Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech
I am honored (удостоен) to be with you today at your commencement (актовый день) from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told (по правде говоря), I never graduated (выпускался) 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.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out (бросил) of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in (постоянный гость) 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 (незамужняя) college graduate student, and she decided to put me up (выставить) for adoption (усыновление). She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates (выпускники), so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer (юрист) and his wife.
Except that when I popped out (предложен) 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 (нежеланный) baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother found out later (обнаружила) that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.
She refused (отказалась) to sign the final adoption papers (документы). She only relented (смилостивилась) a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively (наивно) chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings (сбережения) were being spent on my college tuition (обучение).
After six months, I couldn't see the value (ценность) 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 (выяснить это). And here I was, spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out (получится) 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 (обязательные) classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in (заглядывать) on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm (общежитие) room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned (сдавал) coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across (через) town every Sunday night to get one good meal (прием пищи) a week at the Hare Krishna temple (храм). I loved it.
And much of what I stumbled into (сталкивался) by following my curiosity (любознательность) and intuition turned out to be priceless (бесценно) later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps (вероятно) the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout (по всему) the campus (студенческий городок), every poster, every label (наклейка) on every drawer (ящик), 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 (с засечками) and san serif (без засечек) typefaces (шрифты), about varying (варьирование) the amount of space (пробелов) between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle (искусно) in a way that science can't capture (запечатлеть), and I found it fascinating (очаровательным).
None of this had even a hope of any practical application (применение) in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing (разрабатывали) 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 (зашел) on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple (множество) typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts (категорий шрифтов).
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 this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful (удивительную) typography that they do. Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots (найти связь) looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear (отчетлива) looking backwards (оглядываясь назад) ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward (заглядывая наперед); you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow (тем или иным способом) connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut (сила воли), destiny (судьба), life, karma, whatever. This approach (подход) has never let me down (никогда не подводил меня), and it has made all the difference (отличие) in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky (счастливчиком) — 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 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees (сотрудников).
We had just released (выпустили) our finest (самое превосходное) creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired (уволили). How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired (наняли) 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 (взгляды) of the future began to diverge (расходиться) and eventually (в итоге) we had a falling out (ссора). When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him (встали на его сторону). So at 30, I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire (всей) adult (взрослой) life was gone, and it was devastating (опустошительно).
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation (поколение) of entrepreneurs (предпринимателей) down (подвел) - that I had dropped the baton (эстафету) as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize (извиниться) for screwing up (облажаться) so badly.
I was a very public failure (провал), and I even thought about running away from the valley (Кремниевой Долины). But something slowly began to dawn (осенять) on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events (положение вещей) at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected (выброшен), but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over (начать заново).
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 (тяжесть) of being successful (успешным) was replaced by the lightness (легкость) of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed (дало мне свободу) me to enter one of the most creative (творческих) periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love (влюбился) with an amazing (замечательную) woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film (анимационный художественный фильм), Toy Story and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.
In a remarkable (замечательное) turn of events (стечение обстоятельств), Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed (разработали) at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance (возрождение). And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure (вполне уверен) none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting (противное на вкус) medicine (лекарство), but I guess the patient (пациент) needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick (кирпичом). Don't lose faith (веру).
I'm convinced (убежден) that the only thing that kept me going (давала мне силы идти дальше) was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill (заполнит) a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied (удовлетворенным) 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 (продолжайте) looking (искать). Don't settle (успокаивайтесь). As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship (отношения), it just gets better and better as the years roll on (проходят). So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote (цитата) that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly (определенно) be right."
It made an impression (произвело впечатление) 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 (в те разы) 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 tool I've ever encountered (натыкался) to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external (поверхностные) expectations (ожидания), all pride (гордость), all fear of embarrassment (позор) or failure (провал) - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap (ловушка) of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked (голый). There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer (рак). I had a scan (осмотр) at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor (опухоль) on my pancreas (поджелудочная железа). I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable (неизлечим), and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.
My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs (дела) in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up (приведено в порядок) so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach, and into my intestines (кишечник), put a needle (иглу) into my pancreas and got a few cells (клетки) from the tumor.
I was sedated (спокоен), but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare (редкая) form of pancreatic cancer that is curable (излечим) with surgery (хирургическая операция). I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty (уверенность) than when death was a useful but purely (исключительно) intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination (место назначения) we all share. No one has ever escaped (ушел от) it. And that is as it should be because Death is very likely the single best invention (изобретение) of Life.
It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually (постепенно) become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited (ограничено), 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 (заглушать) your own inner (внутренний) voice. And most important, have the courage (смелость) to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary (второстепенно).
When I was young, there was an amazing publication (журнал) called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch (подход).
This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing (настольные издательские системы), so it was all made with typewriters (печатные машинки), scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback (бумажной обложке) form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing (переполнен) with neat (замечательные) tools and great notions (убеждения).
Stewart and his team put out (издавали) several issues (выпусков) of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.
On the back cover (задней стороне обложки) of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road (проселочной дороги), the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking (путешествуете автостопом) on if you were so adventurous (любящие приключения).
Beneath (снизу) it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish (безрассудным)." It was their farewell (прощальное) message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew (по-новому), I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
As originally scripted and pronounced by Steve Jobs at Stanford University.