如hennessy校长所说的那样,我播报了一起火灾,然后应当去给受害者拿毯子。由于白
天播报的那些新闻导致我晚上难以入睡。
与此同时我尽量表现的优雅一些,使我更像barbara。我认为我可能会成为一个傻傻的barbara。如果我做回我自己,我就会成为一个很棒的oprah。我努力像barbara那样优雅。有时我并不读我的稿件,因为我的内心告诉我这是不自主的。所以我想为大家播报一些我想
要的新闻。
有时,我不会播报像6个人在连环车祸中受伤这类的新闻。哦,我的天啊。
有时出于内心的本能,我不会去播报一些新闻。我还会遇到一些不认识的和念错的词。一天当我播新闻时,我把加拿大读错了。我想这样下去学barbara可不大好。我应该做回我自己。
但那是我爸爸却对我说:“这是你一生的机会。你最好继续那份工作。”我的老板也说:“这
是晚间新闻。你是播报员,不是福利工作者。还是做你的本职工作吧。” 我歪曲了这些期待和义务,并感觉很糟。晚上回到家后我会记日记。自从15岁时我就开始记日记了,于是现在我已经有了好几卷日记。我晚上回到家后,我会记录下我是多么的不幸
和沮丧。然后我消除了焦虑。这就是我如何养成了那个习惯。8个月后我失去了那份工作。他们说我太情绪化了。但因为他们不想违背合约,他们就让我去baltimore主持一档脱口秀节目。从我开始主持那档节目的一刻开始,我感觉好像回到了家一样。我意识到电视不应该仅仅是一个娱乐场,更应该是一个以服务为目的的平台,以帮助他人更好的生活。当我开始主持节目的时间侯,就像呼吸一样。感觉好极啦。这就是我工
作的真正开始。
这就是我学到的经验。当你做的是一份你喜欢的工作时,那感觉棒极了。无论你能挣到多少
钱,你都会有很大收获。
这是真的。但是你怎么知道你所做的是对的呢?你怎么知道呢?我所知道的就是你的内心是你人生的导航系统。当你应该或者不应该改做某事时,你的内心会告诉你怎样去做。关键是去面对你自己,面对你自己的内心。我所做过的所有正确选择都是源自我内心的。我所做过
的所有错误选择都是因为没有听取来自我内心的声音。如果感觉不好,就不要去做。这就是我的经验。我的朋友,这个经验会帮你避免很多痛苦。甚至怀疑都意味着不要去做。这就是我所学到的。有很多次当你不知道如何去做时,什么也
不要做,直到你知道怎么做为止。当你什么也不要做时,让你的内心作为驱动力。不仅仅你的个人生活会提高,你在工作中也会获得竞争力。正如daniel pink在他的畅销书a whole new mind中所说的那样,我们进入了一个新时代,一个他称之为概念时代的时代。人们的内心使人与人之间产生隔阂。他说,重要的不仅仅是逻辑上的,线性的,直尺式的思维方式。移情,快乐,目标和内部特质同样
也有卓越的价值。
当我们做自己喜欢的事时,当我们全身心的投入到工作中时,这些特质就会焕发生机。因此我对你说,忘掉那些快车道吧。如果你真的像飞翔,就把你的力量投入到你的激情当中。
尊重你内心的召唤。每一个人都会有的。相信你的心灵,你会成功的。
那么我是如何定义成功的呢?让我告诉你,钱很美好。我不会告诉你们成功与钱无关,因为
钱是好东东。我喜欢钱。它能买东西。
第二篇:Oprah(奥普拉)哈佛大学2013毕业典礼演讲实录(中英文)
Oprah(奥普拉)哈佛大学2013毕业典礼演讲实录(中英文)
美国脱口秀天后,国际知名慈善家奥普拉·温弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey),5月30日应邀至哈佛大学获颁荣誉法学博士学位,并在毕业典礼发表演说。她敦促毕业生乐于接受挫折,视之为成长的契机,并在生活与事业中追求为他人服务的机会。她告诉毕业生:“人生没有失败这档事,所谓失败只是让人生转个弯。有时难免会陷入挣扎卡在困境中,不过你想创造的人生故事会带着你走出去。” Oprah(奥普拉)哈佛大学2013毕业典礼演讲实录
Oh my goodness!I‟m at Harvard!Wow!To President Faust, my fellow honorans, Carl [Muller] that was so beautiful, thank you so much, and James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson, Harvard faculty, with a special bow to my friend Dr.Henry Lewis Gates.All of you alumni, with a special bow to the Class of ‟88, your hundred fifteen million dollars.And to you, members of the Harvard class of 2013!Hello!我的天啊!我在哈...佛!真的!尊敬的Faust校长、和我一起获得荣誉学位的各位,Carl(注:Carl Muller哈佛校友会主席),真是太棒了,谢谢你们!还有James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson和哈佛的教职工们,特别感谢我的朋友Henry Lewis Gates博士(注:美国知名黑人教授)!感谢所有的哈佛校友,特别要感谢88届的毕业生,你们为哈佛捐出一亿一千五百万美元(注:哈佛历史上最多的一次同一班次校友捐款)。所有2013届的各位毕业生们!大家好!
I thank you for allowing me to be a part of the conclusion of this chapter of your lives and the commencement of your next chapter.To say that I‟m honored doesn‟t even begin to quantify the depth of gratitude that really accompanies an honorary doctorate from Harvard.Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge.And I can tell you that I consider today as I sat on the stage this morning getting teary for you all and then teary for myself, I consider today a defining milestone in a very long and a blessed journey.My one hope today is that I can be a source of some inspiration.I‟m going to address my remarks to anybody who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwed by life, this is a speech for the Quad.感谢你们让我成为你们人生这一篇章的结束与下一篇章开始的纽带。对我而言,荣幸根本无法表达我内心深处对哈佛授予我荣誉学位的感激之情。不是每个来自密西西比州的农村小姑娘都能来到剑桥城的(注:哈佛位于波士顿郊剑桥城)。我可以告诉你们,当我今天早上坐在这个台上,为你们和我自己流下眼泪的时候,我觉得今天是我漫长并被祝福的人生旅途中的一个里程碑。我希望今天我能为你们带来一些启发。我的演讲是为那些曾在人生中感到自卑或觉得自己没有优势,甚至觉得生活一团糟的人,这就是我给哈佛带来的演讲。
Actually I was so honored I wanted to do something really special for you.I wanted to be able to have you look under your seats and there would be free master and doctor degrees but I see you got that covered already.I will be honest with you.I felt a lot of pressure over the past few weeks to come up with something that I could share with you that you hadn‟t heard before because after all you all went to Harvard, I did not.But then I realized that you don‟t have to necessarily go to Harvard to have a driven obsessive Type A personality.But it helps.And while I may not have graduated from here I admit that my personality is about as Harvard as they come.You know my television career began unexpectedly.As you heard this morning I was in the Miss Fire Prevention contest.That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville, Tennessee, and you had the requirement of having to have red hair in order to win up until the year that I entered.So they were doing the question and answer period because I knew I wasn‟t going to win under the swimsuit competition.So during the question and answer period the question came “Why, young lady, what would you like to be when you grow up?” And by the time they got to me all the good answers were gone.So I had seen Barbara Walters on the “Today Show” that morning so I answered, “I would like to be a journalist.I would like to tell other people‟s stories in a way that makes a difference in their lives and the world.” And as those words were coming out of my mouth I went whoa!This is pretty good!I would like to be a journalist.I want to make a difference.Well I was on television by the time I was 19 years old.And in 1986 I launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed at first.I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising the bar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew.Sound familiar to anybody here? Eventually we did make it to the top and we stayed there for 25 years.其实我真的很荣幸,因此我想为你们做些特别的事。我想要跟你们说,请看你们座位下面有免费硕士或博士学位证书,但是我发现你们已经有了。说实话,在过去的几个星期我感到很大的压力,因为我想要跟你们分享一些你们从没听到过的东西,毕竟你们都上了哈佛,而我没有。但后来我意识到其实并不是一定要上哈佛才能有一个驱动性强迫型的A型人格,当然上了哈佛还是有帮助的。虽然我没有从哈佛毕业,但我认为我的性格和哈佛的毕业生是一样。大家都知道,我的电视事业生涯开始的出乎意料。正如你们早上听到的,我当时在参加“防火小姐”比赛。那年我16岁(注:奥普拉出生于1954年,今年59岁),在田纳西州的纳什维尔。在我参加比赛那年之前,想赢的话你必须得是红头发女孩。在进行问答环节时,因为我知道我在泳装比赛中不会赢,所以当问答环节问道:“年轻的女士,你长大后想做什么?为什么?”等轮到我回答的时候,好答案都被之前的参赛者说完了。因为那天早上我正好在“今日秀”中看到了芭芭拉·怀特女士,所以我说:“我想成为一名新闻工作者,我想成为为人民带来一些在某种程度上能改变人民生活和改变世界的故事。”当我说出这些话时,我觉得:“哇!还挺不错的!我想做个记者,我要做出一番事业。”后来,19岁时我上了电视。在1986年,我推出了我自己的电视节目,一开始就下定决心要成功。我以前对比赛很紧张,后来我和自己竞争,每年设立一个更高的目标,一步一步地推到极限。对大家来说听着挺熟悉吧?最终,我们成功达到巅峰,并在那里待了25年。The “Oprah Winfrey Show” was number one in our time slot for 21 years and I have to tell you I became pretty comfortable with that level of success.But a few years ago I decided, as you will at some point, that it was time to recalculate, find new territory, break new ground.So I ended the show and launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.The initials just worked out for me.So one year later after launching OWN, nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my new venture was a flop.Not just a flop, but a big bold flop they call it.I can still remember the day I opened up USA Todayand read the headline “Oprah, not quite standing on her OWN.” I mean really, USA Today? Now that‟s the nice newspaper!It really was this time last year the worst period in my professional life.I was stressed and I was frustrated and quite frankly I was actually I was embarrassed.It was right around that time that President Faust called and asked me to speak here and I thought you want me to speak to Harvard graduates? What could I possibly say to Harvard graduates, some of the most successful graduates in the world in the very moment when I had stopped succeeding? So I got off the phone with President Faust and I went to the shower.It was either that or a bag of Oreos.So I chose the shower.And I was in the shower a long time and as I was in the shower the words of an old hymn came to me.You may not know it.It‟s “By and by, when the morning comes.” And I started thinking about when the morning might come because at the time I thought I was stuck in a hole.And the words came to me “Trouble don‟t last always” from that hymn, “this too shall pass.” And I thought as I got out of the shower I am going to turn this thing around and I will be better for it.And when I do, I‟m going to go to Harvard and I‟m going to speak the truth of it!So I‟m here today to tell you I have turned that network around!
“奥普拉秀”在同一时间段的电视节目中连续21年排名第一,我必须说我对于这个成功非常的满足。但是几年前,我觉得,在人生的某一时刻,你必须重新来过,找到新的领域,实现新的突破。所以我离开了“奥普拉秀”,以我的名字命名推出了我自己的电视网络“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”,缩写正好是“OWN(自己的)”。在奥普拉·温福瑞电视网推出一年后,几乎所有的媒体都认为我的新项目是失败的。不仅仅是失败,他们称之为一个大写的失败。我还记得有一天我打开《今日美国报》时看到头条新闻说“ 奥普拉搞不定„自己的‟电视网”。不是吧,今日美国报啊?真是份好报纸....这正是去年我职业生涯最低谷的时刻。我压力超大近乎崩溃,老实说,我感到羞愧。就在那个时候,Faust校长打电话邀请我到哈佛做毕业演讲。我心想:“你让我给哈佛的毕业生演讲?我能跟这些世界上最成功的毕业生说什么?而我已经不再成功。”我挂了Faust校长的电话后去洗了个澡。要么去吃奥利奥要么去洗澡,我选择了洗澡。那个澡我洗了很长时间,在洗澡的时候我突然想到某首古老赞美诗中的一句话,你可能没听过“终于,清晨来临...”,之后我就想,我的黎明也许要来了。因为那时我觉得我被困在一个洞里了。我又想到那首古老赞美诗中的一句话:“困难只是暂时的,都会过去...”当我走出浴室时,我想:我遇到的麻烦同样会有结束的一天,我会将这一页翻过去,我会好起来的,等我做到了,我就去哈佛,把这个真实的故事告诉大家!今天我来了 并且想告诉你们我已经把“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”带上正轨了。
And it was all because I wanted to do it by the time I got to speak to you all so thank you so much.You don‟t know what motivation you were for me, thank you.I‟m even prouder to share a fundamental truth that you might not have learned even as graduates of Harvard unless you studied the ancient Greek hero with Professor Nagy.Professor Nagy as we were coming in this morning said, “Please Ms.Winfrey, walk decisively.”
这一切都是因为我想在来哈佛之前把事情做好,所以非常感谢你们!你们不知道你们给了我多大的动力,谢谢!我甚至能更骄傲地来和各位分享一个基本的真理。作为哈佛的毕业生你也未必知道,除非你上过Nagy教授的课程知道古希腊英雄人物。在今天早上来的路上,Nagy教授说:“温福瑞女士,请坚决地向前走。” I shall walk decisively.我应该坚决地向前走。
This is what I want to share.It doesn‟t matter how far you might rise.At some point you are bound to stumble because if you‟re constantly doing what we do, raising the bar.If you‟re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher the law of averages not to mention the Myth of Icarus predicts that you will at some point fall.And when you do I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure.Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.Now when you‟re down there in the hole, it looks like failure.So this past year I had to spoon feed those words to myself.And when you‟re down in the hole, when that moment comes, it‟s really okay to feel bad for a little while.Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost but then here‟s the key, learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.And then figure out what is the next right move.And the key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S.that can tell you which way to go.Because now and forever more when you Google yourself your search results will read “Harvard, 2013″.And in a very competitive world that really is a calling card because I can tell you as one who employs a lot of people when I see “Harvard” I sit up a little straighter and say, “Where is he or she? Bring them in.” It‟s an impressive calling card that can lead to even more impressive bullets in the years ahead: lawyer, senator, C.E.O., scientist, physicist, winners of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes or late night talk show host.But the challenge of life I have found is to build a résumé that doesn‟t simply tell a story about what you want to be but it‟s a story about who you want to be.It‟s a résumé that doesn‟t just tell a story about what you want to accomplish but why.A story that‟s not just a collection of titles and positions but a story that‟s really about your purpose.Because when you inevitably stumble and find yourself stuck in a hole that is the story that will get you out.What is your true calling? What is your dharma? What is your purpose? For me that discovery came in 1994 when I interviewed a little girl who had decided to collect pocket change in order to help other people in need.She raised a thousand dollars all by herself and I thought, well if that little 9-year-old girl with a bucket and big heart could do that, I wonder what I could do? So I asked for our viewers to take up their own change collection and in one month, just from pennies and nickels and dimes, we raised more than three million dollars that we used to send one student from every state in the United States to college.That was the beginning of the Angel Network.这就是我想分享的。无论你已经达到怎样的成就,在某个节点,你会发现你会跌倒,因为如果你一直不断的在做我们每个人做的事:不断设定更高的目标。如果你一直不断把你自己推向更高的目标,你将在某一点上落下,更不必说伊卡洛斯能预测你会跌倒的神话。当你真的跌倒时我想让你知道,并请记住:“世间并不存在失败,那不过是生活想让我们换个方向走走罢了,现在当你在人生谷底,那看起来像是失败。”在过去的一年里,这些话支撑着我自己。当你到了人生谷底,到那时候,你可以难过一段时间,给自己时间去哀悼你认为你可能失去的一切,但关键在于:从每个失败和遭遇中学习特别是你的每个错误,都会教并迫使你成为真正的自己,然后想想接下来怎么做。生活的重点在于建立内在道德、情感的定位系统,它能为你指路,因为现在或将来当你在谷歌上搜索你自己,结果会是“哈佛2013毕业生”。在这个竞争激烈的世界,那的确是块敲门砖。我作为一个雇佣过很多人的人,可以说当我听到哈佛的毕业生,我都会坐直一点,然后说“他/她在哪,带来见我”。这是一个令人印象深刻的敲门砖,在未来的日子里那的确是颗有力的子弹:成为律师、议员、老板、科学家、物理学家,诺贝尔奖普利策奖获得者或者晚间脱口秀主持人。然而来自生活的挑战并不是做个履历简单地告诉大家你想做什么,而是你想成为什么样的人。这份履历不只是告诉大家你完成了什么,而是你为什么做这些?这份履历不仅仅是一个头衔和职位的罗列,而是告诉大家你究竟想做什么?因为当你不可避免地跌倒或陷入困境时,它可以帮你走出困境,人生真正的意义是什么?你的人生哲学是什么?你的目标是什么?对我来说,我是在1994年采访了一位决定攒零花钱来帮助他人的小女孩,她筹集了一千美金。我想:“嗯,如果一个9岁的小姑娘,用一个筐和热忱的心就能做到,我能做到什么?”所以我请我们的观众拿出自己的零钱,在一个月内我从一分一毫筹集超过300万美金,我们用这笔钱从每个州选出一个学生上大学。这就是“天使网络”的开始。
And so what I did was I simply asked our viewers, “Do what you can wherever you are, from wherever you sit in life.Give me your time or your talent your money if you have it.” And they did.Extend yourself in kindness to other human beings wherever you can.And together we built 55 schools in 12 different countries and restored nearly 300 homes that were devastated by hurricanes Rita and Katrina.So the Angel Network — I have been on the air for a long time — but it was the Angel Network that actually focused my internal G.P.S.It helped me to decide that I wasn‟t going to just be on TV every day but that the goal of my shows, my interviews, my business, my philanthropy all of it, whatever ventures I might pursue would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me.Because what had become clear to me, and I want you to know, it isn‟t always clear in the beginning because as I said I had been on television since I was 19 years old.But around ‟94 I got really clear.So don‟t expect the clarity to come all at once, to know your purpose right away, but what became clear to me was that I was here on Earth to use television and not be used by it;to use television to illuminate the transcendent power of our better angels.So this Angel Network, it didn‟t just change the lives of those who were helped, but the lives of those who also did the helping.It reminded us that no matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and more importantly it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort.I saw something on the “Bill Moore Show” recently that so reminded me of this point.It was an interview with David and Francine Wheeler.They lost their 7-year-old son, Ben, in the Sandy Hook tragedy.And even though gun safety legislation to strengthen background checks had just been voted down in Congress at the time that they were doing this interview they talked about how they refused to be discouraged.Francine said this, she said, “Our hearts are broken but our spirits are not.I‟m going to tell them what it‟s like to find a conversation about change that is love, and I‟m going to do that without fighting them.” And then her husband David added this, “You simply cannot demonize or vilify someone who doesn‟t agree with you, because the minute you do that, your discussion is over.And we cannot do that any longer.The problem is too enormous.There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light.” In our political system and in the media we often see the reflection of a country that is polarized, that is paralyzed and is self-interested.And yet, I know you know the truth.We all know that we are better than the cynicism and the pessimism that is regurgitated throughout Washington and the 24-hour cable news cycle.Not my channel, by the way.We understand that the vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks because they realize that we can uphold the Second Amendment and also reduce the violence that is robbing us of our children.They don‟t have to be incompatible.其实我做的只是简单的请求我们的观众:“无论你在哪里处于人生的哪个阶段,如果可以,请拿出你的时间、天赋以及金钱,做你力所能及的事。”他们这样做了。无论你在哪里,将你的仁慈带给他人。众人拾柴火焰高,我们一起在12个国家建了55所学校,重建了近300个被丽塔和卡特里娜飓风摧毁的家园。所以“天使网络”聚集了我内在的定位系统。它能帮助我知道,我不是仅仅每天在电视上出现,还有我的采访目标,我的生意,我的慈善事业,所有的一切。无论我追求怎样的事业,我更清楚把我们凝聚在一起的力量比分离我们的力量更令人满足和不可抗拒。但我想让你们知道,任何事情的一开始对于我们未必明朗,正如我所说我19岁就开始上电视,然而到了94年我才渐渐清楚,所以不要期待一下子就想清楚、并马上明白自己的使命。对我来说,我最终清楚,我要利用电视而不是被电视利用,利用电视来照亮我们内在天使的一面。这个“天使网络”,它不只是改变那些我们帮助过的人们的生活,同时也改变那些提供帮助的人们的生活。它提醒我们,无论是谁,看上去如何,或者我们相信什么,更重要的是它成为了我们为共同目标走到一起的驱动力。我最近在“比利摩尔秀”上看到一些东西再次提醒了我。那是一个采访戴维和弗朗辛·惠勒的节目,他们在Sandy Hook惨案中痛失他们7岁幼子Ben。尽管在此次访谈时国会已经否决了加强背景调查的枪支安全立法,他们谈到他们拒绝被国会的否决所打击。弗朗辛说:“我们的心都碎了,但我们的精神没有垮,我想告诉他们关于变故的对话是怎样的感觉,那感觉就是爱。我将会接受他而不是抵触。”然后她的丈夫戴维继续说:“你不能诋毁或妖魔化那些持有异见的人,因为如果你这样做的那一刻,就不再有下文,我不能再那样做了,问题已经很严重了,总会有方法将光明驱逐黑暗。”在我们的政治体系和媒体环境下,我们经常看到对这个国家的反思,这个两级分化,近乎瘫痪、自我利益的国家。然而,我知道你们明白真相。我们都知道我们比电视上新闻媒体24小时滚动从华盛顿传来的那些愤世嫉俗和悲观主义更好。顺便说一句,那不是我的电视频道。我们理解,在这个国家绝大多数人相信并支持背景调查,因为他们明白我们可以支持宪法第二次修正案,同时减少残杀我们孩子的暴力。而这两者并不必水火不相容。
And we understand that most Americans believe in a clear path to citizenship for the 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants who reside in this country because it‟s possible to both enforce our laws and at the same time embrace the words on the Statue of Liberty that have welcomed generations of huddled masses to our shores.We can do both.我们知道大多数美国人相信让1200万没有合法身份的移民居住在这个国家成为公民会有一条清晰的路径。因为在捍卫法律的同时,我们还要拥抱自由女神像上的辞藻,而这些话语欢迎了一代代人到达美国的海岸。我们都能做得到。And we understand.I know you do because you went to Harvard.There are people from both parties, and no party, [who] believe that indigent mothers and families should have access to healthy food and a roof over their heads and a strong public education because here in the richest nation on Earth, we can afford a basic level of security and opportunity.So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Really, what are you going to do about it? Maybe you agree with these beliefs.Maybe you don‟t.Maybe you care about these issues and maybe there are other challenges that you, Class of 2013, are passionate about.Maybe you want to make a difference by serving in government.Maybe you want to launch your own television show.Or maybe you simply want to collect some change.Your parents would appreciate that about now.The point is your generation is charged with this task of breaking through what the body politic has thus far made impervious to change.Each of you has been blessed with this enormous opportunity of attending this prestigious school.You now have a chance to better your life, the lives of your neighbors and also the life of our country.When you do that let me tell you what I know for sure.That‟s when your story gets really good.Maya Angelou always says, “When you learn, teach.When you get, give.That my friends is what gives your story purpose and meaning.” So you all have the power in your own way to develop your own Angel Network and in doing so, your class will be armed with more tools of influence and empowerment than any other generation in history.I did it in an analog world.I was blessed with a platform that at its height reached nearly 20,000,000 viewers a day.Now here in a world of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Tumbler, you can reach billions in just seconds.You‟re the generation that rejected predictions about your detachment and your disengagement by showing up to vote in record numbers in 2008.And when the pundits said, they said they talked about you, they said you‟d be too disappointed, you‟d be too dejected to repeat that same kind of turnout in 2012 election and you proved them wrong by showing up in even greater numbers.That‟s who you are.正如我们了解的那样,你们能理解,因为你们上了哈佛。来自两党派和无党派的人同样坚信:贫困的母亲和家庭都理应获得使其健康的食物、住所以及强有力的教育支持。因为我们现在正生活在全世界最为富有的国家中,我们有能力去提供安全与机遇最基础的社会保障。于是问题便随之而来:我们将对此有何打算呢?说真的,我们将要对此做些什么呢?也许你是赞同这些理念的,也有可能你会持反对意见。或许你作为2013届哈佛的毕业生,对这些问题很上心,抑或是你把关注点放在了其他极具挑战性的事情上。你可能想要通过行政工作改变我们的社会,你可能想要做自己的电视节目,你也可能仅仅是想收集一些零钱,你的父母会赞扬你现在的所作所为。关键是你们这一代人肩负着突破国家积年累月无法突破的重重围嶂的使命。你们每一位上了哈佛这所名校的人都拥有千万机会、无尽不可。现在你有机会来改善你的生活,改变你周围人的生活,以及整个国家的命运。当你这样做的时候,我可以坚定地告诉你:这个时候,有关你的故事已然尽善尽美。Maya Angelou常常说:“有所学时你要去施教,有所得时你便去给予。我亲爱的朋友,那将赋予你的故事以目的与意义。”你们都有能力用自己的方式去打造属于你们自己的“天使网络”,与此同时你会拥有史无前例的影响力与权力的工具。我用虚拟网络的方式做到这一点,我的网络电视在鼎盛时期的日浏览量能够达到2000万,在这个Twitter、Facebook、YouTube与Tumbler盛行的时代,你在片刻之间便可获得几十亿的浏览量。就是你们这一代,在其他人都以为你们会对政治漠不关心的时候,你们用你们的一腔热情,彻底颠覆了世人的想象,你们在2008年的时候,参与总统大选投票的人数创造新高。当那些“博学多识”的人们猜测道,你们必然已经失望透顶,你们在2012年总统大选中由于太沮丧而不可能重复2008年的辉煌时,你们用甚至比2008年更高的参与记录,再一次让世人刮目相看。这就是你们这一代.This generation, your generation I know, has developed a finely honed radar for B.S.Can you say “B.S.” at Harvard? The spin and phoniness and artificial nastiness that saturates so much of our national debate.I know you all understand better than most that real progress requires authentic — an authentic way of being, honesty, and above all empathy.I have to say that the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years talking every single day to people, was that there is a common denominator in our human experience.Most of us, I tell you we don‟t want to be divided.What we want, the common denominator that I found in every single interview, is we want to be validated.We want to be understood.I have done over 35,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off everyone always turns to me and inevitably in their own way asks this question “Was that okay?” I heard it from President Bush, I heard it from President Obama.I‟ve heard it from heroes and from housewives.I‟ve heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes.I even heard it from Beyonce and all of her Beyonceness.She finishes performing, hands me the microphone and says, “Was that okay?” Friends and family, yours, enemies, strangers in every argument in every encounter, every exchange I will tell you, they all want to know one thing: was that okay? Did you hear me? Do you see me? Did what I say mean anything to you? And even though this is a college where Facebook was born my hope is that you would try to go out and have more face-to-face conversations with people you may disagree with.我所了解的你们这一代对一些胡言乱语有极为敏锐的追求,你能在哈佛“胡说”吗?关于我们的国家,虚伪幻象铺张在你眼前,纷扰流言充斥在你耳畔。我深知你们比众人更加了解,一个国家真正的进步是要求建立在真实而坦然的基础之上的,还有更为重要的——一种感同身受的心理。我想我不得不坦言,在我25年的访谈历程中,我所学到的最重要的,我们的人生有一个共同的公分母。我可以告诉你的是,我们中的大多数人,并不愿意被分割。我在每次访谈中发现我们的“公分母”,发现我们想要的,是我们想要被证实、被认可。我们渴望被理解。我的职业生涯中容纳了大约35000个访谈,每每在摄像机的镜头关闭后,几乎所有人都不可避免地转向我,用他们各自的方式,询问着同一个问题“像这样可以吗?”布什总统这样问,奥巴马总统这样问,我在英雄的口中听到过这个疑问,同样也在家庭主妇的口中听说过这句话。我听受害者这样问,也听过那些有罪行的人们这样问,我甚至听过碧昂斯和她的粉丝们这样问。碧昂斯结束表演之后,把麦克风递到我手中,问道:“像我这样可以吗?”朋友或家人、支持者或敌人、每次争论或邂逅的陌生人,有关每一次交流,我都可以笃定地告诉你们,他们都想知道一件事儿——“像这样可以吗?你听得见我吗?你看的见我吗?我之所言是否对你有些许意义?”尽管这里是Facebook诞生的大学,我还是希望你们能够脱离虚拟,尽可能多的和那些与你意见相左的人进行一些面对面的交流。That you‟ll have the courage to look them in the eye and hear their point of view and help make sure that the speed and distance and anonymity of our world doesn‟t cause us to lose our ability to stand in somebody else‟s shoes and recognize all that we share as a people.This is imperative, for you as an individual, and for our success as a nation.“There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light,” says the man whose little boy was massacred on just an ordinary Friday in December.So whether you call it soul or spirit or higher self, intelligence, there is I know this, there is a light inside each of you, all of us, that illuminates your very human beingness if you let it.And as a young girl from rural Mississippi I learned long ago that being myself was much easier than pretending to be Barbara Walters.Although when I first started because I had Barbara in my head I would try to sit like Barbara, talk like Barbara, move like Barbara and then one night I was on the news reading the news and I called Canada “Can-a-da,” and that was the end of me being Barbara.I cracked myself up on TV.Couldn‟t start laughing and my real personality came through and I figured out, oh gee, I can be a much better Oprah than I could be a pretend Barbara.你们要有勇气去直视他们的双眼,去聆听他们的观点,并且确保这世界的高速、距离、匿名不会让我们失去站在他人的立场上去认可那些我们作为人类共同享受东西的能力。这是你作为一个个体或是为了整个国家的成功必须要做到的。“一定存在某种方法可以使光明驱逐黑暗。”一位孩子在12月一个普通的星期五被杀害的父亲如是说道。所以无论你愿意称她为灵魂、精神、抑或是更高尚的自我,天资什么的,我知道,我们内心深处的星星之火总能够点燃我们——只要你愿意让自己被点亮。作为一个来自密西西比州农村的年轻姑娘,我早就知道,成为自己比假装成芭芭拉更容易。纵使我对自己的坚守是因为我想要成为芭芭拉而起,我希望的的坐姿像芭芭拉、谈吐像芭芭拉,举止像芭芭拉。直到有一天晚上,我在电视上读新闻的时候,我把“Canada”读成“Can-a-da”,这就成了我试图变成芭芭拉的终止。我在电视上把自己层层剖析,我笑个不停。随后真正的自我脱颖而出,我突然就想通了“哦,哎呀,与其成为芭芭拉我能够成为一个更出色的奥普拉。”
I know that you all might have a little anxiety now and hesitation about leaving the comfort of college and putting those Harvard credentials to the test.But no matter what challenges or setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way, you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal, there really is only one, and that is this: to fulfill the highest most truthful expression of yourself as a human being.You want to max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family and the people around you.Theologian Howard Thurman said it best.He said, “Don‟t ask yourself what the world needs.Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” The world needs … People like Michael Stolzenberg from Fort Lauderdale.When Michael was just 8 years old Michael nearly died from a bacterial infection that cost him both of his hands and both of his feet.And in an instant, this vibrant little boy became a quadruple amputee and his life was changed forever.But in losing who he once was Michael discovered who he wanted to be.He refused to sit in that wheelchair all day and feel sorry for himself so with prosthetics he learned to walk and run and play again.He joined his middle school lacrosse team and last month when he learned that so many victims of the Boston Marathon bombing would become new amputees, Michael decided to banish that darkness with light.Michael and his brother, Harris, created Mikeysrun.com to raise $1 million for other amputees — by the time Harris runs the 2014 Boston Marathon.More than 1,000 miles away from here these two young brothers are bringing people together to support this Boston community the way their community came together to support Michael.And when this 13-year-old man was asked about his fellow amputees he said this, “First they will be sad.They‟re losing something they will never get back and that‟s scary.I was scared.But they‟ll be okay.They just don‟t know that yet.” We might not always know it.We might not always see it, or hear it on the news or even feel it in our daily lives, but I have faith that no matter what, Class of 2013, you will be okay and you will make sure our country is okay.I have faith because of that 9-year-old girl who went out and collected the change.I have faith because of David and Francine Wheeler, I have faith because of Michael and Harris Stolzenberg, and I have faith because of you, the network of angels sitting here today.One of them Khadijah Williams, who came to Harvard four years ago.Khadijah had attended 12 schools in 12 years, living out of garbage bags amongst pimps and prostitutes and drug dealers;homeless, going in to department stores, Wal-Mart in the morning to bathe herself so that she wouldn‟t smell in front of her classmates, and today she graduates as a member of the Harvard Class of 2013.我非常理解在你们即将离开大学象牙塔一样舒服单纯的生活,把你们在哈佛里积累的经验拿出去实践的时候,或多或少会有些焦虑与犹豫不决,但是无论你一路上经历到怎样的挑战、挫折、险衅、绝望,如果你自始至终都只有一个目标,真的只有一个目标,你就会找到真正的成功和幸福。这个目标就是:作为一个人,你要满足你最真挚、最坦诚的自我表达,奋力拓展自己的人生领域,去追逐生命的最大化,去改变你周围你亲友,让他们的人生也因你而不同。神学家Howard Thurman将这件事儿阐释的淋漓尽致,他说:“不要追问这世界需要什么样的人,扪心自问是什么支持着你活到现在,然后你奔赴你的信仰、因为这世界需要的就是人们充满活力地活在世上,”这是世界需要的——正如来自劳德代尔堡的迈克尔·斯托尔岑贝格。迈克尔年仅8岁时险些丧命于细菌感染,虽然他活了下来,但却永远失去了双手双脚。须臾之间,原本一个完整的,充满活力的男孩儿失去四肢,成为一个残疾人,他的命运轨迹在这一劫难之后被硬生生地扭转。但在失去一切之后,他听懂了他的心,他明白了自己真正想成为谁,他拒绝整日坐在轮椅中上沮丧、难过,而是选择了在假肢的扶持下继续行走、奔跑、玩耍、他甚至加入了他高中的曲棍球队。上个月当他得知在波士顿马拉松的轰炸中,有一些不幸的人同样被截肢时,他决心用同样的“灯光”帮助他们驱逐黑暗,于是迈克尔和他的兄弟哈里斯创办了mikeysrun.com为其他被截肢的人募捐。他希望集资100万美元,等到2014年哈里斯从1000多英里外跑波士顿马立松时,这两位年轻的兄弟将把人们聚集在一起来支持整个波士顿社区,如同他们的社区支持迈克尔那样。当这个十三岁的孩子第一次被问及一些关于同样被截肢的人的事时,他说:“他们一定会很伤心,因为他们失去了生命中重且永不复返的东西,那是很可怕的一件事,但是他们一定会振作起来的,他们只是现在还没察觉罢了。”我们可能对这种事所知甚少,这些事情并不常见,在电视里也鲜听闻,我们的日常生活中也不能有所获知。但是我对你们有信心,不管发生什么,2013届的毕业生们,请相信,柳暗花明又一村,你们也要记得去确保我们的国家的安康。我有信心,因为那个9岁小女孩会出去收集零钱;我有信心,因为David和Wheeler;我有信心,因为迈克尔和哈里斯。我有信心是你们让我充满信心,因为你,因为“天使网络”现在就在这里。这其中就有四年前来到哈佛的Khadijah Williams。Khadijah在过去的12年中上了12个不同的学校,身处在皮条客、妓女、毒品贩子和流浪儿之间的垃圾袋子里,她为了不让同学们闻到他身上的异味,他每天清晨会去百货大楼、沃尔玛超市洗澡,今天他成为2013届哈佛毕业生的一员。From time to time you may stumble, fall, you will for sure, count on this, no doubt, you will have questions and you will have doubts about your path.But I know this, if you‟re willing to listen to, be guided by, that still small voice that is the G.P.S.within yourself, to find out what makes you come alive, you will be more than okay.You will be happy, you will be successful, and you will make a difference in the world.Congratulations Class of 2013.Congratulations to your family and friends.Good luck, and thank you for listening.不时地,你可能会失足跌倒,我们之中谁也难以幸免。对你的未来之路你会彷徨、会忧虑、会无所适从,但是我知道:只要你肯听听你内心深处的声音,你体内隐藏的GPS定位系统,能让你回归你人生的本真,你可能会因此活的更加夺目。你一定会快乐,一定会成功。你一定可以让世界因你而不同。祝贺你们,2012届哈佛的毕业生们。把祝贺同样送给你们的亲朋好友们。祝你们的命运永远备受眷顾,同时感谢你们的聆听。Was that okay?像这样可以吗?
第三篇:奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008毕业典礼上的演讲
奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008毕业典礼上的演讲[中英文对照]
Thank you, President Hennessy, and to the trustees and the faculty, to all of the parents and grandparents, to you, the Stanford graduates.Thank you for letting me share this amazing day with you.I need to begin by letting everyone in on a little secret.The secret is that Kirby Bumpus, Stanford Class of '08, is my goddaughter.So, I was thrilled when President Hennessy asked me to be your Commencement speaker, because this is the first time I've been allowed on campus since Kirby's been here.You see, Kirby's a very smart girl.She wants people to get to know her on her own terms, she says.Not in terms of who she knows.So, she never wants anyone who's first meeting her to know that I know her and she knows me.So, when she first came to Stanford for new student orientation with her mom, I hear that they arrived and everybody was so welcoming, and somebody came up to Kirby and they said, “Ohmigod, that's Gayle King!” Because a lot of people know Gayle King as my BFF [best friend forever].And so somebody comes up to Kirby, and they say, “Ohmigod, is that Gayle King?” And Kirby's like, “Uh-huh.She's my mom.”
And so the person says, “Ohmigod, does it mean, like, you know Oprah Winfrey?”
And Kirby says, “Sort of.”
I said, “Sort of? You sort of know me?” Well, I have photographic proof.I have pictures which I can e-mail to you all of Kirby riding horsey with me on all fours.So, I more than sort-of know Kirby Bumpus.And I'm so happy to be here, just happy that I finally, after four years, get to see her room.There's really nowhere else I'd rather be, because I'm so proud of Kirby, who graduates today with two degrees, one in human bio and the other in psychology.Love you, Kirby Cakes!That's how well I know her.I can call her Cakes.And so proud of her mother and father, who helped her get through this time, and her brother, Will.I really had nothing to do with her graduating from Stanford, but every time anybody's asked me in the past couple of weeks what I was doing, I would say, “I'm getting ready to go to Stanford.”
I just love saying “Stanford.” Because the truth is, I know I would have never gotten my degree at all, 'cause I didn't go to Stanford.I went to Tennessee State University.But I never would have gotten my diploma at all, because I was supposed to graduate back in 1975, but I was short one credit.And I figured, I'm just going to forget it, 'cause, you know, I'm not going to march with my class.Because by that point, I was already on television.I'd been in television since I was 19 and a sophomore.Granted, I was the only television anchor person that had an 11 o'clock curfew doing the 10 o'clock news.Seriously, my dad was like, “Well, that news is over at 10:30.Be home by 11.”
But that didn't matter to me, because I was earning a living.I was on my way.So, I thought, I'm going to let this college thing go and I only had one credit short.But, my father, from that time on and for years after, was always on my case, because I did not graduate.He'd say, “Oprah Gail”—that's my middle name—“I don't know what you're gonna do without that degree.” And I'd say, “But, Dad, I have my own television show.”
And he'd say, “Well, I still don't know what you're going to do without that degree.”
And I'd say, “But, Dad, now I'm a talk show host.” He'd say, “I don't know how you're going to get another job without that degree.”
So, in 1987, Tennessee State University invited me back to speak at their commencement.By then, I had my own show, was nationally syndicated.I'd made a movie, had been nominated for an Oscar and founded my company, Harpo.But I told them, I cannot come and give a speech unless I can earn one more credit, because my dad's still saying I'm not going to get anywhere without that degree.So, I finished my coursework, I turned in my final paper and I got the degree.And my dad was very proud.And I know that, if anything happens, that one credit will be my salvation.But I also know why my dad was insisting on that diploma, because, as B.B.King put it, “The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take that away from you.” And learning is really in the broadest sense what I want to talk about today, because your education, of course, isn't ending here.In many ways, it's only just begun.The world has so many lessons to teach you.I consider the world, this Earth, to be like a school and our life the classrooms.And sometimes here in this Planet Earth school the lessons often come dressed up as detours or roadblocks.And sometimes as full-blown crises.And the secret I've learned to getting ahead is being open to the lessons, lessons from the grandest university of all, that is, the universe itself.It's being able to walk through life eager and open to self-improvement and that which is going to best help you evolve, 'cause that's really why we're here, to evolve as human beings.To grow into more of ourselves, always moving to the next level of understanding, the next level of compassion and growth.I think about one of the greatest compliments I've ever received: I interviewed with a reporter when I was first starting out in Chicago.And then many years later, I saw the same reporter.And she said to me, “You know what? You really haven't changed.You've just become more of yourself.”
And that is really what we're all trying to do, become more of ourselves.And I believe that there's a lesson in almost everything that you do and every experience, and getting the lesson is how you move forward.It's how you enrich your spirit.And, trust me, I know that inner wisdom is more precious than wealth.The more you spend it, the more you gain.So, today, I just want to share a few lessons—meaning three—that I've learned in my journey so far.And aren't you glad? Don't you hate it when somebody says, “I'm going to share a few,” and it's 10 lessons later? And, you're like, “Listen, this is my graduation.This is not about you.” So, it's only going to be three.The three lessons that have had the greatest impact on my life have to do with feelings, with failure and with finding happiness.A year after I left college, I was given the opportunity to co-anchor the 6 o'clock news in Baltimore, because the whole goal in the media at the time I was coming up was you try to move to larger markets.And Baltimore was a much larger market than Nashville.So, getting the 6 o'clock news co-anchor job at 22 was such a big deal.It felt like the biggest deal in the world at the time.And I was so proud, because I was finally going to have my chance to be like Barbara Walters, which is who I had been trying to emulate since the start of my TV career.So, I was 22 years old, making $22,000 a year.And it's where I met my best friend, Gayle, who was an intern at the same TV station.And once we became friends, we'd say, “Ohmigod, I can't believe it!You're making $22,000 and you're only 22.Imagine when you're 40 and you're making $40,000!”
When I turned 40, I was so glad that didn't happen.So, here I am, 22, making $22,000 a year and, yet, it didn't feel right.It didn't feel right.The first sign, as President Hennessy was saying, was when they tried to change my name.The news director said to me at the time, “Nobody's going to remember Oprah.So, we want to change your name.We've come up with a name we think that people will remember and people will like.It's a friendly name: Suzie.”
Hi, Suzie.Very friendly.You can't be angry with Suzie.Remember Suzie.But my name wasn't Suzie.And, you know, I'd grown up not really loving my name, because when you're looking for your little name on the lunch boxes and the license plate tags, you're never going to find Oprah.So, I grew up not loving the name, but once I was asked to change it, I thought, well, it is my name and do I look like a Suzie to you? So, I thought, no, it doesn't feel right.I'm not going to change my name.And if people remember it or not, that's OK.And then they said they didn't like the way I looked.This was in 1976, when your boss could call you in and say, “I don't like the way you look.” Now that would be called a lawsuit, but back then they could just say, “I don't like the way you look.” Which, in case some of you in the back, if you can't tell, is nothing like Barbara Walters.So, they sent me to a salon where they gave me a perm, and after a few days all my hair fell out and I had to shave my head.And then they really didn't like the way I looked.Because now I am black and bald and sitting on TV.Not a pretty picture.But even worse than being bald, I really hated, hated, hated being sent to report on other people's tragedies as a part of my daily duty, knowing that I was just expected to observe, when everything in my instinct told me that I should be doing something, I should be lending a hand.So, as President Hennessy said, I'd cover a fire and then I'd go back and I'd try to give the victims blankets.And I wouldn't be able to sleep at night because of all the things I was covering during the day.And, meanwhile, I was trying to sit gracefully like Barbara and make myself talk like Barbara.And I thought, well, I could make a pretty goofy Barbara.And if I could figure out how to be myself, I could be a pretty good Oprah.I was trying to sound elegant like Barbara.And sometimes I didn't read my copy, because something inside me said, this should be spontaneous.So, I wanted to get the news as I was giving it to the people.So, sometimes, I wouldn't read my copy and it would be, like, six people on a pileup on I-40.Oh, my goodness.And sometimes I wouldn't read the copy—because I wanted to be spontaneous—and I'd come across a list of words I didn't know and I'd mispronounce.And one day I was reading copy and I called Canada “ca nada.” And I decided, this Barbara thing's not going too well.I should try being myself.But at the same time, my dad was saying, “Oprah Gail, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.You better keep that job.” And my boss was saying, “This is the nightly news.You're an anchor, not a social worker.Just do your job.”
So, I was juggling these messages of expectation and obligation and feeling really miserable with myself.I'd go home at night and fill up my journals, 'cause I've kept a journal since I was 15—so I now have volumes of journals.So, I'd go home at night and fill up my journals about how miserable I was and frustrated.Then I'd eat my anxiety.That's where I learned that habit.And after eight months, I lost that job.They said I was too emotional.I was too much.But since they didn't want to pay out the contract, they put me on a talk show in Baltimore.And the moment I sat down on that show, the moment I did, I felt like I'd come home.I realized that TV could be more than just a playground, but a platform for service, for helping other people lift their lives.And the moment I sat down, doing that talk show, it felt like breathing.It felt right.And that's where everything that followed for me began.And I got that lesson.When you're doing the work you're meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you're getting paid.It's true.And how do you know when you're doing something right? How do you know that? It feels so.What I know now is that feelings are really your GPS system for life.When you're supposed to do something or not supposed to do something, your emotional guidance system lets you know.The trick is to learn to check your ego at the door and start checking your gut instead.Every right decision I've made—every right decision I've ever made—has come from my gut.And every wrong decision I've ever made was a result of me not listening to the greater voice of myself.If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.That's the lesson.And that lesson alone will save you, my friends, a lot of grief.Even doubt means don't.This is what I've learned.There are many times when you don't know what to do.When you don't know what to do, get still, get very still, until you do know what to do.And when you do get still and let your internal motivation be the driver, not only will your personal life improve, but you will gain a competitive edge in the working world as well.Because, as Daniel Pink writes in his best-seller, A Whole New Mind, we're entering a whole new age.And he calls it the Conceptual Age, where traits that set people apart today are going to come from our hearts—right brain—as well as our heads.It's no longer just the logical, linear, rules-based thinking that matters, he says.It's also empathy and joyfulness and purpose, inner traits that have transcendent worth.These qualities bloom when we're doing what we love, when we're involving the wholeness of ourselves in our work, both our expertise and our emotion.So, I say to you, forget about the fast lane.If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion.Honor your calling.Everybody has one.Trust your heart and success will come to you.So, how do I define success? Let me tell you, money's pretty nice.I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that it's not about money, 'cause money is very nice.I like money.It's good for buying things.But having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person.What you want is money and meaning.You want your work to be meaningful.Because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life.What you really want is to be surrounded by people you trust and treasure and by people who cherish you.That's when you're really rich.So, lesson one, follow your feelings.If it feels right, move forward.If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.Now I want to talk a little bit about failings, because nobody's journey is seamless or smooth.We all stumble.We all have setbacks.If things go wrong, you hit a dead end—as you will—it's just life's way of saying time to change course.So, ask every failure—this is what I do with every failure, every crisis, every difficult time—I say, what is this here to teach me? And as soon as you get the lesson, you get to move on.If you really get the lesson, you pass and you don't have to repeat the class.If you don't get the lesson, it shows up wearing another pair of pants—or skirt—to give you some remedial work.And what I've found is that difficulties come when you don't pay attention to life's whisper, because life always whispers to you first.And if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you'll get a scream.Whatever you resist persists.But, if you ask the right question—not why is this happening, but what is this here to teach me?—it puts you in the place and space to get the lesson you need.My friend Eckhart Tolle, who's written this wonderful book called A New Earth that's all about letting the awareness of who you are stimulate everything that you do, he puts it like this: He says, don't react against a bad situation;merge with that situation instead.And the solution will arise from the challenge.Because surrendering yourself doesn't mean giving up;it means acting with responsibility.Many of you know that, as President Hennessy said, I started this school in Africa.And I founded the school, where I'm trying to give South African girls a shot at a future like yours—Stanford.And I spent five years making sure that school would be as beautiful as the students.I wanted every girl to feel her worth reflected in her surroundings.So, I checked every blueprint, I picked every pillow.I was looking at the grout in between the bricks.I knew every thread count of the sheets.I chose every girl from the villages, from nine provinces.And yet, last fall, I was faced with a crisis I had never anticipated.I was told that one of the dorm matrons was suspected of sexual abuse.That was, as you can imagine, devastating news.First, I cried—actually, I sobbed—for about half an hour.And then I said, let's get to it;that's all you get, a half an hour.You need to focus on the now, what you need to do now.So, I contacted a child trauma specialist.I put together a team of investigators.I made sure the girls had counseling and support.And Gayle and I got on a plane and flew to South Africa.And the whole time I kept asking that question: What is this here to teach me? And, as difficult as that experience has been, I got a lot of lessons.I understand now the mistakes I made, because I had been paying attention to all of the wrong things.I'd built that school from the outside in, when what really mattered was the inside out.So, it's a lesson that applies to all of our lives as a whole.What matters most is what's inside.What matters most is the sense of integrity, of quality and beauty.I got that lesson.And what I know is that the girls came away with something, too.They have emerged from this more resilient and knowing that their voices have power.And their resilience and spirit have given me more than I could ever give to them, which leads me to my final lesson—the one about finding happiness—which we could talk about all day, but I know you have other wacky things to do.Not a small topic this is, finding happiness.But in some ways I think it's the simplest of all.Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem for her children.It's called “Speech to the Young : Speech to the Progress-Toward.” And she says at the end, “Live not for battles won./ Live not for the-end-of-the-song./ Live in the along.” She's saying, like Eckhart Tolle, that you have to live for the present.You have to be in the moment.Whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now.But I think she's also saying, be a part of something.Don't live for yourself alone.This is what I know for sure: In order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have to stand for something larger than yourself.Because life is a reciprocal exchange.To move forward you have to give back.And to me, that is the greatest lesson of life.To be happy, you have to give something back.I know you know that, because that's a lesson that's woven into the very fabric of this university.It's a lesson that Jane and Leland Stanford got and one they've bequeathed to you.Because all of you know the story of how this great school came to be, how the Stanfords lost their only child to typhoid at the age of 15.They had every right and they had every reason to turn their backs against the world at that time, but instead, they channeled their grief and their pain into an act of grace.Within a year of their son's death, they had made the founding grant for this great school, pledging to do for other people's children what they were not able to do for their own boy.The lesson here is clear, and that is, if you're hurting, you need to help somebody ease their hurt.If you're in pain, help somebody else's pain.And when you're in a mess, you get yourself out of the mess helping somebody out of theirs.And in the process, you get to become a member of what I call the greatest fellowship of all, the sorority of compassion and the fraternity of service.The Stanfords had suffered the worst thing any mom and dad can ever endure, yet they understood that helping others is the way we help ourselves.And this wisdom is increasingly supported by scientific and sociological research.It's no longer just woo-woo soft-skills talk.There's actually a helper's high, a spiritual surge you gain from serving others.So, if you want to feel good, you have to go out and do some good.But when you do good, I hope you strive for more than just the good feeling that service provides, because I know this for sure, that doing good actually makes you better.So, whatever field you choose, if you operate from the paradigm of service, I know your life will have more value and you will be happy.I was always happy doing my talk show, but that happiness reached a depth of fulfillment, of joy, that I really can't describe to you or measure when I stopped just being on TV and looking at TV as a job and decided to use television, to use it and not have it use me, to use it as a platform to serve my viewers.That alone changed the trajectory of my success.So, I know this—that whether you're an actor, you offer your talent in the way that most inspires art.If you're an anatomist, you look at your gift as knowledge and service to healing.Whether you've been called, as so many of you here today getting doctorates and other degrees, to the professions of business, law, engineering, humanities, science, medicine, if you choose to offer your skills and talent in service, when you choose the paradigm of service, looking at life through that paradigm, it turns everything you do from a job into a gift.And I know you haven't spent all this time at Stanford just to go out and get a job.You've been enriched in countless ways.There's no better way to make your mark on the world and to share that abundance with others.My constant prayer for myself is to be used in service for the greater good.So, let me end with one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King.Dr.King said, “Not everybody can be famous.” And I don't know, but everybody today seems to want to be famous.But fame is a trip.People follow you to the bathroom, listen to you pee.It's just—try to pee quietly.It doesn't matter, they come out and say, “Ohmigod, it's you.You peed.”
That's the fame trip, so I don't know if you want that.So, Dr.King said, “Not everybody can be famous.But everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.” Those of you who are history scholars may know the rest of that passage.He said, “You don't have to have a college degree to serve.You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.You don't have to know about Plato or Aristotle to serve.You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve.You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”
In a few moments, you'll all be officially Stanford's '08.You have the heart and the smarts to go with it.And it's up to you to decide, really, where will you now use those gifts? You've got the diploma, so go out and get the lessons, 'cause I know great things are sure to come.You know, I've always believed that everything is better when you share it, so before I go, I wanted to share a graduation gift with you.Underneath your seats you'll find two of my favorite books.Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is my current book club selection.Our New Earth webcast has been downloaded 30 million times with that book.And Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future has reassured me I'm in the right direction.I really wanted to give you cars but I just couldn't pull that off!Congratulations, '08!
Thank you.Thank you.
第四篇:奥普拉在哈佛大学2013届毕业典礼上的演讲
奥普拉在哈佛大学2013届毕业典礼上的演讲
我要分享的想法是:无论你有多么成功,也许你们会不断追求更高的目标,这就难免会遇到失意之时。我希望届时各位可以记住:世上并不存在失败,那不过是生活试图将我们推向另一个方向罢了。
当你身处困境时,看起来是一种失败。在过去的一年中,我时刻提醒自己牢记这一点。当深陷困境时,感到难过是正常的,给自己一点时间去思考即将失去的一切。关键在于:要从错误中汲取教训,因为所有经验,尤其是你犯下的错误,都将帮助你、推动你更好地做自己,确定下一步何去何从。生活的关键在于建立起一个内在的道德情感导航仪,为你指明方向。因为从今以后,当你用谷歌搜索自己的时候,搜索结果中会提到:“哈佛大学2013毕业生”。在这个充满竞争的世界,这的确是一张抢眼的名片。
我曾招聘过很多人,而每当我看到哈佛大学这个字眼时,我总是会坐直一些说:“他们在哪?把他们统统带过来。”正是这张抢眼的名片可以成就你们的未来之路。你们可能成为律师、议员、首席执行官、科学家、物理学家、诺贝尔奖及普利策奖得主,甚至深夜脱口秀节目主持人。但生活的挑战在于创建一份不仅陈述所期望的职位的履历,而且上面要明确成就怎样的自我。这份履历不仅需要表达你想成就一番怎样的事业,也要明确动机,除了头衔与职位,也要有达成目标的缘由。你的使命是什么?你的信仰是什么?你的目标是什么?只有这样,当你不慎跌倒发现自深陷困境之时,才能帮助你重振旗鼓。
我是在1994年才认识到这一点的。那年我采访了一位凭一己之力积攒了1000美元零花钱的小女孩,她将这钱捐出来帮助有需要的人。这个九岁大的小女孩促使我思考,仅凭一个存钱罐与雄心壮志就能做到这样,那我可以做些什么呢?于是我号召我的观众们捐出他们的零钱,在一个月内,仅仅是一枚枚零钱硬币就募到了300万美金。我们用这笔钱资助每个州的一位学子进入大学的殿堂。我所做的仅仅是号召我的观众,“尽己所能,无论地域与地位,如果可能,请贡献出你们的时间、智慧与财力。无论你在哪里,请为他人送去自己的仁爱之心。”观众也用行动表明了一切。我们在12个不同的城镇建起了55所学校,修缮了300栋被“丽塔”飓风和“卡特里娜”飓风摧毁的民宅。
创办“天使网络”的想法在我心中萦绕已久,也正是“天使网络”让我确定了心中的那个导航仪。我决定不再单一地制作电视节目,还要关注节目的终极理念、采访对象、行业发展和慈善事业等等。无论我们追求什么,将我们团结在一起的信念胜过其他一切。作为一个19岁就出现在电视节目中的孩子,起初我并不明白这个道理,直到1994年才有所醒悟。因此,不要指望能即刻明晰所有的事情,包括自身的志向所在。当我明确一切的时候,我利用电视这种媒介手段让天使网络做的更好,而不是单纯成为电视节目的一部分。
天使网络不仅改变那些需要帮助的人,同样让帮助别人的人受益。它提醒我们,无论是谁,外表怎样,心存何种信念,凭借共同的目标与努力,它极有可能并将变得更为强大,这点非常重要。
最近,在比尔莫耶斯访谈节目中看到的一些事情使我更加明确了这一点。那期节目的访谈对象是大卫与法兰欣·威勒夫妇。在“桑迪岬”惨案中,他们失去了年仅七岁的儿子本。然而就在他们接受采访的同时,国会的投票否决了提出加强背景调查的“枪支安全法”,他们表示绝不会气馁。法兰欣说:“心可碎,但精神仍在。我要找到一种新的对话方式来告诉他们什么是爱,而不是盲目与之斗争。”随后他的丈夫补充道:“遇到与你意见不同的人,你不该把他妖魔化甚至诽谤,因为一旦这样做了,对话也就随之终止。我们决不允许这样的事情发生。问题依然存在,但一定有办法能够使光明驱走黑暗。” 25年来的每一天和不同人沟通,我从中学到的最重要的一课就是:人类经验的共通性。我们大多数人并不愿意被分类,但是我从所有采访对象身上发现一个共同性,那就是人人都希望被认可、被理解。
在我的职业生涯中曾经做过超过35000次访谈,每当摄影机关掉的时候,所有的受访者必然会用自己的方式问出这样一个问题:“我表现得还可以吧?”布什总统这样说过、奥巴马总统也曾这样说过。无论英雄人物还是家庭主妇,受害者抑或是案件中的被告人。甚至碧昂斯也需要得到这样的认可。访谈结束后,她把麦克风交给我,对我说:“我表现得还可以吧?”
你们的亲友、敌人、陌生人,在每次的相遇与交流时,他们都想知道的是:我表现得还可以吗?你在听我说话吗?你在关注我吗?我的话对你有价值吗?尽管哈佛是facebook诞生之地,我仍希望各位要尝试跳出来和那些持不同意见的人进行更多的面对面交流。要有勇气注视着他们的眼睛,倾听他们的观点,确保速度、距离以及不足轻重感不会让我们失去同理心,以及认清我们作为人类的共同点。这种认知对于你们个人乃至整个国家的兴盛都是必要的。
“必然会有方法使光明驱走黑暗,”这出自一位儿子惨遭杀害的父亲之口,十二月一个平常的周五他失去了自己的孩子。称之为灵魂或志气也好,更高的自我或是智慧也罢,我深知,每个人的内心都有一盏明灯,只要你想,它就将照亮你的人性。
你们现在或许对离开舒适的大学生活会有些焦虑,并对于让社会检验自己的哈佛文凭心存犹豫,但无论你们在日后遭遇任何的挑战、挫折与失意,只要内心目标坚定,就能获得真正的成功与快乐。人生确实只有一个目标,那就是:最大程度地、最真实地展现自己。尽己所能,提升自己与家人以及周围的人。神学家霍华德瑟曼说得好:“不要问自己世界需要什么,问问是什么让你充满活力地活着,然后大步去做,因为世界所需要的就是一个个朝气蓬勃的人。”
(奥普拉·温弗瑞系美国著名脱口秀主持人、媒体企业家)
第五篇:奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008年毕业典礼上的演讲
奥普拉在斯坦福大学2008年毕业典礼上的演讲
Feelings, Failure and Finding Happiness 感觉、失败及寻找幸福
Thank you, President Hennessy, and to thetrustees and the faculty, to all of the parents and grandparents, to you, the Stanford graduates.Thank you for letting me share this amazing day with you.Hennessy校长,全体教员,家长,还有斯坦福的毕业生门,非常感谢你们。感谢你们让我 和你们分享这美好的一天。
I need to begin by letting everyone in on a little secret.The secret is that Kirby Bumpus, Stanford Class of '08, is my goddaughter.So, I was thrilled when President Hennessy asked me to be your Commencement speaker, because this is the first time I've been allowed on campus since Kirby's been here.我决定透漏一个小秘密给大家来作为这次演讲的开始。这个秘密就是Kirby Bumpus,斯坦 福2008 年的毕业生,是我的义女。所以当Hennessy校长让我来做演讲时,我受宠若惊,因 为自从Kirby来这上学以来,这是我第一次被允许到斯坦福来。
You see, Kirby's a very smart girl.She wants people to get to know her on her own terms, she says.Not in terms of who she knows.So, she never wants anyone who's first meeting her to know that I know her and she knows me.So, when she first came to Stanford for new student orientation with her mom, I hear that they arrived and everybody was so welcoming, and somebody came up to Kirby and they said, “Ohmigod, that's Gayle King!” Because a lot of people know Gayle King as my BFF [best friend forever].正如你们知道的那样Kirby是一个非常聪明的女孩。她说,她希望大家通过她自己的努力了 解她,而不是她认识谁。因此她从来不希望每一个第一次见到她的人知道她认识我。当她 和她妈妈第一次来到斯坦福参加开学典礼时,我听说每个人都十分热情。他们说:“我的天 啊,那是Gayle King”。因为很多人都知道Gayle King是我最好的朋友。
And so somebody comes up to Kirby, and they say, “Ohmigod, is that Gayle King?” And Kirby's like, “Uh-huh.She's my mom.”And so the person says, “Ohmigod, does it mean, like, you know OprahWinfrey?”And Kirby says, “Sort of.” 有些人走到Kirby面前,对Kirby说:“我的天啊,那是Gayle King吗?”Kirby说:“嗯,她 是我妈妈。”然后人们说:“我的天啊,难道说,你认识OprahWinfrey。”Kirby说:“有点吧。”
I said, “Sort of? You sort of know me?” Well, I have photographic proof.I have pictures which I can e-mail to you all of Kirby riding horsey with me on all fours.So, I more than sort-of know Kirby Bumpus.And I'm so happy to be here, just happy that I finally, after four years, get to see her room.There's really nowhere else I'd rather be, because I'm so proud of Kirby, who graduates today with two degrees, one in human bio and the other in psychology.Love you, Kirby Cakes!That's how well I know her.I can call her Cakes.我说:“有一点。你有一点认识我”。我还有照片为证。我可以把Kirby 和我骑马时的照片 e-mail给你们。因此我不仅仅只是有点认识Kirby Bumpus。我非常高兴来到这里,因为四年 来我第一次来到她的寝室。我为Kirby感到自豪,因为她获得了人类生物学和心理学的双学 位。这就是我多么的了解她。我可以叫她Cakes。
And so proud of her mother and father, who helped her get through this time, and her brother, Will.I really had nothing to do with her graduating from Stanford, but every time anybody's asked me in the past couple of weeks what I was doing, I would say, “I'm getting ready to go to Stanford.” 我为她的父母感到骄傲,她的父母给了她很大帮助,还有她的哥哥Will。我对Kirby大学四 年真的没有什么帮助。但是在过去的几周里,每当人们问我在做什么时,我都会说:“我正 准备去斯坦福”
I just love saying “Stanford.” Because the truth is, I know I would have never gotten my degree at all, 'cause I didn't go to Stanford.I went to Tennessee State University.But I never would have gotten my diploma at all, because I was supposed to graduate back in 1975, but I was short one credit.And I figured, I'm just going to forget it, 'cause, you know, I'm not going to march with my class.Because by that point, I was already on television.I'd been in television since I was 19 and a sophomore.Granted, I was the only television anchor person that had an 11 o'clock curfew doing the 10 o'clock news.我就是喜欢这样说Stanford(用一种奇怪的语调)。因为这是真的,我知道根本不会拿到我 的学位,因为我没有去斯坦福念书。我去了Tennessee 州立大学。但是我本来不会拿到我 的毕业证,因为我本应该在1975 年毕业,但是我少了一个学分。我认为我还是会忘了这件 事。你们知道,我不会比得上我的同班同学。因为我已经上了电视。我在19 岁还是大学二 年级的时候就已经上了电视。我是唯一一个电视节目主持人,虽然有11 点的宵禁,却做着 10 点钟的新闻。
Seriously, my dad was like, “Well, that news is over at 10:30.Be home by 11.” But that didn't matter to me, because I was earning a living.I was on my way.So, I thought, I'm going to let this college thing go and I only had one credit short.But, my father, from that time on and for years after, was always on my case, because I did not graduate.He'd say, “Oprah Gail”—that's my middle name—“I don't know what you're gonna do without that degree.” And I'd say, “But, Dad, I have my own television show.” 严肃地说,我爸爸告诉我,“好吧,新闻10:30结束。11 点之前到家。”但是这对我并不重
要,因为我已经自食其力了。我在走我自己的路。所以我想,我不能让关于我大学的那件 事就这么过去,我还少一个学分。但是我的父亲从那时起却成了问题。由于我没有毕业,他 总是说:“Oprah Gail(我的中间名字),我不知道没有学位你能做些什么。”然后我说:“但
是,爸爸,我已经有我自己的电视节目啦。”
And he'd say, “Well, I still don't know what you're going to do without that degree.” And I'd say, ”But, Dad, now I'm a talk show host.“ He'd say, ”I don't know how you're going to get another job without that degree.“ 他说:“好吧,但是我还是不知道没有那个学位你能干什么。”我说:“但是,爸爸,现在我
已经是脱口秀的主持人了”。他还是说:“我不知道没有那个学位你怎么去找其他的工作。” So, in 1987, Tennessee State University invited me back to speak at their commencement.By then, I had my own show, was nationally syndicated.I'd made a movie, had been nominated for an Oscar and founded my company, Harpo.But I told them, I cannot come and give a speech unless I can earn one more credit, because my dad's still saying I'm not going to get anywhere without that degree.在1987 年,Tennessee州立大学邀请我回去做他们的毕业典礼演讲。在那时,我已经有了自 己的电视节目,并加入了国家联合会。我制作了一部电影,并被奥斯卡提名,而且成立了 我自己的公司Harpo。可我告诉他们,我不能去演讲除非我得到那一个学分,因为我爸爸总 是说没了那学位我将一事无成。
So, I finished my coursework, I turned in my final paper and I got the degree.And my dad was very proud.And I know that, if anything happens, that one credit will be my salvation.因此,我完成了我的课程,上交了我的毕业论文,然后拿到了学位。我的爸爸非常的骄傲。从此我知道,无论什么事发生,那一个学分是我的救世主
But I also know why my dad was insisting on that diploma, because, as B.B.King put it, ”The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take that away from you.“ And learning is really in the broadest sense what I want to talk about today, because your education, of course, isn't ending here.In many ways, it's only just begun.但是我知道为什么我爸爸总是坚持让我获得文凭,因为,正如B.B.King所说:“关于学习的美好在于别人不会把知识从你身上拿走”学习正是我今天想说的,因为你们的教育并没有 在这里结束。在很多情况下,这才是刚刚开使。
The world has so many lessons to teach you.I consider the world, this Earth, to be like a school and our life the classrooms.And sometimes here in this Planet Earth school the lessons often come dressed up as detours or roadblocks.And sometimes as full-blown crises.And the secret I've learned to getting ahead is being open to the lessons, lessons from the grandest university of all, that is, the universe itself.这个世界将会教会你们很多。我认为这个世界,这个地球,就像一个学校和我们人生的教室。有时这些课程会是弯路和障碍。有时会充满危机。我所学的应付这一切的秘密就是去勇于面 对,正如我们面对大学课程一样。
It's being able to walk through life eager and open to self-improvement and that which is going to best help you evolve, 'cause that's really why we're here, to evolve as human beings.To grow into more of ourselves, always moving to the next level of understanding, the next level of compassion and growth.我们能够充满激情的去生活和自我提高,这就是我们存在的意义。不断自我提高,去追求人 生的更高境界,去追求更高级别的怜悯和自我提高。
I think about one of the greatest compliments I've ever received: I interviewed with a reporter when I was first starting out in Chicago.And then many years later, I saw the same reporter.And she said to me, ”You know what? You really haven't changed.You've just become more of yourself.“ 我记得我所受到的最大的赞扬就是当我刚刚在芝加1 哥开始工作时,我采访了一个记者。很多
年以后我们又见面了。她对我说:“你知道吗?你一点也没有变。你变得更为自我了。” And that is really what we're all trying to do, become more of ourselves.And I believe that there's a lesson in almost everything that you do and every experience, and getting the lesson is how you move forward.It's how you enrich your spirit.And, trust me, I know that inner wisdom is more precious than wealth.The more you spend it, the more you gain.这就是我们一直努力在做的,去做我们自己。我坚信你们会从每一件做过的事上学到经验,这样你们就会取得进步。这样你们丰富了心灵。相信我,内在的智慧比外在的财富更加珍贵。你越是使用它,你就得到更多。
So, today, I just want to share a few lessons—meaning three—that I've learned in my journey so far.And aren't you glad? Don't you hate it when somebody says, ”I'm going to share a few,“ and it's 10 lessons later? And, you're like, ”Listen, this is my graduation.This is not about you.“ So, it's only going to be three.今天我想和大家分享我人生的三个经验。你们难道不觉得高兴吗?你们是否会反感,当有人 对你说:“我想分享一些”但事实上却是10 个经验。你们肯定在想:“听着,这是我的毕业典
礼,不是你的”。因此这里只有三个经验我想和大家分享。
The three lessons that have had the greatest impact on my life have to do with feelings, with failure and with finding happiness.这三个经验对我的人生产生了很大影响,它们是关于感情,失败和追求幸福。
A year after I left college, I was given the opportunity to co-anchor the 6 o'clock news in Baltimore, because the whole goal in the media at the time I was coming up was you try to move to larger markets.And Baltimore was a much larger market than Nashville.So, getting the 6 o'clock news co-anchor job at 22 was such a big deal.It felt like the biggest deal in the world at the time.当我离开大学一年后,在Baltimore我得到了一个共同主持6 点新闻的机会。在那时媒体界 的最大目标就是获得更大的市场,而Baltimore 是一个比Nashville大得多的市场,因此在 22 岁时得到这个机会对我来说非常重要。它那时对我来说它仿佛是世界上最重要的事。And I was so proud, because I was finally going to have my chance to be like Barbara Walters, which is who I had been trying to emulate since the start of my TV career.So, I was 22 years old, making $22,000 a year.And it's where I met my best friend, Gayle, who was an intern at the same TV station.And once we became friends, we'd say, ”Ohmigod, I can't believe it!You're making $22,000 and you're only 22.Imagine when you're 40 and you're making $40,000!“ 我非常自豪,因为我终于有机会去效法barbara Walters。而她正是我从业以来一直效法的对 象。那时我22 岁,每年挣22,000 美元。我遇到了在电视台做实习生的Gayle,我们立刻成 了好朋友。我们说:“我的天啊,真难以置信。你在22 岁时挣每年能挣22,000 美元。想象 一下吧,当你40 岁时你每年就会挣40,000美元” When I turned 40, I was so glad that didn't happen.当我真的40岁时,我很高兴这并没有成真。
So, here I am, 22, making $22,000 a year and, yet, it didn't feel right.It didn't feel right.The first sign, as President Hennessy was saying, was when they tried to change my name.The news director said to me at the time, ”Nobody's going to remember Oprah.So, we want to change your name.We've come up with a name we think that people will remember and people will like.It's a friendly name: Suzie.“ 这就是我,22 岁时每年挣22,000美元,然而,这种感觉并不好。首先,正如Hennessy校长 所说,当他们试图让我改名字。那时导演对我说:“没人会记住Oprah这个名字。因此我们 想让你改名字。我们已经为你想了一个大家都会记住和喜欢的名字——Suzie。” Hi, Suzie.Very friendly.You can't be angry with Suzie.Remember Suzie.But my name wasn't Suzie.And, you know, I'd grown up not really loving my name, because when you're looking for your little name on the lunch boxes and the license plate tags, you're never going to find Oprah.Suzie,一个很友善的名字。你不会厌恶Suzie。记住Suzie吧。但是我的名字不是Suzie。你 们可以看到,自小我就不怎么喜欢我的名字。因为当你在午餐箱和牌号寻找你的名字时,你 永远也不会找Oprah。
So, I grew up not loving the name, but once I was asked to change it, I thought, well, it is my name and do I look like a Suzie to you? So, I thought, no, it doesn't feel right.I'm not going to change my name.And if people remember it or not, that's OK.我从小就不怎么喜欢我的名字,但是当我被告知去改名字时,我想,好吧,那时我的名字,但是Suzie真的适合我吗?因此我想,它并不适合我。我不会改我的名字。我也不介意人们 是否记得住我的名字,这没什么大不了的。
And then they said they didn't like the way I looked.This was in 1976, when your boss could call you in and say, ”I don't like the way you look.“ Now that would be called a lawsuit, but back then they could just say, ”I don't like the way you look.“ Which, in case some of you in the back, if you can't tell, is nothing like Barbara Walters.So, they sent me to a salon where they gave me a perm, and after a few days all my hair fell out and I had to shave my head.And then they really didn't like the way I looked.Because now I am black and bald and sitting on TV.Not a pretty picture.然后他们还对我说他们不喜欢我的长相。那是在1976年,你的老板可以那么说。但是如果 是现在的话,那就是一件很严重的事了。可是那时他们还是说: “我不喜欢你的造型。”我
根本不像Barbara Walters。于是他们把我送到沙龙,给我烫了发。可是几天后我的头发一团 糟。我不得不剃光我的头发。此时他们更不喜欢我的造型了。因为作为一个光头黑人坐在 摄影机前,我肯定不漂亮的。
But even worse than being bald, I really hated, hated, hated being sent to report on other people's tragedies as a part of my daily duty, knowing that I was just expected to observe, when everything in my instinct told me that I should be doing something, I should be lending a hand.比光头更令我讨厌的是我不得不把播报别人遭受的痛苦作为我的日常工作。我深知我期待去 观察,我的内心告诉我,我应该做些什么了。我需要为他人提供帮助。
So, as President Hennessy said, I'd cover a fire and then I'd go back and I'd try to give the victims blankets.And I wouldn't be able to sleep at night because of all the things I was covering during the day.正如Hennessy校长所说的那样,我播报了一起火灾,然后应当去给受害者拿毯子。由于白 天播报的那些新闻导致我晚上难以入睡。
And, meanwhile, I was trying to sit gracefully like Barbara and make myself talk like Barbara.And I thought, well, I could make a pretty goofy Barbara.And if I could figure out how to be myself, I could be a pretty good Oprah.I was trying to sound elegant like Barbara.And sometimes I didn't read my copy, because something inside me said, this should be spontaneous.So, I wanted to get the news as I was giving it to the people.So, sometimes, I wouldn't read my copy and it would be, like, six people on a pileup on I-40.Oh, my goodness.与此同时我尽量表现的优雅一些,使我更像Barbara。我认为我可能会成为一个傻傻的 Barbara。如果我做回我自己,我就会成为一个很棒的Oprah。我努力像Barbara 那样优雅。有时我并不读我的稿件,因为我的内心告诉我这是不自主的。所以我想为大家播报一些我想 要的新闻。有时,我不会播报像6 个人在连环车祸中受伤这类的新闻。哦,我的天啊。And sometimes I wouldn't read the copy—because I wanted to be spontaneous—and I'd come across a list of words I didn't know and I'd mispronounce.And one day I was reading copy and I called Canada ”ca nada.“ And I decided, this Barbara thing's not going too well.I should try being myself.有时出于内心的本能,我不会去播报一些新闻。我还会遇到一些不认识的和念错的词。一天 当我播新闻时,我把加拿大读错了。我想这样下去学Barbara 可不大好。我应该做回我自己。But at the same time, my dad was saying, ”Oprah Gail, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.You better keep that job.“ And my boss was saying, ”This is the nightly news.You're an anchor, not a social worker.Just do your job.“ 但那是我爸爸却对我说:“这是你一生的机会。你最好继续那份工作。”我的老板也说:“这 是晚间新闻。你是播报员,不是福利工作者。还是做你的本职工作吧。”
So, I was juggling these messages of expectation and obligation and feeling really miserable with myself.I'd go home at night and fill up my journals, 'cause I've kept a journal since I was 15—so I now have volumes of journals.So, I'd go home at night and fill up my journals about how miserable I was and frustrated.Then I'd eat my anxiety.That's where I learned that habit.我歪曲了这些期待和义务,并感觉很糟。晚上回到家后我会记日记。自从15 岁时我就开始 记日记了,于是现在我已经有了好几卷日记。我晚上回到家后,我会记录下我是多么的不幸 和沮丧。然后我消除了焦虑。这就是我如何养成了那个习惯。
And after eight months, I lost that job.They said I was too emotional.I was too much.But since they didn't want to pay out the contract, they put me on a talk show in Baltimore.And the moment I sat down on that show, the moment I did, I felt like I'd come home.I realized that TV could be more than just a playground, but a platform for service, for helping other people lift their lives.And the moment I sat down, doing that talk show, it felt like breathing.It felt right.And that's where everything that followed for me began.8 个月后我失去了那份工作。他们说我太情绪化了。但因为他们不想违背合约,他们就让我 去Baltimore主持一档脱口秀节目。从我开始主持那档节目的一刻开始,我感觉好像回到了 家一样。我意识到电视不应该仅仅是一个娱乐场,更应该是一个以服务为目的的平台,以帮 助他人更好的生活。当我开始主持节目的时间侯,就像呼吸一样。感觉好极啦。这就是我 工作的真正开始。
And I got that lesson.When you're doing the work you're meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you're getting paid.这就是我学到的经验。当你做的是一份你喜欢的工作时,那感觉棒极了。无论你能挣到多少 钱,你都会有很大收获。
It's true.And how do you know when you're doing something right? How do you know that? It feels so.What I know now is that feelings are really your GPS system for life.When you're supposed to do something or not supposed to do something, your emotional guidance system lets you know.The trick is to learn to check your ego at the door and start checking your gut instead.Every right decision I've made—every right decision I've ever made—has come from my gut.And every wrong decision I've ever made was a result of me not listening to the greater voice of myself.这是真的。但是你怎么知道你所做的是对的呢?你怎么知道呢?我所知道的就是你的内心是 你人生的导航系统。当你应该或者不应该改做某事时,你的内心会告诉你怎样去做。关键 是去面对你自己,面对你自己的内心。我所做过的所有正确选择都是源自我内心的。我所做 过的所有错误选择都是因为没有听取来自我内心的声音。
If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.That's the lesson.And that lesson alone will save you, my friends, a lot of grief.Even doubt means don't.This is what I've learned.There are many times when you don't know what to do.When you don't know what to do, get still, get very still, until you do know what to do.如果感觉不好,就不要去做。这就是我的经验。我的朋友,这个经验会帮你避免很多痛苦。甚至怀疑都意味着不要去做。这就是我所学到的。有很多次当你不知道如何去做时,什么也 不要做,直到你知道怎么做为止。And when you do get still and let your internal motivation be the driver, not only will your personal life improve, but you will gain a competitive edge in the working world as well.Because, as Daniel Pink writes in his best-seller, AWhole New Mind, we're entering a whole new age.And he calls it the Conceptual Age, where traits that set people apart today are going to come from our hearts—right brain—as well as our heads.It's no longer just the logical, linear, rules-based thinking that matters, he says.It's also empathy and joyfulness and purpose, inner traits that have transcendent worth.当你什么也不要做时,让你的内心作为驱动力。不仅仅你的个人生活会提高,你在工作中也 会获得竞争力。正如Daniel Pink在他的畅销书AWhole New Mind中所说的那样,我们进入 了一个新时代,一个他称之为概念时代的时代。人们的内心使人与人之间产生隔阂。他说,重要的不仅仅是逻辑上的,线性的,直尺式的思维方式。移情,快乐,目标和内部特质同 样也有卓越的价值。
These qualities bloom when we're doing what we love, when we're involving the wholeness of ourselves in our work, both our expertise and our emotion.当我们做自己喜欢的事时,当我们全身心的投入到工作中时,这些特质就会焕发生机。So, I say to you, forget about the fast lane.If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion.Honor your calling.Everybody has one.Trust your heart and success will come to you.因此我对你说,忘掉那些快车道吧。如果你真的像飞翔,就把你的力量投入到你的激情当中。尊重你内心的召唤。每一个人都会有的。相信你的心灵,你会成功的。
So, how do I define success? Let me tell you, money's pretty nice.I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that it's not about money, 'cause money is very nice.I like money.It's good for buying things.那么我是如何定义成功的呢?让我告诉你,钱很美好。我不会告诉你们成功与钱无关,因为 钱是好东东。我喜欢钱。它能买东西。
But having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person.What you want is money and meaning.You want your work to be meaningful.Because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life.What you really want is to be surrounded by people you trust and treasure and by people who cherish you.That's when you're really rich.So, lesson one, follow your feelings.If it feels right, move forward.If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.但是拥有很多钱并不能使你自然而然的成为一个成功者。你想要的是钱和意义。你想你的工 作更有意义。因为有意义使你的生活更加充实。你所希望得到的是被信任你珍视你的人包 围。这才是你真正富有的时候。因此,第一个经验,跟随你的心灵。如果感觉对了,就继续 前进。如果感觉不对,就不要做了。
Now I want to talk a little bit about failings, because nobody's journey is seamless or smooth.We all stumble.We all have setbacks.If things go wrong, you hit a dead end—as you will—it's just life's way of saying time to change course.So, ask every failure—this is what I do with every failure, every crisis, every difficult time—I say, what is this here to teach me? And as soon as you get the lesson, you get to move on.If you really get the lesson, you pass and you don't have to repeat the class.If you don't get the lesson, it shows up wearing another pair of pants—or skirt—to give you some remedial work.现在我想谈谈失败。没有人他的一生是一帆风顺的。我们都会遇到困难,受到挫折。如果事 情出错了,你进入了死胡同,这正是生活在告诉你是时候改变了。所以,每当遇到困难和 危机时,我都会问它教会了我什么?只要你吸取了教训,你就会继续前进。如果你真正吸取 了教训,你就会顺利通过考验,不用再取经受失败了。如果你没有吸取教训,它会以另外 一种形式给出现在你面前并给你一些补救。
And what I've found is that difficulties come when you don't pay attention to life's whisper, because life always whispers to you first.And if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you'll get a scream.Whatever you resist persists.But, if you ask the right question—not why is this happening, but what is this here to teach me?—it puts you in the place and space to get the lesson you need.我注意到当你没有仔细对待生活的细节时,困难就会出现。因为生活总是提前低声的告戒你。如果你忽视了这个低声的告诫,过不了多久你就会得到一个惊声尖叫,无论你怎样反抗。但 是如果你不去想为什困难会发生,而是去反思困难会教给我什么时,你就会学到你需要的东 西。
My friend Eckhart Tolle, who's written this wonderful book called A New Earth that's all about letting the awareness of who you are stimulate everything that you do, he puts it like this: He says, don't react against a bad situation;merge with that situation instead.And the solution will arise from the challenge.Because surrendering yourself doesn't mean giving up;it means acting with responsibility.我的朋友Eckhart Tolle。他写了一本非常棒的书,名叫A New Earth。这本书就是关于让你 的意识激励你去做事。他说,不要去反抗困境,相反,要融入到其中。事情会变的越来越好 的。因为暂时的屈服并不意味着放弃,它意味着一种责任感。
Many of you know that, as President Hennessy said, I started this school in Africa.And I founded the school, where I'm trying to give South African girls a shot at a future like yours—Stanford.And I spent five years making sure that school would be as beautiful as the students.I wanted every girl to feel her worth reflected in her surroundings.So, I checked every blueprint, I picked every pillow.I was looking at the grout in between the bricks.I knew every thread count of the sheets.I chose every girl from the villages, from nine provinces.And yet, last fall, I was faced with a crisis I had never anticipated.I was told that one of the dorm matrons was suspected of sexual abuse.你们当中很多人都知道,正如Hennessy校长所说,我在非洲创办了一个学校。我希望给南 非的女孩们一个像你们一样的未来。我花了5 年时间来确保学校会像学生们一样好。我想 让每一个女孩感觉到自己的价值受到重视。所以我检查了每一个设计图,亲自挑选每个枕头,甚至检查砖块间的水泥。我知道每一个细节。每一学生都是我从9 个省的村落里亲自选出 来的。然而,去年的秋天我却遇到了一个我从未预料的危机。我被告知有一名宿舍管理员涉 嫌性虐待。
That was, as you can imagine, devastating news.First, I cried—actually, I sobbed—for about half an hour.And then I said, let's get to it;that's all you get, a half an hour.You need to focus on the now, what you need to do now.So, I contacted a child trauma specialist.I put together a team of investigators.I made sure the girls had counseling and support.And Gayle and I got on a plane and flew to South Africa.你们可以想象得到这是多么令人沮丧的消息啊。首先,我哭了,啜泣了大约半个小时。然后 我说,我们得面对它。一个半小时,这就是你全部所能得到的。你需要把注意力集中到现 在,现在你因该做些什么。所以我联系了一位儿科创伤专家。我派了一队调查人员。我确定 女孩们得到了安慰和支持。Gayle和我坐上飞机飞向南非。
And the whole time I kept asking that question: What is this here to teach me? And, as difficult as that experience has been, I got a lot of lessons.I understand now the mistakes I made, because I had been paying attention to all of the wrong things.I'd built that school from the outside in, when what really mattered was the inside out.So, it's a lesson that applies to all of our lives as a whole.What matters most is what's inside.What matters most is the sense of integrity, of quality and beauty.I got that lesson.And what I know is that the girls came away with something, too.They have emerged from this more resilient and knowing that their voices have power.整个过程中我都在问自己:“这件事教会了我什么?”虽然这个经历十分困难,但是我学到了
很多。我意识到自己所犯的错误,因为我一直以来都把注意力集中在错事上。我从外向内 建造了那所学校,然而正真对我有意义的是从内向外的去建造它。最重要的是我对正直,品 质和美好的理解。我学到了那个教训。我也明白女孩们也学到了一些事。她们从中恢复了 过来并意识到她们的声音是有影响力的。
And their resilience and spirit have given me more than I could ever give to them, which leads me to my final lesson—the one about finding happiness—which we could talk about all day, but I know you have other wacky things to do.她们的恢复力和精神给了我很多东西,以至于比我给她们的还多。接下来是我最后的经验— 关于寻找幸福,我可以谈论一整天,但是我有其他古怪的事要做。
Not a small topic this is, finding happiness.But in some ways I think it's the simplest of all.Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem for her children.It's called ”Speech to the Young : Speech to the Progress-Toward.“ And she says at the end, ”Live not for battles won./ Live not for the-end-of-the-song./ Live in the along.“ She's saying, like Eckhart Tolle, that you have to live for the present.You have to be in the moment.Whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now.追求幸福并不是一个小话题。但在某种程度上来说它又是最简单的话题。Gwendolyn Brooks 为她的孩子写了一首诗,诗名是Speech to the Young : Speech to the Progress-Toward.在诗的 最后她说到,不要为了战胜而生活,不要为了歌曲的结尾而生活,要享受生活。她说,你应 当为了现在而生活,无论过去发生了什么都不应该影响到现在,因为生活就是过好现在。But I think she's also saying, be a part of something.Don't live for yourself alone.This is what I know for sure: In order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have to stand for something larger than yourself.Because life is a reciprocal exchange.To move forward you have to give back.And to me, that is the greatest lesson of life.To be happy, you have to give something back.我想她还说过,去参与一些事。不要仅仅为了自己而生活。我可以非常肯定的是为了追求真 正的快乐,你必须为了一些更有意义的事而生活。生活是互动的。为了前进,你必须后退。对于我而言,这是人生中最重要的经验。想要获得快乐你必须付出。
I know you know that, because that's a lesson that's woven into the very fabric of this university.It's a lesson that Jane and Leland Stanford got and one they've bequeathed to you.Because all of you know the story of how this great school came to be, how the Stanfords lost their only child to typhoid at the age of 15.They had every right and they had every reason to turn their backs against the world at that time, but instead, they channeled their grief and their pain into an act of grace.Within a year of their son's death, they had made the founding grant for this great school, pledging to do for other people's children what they were not able to do for their own boy.我知道你们已经很了解了,因为这个经验已经深深的融入了斯坦福。这个经验是Jane and Leland传承给你们的。因为你们所有的人都知道这座伟大的大学是如何建成的。斯坦福夫妇 的独子在15岁时得了伤寒离开了他们。他们有权利和理由去恨这个世界,但是他们却用优 雅的行动疏导了心中的悲伤。在他们儿子死后不到一年内,他们已经这所伟大的大学筹集了 建设经费,并发誓要为别人的孩子做一些他们自己的孩子不能得到事。
The lesson here is clear, and that is, if you're hurting, you need to help somebody ease their hurt.If you're in pain, help somebody else's pain.And when you're in a mess, you get yourself out of the mess helping somebody out of theirs.And in the process, you get to become a member of what I call the greatest fellowship of all, the sorority of compassion and the fraternity of service.这个经验非常明显,那就是,如果你受了伤,你需要帮助他人减轻伤痛。如果你感到痛苦,帮助他人减轻痛苦。如果你的生活一团糟,去帮助其他处在困难中的人摆脱困境。这样一来,你就变成了妇女联谊会或是互助会中最伟大的一个员。
The Stanfords had suffered the worst thing any mom and dad can ever endure, yet they understood that helping others is the way we help ourselves.And this wisdom is increasingly supported by scientific and sociological research.It's no longer just woo-woo soft-skills talk.There's actually a helper's high, a spiritual surge you gain from serving others.So, if you want to feel good, you have to go out and do some good.斯坦福夫妇遭受了世上父母所能遭受的最大痛苦,然而他们懂得通过帮助他人来帮助自己。这种智慧渐渐的被科学和社会学研究所证实。这不仅仅是某种软技能的谈话。这事实上是在 帮助者的高度,一种从帮助别人而获得的精神大爆发。所以如果你想快乐,去帮助别人吧。But when you do good, I hope you strive for more than just the good feeling that service provides, because I know this for sure, that doing good actually makes you better.So, whatever field you choose, if you operate from the paradigm of service, I know your life will have more value and you will be happy.但是当你做好事时,我希望你不仅仅是为了获得的快乐,因为我深知做好事可以让你变得更 棒。所以无论你怎样选择,若你能以服务他人为榜样,我相信你的生活会更有价值,你也会 更快乐。
I was always happy doing my talk show, but that happiness reached a depth of fulfillment, of joy, that I really can't describe to you or measure when I stopped just being on TV and looking at TV as a job and decided to use television, to use it and not have it use me, to use it as a platform to serve my viewers.That alone changed the trajectory of my success.我也很高兴做我的脱口秀节目,那种快乐是一种更深层次的成就感,我很难去表达和衡量。我决定以电视作为我的职业,我要用电视这个平台来为我的观众服务,而不是让电视利用我。这改变了我成功的轨迹。
So, I know this—that whether you're an actor, you offer your talent in the way that most inspires art.If you're an anatomist, you look at your gift as knowledge and service to healing.Whether you've been called, as so many of you here today getting doctorates and other degrees, to the professions of business, law, engineering, humanities, science, medicine, if you choose to offer your skills and talent in service, when you choose the paradigm of service, looking at life through that paradigm, it turns everything you do from a job into a gift.And I know you haven't spent all this time at Stanford just to go out and get a job.我知道无论你是否是一名演员,你都应该把你的才智贡献给能够鼓舞他人的事业。如果你是 一名剖析家,你应当把你们的智慧投入到医治他人当中。无论你是否被召唤,你们中的很 多人在经济,法律,人权,科学,医药方面都获得了诸如博士一类的学位,如果你们决定把 你们的技能和智慧奉献给服务他人们,选择把服务他人作为榜样,你们的工作就会变成一 种天赋。我知道你们在斯坦福所在的一切就是为了出去找一份工作。
You've been enriched in countless ways.There's no better way to make your mark on the world and to share that abundance with others.My constant prayer for myself is to be used in service for the greater good.你们在很多方面都得到了提高。没有其它更好的方式能够分享你的丰富的才智了。我永恒的 祈祷就是让自己能够为他人提供更好的服务
So, let me end with one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King.Dr.King said, ”Not everybody can be famous.“ And I don't know, but everybody today seems to want to be famous.就让我引用马丁路德金的话来作为结束语吧。他说“不是所有人都会出名。”我不知道,但 似乎今天所有人都想出名。
But fame is a trip.People follow you to the bathroom, listen to you pee.It's just—try to pee quietly.It doesn't matter, they come out and say, ”Ohmigod, it's you.You peed.“ 但是成名也是一种代价。有些人会尾随你到卫生间,听你尿尿。你会尽量尿的轻一些。这没 什么大不了的。他们会对你说:“我的天啊,是你!你尿尿啦。” That's the fame trip, so I don't know if you want that.这就是成名的代价,我不知道你们是否喜欢。
So, Dr.King said, ”Not everybody can be famous.But everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.“ Those of you who are history scholars may know the rest of that passage.He said, ”You don't have to have a college degree to serve.You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.You don't have to know about Plato or Aristotle to serve.You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve.You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love." 所以,正如马丁路德金所说,“不是所有人都会成名。但每个人都可以变的伟大,因为伟大 是通过为他人服务而界定的。” 你们当中学历史的人可能会知道他接下来的话“为别人提 供服务,并不一定要有大学学历,并不一定要主谓一致,并不一定要认识柏拉图和亚里士多 德,并不一定要会爱因斯坦的相对论,并不一定要了解热力学第二定律。你所需要的是一 颗优雅的心灵和充满爱的灵魂。”
In a few moments, you'll all be officially Stanford's '08.不久你们就会正式成为斯坦福大学2008年的毕业生了。
You have the heart and the smarts to go with it.And it's up to you to decide, really, where will you now use those gifts? You've got the diploma, so go out and get the lessons, 'cause I know great things are sure to come.你们有聪明才智。你们将会决定如何利用它。说真的,你们将会如何利用它呢?你们拿到了 学位。走向社会吧,我坚信伟大的事将会发生的。
You know, I've always believed that everything is better when you share it, so before I go, I wanted to share a graduation gift with you.Underneath your seats you'll find two of my favorite books.Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is my current book club selection.Our New Earth webcast has been downloaded 30 million times with that book.And Daniel Pink's AWhole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future has reassured me I'm in the right direction.你们知道,我一直坚信,如果你和他人分享,那么事情就会变得更好。所以在我离开之前,我想和大家分享一下毕业礼物。在你们的座位底下,你们会发现两本我最喜欢的书。Eckhart Tolle的A New Earth流行书俱乐部的精选品。我们的New Earth广播已经被下载3 亿次。Daniel Pink的AWhole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future 使我确定我在人 生的正轨上。
I really wanted to give you cars but I just couldn't pull that off!Congratulations, '08!我真的想送大家轿车,只是开不过来!祝贺大家!08年的毕业生们!__