《Commencement address by Steve Jobs in Stanford》.pdf

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. 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. 我今天很荣幸能和你们一起参加毕业典礼，斯坦福大学是世界上最好的 大学之一。我从来没有从大学中毕业。说实话,今天也许是在我的生命中离 大学毕业最近的一天了。今天我想向你们讲述我生活中的三个故事。不是什 么大不了的事情,只是三个故事而已。 The first story is about connecting the dots. 第一个故事是关于如何把生命中的点点滴滴串连起来。 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 大学读了六个月之后就退学了,但是在十八个月以后——我真 正的作出退学决定之前,我还经常去学校。我为什么要退学呢？ 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. 故事从我出生的时候讲起。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, 她十分想让我被大学毕业生收养。所以在 我出生的时候，她已经做好了一切的准备工作，能使得我被一个律师和他的 妻子所收养。但是她没有料到,当我出生之后,律师夫妇突然决定他们想要一 个女孩。