Steve Jobs-An innovative man

1.'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

充满魅力的偶像-乔布斯

[ 不指定 2006/08/22 22:05 | by chilam ]
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苹果快要发布新版本的操作系统Mac OS X Leopard ,jobs又再展示了他在台上的个人魅力,又让我再崇拜了一把,当中对新版本的功能做了现场的演示,Mac的每一个升级都是让人期待和兴奋的,如新功能Time Machine,还拿出windows vista的界面做对比。
Apple WWDC 2006

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《我生命中的三个故事》-斯蒂夫·乔布斯


  (斯坦福)是世界上最好的大学之一,今天能参加各位的毕业典礼,我备感荣幸。(尖叫声)我从来没有从大学毕业,说句实话,此时算是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。(笑声)今天,我想告诉你们我生命中的三个故事,并非什么了不得的大事件,只是三个小故事而已。

第一个故事,是关于串起生命中的点点滴滴
(原文为“connecting the dots”指一种小游戏:把标有序列号的点连起来,就构成一幅图画——译注)

  我在里德大学呆了6个月就退学了,但之后仍作为旁听生混了18个月后才最终离开。我为什么要退学呢?

  故事要从我出生之前开始说起。我的生母是一名年轻的未婚妈妈,当时她还是一所大学的在读研究生,于是决定把我送给其他人收养。她坚持我应该被一对念过大学的夫妇收养,所以在我出生的时候,她已经为我被一个律师和他的太太收养做好了所有的准备。但在最后一刻,这对夫妇改了主意,决定收养一个女孩。侯选名单上的另外一对夫妇,也就是我的养父母,在一天午夜接到了一通电话:“有一个不请自来的男婴,你们想收养吗?”他们回答:“当然想。”事后,我的生母才发现我的养母根本就没有从大学毕业,而我的养父甚至连高中都没有毕业,所以她拒绝签署最后的收养文件,直到几个月后,我的养父母保证会把我送到大学,她的态度才有所转变。

  17年之后,我真上了大学。但因为年幼无知,我选择了一所和斯坦福一样昂贵的大学,(笑声)我的父母都是工人阶级,他们倾其所有资助我的学业。在6个月之后,我发现自己完全不知道这样念下去究竟有什么用。当时,我的人生漫无目标,也不知道大学对我能起到什么帮助,为了念书,还花光了父母毕生的积蓄,所以我决定退学。我相信车到山前必有路。当时作这个决定的时候非常害怕,但现在回头去看,这是我这一生所作出的最正确的决定之一。(笑声)从我退学那一刻起,我就再也不用去上那些我毫无兴趣的必修课了,我开始旁听那些看来比较有意思的科目。

  这件事情做起来一点都不浪漫。因为没有自己的宿舍,我只能睡在朋友房间的地板上;可乐瓶的押金是5分钱,我把瓶子还回去好用押金买吃的;在每个周日的晚上,我都会步行7英里穿越市区,到Hare Krishna教堂吃一顿大餐,我喜欢那儿的食物。我跟随好奇心和直觉所做的事情,事后证明大多数都是极其珍贵的经验。

  我举一个例子:那个时候,里德大学提供了全美国最好的书法教育。整个校园的每一张海报,每一个抽屉上的标签,都是漂亮的手写体。由于已经退学,不用再去上那些常规的课程,于是我选择了一个书法班,想学学怎么写出一手漂亮字。在这个班上,我学习了各种衬线和无衬线字体,如何改变不同字体组合之间的字间距,以及如何做出漂亮的版式。那是一种科学永远无法捕捉的充满美感、历史感和艺术感的微妙,我发现这太有意思了。

  当时,我压根儿没想到这些知识会在我的生命中有什么实际运用价值;但是10年之后,当我们设计第一款Macintosh电脑的候,这些东西全派上了用场。我把它们全部设计进了Mac,这是第一台可以排出好看版式的电脑。如果当时我大学里没有旁听这门课程的话,Mac就不会提供各种字体和等间距字体。自从视窗系统抄袭了Mac以后,(鼓掌大笑)所有的个人电脑都有了这些东西。如果我没有退学,我就不会去书法班旁听,而今天的个人电脑大概也就不会有出色的版式功能。当然我在念大学的那会儿,不可能有先见之明,把那些生命中的点点滴滴都串起来;但10年之后再回头看,生命的轨迹变得非常清楚。

  再强调一次,你不可能充满预见地将生命的点滴串联起来;只有在你回头看的时候,你才会发现这些点点滴滴之间的联系。所以,你要坚信,你现在所经历的将在你未来的生命中串联起来。你不得不相信某些东西,你的直觉,命运,生活,因缘际会……正是这种信仰让我不会失去希望,它让我的人生变得与众不同。


我的第二个故事是关于爱与失去

  我是幸运的,在年轻的时候就知道了自己爱做什么。在我20岁的时候,就和沃兹在我父母的车库里开创了苹果电脑公司。我们勤奋工作,只用了10年的时间,苹果电脑就从车库里的两个小伙子扩展成拥有4000名员工,价值达到20亿美元的企业。而在此之前的一年,我们刚推出了我们最好的产品Macintosh电脑,当时我刚过而立之年。然后,我就被炒了鱿鱼。一个人怎么可以被他所创立的公司解雇呢?(笑声)这么说吧,随着苹果的成长,我们请了一个原本以为很能干的家伙和我一起管理这家公司,在头一年左右,他干得还不错,但后来,我们对公司未来的前景出现了分歧,于是我们之间出现了矛盾。由于公司的董事会站在他那一边,所以在我30岁的时候,就被踢出了局。我失去了一直贯穿在我整个成年生活的重心,打击是毁灭性的。

  在头几个月,我真不知道要做些什么。我觉得我让企业界的前辈们失望了,我失去了传到我手上的指挥棒。我遇到了戴维·帕卡德(普惠的创办人之一——译注)和鲍勃·诺伊斯(英特尔的创办人之一——译注),我向他们道歉,因为我把事情搞砸了。我成了人人皆知的失败者,我甚至想过逃离硅谷。但曙光渐渐出现,我还是喜欢我做过的事情。在苹果电脑发生的一切丝毫没有改变我,一个比特(bit)都没有。虽然被抛弃了,但我的热忱不改。我决定重新开始。

  我当时没有看出来,但事实证明,我被苹果开掉是我这一生所经历过的最棒的事情。成功的沉重被凤凰涅槃的轻盈所代替,每件事情都不再那么确定,我以自由之躯进入了我整个生命当中最有创意的时期。

  在接下来的5年里,我开创了一家叫做NeXT的公司,接着是一家名叫Pixar的公司,并且接识了后来成为我妻子的曼妙女郎。Pixar制作了世界上第一部全电脑动画电影《玩具总动员》,现在这家公司是世界上最成功的动画制作公司之一。(掌声)后来经历一系列的事件,苹果买下了NeXT,于是我又回到了苹果,我们在NeXT研发出的技术在推动苹果复兴的核心动力。我和劳伦斯也拥有了美满的家庭。

  我非常肯定,如果没有被苹果炒掉,这一切都不可能在我身上发生。对于病人来说,良药总是苦口。生活有时候就像一块板砖拍向你的脑袋,但不要丧失信心。热爱我所从事的工作,是一直支持我不断前进的惟一理由。你得找出你的最爱,对工作如此,对爱人亦是如此。工作将占据你生命中相当大的一部分,从事你认为具有非凡意义的工作,方能给你带来真正的满足感。而从事一份伟大工作的惟一方法,就是去热爱这份工作。如果你到现在还没有找到这样一份工作,那么就继续找。不要安于现状,当万事了于心的时候,你就会知道何时能找到。如同任何伟大的浪漫关系一样,伟大的工作只会在岁月的酝酿中越陈越香。所以,在你终有所获之前,不要停下你寻觅的脚步。不要停下。


我的第三个故事是关于死亡

  在17岁的时候,我读过一句格言,好像是:“如果你把每一天都当成你生命里的最后一天,你将在某一天发现原来一切皆在掌握之中。”(笑声)这句话从我读到之日起,就对我产生了深远的影响。在过去的33年里,我每天早晨都对着镜子问自己:“如果今天是我生命中的末日,我还愿意做我今天本来应该做的事情吗?”当一连好多天答案都否定的时候,我就知道做出改变的时候到了。

  提醒自己行将入土是我在面临人生中的重大抉择时,最为重要的工具。

  因为所有的事情——外界的期望、所有的尊荣、对尴尬和失败的惧怕——在面对死亡的时候,都将烟消云散,只留下真正重要的东西。在我所知道的各种方法中,提醒自己即将死去是避免掉入畏惧失去这个陷阱的最好办法。人赤条条地来,赤条条地走,没有理由不听从你内心的呼唤。

  大约一年前,我被诊断出癌症。在早晨7:30我做了一个检查,扫描结果清楚地显示我的胰脏出现了一个肿瘤。我当时甚至不知道胰脏究竟是什么。医生告诉我,几乎可以确定这是一种不治之症,顶多还能活3至6个月。大夫建议我回家,把诸事安排妥当,这是医生对临终病人的标准用语。这意味着你得把你今后10年要对你的子女说的话用几个月的时间说完;这意味着你得把一切都安排妥当,尽可能减少你的家人在你身后的负担;这意味着向众人告别的时间到了。

  我整天都想着诊断结果。那天晚上做了一个切片检查,医生把一个内诊镜从我的喉管伸进去,穿过我的胃进入肠道,将探针伸进胰脏,从肿瘤上取出了几个细胞。我打了镇静剂,但我的太太当时在场,她后来告诉我说,当大夫们从显微镜下观察了细胞组织之后,都哭了起来,因为那是一非常罕见的,可以通过手术治疗的胰脏癌。我接受了手术,现在已经康复了。

  这是我最接近死亡的一次,我希望在随后的几十年里,都不要有比这一次更接近死亡的经历。在经历了这次与死神擦肩而过的经验之后,死亡对我来说只是一项有效的判断工具,并且只是一个纯粹的理性概念时相比,我能够更肯定地告诉你们以下事实:没人想死;即使想去天堂的人,也是希望能活着进去。(笑声)死亡是我们每个人的人生终点站,没人能够成为例外。生命就是如此,因为死亡很可能是生命最好的造物,它是生命更迭的媒介,送走耋耄老者,给新生代让路。现在你们还是新生代,但不久的将来你们也将逐渐老去,被送出人生的舞台。很抱歉说得这么富有戏剧性,但生命就是如此。

  你们的时间有限,所以不要把时间浪费在别人的生活里。不要被条条框框束缚,否则你就生活在他人思考的结果里。不要让他人的观点所发出的噪音淹没你内心的声音。最为重要的是,要有遵从你的内心和直觉的勇气,它们可能已知道你其实想成为一个什么样的人。其他事物都是次要的。

  在我年轻的时候,有一本非常棒的杂志叫《全球目录》(The Whole Earth Catalog),它被我们那一代人奉为圭臬。这本杂志的创办人是一个叫斯图尔特·布兰德的家伙,他住在Menlo Park,距离这儿不远。他把这本杂志办得充满诗意。那是在60年代末期,个人电脑、桌面发排系统还没有出现,所以出版工具只有打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机。这本杂志有点像印在纸上的Google,但那是在Google出现的35年前;它充满了理想色彩,内容都是些非常好用的工具和了不起的见解。

  斯图尔特和他的团队做了几期《全球目录》,快无疾而终的时候,他们出版了最后一期。那是在70年代中期,我当时处在你们现在的年龄。在最后一期的封底有一张清晨乡间公路的照片,如果你喜欢搭车冒险旅行的话,经常会碰到的那种小路。在照片下面有一排字:物有所不足,智有所不明(Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.)这是他们停刊的告别留言。物有所不足,智有所不明。我总是以此自诩。现在,在你们毕业开始新生活的时候,我把这句话送给你们。

   物有所不足,智有所不明。(Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.)

转自 arthtml




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乔布斯:魔鬼型的完美主义者 超凡魅力的暴君

  正当乔布斯在数字影像业崭露头角的时候,他一手栽下的“苹果”之树却濒临绝境。乔布斯是一名优秀的设计师,他对技术的敏锐感觉保证了苹果在技术上的先进性。然而,没有乔布斯的苹果也失去了灵感的源泉,失去了创新的力量,后果很快就显现了出来:销售额和市场占有率直线下降;部门之间勾心斗角;高层领导对问题视而不见;有才华的员工纷纷跳槽。
 

  重返苹果大胆改革
  1997年9月,乔布斯重返苹果公司,出任临时首席执行官,他对奄奄一息的苹果公司进行大刀阔斧的公司改组,并颁布了一连串新产品降价促销的措施。1998年第四个财政季度,苹果公司创造了1亿多美元的利润,让“苹果”重新“红”了起来。
  就在这一年,iMac上市,并且成为历史上销售最快的个人电脑。经过艰苦的努力,乔布斯在公司产品、人事、生产、营销等方面进行了一系列的改革举措之后,终使苹果从“死亡的漩涡中”活过来了。2000年1月,乔布斯被正式任命为首席执行官。分析家们说,乔布斯正在演绎苹果公司东山再起的传奇。
  美国很多媒体经常形容乔布斯是“魔鬼型的完美主义者”,“具有超凡的人格魅力的可怕暴君”。在员工眼里,乔布斯是个具有多面性的天才。首先,他具有“神话般的销售能力”,听乔布斯亲自介绍产品,会觉得媒体对苹果电脑销售下滑的报道都是假的;另一方面,乔布斯不断强调,创新不是生产时髦产品,而是超前一步生产概念性产品。在预见未来产品方面,他对自己的眼光自信到狂妄自大的地步。这在众多管理者中不多见。
  安迪·格鲁夫是英特尔公司的前任首席执行官,同时也是苹果电脑多年来最直接的竞争对手。格鲁夫一直赞赏乔布斯,他说:“史蒂夫将永远是史蒂夫,唯一可能的变化是他将不断失去更多的头发。”

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  每周工作90小时
  乔布斯(Jobs)在英文中意为“工作”,他也确实是一个工作狂。乔布斯年轻时候的信条是,“一周工作80个小时,而且喜欢这么做。”但事实上,他一周工作90个小时尚嫌不足。
  现在乔布斯往往这样度过一天——早晨6时起床,在4个孩子起床前工作一会儿,吃早点,然后等孩子们上学后再工作一个小时左右,在9时左右去苹果公司上班。无论他在哪里,他的计算机都通过高速网络和苹果公司以及Pixar公司连接在一起,他随时都可以处理文件和电子邮件。
  乔布斯描述说:“即使堪萨斯的一个员工上完厕所不放水冲洗,他们也会给我发邮件抱怨。”不过,很明显,他喜欢这样。
  乔布斯的经营理念是:“苹果公司制造计算机是面向活生生的个人,而不是公司。”正因为他的执著,精益求精的苹果计算机才有那么多追随者。

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摘要:这是苹果公司CEO乔布斯2005年在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲,大学途中退学,创业,被解雇,东山再起,死亡威胁,这些他都一一经历了。经营自己与众不同的人生要从了解别人的经历开始。以下是英文原版以及翻译的版本:

Tag: 英语 演讲
     This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

   I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

  很荣幸和大家一道参加这所世界上最好的一座大学的毕业典礼。我大学没毕业,说实话,这是我第一次离大学毕业典礼这么近。今天我想给大家讲三个我自己的故事,不讲别的,也不讲大道理,就讲三个故事。

   The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

  第一个故事讲的是点与点之间的关系。我在里德学院( Reed College )只读了六个月就退学了,此后便在学校里旁听,又过了大约一年半,我彻底离开。那么,我为什么退学呢?

   It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

  这得从我出生前讲起。我的生母是一名年轻的未婚在校研究生,她决定将我送给别人收养。她非常希望收养我的是有大学学历的人,所以把一切都安排好了,我一出生就交给一对律师夫妇收养。没想到我落地的霎那间,那对夫妇却决定收养一名女孩。就这样,我的养父母 —— 当时他们还在登记册上排队等著呢 —— 半夜三更接到一个电话 : “我们这儿有一个没人要的男婴,你们要么?”“当然要”他们回答。但是,我的生母后来发现我的养母不是大学毕业生,我的养父甚至连中学都没有毕业,所以她拒绝在最后的收养文件上签字。不过,没过几个月她就心软了,因为我的养父母许诺日后一定送我上大学。

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

   17 年后,我真的进了大学。当时我很天真,选了一所学费几乎和斯坦福大学一样昂贵的学校,当工人的养父母倾其所有的积蓄为我支付了大学学费。读了六个月后,我却看不出上学有什么意义。我既不知道自己这一生想干什么,也不知道大学是否能够帮我弄明白自己想干什么。这时,我就要花光父母一辈子节省下来的钱了。所以,我决定退学,并且坚信日后会证明我这样做是对的。当年做出这个决定时心里直打鼓,但现在回想起来,这还真是我有生以来做出的最好的决定之一。从退学那一刻起,我就可以不再选那些我毫无兴趣的必修课,开始旁听一些看上去有意思的课。

   It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

  那些日子一点儿都不浪漫。我没有宿舍,只能睡在朋友房间的地板上。我去退还可乐瓶,用那五分钱的押金来买吃的。每个星期天晚上我都要走七英里,到城那头的黑尔科里施纳礼拜堂去,吃每周才能享用一次的美餐。我喜欢这样。我凭借好奇心和直觉所干的这些事情,有许多后来都证明是无价之宝。我给大家举个例子 :

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

  当时,里德学院的书法课大概是全国最好的。校园里所有的公告栏和每个抽屉标签上的字都写得非常漂亮。当时我已经退学,不用正常上课,所以我决定选一门书法课,学学怎么写好字。我学习写带短截线和不带短截线的印刷字体,根据不同字母组合调整其间距,以及怎样把版式调整得好上加好。这门课太棒了,既有历史价值,又有艺术造诣,这一点科学就做不到,而我觉得它妙不可言。

   None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

  当时我并不指望书法在以后的生活中能有什么实用价值。但是,十年之后,我们在设计第一台 Macintosh 计算机时,它一下子浮现在我眼前。于是,我们把这些东西全都设计进了计算机中。这是第一台有这么漂亮的文字版式的计算机。要不是我当初在大学里偶然选了这么一门课, Macintosh 计算机绝不会有那么多种印刷字体或间距安排合理的字号。要不是 Windows 照搬了 Macintosh ,个人电脑可能不会有这些字体和字号。要不是退了学,我决不会碰巧选了这门书法课,个人电脑也可能不会有现在这些漂亮的版式了。当然,我在大学里不可能从这一点上看到它与将来的关系。十年之后再回头看,两者之间的关系就非常、非常清楚了。

   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. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

  你们同样不可能从现在这个点上看到将来;只有回头看时,才会发现它们之间的关系。所以,要相信这些点迟早会连接到一起。你们必须信赖某些东西 —— 直觉、归宿、生命,还有业力,等等。这样做从来没有让我的希望落空过,而且还彻底改变了我的生活。

   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 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

  我的第二个故事是关于好恶与得失。幸运的是,我在很小的时候就发现自己喜欢做什么。我在 20 岁时和沃兹( Woz ,苹果公司创始人之一 Wozon 的昵称 —— 译注)在我父母的车库里办起了苹果公司。我们干得很卖力,十年后,苹果公司就从车库里我们两个人发展成为一个拥有 20 亿元资产、 4000 名员工的大企业。那时,我们刚刚推出了我们最好的产品—— Macintosh 电脑 —— 那是在第 9 年,我刚满 30 岁。可后来,我被解雇了。你怎么会被自己办的公司解雇呢?是这样,随著苹果公司越做越大,我们聘了一位我认为非常有才华的人与我一道管理公司。在开始的一年多里,一切都很顺利。可是,随后我俩对公司前景的看法开始出现分歧,最后我俩反目了。这时,董事会站在了他那一边,所以在 30 岁那年,我离开了公司,而且这件事闹得满城风雨。我成年后的整个生活重心都没有了,这使我心力交瘁。

   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 had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

  一连几个月,我真的不知道应该怎么办。我感到自己给老一代的创业者丢了脸 —— 因为我扔掉了交到自己手里的接力棒。我去见了戴维帕卡德( David Packard ,惠普公司创始人之一 译注)和鲍勃诺伊斯( Bob Noyce ,英特尔公司创建者之一 译注),想为把事情搞得这么糟糕说声道歉。这次失败弄得沸沸扬扬的,我甚至想过逃离硅谷。但是,渐渐地,我开始有了一个想法 —— 我仍然热爱我过去做的一切。在苹果公司发生的这些风波丝毫没有改变这一点。我虽然被拒之门外,但我仍然深爱我的事业。于是,我决定从头开始。

   I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

   During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

  虽然当时我并没有意识到,但事实证明,被苹果公司炒鱿鱼是我一生中碰到的最好的事情。尽管前景未卜,但从头开始的轻松感取代了保持成功的沉重感。这使我进入了一生中最富有创造力的时期之一。 在此后的五年里,我开了一家名叫 NeXT 的公司和一家叫皮克斯的公司,我还爱上一位了不起的女人,后来娶了她。皮克斯公司推出了世界上第一部用电脑制作的动画片《玩具总动员》( Toy Story ),它现在是全球最成功的动画制作室。世道轮回,苹果公司买下 NeXT 后,我又回到了苹果公司,我们在 NeXT 公司开发的技术成了苹果公司这次重新崛起的核心。我和劳伦娜( Laurene )也建立了美满的家庭。

   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 hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

  我确信,如果不是被苹果公司解雇,这一切决不可能发生。这是一剂苦药,可我认为苦药利于病。有时生活会当头给你一棒,但不要灰心。我坚信让我一往无前的唯一力量就是我热爱我所做的一切。所以,一定得知道自己喜欢什么,选择爱人时如此,选择工作时同样如此。工作将是生活中的一大部分,让自己真正满意的唯一办法,是做自己认为是有意义的工作;做有意义的工作的唯一办法,是热爱自己的工作。你们如果还没有发现自己喜欢什么,那就不断地去寻找,不要急于做出决定。就像一切要凭著感觉去做的事情一样,一旦找到了自己喜欢的事,感觉就会告诉你。就像任何一种美妙的东西,历久弥新。所以说,要不断地寻找,直到找到自己喜欢的东西。不要半途而废。

   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.

  我的第三个故事与死亡有关。 17 岁那年,我读到过这样一段话,大意是:“如果把每一天都当作生命的最后一天,总有一天你会如愿以偿。”我记住了这句话,从那时起, 33 年过去了,我每天早晨都对著镜子自问:“假如今天是生命的最后一天,我还会去做今天要做的事吗?”如果一连许多天我的回答都是“不”,我知道自己应该有所改变了。

   Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost 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.

  让我能够做出人生重大抉择的最主要办法是,记住生命随时都有可能结束。因为几乎所有的东西 —— 所有对自身之外的希求、所有的尊严、所有对困窘和失败的恐惧 —— 在死亡来临时都将不复存在,只剩下真正重要的东西。记住自己随时都会死去,这是我所知道的防止患得患失的最好方法。你已经一无所有了,还有什么理由不跟著自己的感觉走呢?

   About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

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

  一年前,我被诊断出癌症。我在早上七点半作断层扫描,在胰脏清楚出现一个肿瘤,我连胰脏是什么都不知道。医生告诉我,那几乎可以确定是一种不治之症,我大概活不到三到六个月了。医生建议我回家,好好跟亲人们聚一聚,这是医生对临终病人的标准建议。那代表你得试着在几个月内把你将来十年想跟小孩讲的话讲完。 那代表你得把每件事情搞定,家人才会尽量轻松。那代表你得跟人说再见了。我整天想着那个诊断结果,那天晚上做了一次切片,从喉咙伸入一个内视镜,从胃进肠子,插了根针进胰脏,取了一些肿瘤细胞出来。我打了镇静剂,不醒人事,但是我老婆在场。她后来跟我说,当医生们用显微镜看过那些细胞后,他们都哭了,因为那是非常少见的一种胰脏癌,可以用手术治好。所以我接受了手术,康复了。

   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.

  这是我最接近死亡的时候,我希望那会继续是未来几十年内最接近的一次。经历此事后,我可以比之前死亡只是抽象概念时要更肯定告诉你们下面这些:

  没有人想死。即使那些想上天堂的人,也想活着上天堂。但是死亡是我们共有的目的地,没有人逃得过。这是注定的,因为死亡简直就是生命中最棒的发明,是生命变化的媒介,送走老人们,给新生代留下空间。现在你们是新生代,但是不久的将来,你们也会逐渐变老,被送出人生的舞台。抱歉讲得这么戏剧化,但是这是真的。

   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 your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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

   When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the "bibles" of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 60s, 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.

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

   Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I've always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

   Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

   Thank you all very much.

   Stewart 跟他的出版团队出了好几期《 Whole Earth Catalog 》,然后出了停刊号。当时是 1970 年代中期,我正是你们现在这个年龄的时候。在停刊号的封底,有张早晨乡间小路的照片,那种你去爬山时会经过的乡间小路。在照片下有行小字:求知若饥,虚心若愚。那是他们亲笔写下的告别讯息,我总是以此自许。当你们毕业,展开新生活,我也以此期许你们。

  求知若饥,虚心若愚。
  
  非常谢谢大家。

 =========

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