喬布斯在斯坦福大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講

Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

謝謝大家。很榮幸能和你們，來(lái)自世界最好大學(xué)之一的畢業(yè)生們，一塊兒參加畢業(yè)典禮。老實(shí)說(shuō)，我大學(xué)沒(méi)有畢業(yè)，今天恐怕是我一生中離大學(xué)畢業(yè)最近的一次了。

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

今天我想告訴大家來(lái)自我生活的三個(gè)故事。沒(méi)什么大不了的，只是三個(gè)故事而已。

The first story is about connecting the dots.

第一個(gè)故事，如何串連生命中的點(diǎn)滴。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

我在里得大學(xué)讀了六個(gè)月就退學(xué)了，但是在18個(gè)月之后——我真正退學(xué)之前，我還常去學(xué)校。為何我要選擇退學(xué)呢？這還得從我出生之前說(shuō)起。我的生母是一個(gè)年輕、未婚的大學(xué)畢業(yè)生，她決定讓別人收養(yǎng)我。她有一個(gè)很強(qiáng)烈的信仰，認(rèn)為我應(yīng)該被一個(gè)大學(xué)畢業(yè)生家庭收養(yǎng)。于是，一對(duì)律師夫婦說(shuō)好了要領(lǐng)養(yǎng)我，然而最后一秒鐘，他們改變了主意，決定要個(gè)女孩兒。然后我排在收養(yǎng)人名單中的養(yǎng)父母在一個(gè)深夜接到電話(huà)，“很意外，我們多了一個(gè)男嬰，你們要嗎？”“當(dāng)然要！”但是我的生母后來(lái)又發(fā)現(xiàn)我的養(yǎng)母沒(méi)有大學(xué)畢業(yè)，養(yǎng)父連高中都沒(méi)有畢業(yè)。她拒絕在領(lǐng)養(yǎng)書(shū)上簽字。幾個(gè)月后，我的養(yǎng)父母保證會(huì)讓我上大學(xué)，她妥協(xié)了。

This was the start in my life. And 17 years later, I did go to college, but I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

這是我生命的開(kāi)端。十七年后，我上大學(xué)了，但是我很無(wú)知地選了一所差不多和斯坦福一樣貴的學(xué)校，幾乎花掉我那藍(lán)領(lǐng)階層養(yǎng)父母一生的積蓄。六個(gè)月后，我覺(jué)得不值得。我看不出自己以后要做什么，也不曉得大學(xué)會(huì)怎樣幫我指點(diǎn)迷津，而我卻在花銷(xiāo)父母一生的積蓄。所以我決定退學(xué)，并且相信沒(méi)有做錯(cuò)。一開(kāi)始非常嚇人，但回憶起來(lái)，這卻是我一生中作的最好的決定之一。從我退學(xué)的那一刻起，我可以停止一切不感興趣的必修課，開(kāi)始旁聽(tīng)那些有意思得多的課。

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.

事情并不那么美好。我沒(méi)有宿舍可住，睡在朋友房間的地上。為了吃飯，我收集五分一個(gè)的舊可樂(lè)瓶，每個(gè)星期天晚上步行七英里到哈爾-克里什納廟里改善一下一周的伙食。我喜歡這種生活方式。能夠遵循自己的好奇和直覺(jué)前行后來(lái)被證明是多么的珍貴。讓我來(lái)給你們舉個(gè)例子吧。

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

當(dāng)時(shí)的里德大學(xué)提供可能是全國(guó)最好的書(shū)法指導(dǎo)。校園中每一張海報(bào)，抽屜上的每一張標(biāo)簽，都是漂亮的手寫(xiě)體。由于我已退學(xué)，不用修那些必修課，我決定選一門(mén)書(shū)法課上上。在這門(mén)課上，我學(xué)會(huì)了“serif”和"sans-serif"兩種字體、學(xué)會(huì)了怎樣在不同的字母組合中改變字間距、學(xué)會(huì)了怎樣寫(xiě)出好的字來(lái)。這是一種科學(xué)無(wú)法捕捉的微妙，楚楚動(dòng)人、充滿(mǎn)歷史底蘊(yùn)和藝術(shù)性，我覺(jué)得自己被完全吸引了。

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

當(dāng)時(shí)我并不指望書(shū)法在以后的生活中能有什么實(shí)用價(jià)值。但是，十年之后，我們?cè)谠O(shè)計(jì)第一臺(tái)Macintosh計(jì)算機(jī)時(shí)，它一下子浮現(xiàn)在我眼前。于是，我們把這些東西全都設(shè)計(jì)進(jìn)了計(jì)算機(jī)中。這是第一臺(tái)有這么漂亮的文字版式的計(jì)算機(jī)。要不是我當(dāng)初在大學(xué)里偶然選了這么一門(mén)課，Macintosh計(jì)算機(jī)絕不會(huì)有那么多種印刷字體或間距安排合理的字號(hào)。要不是Windows照搬了 Macintosh，個(gè)人電腦可能不會(huì)有這些字體和字號(hào)。

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphyclass and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

要不是退了學(xué)，我決不會(huì)碰巧選了這門(mén)書(shū)法課，個(gè)人電腦也可能不會(huì)有現(xiàn)在這些漂亮的版式了。

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

當(dāng)然，我在大學(xué)里不可能從這一點(diǎn)上看到它與將來(lái)的關(guān)系。十年之后再回頭看，兩者之間關(guān)系就非常、非常清楚了。你們同樣不可能從現(xiàn)在這個(gè)點(diǎn)上看到將來(lái)；只有回頭看時(shí)，才會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)它們之間的關(guān)系。所以你必須相信，那些點(diǎn)點(diǎn)滴滴，會(huì)在你未來(lái)的生命里，以某種方式串聯(lián)起來(lái)。你必須相信一些東西——你的勇氣、宿命、生活、因緣，隨便什么——因?yàn)橄嘈胚@些點(diǎn)滴能夠一路連接會(huì)給你帶來(lái)循從本覺(jué)的自信，它使你遠(yuǎn)離平凡，變得與眾不同。

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned30, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out.When we did, our board of directors sided with him.

第二個(gè)故事是關(guān)于愛(ài)與失的。我很幸運(yùn)，很早就發(fā)現(xiàn)自己喜歡做的事情。我二十歲的時(shí)候就和沃茨在父母的車(chē)庫(kù)里開(kāi)創(chuàng)了蘋(píng)果公司。我們工作得很努力，十年后，蘋(píng)果公司成長(zhǎng)為擁有四千名員工，價(jià)值二十億的大公司。我們剛剛推出了最好的創(chuàng)意，Macintosh操作系統(tǒng)，在這之前的一年，也就是我剛過(guò)三十歲，我被解雇了。你怎么可能被一個(gè)親手創(chuàng)立的公司解雇？事情是這樣的，在公司成長(zhǎng)期間，我雇傭了一個(gè)我們認(rèn)為非常聰明，可以和我一起經(jīng)營(yíng)公司的人。一年后，我們對(duì)公司未來(lái)的看法產(chǎn)生分歧，董事會(huì)站在了他的一邊。

And so at 30,I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

于是，在我三十歲的時(shí)候，我出局了，很公開(kāi)地出局了。我整個(gè)成年生活的焦點(diǎn)沒(méi)了，這很要命。一開(kāi)始的幾個(gè)月我真的不知道該干什么。我覺(jué)得我讓公司的前一代創(chuàng)建者們失望了，我把傳給我的權(quán)杖給弄丟了。我與戴維德·帕珂德和鮑勃·諾埃斯見(jiàn)面，試圖為這徹頭徹尾的失敗道歉。我敗得如此之慘以至于我想要逃離硅谷。但有個(gè)東西在慢慢地叫醒我：我還愛(ài)著我從事的行業(yè)。這次失敗一點(diǎn)兒都沒(méi)有改變這一點(diǎn)。我被逐了，但我仍愛(ài)著我的事業(yè)。我決定重新開(kāi)始。

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

當(dāng)時(shí)我沒(méi)有看出來(lái)，但事實(shí)證明“被蘋(píng)果開(kāi)除”是發(fā)生在我身上最好的事。成功的重?fù)?dān)被重新起步的輕松替代，對(duì)任何事情都不再特別看重，這讓我感覺(jué)如此自由，進(jìn)入一生中最有創(chuàng)造力的階段。接下來(lái)的五年，我創(chuàng)立了一個(gè)叫NeXT的公司，接著又建立了Pixar，然后與后來(lái)成為我妻子的女人相愛(ài)。Pixar出品了世界第一個(gè)電腦動(dòng)畫(huà)電影：“玩具總動(dòng)員”，現(xiàn)在它已經(jīng)是世界最成功的動(dòng)畫(huà)制作工作室了。

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

在一系列的成功運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)后，蘋(píng)果收購(gòu)了NeXT，我又回到了蘋(píng)果。我們?cè)贜eXT開(kāi)發(fā)的技術(shù)在蘋(píng)果的復(fù)興中起了核心作用，另外勞琳和我組建了一個(gè)幸福的家庭。

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

我非常確信，如果我沒(méi)有被蘋(píng)果炒掉，這些就都不會(huì)發(fā)生。這個(gè)藥的味道太糟了，但是我想病人需要它。有些時(shí)候，生活會(huì)給你迎頭一棒。不要喪失信心。我確信唯一讓我一路走下來(lái)的是我對(duì)自己所做事情的熱愛(ài)。你必須去找你熱愛(ài)的東西，對(duì)工作如此，對(duì)你的愛(ài)人也是這樣的。工作會(huì)占據(jù)你生命中很大的一部分，你只有相信自己做的是偉大的工作，你才能怡然自得。如果你還沒(méi)有找到，那么就繼續(xù)找，不要停。全心全意地找，當(dāng)你找到時(shí)，你會(huì)知道的。就像任何真誠(chéng)的關(guān)系，隨著時(shí)間的流逝，只會(huì)越來(lái)越緊密。所以繼續(xù)找，不要停。

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

我的第三個(gè)故事關(guān)于死亡。我17歲的時(shí)候讀到過(guò)一句話(huà)“如果你把每一天都當(dāng)作最后一天過(guò)，有一天你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)你是正確的”。這句話(huà)給我留下了深刻的印象。從那以后，過(guò)去的33年，每天早上我都會(huì)對(duì)著鏡子問(wèn)自己：“如果今天是我的最后一天，我會(huì)不會(huì)做我想做的事情呢？”如果連著一段時(shí)間，答案都是否定的的話(huà)，我就知道我需要改變一些東西了。提醒自己就要死了是我遇見(jiàn)的最大的幫助，幫我作了生命中的大決定。因?yàn)閹缀跞魏问?mdash;—所有的榮耀、驕傲、對(duì)難堪和失敗的恐懼——在死亡面前都會(huì)消隱，留下真正重要的東西。提醒自己就要死亡是我知道的最好的方法，用來(lái)避開(kāi)擔(dān)心失去某些東西的陷阱。你已經(jīng)赤裸裸了，沒(méi)有理由不聽(tīng)從于自己的心愿。

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

大約一年前，我被診斷出患了癌癥。我早上七點(diǎn)半作了掃描，清楚地顯示在我的胰腺有一個(gè)腫瘤。我當(dāng)時(shí)都不知道胰腺是什么東西。醫(yī)生們告訴我這幾乎是無(wú)法治愈的，我還有三到六個(gè)月的時(shí)間。我的醫(yī)生建議我回家，整理一切。在醫(yī)生的辭典中，這就是“準(zhǔn)備死亡”的意思。就是意味著把要對(duì)你小孩說(shuō)十年的話(huà)在幾個(gè)月內(nèi)說(shuō)完；意味著把所有東西搞定，盡量讓你的家庭活得輕松一點(diǎn)；意味著你要說(shuō)“永別”了。

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.

我整日都想著那診斷書(shū)的事情。后來(lái)有天晚上我做了一個(gè)活切片檢查，他們將一個(gè)內(nèi)窺鏡伸進(jìn)我的喉嚨，穿過(guò)胃，到達(dá)腸道，用一根針在我的胰腺腫瘤上取了幾個(gè)細(xì)胞。我當(dāng)時(shí)是被麻醉的，但是我的妻子告訴我，那些醫(yī)生在顯微鏡下看到細(xì)胞的時(shí)候開(kāi)始尖叫，因?yàn)榘l(fā)現(xiàn)這竟然是一種非常罕見(jiàn)的可用手術(shù)治愈的胰腺癌癥。我做了手術(shù)，現(xiàn)在，我痊愈了。

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, and most important, have the courage to follow heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

這是我最接近死亡的時(shí)候，我也希望是我未來(lái)幾十年里最接近死亡的一次。這次死里逃生讓我比以往只知道死亡是一個(gè)有用而純粹書(shū)面概念的時(shí)候更確信地告訴你們，沒(méi)有人愿意死，即使那些想上天堂的人們也不愿意通過(guò)死亡來(lái)達(dá)到他們的目的。但是死亡是每個(gè)人共同的終點(diǎn)，沒(méi)有人能夠逃脫。也應(yīng)該如此，因?yàn)樗劳龊芸赡苁巧詈玫陌l(fā)明。它去陳讓新。現(xiàn)在，你們就是“新”。但是有一天，不用太久，你們有會(huì)慢慢變老然后死去。抱歉，這很戲劇性，但卻是真的。你們的時(shí)間是有限的，不要浪費(fèi)在重復(fù)別人的生活上。不要被教條束縛，那意味著會(huì)和別人思考的結(jié)果一塊兒生活。不要被其他人的喧囂觀點(diǎn)掩蓋自己內(nèi)心真正的聲音。你的直覺(jué)和內(nèi)心知道你想要變成什么樣子。所有其他東西都是次要的。

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitch-hiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

我年輕的時(shí)候，有一份叫做《完整地球目錄》的好雜志，是我們這一代人的圣經(jīng)之一。它是一個(gè)叫斯糾華特·布蘭的、住在離這不遠(yuǎn)的曼羅公園的家伙創(chuàng)立的。他用詩(shī)一般的觸覺(jué)將這份雜志帶到世界。那是六十年代后期，個(gè)人電腦出現(xiàn)之前，所以這份雜志全是用打字機(jī)、剪刀和偏光鏡制作的。有點(diǎn)像軟皮包裝的google，不過(guò)卻早了三十五年。它理想主義，全文充斥著靈巧的工具和偉大的想法。斯糾華特和他的小組出版了幾期“完整地球目錄”，在完成使命之前，他們出版了最后一期。那是七十年代中期，我和你們差不多大。最后一期的封底是一張清晨鄉(xiāng)村小路的照片，如果你有冒險(xiǎn)精神，可以自己找到這條路。下面有一句話(huà)，“保持饑餓，保持愚蠢”。這是他們的告別語(yǔ)，“保持饑餓，保持愚蠢”。我常以此勉勵(lì)自己?，F(xiàn)在，在你們即將踏上新旅程的時(shí)候，我也希望你們能這樣。保持饑餓，保持愚蠢。

Thank you all, very much.

非常感謝。