Jeff Bezos said We are What We Choose

善待他人，
並追隨你的熱情，

人生將因你的抉擇而精彩!!

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos
delivers graduation speech at Princeton University
on May 30, 2010

    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. 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.

    當我小時候，我會在我祖父母位於德州的農場渡過夏天。 我會幫忙修理風車(磨坊)、替牛接種疫苗、還有其他雜務。 每天下午我們觀看肥皂劇，特別是「Days of our Lives」。 我的祖父母參加了露營拖車俱樂部，那是群加掛Airstream款車廂一起結伴開車旅行於美國和加拿大的人們。 每隔幾個夏天，我們就會加入他們。 我們將露營拖車附掛到我祖父的汽車後面，跟上由300餘輛Airstream連成的探險者隊伍中。 我敬愛我的祖父母，並且滿心期待這些旅行。

大約在我10歲時的一次旅行。 我不安分的坐在後座長椅上。 祖父開著車、祖母坐在副駕駛座。 她整個旅程都在抽菸，而我討厭菸味。

    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!”

    在那個年紀，我把握所有機會去做些測量或簡單的算數。 我會去計算我們行程的油耗 -- 找出那些瑣碎的數據如雜貨支出等。 我聽過有關吸菸的宣導活動。 我記不得細節了，但是大概是說，每吸一口菸會減少幾分鐘的壽命：我印象中應該是一口菸減少兩分鐘。 無論如何，我決定幫祖母做個計算。 我計算一天會抽幾根菸，每根會吸幾口。 當我滿意我得到的合理數字後，我探頭到前座並將手搭在祖母的肩上，然後自豪地宣稱：「每吸口菸算減兩分鐘，妳已經少掉了九年壽命！」

    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? 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.”

    我清楚記得當時發生的事情，因為完全出乎我的意料。 我期待著被人稱讚我的聰明與算術能力。 「傑夫，你如此聰明。你完成了這些艱難的計算，弄清楚了一年有多少分鐘並完成除法。」 但那沒有發生。反而卻引的我祖母淚流滿面。 我坐回後座，不知該怎麼辦。 正當祖母坐著啜泣時，祖父靜默的將車開到了高速公路的路肩。 他下車繞過車子，打開我的車門並等我下車跟隨他。 我闖禍了嗎? 我的祖父是位擁有智慧的穩重男人。 他從沒有對我說過嚴厲的話，這可能會是第一次? 又或許想叫我回車上向我祖母道歉。 我以前沒有和祖父母間有過這樣的經驗，因此沒法衡量後果可能如何。 我們停在拖車旁。 祖父看著我沉默了半晌，然後溫柔平靜的地說：「傑夫，總有一天你會明白~ 成為善良的人要比變成聰明的人要困難的多。」

＃ ＃ ＃ ＃ ＃

    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.

    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.

    今天我想和你們談談有關天賦與抉擇的差異。 聰明是種天賦，而善良是道抉擇。 天賦與生俱來所以容易發揮。但做出抉擇卻總是困難的。 你稍不謹慎，就會被你的天賦給蒙蔽，而可能讓你做出錯誤的抉擇。

    諸位都有許多才華。 我確信其中一項就是擁有聰明又有能力的大腦。 我之所以這麼肯定，是因為入學篩選十分嚴格，如果你們沒能嶄露才智，那麼就沒法取得入學資格。

    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.

    你們的才智就將要派上用場，因為你們將在這塊神奇大陸前行。 人類雖只能緩步邁進，卻終將令自己驚艷。 我們將發明產生潔淨能源的各式各樣的方法。 一點一點的累積，我們終將組裝出可以進入細胞壁去進行修復的微型的機器。 這個月有則驚奇但無可避免的消息傳出，我們可以合成生命。 在不久將來我們不只可以合成，我們將還可以按規格製造。 我相信你們還會見證人類完全解構大腦。 Jules Verne、Mark Twain、Galileo、Newton等各個年代裡充滿好奇心的先驅，都希望活到現今這個時代。 身為文明人我們擁有許多天賦，像是坐在我面前的你們每一位都有著與眾不同的獨特天賦。

 

註：Jules Gabriel Verne是法國小說家，被譽為「科幻小說之父」之一；知名著作包括「海底兩萬里」、「環遊世界八十天」等各式各樣上天、下海、去外太空的冒險旅程。而本段中You will travel in a land of marvels 就是出自「海底兩萬里」，該語也被用在Kindle產品廣告上。

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

    你們將如何發揮你們的天賦? 你們將為天賦感到驕傲或是為你們的抉擇感到自豪?

    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. 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.

    16年前我萌生成立亞馬遜的念頭。 當時我發現網際網路的使用量一年增長了23倍。 我從來沒有看到或聽說過有成長這樣快的事物，而且成立一間擁有數百萬種書籍的線上書店，這在真實世界無法實踐的想法，更讓我非常興奮。 那時我剛滿30歲，也才結婚1年。 我告訴內人MacKenzie我想要辭去工作，投入這個瘋狂又可能不會成功的點子，就像其他新創公司一般，我無法預期之後會怎麼發展。 MacKenzie (也是Princeton的畢業生，現正坐在第二排)告訴我應該勇於追夢。 當我是小男孩時，我已經是個車庫發明家。 我發明了一個用水泥填充的輪胎開啟的自動門、一個用雨傘和錫箔紙組合成太陽能炊具、一個用來陷害我兄弟的烤盤報警器。 我總想著成為發明家，而她要我跟隨我的熱情。

    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. 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.” 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.

    當時我在紐約一間金融公司和一群精英一起工作，而且有位令我景仰的出色上司。 我走到老闆面前告訴他我想成立一間在網路上販賣書籍的公司。 他帶我到中央公園散步了很久並專心聽我陳述，然後他說：「那聽起來是個好主意，但應該更適合那些還沒找到一份好工作的人。」 這個邏輯似乎蠻符合我的狀況，而且他堅持我要再想48小時後，再做出決定。 想想老闆的提議，這真的是困難的決定，但終究我選擇了給自己一次機會。 我認為我不會因為挑戰失敗而遺憾。 但我相信我會因完全沒有去嘗試而焦慮難安。 在深思熟慮後，我選擇走上那條不安全的路，去追隨我的熱情。我對我的抉擇引以為榮。

＃ ＃ ＃ ＃ ＃

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

    明天起，毫無疑問地，你們將開啟全新人生。

How will you use your gifts?

What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide,

or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma,

or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease,

or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism,

or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong,

or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection,

or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe,

or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up,

or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic,

or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others,

or will you be kind?

    How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make? Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions? Will you follow dogma, or will you be original? Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure? Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions? Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize? Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love? Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling? When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless? Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder? Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

    你將如何運用你的天賦？
    你會做出怎樣的抉擇？

    你將因循過去，還是會跟隨你的熱情？
    你將墨守成規，或者你會保有初衷

    你將選擇過輕鬆生活，還是會過奉獻與冒險的日子？
    你將害怕別人的批評，還是會堅持你的信念？

    當你犯錯，
    你將強詞奪理，還是會肯勇於認錯。

    當你墜入愛河，
    你將害怕被拒絕而懦於行動，還是會勇於追愛。

    你將走安全的路，還是你會願意冒一點險。

    當你遇到艱難的時候，
    你將放棄，還是會不惜代價？

    你將變的憤世嫉俗，還是會成為開創者？
    你將習於犧牲別人，還是你會當一個善良的人？

    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. Thank you and good luck!

    我要大膽做出預測。當你們80歲的某個安靜的自省時刻，回述你的過往人生中最充實、最有意義的片段，將會是你所下重要決定。最後，將是我們的抉擇成就了我們。為自己創造一個精彩的故事。謝謝，祝好運！

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英語課 第三篇，上課日：2017年7月

講師：蔡瑋老師

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後記

    Amazon品牌標誌中一條從字母「A」指向字母「Z」的微笑箭頭，象徵著其旗下的商品包羅萬象。而在2017/7/27上午，其股價一度勁揚，讓Jeff Bezos身家短暫超越Bill Gates成為世界首富。