issy的部落格

每年的五六月，是美國大學舉行畢業典禮的季節。按照慣例，各界名流都會受邀到各大名校去作激動人心的演講。本文精選了近年來美國最有影響力的十佳畢業典禮演講，與已經或即將畢業的讀者朋友們共勉。

1. Steve Jobs
史蒂芬·約伯斯
CEO of Apple Computers 蘋果電腦CEO
Stanford University  斯坦福大學
June 12, 2005   2005年6月12日

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.

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

記著你總會死去，這是我知道的防止患得患失的最佳辦法。赤條條來去無牽掛，還有什麼理由不隨你的心？！

你的時間是有限的，因此不要把時間浪費在過別人的生活上。不要被教條所困——使自己的生活受限於他人的思想成果。不要讓他人的意見淹沒了你自己內心的聲音。最重要的是，要有勇氣跟隨你的內心與直覺，它們好歹已經知道你真正想讓自己成為什麼。其他的，都是次要的。

2. David Foster Wallace
大衛·福斯特·華萊士
Novelist   小說家
Kenyon College  肯尼恩學院
May 21, 2005  2005年5月21日

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How's the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”

... simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.” 
“This is water.”

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.

有兩條小魚一起在水裏遊，碰到一條老魚迎面遊過來。老魚向他們點點頭，並說：“早上好，孩子們。水怎麼樣？”這兩條小魚繼續往前遊了一會兒後，其中一條小魚實在忍不住了，看了一下另一條小魚，問道：“水到底是什麼東西？”

……簡單的意識；對我們生活中如此真實、如此必不可少、無處不在、無時不在的事物的意識，需要我們一遍一遍地提醒自己：
“這是水。”
“這是水。”

天天都保持意識清醒而鮮活，在成人世界中做到這點，是不可想像地難。

3. Michael Uslan
邁克爾·奧斯蘭
Movie Producer  電影製片人
Indiana University 印第安那大學
May 06, 2006  2006年5月6日

You must believe in yourself and in your work. When our first Batman movie broke all those box-office records, I received a phone call from that United Artists exec who, years before, had told me I was out of my mind. Now he said, “Michael, I'm just calling to congratulate you on the success of Batman. I always said you were a visionary.” You see the point here — don't believe them when they tell you how bad you are or how terrible your ideas are, but also, don't believe them when they tell you how wonderful you are and how great your ideas are. Just believe in yourself and you'll do just fine. And, oh yes, don't then forget to market yourself and your ideas. Use both sides of your brain.

You must have a high threshold for frustration. Take it from the guy who was turned down by every studio in Hollywood. You must knock on doors until your knuckles bleed. Doors will slam in your face. You must pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and knock again. It's the only way to achieve your goals in life.

你必須相信你自己，對自己的工作充滿信心。當我們的第一部電影《蝙蝠俠》創下史無前例的票房紀錄時，我接到了藝術家聯合會會長的電話，他在數年之前曾說我瘋了。如今他說：“邁克爾，我給你打電話祝賀《蝙蝠俠》的成功。我總說你是一位有遠見的人。”你看，關鍵在這裏，當他們說你有多差，你的想法有多糟的時候，不要信他們的話，同時，當他們告訴你你有多麼了不起，你的想法多美妙時，也不要相信他們。你就只相信你自己，這樣你就能做好。還有，那就是，不要忘記推銷你自己和你的想法。左右大腦你都得用。

要能經受得住挫敗。這是被好萊塢每一家製片廠拒絕過的人的經驗。你必須去敲一扇扇的門，直到指關節流血。大門會在你面前砰然關上，你必須重振旗鼓，彈去身上的灰塵，再敲下一扇門。這是實現你人生目標的唯一辦法。

4. Woody Hayes
伍迪·海耶斯
College Fooball Coach  大學橄欖球教練
Ohio State University  俄亥俄州立大學
May 14, 1986   1986年5月14日

In football we always said that the other team couldn't beat us. We had to be sure that we didn't beat ourselves. And that’s what people have to do, too — make sure they don't beat themselves.

... you'll find out that nothing that comes easy is worth a dime. As a matter of fact, I never saw a football player make a tackle with a smile on his face. Never.

在橄欖球場上，我們總是說其他隊戰勝不了我們。我們必須做到不把自己打垮。所有人也都必須這麼做，確保自己不要被自己打垮。

……你會發現，來得容易的東西總是一文不值。事實上，我從來沒有看到哪位橄欖球運動員是帶著微笑完成阻截的。從來沒有。

5. Bradley Whitford
布蘭德利·惠特福德
Actor     演員
University Wisconsin - Madison  威斯康辛大學麥迪森分校
May 17, 2006    2006年5月17日

Number One: Fall in love with the process and the results will follow.
Number Two: Do your work.
Number Three: Once you're prepared, throw your preparation in the trash.
Number Four: You are capable of more than you think.
Number Five: Listen.
Number Six: Take action.
You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life. Action is the antidote to apathy and cynicism and despair.

第一，愛上過程，結果自然會來。
第二，做你的事。
第三，一旦準備好，就付諸行動。
第四，你能做的，超出了你的想像。
第五，聆聽。
第六，採取行動。
你有一個選擇。要麼你成為環境的被動受害者，要麼你主動成為自己生活的英雄。行動可以消除冷漠、玩世不恭與絕望。

6. Jerry Zucker
傑瑞·朱克
Director, movie producer 導演、電影製片人
University of Wisconsin  威斯康辛大學
May 17, 2003   2003年5月17日

It doesn't matter whether your dream came true if you spent your whole life sleeping.

Ask yourself one question: If I didn't have to do it perfectly, what would I try?

Nobody else is paying as much attention to your failures as you are. You're the only one who is obsessed with the importance of your own life. To everyone else, it's just a blip on the radar screen, so just move on.

如果你一生都在睡覺，你的夢想是否實現就無關緊要了。

問你自己一個問題：如果我不是必須做得完美，那我還努力什麼呢？

沒有人會像你自己那樣對自己的失敗那麼在意。你是唯一一個能追求自己的生活意義的人。對於其他所有人來說，你只是雷達螢光屏上的一個光點。所以，只管前行吧。

7. Earl Bakken
厄爾·巴肯
Businessman  商人
University of Hawaii 夏威夷大學
May 16, 2004  2004年5月16日

By all reckoning, the bumblebee is aerodynamically unsound and shouldn't be able to fly. Yet, the little bee gets those wings going like a turbo-jet and flies to every plant its chubby little body can land on to collect all the nectar it can hold.

Bumblebees are the most persistent creatures. They don't know they can't fly, so they just keep buzzing around.

Never give in to pessimism. Don't know that you can't fly, and you will soar like an eagle. Don't end up regretting what you did not do because you were too lazy or too frightened to soar. Be a bumblebee! And soar to the heavens. You can do it.

無論怎麼考量，大黃蜂從空氣動力學上講是不健全、不應該會飛的。但是，這種小蜜蜂卻像渦輪噴氣飛機一樣地展翅飛行，飛到它圓乎乎的身體能夠降落的任何植物上去采蜜。

大黃蜂最堅韌的生靈，它們不知道自己不能飛，因此它們只管到處嗡嗡地飛個不停。

千萬不要悲觀。不知道你不會飛，你會像鷹一樣高高飛翔。不要到頭來後悔自己因為太懶或太怕高飛而無所作為。做一隻大黃蜂。飛到天上去。你能做到的。

8. John Walsh
約翰·沃爾什
Author and art historian  作家和藝術歷史學家
Wheaton College  惠頓學院
2000    2000年

Do one thing at a time. Give each experience all your attention. Try to resist being distracted by other sights and sounds, other thoughts and tasks, and when it is, guide your mind back to what you're doing.

I'm not warning against learning many things on many subjects. My warning is against distraction, whether you invite it or just let it happen. In baseball, high-percentage hitters know better: it's “focus” they talk about, and they prize it as much as strength. Psychologists describe skilled rock climbers and tennis players and pianists as going beyond focus, to what they have called a “flow” experience, a sense of absorption with the rock or the ball or the music in which the “me versus it” disappears and there's a kind of oneness with the task that brings a joyful higher awareness, as well as successful performance. I've had these experiences, too little but not too late, and probably you have, too. They are a supreme kind of pleasure. You will have more of them if you do one thing at a time.

一次做一件事情。全力關注你每一次的經歷。決不要被別的聲色之物和其他想法、任務分心。一旦分心了，引導你的注意力重新回到你做的事情上。

我不是在反對學習多個學科的眾多知識。我所警告的是分心與干擾，無論是你主動招惹的，還是讓它發生的。在棒球場上，得分高的擊球員對此有更深體會：他們談的是“專注”，他們把它看得跟力量一樣重要。在心理學家的描述中，高技能的攀岩者、網球運動員、鋼琴家已經超越了專注，達到了他們所稱的經驗之“流”，那是一種跟岩石、網球或音樂融為一體的感覺，“我與它”已然消失，跟任務合二為一，給人以更高水準的愉悅體驗，而不僅僅是成功地完成了任務。我有這種體驗，雖然很少，但來得還不算遲，或許你也有這種體驗。這是一種最高形式的快樂。如果你一次專注於一件事情，你就會有更多這樣的體驗。

9. David L. Calhoun
大衛·卡爾霍恩
Businessman  商人
Virginia Tech  佛吉尼亞理工大學
May 13, 2005  2005年5月13日

I worked for a guy named Jack Welch for twenty years at GE. He was, and is, a great mentor as much as a great leader. If I had to isolate the subject he spoke most passionately to me about, over all those years, it is that SELF CONFIDENCE is the most important, the indispensable characteristic of success, the common characteristic shared by great leaders whose talents may have varied widely in most other respects.

So, how do you get it? What is the secret to developing your own brand of self-confidence?

First, you must resolve to grow intellectually, morally, technically, and professionally every day through your entire work and family life. You need to ask yourself every day: Am I really up to speed or falling behind? Am I still learning? Or am I just doing the same stuff on a different day or as Otis Redding sings, “Sitting on the dock of the bay... watching the tide roll away?”

The lust for learning is age-independent.

Another important way to build your confidence is to seek out the toughest jobs, the most daunting scientific, engineering or management challenges.

我在通用公司為一個名叫傑克·韋爾奇的傢伙工作了20年。他既是一位偉大的領導者，也是一位偉大的導師，過去是，現在也是。如果我必須找出那些年裏他充滿激情地對我說的最主要的話，那就是：自信是最重要的，它是成功必不可少的，是所有在其他多數方面才能也許大相徑庭的偉大領導者的共同特徵。

如何獲得自信？培養你特有的自信的秘訣是什麼？

首先，你必須下決心每天都通過你的工作和家庭生活去獲得智力、道德、技術與專業上的提高。你需要每天問自己：我是在加速前進還是在後退？我還在學習嗎？我是在每天重複做同樣的事情或就像奧提斯·瑞汀所唱的那樣，“坐在海灣的碼頭上，看潮起潮落”？

對學習的渴望是不受年齡限制的。

培養自信的另一個重要途徑是尋找最難做的工作，最棘手的科學、工程或管理方面的難題。

10. Marc S. Lewis
馬克·路易斯
Clinical psychology professor  臨床心理學教授
University of Texas at Austin  德克薩斯大學奧斯丁分校
May 19, 2000    2000年5月19日

There are times when you are going to do well, and times when you're going to fail. But neither the doing well, nor the failure is the measure of success. The measure of success is what you think about what you've done. Let me put that another way: The way to be happy is to like yourself and the way to like yourself is to do only things that make you proud.

There's that old joke, not very funny, that goes, “No matter where you go, there you are.” That's true. The person who you're with most in life is yourself and if you don't like yourself you're always with somebody you don't like.

有時候你會幹得很漂亮，有時候你會失敗，但二者都不是衡量成功的標準。衡量成功的標準是你自己對你的所為怎麼看。讓我換一句話說：讓自己幸福的辦法是喜歡你自己，喜歡自己的辦法是只做讓你自己感到驕傲的事情。

有一個老笑話，不是很好笑，它是這麼說的：“無論你走到哪里，你都在那裏。”這是真的。你一生中跟你在一起最多的人是你自己，如果你不喜歡你自己，那你就會總是跟你不喜歡的人在一起。