That's it, no big deal, just three stories.

就這樣，沒什麼大不了的，只有三個故事。

The first story is about connecting the dots.

第一個故事是關於連接點的。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.

頭六個月後，我從裡德學院退學了，但在真正退學前，我又以臨時工的身份待了 18 個月左右。

So why'd I drop out?

那我為什麼退學？

It started before I was born.

在我出生之前就開始了。

My biological mother was a young unwed graduate student and she decided to put me up for adoption.

我的生母是一位年輕的未婚研究所學生，她決定把我送人收養。

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.

她非常強烈地認為，我應該被大學畢業生收養，所以一切都準備就緒，我一出生就被一對律師夫婦收養了。

Except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

只是當我呱呱墜地時，他們在最後一刻決定，他們真的想要一個女孩。

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?

我的父母在等待名單上，半夜接到一個電話，問我們有一個意外的男嬰，你們想要嗎？

They said, of course.

他們說，當然。

My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.

我的生母后來發現，我的母親從未大學畢業，我的父親也從未高中畢業。

She refused to sign the final adoption papers.

她拒絕在最後的收養文件上簽字。

She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

幾個月後，我父母答應讓我上大學，她才鬆了口。

This was the start in my life.

這是我人生的起點。

And 17 years later, I did go to college, but I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford.

17 年後，我上了大學，但我天真地選擇了一所幾乎和斯坦福一樣昂貴的大學。

And all of my working class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.

而我工薪階層父母的所有積蓄都花在了我的大學學費上。

After six months, I couldn't see the value in it.

六個月後，我看不到它的價值了。

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.

我不知道自己這輩子想做什麼，也不知道上大學能幫我找到答案。

And here I was spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life.

在這裡，我花光了父母一輩子攢下的錢。

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay.

所以我決定退學，相信一切都會好起來的。

It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

當時我很害怕，但現在回想起來，這是我做過的最好的決定之一。

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.

一退學，我就可以不再選那些我不感興趣的必修課，而開始選那些看起來有趣得多的課。

It wasn't all romantic.

這並不全是浪漫。

I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms.

我沒有宿舍，就睡在朋友房間的地板上。

I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with.

我把可樂瓶歸還，換取 5 美分的押金來買食物。

And I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.

每個星期天晚上，我都會步行 7 英里穿過小鎮，去克利須那神廟（Hare Krishna temple）吃一頓豐盛的晚餐。

I loved it.

我很喜歡。

And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.

我的好奇心和直覺讓我偶然發現，裡德學院當時提供的書法教學可能是全國最好的。

Throughout the campus, every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand calligraphed.

在整個校園裡，每一張海報、每一個抽屜上的標籤都是精美的手工書法。

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.

因為我退學了，不用上正常的課程，所以我決定去上書法課，學習如何寫書法。

I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.

我瞭解了有襯線和無襯線字體，瞭解了不同字母組合之間的空隙變化，瞭解了偉大的字體設計之所以偉大的原因。

It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture.

它是美麗的、歷史的、藝術的，是科學無法捕捉的。

And I found it fascinating.

我覺得這很吸引人。

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

這一切在我的生活中甚至沒有任何實際應用的希望。

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.

但十年後，當我們設計第一臺麥金塔電腦時，這一切又回到了我的腦海中。

And we designed it all into the Mac.

我們在 Mac 中設計了這一切。

It was the first computer with beautiful typography.

這是第一臺排版精美的電腦。

If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.

如果我沒有在大學裡選修那門課程，Mac 就不會有多種字體或按比例間隔排列的字體。

And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

由於 Windows 剛剛複製了 Mac，是以很可能沒有個人電腦會有這些功能。

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

如果我沒有退學，我就不會去上書法課，個人電腦可能也不會有現在這麼好的排版。

Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.

當然，當我還在上大學的時候，是不可能把這些點聯繫起來的。

But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.

但 10 年後回過頭來看，一切都非常非常清晰。

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward.

還是那句話，你不能把這些點聯繫起來向前看。

You can only connect them looking backwards.

你只能逆向將它們連接起來。

So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

所以，你必須相信，在你的未來，這些點會以某種方式連接起來。

You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

你必須相信一些東西，你的直覺、命運、生活、因果報應，等等。

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.

因為相信在未來的道路上，這些點會連成一線，這將給你信心去追隨自己的內心，即使它將你帶離老路。

And that will make all the difference.

這將使一切變得不同。

My second story is about love and loss.

我的第二個故事是關於愛與失去的。

I was lucky.

我很幸運。

I found what I love to do early in life.

我很早就找到了自己喜歡做的事情。

Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20.

我 20 歲時，沃茲和我在父母的車庫裡創辦了蘋果公司。

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 4,000 employees.

我們努力工作，10 年後，蘋果公司從只有我們兩個人的車庫發展成為擁有 4000 多名員工、市值 20 億美元的公司。

We just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I just turned 30.

一年前，我們剛剛發佈了我們最出色的產品 Macintosh，而我剛滿 30 歲。

And then I got fired.

然後我就被解僱了。

How can you get fired from a company you started?

你怎麼能被自己創辦的公司解僱呢？

Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me.

隨著蘋果公司的發展，我們聘請了一位我認為非常有才華的人和我一起管理公司。

And for the first year or so, things went well.

頭一年左右，一切都很順利。

But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out.

但後來，我們對未來的看法開始出現分歧，最終鬧翻了。

When we did, our board of directors sided with him.

當我們這樣做時，我們的董事會支持他。

And so at 30, I was out, and very publicly out.

於是，30 歲那年，我出櫃了，而且是公開出櫃。

What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

我整個成年生活的重心已不復存在，這對我的打擊是毀滅性的。

I really didn't know what to do for a few months.

有幾個月我真的不知道該怎麼辦。

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.

我覺得自己辜負了上一代企業家的期望，在接力棒傳到我手中時，我卻掉了鏈子。

I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly.

我會見了大衛-帕卡德和鮑勃-諾伊斯，試圖為自己的失誤道歉。

I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the company.

我是一個非常失敗的公眾人物，我甚至想過逃離公司。

But something slowly began to dawn on me.

但是，我慢慢開始明白了一些事情。

I still loved what I did.

我仍然熱愛我的工作。

The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.

蘋果公司發生的變化絲毫沒有改變這一點。

I'd been rejected, but I was still in love.

我被拒絕了，但我還愛著。

And so I decided to start over.

於是，我決定重新開始。

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.

我當時並沒有意識到，但事實證明，被蘋果公司解僱是發生在我身上最好的事情。

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the less sure about everything.

成功的沉重感被對一切的不確定所取代。

It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

它解放了我，讓我進入了人生中最具創造力的時期之一。

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.

在接下來的五年裡，我創辦了一家名為 "Next "的公司，另一家名為 "Pixar "的公司，並愛上了一位了不起的女士，她後來成為了我的妻子。

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

皮克斯隨後創作了世界上第一部電腦動畫長片《玩具總動員》，現在已成為世界上最成功的動畫工作室。

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.

我們在 Next 開發的技術是蘋果目前復興的核心。

And Loreen and I have a wonderful family together.

羅琳和我有一個美好的家庭。

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.

如果我沒有被蘋果公司解僱，我敢肯定這一切都不會發生。

It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

藥的味道很難聞，但我想病人需要它。

Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick.

有時候，生活會給你當頭一棒。

Don't lose faith.

不要失去信心

I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.

我深信，讓我堅持下來的唯一原因就是我熱愛我的工作。

You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers.

你必須找到自己的所愛，這對工作和夫妻都是如此。

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.

你的工作將佔據你生活的大部分時間，只有做你認為偉大的工作，你才能真正感到滿足，而做偉大工作的唯一途徑就是熱愛你的工作。

If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle.

如果您還沒有找到，請繼續尋找，不要將就。

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

就像所有的心事一樣，找到了就會知道。

And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

就像任何偉大的關係一樣，隨著歲月的流逝，我們的關係會越來越好。

So keep looking.

那就繼續找吧。

Don't settle.

不要將就。

My third story is about death.

我的第三個故事是關於死亡的。

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, if you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.

在我 17 歲的時候，我讀到過這樣一句話：如果你把每一天都當做最後一天來過，那麼總有一天你一定會是對的。

It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I've 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?

它給我留下了深刻的印象，從那時起，在過去的 33 年裡，我每天早上都會對著鏡子問自己：如果今天是我生命的最後一天，我還想做今天要做的事情嗎？

And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

只要連續很多天的答案都是 "不"，我就知道我需要改變一些東西。

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

記住我很快就會死去，這是我遇到過的最重要的工具，可以幫助我做出人生的重大選擇。

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.

因為幾乎所有的東西，所有外在的期望，所有的驕傲，所有對尷尬或失敗的恐懼，這些東西在死亡面前都會煙消雲散，只剩下真正重要的東西。

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

記住你終將死去，這是我所知道的避免陷入 "你有什麼可失去的 "這一陷阱的最好方法。

You are already naked.

你已經赤身裸體了。

There is no reason not to follow your heart.

沒有理由不遵從自己的內心。

No one wants to die.

沒有人想死。

Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.

即使是想上天堂的人，也不願意為了去天堂而死。

And yet, death is the destination we all share.

然而，死亡是我們共同的歸宿。

No one has ever escaped it.

沒有人能夠逃脫。

And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.

這也是理所應當的，因為死亡很可能是生命中最好的發明。

It's life's change agent.

它是生活的改變劑。

It clears out the old to make way for the new.

它清除舊的，為新的讓路。

Right now, the new is you.

現在，新的就是你。

But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.

但總有一天，在不久的將來，你會逐漸變成舊人，被清除掉。

Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true.

很抱歉這麼誇張，但這是事實。

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

你的時間有限，所以不要浪費在過別人的生活上。

Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

不要被教條所困，因為教條是活在別人的思維成果中。

Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

不要讓別人的意見淹沒自己內心的聲音。

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

最重要的是，要有勇氣追隨自己的內心和直覺。

They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

他們多少已經知道你真正想成為什麼樣的人。

Everything else is secondary.

其他一切都是次要的。

Stay hungry.

保持飢餓

Stay foolish.

保持愚蠢。