財富精英勵志演講 02:我生命中的三個故事(2)

[00:00.54] And 17 years later I did go to college. 17年后，我真的上了大學(xué)。 [00:04.35] But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working class parents ' savings were being spent on my college tuition. 但是我很天真，選擇了一所幾乎和斯坦福大學(xué)一樣貴的學(xué)校，我那工薪階層的養(yǎng)父母把全部積蓄都用來支付我的大學(xué)學(xué)費。 [00:14.31] After six months, I could not see the value in it. 六個月后，我看不到上大學(xué)有什么價值。 [00:17.46] 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. 我不知道自己一生中想做什么，我也不知道大學(xué)怎樣幫我找到答案。 [00:23.51] And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. 而此時，我正在花光父母一輩子攢下的錢。 [00:29.37] So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. 所以我決定退學(xué)，并且相信這是個不錯的決定。 [00:34.37] It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. 在那時候，這樣做多少有些心里沒底，但是回過頭來看，那是我至今做出的最正確的決定之一。 [00:41.05] The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that did not interest me, 從我退學(xué)的那一刻起，我可以不用選學(xué)那些我不感興趣的必修課，可以去旁聽那些看上去有趣的課程。 [00:46.44] and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. 可以去旁聽那些看上去有趣的課程。 [00:51.45] It was not all romantic. 那個時候并非事事如意。 [00:53.36] I did not have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends ' rooms, 我沒有了宿舍，因此只能睡在朋友房間的地板上; [00:57.34] I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. 我退還可樂瓶，換回5美分押金買東西吃;每個星期天的晚上，我總是走上七英里，穿城到哈瑞·奎師那(Hare Krishna)禮拜堂去，吃上一頓每周一次的大餐。 [01:09.08] I loved it. 我喜歡這樣。 [01:10.43] And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. 我憑著好奇心和直覺所做的大多數(shù)事情，結(jié)果被證明是無價之寶。讓我給你們舉一個例子： [01:17.13] Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. 讓我給你們舉一個例子：那時候，里德學(xué)院開設(shè)的書法課可能是全美國最好的。 [01:25.19] Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. 校園里的所有海報、所有抽屜標(biāo)簽上的字都寫得漂漂亮亮 。 [01:32.20] Because I had dropped out and did not have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. 由于我已經(jīng)退學(xué)，不用上常規(guī)課程，我決定選一門書法課，學(xué)學(xué)怎樣寫好字。 [01:40.03] I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. 我學(xué)習(xí)了serif(襯線字)和san serif(非襯線字)字體，學(xué)會了根據(jù)不同的字母組合調(diào)整間距，懂得了了不起的活版印刷之所以了不起的原因。 [01:50.23] It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can not capture, and I found it fascinating. 書法課真是太美妙了，具有歷史性和科學(xué)無法捕捉的藝術(shù)上的精妙，我覺得它趣味無窮。 [01:59.04] None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. 這些對我的一生本應(yīng)該是毫無實際用處的， [02:04.29] But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. 可是十年后，在我們設(shè)計第一臺麥金塔(Macintosh)電腦的時候，書法課上的所學(xué)全都浮現(xiàn)在我的腦海里。 [02:10.27] And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. 我們把它全部融入Mac電腦的設(shè)計之中。這是史上第一臺擁有精美字體版式的電腦。 [02:16.24] If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. 如果我在大學(xué)時期從未旁聽過那一課，Mac電腦就不會有如此豐富的字體，或是如此適當(dāng)?shù)淖煮w間距。 [02:24.19] And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. 而且，要不是Windows電腦抄襲了Mac，那么PC機很可能就不會有這么美妙的字體。 [02:36.53] If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, 如果我沒有退學(xué)，我就不會旁聽書法課， [02:40.59] and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. 而個人電腦也可能就不會擁有如此美妙的字體了。 [02:45.15] Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. 然，當(dāng)時還在大學(xué)的時候不可能從這一點看到未來，。 [02:49.58] But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. 但十年后回首往事，一切都非常非常清晰。 [02:54.04] Again, you can not connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. 再次說明，你們不可能從現(xiàn)在的點看到未來，只有回首看時才能看清來龍去脈。 [02:59.48] So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. 因此，你要相信，這些點在你的未來終將連接起來。 [03:03.37] You have to trust in something? your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. 你們必須相信某種東西——你的膽識、命運、生命、業(yè)力，等等。 [03:08.44] This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. 這樣做從來沒有讓我失望，而且還徹底改變了我的生活。

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