求知若飢，虛心若愚：Stay hungry, stay foolish. ─ Steven Jobs

Appe創辦人Steven Jobs於2005年時，在史丹佛大學以三則在人生中發生的故事，勉勵即將畢業的年輕人們。

這三則故事分別為：

1. 人生中點點滴滴的關係。

2. 愛與失去。

3. 死亡。

演講最後，以求知若飢，虛心若愚 (Stay hungry, stay foolish.) 鼓勵大家，永遠以最謙遜的心與態度，面對生活中將遇到的每件事。

I’m honored to be with you today for the commencement from one of finest universities in the world.  Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I’ve ever got into a college graduation.

今天，很榮幸來到世界上最好的學校之一的畢業典禮上。我從未從大學畢業過，老實說，這是我離大學畢業最近的一刻。

Today, I want to tell you three stories in my life.  That’s it.  Not a big deal.  Just three stories.

今天，我只說三個故事，不談大道理，就三個故事。


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 dropp out?  It started before I was born.  

第一個故事，是關於人生中的點點滴滴如何串連在一起。我在里德學院（Reed College）念了六個月就辦休學了。到我退學前，一共休學了十八個月。那麼，我為什麼休學呢？這得從我出生前講起。

My biological mother was young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me 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.  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 the college.

我的親生母親當時是個研究生，年輕的未婚媽媽，她決定讓別人收養我。她強烈覺得應該讓有大學學歷的人收養我，所以我出生時，她就準備讓我被一對律師夫婦收養。但是這對夫妻到了最後一刻反悔了，他們想收養女孩。所以在等待收養名單上的一對夫妻，也就是我的養父母，在一天半夜裡接到一通電話， 問他們「有一名意外出生的男孩，你們要認養他嗎？」

而他們的回答是「當然要」。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做最後簽字。直到幾個月後，我的養父母保證將來一定會讓我上大學，她才漸漸答應。

This was the start in my life.  And 17 years later, I did go to the 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 have 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 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 that 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.

這是我人生的開端。十七年後，我上大學了。但是當時我天真地選了一所學費幾乎跟史丹佛一樣貴的大學，我那工人階級的父母將所有積蓄都花在我的學費上。六個月後，我看不出唸這書的價值。那時，我不知道這輩子要做什麼，也不知道唸大學能對我有什麼幫助，只知道我為了念書，花光了我父母這輩子的所有積蓄。所以，我決定休學，相信船到橋頭自然直。當時這個決定看來相當可怕，可是現在看來，那是我這輩子做過最好的決定之一。當我休學之後，我再也不用上我沒興趣的必修課，把時間拿去聽那些我有興趣的課。

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 five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna Temple.  I loved it.  And much what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

這一點都不浪漫。我沒有宿舍，所以我睡在同學家的地板上，靠著回收五分錢的可樂空罐的買東西吃。每周日晚上得走七哩的路，繞過大半個鎮，去印度教的 Hare Krishna 神廟吃頓好料，我喜歡 Hare Krishna 神廟的好料。就這樣追隨我的好奇與直覺，大部分我所投入過的事物，之後回顧都成了無比珍貴的經歷。

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 beautiful 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 space between letter combinations, about what makes a great typography great.  It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

舉例來說。里德學院當時有著大概是全國最好的書寫教育。校園內的每一張海報上，每個抽屜的標籤上，都是美麗的手寫字。因為我休學了，可以不用去上那些應該要上的課，所以我跑去上書寫課。我學了Serif 與 Sanserif 字體，學到在不同字母組合間變更字的間距，學到活字印刷偉大的地方。書寫的美好、古典與藝術感是科學所無法掌握的，我覺得這很迷人。

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 not have multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it’ s likely no personal computers would have them.If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personal computer might not have wonderful typography that they do.

我沒預期過學這些東西能在我生活中實際幫到什麼忙，不過十年後，當我在設計第一台麥金塔時，我想起了當時所學的東西，所以把這些東西都設計進了麥金塔裡，這是第一台能印刷出漂亮東西的電腦。如果我沒沉溺於那樣一門課裡，麥金塔可能就不會有多樣化的字體跟等比例間距字體了。又因為Windows 抄襲了麥金塔的使用方式，因此，如果當年我沒有休學，沒有去上那門書寫課，大概所有的個人電腦都不會有這些東西，印不出現在我們看到的漂亮的字來了。

Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in the college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 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 your future. You have to trust 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.

當然，當我還在大學時，不可能把這些點點滴滴預先串連在一起，但在十年後的今天回顧，一切就顯得非常清楚。我再說一次，你無法預先把點點滴滴串連起來；只有在未來回顧時， 你才會明白那些點點滴滴是如何串在一起的。所以你得相信，眼前你經歷的種種，將來多少會連結在一起。你得信任某個東西，直覺也好， 命運也好，生命也好，或是緣分。這種作法從來沒讓我失望，而我的人生也因此變得完全不同。

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 two of us in the garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.  We’d just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I’d just turned 30, and then I got fired.  How can you get fired form the company you started?  

我的第二個故事，是有關愛與失去。我很幸運，年輕時就發現自己愛做什麼事。我二十歲時，跟 Woz 在我爸媽的車庫裡開始了蘋果電腦的事業。我們拚命工作，蘋果電腦在十年間從一間兩個小夥子的車庫,，成了一家員工超過四千人、市值二十億美金的公司。在那事件之前一年推出了我們最棒的作品─麥金塔電腦（Macintosh），那時我才剛邁入三十歲；然後，我被解僱了。我怎麼會被自己創辦的公司給解僱了？

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 when I was 30, I was out, and very publically out.  

當蘋果電腦成長後，我請了一個我認為在經營上很有才華的人來，他在頭幾年也確實幹得不錯。可是我們對未來的願景不同，最後只好分道揚鑣，董事會站在他那邊，就這樣在我 30 歲的時候，公開把我給解僱了。

What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.  I really didn’t know for a few months.  I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down that I 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.

我失去了整個生活的重心，我的人生就這樣被摧毀。有幾個月，我不知道要做些什麼。我覺得我令企業界的前輩們失望，我把他們交給我的接力棒弄丟了。我見了 David Packard (HP創辦人) 與Bob Noyce (Intel創辦人)，向他們說道歉，我把事情給搞砸了。我成了眾人眼中失敗的例子，我一度想要離開矽谷。但是漸漸的，我發現，我還是喜愛那些我做過的事情，在蘋果電腦中經歷的那些事絲毫沒有改變我愛做的事。雖然我被否定了，可是我還是愛做那些事情，所以我決定從頭來過。

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 in 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.  

當時我沒發現，但現在看來，被蘋果電腦開除，是我所經歷過最好的事情。成功的沉重被從頭來過的輕鬆所取代，每件事情都不那麼確定，讓我自由進入這輩子最有創意的年代。接下來五年，我創辦了NeXT與 Pixar，也與後來的老婆Laurene墜入愛河。

Pixar went on to creating the world’s first computer-animated feature film, “Toy Story,” and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

Pixar接著製作了世界上第一部全電腦動畫電影，玩具總動員（Toy Story），現在是世界上最成功的動畫製作公司。

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 Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

後來，蘋果買下了 NeXT，我回到了蘋果，我們在 NeXT 發展的技術成了蘋果電腦後來復興的核心部份。Laurene也和我共組了美妙的家庭。

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 is 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, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers.  

我很確定，如果當年蘋果電腦沒開除我，就不會發生這些事情。這帖藥很苦口，可是我想蘋果這個病人需要這帖藥。有時候，人生會用磚頭打你的頭，但不要失去信心。我確信，我愛我所做的事情，這就是這些年來支持我繼續走下去的唯一理由。你得找出你的最愛，工作如此，人生伴侶更是如此。

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 the heart, you will know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on.  So keep looking, don’t settle.

你的工作將佔掉你人生的一大部分，唯一真正獲得滿足的方法就是做你相信是偉大的工作，而唯一做偉大工作的方法是愛你所做的事。如果你還沒找到這些事，繼續找，別停下。盡你全心全力，你知道你一定會找到。而且，如同任何偉大的事業，事情只會隨著時間愈來愈好。所以，在你找到之前，繼續找，別停下。

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 will almost 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 the external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment and failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is only truly important. Remembering that you’re going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You’re already naked.  There’s no reason not to follow your heart.

我的第三個故事，是關於死亡。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，你就會輕鬆自在。」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天，我今天要做些什麼？」每當我連續太多天都得到「沒事做」的答案時，我就知道我必須有所改變了。提醒自己快死了，是我在人生中面臨重大決定時，所用過最重要的方法。因為幾乎每件事－所有外界期望、所有的名聲、所有對困窘或失敗的恐懼－在面對死亡時，都消失了，只有最真實重要的東西才會留下。提醒自己快死了，是我所知避免掉入畏懼失去的陷阱裡最好的方法。生不帶來、死不帶去，方能順心而為。

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 live expectably no longer than 3 to 6 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 and 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 that everything is bottoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.  It means to say your goodbyes.

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，預計我大概活不到三到六個月了。醫生建議我回家，好好跟親人們聚一聚，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，家人才會儘量輕鬆。那代表你得跟人說再見了。

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 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 doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.  I had the surgery and, thankfully, I’m fine now.

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，穿過胃進到腸子，將探針伸進胰臟，取了一些腫瘤細胞出來。我打了鎮靜劑，不醒人事，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胰臟癌，可以用手術治好。所以我接受了手術，康復了。

This was the closest that I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades.  Have 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’s life 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.  Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living in someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living in 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.

這是我最接近死亡的時候，我希望那會繼續是未來數十年內最接近的一次。經歷此事後，我可以比先前死亡只是純粹想像時，要能更肯定地告訴你們：沒有人想死。即使那些想上天堂的人，也想活著上天堂。但是死亡是我們共同的終點，沒有人逃得過。這是註定的，因為死亡很可能就是生命中最棒的發明，是生命交替的媒介，送走老人們，給新生代開出的道路。

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中。不要被教條所侷限，盲從教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，擁有追隨自己內心與直覺的勇氣，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。

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called “The Whole Earth Catalogue,” which 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 bought 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 from 35 years before Google came along.  It was idealistic overflowing with neat tools and great notions.  Stuart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.  

在我年少時，有本很棒的雜誌叫做 《Whole Earth Catalog》，當年這可是我們的經典讀物。是位住在離這不遠的 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出現，所有內容都是打字機、剪刀跟拍立得相機做出來的。雜誌內容有點像印在紙上的平面 Google，在 Google 出現之前35年就有了：這本雜誌很理想主義，充滿新奇工具與偉大的見解。Stewart 跟他的團隊出版了好幾期的《Whole Earth Catalog》，然後很自然地，最後出了停刊號。

It was the mid-seventies 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 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 a new, I wish that for you.  Stay hungry, stay foolish.

當時是 1970 年代中期，我正是你們現在這個年齡時。在停刊號的封底，有張清晨鄉間小路的照片，那種你四處搭便車冒險旅行時會經過的鄉間小路。在照片下印了行小字：求知若飢，虛心若愚。那是他們親筆寫下的告別訊息，我總是以此自許。

當你們畢業，展開新生活，我也以此祝福你們。

求知若飢，虛心若愚。

Thank you all, very much.


Steven Jobs gave this speech in Stanford in 2005.