苹果家族演讲会作文（精选5篇）
今天，苹果家族迎来了一年一度的演讲会。
这时，节目主持人青苹果小姐穿着一件绿衣服来到舞台上高兴地说：“各位小姐，各位先生，这是我们苹果家族的第30届演讲会。今天，我们特地请来了国光评委。”只见国光评委风度翩翩地来到评委席上，场下传来一阵又一阵的欢呼声。这时，青苹果小姐说：“演讲会开始，下面有请一号红富士先生上场。”
一号选手红富士先生在欢呼声中挺着啤酒肚来到场上。“大家好，我叫红富士，我来源于日本，1980年引入中国。我的果实很大，平均单果重220克，我有 一个兄弟有650克呢！我的`果形扁圆至近圆形。我的表面非常光滑，无锈，果粉多，蜡质层厚，果皮中厚而韧；底色黄绿，着色鲜艳。闻起来香气浓郁，可以让你爱不释手。吃起来口感好，味道甜美，让你吃了还想吃。谢谢大家，我的演讲完了。”这时，场下传来一阵掌声。
“Hello，大家好，我叫蛇果。人们还给我取了很多名字呢，有红星，红元帅，红香蕉，我来自美国，是世界主要栽培品种之一。我的果实非常大，我的果实是圆锥形，单果重250克以上，最大可达到500克左右呢。我的头顶成五棱状凸起，果桩高，果形美。初上色时出现明显的断续红条纹，随后出现红色霞充分着色后全果浓红，并有明显的紫红粗条纹，果面富有光泽，十分鲜艳。咬一口，我的汁水就会在你的嘴中流满，有浓郁芳香，品质上等哦。”
看到红富士先生和蛇果小姐都得到了大家的好评，加纳小姐站了上去，大声说：“大家好，我叫加纳果，原名叫姬娜，产于美国，是美国市场上最受欢迎的水果之一。别看我个头小，可我含有蛋白质、脂肪、碳酸化合物、维生素C、维生素B、维生素B2、胡萝卜素以及钙、磷、铁、柠檬酸、酒石酸、鞣酸等，有机酸以诚相待及果酸胶，纤维素等，可以促进大脑发育，增强记忆力。这是由于我不仅富有大脑所需的营养成分，而且含有益于儿童生长发育的纤维素和能增强儿童记忆力的锌，因此我被称为“记忆之果”，所以说，我在苹果家族里是老大。
这时，国光评委发话了：“加纳小姐，你太骄傲了，这世界上比你好的水果多得是，你看，红富士大哥和蛇果小姐多谦虚啊！下面我宣布，红富士大哥第一名，蛇果小姐第二名，加纳小姐第三名。”“凭什么我是第三名，抗议。”
这时，台下传来一阵阵议论声，有的说要把加纳小姐赶下场，有的说加纳小姐不配上场……
首先上场的是富士大哥，他头戴一顶红色的帽子，身穿一件黄色衣服。他雄赳赳，气昂昂地说：“大家好，我叫富士。我是大果型，较圆，皮有光泽，头发比较粗短，我水分多，味甜，清脆可口，吃了让人回味无穷。”
然后上场的是红星小姐，她戴着一顶五角星似的帽子，她温柔地说：“大家好，我是红星小姐，我的皮肤白里透红。我气味芬芳，吃起来，果肉甜，无论大人还是小孩都喜欢吃。”
接着上场的是金帅妹妹：“大家好，我是金帅妹妹，我的头发比较细，但我的脸上长满了小雀斑，不过我的味道却是没得说的――汁多肉甜、气味芬香哪个人不爱吃才怪！”
听了富士大哥、红星小姐、金帅妹妹的演讲，小国光弟弟有点按捺不住了，中学生优秀作文《中学想象作文:苹果家族》。他走上台说：“大家好，我叫小国光，我长得小巧玲珑，青色的扁圆脸，别看我个子小，但味道特别好，甜中带酸，清脆可口。”
演讲结束了，激动人心的时刻到了，主持人丽娜神秘地说：“现在我宣布这次苹果大赛的冠军……她就是……金帅妹妹。”金帅妹妹听了，高兴极了。
最后，国王走上台总结说：“我们苹果家族含有丰富的糖类、维生素和人类需要的矿物质，还含有微量元素锌。儿童缺锌，就会导致大脑发育不良，影响记忆。所以我们又被称为‘记忆之果’。”台下响起了热烈的掌声。
首先，我想先谈一下如何提升家族企业的优势。作为集团企业中的采购和销售代表，切身经验告诉我，家族企业的优势在于企业能聚力强过一般企业。简单的说，由于家族企业是以家族员工为主，员工间在血缘关系上存在联系，比起一般企业单靠合同和金钱联系员工强上很多，所以家族企业一直在日常销售和采购环节上胜过一般企业，集团的凝聚力也强，大家都是一心扑在企业上，越是为了企业好，就是越是为了自家人好，大家相互帮衬，集团的业务也就越做越好。所以要想让咱们的生意以后步步高升，就必须更加重视集团内部的企业能聚力。
其次，家族企业依靠亲戚和血缘关系维系的企业凝聚力，我们既要看到优势也要提防风险。由于集团是家族企业形式，所以必须清楚的认识到这是一把双刃剑，为了能够家族发挥优势，家族员工就必须各谋其政，做好自己的本职工作，不能越权，也不能不管。大家都是家族企业的一部分，双赢才是成功的关键，抛开猜忌和干涉，更多的精诚合作和相互支持，绝对可以让集团的事业更上一层楼。李嘉诚的长江集团便是如此，就是靠着父子齐心，叔伯通力合作，朋友鼎力支持，才有了今天如此的规模。以此为借鉴，再联系平时的工作经验，我认为杜绝家族企业的弊端，必须从各谋其政开始。
最后，在考虑了创业容易，守业难的问题之后，我觉得之所以出现富不过三代的现象是因为一些家族企业没有注意到一些家族企业自身极易出现的不良现象。如财务状况不明朗，家族企业因为是家族生意，在财务出纳和收支状况上，或多或少有着财务状况不清晰的现象。还有权限分工模糊问题，家族企业在决策层和执行层中，因为一些原因出现的越权处理和职权分工不明确的问题，都会导致家族企业决策导向错误和执行力度不足。除此之外，有一个不良现象不能忽略，就是奖励处罚制度实行情况较差，很多的家族企业因为员工与员工之间，员工与老板之间，有着家族联系，往往会出现处罚力度过轻和奖励程度过高的情况，这种现象会在很大程度上打击其他企业员工的工作积极性，从长久来看对于集团商业活动有着严重的影响。
只要清楚认识和处理好以上三个问题，我相信集团的事业会更上层楼，越来越好。
以上便是我在这次座谈会上发言的主要内容，感谢大家一直以来对我工作的支持和耐心听取我的发言。
麻省理工的同学们，你们好。
Thank you. Congratulations class of ’17. I especially want to thank Chairman Millard, President Reif, distinguished faculty, trustees, and the members of the class of 1967. It is a privilege to be here today with your families and your friends on such on amazing and important day.
感谢大家。祝贺20xx届毕业生。我要特别感谢麻省理工学院董事长罗伯特•米兰德(Robert Millard)、校长拉尔夫•赖夫(L. Rafael Reif)、杰出的全体教员、学院董事以及1967届校友们。今天，在这个极不平凡和重要的日子里，能够和你们的家人和好友共同在这里庆祝，我感到十分荣幸。
MIT and Apple share so much. We both love hard problems. We love the search for new ideas, and we especially love finding those ideas, the really big ones, the ones that can change the world. I know MIT has a proud tradition of pranks or as you would call them, hacks. And you have pulled off some pretty great ones over the years. I’ll never figure out how MIT students sent that Mars rover to the Kresge Oval, or put a propeller beanie on the great dome, or how you’ve obviously taken over the president’s Twitter account. I can tell college students are behind because most of the Tweets happen at 3:00 a.m.
麻省理工学院和苹果有许多共同点。我们都喜欢攻克难题，追求新想法，尤其是喜欢找到能够改变世界的伟大创意。我知道，麻省理工拥有恶作剧的自豪传统，也就是你们所称的“黑”(hacks)。在麻省理工学院就读的这几年，你们肯定完成了不少非常棒的恶作剧。我永远想不明白你们是如何把火星漫游车送到演讲厅的，也不知道你们如何在图书馆的圆顶上带上螺旋桨帽子的。显然，你们也接管了总统的Twitter账号，因为在凌晨3点发布那么多推文只有你们才干得出来。
I’m really happy to be here. Today is about celebration. And you have so much to be proud of. As you leave here to start the next leg of your journey in life, there will be days where you ask yourself, ‘Where is this all going?’ ‘What is the purpose?’ ‘What is my purpose?’ I will be honest, I asked myself that same question and it took nearly 15 years to answer it. Maybe by talking about my journey today, I can save you some time.
今天在这里出席你们的毕业典礼，我由衷地感到高兴。今天是一个值得庆祝的日子，你们有许多值得骄傲的成就。当你离开这里，开启人生下一个篇章时，你会扪心自问，“下一步发展方向是什么?”、“目标是什么”、“自己的目标又是什么”。老实说，我问过自己相同的问题，花了近时间才找到答案。今天，通过分享我的人生旅程，我或许能够帮助你们节省一些寻找答案的时间。
The struggle for me started early on. In high school, I thought I discovered my life’s purpose when I could answer that age-old question, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Nope. In college I thought I’d discover it when I could answer, ‘What’s your major?’ Not quite. I thought that maybe I’d discovered it when I found a good job. Then I thought I just needed to get a few promotions. That didn’t work either.
我的困惑很早就已经出现。上高中时，当我以为能够回答那个老生常谈的问题——你长大了想做什么时，我就找到了自己的人生目标。但其实不然。上大学时，我曾以为自己知道想学什么专业就找到了目标。也不完全如此。在我找到一份好工作，认为自己只需要几次晋升后，我又有了这样的想法，但都不对。
I kept convincing myself that it was just over the horizon, around the next corner. Nothing worked. And it was really tearing me apart. Part of me kept pushing ahead to the next achievement. And the other part kept asking, ‘Is this all there is?’
我不断的告诉自己，在未来的某一天或某个地方，我一定能够找到人生目标的终极答案。但不幸的是这始终没有发生，这让我十分伤心。我一边不断的工作争取下一个成就一边拷问自己：“难道生命的意义就在于此吗?”
I went to grad school at Duke looking for the answer. I tried meditation. I sought guidance in religion. I read great philosophers and authors. And in a moment of youthful indiscretion, I might even have experimented with a Windows PC, and obviously that didn’t work.
于是，我到杜克大学深造、我尝试冥想、我在宗教和灵修方面尝试，我阅读许多伟大哲学家和作家的经典。在年少无知的岁月里，我甚至尝试使用Windows PC，显然它没有给我我想要的答案。
After countless twists and turns, at last, 20 years ago, my search brought me to Apple. At the time, the company was struggling to survive. Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple, and had launched the ‘Think Different’ campaign. He wanted to empower the crazy ones—the misfits, the rebels and the troublemakers, the round pegs, and the square holes—to do the best work. If we could just do that, Steve knew we could really change the world.
经过无数的曲折，时间来到了前，苹果公司当时成为了我的“下一个尝试”。当时，苹果公司正在勉强生存。史蒂夫·乔布斯刚刚回到了苹果，并提出了知名的“Think Diffrent”口号。他想要让疯狂的人，非主流的人，反叛分子，麻烦制造者来到这家公司工作。乔布斯知道，如果苹果能够做到这一点，那么他们就可以改变世界。
Before that moment, I had never met a leader with such passion or encountered a company with such a clear and compelling purpose: to serve humanity. It was just that simple. Serve humanity. And it was in that moment, after 15 years of searching, something clicked. I finally felt aligned; aligned with a company that brought together challenging, cutting-edge work with a higher purpose; aligned with a leader who believed that technology which didn’t exist yet could reinvent tomorrow’s world; aligned with myself and my own deep need to serve something greater.
在此之前，我从未遇到过有着如此热情的领导，也没见过有如此笃定决心的公司：服务全人类。多么简单的一个目标。服务全人类。在15年寻求真理之后，我最终找到了这样一个答案，就在那一刻，我觉得自己受到了启发。我的理想和公司的目标达成一致——使用技术达成更崇高的目标。我的理想和乔布斯也是一致的，我们今天所做的努力能够改变人们明天的生活，改变人们的未来。
Of course, at that moment I don’t know all of that. I was just grateful to have psychological burden lifted. But with the help of hindsight, my breakthrough makes a lot more sense. I was never going to find my purpose working some place without a clear sense of purpose of its own. Steve and Apple freed me to throw my whole self into my work, to embrace their mission and make it my own. How can I serve humanity? This is life’s biggest and most important question. When you work towards something greater than yourself, you find meaning, you find purpose. So the question I hope you will carry forward from here is how will you serve humanity?
当时，我自己其实已苦苦追求这个目标许久，但当时的我并不知道自己正在寻找答案。突然间，我感到心中的负担完全消失了。后见之明告诉我，这一切是顺理成章的。我明白如果在一个目标不明确的公司工作，我绝对不会找到自己的理想，所以在那个时候是乔布斯给我了机会，让我全身心投入工作。所以我问自己：“我将如何为人类服务?”从那时起，这才是对我来说最重要的问题。
The good news is since you are here today you are on a great track. At MIT you have learned how much power that science and technology have to change the world for the better. Thanks to discoveries made right here, billions of people are leading healthier, more productive and more fulfilling lives. And if we’re ever going to solve some of the hardest problems facing the world today, everything from cancer to climate change to educational inequality, then technology will help us to do it.But technology alone isn’t the solution. And sometimes it’s even part of the problem.
好消息是，在MIT你们已经走上了正确的道路。你们知道科学和技术可以让世界变得更好，让成千上万人们的生活变得更加健康、丰富和充实。如果我们要解决一些世界上最棘手的问题——从癌症到气候变化到教育不平等——仅靠技术本身并不是终极之道，甚至有时候技术也会是问题的一部分。
Last year I had the chance to meet with Pope Francis. It was the most incredible meeting of my life. This is a man who has spent more time comforting the inflicted in slums than with heads of state. This may surprise you, but he knew an unbelievable amount about technology. It was obvious to me that he had thought deeply about it. Its opportunity. Its risks. Its morality. What he said to me at that meeting, what he preached, really, was on a topic that we care a lot about at Apple. But he expressed a shared concern in a powerful new way: Never has humanity had such power over itself, yet nothing ensures it will be used wisely,he has said.
比如说就在去年，我有机会和教皇方济各见面，这是我生命当中最特别的会面。他在贫民窟中安抚贫民的时间超过了和国家元首见面的时间。他对科技的了解也让人觉得难以置信，他肯定是深入思考过科技的。在他看来，这些都是机会，同时也意味着风险，还关乎人们的道德。在跟教皇的这次见面当中，我们讨论了在苹果一个非常重要的话题：那就是人类如何面对自身从未拥有过的如此多的权力?方济各怀疑，这些权力究竟能不能以正确的方式为人所用?
Technology today is integral to almost all aspects of our lives and most of the time it’s a force for good. And yet the potential adverse consequences are spreading faster and cutting deeper. The threats to security, threats to privacy, fake news, and social media that becomes antisocial. Sometimes the very technology that is meant to connect us divides us. Technology is capable of doing great things. But it doesn’t want to do great things. It doesn’t want anything. That part takes all of us. It takes our values and our commitment to our families and our neighbors and our communities, our love of beauty and belief that all of our faiths are interconnected, our decency, our kindness.
今天，科技已经占据了生活的方方面面，在很多情况下，都是积极的影响。但我们也可以看到有潜在的可能，也就是科技反噬我们，可能会咬的猝不及防。比如对我们安全、隐私的威胁，比如说虚假新闻、社交媒体现在都对社会产生了负面影响。有些时候这些本来应该连接人类的技术，开始把人类分割开来。科技有能力做伟大的事情，但它并不想做伟大的事情，它并不想要任何东西。科技的这个特点会带走我们所拥有的一切：他会带走我们的价值观，我们对家庭、邻里和社区的承诺、我们对美的热爱、我们的信念、我们的正直和善良。
I’m not worried about artificial intelligence giving computers the ability to think like humans. I’m more concerned about people thinking like computers without values or compassion, without concern for consequences. That is what we need you to help us guard against. Because if science is a search in the darkness, then the humanities are a candle that shows us where we’ve been and the danger that lies ahead.
我所担心的并不是人工智能能够像人一样思考，我更担心的是人们像计算机一样思考，没有价值观，没有同情心，没有对结果的敬畏之心。我所担心的并不是人工智能能够像人一样思考，我更担心的是人们像计算机一样思考，没有价值观，没有同情心，没有对结果的敬畏之心。如果科学是黑暗中的探索，那么人性则是引领我们前行、让我们看清危险的烛火。
As Steve once said, technology alone is not enough. It is technology married with the liberal arts married with the humanities that make our hearts sing.When you keep people at the center of what you do, it can have an enormous impact. It means an iPhone that allows the blind person to run a marathon. It means an Apple Watch that catches a heart condition before it becomes a heart attack. It means an iPad that helps a child with autism connect with his or her world. In short, it means technology infused with your values, making progress possible for everyone.
乔布斯说过，“科技本身是不够的，一定要让科技和文化和人文结合起来才可以让人理智。”当人仍然是处在核心位置的时候，你可以带来巨大的影响力，比如说今天使用iPhone手机，一个盲人可以跑马拉松;你使用苹果手表可以及时预防心脏病;使用iPad，可以帮助自闭症儿童认识世界，敞开心扉。所以你们需要将价值观跟科技融合起来，要让这种权力真正地惠及所有人。
Whatever you do in your life, and whatever we do at Apple, we must infuse it with the humanity that each of us is born with. That responsibility is immense, but so is the opportunity. I’m optimistic because I believe in your generation, your passion, your journey to serve humanity. We are all counting on you.
你在一生当中所做的事情，以及我们在苹果公司所做的事情，就是在尝试把我们的科技同人文融合起来。这样责任重大，同时也是机会所在。我相信你们这一代人，以你们的热情和你们愿意服务人类的决心，我有理由相信你们，依赖你们。
There is so much out there conspiring to make you cynical. The internet has enabled so much and empowered so many, but it can also be a place where basic rules of decency are suspended and pettiness and negativity thrive. Don’t let that noise knock you off course. Don’t get caught up in the trivial aspects of life. Don’t listen to trolls and for God’s sake don’t become one. Measure your impact in humanity not in the likes, but the lives you touch; not in popularity, but in the people you serve. I found that my life got bigger when I stopped carrying about what other people thought about me. You will find yours will too. Stay focused on what really matters.
尽管有很多愤世嫉俗的言论和阴谋论存在——互联网赋予了我们很多，但是也会有很多基本的原则被人们置之脑后，斤斤计较和负能量爆棚。但不要让这样的声音使你们误入歧途，不要陷入生活的琐碎，不要听信网络喷子，更不要变成喷子。不要通过点赞来衡量生活，而要看你真正触及到了多少人的生命。不要看自己是否受欢迎，而是看自己服务了多少人。在我开始在乎别人怎么看我之后，我生活的目标也变大了，你们也会如此。但是请你们不要分心，要关注真正重要的事情。
There will be times when your resolve to serve humanity will be tested. Be prepared. People will try to convince you that you should keep your empathy out of your career. Don’t accept this false premise.
有些时候你有决心想要去服务人类，但是这种决心将会受到考验，请做好准备。人们会劝说你“你应该在职业生涯当中抛弃同情心和同理心”，但是不要相信这些谎言。
At a shareholders meeting a few years back, someone questioned Apple’s investment and focus on the environment. He asked me to pledge that Apple would only invest in green initiatives that could be justified with a return on investment. I tried to be diplomatic. I pointed out that Apple does many things, like accessibility features for those with disabilities that don’t rely on an ROI. We do the things because they are the right thing to do, and protecting the environment is a critical example. He wouldn’t let it go and I got my blood up. So I told him, “If you can’t accept our position, you shouldn’t own Apple stock.”
曾经有人一直都在质疑苹果的投资，有人要求我承诺苹果只会不断去投资那些可以带来回报的业务。我尝试跟他们打太极，有很多事情其实跟投资回报率没有关系，但是我们依然做了。像iPhone提供给残障人士的辅助功能。我做这些是因为我们认为这是正确的事情，保护环境本身就是一个非常重要的例子。我当时在董事会当中有人不同意我们这样去做，于是我跟他摊牌，我告诉他如果你不同意苹果做这些正确的事情，那你就不适合做苹果的股东。
When you are convinced that your cause is right, have the courage to take a stand. If you see a problem or an injustice, recognize that no one will fix it but you. As you go forward today, use your minds and hands and your hearts to build something bigger than yourselves. Always remember there is no idea bigger than this.
当你笃定你的事业是争取的时候，你必须要敢于承担责任，必须要有立场。有些情况下，只有你才能做正确的事情，不能指望别人。大家要遵从自己的内心，用自己的双手，来为更重要的事情努力，没有什么比这更重要的。
As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “All life is interrelated. We are all bound together into a single garment of destiny.” If you keep that idea at the forefront of all that you do, if you choose to live your lives at that intersection between technology and the people it serves, if you strive to create the best, give the best, do the best for everyone, not just for some, then today all of humanity has good cause for hope.
正像马丁·路德金博士说过的，“所有的事情是内在互联的，我们被命运捆绑在一起”。我们所有人都朝着一个方向去努力，如果你们选择要科技和它所服务的人的交叉点，如果你愿意为生活当中遇到的每个人尽你所能，那么今天，我们所有人类都有理由来相信它们。
Thank you very much and congratulations class of 20xx!
苹果CEO乔布斯在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲稿
英文版：
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.I never graduated from college.Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.That’s it.No big deal.Just three stories.The first story is about connecting the dots.I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.So why did I drop out? It started before I was born.My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption.She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy;do you want him?“ They said: “Of course.“ My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.She refused to sign the final adoption papers.She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.And 17 years later I did go to college.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.After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it.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.And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.It wasn’t all romantic.I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5￠ 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.I loved it.And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example:Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.And we designed it all into the Mac.It was the first computer with beautiful typography.If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them.If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward;you can only connect them looking backwards.So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.You have to trust in somethingI found what I loved to do early in life.Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.We had just released our finest creationa year earlier, and I had just turned 30.And then I got fired.How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well.But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.So at 30 I was out.And very publicly out.What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.I really didn’t know what to do for a few months.I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs downI still loved what I did.The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.I had been rejected, but I was still in love.And so I decided to start over.I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple.It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.Don’t lose faith.I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.You’ve got to find what you love.And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.Don’t settle.As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.So keep looking until you find it.Don’t settle.My third story is about death.When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.“ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?“ And whenever the answer has been “No“ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.Because almost everythingthese things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.You are already naked.There is no reason not to follow your heart.About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didn’t even know what a pancreas was.The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die.It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.It means to say your goodbyes.I lived with that diagnosis all day.Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.I had the surgery and I’m fine now.This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades.Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die.Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.And yet death is the destination we all share.No one has ever escaped it.And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.It is Life’s change agent.It clears out the old to make way for the new.Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.Don’t be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras.It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish”.It was their farewell message as they signed off.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.And I have always wished that for myself.And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish.Thank you all very much.
