苹果CEO库克杜兰大学2019毕业演讲：21年前，我为什么加入了濒临破产的苹果公司（附视频&演讲稿）
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美国当地时间5月18日，苹果公司CEO蒂姆·库克（Tim Cook）在梅赛德斯-奔驰穹顶体育馆向杜兰大学（Tulane University）的毕业生发表主题演讲。
谈到1998年乔布斯曾邀请他辞职并加入苹果，库克表示，在那之前他在康柏公司的工作很舒适，而苹果已经濒临破产了。随后他还诙谐地表示：有人说做自己的喜欢的事，你就不会觉得自己在工作，来苹果后才知道这是句屁话。
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Hello Tulane! Thank you President Fitts, Provost Forman, distinguished faculty, other faculty [laughs], and the entire Tulane family, including the workers, ushers, [and] volunteers who prepared this beautiful space. And I feel duty-bound to also recognize the hard-working bartenders at The Boot. Though they're not here with us this morning, I'm sure some of you are reflecting on their contributions as well. [The Boot is a popular college bar right next to Tulane's campus which has been around for decades.]
And just as many of you have New Orleans in your veins, and perhaps your livers, some of us at Apple have New Orleans in our blood as well. When I was a student at Auburn, the Big Easy was our favorite getaway. It's amazing how quickly those 363 miles fly by when you're driving toward a weekend of beignets and beer. And how slowly they go in the opposite direction. Apple's own Lisa Jackson is a proud Tulane alum. Yes. She brought the Green Wave all the way to Cupertino where she heads our environment and public policy work. We're thrilled to have her talent and leadership on our team.
OK, enough about us. Let's talk about you. At moments like this, it always humbles me to watch a community come together to teach, mentor, advise, and finally say with one voice, congratulations to the class of 2019!
Now there's another very important group: your family and friends. The people who, more than anyone else, loved, supported, and even sacrificed greatly to help you reach this moment. Let's give them a round of applause. This will be my first piece of advice. You might not appreciate until much later in your life how much this moment means to them. Or how that bond of obligation, love, and duty between you matters more than anything else.
In fact, that's what I really want to talk to you about today. In a world where we obsessively document our own lives, most of us don't pay nearly enough attention to what we owe one another. Now this isn't just about calling your parents more, although I'm sure they'd be grateful if you did that. It's about recognizing that human civilization began when we realized that we could do more together. kouyi.org That the threats and danger outside the flickering firelight got smaller when we got bigger. And that we could create more — more prosperity, more beauty, more wisdom, and a better life — when we acknowledge certain shared truths and acted collectively.
Maybe I'm biased, but I've always thought the South, and the Gulf Coast in particular, have hung on to this wisdom better than most. [Tim Cook grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, which is about an hour from New Orleans and is similarly close to the Gulf of Mexico.] In this part of the country, your neighbors check up on you if they haven't heard from you in a while. Good news travels fast because your victories are their victories too. And you can't make it through someone's front door before they offer you a home-cooked meal.
Maybe you haven't thought about it very much, but these values have informed your Tulane education too. Just look at the motto: not for one's self, but for one's own. You've been fortunate to live, learn, and grow in a city where human currents blend into something magical and unexpected. Where unmatched beauty, natural beauty, literary beauty, musical beauty, cultural beauty, seem to spring unexpectedly from the bayou. The people of New Orleans use two tools to build this city: the unlikely and the impossible. Wherever you go, don't forget the lessons of this place. Life will always find lots of ways to tell you no, that you can't, that you shouldn't, that you'd be better off if you didn't try. But New Orleans teaches us there is nothing more beautiful or more worthwhile than trying. Especially when we do it not in the service of one's self, but one's own.
For me, it was that search for greater purpose that brought me to Apple in the first place. I had a comfortable job at a company called Compaq that at the time looked like it was going to be on top forever. www.kouyi.org As it turns out, most of you are probably too young to even remember its name. But in 1998, Steve Jobs convinced me to leave Compaq behind to join a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. They made computers, but at that moment at least, people weren't interested in buying them. Steve had a plan to change things. And I wanted to be a part of it.
It wasn't just about the iMac, or the iPod, or everything that came after. It was about the values that brought these inventions to life. The idea that putting powerful tools in the hands of everyday people helps unleash creativity and move humanity forward. That we can build things that help us imagine a better world and then make it real.
There's a saying that if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. At Apple, I learned that's a total crock. You'll work harder than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hands. As you go out into the world, don't waste time on problems that have been solved. Don't get hung up on what other people say is practical. Instead, steer your ship into the choppy seas. Look for the rough spots, the problems that seem too big, the complexities that other people are content to work around. It's in those places that you will find your purpose. It's there that you can make your greatest contribution. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of being too cautious. Don't assume that by staying put, the ground won't move beneath your feet. The status quo simply won't last. So get to work on building something better.
In some important ways, my generation has failed you in this regard. We spent too much time debating. We've been too focused on the fight and not focused enough on progress. And you don't need to look far to find an example of that failure. Here today, in this very place, in an arena where thousands once found desperate shelter from a 100-year disaster, the kind that seem to be happening more and more frequently, I don't think we can talk about who we are as people and what we owe to one another without talking about climate change.
Thank you. Thank you.
This problem doesn't get any easier based on whose side wins or loses an election. It's about who has won life's lottery and has the luxury of ignoring this issue and who stands to lose everything. The coastal communities, including some right here in Louisiana, that are already making plans to leave behind the places they've called home for generations and head for higher ground. The fishermen whose nets come up empty. The wildlife preserves with less wildlife to preserve. The marginalized, for whom a natural disaster can mean enduring poverty.
Just ask Tulane's own Molly Keogh, who's getting her Ph.D. this weekend. Her important new research shows that rising sea levels are devastating areas of Southern Louisiana more dramatically than anyone expected. Tulane graduates, these are people's homes. Their livelihoods. The land where their grandparents were born, lived, and died.
When we talk about climate change or any issue with human costs, and there are many, I challenge you to look for those who have the most to lose and find the real, true empathy that comes from something shared. That is really what we owe one another. When you do that, the political noise dies down, and you can feel your feet firmly planted on solid ground. After all, we don't build monuments to trolls, and we're not going to start now.
If you find yourself spending more time fighting than getting to work, stop and ask yourself who benefits from all the chaos. There are some who would like you to believe that the only way that you can be strong is by bulldozing those who disagree or never giving them a chance to say their peace in the first place. That the only way you can build your own accomplishments is by tearing down the other side.
We forget sometimes that our preexisting beliefs have their own force of gravity. Today, certain algorithms pull toward you the things you already know, believe, or like, and they push away everything else. Push back. kouyi.org It shouldn't be this way. But in 2019, opening your eyes and seeing things in a new way can be a revolutionary act. Summon the courage not just to hear but to listen. Not just to act, but to act together.
It can sometimes feel like the odds are stacked against you, that it isn't worth it, that the critics are too persistent and the problems are too great. But the solutions to our problems begin on a human scale with building a shared understanding of the work ahead and with undertaking it together. At the very least, we owe it to each other to try.
It's worked before. In 1932, the American economy was in a free-fall. Twelve million people were unemployed, and conventional wisdom said the only thing to do was to ride it out, wait, and hope that things would turn around. But the governor of New York, a rising star named Franklin Roosevelt, refused to wait. He challenged the status quo and called for action. He needed people to stop their rosy thinking, face the facts, pull together, and help themselves out of a jam. He said: "The country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it and try another. But above all, try something."
This was a speech to college students fearful about their future in an uncertain world. He said: "Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world." The audacious empathy of young people, the spirit that says we should live not just for ourselves, but for our own. That's the way forward. From climate change to immigration, from criminal justice reform to economic opportunity, be motivated by your duty to build a better world. Young people have changed the course of history time and time again. And now it's time to change it once more.
I know, I know the urgency of that truth is with you today. Feel big because no one can make you feel strong. Feel brave because the challenges we face are great but you are greater. And feel grateful because someone sacrificed to make this moment possible for you. You have clear eyes and a long life to use them. And here in this stadium, I can feel your courage.
Call upon your grit. Try something. You may succeed. You may fail. But make it your life's work to remake the world because there is nothing more beautiful or more worthwhile than working to leave something better for humanity.
Thank you very much, and congratulations class of 2019!
在演讲伊始，库克呼吁杜兰大学的毕业生们保持开放的态度，同时也要认识身边人所面临的问题：当我们沉浸在自己的世界中不能自拔的时候，可能很难意识到对周边人们的影响。但事实上，人类文明的起点，就是人们意识到了聚居在一起能够做更多事。随着集结的队伍愈发壮大，需要面临的威胁和危险就愈发孱弱。只有当我们集体行动时，才能创造一个生生不息的繁荣世界，美丽，又富有智慧。
之后，库克又阐述了他是如何从康柏公司加入苹果的。根据《乔布斯传》记载，当时乔布斯希望找到一个能帮苹果建立类似日本的准时制工厂和管理供应链的人，而库克恰好就有乔布斯想要的工作背景。
当时，从杜克大学获得管理学学位的蒂姆·库克，已经在 IBM 公司工作了近 12 年，并刚刚得到了来自康柏公司的工作，在他看来，当时的康柏公司会一直处于业内领先地位，而苹果则是一家在破产边缘疯狂试探的公司。
但乔布斯让他相信，在苹果不只是为了一份工作，还是为了某种信念。
我会在康柏公司有一份舒适的工作，从当时的情况来看，留在康柏似乎是一个更理性的选择。可事实证明，你们中大部分人可能都已经不记得这家公司的名字了。在 1998 年，乔布斯说服我离开康柏，加入濒临破产的苹果公司。
库克称，那时苹果还是一家主营 PC 业务的公司，但当时人们已经对买电脑提不起太多兴趣了。而乔布斯则心怀一个改变世界的计划，那不仅仅关乎于之后的 iMac 或是 iPad，更在于将这些产品发明变为现实的价值观，以及一种把强大工具带到我们寻常生活中的想法。
他想让人人都可以手持生产力工具，这无疑可以让社会向前推进一大步。
随后，库克又谈到了气候变化的问题，他认为这是关乎每一个人、所有人都应该正视的问题，否则对彼此都会是一种亏欠，并终将失去一切。
在某些重要的领域，我们这一代人做得很失败。我们将太多时间花在了勾心斗角的事情上，我们一直忙于争论，却没能重视未来的发展。
库克还特别提及了因为气候变化造成了海平面上升，一些沿海社区被迫搬出世代生活的家园的问题。
我们的祖辈生于斯逝于斯，但渔民的渔网空空如也，野生动物生计萧条。政客们无休止的争论无济于事，我们现在不、以后也不会为他们树立纪念碑。
在演讲的最后，库克呼吁毕业生们致力于为后代建设一个更美好的世界，并为当今社会问题做出改变。
年轻人们应该以责任感为驱动力来打造一个更美好的世界。与其一次又一次地为历史进程懊恼不已，不如就在当下再一次尝试改变，我知道这种改变已经迫在眉睫。
胸怀远大，因为没人会让你觉得自己渺小；充满勇气，因为面临的挑战巨大但你更强大；心怀感激，因为所有的可能性都伴随着前人的奉献；勇于尝试，你或许会成功或许会失败，但当你把改造世界当作是你的毕生的事业，将没什么比为全人类留下美好这件事情更美好。
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