外國名人勵志演講
對于勵志演講,很多名人都有過,但是能讓人銘記在心的著實不多,小編將優(yōu)秀的文章整理給大家閱讀參考。下面是中國人才網(wǎng)提供的外國名人勵志演講,供參考借鑒!
【外國名人勵志演講(一)】
喬布斯
You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
Jobs說,你必須要找到你所愛的東西。
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.
這是蘋果公司和Pixar動畫工作室的CEO Steve Jobs于2005年6月12號在斯坦福大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮上面的演講稿。
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.
我今天很榮幸能和你們一起參加畢業(yè)典禮,斯坦福大學(xué)是世界上最好的大學(xué)之一。我從來沒有從大學(xué)中畢業(yè)。說實話,今天也許是在我的生命中離大學(xué)畢業(yè)最近的一天了。今天我想向你們講述我生活中的三個故事。不是什么大不了的事情,只是三個故事而已。
The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一個故事是關(guān)于如何把生命中的點點滴滴串連起來。
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Reed大學(xué)讀了六個月之后就退學(xué)了,但是在十八個月以后——我真正的作出退學(xué)決定之前,我還經(jīng)常去學(xué)校。我為什么要退學(xué)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. 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.
故事從我出生的時候講起。我的親生母親是一個年輕的,沒有結(jié)婚的大學(xué)畢業(yè)生。她決定讓別人收養(yǎng)我, 她十分想讓我被大學(xué)畢業(yè)生收養(yǎng)。所以在我出生的時候,她已經(jīng)做好了一切的準備工作,能使得我被一個律師和他的妻子所收養(yǎng)。但是她沒有料到,當我出生之后, 律師夫婦突然決定他們想要一個女孩。所以我的生養(yǎng)父母(他們還在我親生父母的觀察名單上)突然在半夜接到了一個電話:“我們現(xiàn)在這兒有一個不小心生出來的男嬰,你們想要他嗎?”他們回答道:“當然!”但是我親生母親隨后發(fā)現(xiàn),我的養(yǎng)母從來沒有上過大學(xué),我的父親甚至從沒有讀過高中。她拒絕簽這個收養(yǎng)合同。只是在幾個月以后,我的父母答應(yīng)她一定要讓我上大學(xué),那個時候她才同意。
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. 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.
在十七歲那年,我真的上了大學(xué)。但是我很愚蠢的選擇了一個幾乎和你們斯坦福大學(xué)一樣貴的學(xué)校, 我父母還處于藍領(lǐng)階層,他們幾乎把所有積蓄都花在了我的學(xué)費上面。在六個月后, 我已經(jīng)看不到其中的價值所在。我不知道我想要在生命中做什么,我也不知道大學(xué)能幫助我找到怎樣的答案。但是在這里,我?guī)缀趸ü饬宋腋改高@一輩子的所有積蓄。所以我決定要退學(xué),我覺得這是個正確的決定。不能否認,我當時確實非常的害怕, 但是現(xiàn)在回頭看看,那的確是我這一生中最棒的一個決定。在我做出退學(xué)決定的那一刻, 我終于可以不必去讀那些令我提不起絲毫興趣的課程了。然后我還可以去修那些看起來有點意思的課程。
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:
但是這并不是那么羅曼蒂克。我失去了我的宿舍,所以我只能在朋友房間的地板上面睡覺,我去撿5美分的可樂瓶子,僅僅為了填飽肚子, 在星期天的晚上,我需要走七英里的路程,?┕?飧齔鞘械紿are Krishna寺廟(注:位于紐約Brooklyn下城),只是為了能吃上飯——這個星期唯一一頓好一點的飯。但是我喜歡這樣。我跟著我的直覺和好奇心走, 遇到的很多東西,此后被證明是無價之寶。讓我給你們舉一個例子吧:
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 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.
Reed大學(xué)在那時提供也許是全美最好的美術(shù)字課程。在這個大學(xué)里面的每個海報, 每個抽屜的標簽上面全都是漂亮的美術(shù)字。因為我退學(xué)了, 沒有受到正規(guī)的訓(xùn)練, 所以我決定去參加這個課程,去學(xué)學(xué)怎樣寫出漂亮的美術(shù)字。我學(xué)到了san serif 和serif字體, 我學(xué)會了怎么樣在不同的字母組合之中改變空格的長度, 還有怎么樣才能作出最棒的印刷式樣。那是一種科學(xué)永遠不能捕捉到的、美麗的、真實的藝術(shù)精妙, 我發(fā)現(xiàn)那實在是太美妙了。
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. 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, its 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.
當時看起來這些東西在我的生命中,好像都沒有什么實際應(yīng)用的可能。但是十年之后,當我們在設(shè)計第一臺Macintosh電腦的時候,就不是那樣了。我把當時我學(xué)的那些家伙全都設(shè)計進了Mac。那是第一臺使用了漂亮的印刷字體的電腦。如果我當時沒有退學(xué), 就不會有機會去參加這個我感興趣的美術(shù)字課程, Mac就不會有這么多豐富的字體,以及賞心悅目的字體間距。那么現(xiàn)在個人電腦就不會有現(xiàn)在這么美妙的字型了。當然我在大學(xué)的時候,還不可能把從前的點點滴滴串連起來,但是當我十年后回顧這一切的時候,真的豁然開朗了。
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.
再次說明的是,你在向前展望的時候不可能將這些片斷串連起來;你只能在回顧的時候?qū)Ⅻc點滴滴串連起來。所以你必須相信這些片斷會在你未來的某一天串連起來。你必須要相信某些東西:你的勇氣、目的、生命、因緣。這個過程從來沒有令我失望(let me down),只是讓我的生命更加地與眾不同而已。
My second story is about love and loss.
我的第二個故事是關(guān)于愛和損失的。
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 $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.
我非常幸運, 因為我在很早的時候就找到了我鐘愛的東西。Woz和我在二十歲的時候就在父母的車庫里面開創(chuàng)了蘋果公司。我們工作得很努力, 十年之后, 這個公司從那兩個車庫中的窮光蛋發(fā)展到了超過四千名的雇員、價值超過二十億的大公司。在公司成立的第九年,我們剛剛發(fā)布了最好的產(chǎn)品,那就是 Macintosh。我也快要到三十歲了。在那一年, 我被炒了魷魚。你怎么可能被你自己創(chuàng)立的公司炒了魷魚呢? 嗯,在蘋果快速成長的時候,我們雇用了一個很有天分的家伙和我一起管理這個公司, 在最初的幾年,公司運轉(zhuǎn)的很好。但是后來我們對未來的看法發(fā)生了分歧, 最終我們吵了起來。當爭吵不可開交的時候, 董事會站在了他的那一邊。所以在三十歲的時候, 我被炒了。在這么多人的眼皮下我被炒了。在而立之年,我生命的全部支柱離自己遠去, 這真是毀滅性的打擊。
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.
在最初的幾個月里,我真是不知道該做些什么。我把從前的創(chuàng)業(yè)激情給丟了, 我覺得自己讓與我一同創(chuàng)業(yè)的人都很沮喪。我和David Pack和Bob Boyce見面,并試圖向他們道歉。我把事情弄得糟糕透頂了。但是我漸漸發(fā)現(xiàn)了曙光, 我仍然喜愛我從事的這些東西。蘋果公司發(fā)生的這些事情絲毫的沒有改變這些, 一點也沒有。我被驅(qū)逐了,但是我仍然鐘愛它。所以我決定從頭再來。
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.
我當時沒有覺察, 但是事后證明, 從蘋果公司被炒是我這輩子發(fā)生的最棒的事情。因為,作為一個成功者的極樂感覺被作為一個創(chuàng)業(yè)者的輕松感覺所重新代替: 對任何事情都不那么特別看重。這讓我覺得如此自由, 進入了我生命中最有創(chuàng)造力的一個階段。
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. 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.
在接下來的五年里, 我創(chuàng)立了一個名叫NeXT的公司, 還有一個叫Pixar的公司, 然后和一個后來成為我妻子的優(yōu)雅女人相識。Pixar 制作了世界上第一個用電腦制作的動畫電影——“”玩具總動員”,Pixar現(xiàn)在也是世界上最成功的電腦制作工作室。在后來的一系列運轉(zhuǎn)中,Apple收購了NeXT, 然后我又回到了Apple公司。我們在NeXT發(fā)展的技術(shù)在Apple的復(fù)興之中發(fā)揮了關(guān)鍵的作用。我還和Laurence 一起建立了一個幸福的家庭。
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 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.
我可以非?隙,如果我不被Apple開除的話, 這其中一件事情也不會發(fā)生的'。這個良藥的味道實在是太苦了,但是我想病人需要這個藥。有些時候, 生活會拿起一塊磚頭向你的腦袋上猛拍一下。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無比鐘愛。你需要去找到你所愛的東西。對于工作是如此, 對于你的愛人也是如此。你的工作將會占據(jù)生活中很大的一部分。你只有相信自己所做的是偉大的工作, 你才能怡然自得。如果你現(xiàn)在還沒有找到, 那么繼續(xù)找、不要停下來、全心全意的去找, 當你找到的時候你就會知道的。就像任何真誠的關(guān)系, 隨著歲月的流逝只會越來越緊密。所以繼續(xù)找,直到你找到它,不要停下來!
My third story is about death.
我的第三個故事是關(guān)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.
當我十七歲的時候, 我讀到了一句話:“如果你把每一天都當作生命中最后一天去生活的話,那么有一天你會發(fā)現(xiàn)你是正確的。”這句話給我留下了深刻的印象。從那時開始,過了33 年,我在每天早晨都會對著鏡子問自己:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天, 你會不會完成你今天想做的事情呢?”當答案連續(xù)很多次被給予“不是”的時候, 我知道自己需要改變某些事情了。
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.
“記住你即將死去”是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言。它幫我指明了生命中重要的選擇。因為幾乎所有的事情, 包括所有的榮譽、所有的驕傲、所有對難堪和失敗的恐懼,這些在死亡面前都會消失。我看到的是留下的真正重要的東西。你有時候會思考你將會失去某些東西,“ 記住你即將死去”是我知道的避免這些想法的最好辦法。你已經(jīng)赤身裸體了, 你沒有理由不去跟隨自己的心一起跳動。
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, 我被診斷出癌癥。我在早晨七點半做了一個檢查, 檢查清楚的顯示在我的胰腺有一個腫瘤。我當時都不知道胰腺是什么東西。醫(yī)生告訴我那很可能是一種無法治愈的癌癥, 我還有三到六個月的時間活在這個世界上。我的醫(yī)生叫我回家, 然后整理好我的一切, 那就是醫(yī)生準備死亡的程序。那意味著你將要把未來十年對你小孩說的話在幾個月里面說完.;那意味著把每件事情都搞定, 讓你的家人會盡可能輕松的生活;那意味著你要說“再見了”。
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.
我整天和那個診斷書一起生活。后來有一天早上我作了一個活切片檢查,醫(yī)生將一個內(nèi)窺鏡從我的喉嚨伸進去,通過我的胃, 然后進入我的腸子, 用一根針在我的胰腺上的腫瘤上取了幾個細胞。我當時很鎮(zhèn)靜,因為我被注射了鎮(zhèn)定劑。但是我的妻子在那里, 后來告訴我,當醫(yī)生在顯微鏡地下觀察這些細胞的時候他們開始尖叫, 因為這些細胞最后竟然是一種非常罕見的可以用手術(shù)治愈的胰腺癌癥。我做了這個手術(shù), 現(xiàn)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時候, 我還希望這也是以后的幾十年最接近的一次。從死亡線上又活了過來, 死亡對我來說,只是一個有用但是純粹是知識上的概念的時候,我可以更肯定一點地對你們說:
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.
沒有人愿意死, 即使人們想上天堂, 人們也不會為了去那里而死。但是死亡是我們每個人共同的終點。從來沒有人能夠逃脫它。也應(yīng)該如此。因為死亡就是生命中最好的一個發(fā)明。它將舊的清除以便給新的讓路。你們現(xiàn)在是新的, 但是從現(xiàn)在開始不久以后, 你們將會逐漸的變成舊的然后被清除。我很抱歉這很戲劇性, 但是這十分的真實。
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 other's 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.
你們的時間很有限, 所以不要將他們浪費在重復(fù)其他人的生活上。不要被教條束縛,那意味著你和其他人思考的結(jié)果一起生活。不要被其他人喧囂的觀點掩蓋你真正的內(nèi)心的聲音。還有最重要的是, 你要有勇氣去聽從你直覺和心靈的指示——它們在某種程度上知道你想要成為什么樣子,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 [gm88nd] in paperback form, 35 years before [gm88nd] came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
當我年輕的時候, 有一本叫做“整個地球的目錄”振聾發(fā)聵的雜志,它是我們那一代人的圣經(jīng)之一。它是一個叫Stewart Brand的家伙在離這里不遠的Menlo Park書寫的, 他象詩一般神奇地將這本書帶到了這個世界。那是六十年代后期, 在個人電腦出現(xiàn)之前, 所以這本書全部是用打字機,、剪刀還有偏光鏡制造的。有點像用軟皮包裝的[gm88nd], 在[gm88nd]出現(xiàn)三十五年之前:這是理想主義的,其中有許多靈巧的工具和偉大的想法。
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.
Stewart和他的伙伴出版了幾期的“整個地球的目錄”,當它完成了自己使命的時候, 他們做出了最后一期的目錄。那是在七十年代的中期, 你們的時代。在最后一期的封底上是清晨鄉(xiāng)村公路的照片(如果你有冒險精神的話,你可以自己找到這條路的),在照片之下有這樣一段話:“保持饑餓,保持愚蠢。”這是他們停止了發(fā)刊的告別語。“保持饑餓,保持愚蠢。”我總是希望自己能夠那??,現(xiàn)在, 在你們即將畢業(yè),開始新的旅程的時候, 我也希望你們能這樣:
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
保持饑餓,保持愚蠢。
Thank you all very much.
非常感謝你們。
【外國名人勵志演講(二)】
比爾蓋茨
比爾蓋茨在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講:我終于拿到本科學(xué)位啦 演講稿中英對照
President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates:
尊敬的Bok校長,Rudenstine前校長,即將上任的Faust校長,哈佛集團的各位成員,監(jiān)管理事會的各位理事,各位老師,各位家長,各位同學(xué):
I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: "Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree."
有一句話我等了三十年,現(xiàn)在終于可以說了:“老爸,我總是跟你說,我會回來拿到我的學(xué)位的!”
I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I'll be changing my job next year…and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.
我要感謝哈佛大學(xué)在這個時候給我這個榮譽。明年,我就要換工作了(注:指從微軟公司退休)……我終于可以在簡歷上寫我有一個本科學(xué)位,這真是不錯啊。
I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I'm just happy that the Crimson has called me "Harvard's most successful dropout." I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class…I did the best of everyone who failed.
我為今天在座的各位同學(xué)感到高興,你們拿到學(xué)位可比我簡單多了。哈佛的校報稱我是“哈佛大學(xué)歷史上最成功的輟學(xué)生”。我想這大概使我有資格代表我這一類學(xué)生發(fā)言……在所有的失敗者里,我做得最好。
But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. I'm a bad influence. That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.
但是,我還要提醒大家,我使得Steve Ballmer(注:微軟總經(jīng)理)也從哈佛商學(xué)院退學(xué)了。因此,我是個有著惡劣影響力的人。這就是為什么我被邀請來在你們的畢業(yè)典禮上演講。如果我在你們?nèi)雽W(xué)歡迎儀式上演講,那么能夠堅持到今天在這里畢業(yè)的人也許會少得多吧。
Harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was fascinating. I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn't even signed up for. And dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn't worry about getting up in the morning. That's how I came to be the leader of the anti-social group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.
對我來說,哈佛的求學(xué)經(jīng)歷是一段非凡的經(jīng)歷。校園生活很有趣,我常去旁聽我沒選修的課。哈佛的課外生活也很棒,我在Radcliffe過著逍遙自在的日子。每天我的寢室里總有很多人一直待到半夜,討論著各種事情。因為每個人都知道我從不考慮第二天早起。這使得我變成了校園里那些不安分學(xué)生的頭頭,我們互相粘在一起,做出一種拒絕所有正常學(xué)生的姿態(tài)。
Radcliffe was a great place to live. There were more women up there, and most of the guys were science-math types. That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean. This is Where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn't guarantee success.
Radcliffe是個過日子的好地方。那里的女生比男生多,而且大多數(shù)男生都是理工科的。這種狀況為我創(chuàng)造了最好的機會,如果你們明白我的意思。可惜的是,我正是在這里學(xué)到了人生中悲傷的一課:機會大,并不等于你就會成功。
One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, when I made a call From Currier House to a company in Albuquerque that had begun making the world's first personal computers. I offered to sell them software.
我在哈佛最難忘的回憶之一,發(fā)生在1975年1月。那時,我從宿舍樓里給位于Albuquerque的一家公司打了一個電話,那家公司已經(jīng)在著手制造世界上第一臺個人電腦。我提出想向他們出售軟件。
I worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang up on me. Instead they said: "We're not quite ready, come see us in a month," which was a good thing, because we hadn't written the software yet. From that moment, I worked day and night on this little extra credit project that marked the end of my college education and the beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.
我很擔心,他們會發(fā)覺我是一個住在宿舍的學(xué)生,從而掛斷電話。但是他們卻說:“我們還沒準備好,一個月后你再來找我們吧。”這是個好消息,因為那時軟件還根本沒有寫出來呢。就是從那個時候起,我日以繼夜地在這個小小的課外項目上工作,這導(dǎo)致了我學(xué)生生活的結(jié)束,以及通往微軟公司的不平凡的旅程的開始。
What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence. It could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. It was an amazing privilege…and though I left early, I was transformed by my years at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked on.
不管怎樣,我對哈佛的回憶主要都與充沛的精力和智力活動有關(guān)。哈佛的生活令人愉快,也令人感到有壓力,有時甚至?xí)械叫箽猓肋h充滿了挑戰(zhàn)性。生活在哈佛是一種吸引人的特殊待遇……雖然我離開得比較早,但是我在這里的經(jīng)歷、在這里結(jié)識的朋友、在這里發(fā)展起來的一些想法,永遠地改變了我。
But taking a serious look back…I do have one big regret.
但是,如果現(xiàn)在嚴肅地回憶起來,我確實有一個真正的遺憾。
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world--the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
我離開哈佛的時候,根本沒有意識到這個世界是多么的不平等。人類在健康、財富和機遇上的不平等大得可怕,它們使得無數(shù)的人們被迫生活在絕望之中。
I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.
我離開校園的時候,根本不知道在這個國家里,有幾百萬的年輕人無法獲得接受教育的機會。我也不知道,發(fā)展中國家里有無數(shù)的人們生活在無法形容的貧窮和疾病之中。
It took me decades to find out.
我花了幾十年才明白了這些事情。
You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world's inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you've had a chance to think about how--in this age of accelerating technology--we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.
在座的各位同學(xué),你們是在與我不同的時代來到哈佛的。你們比以前的學(xué)生,更多地了解世界是怎樣的不平等。在你們的哈佛求學(xué)過程中,我希望你們已經(jīng)思考過一個問題,那就是在這個新技術(shù)加速發(fā)展的時代,我們怎樣最終應(yīng)對這種不平等,以及我們怎樣來解決這個問題。
Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause--and you wanted to spend that time and money Where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?
為了討論的方便,請想象一下,假如你每個星期可以捐獻一些時間、每個月可以捐獻一些錢——你希望這些時間和金錢,可以用到對拯救生命和改善人類生活有最大作用的地方。你會選擇什么地方?
For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.
對Melinda(注:蓋茨的妻子)和我來說,這也是我們面臨的問題:我們?nèi)绾文軐⑽覀儞碛械馁Y源發(fā)揮出最大的作用。
During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries From diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country. Measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever. One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year ? none of them in the United States.
在討論過程中,Melinda和我讀到了一篇文章,里面說在那些貧窮的國家,每年有數(shù)百萬的兒童死于那些在美國早已不成問題的疾病。麻疹、瘧疾、肺炎、乙型肝炎、黃熱病、還有一種以前我從未聽說過的輪狀病毒,這些疾病每年導(dǎo)致50萬兒童死亡,但是在美國一例死亡病例也沒有。
We were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren't being delivered.
我們被震驚了。我們想,如果幾百萬兒童正在死亡線上掙扎,而且他們是可以被挽救的,那么世界理應(yīng)將用藥物拯救他們作為頭等大事。但是事實并非如此。那些價格還不到一美元的救命的藥劑,并沒有送到他們的手中。
If you believe that every life has equal value, it's revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to ourselves: "This can't be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving."
如果你相信每個生命都是平等的,那么當你發(fā)現(xiàn)某些生命被挽救了,而另一些生命被放棄了,你會感到無法接受。我們對自己說:“事情不可能如此。如果這是真的,那么它理應(yīng)是我們努力的頭等大事。”
So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked: "How could the world let these children die?"
所以,我們用任何人都會想到的方式開始工作。我們問:“這個世界怎么可以眼睜睜看著這些孩子死去?”
The answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.
答案很簡單,也很令人難堪。在市場經(jīng)濟中,拯救兒童是一項沒有利潤的工作,政府也不會提供補助。這些兒童之所以會死亡,是因為他們的父母在經(jīng)濟上沒有實力,在政治上沒有能力發(fā)出聲音。
But you and I have both.
但是,你們和我在經(jīng)濟上有實力,在政治上能夠發(fā)出聲音。
We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism ? if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering From the worst inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.
我們可以讓市場更好地為窮人服務(wù),如果我們能夠設(shè)計出一種更有創(chuàng)新性的資本主義制度——如果我們可以改變市場,讓更多的人可以獲得利潤,或者至少可以維持生活——那么,這就可以幫到那些正在極端不平等的狀況中受苦的人們。我們還可以向全世界的政府施壓,要求他們將納稅人的錢,花到更符合納稅人價值觀的地方。
If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world. This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.
如果我們能夠找到這樣一種方法,既可以幫到窮人,又可以為商人帶來利潤,為政治家?guī)磉x票,那么我們就找到了一種減少世界性不平等的可持續(xù)的發(fā)展道路。這個任務(wù)是無限的。它不可能被完全完成,但是任何自覺地解決這個問題的嘗試,都將會改變這個世界。
I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: "Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end ? because people just…don't…care." I completely disagree.
在這個問題上,我是樂觀的。但是,我也遇到過那些感到絕望的懷疑主義者。他們說:“不平等從人類誕生的第一天就存在,到人類滅亡的最后一天也將存在。——因為人類對這個問題根本不在乎。”我完全不能同意這種觀點。
I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.
我相信,問題不是我們不在乎,而是我們不知道怎么做。
All of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing--not because we didn't care, but because we didn't know what to do. If we had known how to help, we would have acted.
此刻在這個院子里的所有人,生命中總有這樣或那樣的時刻,目睹人類的悲劇,感到萬分傷心。但是我們什么也沒做,并非我們無動于衷,而是因為我們不知道做什么和怎么做。如果我們知道如何做是有效的,那么我們就會采取行動。
The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.
改變世界的阻礙,并非人類的冷漠,而是世界實在太復(fù)雜。
To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.
為了將關(guān)心轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樾袆樱覀冃枰业絾栴},發(fā)現(xiàn)解決辦法的方法以及評估后果。但是世界的復(fù)雜性使得這三步都難于做到。
If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution.
就算我們真正發(fā)現(xiàn)了問題所在,也不過是邁出了第一步,接著還有第二步:那就是從復(fù)雜的事件中找到解決辦法。
Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks "How can I help?," then we can get action--and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares--and that makes it hard for their caring to matter.
如果我們要讓關(guān)心落到實處,我們就必須找到解決辦法。如果我們有一個清晰的和可靠的答案,那么當任何組織和個人發(fā)出疑問“如何我能提供幫助”的時候,我們就能采取行動。我們就能夠保證不浪費一丁點全世界人類對他人的關(guān)心。但是,世界的復(fù)雜性使得很難找到對全世界每一個有愛心的人都有效的行動方法,因此人類對他人的關(guān)心往往很難產(chǎn)生實際效果。
Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have--whether it's something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.
從這個復(fù)雜的世界中找到解決辦法,可以分為四個步驟:確定目標,找到最高效的方法,發(fā)現(xiàn)適用于這個方法的新技術(shù),同時最聰明地利用現(xiàn)有的技術(shù),不管它是復(fù)雜的藥物,還是最簡單的蚊帳。
The AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand--and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.
艾滋病就是一個例子?偟哪繕耍翢o疑問是消滅這種疾病。最高效的方法是預(yù)防。最理想的技術(shù)是發(fā)明一種疫苗,只要注射一次,就可以終生免疫。所以,政府、制藥公司、基金會應(yīng)該資助疫苗研究。但是,這樣研究工作很可能十年之內(nèi)都無法完成。因此,與此同時,我們必須使用現(xiàn)有的技術(shù),目前最有效的預(yù)防方法就是設(shè)法讓人們避免那些危險的行為。
Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working--and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century--which is to surrender to complexity and quit.
要實現(xiàn)這個新的目標,又可以采用新的四步循環(huán)。這是一種模式。關(guān)鍵的東西是永遠不要停止思考和行動。我們千萬不能再犯上個世紀在瘧疾和肺結(jié)核上犯過的錯誤,那時我們因為它們太復(fù)雜,而放棄了采取行動。
The final step--after seeing the problem and finding an approach--is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn From your efforts.
在發(fā)現(xiàn)問題和找到解決方法之后,就是最后一步——評估工作結(jié)果,將你的成功經(jīng)驗或者失敗經(jīng)驗傳播出去,這樣其他人就可以從你的努力中有所收獲。
You have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying From these diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment From business and government.
當然,你必須有一些統(tǒng)計數(shù)字。你必須讓他人知道,你的項目為幾百萬兒童新接種了疫苗。你也必須讓他人知道,兒童死亡人數(shù)下降了多少。這些都是很關(guān)鍵的,不僅有利于改善項目效果,也有利于從商界和政府得到更多的幫助。
But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work ? so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.
但是,這些還不夠,如果你想激勵其他人參加你的項目,你就必須拿出更多的統(tǒng)計數(shù)字;你必須展示你的項目的人性因素,這樣其他人就會感到拯救一個生命,對那些處在困境中的家庭到底意味著什么。
The defining and ongoing innovations of this age--biotechnology, the computer, the Internet--give us a chance we've never had before to end extreme poverty and end death From preventable disease.
這個時代無時無刻不在涌現(xiàn)出新的革新——生物技術(shù),計算機,互聯(lián)網(wǎng)——它們給了我們一個從未有過的機會,去終結(jié)那些極端的貧窮和非惡性疾病的死亡。
The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.
低成本的個人電腦的出現(xiàn),使得一個強大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)有機會誕生,它為學(xué)習(xí)和交流提供了巨大的機會。
The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem--and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.
網(wǎng)絡(luò)的神奇之處,不僅僅是它縮短了物理距離,使得天涯若比鄰。它還極大地增加了懷有共同想法的人們聚集在一起的機會,我們可以為了解決同一個問題,一起共同工作。這就大大加快了革新的進程,發(fā)展速度簡直快得讓人震驚。
At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people don't. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion--smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don't have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world.
與此同時,世界上有條件上網(wǎng)的人,只是全部人口的六分之一。這意味著,還有許多具有創(chuàng)造性的人們,沒有加入到我們的討論中來。那些有著實際的操作經(jīng)驗和相關(guān)經(jīng)歷的聰明人,卻沒有技術(shù)來幫助他們,將他們的天賦或者想法與全世界分享。
We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.
我們需要盡可能地讓更多的人有機會使用新技術(shù),因為這些新技術(shù)正在引發(fā)一場革命,人類將因此可以互相幫助。新技術(shù)正在創(chuàng)造一種可能,不僅是政府,還包括大學(xué)、公司、小機構(gòu)、甚至個人,能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)問題所在、能夠找到解決辦法、能夠評估他們努力的效果,去改變那些馬歇爾六十年前就說到過的問題——饑餓、貧窮和絕望。
Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world.
哈佛是一個大家庭。這個院子里在場的人們,是全世界最有智力的人類群體之一。
What for?
我們可以做些什么?
There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?
毫無疑問,哈佛的老師、校友、學(xué)生和資助者,已經(jīng)用他們的能力改善了全世界各地人們的生活。但是,我們還能夠再做什么呢?有沒有可能,哈佛的人們可以將他們的智慧,用來幫助那些甚至從來沒有聽到過“哈佛”這個名字的人?
Let me make a request of the deans and the professors--the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves:
請允許我向各位院長和教授,提出一個請求——你們是哈佛的智力領(lǐng)袖,當你們雇用新的老師、授予終身教職、評估課程、決定學(xué)位頒發(fā)標準的時候,請問你們自己如下的問題:
Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?
我們最優(yōu)秀的人才是否在致力于解決我們最大的問題?
Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world's worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty…the prevalence of world hunger…the scarcity of clean water…the girls kept out of school…the children who die From diseases we can cure?
哈佛是否鼓勵她的老師去研究解決世界上最嚴重的不平等?哈佛的學(xué)生是否從全球那些極端的貧窮中學(xué)到了什么……世界性的饑荒……清潔的水資源的缺乏……無法上學(xué)的女童……死于非惡性疾病的兒童……哈佛的學(xué)生有沒有從中學(xué)到東西?
Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?
那些世界上過著最優(yōu)越生活的人們,有沒有從那些最困難的人們身上學(xué)到東西?
These are not rhetorical questions--you will answer with your policies.
這些問題并非語言上的修辭。你必須用自己的行動來回答它們。
When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given--in talent, privilege, and opportunity--there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect From us.
想一想吧,我們在這個院子里的這些人,被給予過什么——天賦、特權(quán)、機遇——那么可以這樣說,全世界的人們幾乎有無限的權(quán)力,期待我們做出貢獻。
In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue--a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don't have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.
同這個時代的期望一樣,我也要向今天各位畢業(yè)的同學(xué)提出一個忠告:你們要選擇一個問題,一個復(fù)雜的問題,一個有關(guān)于人類深刻的不平等的問題,然后你們要變成這個問題的專家。如果你們能夠使得這個問題成為你們職業(yè)的核心,那么你們就會非常杰出。但是,你們不必一定要去做那些大事。每個星期只用幾個小時,你就可以通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)得到信息,找到志同道合的朋友,發(fā)現(xiàn)困難所在,找到解決它們的途徑。
Don't let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
不要讓這個世界的復(fù)雜性阻礙你前進。要成為一個行動主義者。將解決人類的不平等視為己任。它將成為你生命中最重要的經(jīng)歷之一。
You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.
在座的各位畢業(yè)的同學(xué),你們所處的時代是一個神奇的時代。當你們離開哈佛的時候,你們擁有的技術(shù),是我們那一屆學(xué)生所沒有的。你們已經(jīng)了解到了世界上的不平等,我們那時還不知道這些。有了這樣的了解之后,要是你再棄那些你可以幫助的人們于不顧,就將受到良心的譴責(zé),只需一點小小的努力,你就可以改變那些人們的生活。你們比我們擁有更大的能力;你們必須盡早開始,盡可能長時期堅持下去。
Knowing what you know, how could you not?
知道了你們所知道的一切,你們怎么可能不采取行動呢?
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years From now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world's deepest inequities…on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
我希望,30年后你們還會再回到哈佛,想起你們用自己的天賦和能力所做出的一切。我希望,在那個時候,你們用來評價自己的標準,不僅僅是你們的專業(yè)成就,而包括你們?yōu)楦淖冞@個世界深刻的不平等所做出的努力,以及你們?nèi)绾紊拼切┻h隔千山萬水、與你們毫不涉及的人們,你們與他們唯一的共同點就是同為人類。
Good luck.
祝各位好運。
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