zz from one blog

“只是想与大家分享
一下，看看这个作为整个科技领域最好执行总裁之一的大人物，在一群充满才气的学生
就要离校，面对‘真实世界之际，想要对他们说些什么”。

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

谢谢大家。很荣幸能和你们，来自世界最好大学之一的毕业生们，一块儿参加毕业典礼
。老实说，我大学没有毕业，今天恐怕是我一生中离大学毕业最近的一次了。

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big
deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

今天我想告诉大家来自我生活的三个故事。没什么大不了的，只是三个故事而已。第一
个故事，如何串连生命中的点滴。

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

我在里得大学读了六个月就退学了，但是在十八个月之后--我真正退学之前，我还常去
学校。为何我要选择退学呢？这还得从我出生之前说起。我的生母是一个年轻、未婚的
大学毕业生，她决定让别人收养我。她有一个很强烈的信仰，认为我应该被一个大学毕
业生家庭收养。于是，一对律师夫妇说好了要领养我，然而最后一秒钟，他们改变了注
意，决定要个女孩儿。然后我的排在收养人名单中的养父母在一个深夜接到电话，“很
意外，我们多了一个男婴，你们要吗？”“当然要！”但是我的生母后来又发现我的养
母没有大学毕业，养父连高中都没有毕业。她拒绝在领养书上签字。几个月后，我的养
父母保证会让我上大学，她妥协了。

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

这是我生命的开端。十七年后，我上大学了，但是我很无知地选了一所差不多和斯坦福
一样贵的学校，几乎花掉我那蓝领阶层养父母一生的积蓄。六个月后，我觉得不值得。
我看不出自己以后要做什么，也不晓得大学会怎样帮我指点迷津，而我却在花销父母一
生的积蓄。所以我决定退学，并且相信没有做错。一开始非常吓人，但回忆起来，这却
是我一生中作的最好的决定之一。从我退学的那一刻起，我可以停止一切不感兴趣的必
修课，开始旁听那些有意思得多的课。

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

事情并不那么美好。我没有宿舍可住，睡在朋友房间的地上。为了吃饭，我收集五分一
个的旧可乐瓶，每个星期天晚上步行七英里到哈尔-克里什纳庙里改善一下一周的伙食。
我喜欢这种生活方式。能够遵循自己的好奇和直觉前行后来被证明是多么的珍贵。让我
来给你们举个例子吧。

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

当时的里得大学提供可能是全国最好的书法指导。校园中每一张海报，抽屉上的每一张
标签，都是漂亮的手写体。由于我已退学，不用修那些必修课，我决定选一门书法课上
上。在这门课上，我学会了“serif”和"sans-serif"两种字体、学会了怎样在不同的字
母组合中改变字间距、学会了怎样写出好的字来。这是一种科学无法捕捉的微妙，楚楚
动人、充满历史底蕴和艺术性，我觉得自己被完全吸引了。

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

一开始实在看不出所有这些会对我的实际生活应用有任何帮助。但是十年后当我们在设
计苹果第一台电脑的时候，这些东西都跑出来了，我把它们全都设计到了电脑里。那是
第一台有漂亮字体的电脑。如果我从来没有选过那门课，苹果电脑就不会有那些漂亮的
字型，又因为微软是完全拷贝苹果，很有可能，个人电脑就不会有这些漂亮的字体了。

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

如果我没有退学，我就不会去修那门写字课，个人电脑就不会像现在这样有令人愉悦的
字体了。

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was
in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect
them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow
connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny,
life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down
the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it
leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

当然，当我还在大学时向前预测是完全不可能把这些点滴串联起来的，然而十年后再回
顾时，就显得很明朗了。再说一遍，往前看，是连接不起这些点滴的，只有往后看才行
。所以你必须相信，那些点点滴滴，会在你未来的生命里，以某种方式串联起来。你必
须相信一些东西--你的勇气、宿命、生活、因缘，随便什么--因为相信这些点滴能够一
路连接会给你带来循从本觉的自信，它使你走离平凡，变得与众不同。

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved
to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I
was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the
two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.
We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and
I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a
company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought
was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so,
things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and
eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided
with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been
the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I
really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the
previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as
it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried
to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I
even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began
to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had
not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so
I decided to start over.

第二个故事是关于爱与失的。我很幸运。很早就发现自己喜欢做的事情。我二十岁的时
候就和沃茨在父母的车库里开创了苹果公司。我们工作得很努力，十年后，苹果公司成
长为拥有四千名员工，价值二十亿的大公司。我们只是推出了最好的创意，Macintosh操
作系统，在这之前的一年，也就是我刚过三十岁，我被解雇了。你怎么可能被一个亲手
创立的公司解雇？事情是这样的，在公司成长期间，雇佣了一个我们认为非常聪明，可
以和我一起经营公司的人。一年后，我们对公司未来的看法产生分歧，董事长站在了他
的一边。于是，在我三十岁的时候，我出局了，很公开地出局了。我整个成年生活的焦
点没了，这很要命。一开始的几个月我真的不知道该干什么。我觉得我让公司的前一代
创建者们失望了，我把传给我的权杖给弄丢了。我与戴维德-帕珂德和鲍勃-诺埃斯见面
，试图为这彻头彻尾的失败道歉。我败得如此之惨以至于我想要逃离这儿。有个东西在
慢慢地叫醒我。我还爱着我从事的行业。这次失败一点儿都没有改变这一点。我被逐了
，但我仍爱着。我决定从新开始。

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

当时我没有看出来，但事实证明“被苹果开除”是发生在我身上最好的事。成功的重担
被重新起步的轻松替代，对任何事情都不再特别看重。这让我感觉如此自由，进入一生
中最有创造力的阶段。接下来的五年，我创立了一个叫NeXT的公司，接着又建立了Pixar
，然后与后来成为我妻子的女人相爱。Pixar出品了世界第一个电脑动画电影：“玩具总
动员”，现在它已经是世界最成功的动画制作工作室了。

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

在一系列的成功运转后，苹果收购了NeXT，我又回到了苹果。我们在NeXT开发的技术在
苹果的复兴中起了核心作用，另外劳琳和我组建了一个幸福的家庭。

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

我非常确信，如果我没有被苹果炒掉，这些就都不会发生。这个药的味道太糟了，但是
我想病人需要它。有些时候，生活会给你迎头一棒。不要丧失信心。我确信唯一让我一
路走下来的是我对自己所做事情的热爱。你必须去找你热爱的东西，对工作如此，对你
的爱人也是这样的。工作会占据你生命中很大的一部分，你只有相信自己做的是伟大的
工作，你才能怡然自得。如果你还没有找到，那么就继续找，不要停。全心全意地找，
当你找到时，你会知道的。就像任何真诚的关系，随着时间的流逝，只会越来越紧密。
所以继续找，不要停。

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

我的第三个故事关于死亡。我十七岁的时候读到过一句话“如果你把每一天都当作最后
一天过，有一天你会发现你是正确的”。这句话给我留下了深刻的印象。从那以后，过
去的三十三年，每天早上我都会对着镜子问自己：“如果今天是我的最后一天，我会不
会做我想做的事情呢？”当答案持续否定一些次数后，我知道我需要改变一些东西了。
提醒自己就要死了是我遇见的最大的帮助，帮我作了生命中的大决定。因为几乎任何事
——所有的荣耀、骄傲、对难堪和失败的恐惧——在死亡面前都会消隐，留下真正重要
的东西。提醒自己就要死亡是我知道的最好的方法，用来避开担心失去某些东西的陷阱
。你已经赤裸裸了，没有理由不听从于自己的心愿。

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

大约一年前，我被诊断出患了癌症。我早上七点半作了扫描，清楚地显示在我的胰腺有
一个肿瘤。我当时都不知道胰腺是什么东西。医生们告诉我这几乎是无法治愈的，还有
三到六个月的时间。我的医生建议我回家，整理一切。在医生的辞典中，这就是“准备
死亡”的意思。就是意味着把要对你小孩说十年的话在几个月内说完；意味着把所有东
西搞定，尽量让你的家庭活得轻松一点；意味着你要说“永别”了。

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

我整日都与诊断书待在一起。那天晚上我做了一个活切片检查，他们将一个内窥镜伸进
我的喉咙，穿过胃，直达小肠，用一根针在我的胰腺肿瘤上取了几个细胞。我当时服了
镇定剂，但是我的妻子告诉我，那些医生在显微镜下看到细胞的时候开始尖叫，因为发
现这竟然是一种非常罕见的可用手术治愈的胰腺癌症。我做了手术，谢天谢地，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, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want
to become. Everything else is secondary.

这是我最接近死亡的时候，我也希望是我未来几十年里最接近死亡的一次。这次死里逃
生让我比以往只知道死亡是一个有用而纯粹书面概念的时候更确信地告诉你们，没有人
愿意死，即使那些想上天堂的人们也不愿意通过死亡来达到他们的目的。但是死亡是每
个人共同的终点，没有人能够逃脱。也应该如此，因为死亡很可能是生命最好的发明。
它去陈让新。现在，你们就是“新”。但是有一天，不用太久，你们有会慢慢变老然后
被清除。抱歉，这很戏剧性，但却是真的。你们的时间是有限的，不要浪费在重复别人
的生活上。不要被教条束缚，那意味着会和别人思考的结果一块儿生活。不要被其他人
的喧嚣观点掩盖自己内心真正的声音。你的直觉和内心知道你想要变成什么样子。所有
其他东西都是次要的。

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth
Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by
a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought
it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, 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 thirty-five 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-Seventies
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 were the words, "Stay
hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off.
"Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and
now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay
foolish.

我年轻的时候，有一份叫做“完整地球目录”的好杂志，是我们这一代人的圣经之一。
它是一个叫斯纠华特-布兰得，住在离这不远的曼罗公园的家伙创立的。他用诗一般的触
觉将这份杂志带到世界。那是六十年代后期，个人电脑出现之前，所以这份杂志全是用
打字机、剪刀和偏光镜制作的。有点像软皮包装的google，不过却早了三十五年。它理
想主义，全文充斥着灵巧的工具和伟大的想法。斯纠华特和他的小组出版了几期“完整
地球目录”，在完成使命之前，他们出版了最后一期。那是七十年代中期，我和你们差
不多大。最后一期的封底是一张清晨乡村小路的照片，如果你有冒险精神，可以自己找
到这条路。下面有一句话，“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢”。这是他们的告别语，“保持饥饿
，保持愚蠢”。我常以此勉励自己。现在，在你们即将踏上新旅程的时候，我也希望你
们能这样。保持饥饿，保持愚蠢。

Thank you all, very much.

非常感谢。