史蒂夫·乔布斯2005年在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲

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谢谢。今天能参加你们从这所世界顶尖学府的毕业典礼，我深感荣幸。说实话，我从未大学毕业，这是我离大学毕业最近的一次。今天，我想讲三个我人生中的故事。仅此而已。

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. Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it.

没什么大不了的，就三个故事。第一个故事是关于连点成线。我在里德学院读了六个月就退学了，但之后又作为旁听生待了大约十八个月才真正离开。那么我为什么退学呢？

No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. 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?

这要从我出生前说起。我的生母是一名年轻的未婚研究生，她决定将我送养。她强烈希望收养我的是大学毕业生，所以一切安排妥当，让我出生后由一位律师和他的妻子收养。但当我出生时，他们在最后一刻决定他们真正想要的是女孩。于是我的养父母——他们当时在等候名单上——半夜接到电话问：我们有个意外出生的男婴。

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.

你们愿意收养他吗？他们说，当然愿意。后来我的生母发现，我的养母从未上过大学，养父甚至高中都没毕业。她拒绝签署最终收养文件。直到几个月后，当我的养父母承诺将来会让我上大学时，她才勉强同意。

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.

这就是我人生的起点。十七年后，我确实上了大学。但我天真地选择了一所几乎和斯坦福一样昂贵的学校，工薪阶层的父母倾其所有积蓄支付我的学费。六个月后，我看不到这有什么价值。我不知道自己想要怎样的人生，也不知道大学如何能帮我找到答案。

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 how college was going to help me figure it out.

而我却在这里花光了父母毕生的积蓄。于是我决定退学，并相信一切都会好起来。当时这非常可怕，但回首往事，这是我做过的最好的决定之一。从退学那一刻起，我可以停止上那些不感兴趣的必修课，开始旁听那些更有意思的课程。这并不全是浪漫的。

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 okay. 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. It wasn't all romantic.

我没有宿舍房间，所以睡在朋友房间的地板上。我靠退可乐瓶换5美分押金来买食物。每周日晚上我会步行七英里穿过市区，去哈瑞奎师那神庙吃一顿像样的饭。我很享受这种生活。而后来证明，许多我出于好奇和直觉偶然接触的事物，都成了无价之宝。

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 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.

举个例子：当时里德学院拥有全美最好的书法课程。校园里每张海报、每个抽屉标签都是漂亮的手写体。因为我已经退学不用上常规课程，就决定选修书法课。我学习了衬线体与无衬线体，如何调整字母间距，以及是什么成就了伟大的排版艺术。

Let me give you one example. 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.

这种艺术精妙绝伦，充满历史底蕴与艺术美感，是科学无法企及的，让我深深着迷。当时完全没想过这些知识会有什么实际应用。但十年后设计第一台Mac电脑时，这些知识全都派上了用场。Mac因此成为首台拥有优美字体的电脑。

It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. 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.

如果当年没旁听那门书法课，Mac就不会有多样字体和比例间距字体。由于Windows只是模仿Mac，可能所有个人电脑都不会有这些功能。若我没有退学，就不会旁听书法课，个人电脑可能至今都没有现在这样精美的字体。当然，大学时不可能预见这些关联，但十年后回顾时一切都无比清晰。你无法前瞻性地串联这些点滴。

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 that 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. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward.

你只能在回顾时将它们串联起来。所以你必须相信这些点滴未来总会以某种方式连接。你要相信某种东西——直觉、命运、生命、业力，等等。因为相信这些点滴终将连接，你才会有信心追随内心，即便它引领你离开常规之路，而这将改变一切。我的第二个故事关于爱与失去。

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. My second story is about love and loss.

我很幸运，年轻时就知道自己热爱什么。20岁时，我和沃兹在父母的车库里创立了苹果公司。十年间，苹果从车库里的两人团队成长为市值20亿美元、拥有4000名员工的企业。我们刚在一年前推出最完美的作品Macintosh，而我才刚满30岁。

I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Waz 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 $2,000,000,000 company with over 4,000 employees. We just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I just turned 30.

然后我被解雇了。自己创立的公司怎么会解雇你？随着苹果壮大，我们聘请了一位我认为很有才华的人和我共同管理公司。头一年一切顺利，但后来我们对公司未来的构想出现分歧，最终彻底闹翻了。

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.

当我们行动时，董事会选择站在他那边。于是在30岁那年，我被公开解雇了。我整个成年生活的重心就此消失，这打击是毁灭性的。有几个月我完全不知道该怎么办，觉得自己辜负了上一代企业家，就像接力赛中掉落了传递给我的接力棒。

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.

我见了戴维·帕卡德和鲍勃·诺伊斯，试图为自己搞砸一切道歉。我的失败人尽皆知，甚至想过逃离硅谷。但某个念头逐渐浮现：我依然热爱我的事业。苹果公司的变故丝毫未改变这一点。

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.

我遭遇了拒绝，但初心未改。于是我决定从头开始。当时并未意识到，但后来证明被苹果解雇是我人生最好的转折。成功带来的沉重感被初学者的轻盈所取代，对万物保持不确定，这让我进入了生命中最富创造力的阶段。

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

接下来的五年里，我创立了NeXT公司和皮克斯动画，并遇见了我未来的妻子。皮克斯制作了全球首部电脑动画长片《玩具总动员》，如今已成为最成功的动画工作室。戏剧性的是，苹果收购了NeXT，我得以回归，而我们在NeXT开发的技术成为苹果复兴的核心。劳伦和我组建了美满家庭。我确信，若未被苹果解雇，这一切都不会发生。

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. 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 Loreen and I have a wonderful family together. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.

这剂药苦不堪言，但病人需要它。有时生活会给你当头一棒，但别失去信念。支撑我走下去的唯一原因就是热爱。你必须找到心中所爱。

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.

工作如此，爱情亦然。工作将占据生活大部分时间，唯有坚信所做之事伟大，才能获得真正的满足。而成就伟大的唯一途径就是热爱。若你尚未找到，继续寻找，别妥协。如同所有心灵之事，当你遇到时自会知晓。

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.

就像任何美好的关系，随着岁月流逝只会愈发醇厚。所以继续寻找，别妥协。我的第三个故事关于死亡。17岁时读到一句话：'如果把每天都当作最后一天，终有一天你会确信无疑。'这句话刻在我心里。三十三年来，每个清晨我都对着镜子自问：'如果今天是生命最后一天，我会想做今天计划做的事吗？'

And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking, don't settle. 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 thirty three 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?

每当连续多日得到的答案都是否定时，我便知道需要做出改变。'记住你即将死去'是我所遇到的最重要的工具，它帮助我做出人生的重大抉择。因为几乎所有事物——所有外在期望、所有骄傲、所有对难堪或失败的恐惧——在死亡面前都会消逝，只留下真正重要的东西。'记住你终将死去'是我所知最好的方式，能避免你陷入患得患失的困境。你本就一无所有。

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 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.

没有理由不追随内心的声音。大约一年前，我被诊断出癌症。早晨7:30的扫描结果清晰地显示我胰腺上有个肿瘤。那时我甚至不知道胰腺是什么。医生告诉我这几乎肯定是不治之症，预计存活期不超过三到六个月。

There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 07:30 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.

医生建议我回家处理身后事，这是医学界'准备迎接死亡'的委婉说法。这意味着要在短短数月内，把原计划用十年时间告诉子女的话说完；意味着要确保一切安排妥当，让家人尽可能轻松；意味着要作最后的告别。那一整天我都活在这个诊断阴影下。

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 ten 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.

当晚晚些时候，我做了活检。医生将内窥镜插进喉咙，穿过胃部进入肠道，用针头从胰腺肿瘤中取出细胞。当时我处于麻醉状态，但守候在旁的妻子告诉我，当医生在显微镜下观察细胞时突然哭了起来——原来这是一种极其罕见、可通过手术治愈的胰腺癌。后来我接受了手术，现在已康复无恙。这是我离死亡最近的一次经历，也希望未来几十年都不会更近。亲历死亡后，此刻我能比当年仅将其视为抽象概念时更确信地对你们说：

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 thankfully I'm fine now. 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.

没人愿意死。即便是想上天堂的人，也不愿以死亡为代价。然而死亡是我们共同的终点，无人能逃脱。这本该如此，因为死亡很可能是生命最伟大的发明。

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.

它是生命的新陈代谢催化剂，清除老旧让路给新生。此刻的'新生'就是你们，但不久的将来，你们也会逐渐变成'老旧'被代谢掉。虽然说得戏剧化，但这就是真相。

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.

你们的时间有限，别浪费在活成别人的人生上。不要被教条束缚——那意味着活在他人思考的结果里。别让外界的喧嚣淹没你内心的声音。最重要的是，要有勇气追随本心和直觉。它们早已清楚你真正想成为什么样的人。

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.

其他一切都是次要的。我年轻时，有一本了不起的出版物叫《全球概览》，是我们那一代人的圣经之一。它由一位名叫斯图尔特·布兰德的人在离门洛帕克不远的地方创办，他用诗意的笔触赋予了它生命。那是在六十年代末，个人电脑和桌面出版尚未出现，所以它完全是用打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机制作的。它有点像三十五年前谷歌诞生前的平装版谷歌。

Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, 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.

它充满理想主义，充斥着精巧的工具和伟大的理念。斯图尔特和他的团队出版了多期《全球概览》。当它完成使命后，他们推出了最后一期。那是七十年代中期，我和你们现在一般大。最后一期的封底是一张清晨乡间小路的照片，那种如果你足够冒险可能会选择搭便车的地方。

It was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools, and great notions. Stuart 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.

照片下方写着‘求知若饥，虚心若愚’。这是他们停刊时的告别寄语：‘求知若饥，虚心若愚’。我一直以此自勉。现在，当你们毕业重新启程时，我也这样祝愿你们。求知若饥。

Beneath it 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.

虚心若愚。非常感谢大家。

Stay foolish. Thank you all very much.

前述节目版权归斯坦福大学所有。请访问我们的网站stanford.edu。

The preceding program is copyrighted by Stanford University. Please visit us at stanford.edu.