苹果总裁Tim Cook在奥本大学的演讲
一个看似乏味、拿着MBA文凭的管理者,一度做过25年的人生规划,却在遇到乔布斯后,抛开一切,毅然加入当时业绩惨淡的苹果,最终成为新一代苹果教主——这就是Tim Cook. 他说:“如果你想和我一样挣脱桎梏、活得精彩,就去他的人生规划吧!”
Every year, Auburn University sends a new outstanding pool of graduates into society. Many of these alums become some of the brightest and blessed employees - senior executives, business owners, entrepreneurs, leaders in their fields. One such an alumnus is with us today as our commencement speaker.
每一年,奥本大学都有成百上千的优秀毕业生走进社会,很多成为了各行各业的佼佼者,成为了高管、企业家、各行各业的领军人物。今天我们有幸请来其中的一位。
Tim Cook graduated from Auburn in 1982 with a degree of Industrial Engineering. Since that time, his drive and ingenuity have led him to become one of the top executives in the country. Chief Operating Officer, for Apple Incorporated. Mr. Cook has been on the forefront of this revolutionary company in an everchanging industry, impacting lives of billions of people across the world.
蒂姆·库克1982年毕业于奥本大学工业工程系,怀揣才华与斗志,他成为了最顶尖的高管苹果公司的现任COO(演讲当年的头衔)在这个日新月异的行业里 库克先生和苹果一起领跑在科技的前沿,影响了全世界几十亿人。
Graduates, so I wanna ask you a question: How many of you own or have ever owned an iPad, an iPod, an iPhone or an iMac? I want a hand. The decisions that Mr. Cook makes as part of Apple’s leadership determines the success of Apple’s worldwide sales and operations. I would say you’ve made good decisions Mr. Cook.
同学们 我想问你们一个问题:你们中有多少人用过iPad iPod iPhone或iMac 请举手示意库克先生任职苹果公司领导层时所作出的决定带来了苹果全球销售的骄人业绩我想说,库克先生,您当时确实作了很多英明的决定。
He not only motivates and inspires his fellow employees, but he’s been known to show his Auburn proud and spirit around Apple headquarters. Mr. Cook has sat where you are sitting today. He knows the importance of good education. And he believes and giving back to his Alma mater so that future students can also fulfill their dreams.Please welcome with me Auburn’s honored alumnus -- Tim Cook.[/en
]库克先生不仅激励自己的员工,也为苹果带去了“奥本”精神。库克先生曾在你们今天的位置就座。他深知优秀教育的重要性,所以不断回报母校,希望更多的学生能实现梦想,请和我一起欢迎奥本大学的荣誉校友 蒂姆•库克。
[en]Thank you for that nice reception and thank you Virginia for the incredible introduction. I thought some of them were about somebody else. It's a tremendous honor and a privilege for me to be here with all of you. To be back to a place that really feels like home to me and to be back to a place that brings back so many fond memories. Auburn has played a key role in my life and continues to mean a lot to me as any one who comes in my office at Apple or my home in Palo Alto instantly discovers.
谢谢大家,谢谢弗吉尼亚那么卖力的推销我。我一度以为她在夸别人。今天能来,真是荣幸之至。奥本就像我的家一样,充斥着美好的回忆。所有认识我的人都会发现奥本影响了我的人生,并将继续影响下去。
I have so much Auburn memorabilia you might think it was a California outpost for J&M or Anders. As thrilled as I am to be here I stand before you knowing that the lives of many people here and even more across our state and beyond are deeply affected by the tragedy off our shores. I grew up on the Gulf Coast and my family still lives there and I want you to know that my thoughts and hopes are with you. Also as thrilled as I am to be here, I stand before you with a deep sense of humility both because of how I got here and who is here I am where I am in life because my parents sacrificed more than they should have,because of teachers, professors, friends, and mentors who cared more than they had to and because of Steve Jobs and Apple who have provided me the opportunity to engage in truly meaningful work every day for over 12 years.
关于奥本的回忆,多得可以写成统计局的年鉴。但在演讲前,我要提起另一件事。相信很多人都受到了那场灾难的影响(2010年墨西哥湾漏油事件).我在墨西哥湾沿岸长大,我的家人现在还住那里。我希望大家能早日度过难关。此外,我要感谢那些对我影响深远的人。在我的成长道路上,父母为我作出了太多的牺牲,老师以及朋友们给了我特别多的关心与帮助,还要感谢乔布斯和苹果为我提供了绝佳的机会,让我在这十二年间每天都能专注于这份意义非凡的工作。
And I know that I'm offering words of advice in front of a faculty whose ideas and research positively impact our lives.And I do so in a gathering where the faculty is complemented by the hard-won wisdom of so many parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents that have been a source of incredible inspiration for today's graduates. So bearing all that in mind I'll share some personal discoveries with you that have at least served me well. Discoveries based on this most improbable of journeys that I have been on. My most significant discovery so far in my life was the result of one single decision - my decision to join Apple. Working at Apple was never in any plan that I'd outlined for myself but was without a doubt the best decision that I ever made.
各位同学今天能顺利的毕业离不开各位教授的教导也离不开你们的父母、祖父母甚至曾祖父母的培养。在此,我将与大家分享我的经验,一些在我成长中的深刻体会。迄今为止,对我影响最大的一个决定是加入苹果——这不是我计划中的决定,却无疑是我做过的最正确的决定。
There have been other important decisions in my life, like my decision to come to Auburn. When I was in high school, some teachers advised me to attend Auburn. Other teachers advised me to attend the University of Alabama. And, well, like I said some decisions are pretty obvious, the decision to come to Apple which I made in early 1998 was not so obvious. Since most of you graduates were 10 years old at the time. You may not realize that the Apple in early 1998 was very different than the Apple of today. In 1998 there was no iPad or iMac or iPhone, there wasn't even an iPod. I know it's hard to imagine life without iPods.
我做过很多重要的决定——比如来到奥本大学。我还在高中的时候,一些老师建议我报奥本大学,另一些却建议我报阿拉巴马大学。决定去哪所学校其实还挺容易,对吧?但在1998年决定加入苹果时可没那么简单,你们那会儿才10岁,那时的苹果和现在完全不同。那时没有iPad、iMac或iPhone,甚至没有iPod——我知道你们现在都离不开iPod了。
While Apple did make Macs, the company had been losing sales for years and was commonly considered to be on the verge of extinction. Only a few months before I'd accepted the job at Apple, Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Computer, was publicly asked what he would do to fix Apple and he responded "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." In making this statement what distinguished Michael Dell was only that he had the courage to say what so many others believed. So Apple was in a very different place than it is today.
尽管苹果确实在生产Mac,但业绩惨淡。大家都认为苹果快要玩完。在我接受苹果offer的前几个月,戴尔的头儿迈克•戴尔甚至放话说如果我是苹果老板,就会果断关门大吉,把钱还给股东。他说出了其他人想说而不敢说的话。可见那时的苹果多不招人待见。
And my employer at the time, Compaq Computer, was the largest personal computer company in the world. Not only was Compaq performing much better than Apple, it was headquartered in Texas and therefore closer to Auburn football. Any purely rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq's favor and the people who knew me best advised me to stay at Compaq. One CEO I consulted felt so strongly about it. He told me I would be a fool to leave Compaq for Apple.
而我当时的东家康柏公司是当时全球最大的个人电脑生产商。不仅在业绩上远远超越苹果,而且总部在得克萨,随时可以来看奥本的球队打比赛。用脚趾头想想性价比都知道哪个更实惠。我的死党们也都建议我留在康柏。一位CEO朋友坚定地说,我脑袋被驴踢了才会为了苹果离开康柏。
In making the decision to come to Apple, I had to think beyond my training as an engineer. Engineers are taught to make decisions analytically and largely without emotion. When it comes to a decision between alternatives we enumerate the cost and benefits and decide which one is better. But there are times in our lives when the careful consideration of cost and benefits just doesn't seem like the right way to make a decision. There are times in all of our lives when a reliance on gut or intuition just seems more appropriate when a particular course of action just feels right. And interestingly I've discovered it's in facing life's most important decisions that intuition seems the most indispensable to getting it right.
是不是要加盟苹果,我不能用工程师思维进行思考。工程师的思维方式是用数据说话,很少感情用事。举棋不定时,工程师们就算性价比。但有时候即使小心地计算过也不见得能够做一个好决定.有时候得凭勇气和直觉感觉,对了就去做。我这个最重要的决定就是凭直觉做的。
In turning important decisions over to intuition one has to give up on the idea of developing a life plan that will bear any resemblance to what ultimately unfolds. Intuition is something that occurs in the moment, and if you are open to it, if you listen to it, it has the potential to direct or redirect you in a way that is best for you. On that day in early 1998 I listened to my intuition not the left side of my brain or for that matter even the people who knew me best. It's hard to know why I listened, I'm not even sure I know today.
如果你想靠直觉做决定的话,你就得打破自身的桎梏。 直觉就是你遵从内心的想法,这样做出的决定可能会是最好的。那年,我遵从了直觉抛开了理性的思考。到今天我都不知道我为啥这么做。
But no more than five minutes into my initial interview with Steve I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple. My intuition already knew that joining Apple was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for the creative genius and to be on the executive team that could resurrect a great American company. If my intuition had lost the struggle with my left brain, I'm not sure where I would be today, but I'm certain I would not be standing in front of you. This was a surprising lesson.
乔布斯面试我还不到5分钟时我就决定将理性抛至脑后加盟苹果了。直觉告诉我:进入苹果决策层和这个怪才共事,化腐朽为神奇,是次多么难得的机会。如果当时理性战胜了直觉,难以想象现在会怎样。但现在八成不可能站在这里了。多奇妙的际遇。
I recall how uncertain I was at my own commencement about where my life would lead. There was a part of me that very much wanted to have a 25-year plan as a guide to life. When I went to business school, we even had an exercise to do a 25-year plan. I found mine, now 22 years old, in preparing for this commencement address. Let's just say it wasn't worth the yellowed paper it was written on. I didn't understand it then as a young MBA student, but life has a habit of throwing you curve balls.
我也曾在毕业时对未来感到迷茫,一度想为自己做一份25年人生规划。读MBA时,还真有课程让我做了这么一份计划。来之前我还特地翻了出来。现在看来,它简直一文不值。那时我只是个年轻的MBA学生,不懂得生活会波澜起伏。
Don't get me wrong--it's good to plan for the future, but if you're like me and you occasionally want to swing for the fences you can't count on a predictable life. But even if you can't plan, you can prepare. A great batter doesn't know when the high-hanging curve ball is going to come, but he knows it well and he can prepare for what he will do when he gets it.
别想歪了,不是说给未来做规划不好。但如果你想和我一样挣脱桎梏活得精彩,就去他的人生规划吧。可是你需要为未来做好充分准备。优秀的击球手不知道何时球会飞来 但他知道如何完美一击。为那精彩的一秒,他做足了准备。
Too often people think about intuition as the same as relying on luck or fait. At least as I see it, nothing could be further from the truth. Intuition can tell you that of the doors that are open to you, which one you should walk through.But intuition cannot prepare you for what's on the other side of that door.
人们经常认为直觉和听天由命没什么差别,我却不以为然。直觉告诉你应该走进命运开启的哪扇门。在门后的际遇得由你自己掌控。
Along these lines a quote that has always resonated with me is one by Abraham Lincoln. He said "I will prepare, and some day my chance will come." I have always believed this. It was this basic belief that led me to Auburn to study industrial engineering, led me to co-op alternating quarters while attending Auburn, led me to Duke to study business and led me to accept so many jobs and assignments that are too numerous to mention. In business as in sports, the vast majority of victories are determined before the beginning of the game. We rarely control the timing of opportunities, but we can control our preparation. I feel Lincoln's quote is especially appropriate now, given the state of the economy and the worry that I suspect a number of you must feel.
我一直相信林肯的一句话:我会时刻准备着机会的到来。基于这种信念,我来到奥本大学学习工业工程专业。在学习的同时到公司实习,后来又到杜克大学商学院学习参与过诸多项目。商场如赛场,在比赛开始的瞬间输赢已定。我们无法掌控机遇,却能做好充足准备。林肯的名言今天仍然适用。你们中很多人一定在担心现在社会的经济状况。
I had the same worry when I graduated in 1982 (yes, I am prehistoric, for the record). But as many of the parents here will remember, the economy then bore some strong similarities to the economy today. The unemployment rate was in the double digits, we didn't have the collapse of Wall Street banks but we did have the savings and loan crisis. I worried, as many of my classmates did, what the future held for them.
1982年毕业时也一样(不好意思 暴露年龄了).在座的家长也许记得那时的经济和现在何其相似,当时的失业率高居两位.数华尔街的银行还活着,却面临着储蓄和贷款危机。我和同学们都对未来忧心忡忡。
But what was true for Lincoln was true for those of us who graduated in '82 and it is true for those of you graduating today. Prepare and your chance will come. Just as all previous generations have done, you will stand on the shoulders of the generation that came before you, the generation of mine and your parents. And you will achieve more and go farther.
但是我还是要给大家重复林肯的那句话:做好准备 机遇定会降临。你们会站在前辈的肩膀上,取得更高的成就。
The fact that you are here now at this great institution, in this great state at this great moment for both you and your families is a testament to the fact that your preparation has begun. Continue to prepare yourselves as you have at Auburn so when your gut tells you "this is my moment," you are without a doubt ready. If you are prepared, when the right door opens then it comes down to just one more thing. Make sure that your execution lives up to your preparation.
在这个伟大的时代 在这个优秀的学府就读,说明你们已经走好了第一步。为了将来继续努力准备吧。当感到机遇来临时,你一定能自信满满迎接挑战。那时 万事俱备,你只需要保证自己的准备足够充分。
At least for me the second sentence of the Auburn creed, "I believe in work, hard work" really resonates here and has been one of my core beliefs for as long as I can remember. Though the sentiment is a simple one there's tremendous dignity and wisdom in these words, and they have stood the test of time.As current events teach us, those who try to achieve success without hard work ultimately deceive themselves, or worse, deceive others. I have the good fortune to be surrounded by some brilliant, intuitive thinkers who create the most elegant and extraordinary products in the world.
我坚信奥本的第二条校训“天道酬勤”,多年来 它一直是我座右铭。这句话看似简单 却言近旨远。事实证明 那些企图通过投机取巧获得成功的人都是在自欺欺人。我觉得自己很幸运 能与全球杰出的产品设计师为伍。
For all of us intuition is not a substitute for rigorous thinking and hard work: It is simply the lead-in. We never take shortcuts. We attend to every detail. We follow where curiosity leads, aware that the journey may be longer but will ultimately be more worthwhile. We take risks knowing that risk will sometimes result in failure. But without the possibility of failure, there is no possibility of success.
直觉不是严谨思维和努力工作的替代品,而是一个敲门砖。我们不贪图捷径。专注于每一个细节发挥想象力,虽然创新的过程曲折而漫长,但更有价值有意义。敢于冒险,即使失败也要锲而不舍。
We remember Albert Einstein's words"insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results."When you put it all together, I know this. Intuition is critical in virtually everything you do but without relentless preparation, and execution, it is meaningless. So those are my discoveries on the significance of intuition, preparation, and hard work. For me they give rise to a simple principle for the most important decisions in your life. Trust your intuition and then work with everything you have to prove it right.
爱因斯坦说过:"精神错乱是指一遍遍地重复却期待不一样的结果。"和我的观点结合起来,就是:直觉很重要,但没有充分的准备也注定失败。这就是我对直觉、准备和努力工作的理解。指引我作出每一个重大的决定,相信自己的直觉,不顾一切地努力证明它是正确的。
Logic probably dictates that I end my remarks here but as I've said sometimes logic shouldn't prevail and so I have one last brief discovery to share with you. I think it is misleading to talk about success without also referencing failure. I know of no one who has achieved something significant without also in their own lives experiencing their share of hardship, frustration, and regret. So don't believe that something in your past prevents you from doing great work in the future.
通常 讲到这儿就该结束了,但我决定不按套路出牌。所以,我再给大家分享一条心得:如果抛开失败只谈成功,是在误导大家。每一个成功的人都曾体验过苦涩、绝望与落魄,所以不要一遭失败就裹足不前。
To all of you who doubt yourselves, I have been there too. And although today I've spent time talking about a great decision, I've made some that are far from it. And like many of you, I've had my share of life's personal challenges and failures. But after many miles on my journey, I recognize that each of these difficult periods of life passes and with each we exit stronger and wiser. The old saying "This, too, shall pass" has certainly proven true for me and I'm sure it'll hold true for anyone who believes it. So paint in your mind the most grand vision where you want to go in life. Prepare, trust in, and execute on your intuition. And don't get distracted by life's potholes.
我也曾经怀疑自己。虽然今天我与大家分享了我成功的决策,其实我也做过很多不靠谱的决定。跟大家一样,我的人生也充满了挑战和挫折。但人生路漫漫,没什么坎过不去。我们会变得更加坚强、睿智。正如老话所说“这一切都会过去”事实证明确实如此。所以 大胆畅想未来吧,做好准备,相信直觉,开始行动。不要被生活的曲折所困扰。
Congratulations, class of 2010.This is your day. This is your moment. You've received a first class education, from a first class institution. Congratulations to your families and friends who have supported you. And as important as this day is, make sure that you carry the Auburn spirit with you in the weeks, months, and years ahead. Let your joy be in your journey--not in some distant goal. And regardless of where your particular journey may lead you from this moment forward. Thank you for allowing me to play a small part in today.
恭喜你们,10届的同学们。这是属于你们的时刻,你们在这所一流的大学里接受了一流的教育。祝贺一直支持你们的家人和朋友。前行的道路上不要忘记奥本精神,希望不论你将去往何方都能尽情享受精彩人生的旅程。感谢你们倾听我的演讲。
War Eagle and God speed!
神速战鹰!(奥本大学口号)