蓋茨夫婦斯坦福畢業演講 樂觀不是被動等待世界變美好

How do you inspire a group of unusually smart, hard working, optimistic, and largely privileged youngsters who are already destined for success? Encourage them to learn from those most in need; urge them confront inequity; exhort them channel their optimism with empathy; oh, and remind them that for all their accomplishments, they wouldn’t be where they are without a heavy dose of luck.

聰明過人、勤奮努力、樂觀向上且堪稱天之驕子，面對這樣一羣已然註定會邁向成功的年輕人，你還能想出什麼激勵之言呢？勉勵他們向那些最需要幫助的人學習；敦促他們直面世界的不平等；告誡他們要將移情融入樂觀精神之中；以及提醒他們，如果不是備受幸運之神的眷顧，他們也不會站到現在的位置，取得現在這樣的成就。

That was the message that philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates delivered to Stanford’s 2014 graduating class in a poignant commencement address.

這就是慈善家比爾o蓋茨和梅琳達o蓋茨在2014年斯坦福大學（Stanford）的畢業典禮上通過一場深刻的演講向畢業生們所傳遞的信息。

At a time when inequality is becoming one of the central issues of our time, the Gateses, whose foundation has become one of the most formidable philanthropic enterprises in history, exhorted graduates to pursue a mission-driven life. While both speakers were inspiring, it was Melinda Gates who delivered the most stirring lines. Here’s she is on channeling optimism:

蓋茨夫婦的基金會已經成爲有史以來最爲強大的慈善組織之一。這對夫婦在演講過程中告誡畢業生們，隨着不平等已經成爲當今時代所面臨的核心問題之一，他們應當去追求以使命爲驅動力的生活。兩位演講者的發言都極爲鼓舞人心，而梅琳達o蓋茨的演講詞甚至更震撼。下面是她對於樂觀主義的解讀：

Optimism for me isn’t a passive expectation that things will get better; it’s a conviction that we can make things better—that whatever suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don’t lose hope and we don’t look away.

於我而言，樂觀並不是被動地指望世界會變得更美好；它是一種堅定的信念，相信我們有能力讓世界變得更美好——不管我們目睹過怎樣的苦楚，不管情況多麼糟糕，我們都要幫助別人，我們不絕望，也不置身事外。

Drawing from her own experience witnessing abject poverty, heartbreaking disease and the ravages and stigma of AIDS in India, she later added:

梅琳達o蓋茨在印度親眼目睹了赤貧、疾病的可怕以及艾滋所造成破壞和偏見，由這些親身經歷引申出去，她又補充說：

Let your heart break. It will change what you do with your optimism.

這一切讓人心碎。它會改變一個人對於樂觀的看法。

And here’s the bit about luck and why it’s important:

還有一些演講內容涉及了運氣以及運氣爲什麼這麼重要：

Bill worked incredibly hard and took risks and made sacrifices for success. But there is another essential ingredient of success, and that ingredient is luck—absolute and total luck.

比爾工作非常努力，爲了成功，他勇於冒險，併爲此付出了很多。但除了這些特質外，成功還必須具備另一項關鍵要素，那就是運氣——純粹、徹頭徹尾的運氣。

When were you born? Who were your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earned these things. They were given to us.

你什麼時候出生？你的父母是誰？你在什麼地方成長？沒有人能通過後天努力來扭轉這些東西。它們是命運賜予給我們的東西。

When we strip away our luck and privilege and consider where we’d be without them, it becomes easier to see someone who’s poor and sick and say “that could be me.” This is empathy; it tears down barriers and opens up new frontiers for optimism.

撇開運氣和特權，再想象一下，如果沒有這些東西，我們將處於什麼樣的境地。經過這樣的一番思索之後，當再目睹到那些窮人和病人時，你就會很容易由衷地感嘆道：“或許那本來也是我要面對的人生。”

So here is our appeal to you: As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well.

所以在此我們要向你們呼籲：大家離開斯坦福以後，請帶上你們的才華、樂觀和同情去改變世界，讓無數需要幫助的其他人也樂觀起來。

The talk may well join another Stanford commencement address—the classic 2005 speech by Bill Gates’ longtime rival Steve Jobs—in the ranks of the most memorable ever. And it seemed especially apt for Stanford, a university that is minting innovators and entrepreneurs are an unprecedented rate. But not all successful Silicon Valley enterprises are created equal, or as the investor Peter Thiel famously bemoaned, “we wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” Stanford, for example, recently spawned the likes of Snapchat-disappearing messages—and Theranos—a potential revolution in healthcare. Both are successful and both are worth billions. But there’s little doubt as to which one Bill and Melinda Gates think Stanford graduates should join or try to emulate.

比爾o蓋茨的宿敵史蒂夫o喬布斯曾在2005年的斯坦福大學畢業典禮上留下了一場堪稱經典的演講。和喬布斯的演講一樣，蓋茨夫婦的這次演講也有望列入有史以來最令人難忘的演說名單。他們的演講內容似乎特別適合於斯坦福這所以前所未有的速度孕育着創新人才和創業家的大學。但並不是所有成功的硅谷企業都生而平等，或者正如投資家彼得o泰爾所哀嘆的那樣：“我們曾經想要過飛車，結果只得到了140個字符（意指社交媒體——編注）。”舉例來說，最近來自斯坦福的精英們創建了像Snapchat和Theranos這樣的公司。前者專門開發傳送自毀式信息的應用，後者則是一家在醫療領域具有潛在革命性的企業。這兩家公司都獲得了成功，市值都達到了數十億美元。但毫無疑問，從蓋茨夫婦的演講中我們可以清楚地認識到，後一種創業方式纔是他們期望斯坦福大學的畢業生將來努力的方向。