《成为乔布斯》由资深科技记者、跟乔布斯私交25年的Brent Schleder和前《财富》副主编、《快公司》主编Rick Tetzeli合著。
这本披露乔布斯诸多不为人知的秘闻、获得苹果公司官方认可的新传记,可以称作“乔布斯2.0”。
在《成为乔布斯》中,乔布斯被描绘为体贴的导师、友善的精神领袖、有血有肉的凡人、能激励团队做到最好的管理者……
2011年10月5日,傍晚的天色有种无法形容的瑰丽——温暖柔和,万里无云的天空上,一轮满月将清辉铺满了斯坦福大学校园。300多人聚集在这里悼念史蒂夫·乔布斯。乔布斯的逝世,对全世界来说,是损失了一位最伟大的创造家,但对出席者——尤其是他的家人来说,却是一种因为至亲离去而引发的切身悲痛。
悼念仪式如期举行,这场仪式悼念的是一个与众不同、才华横溢同时也会犯错的人。在U2乐队主唱Bono唱完《每一粒沙子》(Every Grain of Sand,鲍勃·迪伦作品)(其实是从iPad上读这首歌的歌词),斯坦福纪念教堂的哀悼结束后,所有人移步到了附近的花园,追忆这位最令人难忘的人物。
Every Grain of Sand,Bob Dylan with Mick Taylor, live from Paris 1984.
【乔布斯05年斯坦福演讲那一天发生了什么】
2005年6月16日早上,当乔布斯醒来时,他只觉得胃里天翻地覆。劳伦斯说:“我几乎从没见到他那么紧张过。”
史蒂夫是一个天生的表演家,能把商业演讲提升到接近艺术的境界,但要在斯坦福大学 2005 级毕业生们面前演讲还是让他焦躁不安。斯坦福大学校长 John Hennessy 几个月前向他提出做演讲的请求,没有太多时间考虑,乔布斯只能同意。在此之前他曾多次受邀发言,但都拒绝了。事实上,乔布斯受到的毕业典礼演讲邀请实在太多,以至于劳伦斯和那些拿到了学位的朋友总拿这个来开玩笑。乔布斯表示,他接受这次邀请,只是为了做个了结。不过归根结底,答应与否只是一个投资回报的问题。在论坛上公开演讲回报平平,不如在 MacWorld 上那么让人眼花缭乱。在那里他可以专注于伟大的产品,或者和家人们在一起。“如果你仔细观察他是怎么打发时间的,”蒂姆库克说,“你会发现他几乎不去旅游,也不像很多 CEO 那样频繁参加聚会。他只想回家吃顿饭。”
不过斯坦福不一样,虽然在那里发表演说不会让乔布斯变成“乔布斯博士”,因为这所大学不提供荣誉学位,但他从家里开车到那儿只用七分钟时间,这意味着他不需要将太多时间花在路上,也不会错过晚饭。更重要的是,斯坦福大学与硅谷技术社区关系很深,这是乔布斯非常赞赏的。这所大学的教育是一流的,他认识的那些教授,比如 Jim Collins,也都是顶尖人物。尽管中途辍学,但乔布斯一直都很享受和那些聪明的大学生们在一起。
撰写演讲稿是件麻烦事,乔布斯不得不让一些朋友提供建议,甚至还去找了编剧 Aaron Sorkin 寻求灵感。不过这些帮助都不大,最后乔布斯决定自己写稿。他花了一晚上的工夫打好草稿,然后让劳伦斯、库克以及其他朋友提些意见。劳伦斯说:“他真的很希望做好这件事,他希望说一些自己真正关心的东西。”经过修改,演讲稿中的用词有了少许变化,但整体的结构和乔布斯要表达的核心仍旧保留。在毕业典礼的前几天,他从楼上走到楼下,从卧室走到厨房,一直在背诵文稿,就好像应对 MacWorld 或是 WWDC 那样。有几次乔布斯甚至在晚饭时向家人朗读演讲稿。
在那个周六的早晨,正当一家人准备前往斯坦福大学时,乔布斯却一下子找不到了 SUV 的车钥匙,这个时候他突然决定不亲自开车了,他要利用这个短暂的时间进行最后一次准备。在前往校园区的路上,乔布斯和劳伦斯突然发现,VIP 停车证似乎被落下了。
直到一家人准备到达斯坦福的时候,他们才意识到自己应该提前动身才是 —— 23000 名学生将会到场,而以往很容易进入的体育场现在由于道路被封堵,变得似乎遥不可及,劳伦斯只能一个路障接一个路障地绕行。这时候乔布斯开始紧张了,他生怕会错过自己唯一一次答应发表的毕业演讲。
终于,乔布斯一家来到了体育场前的最后一个路障。一位女警挥手让劳伦斯停下。她慢慢地走到驾驶座一侧,说:“你不能走这里,女士,这里不能停车。”
“不,不,不,”劳伦斯说,“我们有停车证,只是刚才丢了。”面对女警狐疑的眼光,她继续解释:“我们这有人要去演讲,他就在车里!”
女警朝车内看去,只见里面有三个孩子,还有一个衣着没法用“光鲜”来形容的男人。她显然十分怀疑:“真的?哪一个?”
这时车内的所有人都忍不住笑出了声。乔布斯举起手说:“真的,就是我。”
他们终于赶到了体育场。史蒂夫穿上毕业袍,戴上学位帽,跟随亨尼斯校长一起向演讲台走去,劳伦和孩子们则和校长的女儿们一起去了体育场上方的VIP包厢。现场的气氛既庄严又轻快,是典型的斯坦福风格。有些学生戴着假发、穿着奇装异服四处走动,参加所谓的“奇装秀”;有些学生穿着正常的毕业袍;有几个学生居然打扮成了iPod的样子。校长花了几分钟简单介绍了史蒂夫,他说史蒂夫虽然大学没毕业,但其广博的思维却足以成为典范。
乔布斯 2005 年在斯坦福大学的演讲虽然只有短短的 15 分钟,但它被广泛引用,成为影响最深刻的毕业典礼演说之一。早在很久以前乔布斯能够将一则故事娓娓道来,但是他以前说的话所产生的共鸣都没法与这次演讲相比。
那次的毕业典礼演讲在 YouTube 上的观看次数至少有 3500 万次。2005 年社交网络远没有今天发达,所以视频的传播也不像今天这样,如病毒传播一般迅速。它经历了一个获得逐渐认可的过程,对斯坦福大学以外的人也具有无以伦比的重大意义。这次演说产生的影响也让乔布斯感到意外。时任苹果公关负责人凯蒂·考顿也表示:“没人想过它会这么火爆。”
这场演讲如果再早几年出现,那么受到的关注度可能就不会这么高了。因为就是在 2005 年夏天,苹果回归,乔布斯名声大振。公司的营收和利润攀升,股票也节节高升。所有关于黑暗时期的记忆、关于斯宾德勒、斯考利和阿梅里奥的记忆全都被抛在脑后,至少在公众看来——乔布斯他自己将这些时期封存在记忆里,时刻提醒自己不进则退。他不再是少年得志又迅速没落的天才,而是归来的王者,颠覆了美国作家菲茨杰拉德的名言——美国人的生命中没有第二幕(There are no second acts in American lives)。从此大家的疑问不再是苹果能否存活下来,而是苹果接下来要做什么?几周前,我为《财富》杂志撰写的封面标题是“苹果究竟能成为多大的公司”。
曾获斯坦福大学商学院杰出教学奖、著名的管理专家及畅销书作家吉姆·柯林斯(Jim Collins)表示苹果的回归也是乔布斯作为伟大商人的起点。“我们都会有崩溃或者被打败的时候。只是有时你没有意识到,但每个人都有这样的经历。我觉得累的时候、或者考虑是不是要开始一个新的创意项目,我都会想到史蒂夫身陷麻烦的时期。我总能由此获得力量。于我它是试金石,我不愿意认输。”
在乔布斯的非正统商业教育中,柯林斯发现了一些独特的东西:“我曾说过他是商界的贝多芬,年轻时的他与这个形容更贴切。乔布斯 22 岁时,你可以说他是一个有千人支持的天才。但是他远不止如此。他不是一个成功的故事,而是一个成长的故事,从一名伟大的艺术家变成一名伟大的公司创始人,这确实不凡。”
在苹果头十年疯狂释放自己的政治和情感热情之后,没能向 NeXT 兑现承诺带来产品之后,没有人觉得乔布斯会是一名伟大的商业领袖。但是就在 2005 年夏天,大家都认为他是伟大的商业领袖。显然没有他苹果也可能就此消失了。
乔布斯回到苹果,这其中运气占很大成分,但是柯林斯指出:“人与人的区别就是对运气的回报,有运气的时候你会如何利用这些运气。而真正重要的则是如何处理你手上的事情。只要它还是你的选择,那么你就不要离开游戏。一个行业诞生之初,乔布斯有幸回归。后来运气不好他被撵走,但是不管自己手上处理的是什么事情,乔布斯都全力以赴。有时候在不知道接下来有什么在等着你的地方,给自己那些能让你更加强大的挑战,你就给自己创造了双手。这就是故事的迷人之处。史蒂夫有点像汤姆·汉克斯在《荒岛余生》中的角色——只要呼吸就够了,因为你永远不知道明天海浪会给你带来什么东西。”
有些人津津乐道于年轻时期的乔布斯,大概是因为慢慢成熟的领导者变得不那么有趣了吧。在斯坦福的这次演讲能引起如此大的反响,是因为我们看到的是一位真挚感人的乔布斯。他学会了如何管理现金储备,他学会了如何挑选人才,他学会了不那么尖锐,他学会了不再做奇怪的举动。
只有真正成熟才能发表这么有深意的演讲。他或许曾经油嘴滑舌,也许年轻的时候他也会把这些句子挂在嘴边。但看得出来,他现在已理解了这些句子的真正含义。
“你必须相信这些点将在你的未来连成一线。”年轻的史蒂夫不会从辍学的经历得出这样的结论。在创立苹果公司十年后,史蒂夫开始按他的愿景勾勒未来。他相信他能逐渐将这些点联系起来。他的工程师在为他或天才或错误的创意而努力。直到他重归苹果,他才真的“不得不相信这些点真的可以联系在一起”。苹果的一些重大产品并非无端产生。iMac 可跟乔布斯砍掉的项目 eMate 的设计联系一起;iPod 和 iTunes 是史蒂夫有意开发视频编辑软件的兴趣直接导致的结果;苹果开发手机也是因为曾经黔驴技穷的开发团队得到史蒂夫的支持,允许他们扩宽研究范围,而开发团队的工作也使得史蒂夫决定追求他真正想要的产品——平板。
“有时候生活会给你一点小挫折。别丧失信心。做出伟大事业的唯一方法就是热爱你所做的事情。如果你还没有找到你热爱的事情,继续寻找。凭着你内心的直觉,当你找到的时候你自然会知道。而且随着时间的推移,你会越做越好。”
史蒂夫人生中很早就找到了他热爱的事情。但他在演讲中叙述的第二件事情,关于爱与失的话题,是那么感人。他庆幸他对工作的热爱始终不变,并最终给他带来如此多。尽管要经过很长一段时间才有收获,需经历 NeXT 时期的挫折、皮克斯时期的重整,到重归苹果才得到的稳定,但结果终究还是往好的方面发展。
“鼓起勇气追寻你的内心和直觉。它们有时候已经知道你真正想要成为什么。”这些话如果不是因为苹果的成功,听起来还真的像在励志课堂反复念诵的句子。但从乔布斯的嘴里说出来能有如此大的感染力,是因为这是乔布斯经过自身经历得到的体会。在乔布斯创业早期,他所理解的“直觉”仅仅是他自己的想法,并强迫其他人听取他的想法。但 2005 年的乔布斯懂得了听取其他队友的想法,开始主动了解周围的世界。比如他在皮克斯学习动画电影制作,他在回归苹果后也会在采取某些行动前听听别人的意见。
1998 年乔布斯曾接受过我的采访,他无意中提到《地球目录大全》杂志对他影响很大:“每当我不确定下一步要做什么时,我就会想到这本杂志。”这篇访谈发表在《财富》杂志上,几周后我收到布兰德寄来的一封信,里面是那本停刊号。“下次见到史蒂夫时,请把这本杂志转交给他。”一两周后,我把这本杂志转交给乔布斯,他非常激动。这么多年来,他一直对这本杂志念念不忘,只是没有时间去找。
乔布斯演讲的最后引用了杂志封底的格言,“求知若饥,虚心若愚”,但我更喜欢与这本杂志相关的话是“由灵巧工具和伟大想法所支撑的理想主义”。这句话也是苹果公司的真实写照。乔布斯希望毕业生也能够永不满足地追求心中的理想,即使这一理想在别人看来非常可笑,他也希望他们即将踏上新的征程时,给予他们灵巧的工具和伟大的想法。
你必须相信这些片断会在你未来的某一天串连起来。
你必须要相信某些东西:你的勇气、目的、生命、因缘。
“记住你即将死去”是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言……
全世界最经典的演讲之一:
史蒂夫·乔布斯2005年6月12日在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲
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.
我今天很荣幸能和你们一起参加毕业典礼,斯坦福大学是世界上最好的大学之一。我从来没有从大学中毕业。说实话,今天也许是在我的生命中离大学毕业最近的一天了。今天我想向你们讲述我生活中的三个故事。不是什么大不了的事情,只是三个故事而已。
The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一个故事是关于如何把生命中的点点滴滴串连起来。
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?
我在里德学院读了六个月之后就退学了,但是在十八个月以后——我真正的作出退学决定之前,我还经常去学校。我为什么要退学呢?
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.
故事从我出生的时候讲起。我的亲生母亲是一个年轻的、没有结婚的大学毕业生。她决定让别人收养我,她十分想让我被大学毕业生收养。所以在我出生的时候,她已经做好了一切的准备工作,能使得我被一个律师和他的妻子所收养。但是她没有料到,当我出生之后,律师夫妇突然决定他们想要一个女孩。
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.
所以我的生养父母(他们还在我亲生父母的观察名单上)突然在半夜接到了一个电话:“我们现在这儿有一个不小心生出来的男婴,你们想要他吗?”他们回答道:“当然!”但是我亲生母亲随后发现,我的养母从来没有上过大学,我的父亲甚至从没有读过高中。她拒绝签这个收养合同。只是在几个月以后,我的父母答应她一定要让我上大学,那个时候她才同意。
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.
在十七岁那年,我真的上了大学。但是我很愚蠢的选择了一个几乎和你们斯坦福大学一样贵的学校,我父母还处于蓝领阶层,他们几乎把所有积蓄都花在了我的学费上面。在六个月后, 我已经看不到其中的价值所在。我不知道我想要在生命中做什么,我也不知道大学能帮助我找到怎样的答案。
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. 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.
但是在这里,我几乎花光了我父母这一辈子的所有积蓄。所以我决定要退学,我觉得这是个正确的决定。不能否认,我当时确实非常的害怕, 但是现在回头看看,那的确是我这一生中最棒的一个决定。在我做出退学决定的那一刻, 我终于可以不必去读那些令我提不起丝毫兴趣的课程了。然后我还可以去修那些看起来有点意思的课程。
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:
但是这并不是那么罗曼蒂克。我失去了我的宿舍,所以我只能在朋友房间的地板上面睡觉;我去捡5美分的可乐瓶子,仅仅为了填饱肚子; 在星期天的晚上,我需要走七英里的路程,穿过这个城市到Hare Krishna寺庙(位于纽约Brooklyn下城),只是为了能吃上饭——这个星期唯一一顿好一点的饭。但是我喜欢这样。我跟着我的直觉和好奇心走, 遇到的很多东西,此后被证明是无价之宝。让我给你们举一个例子吧:
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.
Reed大学在那时提供也许是全美最好的美术字课程。在这个大学里面的每个海报,每个抽屉的标签上面全都是漂亮的美术字。因为我退学了, 没有受到正规的训练, 所以我决定去参加这个课程,去学学怎样写出漂亮的美术字。
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.
我学到了san serif 和serif字体,我学会了怎么样在不同的字母组合之中改变空格的长度,还有怎么样才能作出最棒的印刷式样。那是一种科学永远不能捕捉到的、美丽的、真实的艺术精妙, 我发现那实在是太美妙了。
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.
当时看起来这些东西在我的生命中,好像都没有什么实际应用的可能。但是十年之后,当我们在设计第一台Macintosh电脑的时候,就不是那样了。我把当时我学的那些家伙全都设计进了Mac。那是第一台使用了漂亮的印刷字体的电脑。
If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's 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.
如果我当时没有退学, 就不会有机会去参加这个我感兴趣的美术字课程,Mac就不会有这么多丰富的字体,以及赏心悦目的字体间距。那么现在个人电脑就不会有现在这么美妙的字型了。当然我在大学的时候,还不可能把从前的点点滴滴串连起来,但是当我十年后回顾这一切的时候,真的豁然开朗了。
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.
再次说明的是,你在向前展望的时候不可能将这些片断串连起来;你只能在回顾的时候将点点滴滴串连起来。所以你必须相信这些片断会在你未来的某一天串连起来。你必须要相信某些东西:你的勇气、目的、生命、因缘。这个过程从来没有令我失望(let me down),只是让我的生命更加地与众不同而已。
My second story is about love and loss.
我的第二个故事是关于爱和损失的。
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 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.
我非常幸运,因为我在很早的时候就找到了我钟爱的东西。Woz和我在二十岁的时候就在父母的车库里面开创了苹果公司。我们工作得很努力,十年之后,这个公司从那两个车库中的穷光蛋发展到了超过四千名的雇员、价值超过二十亿的大公司。在公司成立的第九年,我们刚刚发布了最好的产品,那就是Macintosh。我也快要到三十岁了。
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.
在那一年,我被炒了鱿鱼。你怎么可能被你自己创立的公司炒了鱿鱼呢? 嗯,在苹果快速成长的时候,我们雇用了一个很有天分的家伙和我一起管理这个公司。在最初的几年,公司运转得很好。但是后来我们对未来的看法发生了分歧,最终我们吵了起来。当争吵不可开交的时候,董事会站在了他的那一边。所以在三十岁的时候,我被炒了。在这么多人的眼皮下我被炒了。在而立之年,我生命的全部支柱离自己远去,这真是毁灭性的打击。
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.
在最初的几个月里,我真是不知道该做些什么。我把从前的创业激情给丢了,我觉得自己让与我一同创业的人都很沮丧。我和David Pack和Bob Boyce见面,并试图向他们道歉。
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.
我把事情弄得糟糕透顶了。但是我渐渐发现了曙光,我仍然喜爱我从事的这些东西。苹果公司发生的这些事情丝毫的没有改变这些,一点也没有。我被驱逐了,但是我仍然钟爱它。所以我决定从头再来。
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.
我当时没有觉察,但是事后证明,从苹果公司被炒是我这辈子发生的最棒的事情。因为,作为一个成功者的极乐感觉被作为一个创业者的轻松感觉所重新代替:对任何事情都不那么特别看重。这让我觉得如此自由,进入了我生命中最有创造力的一个阶段。
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.
在接下来的五年里,我创立了一个名叫NeXT的公司,还有一个叫Pixar的公司,然后和一个后来成为我妻子的优雅女人相识。Pixar 制作了世界上第一个用电脑制作的动画电影——“玩具总动员”,Pixar现在也是世界上最成功的电脑制作工作室。
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.
在后来的一系列运转中,Apple收购了NeXT,然后我又回到了Apple公司。我们在NeXT发展的技术在Apple的复兴之中发挥了关键的作用。我还和Laurence一起建立了一个幸福的家庭。
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 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.
我可以非常肯定,如果我不被Apple开除的话,这其中一件事情也不会发生的。这个良药的味道实在是太苦了,但是我想病人需要这个药。有些时候,生活会拿起一块砖头向你的脑袋上猛拍一下。不要失去信心。我很清楚唯一使我一直走下去的,就是我做的事情令我无比钟爱。你需要去找到你所爱的东西。
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.
对于工作是如此,对于你的爱人也是如此。你的工作将会占据生活中很大的一部分。你只有相信自己所做的是伟大的工作,你才能怡然自得。如果你现在还没有找到,那么继续找、不要停下来、全心全意的去找,当你找到的时候你就会知道的。就像任何真诚的关系,随着岁月的流逝只会越来越紧密。所以继续找,直到你找到它,不要停下来!
My third story is about death.
我的第三个故事是关于死亡的。
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.
当我十七岁的时候,我读到了一句话:“如果你把每一天都当作生命中最后一天去生活的话,那么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。从那时开始,过了33年,我在每天早晨都会对着镜子问自己:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天,你会不会完成你今天想做的事情呢?”当答案连续很多次被给予“不是”的时候,我知道自己需要改变某些事情了。
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.
“记住你即将死去”是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言。它帮我指明了生命中重要的选择。因为几乎所有的事情,包括所有的荣誉、所有的骄傲、所有对难堪和失败的恐惧,这些在死亡面前都会消失。我看到的是留下的真正重要的东西。你有时候会思考你将会失去某些东西,“记住你即将死去”是我知道的避免这些想法的最好办法。你已经赤身裸体了,你没有理由不去跟随自己的心一起跳动。
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 to 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.
大概一年以前,我被诊断出癌症。我在早晨七点半做了一个检查,检查清楚的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。医生告诉我那很可能是一种无法治愈的癌症,我还有三到六个月的时间活在这个世界上。我的医生叫我回家,然后整理好我的一切, 那就是医生准备死亡的程序。那意味着你将要把未来十年对你小孩说的话在几个月里面说完;那意味着把每件事情都搞定,让你的家人会尽可能轻松的生活;那意味着你要说“再见了”。
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 and 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 I'm fine now.
我整天和那个诊断书一起生活。后来有一天早上我作了一个活切片检查,医生将一个内窥镜从我的喉咙伸进去,通过我的胃,然后进入我的肠子,用一根针在我的胰腺上的肿瘤上取了几个细胞。我当时很镇静,因为我被注射了镇定剂。但是我的妻子在那里,后来告诉我,当医生在显微镜地下观察这些细胞的时候他们开始尖叫,因为这些细胞最后竟然是一种非常罕见的可以用手术治愈的胰腺癌症。我做了这个手术,现在我痊愈了。
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its 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:
那是我最接近死亡的时候,我还希望这也是以后的几十年最接近的一次。从死亡线上又活了过来,死亡对我来说,只是一个有用但是纯粹是知识上的概念的时候,我可以更肯定一点地对你们说:
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 is 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 is quite true.
没有人愿意死,即使人们想上天堂,人们也不会为了去那里而死。但是死亡是我们每个人共同的终点。从来没有人能够逃脱它。也应该如此。因为死亡就是生命中最好的一个发明。它将旧的清除以便给新的让路。你们现在是新的,但是从现在开始不久以后,你们将会逐渐的变成旧的然后被清除。我很抱歉这很戏剧性,但是这十分的真实。
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.
你们的时间很有限,所以不要将他们浪费在重复其他人的生活上。不要被教条束缚,那意味着你和其他人思考的结果一起生活。不要被其他人喧嚣的观点掩盖你真正的内心的声音。还有最重要的是,你要有勇气去听从你直觉和心灵的指示——它们在某种程度上知道你想要成为什么样子,所有其他的事情都是次要的。
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 1960's, 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, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
当我年轻的时候,有一本叫做“整个地球的目录”振聋发聩的杂志,它是我们那一代人的圣经之一。创办人名叫斯图尔特·布兰德(Stewart Brand),就住在离这儿不远的门洛帕克市。他用诗一般的语言把刊物办得生动活泼。那是 20 世纪 60 年代末,还没有个人电脑和桌面印刷系统,全靠打字机、剪刀和宝丽莱照相机(Polaroid)。它就像一种纸质的 Google,却比 Google 早问世了 35 年。这份刊物太完美了,查阅手段齐备、构思不凡。
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.
斯图尔特和他的同事们出了好几期《全球概览》,到最后办不下去时,他们出了最后一期。那是 20 世纪 70 年代中期,我也就是你们现在的年纪。最后一期的封底上是一张清晨乡间小路的照片,就是那种爱冒险的人等在那儿搭便车的那种小路。照片上面写道:“好学若饥、谦卑若愚”。那是他们停刊前的告别辞。
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.
求知若渴,大智若愚。这也是我一直想做到的。眼下正值诸位大学毕业、开始新生活之际,我同样愿大家:好学若饥、谦卑若愚。
(更通俗传神的译法:保持饥饿,保持愚蠢。)