1、How to Live Before You Die死前如何生活By Steve Jobs, delivered on June 12, 2005由史蒂夫乔布斯于 2005 年 6 月 12 日交付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 Ive ever gotten to a college
2、graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. Thats it. No big deal. Just three stories.我很荣幸今天能和你们一起参加世界上最好的大学之一的毕业典礼。我从来没有大学毕业。说实话,这是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。今天我想告诉你们我生命中的三个故事。够了就要这些。有什么了不起!只有三个故事。The first story is about connecting the dots.第一个故事是关于连接点。I dropped out of Reed College after the
3、 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?我在里德学院学习了 6 个月后就退学了,但是在我真正退学之前,我又在学校待了 18 个月左右。那我为什么退学呢?It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put
4、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 waiti
5、ng 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 fina
6、l adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.它在我出生之前就开始了。我的亲生母亲是一个年轻的、没有结婚的大学毕业生,她决定让别人收养我。她强烈地认为我应该被大学毕业生收养,所以一切都准备好了,我要由一个律师和他的妻子在我出生时被收养。但是当我出生时,他们在最后一分钟决定他们想要一个女孩。所以我的父母,他们在候选名单上,在午夜接到了一个电话:“我们有一个意外的男婴,你们想要他吗?”他们说:“当然可以,”我亲生母
7、亲随后发现,我的养母从来没有上过大学,我的父亲甚至从没有读过高中。她拒绝在最后的收养文件上签字。她只是在几个月以后,我的父母答应她一定要让我上大学。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 couldnt se
8、e 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
9、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 didnt interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.17 年后,我真的上了大学。但我很天真地选择了一所几乎和斯坦福一样贵的大学,我所有工薪阶层父母的积蓄都花在了我的大学学费上。六个月后,我没有看到它的价值。我不知道我一
10、生中想做什么,也不知道大学能帮我解决什么问题。在这里,我几乎花光了我父母一生的积蓄。所以我决定退学,并且相信一切都会好起来。我当时非常害怕,但回头看,这是我做过的最好的决定。在我退学的那一刻,我可以停止那些我不感兴趣的必修课,开始旁听那些看起来有趣的课程。It wasnt all romantic. I didnt 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
11、 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:这不全是浪漫的。我没有宿舍,所以我睡在朋友房间的地板上,我去捡 5 美分的可乐瓶子退费买吃的,我都会步行 7
12、 英里穿越市区的每星期日晚上得到一顿在 Hare Krishna 神庙一周。我喜欢它。跟着我的好奇心和直觉,我偶然发现的许多东西后来被证明是无价之宝。让我举一个例子: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
13、and didnt 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, art
14、istically subtle in a way that science cant capture, and I found it fascinating.Reed 大学在那时提供也许是全美最好的书法指导。整个校园的每一张海报,每个抽屉的标签,都是漂亮的手写体。因为我退学了,不必上普通课,所以我决定去上书法课,学学怎么学书法。我学习了 serif 和 serif 字体,学会了如何在不同的字母组合中改变空格的数量,以及如何才能做出很棒的印刷字体。这是一种科学无法捕捉的美丽、历史和艺术精妙,我觉得它很迷人。None of this had even a hope of any practica
15、l 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 h
16、ad 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
17、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.这甚至不希望在我的生命中有什么实际应用。但是十年之后,当我们在设计第一台 Macintosh 电脑,一切回到我。我们把它都设计成了 Mac。它是第一个拥有漂亮字体的计算机。如果我从未上过大学里的那门课,Mac 就不会有多种字体或比例间距字体。又因为Windows 抄袭了 Mac,很可
18、能个人电脑就不会有这些。如果我从来没有退学过,我就不会去上书法课,个人电脑也不会有这么好的版式。当然这是不可能的我在大学的时候连接点的期待。但它是非常,非常清楚十年后回头看。Again, you cant 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, desti
19、ny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.再次,你不能把从前的点点滴滴串连起来;你只能在回顾的时候将他们。所以你必须相信这些片断会在你未来的连接。你必须要相信某些东西:你的勇气、命运、生活、因缘,随便。这种方法从来没有让我失望,也让我的人生与众不同。My second story is about love and loss.我的第二个故事是关于爱与失去的。I was lucky I found what I love
20、d 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
21、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 diverg我很幸运,我找到了我爱做什么事。Wo
22、z 和我在我父母的车库里开始了苹果在我 20 岁的时候。我们努力工作,10 年后,苹果公司从车库里的两个人成长为拥有 4000 多名员工的 20 亿美元的公司。一年前,我们刚刚推出了我们最好的产品 Macintosh 电脑,我刚满 30 岁。然后我被解雇了。你怎么会被自己创立的公司解雇呢?嗯,随着苹果的成长,我们雇用了一个我认为很有天分的家伙和我一起管理公司,在最初的几年里一切都很顺利。但是后来我们对未来的看法开始发散But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.
23、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.但是后来我们对未来的看法发生了分歧,最终我们吵了起来。当我们这样做,我们的董事会站在他那一边。所以在 30 岁的时候我出去了。而且非常公开。曾经是我整个成年生活的重心,这是毁灭性的。I really didnt know what to do fo
24、r 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
25、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.我真的不知道该怎么做了几个月。我觉得我让上一代的创业者失望了,因为我把接力棒扔给了我。我会见了帕卡德和 Bob Noyce 试图搞得这么糟糕说声道歉。我是一个非常
26、公开的失败,我甚至想过逃离硅谷。但是我渐渐发现了曙光,我仍然喜爱我从事的。在苹果公司发生的这些事情丝毫没有改变这一点。我被拒绝了,但我还是爱。所以我决定重新开始。I didnt 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, les
27、s sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.当时我没有看到,但事实证明,从苹果公司被炒是我所经历过的最好的事情。成功的沉重感又被初学者的轻松所取代,对一切都不那么确定。这让我觉得如此自由,进入了我生命中最有创造力的时期。During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing
28、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 returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the
29、heart of Apples current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.在接下来的五年里,我创立了一家名为 NeXT 的公司,另一家名叫 Pixar 的公司,并爱上了一位了不起的女人,她将成为我的妻子。Pixar 制作了世界上第一部电脑动画电影玩具总动员,现在是世界上最成功的动画工作室。在一个非凡的转折点上,苹果买下了NeXT,我又回到了苹果,我们下一步开发的技术是苹果当前复兴的核心。Laurene 和我有一个美满的家庭。Im pretty sure none of this would h
30、ave happened if I hadnt 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. Dont lose faith. Im convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. Youve got to find what you love. And th
31、at 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 havent found it yet, keep looking. Dont settle.
32、 As with all matters of the heart, youll 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. Dont settle.我敢肯定这会如果我没有被苹果解雇了。这是一剂苦药,但是我想病人需要这个。有时候,人生会用砖头打你的头。不要失去信心。我很清楚唯一使我一直走下去的,我爱我所做的。你必须找到你所爱的。这是你的工作还是你的爱人
33、。你的工作将占据你生活的很大一部分,唯一能让你真正满足的方法是去做你认为是伟大的工作。而唯一做伟大工作的方法是爱你所做的。如果你还没有找到,继续找。不要安定下来。跟随自己的心,你就会知道当你找到它。而且,如同任何伟大的关系,事情只会越来越好,随着岁月的流逝。所以继续寻找直到你找到它。不要安定下来。My third story is about death.我的第三个故事是关于死亡的。When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, somed
34、ay youll 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 ma
35、ny days in a row, I know I need to change something.我 17 岁时,我读到了一句话:“如果你把每一天都当作是你的最后一天你会如愿以偿。”这让我印象深刻,从那以后,在过去的33 年,我在每天早晨都会对着镜子问自己:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天,我会想做我今天做的事吗?”当答案是“不”,一连几天,我知道我需要改变一些东西。Remembering that Ill be dead soon is the most important tool Ive ever encountered to help me make the big choices
36、 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
37、 something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.记住我即将死去,是我一生中遇到的最重要的工具,帮我做出了人生的重大抉择。因为几乎所有的事情所有外界的期望、所有的骄傲、所有对难堪或失败的恐惧 在死亡面前都消失了,只剩下真正重要的东西。记住你将要死去是我知道的最好的方法,以避免认为你会失去某些东西的陷阱。你已经赤身裸体了。没有理由不跟随你的心。About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30
38、 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didnt 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 affa
39、irs in order, which is doctors code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought youd 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
40、 goodbyes.一年前我被诊断出癌症。我有一个扫描在早上 7:30,清楚的显示在我的胰腺有一个肿瘤。我甚至不知道胰腺是什么东西。医生告诉我这几乎是一种无法治愈的癌症,我预计活不了三到六个月。我的医生建议我回家,然后整理好我的一切,那就是医生准备死亡的程序。这意味着你想告诉你的孩子你在接下来的 10 年里要在几个月内告诉他们的一切。那意味着把每件事情都安排好,它会让你的家人尽可能轻松。它的意思是说你的告别。I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an en
41、doscope 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 rar
42、e form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and Im fine now.我整天和那个诊断活在一起。那天晚上我做了一个活切片检查,医生将一个内窥镜从我的喉咙伸进去,通过我的胃,进入我的肠子,用一根针在我的胰腺上取了一些肿瘤细胞。我打了镇静剂,但是我的妻子在那里,她告诉我,当他们在显微镜下观察细胞时,医生们开始哭泣,因为这是一种非常罕见的可以用手术治愈的胰腺癌。我做了手术,现在好了。This was the closest Ive been to facing death, and I
43、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:这是我离死亡最近的一次,我希望这是我几十年来最接近的时刻。在经历了它之后,我现在可以比死亡是一个有用但纯粹是知性的概念更确切地告诉你了:No one wants to die. Even people who want t
44、o go to heaven dont 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 Lifes change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the
45、 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.没有人愿意死。即使想去天堂的人也不想死。但是死亡是我们每个人共同的终点。从来没有人逃脱过它。这是注定的,因为死亡很可能是生命最好的发明。它是生命的改变剂。它将旧的清除以便给新的让路的老。现在你们是新的,但不久之后的某一天,你们将逐渐成为旧的,被清除。我很抱歉这很戏剧性,但是这十分的真实。Your ti
46、me is limited, so dont waste it living someone elses life. Dont be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other peoples thinking. Dont 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
47、already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.你的时间有限,所以不要浪费时间活在别人的生活里。不要被教条束缚,生活在别人思考的结果。不要让别人的意见淹没了你自己内心的声音。最重要的是,要有勇气跟随你的内心和直觉。它们已经知道你真正想要成为什么样的。其他一切都是次要的。When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my
48、 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 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort
49、 of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.当我年轻的时候,有一本叫做“地球目录”的令人惊奇的出版物,它是我们这一代人的圣经之一。它是由一个叫 Stewart Brand 的家伙不在门洛帕克,离这里很远了,他带来了他的诗意生活。那是在 1960 年底,在个人电脑和桌面出版之前,所有这些都是用打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机制作的。有点像谷歌的平装书,在谷歌出现前 35 年,它是理想主义的,充满了灵巧的工具和伟大的理念。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