2005年Steve Jobs史丹佛畢業典禮演講中英文

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at 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. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

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?

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. 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 go to college. 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 how college was going to help me figure it out. 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.

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: 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 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.

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 is 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.

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.


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 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had 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. 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 had 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.

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, I returned 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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, thankfully, I am 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:
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.

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, you have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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.

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. 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.

Thank you all very much.

史丹佛刊報2005年6月14日
這是蘋果電腦兼皮克斯動畫公司執行長史蒂夫-賈伯斯，在2005年6月12日的畢業典禮致詞的原文：

今天，我很榮幸來到全球頂尖大學的畢業典禮。我沒從大學畢業，老實說，這是我離大學畢業最近的一刻。今天我要說三個我人生的故事，不談大道理，就這三個故事。

第一個故事，是人生的點點滴滴如何串在一塊。

我在里德學院念了六個月就辦休學了。休學後，我還待在學校約十八個月。我為什麼休學？
故事要從我出生前談起。我的親生母親是大學研究生，年輕的未婚媽媽，她打算讓別人收養我，更相信應該讓擁有大學學歷的夫婦收養我。我出生時，她就準備由一對律師夫婦收養我。但這對夫妻最後一刻反悔了，他們想要女孩。所以在等待收養名單上的一對夫妻，在半夜裡接到一通電話，問他們：「有一個意外出生的男孩，你們要認養他嗎？」他們說：「當然。」 後來我的生母發現，我現在的媽媽從來沒有大學畢業，我現在的爸爸則連高中畢業也沒有，她拒絕在認養文件上簽名同意。直到幾個月後，我的養父母同意將來一定讓我上大學，她才軟化態度。

十七年後，我真的上大學了。但我無知地選一所學費幾乎跟史丹佛一樣貴的學校。我的勞動階級父母，把所有的存款都花在我的學費上。六個月後，我看不出念大學的價值到底在哪裡。那時候，我不知道這輩子要幹什麼，也不知道念大學能對我有什麼幫助，而且我為了讀大學，逐漸花光父母畢生的積蓄。所以，我決定休學，相信船到橋頭自然直。在那時候，這是個讓人害怕的決定；但現在回頭看，卻是我這輩子下過最好的決定之一。休學後，再也不上我沒興趣的必修課，直接上我愛的課。

只是這一點兒也不浪漫。我沒有了宿舍，我得睡在朋友家的地板，靠回收可樂瓶罐的5先令來填飽肚子，到了星期天晚上我得走七哩遠的路，繞去印度教的 Hare Krishna 神廟吃頓大餐。就這樣追隨我的好奇與直覺，大部分我所投入過的事務，後來都成了無比珍貴的經歷。

比如說，里德學院擁有幾乎是全國最好的英文書法課程〈calligraphy instruction〉。校園裡的海報、教室抽屜的標籤，都是美麗的手寫字。我休學去學書法了解那是怎麼做的，學了serif 與san serif 字體，學會在不同字母的組合間變更字間距，學到活版印刷偉大的地方。書法的美麗、歷史性及藝術，是科學文明無法取代的，令我深深著迷。

我從沒想過這些字，會在我的人生有實質的應用。但十年以後，當我設計第一台麥金塔電腦，腦袋浮現了當時的所學，我把這些字體都放進了麥金塔裡，這是第一台能印出漂亮字體的電腦。如果我沒愛上書法課，麥金塔就不會有這麼多變化的字體。後來Windows〈微軟〉抄襲了麥金塔，如果當年我沒這樣做，大概世界上的電腦都不會有這些東西，印不出我們現在看到的美麗字體了。當然，當年還在學院時，是不可能把這些點點滴滴先串在一起，但是十年後回顧，一切就變得清晰明瞭。

不過，你無法先把這些人生點滴兜在一塊；惟有將來回顧時，你才會明白這些點點滴滴是怎麼串聯的。你得要相信現在體會的一切，未來多少會連接在一塊。你得有某種信念，你的勇氣、運勢，或是因果也好。這種作法從來沒讓我失望，更豐富了我的生命。

第二個故事，是愛與失去。

我很幸運，年輕時就知道自己愛做什麼。二十歲時，我跟沃茲一起在我家的車庫開創了蘋果電腦。我們辛勤地工作，蘋果十年內從一間車庫、兩個年輕小夥子，擴展為一家員工超過四千人、二十億美元營業額的公司。在此前一年，我們推出了最棒的創作—麥金塔。
而就在我即將30歲時，我被開除了。 怎麼會被自己創辦的公司開除自己？呃…當蘋果電腦日益成長，我聘請一位在經營上頗有才華的傢伙，他在頭幾年確實也幹得不錯。但我們對願景有很不同的想法，鬧到分道揚鑣；董事會站在他那邊。於是，我被開除了，而且是公開的。我整個生活重心頓時消失了，令我不知所措。

在這幾個月裡，我實在不知該如何是好，更覺得令企業界前輩失望了：他們傳給我的接力棒，掉了。我找了David Packard(創辦HP)、Bob Noyce(創辦英特爾)，跟他們說我把事情搞砸了。我是一個眾所皆知的失敗者，甚至想離開矽谷。但我逐漸頓悟，我發現我仍然愛著我做的事，在蘋果的挫敗一點兒也沒有改變我愛的事。即使人們否定我，可是我還是愛做那些事情，所以我決定從頭來過。

那時候我不知道，但現在回過頭看，蘋果開除我，是我人生最好的經歷。從頭來過的輕鬆替代了成功的沉重，釋放了我，讓我自由自在進入這輩子最有創意的年代。

接著的五年，我創辦了NeXT(軟體公司)，又開了皮克斯(動畫電影製片)，也和一位迷人的女人墜入了情網，成為我的妻子。《玩具總動員》是世界上最成功的動畫片。接著出現一個轉戾點，蘋果購併了NeXT，我重回了蘋果，而NeXT技術成為蘋果反敗為勝的關鍵。同時，Laurene和我攜手共創美滿的家庭。

我敢打包票，蘋果沒開除我的話，這些事絕不會發生。 這是帖很苦的藥，可是我需要這個苦。人生有時重創你，但不要失去信心。我很確信，讓我走下去的動力就是去愛我做的事。你得找到你熱愛的事，工作是如此，愛情也是如此。工作佔據人生的一大部份，感到真實地滿足的唯一方法，就是去做你相信那是偉大的工作。而偉大的工作就是去愛你做的事情。假如你還找不到自己的熱愛，持續尋找吧。不要停頓。順從你的心，當你找到時你會知道的。如同任何美好關係，只會隨著時間愈來愈好。所以，在你找到之前，繼續找，別停頓。

我的第三個故事，關於死亡。

當我十七歲時，我讀到一則格言，好像是「把每一天都當成生命中的最後一天，有一天那真的是最後一天。」這對我影響深遠，在過去 33 年裡，我每天早上都會照鏡子，自問：「如果今天是此生最後一日，我仍要去做我今天打算做的事？」連續太多天都得到一個「不」的答案時，我就知道我必須有所改變了。

提醒自己快死了，是我下重大決定時，最重要的工具。因為幾乎每件事－外界期望、名譽、對困窘或失敗的恐懼－在面對死亡時，都消失了，只有最重要的東西才會留下。提醒自己快死了，是避免掉入失敗的思緒陷阱裡最好的方法。生不帶來，死不帶去。不順從自己的心太沒道理了。

一年前，我被診斷出癌症。我在早上七點半作斷層掃瞄，在胰臟清楚出現一個腫瘤，我甚至連胰臟是什麼都不知道。醫生告訴我，那幾乎可以確定是一種不治之症，我大概活不到三到六個月了。醫生建議我回家，把事情交待完全，這是醫生對臨終病人的標準建議。那代表你得試著在幾個月內把你將來十年想跟小孩講的話講完。那代表你得把每件事情搞定，家人才會儘量節哀。那代表你得說再見了。

我整天想著那個診斷結果，那天晚上做了一次切片，從喉嚨伸入一個內視鏡，從胃進腸子，插了根針進胰臟，取了一些腫瘤細胞出來。我被麻醉了，但是我老婆在場。她後來跟我說，當醫生們用顯微鏡看過那些細胞後，他們都哭了，因為那是非常少見的一種良性胰臟癌，可以用手術治好。所以我接受了手術，康復了。

這是我最接近死亡的時候，我希望那會繼續是未來幾十年內最接近的一次。經歷此事後，之前死亡只是抽象概念，這時我肯定地告訴你們：沒有人想死。即使那些想上天堂的人，也不想經過死亡扺達。但是死亡是我們共有的目的地，沒有人逃得過。這是註定的，因為死亡簡直就是生命中最棒的發明，是生命變化的媒介，送走舊世代，給新生代留下空間。現在你們是新生代，但是不久的將來，你們也會逐漸變老，被送出人生的舞台。抱歉講得這麼戲劇化，但是這是真的。

你們的時間有限，所以不要浪費時間活在別人的生活裡。不要被信條所惑－盲從信條就是活在別人思考結果裡。不要讓別人的意見淹沒了你內在的心聲。最重要的，你擁有跟隨內心與直覺的勇氣，你的內心與直覺多少已經知道你真正想要成為什麼樣的人。任何其他事物都是次要的。

在我年輕時，有本迷人的雜誌叫做 Whole Earth Catalog ，當年我們很迷這本雜誌。那是一位住在離這不遠的 Menlo Park 的 Stewart Brand 發行的，他把雜誌辦得很有詩意。那是 1960 年代末期，個人電腦跟桌上出版還沒發明，所有內容都是打字機、剪刀跟拍立得相機做出來的。雜誌內容有點像Google的紙本版，在 Google 出現之前，它35年了。

Stewart 跟他的團隊發行了好幾期 Whole Earth Catalog ，最後出了停刊號。當時是 1970 年代中期，我正是你們現在這個年齡的時候。在停刊號的封底，有張早晨鄉間小路的照片，那種你去爬山時會經過的鄉間小路。在照片下有行小字：「求知若飢，虛心若愚」那是他們親筆寫下的告別辭，我總是以此自許。當你們畢業，展開新生活，我也以此期許你們：

「求知若飢，虛心若愚」

謝謝大家。

來源出處：http://www.wretch.cc/blog/flytong83/10014803