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，來自世界最好大學之一的畢業生們，一塊兒參加畢業典禮。老實說，我大學沒有畢業，今天恐怕是我一生中離大學畢業最近的一次了。
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自我生活的三個故事。沒什麼大不了的，只是三個故事而已。
The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一個故事，如何串連生命中的點滴。
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.
我在裡得大學讀了六個月就退學了，但是在18個月之後——我真正退學之前，我還常去學校。為何我要選擇退學呢？這還得從我出生之前說起。我的生母是一個年輕、未婚的大學畢業生，她決定讓別人收養我。她有一個很強烈的信仰，認為我應該被一個大學畢業生家庭收養。於是，一對律師夫婦說好了要領養我，然而最後一秒鐘，他們改變了主意，決定要個女孩兒。然後我排在收養人名單中的養父母在一個深夜接到電話，“很意外，我們多了一個男嬰，你們要嗎？”“當然要！”但是我的生母后來又發現我的養母沒有大學畢業，養父連高中都沒有畢業。她拒絕在領養書上簽字。幾個月後，我的養父母保證會讓我上大學，她妥協了。
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.
這是我生命的開端。十七年後，我上大學了，但是我很無知地選了一所差不多和斯坦福一樣貴的學校，幾乎花掉我那藍領階層養父母一生的積蓄。六個月後，我覺得不值得。我看不出自己以後要做什麼，也不曉得大學會怎樣幫我指點迷津，而我卻在花銷父母一生的積蓄。所以我決定退學，並且相信沒有做錯。一開始非常嚇人，但回憶起來，這卻是我一生中作的最好的決定之一。從我退學的那一刻起，我可以停止一切不感興趣的必修課，開始旁聽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.
事情並不那麼美好。我沒有宿舍可住，睡在朋友房間的地上。為了吃飯，我收集五分一個的舊可樂瓶，每個星期天晚上步行七英里到哈爾-克里什納廟裡改善一下一週的伙食。我喜歡這種生活方式。能夠遵循自己的好奇和直覺前行後來被證明是多麼的珍貴。讓我來給你們舉個例子吧。
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.
當時的裡德大學提供可能是全國最好的書法指導。校園中每一張海報，抽屜上的每一張標籤，都是漂亮的手寫體。由於我已退學，不用修那些必修課，我決定選一門書法課上上。在這門課上，我學會了“serif”和"sans-serif"兩種字體、學會了怎樣在不同的字母組合中改變字間距、學會了怎樣寫出好的字來。這是一種科學無法捕捉的微妙，楚楚動人、充滿歷史底蘊和藝術性，我覺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.
當時我並不指望書法在以後的生活中能有什麼實用價值。但是，十年之後，我們在設計第一臺 Macintosh計算機時，它一下子浮現在我眼前。於是，我們把這些東西全都設計進了計算機中。這是第一臺有這麼漂亮的文字版式的計算機。要不是我當初在大學裡偶然選了這麼一門課，Macintosh計算機絕不會有那麼多種印刷字體或間距安排合理的字號。要不是Windows照搬了 Macintosh，個人電腦可能不會有這些字體和字號。
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.
要不是退了學，我決不會碰巧選了這門書法課，個人電腦也可能不會有現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.
當然，我在大學裡不可能從這一點上看到它與將來的關係。十年之後再回頭看，兩者之間關係就非常、非常清楚了。你們同樣不可能從現在這個點上看到將來；只有回頭看時，才會發現它們之間的關係。所以你必須相信，那些點點滴滴，會在你未來的生命裡，以某種方式串聯起來。你必須相信一些東西——你的勇氣、宿命、生活、因緣，隨便什麼——因為相信這些點滴能夠一路連接會給你帶來循從本覺的自信，它使你遠離平凡，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 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, 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.
第二個故事是關於愛與失的。我很幸運，很早就發現自己喜歡做的事情。我二十歲的時候就和沃茨在父母的車庫裡開創了蘋果公司。我們工作得很努力，十年後，蘋果公司成長為擁有四千名員工，價值二十億的大公司。我們剛剛推出了最好的創意，Macintosh操作系統，在這之前的一年，也就是我剛過三十歲，我被解僱了。你怎麼可能被一個親手創立的公司解僱？事情是這樣的，在公司成長期間，我僱傭了一個我們認為非常聰明，可以和我一起經營公司的人。一年後，我們對公司未來的看法產生分歧，董事會站在了他的一邊。
於是，在我三十歲的時候，我出局了，很公開地出局了。我整個成年生活的焦點沒了，這很要命。一開始的幾個月我真的不知道該幹什麼。我覺得我讓公司的前一代創建者們失望了，我把傳給我的權杖給弄丟了。我與戴維德·帕珂德和鮑勃·諾埃斯見面，試圖為這徹頭徹尾的失敗道歉。我敗得如此之慘以至於我想要逃離硅谷。但有個東西在慢慢地叫醒我：我還愛著我從事的行業。這次失敗一點兒都沒有改變這一點。我被逐了，但我仍愛著我的事業。我決定重新開始。
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.
當時我沒有看出來，但事實證明“被蘋果開除”是發生在我身上最好的事。成功的重擔被重新起步的輕鬆替代，對任何事情都不再特別看重，這讓我感覺如此自由，進入一生中最有創造力的階段。接下來的五年，我創立了一個叫NeXT的公司，接著又建立了Pixar，然後與後來成為我妻子的女人相愛。Pixar出品了世界第一個電腦動畫電影：“玩具總動員”，現在它已經是世界最成功的動畫製作工作室了。
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.
在一系列的成功運轉後，蘋果收購了NeXT，我又回到了蘋果。我們在NeXT開發的技術在蘋果的復興中起了核心作用，另外勞琳和我組建了一個幸福的家庭。
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，如果我沒有被蘋果炒掉，這些就都不會發生。這個藥的味道太糟了，但是我想病人需要它。有些時候，生活會給你迎頭一棒。不要喪失信心。我確信唯一讓我一路走下來的是我對自己所做事情的熱愛。你必須去找你熱愛的東西，對工作如此，對你的愛人也是這樣的。工作會佔據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。如果你還沒有找到，那麼就繼續找，不要停。全心全意地找，當你找到時，你會知道的。就像任何真誠的關係，隨著時間的流逝，只會越來越緊密。所以繼續找，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.
我的第三個故事關於死亡。我17歲的時候讀到過一句話“如果你把每一天都當作最後一天過，有一天你會發現你是正確的”。這句話給我留下了深刻的印象。從那以後，過去的33年，每天早上我都會對著鏡子問自己：“如果今天是我的最後一天，我會不會做我想做的事情呢？”如果連著一段時間，答案都是否定的的話，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的最大的幫助，幫我作了生命中的大決定。因為幾乎任何事——所有的榮耀、驕傲、對難堪和失敗的恐懼——在死亡面前都會消隱，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，用來避開擔心失去某些東西的陷阱。你已經赤裸裸了，沒有理由不聽從於自己的心願。
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，我被診斷出患了癌症。我早上七點半作了掃描，清楚地顯示在我的胰腺有一個腫瘤。我當時都不知道胰腺是什麼東西。醫生們告訴我這幾乎是無法治癒的，我還有三到六個月的時間。我的醫生建議我回家，整理一切。在醫生的辭典中，這就是“準備死亡”的意思。就是意味著把要對你小孩說十年的話在幾個月內說完；意味著把所有東西搞定，儘量讓你的家庭活得輕鬆一點；意味著你要說“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的事情。後來有天晚上我做了一個活切片檢查，他們將一個內窺鏡伸進我的喉嚨，穿過胃，到達腸道，用一根針在我的胰腺腫瘤上取了幾個細胞。我當時是被麻醉的，但是我的妻子告訴我，那些醫生在顯微鏡下看到細胞的時候開始尖叫，因為發現這竟然是一種非常罕見的可用手術治癒的胰腺癌症。我做了手術，現在，我痊癒了。
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候，我也希望是我未來幾十年裡最接近死亡的一次。這次死裡逃生讓我比以往只知道死亡是一個有用而純粹書面概念的時候更確信地告訴你們，沒有人願意死，即使那些想上天堂的人們也不願意通過死亡來達到他們的目的。但是死亡是每個人共同的終點，沒有人能夠逃脫。也應該如此，因為死亡很可能是生命最好的發明。它去陳讓新。現在，你們就是“新”。但是有一天，不用太久，你們有會慢慢變老然後死去。抱歉，這很戲劇性，但卻是真的。你們的時間是有限的，不要浪費在重複別人的生活上。不要被教條束縛，那意味著會和別人思考的結果一塊兒生活。不要被其他人的喧囂觀點掩蓋自己內心真正的聲音。你的直覺和內心知道你想要變成什麼樣子。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.
我年輕的時候，有一份叫做《完整地球目錄》的好雜誌，是我們這一代人的聖經之一。它是一個叫斯糾華特·布蘭的、住在離這不遠的曼羅公園的傢伙創立的。他用詩一般的觸覺將這份雜誌帶到世界。那是六十年代後期，個人電腦出現之前，所以這份雜誌全是用打字機、剪刀和偏光鏡製作的。有點像軟皮包裝的google，不過卻早了三十五年。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，他們出版了最後一期。那是七十年代中期，我和你們差不多大。最後一期的封底是一張清晨鄉村小路的照片，如果你有冒險精神，可以自己找到這條路。下面有一句話，“保持飢餓，保持愚蠢”。這是他們的告別語，“保持飢餓，保持愚蠢”。我常以此勉勵自己。現在，在你們即將踏上新旅程的時候，我也希望你們能這樣。保持飢餓，保持愚蠢。
Thank you all, very much.
非常感謝。
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