抵抗天賦的誘惑——Jeff Bezos在普林斯頓的畢業(yè)典禮演講稿

　　杰夫·貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)在普林斯頓2019畢業(yè)典禮的演講——抵抗天賦的誘惑

　　2019 Baccalaureate remarks, Princeton University

　　"We are What We Choose"

　　Remarks by Jeff Bezos, as delivered to the Class of 2019 Baccalaureate

　　May 30, 2019

　　在我還是一個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，我的夏天總是在德州祖父母的農(nóng)場(chǎng)中度過。我?guī)兔π蘩盹L(fēng)車，為牛接種疫苗，也做其它家務(wù)。每天下午，我們都會(huì)看肥皂劇，尤其是《我們的歲月》。我的祖父母參加了一個(gè)房車俱樂部，那是一群駕駛Airstream拖掛型房車的人們，他們結(jié)伴遍游美國(guó)和加拿大。每隔幾個(gè)夏天，我也會(huì)加入他們。我們把房車掛在祖父的小汽車后面，然后加入300余名Airstream探險(xiǎn)者們組成的浩蕩隊(duì)伍。

　　As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially "Days of our Lives." My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we'd join the caravan. We'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car, and off we'd go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers.

　　我愛我的祖父母，我崇敬他們，也真心期盼這些旅程。那是一次我大概十歲時(shí)的旅行，我照例坐在后座的長(zhǎng)椅上，祖父開著車，祖母坐在他旁邊，吸著煙。我討厭煙味。

　　I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.

　　在那樣的年紀(jì)，我會(huì)找任何借口做些估測(cè)或者小算術(shù)。我會(huì)計(jì)算油耗還有雜貨花銷等雞毛蒜皮的小事。我聽過一個(gè)有關(guān)吸煙的廣告。我記不得細(xì)節(jié)了，但是廣告大意是說，每吸一口香煙會(huì)減少幾分鐘的壽命，大概是兩分鐘。無論如何，我決定為祖母做個(gè)算術(shù)。我估測(cè)了祖母每天要吸幾支香煙，每支香煙要吸幾口等等，然后心滿意足地得出了一個(gè)合理的數(shù)字。接著，我捅了捅坐在前面的祖母的頭，又拍了拍她的肩膀，然后驕傲地宣稱，“每天吸兩分鐘的煙，你就少活九年!”

　　At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate our gas mileage -- figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, "At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your life!"

　　我清晰地記得接下來發(fā)生了什么，而那是我意料之外的。我本期待著小聰明和算術(shù)技巧能贏得掌聲，但那并沒有發(fā)生。相反，我的祖母哭泣起來。我的祖父之前一直在默默開車，把車停在了路邊，走下車來，打開了我的車門，等著我跟他下車。我惹麻煩了嗎?

　　I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. "Jeff, you're so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division." That's not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble?

　　我的祖父是一個(gè)智慧而安靜的人。他從來沒有對(duì)我說過嚴(yán)厲的話，難道這會(huì)是第一次?還是他會(huì)讓我回到車上跟祖母道歉?我以前從未遇到過這種狀況，因而也無從知曉會(huì)有什么后果發(fā)生。我們?cè)诜寇嚺酝Ｏ聛�。祖父注視著我，沉默片刻，然后輕輕地、平靜地說：“杰夫，有一天你會(huì)明白，善良比聰明更難。”

　　My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, "Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever."

　　今天我想對(duì)你們說的是，天賦和選擇不同。聰明是一種天賦，而善良是一種選擇。天賦得來很容易——畢竟它們與生俱來。而選擇則頗為不易。如果一不小心，你可能被天賦所誘惑，這可能會(huì)損害到你做出的選擇。

　　What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy -- they're given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

　　在座各位都擁有許多天賦。我確信你們的天賦之一就是擁有精明能干的頭腦。之所以如此確信，是因?yàn)槿雽W(xué)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)十分激烈，如果你們不能表現(xiàn)出聰明智慧，便沒有資格進(jìn)入這所學(xué)校。

　　This is a group with many gifts. I'm sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I'm confident that's the case because admission is competitive and if there weren't some signs that you're clever, the dean of admission wouldn't have let you in.

　　你們的聰明才智必定會(huì)派上用場(chǎng)，因?yàn)槟銈儗⒃谝黄�充滿奇跡的土地上行進(jìn)。我們?nèi)祟�，盡管跬步前行，卻終將令自己大吃一驚。我們能夠想方設(shè)法制造清潔能源，也能夠一個(gè)原子一個(gè)原子地組裝微型機(jī)械，使之穿過細(xì)胞壁，然后修復(fù)細(xì)胞。這個(gè)月，有一個(gè)異常而不可避免的事情發(fā)生了——人類終于合成了生命。在未來幾年，我們不僅會(huì)合成生命，還會(huì)按說明書驅(qū)動(dòng)它們。我相信你們甚至?xí)�看到我們理解人類的大腦，儒勒·凡爾納，馬克·吐溫，伽利略，牛頓——所有那些充滿好奇之心的人都希望能夠活到現(xiàn)在。作為文明人，我們會(huì)擁有如此之多的天賦，就像是坐在我面前的你們，每一個(gè)生命個(gè)體都擁有許多獨(dú)特的天賦。

　　Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans -- plodding as we are -- will astonish ourselves. We'll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we'll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we've synthesized life. In the coming years, we'll not only synthesize it, but we'll engineer it to specifications. I believe you'll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton -- all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.

　　你們要如何運(yùn)用這些天賦呢?你們會(huì)為自己的天賦感到驕傲，還是會(huì)為自己的選擇感到驕傲?

　　How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?

　　2019年前，我萌生了創(chuàng)辦亞馬遜的想法。彼時(shí)我面對(duì)的現(xiàn)實(shí)是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)使用量以每年2300%的速度增長(zhǎng)，我從未看到或聽說過任何增長(zhǎng)如此快速的東西。創(chuàng)建涵蓋幾百萬種書籍的網(wǎng)上書店的想法令我興奮異常，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)東西在物理世界里根本無法存在。那時(shí)我剛剛30歲，結(jié)婚才一年。

　　I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles -- something that simply couldn't exist in the physical world -- was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for a year.

　　我告訴妻子MacKenzie想辭去工作，然后去做這件瘋狂的事情，很可能會(huì)失敗，因?yàn)榇蟛糠謩?chuàng)業(yè)公司都是如此，而且我不確定那之后會(huì)發(fā)生什么。MacKenzie告訴我，我應(yīng)該放手一搏。在我還是一個(gè)男孩兒的時(shí)候，我是車庫(kù)發(fā)明家。我曾用水泥填充的輪胎、雨傘和錫箔以及報(bào)警器制作了一個(gè)自動(dòng)關(guān)門器。我一直想做一個(gè)發(fā)明家，MacKenzie支持我追隨內(nèi)心的熱情。

　　I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most startups don't, and I wasn't sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

　　我當(dāng)時(shí)在紐約一家金融公司工作，同事是一群非常聰明的人，我的老板也很有智慧，我很羨慕他。我告訴我的老板我想開辦一家在網(wǎng)上賣書的公司。他帶我在中央公園漫步良久，認(rèn)真地聽我講完，最后說：“聽起來真是一個(gè)很好的主意，但是對(duì)那些目前沒有謀到一份好工作的人來說，這個(gè)主意會(huì)更好。”

　　I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, "That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job."

　　這一邏輯對(duì)我而言頗有道理，他說服我在最終作出決定之前再考慮48小時(shí)。那樣想來，這個(gè)決定確實(shí)很艱難，但是最終，我決定拼一次。我認(rèn)為自己不會(huì)為嘗試過后的失敗而遺憾，倒是有所決定但完全不付諸行動(dòng)會(huì)一直煎熬著我。在深思熟慮之后，我選擇了那條不安全的道路，去追隨我內(nèi)心的熱情。我為那個(gè)決定感到驕傲。

　　That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice.

　　明天，非常現(xiàn)實(shí)地說，你們從零塑造自己人生的時(shí)代即將開啟。

　　Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life -- the life you author from scratch on your own -- begins.

　　你們會(huì)如何運(yùn)用自己的天賦?你們又會(huì)作出怎樣的抉擇?

　　How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

　　你們是被慣性所引導(dǎo)，還是追隨自己內(nèi)心的熱情?

　　Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

　　你們會(huì)墨守陳規(guī)，還是勇于創(chuàng)新?

　　Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

　　你們會(huì)選擇安逸的生活，還是選擇一個(gè)奉獻(xiàn)與冒險(xiǎn)的人生?

　　Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

　　你們會(huì)屈從于批評(píng)，還是會(huì)堅(jiān)守信念?

　　Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

　　你們會(huì)掩飾錯(cuò)誤，還是會(huì)坦誠(chéng)道歉?

　　Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?

　　你們會(huì)因害怕拒絕而掩飾內(nèi)心，還是會(huì)在面對(duì)愛情時(shí)勇往直前?

　　Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

　　你們想要波瀾不驚，還是想要搏擊風(fēng)浪?

　　Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

　　你們會(huì)在嚴(yán)峻的現(xiàn)實(shí)之下選擇放棄，還是會(huì)義無反顧地前行?

　　When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

　　你們要做憤世嫉俗者，還是踏實(shí)的建設(shè)者?

　　Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

　　你們要不計(jì)一切代價(jià)地展示聰明，還是選擇善良?

　　Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

　　我要做一個(gè)預(yù)測(cè)：在你們80歲時(shí)某個(gè)追憶往昔的時(shí)刻，只有你一個(gè)人靜靜對(duì)內(nèi)心訴說著你的人生故事，其中最為充實(shí)、最有意義的那段講述，會(huì)被你們作出的一系列決定所填滿。最后，是選擇塑造了我們的人生。為你自己塑造一個(gè)偉大的人生故事。

　　I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

　　謝謝，祝你們好運(yùn)!

　　Thank you and good luck!