选择比天赋更重要
As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas.
在我还是个孩子的时候，夏天总是在德州祖父母的农场中度过。
I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores.
我帮忙修理风车，为牛接种疫苗，也做其它家务。
We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.”
每天下午，我们都会看肥皂剧，尤其是《我们的岁月》。
My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada.
我的祖父母参加了一个房车俱乐部，那是一群驾驶Airstream拖挂型房车的人们，他们结伴遍游美国和加拿大。
And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather’s car,
每隔几个夏天，我也会加入他们。我们把房车挂在祖父的小汽车后面，
and off we’d go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers.
然后加入300余名Airstream探险者们组成的浩荡队伍。
I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips.
我爱我的祖父母，我崇敬他们，也真心期盼这些旅程。
On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old.
那是一次我大概十岁时的旅行，
I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving.
我照例坐在后座的长椅上，祖父开着车，祖母坐在他旁边，吸着烟。我讨厌烟味。
And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.
祖母坐在他旁边，吸着烟。我讨厌烟味。
At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I’d calculate our gas mileage —
在那样的年纪，我会找任何借口做些估测或者小算术。
figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I’d been hearing an ad campaign about smoking.
我会计算油耗还有杂货花销等鸡毛蒜皮的小事。我听过一个有关吸烟的广告。
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:
我记不得细节了，但是广告大意是说，每吸一口香烟会减少几分钟的寿命，
I think it might have been two minutes per puff.
大概是两分钟。
At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days,
无论如何，我决定为祖母做个算术。我估测了祖母每天要吸几支香烟，
estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on.
每支香烟要吸几口等等，
When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car,
然后心满意足地得出了一个合理的数字。接着，我捅了捅坐在前面祖母的座位，
tapped my grandmother on the shoulder,and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you’ve taken nine years off your life!”
又拍了拍她的肩膀，然后骄傲地宣称，“每天吸两分钟的烟，你就少活九年!”
I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected.
我清晰地记得接下来发生了什么，而那是我意料之外的。
I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. “Jeff, you’re so smart.
我本期待着小聪明和算术技巧能赢得掌声，“哦孩子，你太聪明了。
You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.”
你通过了分钟的数据去计算了一年的总变化量。”
That’s not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears.
但那并没有发生。相反，我的祖母哭泣起来。
I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying,
我坐在那里看着祖母哭泣不知所措。
my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway.
我的祖父之前一直在默默开车，把车停在了路边，
He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow.
走下车来，打开了我的车门，等着我跟他下车。
Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man.
我惹麻烦了吗？我的祖父是一个智慧而安静的人。
He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time?
他从来没有对我说过严厉的话，难道这会是第一次？
Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother.
还是他会让我回到车上跟祖母道歉？
I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be.
我以前从未遇到过这种状况，因而也无从知晓会有什么后果发生。
We stopped beside the trailer.My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said,
我们在房车旁停下来。祖父注视着我，沉默片刻，然后轻轻地、平静地说：
“Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”
“杰夫，有一天你会明白，善良比聪明更难。”
What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices.
今天我想对你们说的是，天赋和选择不同。聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。
Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard.
天赋得来很容易——毕竟它们与生俱来。而选择则颇为不易。
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.
如果一不小心，你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。
This is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain.
在座各位都拥有许多天赋。我确信你们的天赋之一就是拥有精明能干的头脑。
I’m confident that’s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever,
之所以如此确信，是因为入学竞争十分激烈，如果你们不能表现出聪明智慧，
the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.
便没有资格进入这所学校。
Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels.
你们的聪明才智必定会派上用场，因为你们将在一片充满奇迹的土地上行进。
We humans — plodding as we are — will astonish ourselves. We’ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it.
我们人类，尽管跬步前行，却终将令自己大吃一惊。我们能够想方设法制造清洁能源，
Atom by atom, we’ll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs.
也能够一个原子一个原子地组装微型机械，使之穿过细胞壁，然后修复细胞。
This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we’ve synthesized life.
这个月，有一个异常而不可避免的事情发生了——人类终于合成了生命。
In the coming years, we’ll not only synthesize it, but we’ll engineer it to specifications.
在未来几年，我们不仅会合成生命，还会按说明书驱动它们。
I believe you’ll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton —
我相信你们甚至会看到我们理解人类的大脑，儒勒·凡尔纳，马克·吐温，伽利略，牛顿——
all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization,
所有那些充满好奇之心的人都希望能够活到现在。作为文明人，
we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.
我们会拥有如此之多的天赋，就像是坐在我面前的你们，每一个生命个体都拥有许多独特的天赋。
How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?
你们要如何运用这些天赋呢？你们会为自己的天赋感到骄傲，还是会为自己的选择感到骄傲?
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.
16年前，我萌生了创办亚马逊的想法。彼时我面对的现实是互联网使用量以每年2300%的速度增长，
I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles —
我从未看到或听说过任何增长如此快速的东西。创建涵盖几百万种书籍的网上书店的想法令我兴奋异常，
something that simply couldn’t exist in the physical world — was very exciting to me.
因为这个东西在物理世界里根本无法存在。
I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year.
那时我刚刚30岁，结婚才一年。
I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing
我告诉妻子MacKenzie想辞去工作，然后去做这件疯狂的事情，很可能会失败，
that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t,and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that.
因为大部分创业公司都是如此，而且我不确定那之后会发生什么。
MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it.
MacKenzie告诉我，我应该放手一搏。
As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I’d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires,
在我还是一个男孩儿的时候，我是车库发明家。我曾用水泥填充的轮胎、
a solar cooker that didn’t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings.
雨伞和锡箔以及报警器制作了一个自动关门器。
I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.
我一直想做一个发明家，MacKenzie支持我追随内心的热情。
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.
我当时在纽约一家金融公司工作，同事是一群非常聪明的人，我的老板也很有智慧，我很羡慕他。
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,
我告诉我的老板我想开办一家在网上卖书的公司。他带我在中央公园漫步良久，
listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea,
认真地听我讲完，最后说：“听起来真是一个很好的主意，
but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.”
但是对那些目前没有谋到一份好工作的人来说，这个主意会更好。”
That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision.
这一逻辑对我而言颇有道理，他说服我在最终作出决定之前再考虑48小时。
Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately,
那样想来，那样想来，这个决定确实很艰难，但是最终，
I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing.
我决定拼一次。我认为自己不会为尝试过后的失败而遗憾，
And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration,
倒是有所决定但完全不付诸行动会一直煎熬着我。在深思熟虑之后，
I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.
我选择了那条不安全的道路，去追随我内心的热情。我为那个决定感到骄傲。
Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins.
明天，非常现实地说，你们从零塑造自己人生的时代即将开启。
How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
你们会如何运用自己的天赋？你们又会作出怎样的抉择？
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
你们是被惯性所引导，还是追随自己内心的热情？
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
你们会墨守陈规，还是勇于创新？
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
你们会选择安逸的生活，还是选择一个奉献与冒险的人生？
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
你们会屈从于批评，还是会坚守信念?
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?
你们会掩饰错误，还是会坦诚道歉？
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
你们会因害怕拒绝而掩饰内心，还是会在面对爱情时勇往直前？
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
你们想要波澜不惊，还是想要搏击风浪？
When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
你们会在严峻的现实之下选择放弃，还是会义无反顾地前行？
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
你们要做愤世嫉俗者，还是踏实的建设者？
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
你们要不计一切代价地展示聪明，还是选择善良？
I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old,
我要做一个预测：在你们80岁时某个追忆往昔的时刻，
and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story,
只有你一个人静静对内心诉说着你的人生故事，
the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made.
其中最为充实、最有意义的那段讲述，会被你们作出的一系列决定所填满。
In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!
最后，是选择塑造了我们的人生。为你自己塑造一个伟大的人生故事。谢谢，祝你们好运！