乔布斯励志演讲稿4篇

篇一：励志演讲,感悟人生,乔布斯

乔布斯在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲

------- [你们的时间是有限的，不要浪费在重复别人的生活上。不要被教条束缚，那意味着会和别人思考的结果一块儿生活。不要被其他人的喧嚣观点掩盖自己内心真正的声音。你的直觉和内心知道你想要变成什么样子。所有其他东西都是次要的。]

(这是苹果公司和Pixar动画工作室的CEO Steve Jobs于2005年6月12号在斯坦福大学的毕业典礼上面的演讲稿。)

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

谢谢大家。很荣幸能和你们，来自世界最好大学之一的毕业生们，一块儿参加毕业典礼。老实说，我大学没有毕业，今天恐怕是我一生中离大学毕业最近的一次了。

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

今天我想告诉大家来自我生活的三个故事。没什么大不了的，只是三个故事而已。 The first story is about connecting the dots.

第一个故事，如何串连生命中的点滴。

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. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed 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'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 college.

我在里得大学读了六个月就退学了，但是在18个月之后--我真正退学之前，我还常去学校。为何

我要选择退学呢？这还得从我出生之前说起。我的生母是一个年轻、未婚的大学毕业生，她决定让别人收养我。她有一个很强烈的信仰，认为我应该被一个大学毕业生家庭收养。于是，一对律师夫妇说好了要领养我，然而最后一秒钟，他们改变了主意，决定要个女孩儿。然后我排在收养人名单中的养父母在一个深夜接到电话，“很意外，我们多了一个男婴，你们要吗？”“当然要！”但是我的生母后来又发现我的养母没有大学毕业，养父连高中都没有毕业。她拒绝在领养书上签字。几个月后，我的养父母保证会让我上大学，她妥协了。

This was the start in my life. 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 couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of 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 OK. It was pretty scary at the 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.

这是我生命的开端。十七年后，我上大学了，但是我很无知地选了一所差不多和斯坦福一样贵的学校，几乎花掉我那蓝领阶层养父母一生的积蓄。六个月后，我觉得不值得。我看不出自己以后要做什么，也不晓得大学会怎样帮我指点迷津，而我却在花销父母一生的积蓄。所以我决定退学，并且相信没有做错。一开始非常吓人，但回忆起来，这却是我一生中作的最好的决定之一。从我退学的那一刻起，我可以停止一切不感兴趣的必修课，开始旁听那些有意思得多的课。 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 the seven 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.

事情并不那么美好。我没有宿舍可住，睡在朋友房间的地上。为了吃饭，我收集五分一个的旧可乐瓶，每个星期天晚上步行七英里到哈尔-克里什纳庙里改善一下一周的伙食。我喜欢这种生活方式。能够遵循自己的好奇和直觉前行后来被证明是多么的珍贵。让我来给你们举个例子吧。 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 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 sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what

makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

当时的里德大学提供可能是全国最好的书法指导。校园中每一张海报，抽屉上的每一张标签，都是漂亮的手写体。由于我已退学，不用修那些必修课，我决定选一门书法课上上。在这门课上，我学会了“serif”和"sans-serif"两种字体、学会了怎样在不同的字母组合中改变字间距、学会了怎样写出好的字来。这是一种科学无法捕捉的微妙，楚楚动人、充满历史底蕴和艺术性，我觉得自己被完全吸引了。

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 have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

当时我并不指望书法在以后的生活中能有什么实用价值。但是，十年之后，我们在设计第一台 Macintosh计算机时，它一下子浮现在我眼前。于是，我们把这些东西全都设计进了计算机中。这是第一台有这么漂亮的文字版式的计算机。要不是我当初在大学里偶然选了这么一门课，Macintosh计算机绝不会有那么多种印刷字体或间距安排合理的字号。要不是Windows照搬了 Macintosh，个人电脑可能不会有这些字体和字号。

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

要不是退了学，我决不会碰巧选了这门书法课，个人电脑也可能不会有现在这些漂亮的版式了。 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. 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 in your future. You have to trust in 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.

当然，我在大学里不可能从这一点上看到它与将来的关系。十年之后再回头看，两者之间关系就非常、非常清楚了。你们同样不可能从现在这个点上看到将来；只有回头看时，才会发现它们之间的关系。所以你必须相信，那些点点滴滴，会在你未来的生命里，以某种方式串联起来。你必须相信一些东西——你的勇气、宿命、生活、因缘，随便什么——因为相信这些点滴能够一路连

接会给你带来循从本觉的自信，它使你远离平凡，变得与众不同。

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 ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a 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 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 diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and 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. I really didn't know what to do for 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 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'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. 第二个故事是关于爱与失的。我很幸运，很早就发现自己喜欢做的事情。我二十岁的时候就和沃茨在父母的车库里开创了苹果公司。我们工作得很努力，十年后，苹果公司成长为拥有四千名员工，价值二十亿的大公司。我们刚刚推出了最好的创意，Macintosh操作系统，在这之前的一年，也就是我刚过三十岁，我被解雇了。你怎么可能被一个亲手创立的公司解雇？事情是这样的，在公司成长期间，我雇佣了一个我们认为非常聪明，可以和我一起经营公司的人。一年后，我们对公司未来的看法产生分歧，董事会站在了他的一边。于是，在我三十岁的时候，我出局了，很公开地出局了。我整个成年生活的焦点没了，这很要命。一开始的几个月我真的不知道该干什么。我觉得我让公司的前一代创建者们失望了，我把传给我的权杖给弄丢了。我与戴维德·帕珂德和鲍勃·诺埃斯见面，试图为这彻头彻尾的失败道歉。我败得如此之惨以至于我想要逃离硅谷。但有个东西在慢慢地叫醒我：我还爱着我从事的行业。这次失败一点儿都没有改变这一点。我被逐了，但我仍爱着我的事业。我决定重新开始。

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. 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. 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.

当时我没有看出来，但事实证明“被苹果开除”是发生在我身上最好的事。成功的重担被重新起步的轻松替代，对任何事情都不再特别看重，这让我感觉如此自由，进入一生中最有创造力的阶段。接下来的五年，我创立了一个叫NeXT的公司，接着又建立了Pixar，然后与后来成为我妻子的女人相爱。Pixar出品了世界第一个电脑动画电影：“玩具总动员”，现在它已经是世界最成功的动画制作工作室了。

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 Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

在一系列的成功运转后，苹果收购了NeXT，我又回到了苹果。我们在NeXT开发的技术在苹果的复兴中起了核心作用，另外劳琳和我组建了一个幸福的家庭。

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's 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. 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 of the heart, you'll 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.

我非常确信，如果我没有被苹果炒掉，这些就都不会发生。这个药的味道太糟了，但是我想病人需要它。有些时候，生活会给你迎头一棒。不要丧失信心。我确信唯一让我一路走下来的是我对自己所做事情的热爱。你必须去找你热爱的东西，对工作如此，对你的爱人也是这样的。工作会占据你生命中很大的一部分，你只有相信自己做的是伟大的工作，你才能怡然自得。如果你还没有找到，那么就继续找，不要停。全心全意地找，当你找到时，你会知道的。就像任何真诚的关系，随着时间的流逝，只会越来越紧密。所以继续找，不要停。

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'll 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 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 external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the

篇二：乔布斯在斯坦福大学的励志演讲

乔布斯斯坦福大学的励志演讲

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

而已第一个故事是关于如何把生命中的点点滴滴串连起来。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？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。所以我的生养父母,他们还在我亲生父母的观察名单上,突然在半夜接到了一个电话:“我们现在这儿有一个不小心生出来的男婴,你们想要他吗？”他们回答道:“当然！”

但是我亲生母亲随后发现，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。她拒绝签这个收养合同。只是在几个月以后，我的父母答应她一定要让我上大学，那个时候她才同意。在十七岁那年，我真的上了大学。但是我很愚蠢的.选择了一个几乎和你们斯坦福大学一样贵的学校，我父母还处于蓝领阶层，他们几乎把所有积蓄都花在了我的学费上面。在六个月后，我已经看不到其中的价值所在。我不知道我想要在生命中做什么，我也不知道大学能帮助我找到怎样

的答案。但是在这里，我几乎花光了我父母这一辈子的所有积蓄。所以我决定要退学，我觉得这是个正确的决定。不能否认,我当时确实非常的害怕，但是现在回头看看，那的确是我这一生中最棒的一个决定。自我退学开始，我就可以不再去上那些无趣的必修课，而去旁听那些更有意思的课程了。当然也不是真那么浪漫，当时我连宿舍都没有所以只能在朋友寝室打地铺。我*收集可乐瓶子，每个五分来养活自己。每周日晚上，我都步行七里地，到神庙去蹭一顿像样的饭菜，我乐此不疲。我那些听从自己的直觉和好奇心，而遇到的事后来都令我收获颇丰。举个例子说，那时候里德学院开设了，或许是全美最好的书法课，大学里每张海报上，每个抽屉的标签上，全都是漂亮的美术字。因为我退学了不必去上正规的课程，所以我决定去练练书法。我学到了有衬线体和无衬线体，懂得了如何把握词间距，以及如何做出漂亮的版式。优雅、沧桑和科学无法描述的那种艺术气息。真是妙不可言。

这些东西无论怎么看，都算不上对未来有实际用处。但是十年之后，当我们设计第一台苹果电脑的时候，却全都用上了。全都融入了苹果电脑的设计当中。那是第一台使用艺术字的电脑。如果我当时在大学没有学习这门课程，苹果电脑就不会有这么丰富的字体和比例匀称的字体。因为微软只知道山寨苹果那很可能世上所有电脑都不会有那些漂亮字体了。要是我没有退学，我就不会选修书法，那么，各种个人电脑就不会有如今的精美字体了。当然，我当时不可能预知这一件事之间的“因”和“果”，只有回过头来看，才一目了然。再次强

调，没人可以未卜先知。事事间的“因”“果”往往只在回首时显现。你得相信，“因”和“果”会在未来生活中联系起来。人总要有些信仰才行，直觉也好，命运也罢，因果轮回，不管什么，去相信“因”与“果”的联系。会给你信心去跟从自己的意愿，哪怕离经叛道也绝不止步。只有这样，才能有所成。

我的第二个故事关于兴趣与得失。 我很幸运，能在年轻时就找到兴趣所在，二十岁的时候，就在父母的车库里开创了苹果公司。我们非常努力，苹果用了10年，从两个穷小子和一个破车库发展成了拥有四千多名雇员，市值过二十亿的大公司。一年前，我们刚刚发布了我们史上最棒的产品苹果电脑。我也刚满三十，然而之后我却被公司炒鱿鱼了。怎么会有人被自己创立的公司炒了呢？在苹果的发展期，我们雇了一个我当时很看重的人物和我一起来管理公司。在最初一年中一切都很顺利，但是后来我们对公司的未来发展产生了分歧，最终闹翻了。而此时，董事会站在了他的一边，我就在而立之年被当众扫地出门。突然我人生的重心不见了，这对我是非常沉重的打击。最初的几个月里，我不知所措，觉得自己无颜面对上一辈的企业家们。我没有接好他们交给我的接力棒，我拜访了David Packard和Bob Noyce。去向他们道歉自己搞砸了。

我的惨败闹得满城风雨，我甚至都想干脆离开硅谷一走了之，但我又渐渐意识到我对事业的热爱没有变，我的意外出局，并没有动摇我的热爱。虽然被拒绝，但是我心依旧，所以我决定从头再来。我当时没有感觉，但是回头看被苹果炒掉其实是我一生中最有意义的事

情。成功的巨大压力变成了新人接受挑战的轻盈，不再受固有思维羁绊，我轻盈地进入了我人生中最具创造力的时期。在接下来的五年里，我创立了一个名叫NeXT的公司和一个叫皮克斯的公司。还与一位杰出的女性相知相爱。她后来成为我的妻子。皮克斯后来制作了世界上第一个用电脑制作的动画电影——玩具总动员。现在已经是世界上最成功的动画工作室。

峰回路转，苹果收购了NeXT，我也回归了苹果。而且正是我们在NeXT研发的技术带来了苹果的复兴。我还和我的太太组建了美满的家庭。我很肯定，这一切反而都要归功于当年我被苹果开除的经历。所以说良药苦口利于病。有些时候，生活会给你迎头一击，不要灰心丧气，我坚信，唯一可以让我坚持下去的就是我对自己事业的热爱。你必须去寻找自己所爱，无论是工作还是爱情都是如此。工作是生活中很主要的部分。要真正获得满足感就必须做你相信是有价值的工作。要做有价值的事业，你就必须热爱你做的事业，如果你还没找到，千万不好放弃，要继续寻找。只要倾听你的心声。当你真的发现时，你就会感到就像任何伟大的感情关系一样，岁月的更迭只会让这份感情愈发深刻。所以千万不要放弃，要继续寻找。 第三个故事是关于死亡的。十七岁时，我读到过一句话，假如你把每一天都当做最后一天来过，那么总有一天你是对的。我将这句话铭记心中，之后的33年中，每天早晨我都会对着镜子问自己，假如今天就是我生命中的最后一天，我会做些什么，还会这么过吗？如果连续几天我的回答都是“不”，我就知道，我需要改变了。提醒自己

人的生命有限，令我一生都受益匪浅，令我能明智地在人生重大问题上作出抉择。因为一切的一切，一切追求，一切荣耀，一切惶恐，一切挫折，在死亡面前，都会显得微不足道。剩下的才是最重要的事情。记住自己总会死去，是避免自己被种种担心所羁绊的最好方法。既然将一无所有，还有什么理由违背自己的意愿。

篇三：乔布斯演讲稿

So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone … are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.

Yes, I bet you must have got which entrepreneur I’m going to introduce today. He is the father of the iphone and a revolutionary of the electronics industry Steven Jobs who are born to put a dent in the universe.

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, where he was adopted by his foster mother. In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School and enrolled in Reed College. Owing a deep- interest in technology, he took up a job as a leading manufacturer of video games. When Jobs was 19 years old, he dropped out from the university , and after that he always researched the computer with his friend Wozniak who had the same interest with him. In 1976, they founded Apple Computer in the Jobs family garage. The first computer was sold for $uraged by the success of their first computer, on the fool day in 1976, they signed a contract and decided to found a computer company. At the beginning, everything went well e the appearance of IBM’s personal computer attacked them a lot, Jobs had no choice but to leave the company and founded the Next computer company.

In 1996, Jobs was famous for the success of the computer animated film—Toy Story. At the same time, the Apple Company was faced with the bust-up risk. In 1997, Jobs returned as Apple CEO. He reformed the company thoroughly and cooperate with Microsoft, Jobs became the cover person of Times again.

In 1998, Apple launched iMac, which was the best -selling personal computer in America. In 1999, Apple launched iBook、G4 and iMac DV. And just as expected, all of them made a huge impact. In 2001, the music industry forever changed with the iPod, iTunes followed. Billions of songs were downloaded. In2007, Jobs captures the world’s attention again with the iPhone. They made an app for everything. In 2010, Jobs launched his latest creation— iPad , which was the fast-selling technological device ever. Jobs leads Apple create one and another miracle.

But unfortunately in 2004, Jobs was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his pancreas. As a result, Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011. On October 5, 2011, Jobs passed away. Like Jobs many entrepreneurs have their own entrepreneurship they use their talents to find business opportunities which are not discovered by normal people. So now let me give you a brief conclusion about Jobs entrepreneurship.

1. bravery

The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks. There is no such a thing as a free lunch. There is a chance in front of you with some uncertain things together. If you want to be successful, you should make a choice face the risks or to give up? Only when you take the challenge can you gain access to success.

2. Creativity

You catch peoples’ eyes if you create something new example, iphone from generation to generation , which attract a lot of customers to buy their new product.

3. cooperation

One tree does not make a forest. Teamwork can make a company run in a stale pace, showing great power.

4. devotion

Being devoted can help the company become more powerful. A company with a warm and aspirant environment will work efficiently.

5. passion for study

If three of us are walking together, at least one of the other two is good enough to be my teacher. Being willing to learn from others can help combine the enterprise with many advantages.

6. Integrity

No one wants to cooperate with the company that won’t obey the contract. No one wants to buy the product from the without honesty.

篇四：乔布斯演讲稿

乔布斯05年斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲

2009-06-07 16:52:36

【乔布斯05年斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲】

Steve Jobs: Commencement Address at Stanford University

"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish." 求知若饥，虚心若愚

2 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Paul Jobs)苹果电脑公司和皮克斯动画公司(Pixar)首席执行官。以下是Steve Jobs在2005年6月12日斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲。

Thank you.

I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and 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.谢谢大家。

今天，有荣幸来到各位从世界上最好的学校之一毕业的毕业典礼上。我从来没从大学毕业。说实话，这是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。今天，我只说三个故事，不谈大道理，三个故事就好。

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 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed 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'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 college. This was the start in my life.

第一个故事，是关于人生中的点点滴滴怎么串连在一起。我在里德学院

(Reedcollege)待了六个月就办休学了。到我退学前，一共休学了十八个月。那么，我为什么休学？

这得从我出生前讲起。我的亲生母亲当时是个研究生，年轻未婚妈妈，她决定让别人收养我。她强烈觉得应该让有大学毕业的人收养我，所以我出生时，她就准备让我被一对律师夫妇收养。但是这对夫妻到了最后一刻反悔了，他们想收养女孩。

所以在等待收养名单上的一对夫妻，我的养父母，在一天半夜里接到一通电话，问他们有一名意外出生的男孩，你们要认养他吗？而他们的回答是当然要。后来，我的生母发现，我现在的妈妈从来没有大学毕业，我现在的爸爸则连高中毕业也没有。她拒绝在认养文件上做最后签字。直到几个月后，我的养父母同意将来一定会让我上大学，她才软化态度。

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 couldn't see 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.

十七年后，我上大学了。但是当时我无知选了一所学费几乎跟史丹佛一样贵的大学，我那工人阶级的父母所有积蓄都花在我的学费上。六个月后，我看不出念这

个书的价值何在。那时候，我不知道这辈子要干什么，也不知道念大学能对我有什么帮助，而且我为了念这个书，花光了我父母这辈子的所有积蓄。

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay. It was pretty scary at the 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.

所以我决定休学，相信船到桥头自然直。当时这个决定看来相当可怕，可是现在看来，那是我这辈子做过最好的决定之一。当我休学之后，我再也不用上我没兴趣的必修课，把时间拿去听那些我有兴趣的课。

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 the seven 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:

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 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 of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great

typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

这一点也不浪漫。我没有宿舍，所以我睡在友人家里的地板上，靠着回收可乐空罐的五先令退费买吃的，每个星期天晚上得走七哩的路绕过大半个镇去印度教的HareKrishna神庙吃顿好料。我喜欢HareKrishna神庙的好料。追寻我的好奇与直觉，我所驻足的大部分事物，后来看来都成了无价之宝。举例来说：当时里德学院有着大概是全国最好的书法指导。在整个校园内的每一张海报上，每个抽屉的标签上，都是美丽的手写字。因为我休学了，可以不照正常选课程序来，所以我跑去学书法。我学了serif与sanserif字体，学到在不同字母组合间变更字间距，学到活版印刷伟大的地方。书法的美好、历史感与艺术感是科学所无法捕捉的，我觉得那很迷人。

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 have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. 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. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.