乔布斯要有勇气追寻心声(乔布斯送给毕业生的人生寄语)
乔布斯要有勇气追寻心声(乔布斯送给毕业生的人生寄语)And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.我不知道我的人生该做什么,也不知道读大学能怎么帮我找到这个答案。After six months I couldn't see the value in it. 六个月后,我实在看不出这个书读得有什么价值。I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.
2005年夏天,史蒂夫·乔布斯受邀在斯坦福大学的第114届毕业典礼上发表演讲。
这位在大学里仅仅六个月就选择退学的商业巨擘,在这所全世界最顶尖的大学,向一群即将走向各行各业的最优秀的大学生,讲述了自己人生中的三个故事以及他收获的人生体会。
这也成为了有史以来最为经典,也最受欢迎的毕业演讲之一。
1.Connecting the dots 连接事物
- Drop out: 退出,退学
- Figure it out: 弄明白,搞清楚
- Work out: 解决,实现
After six months I couldn't see the value in it.
六个月后,我实在看不出这个书读得有什么价值。
I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.
我不知道我的人生该做什么,也不知道读大学能怎么帮我找到这个答案。
And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.
父母为了我能读大学已经花光了他们所有的积蓄,所以我决定退学,并且相信船到桥头自然直。
It was pretty scary at the time but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
当时这个决定看上去非常可怕,但现在看来,这是我做过最正确的决定之一。
- Calligraphy: 书法
- Stumble into: 无意中卷入,偶尔走入
The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
从退学的那一刻起,我再也不用去上我一点兴趣也没有的必修课程,而是把时间花在那些感兴趣的课上。
And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
那些仅凭借好奇心和直觉去做的事情,最后看来却都成为了无价之宝。
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.
里德学院有着当时可能是全国最好的书法课。退学后我不再需要去上那些规定课程,所以,我决定去学一学书法。
- Practical application: 实际用处
- It comes to me: 我突然想起来
- Drop in: 加入,参加
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.
我从来没想过这些东西能对我的人生产生什么实际作用。
But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer it all came back to me.
但是十年之后,当我在设计第一台Macintosh电脑时,那些当年没用的东西全都派上了用场。
We designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.
我们把它设计在了Mac中。那是世界上第一台有漂亮字体的电脑。
If I had never dropped in on that single course in college the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
如果当年我没有上过那堂书法课,那么Mac绝对不会有如今的多重字体和变间距字体。
And since Windows just copied the Mac its likely that no personal computer would have them.
加上Windows一直在抄袭Mac,所以也可以说如果我没上那堂书法课,很有可能全世界的电脑都不会有这些东西。
- Dots: 点(文中指人生中发生的每一件事)
- Connect the dots: 连点成线
- Look forward: 向前看
- Look backward: 回顾
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.
当然,那时的我绝对没办法把这些点点滴滴预先联系在一起。
But it was very very clear looking backwards ten years later.
但是,十年后再回顾起来,一切都非常地清楚。
Again you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
我再说一次,没有办法提前将这些事情联系在一起,你只能在事后回顾时才恍然大悟。
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
所以,你需要相信那些发生在你身上的一点一滴,它们一定会在未来对你有所帮助。
2.Love and loss 爱与失去
- Start Apple: 创建苹果公司
- Get fired: 被解雇
I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.
我很幸运,很早的时候就找到了我热爱的事情。20岁的时候,我和Woz在我爸妈的车库里开始了苹果公司的事业。
We worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.
我们拼命工作,十年后,苹果从车库里的两个小伙子成长为四千多员工,市值20亿的公司。
We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.
就在一年前我们刚刚推出了最棒的产品Macintosh,我刚踏入三十岁的门槛的时候,我被苹果解雇了。
- Diverge: 分歧,偏离
- Have a falling out: 闹翻,争吵
- Side with somebody: 支持,站在某人的一边
How can you get fired from a company you started?
一个人怎么可能会被自己创建的公司解雇?
Well as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me and for the first year or so things went well.
苹果公司逐渐成长的时候,我们请来以为我认为非常有才能的人来和我一起经营公司,第一年,一切都很顺利。
But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did our Board of Directors sided with him.
但是后来我们对未来的构想开始出现分歧,最终闹翻,那个时候,董事会站在了他那边。
- Be out: 出局
- Let somebody down: 使某人失望
- Drop the baton: 弄掉了接力棒
So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating.
30岁的时候,我出局了。公司非常公开地把我请了出去。那个曾是我整个成年生活重心的东西不见了,这对我来说是毁灭性的打击。
I really didn't know what to do for a few months.
好几个月,我都不知道我该做什么。
I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down —— that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.
我觉得我让企业界的前辈们失望——我把他们传给我的接力棒弄掉了。
I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley.
我成为了失败的公开范例,甚至想过离开硅谷。
- Dawn on: 开始理解,渐渐明白
- Start over: 重新开始,从头来过
But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did.
但是慢慢地我开始意识到,我还是热爱着曾经做过的事情。
The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.
在苹果发生的事情并没有改变这一点。
I had been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
我被否定了,但是我仍然热爱它。所以我决定从头来过。
During the next five years I started a company named NeXT another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.
之后的五年,我成立了NeXT公司,皮克斯公司,并和我未来的妻子相恋了。
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.
我很确定,如果当年苹果没有开除我,这些事情一件也不会发生。
It was awful tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it.
这帖药真的很苦口,但也真正地治好了病。
3.Death 死亡
- Fall away: 消失,离开
- Have something to lose: 害怕失去
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
提醒自己快死了,是我人生中每次做出重大决定时的最重要的方法。
Because almost everything —— all external expectations all pride all fear of embarrassment or failure —— these things just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is truly important.
因为几乎所有的事情——所有外在的期望,所有的名誉,所有对窘境和失败的畏惧——所有的这些东西都会在死亡面前消解,留下来的只有真正重要的东西。
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
提醒自己你注定一死,是避免害怕失去的最好方法。
You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
你原本就是一无所有的,没有任何理由不顺心而为。
- Be trapped by: 被困住,陷入困境
- Drown out: 淹没,压过
Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life.
你的时间有限,不要浪费时间活在别人的生活里。
Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
不要被教条所困,那就是生活在别人思维里的结果。
Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.
不要让其他人的意见淹没了你自己内心的声音。
And most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
最重要的,要有勇气追随自己的内心和直觉,它们知道你真正想要什么。其它的事物都是次要。
- Farewell:再见
- Sign off: 停止活动,停止广播
When I was young there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog which was one of the bibles of my generation.
在我年轻的时候,有一本很棒的杂志叫做The Whole Earth Catalog,我们那一代都很迷这本杂志。
On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
在最后一期的封底,有一张照片,拍的是清晨的乡村小路,照片下方写着一排字:求知若饥,虚心若愚。
It was their farewell message as they signed off.
这是他们停刊的告别讯息。
And I have always wished that for myself.
我经常以此自许。
And now as you graduate to begin anew I wish that for you.
现在,你们毕业了,开启新的生活,我也以此期许你们。
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
求知若饥,虚心若愚。