Drafting the Stanford Commencement Address

起草斯坦福大学毕业典礼演讲

In January 2005, John Hennessy, the president of Stanford, asked Steve to give the commencement address to that spring’s graduating class. Steve agreed.

2005 年 1 月，斯坦福大学校长约翰·亨内西请史蒂夫为当年春季毕业班发表毕业演讲。史蒂夫同意了。

On and off for the next six months, Steve took stabs at writing his talk. He emailed stories and memories to himself. He asked friends, Apple colleagues, and the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin for their thoughts. In the end, however, he wrote the speech on his own. Even three days before the event, Steve was unsatisfied with his talk. He sent it to a friend, warning, “I’ll send it to you, but please don’t puke. I never do stuff like this.” He was still refining the speech the morning that he gave it. Uncharacteristically, Steve read from the lectern, rather than memorizing his text (as he did with Apple keynotes) or speaking extemporaneously from a few scrawled notes (as he did in nearly every other talk).

在接下来的六个月里，史蒂夫时不时地尝试写他的演讲。他给自己发邮件，讲述故事和回忆。他向朋友、苹果同事和编剧亚伦·索尔金征求意见。然而，最终他还是独自写了演讲。即使在活动前三天，史蒂夫对他的演讲仍然不满意。他把演讲发给一个朋友，警告说：“我会发给你，但请不要呕吐。我从来不做这种事。”在他发表演讲的那天早上，他仍在修改演讲。与以往不同，史蒂夫这次是从讲台上读稿，而不是像他在苹果发布会上那样背诵文本，或者像他在几乎所有其他演讲中那样从几张潦草的笔记中即兴发言。

Steve was happy with the speech—he emailed himself a copy a few days after giving it—but he generally deflected the praise that he received for it. “I bought it on CommencementSpeeches.com,” he joked to one person. The commencement address has been viewed millions of times online and is included in school curricula around the world. The following are ideas Steve emailed to himself as he drafted the talk.

史蒂夫对演讲感到满意——在演讲后几天，他给自己发了一份副本——但他通常会拒绝对演讲的赞美。“我是在 CommencementSpeeches.com 上买的，”他对一个人开玩笑说。这场毕业演讲在网上被观看了数百万次，并被纳入全球各地的学校课程中。以下是史蒂夫在起草演讲时发给自己的想法。

From: Steve Jobs 

To: Steve Jobs

Subject: Commencement

Date: January 15, 2005, 10:35 a.m.

This is the closest I’ve ever come to graduating from college

这是我离大学毕业最近的一次

- they’ve asked me to say a few things today that you can learn from

他们让我今天说几件你们可以学习的事情

- I should be learning from you

我应该向你学习

1. Habits are very powerful things

习惯是非常强大的东西。

- 20 years - now until you’re 42

- 20 年 - 现在到你 42 岁

- meditate 20 minutes a day

每天冥想 20 分钟

- walk to work (30 minutes × 2 = 1 hour/day × 5 days/week

- 步行上班（30 分钟 × 2 = 1 小时/天 × 5 天/周）

= 250/yr × 20 years = 5000hrs / 10 hours per day = 500 days = >1 year

= 250/年 × 20 年 = 5000 小时 / 每天 10 小时 = 500 天 = 超过 1 年

- how many cows, chickens, milk, soda, coffee

- 多少头牛，鸡，牛奶，汽水，咖啡

- fasting (jesus) 1 day per week

- 每周禁食（耶稣）1 天

3. Curiosity

3. 好奇心

- autobiography of a yogi quote “what is miraculous is all around us”

“奇迹无处不在。”

4. When I was 20 years old I took classes here just as Apple was getting started

当我 20 岁时，我在这里上课，正值苹果公司刚刚起步。

- no money - 没钱

- my wife and I donating in your name one free scholarship per year for offbeat student

我和我的妻子以您的名义每年捐赠一个免费的奖学金给有个性的学生

You are going into a crazy world

你将进入一个疯狂的世界

- nuclear, biological weapons, less than great leadership, etc Gandhi quote - become the change you want to see in the world

- 核武器、生物武器、不够出色的领导力等 甘地名言 - 成为你希望在世界上看到的改变

So, I’m going to focus on you - your inner world - how you approach your life

所以，我将专注于你——你的内心世界——你如何看待生活

From: Steve Jobs 

To: Steve Jobs

Subject: Stanford Speech

Date: May 1, 2005, 11:10 p.m.

I never graduated from college. Matter of fact, this right here is the closest I’ve ever got to a college graduation. So, if you’re foolish enough to listen to me today, I want to give you three pieces of advice as you leave college.

我从未大学毕业。事实上，这里就是我离大学毕业最近的地方。所以，如果你今天傻到愿意听我说话，我想给你三条建议，作为你离开大学时的参考。

First, when I was around your age I made the public statement “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Of course I meant it at the time. Now I am 50 years old, and it’s funny how, when you get to be my age, you begin to see more value in experience. But whether its sheer IQ points or life’s experience, the first piece of advice I want to give you is to try to always surround yourself with people smarter than you. This is how you get smarter and deeper. It doesn’t matter what their field is. They can be from a completely different walk of life than you - in fact, that’s even better. Not long after we started Apple I hired a genius engineer who was terribly old at the time - I think he was in his 40s - who was, in addition to being the best analog engineer on the planet, was also a revolutionary socialist. He turned me on to Das Kapital and America’s 60 Families and things I had never been exposed to before.

首先，当我和你差不多大的时候，我曾公开声明“不要相信超过 30 岁的人。”当然，我当时是认真的。现在我 50 岁了，真有趣，当你到我这个年纪时，你开始更加重视经验。但无论是纯粹的智商还是生活经验，我想给你的第一条建议是，尽量总是和比你聪明的人在一起。这是你变得更聪明、更深刻的方式。无论他们的领域是什么都无所谓。他们可以来自与你完全不同的生活背景——事实上，这样更好。在我们刚开始苹果公司不久，我雇了一位当时非常年长的天才工程师——我想他当时四十多岁——他不仅是地球上最优秀的模拟工程师，还是一位革命社会主义者。他让我接触到了《资本论》和《美国的 60 个家族》等我之前从未接触过的东西。

You have begun your 20s, and during this decade you will meet many amazing people. And some great teachers - mentors - who you will never forget. But remember, a teacher is someone who stands with you in the dark and holds their flashlight just long enough for you to find your own flashlight.

你已经进入了 20 岁， 在这个十年里，你会遇到许多了不起的人，还有一些伟大的老师——导师——他们会让你永生难忘。但请记住，老师是那些在黑暗中与你并肩而立的人，他们会把手电筒照亮，直到你找到自己的手电筒。

Second, 第二，

Third, we are all going to die. You are going to die

第三，我们都会死。你也会死。

Added May 2, 7:20 p.m.

添加于 5 月 2 日，晚上 7:20。

A wise observer of the economic scene once commented that “what can be left to later, usually is -- and then, alas, it’s too late.” I don’t want to let that stand as the epitaph of what has been an unparalleled period of success for the American economy and of enormous potential for the world at large.

一位聪明的经济观察者曾评论道：“通常可以留到后面的事情，最后都会被留到后面——然后，唉，已经太晚了。”我不想让这句话成为美国经济这一无与伦比的成功时期以及对整个世界巨大潜力的墓志铭。

Added May 5, 6:55 a.m.

添加于 5 月 5 日，上午 6:55。

STAY CURIOUS 保持好奇

Reed - taking calligraphy - no practical value - learned about typography, fonts, etc - 10 years later working on mac - if I had never taken class then no multiple fonts, proportional spaced multiple fonts on Macs or PCs

里德 - 学习书法 - 没有实际价值 - 了解了排版、字体等 - 10 年后在 Mac 上工作 - 如果我当初没有上课，那么在 Mac 或 PC 上就不会有多种字体和比例间距的多种字体

ENDING 结束

When I was your age there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog which influenced my generation. It was created not far from where we stand today. They put out several issues, and then when it had run its course put out a final issue which, on the back cover had a photograph of a country road in the morning, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous, with the saying “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” It was their farewell morsel of wisdom to us all. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And I wish that for you.

当我像你们这么大的时候，有一份非常了不起的出版物叫《Whole Earth Catalog》，它影响了我那一代人。这本杂志的诞生地离我们今天站的地方不远。他们出版了几期，最后当使命完成时，推出了最后一期。在最后一期的封底上，有一张清晨乡间小路的照片，那种如果你足够冒险，可能会在上面搭便车的路。照片上写着：“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢。” 这是他们留给我们的智慧箴言：“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢。” 我一直希望自己能做到这一点，现在我也希望你们能做到。

Thank you very much. 非常感谢。

Added May 5, 9:09 a.m.

添加于 5 月 5 日，上午 9:09。

When I was your age there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog which influenced my generation. It was created in Menlo Park, not far from where we stand today. They put out several issues, and then when it had run its course put out a final issue. That was 1974, and I was your age. One 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, with the words: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” It was their farewell jewel of wisdom as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And [now] I wish that for you. Thank you very much.

当我像你们这么大的时候，有一份影响我那一代人的神奇出版物，叫《Whole Earth Catalog》。它在门洛帕克创办，离我们今天站的地方不远。他们出版了几期，然后在完成使命后，发布了最后一期。那是1974年，我当时和你们一样大。在他们最后一期的封底上，有一张清晨乡村小路的照片，正是那种如果你足够冒险，可能会在上面搭便车的路。照片上写着：“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢。” 这是他们离别时的智慧结晶：“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢。” 我一直希望自己能做到这一点，现在我也希望你们能做到。非常感谢你们。

From: Steve Jobs

To: Steve Jobs

Subject: You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life

主题：你无法计划去见那些会改变你生活的人

Date: June 7, 2005, 11:46 p.m.

You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life. I am invited to speak at Stanford’s business school once or twice a year, and I always try to do it. I had accepted an invitation to speak one Thursday late in the afternoon, and I wasn’t feeling very well and I had a dinner later that evening with some important customers up at a winery on Page Mill Road. The room for my talk wasn’t large enough, and all the seats were full so some of the students were sitting in the aisles. One of the professors asked them to clear the aisles in case a fire marshal should appear, and one girl who was being evicted quickly sat down in one of the four seats they had left vacant in the front row for me and whatever entourage I might be bringing. When I arrived alone and sat down in the front row, it didn’t take me long to notice this really cute girl sitting next to me. I think she was stunned when it was me that got up to speak. And I knew something was up when I was staring at her, forgetting what I was talking about mid-sentence. After my talk, I stayed around to speak with some students, and she stayed too. But then she left. I didn’t know who she was, and thought I might never see her again. So I wound things up and left too, and I caught up with her in the parking lot. I asked her if she would have dinner with me on Saturday.

你无法计划去见那些会改变你生活的人。我每年被邀请在斯坦福商学院演讲一到两次，我总是尽量去做。我接受了一个邀请，在一个星期四的下午演讲，但我感觉不太好，晚上还有一个重要客户的晚餐，地点是在佩奇米尔路上的一个酒庄。我的演讲房间不够大，所有座位都坐满了，所以一些学生坐在过道上。一位教授要求他们清理过道，以防消防员出现，而一位被请离的女孩迅速坐到了前排为我和我可能带来的随行人员留出的四个空位中的一个。当我独自到达并坐在前排时，我很快注意到旁边坐着一个非常可爱的女孩。我想她看到是我上台演讲时感到震惊。当我盯着她看，忘记了自己在说什么时，我就知道发生了什么。演讲结束后，我留下来和一些学生交谈，她也留下了。但随后她离开了。 我不知道她是谁，觉得可能再也见不到她了。于是我结束了事情也离开了，结果在停车场追上了她。我问她星期六是否愿意和我共进晚餐。

She said yes and gave me her phone number. As I was walking to my car, I asked myself: “If this was the last day of my life, would I rather have dinner with the important customers or her?” I raced back to her car, just as she was about to drive off, and asked her “How about dinner tonight?” She said: “Sure,” and we were married 18 months later. Yea, it might have worked out if I had waited until Saturday night, and those customers might have given us a few more orders if I had shown up.

她答应了，并给了我她的电话号码。当我走向我的车时，我问自己：“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天，我是想和重要客户共进晚餐，还是和她？”我飞奔回她的车旁，就在她要开车离开的时候，问她：“今晚一起吃晚餐怎么样？”她说：“当然可以，”我们在 18 个月后结婚了。是的，如果我等到星期六晚上，也许事情会有所不同，如果我出现，那些客户可能会给我们更多的订单。

But who knows, maybe she had a hot date Friday night and things would have turned out much differently… . You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life. It just happens. Maybe its random, maybe its fate. Either way, you can’t plan for it. But you want to recognize it when it happens, and have the courage and clarity of mind to grab onto it.

但谁知道呢，也许她周五晚上有个火热的约会，事情会变得截然不同……你无法计划去遇见那些会改变你生活的人。这就是发生的事情。也许是随机的，也许是命运。无论如何，你无法为此做计划。但你想在发生时认出它，并拥有抓住它的勇气和清晰的头脑。

From: Steve Jobs

To: Steve Jobs

Subject: Starting Apple

Date: June 7, 2005, 11:55 p.m.

When my partner, Steve Wozniak, and I started Apple, most of our friends and our family told us we were nuts. Woz had a great job designing handheld calculators at Hewlett Packard and I had a fun job designing games at Atari. And we were giving them up to start this company to make a primitive computer on a PC board that a handful of hobbyists, mostly our friends, might buy for less than it costs us to make. I remember talking to Woz, and saying: “We may fail, but we have no responsibility now, no wives, no kids, no house payments, nothing. If we don’t do this now, we never will. We have nothing to lose - the worst we’ll get out of this is that we’ll have the memories of having gone for it.” To give ourselves the experience of participating in what Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard did-- to start a company. So rather than invest in better cars, or better apartments, or our bank accounts, we decided to invest in ourselves.

当我的搭档史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克和我创办苹果公司时，我们的大多数朋友和家人都告诉我们我们疯了。沃兹在惠普设计手持计算器的工作非常不错，而我在雅达利设计游戏的工作也很有趣。我们放弃了这些工作，来创办这家公司，制作一款在 PC 板上的原始计算机，可能只有少数爱好者，主要是我们的朋友，会以低于我们制造成本的价格购买。我记得和沃兹谈过，说：“我们可能会失败，但我们现在没有责任，没有妻子，没有孩子，没有房贷，什么都没有。如果我们现在不去做，我们就永远不会去做。我们没有什么可失去的——我们得到的最糟糕的结果就是拥有追逐梦想的回忆。”为了让自己体验比尔·休利特和戴夫·帕卡德所做的事情——创办一家公司。因此，我们决定投资于自己，而不是更好的汽车、更好的公寓或我们的银行账户。

From: Steve Jobs

To: Steve Jobs

Subject: Story #3?

Date: June 9, 2005, 10:15 p.m.

The most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices is to remember that I’ll be dead soon. I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but it’s true. And when I remember this, I realize that all of the expectations and standards and restrictions of others and society mean nothing in the end. I realize that I have nothing to lose by following my heart and intuition, even if I embarrass myself or fail in the eyes of others. Because I’ll be dead soon. And I realize that I don’t have forever to decide to find what my intuition tells me is waiting out there for me.

我所遇到过的最重要的帮助我做出重大决定的事情，就是记住自己终将死去。我知道这听起来有点戏剧化，但这是真的。当我记住这一点时，我意识到，所有其他人的期望、社会的标准和限制最终都无关紧要。我意识到，追随我的内心和直觉并不会让我失去什么，即使在别人眼中我可能会出丑或失败。因为我终将死去。而我意识到，我并没有无限的时间去决定，找到我的直觉告诉我在外面等着我的东西。

When I was 17, I read a quote that said something like “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” And since I was 17, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself “If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And when the answer has been “NO” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something in my life.

当我 17 岁时，我读到一句话，大意是“如果你把每一天都当作生命中的最后一天来过，总有一天你会确实是对的。”自从我 17 岁以来，我每天早上都在镜子前问自己：“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天，我会想做我今天要做的事情吗？”当答案连续太多天都是“否”时，我知道我需要改变我生活中的某些东西。

Another way to think about this is that your life is a story. It’s hard to see it that way when you’re looking forward at 22. But imagine yourself as an old person looking back on your life. Your life will be a story. It will be your story, with its highs and lows, its heros and villains, its forks in the road that mean everything.

另一种思考方式是，你的生活是一段故事。当你 22 岁时，很难以这种方式看待它。但想象一下自己作为一个老年人回顾自己的一生。你的生活将是一段故事。这将是你的故事，包含高潮和低谷，英雄和反派，以及那些意义重大的岔路口。

And if you can remember that your life is a story in the making, it will help you make those important decisions. When you have to decide between taking the prestigious job that pays well, or the offbeat job with no future that makes your heart sing, just imagine yourself looking back on your life in 50 years and you’ll know what path is yours. You will give yourself the right advice. You will intuitively know if something is part of your story or not.

如果你能记住你的生活是一部正在创作的故事，这将帮助你做出那些重要的决定。当你必须在一份薪水丰厚的声望工作和一份没有未来但让你心潮澎湃的另类工作之间做出选择时，想象一下自己在 50 年后回顾自己的生活，你就会知道哪条路是属于你的。你会给自己正确的建议。你会直觉地知道某件事是否是你故事的一部分。

I’m 50 years old now, and my story is entering its third act. I can tell you with certainty that those times when I have followed my gut, heart and intuition …

我现在 50 岁，我的故事进入了第三幕。我可以肯定地告诉你，当我跟随我的直觉、内心和直觉的时候……