你的人生就是你的选择

By+Jeff+Bezos

俗話说：少时喜欢聪明人，老来喜爱仁厚人。亚马逊首席执行官杰夫·贝佐斯忠告年轻人：聪明是天赋，而善良不仅是一种品质，更是一种选择，有时候它甚至比聪明更难。当谈到大家最关心的创业问题时，贝佐斯坦言：太容易的路往往不会带你到达任何地方。

These remarks are from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos commencement speech to Princetons Class of 2010， delivered on May 30， 2010.1

As a kid， I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas.2 I helped fix windmills， vaccinate cattle， and do other chores.3 We also watched soap operas every afternoon， especially Days of Our Lives4. My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club， a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada.5 And every few summers， wed join the caravan. Wed hitch up6 the Airstream trailer to my grandfathers car， and off wed 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.

At that age， Id take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic7. Id calculate our gas mileage8—figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. Id been hearing an ad campaign about smoking.9 I cant remember the details， but basically the ad said， every puff10 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 Id come up with a reasonable number，I poked my head into11 the front of the car， tapped my grandmother on the shoulder， and proudly proclaimed， “At two minutes per puff， youve taken nine years off your life！”

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， youre so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates， figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.”12 Thats 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 shoulder13 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 harsh14 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.15 We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me， and after a bit of silence， he gently and calmly said， “Jeff， one day youll understand that its harder to be kind than clever.”

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift， and kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy—theyre given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if youre not careful， and if you do， itll probably be to the detriment of your choices.16

This is a group with many gifts. Im sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. Im confident thats the case because admission is competitive and if there werent some signs that youre clever， the dean17 of admission wouldnt have let you in.

Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels.18 We humans—plodding19 as we are—will astonish ourselves. Well invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom， well assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs.20 This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that weve synthesized21 life. In the coming years， well not only synthesize it， but well engineer it to specifications.22 I believe youll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne， Mark Twain， Galileo， Newton23—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.

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

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. Id 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 couldnt exist in the physical world—was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old， and Id 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 wouldnt work since most startups24 dont， and I wasnt 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， Id been a garage inventor. Id invented an automatic gate closer out of cementfilled tires， a solar cooker that didnt work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil， baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings.25 Id always wanted to be an inventor， and she wanted me to follow my passion.

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 Park26， 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 didnt 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 shot27. I didnt think Id 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 Im proud of that choice.

Tomorrow， in a very real sense， your life—the life you author from scratch on your own—begins.28

How will you use your gifts？ What choices will you make？

Will inertia29 be your guide， or will you follow your passions？ Will you follow dogma30， 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？31

Will you bluff it out when youre wrong，32 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 swashbuckling33？

When its tough， will you give up， or will you be relentless34？—

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？

I will hazard35 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.36 In the end， we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck！

1. Jeff Bezos： 杰夫·贝佐斯（1964— ），美国互联网巨头，亚马逊公司创始人及现任CEO；commencement：（大学或高中的）毕业典礼；Princeton： 普林斯顿大学，世界著名私立研究型大学，是八所常春藤盟校之一。

2. ranch： 大牧场；Texas： 得克萨斯州，位于美国南部，是美国本土面积最大的一个州。

3. windmill： 风车；vaccinate： 给……接种疫苗；chore： 琐事。

4. Days of Our Lives：《我们的日子》（1965），是美国全国广播公司（NBC）电视台的一部日间肥皂剧，也是世界上少数仍在播出的长寿剧。

5. Caravan Club： 房車俱乐部，是欧洲最大的房车旅游俱乐部，成立于1907年；Airstream： 清风房车，其生产商是北美历史最悠久的房车制造商，产品以拖挂式房车为主；trailer： 拖车，挂车。

6. hitch up： 把……套上，挂上。

7. minor：（难度等）较小的；arithmetic： 算数。

8. gas mileage： 耗油一加仑行驶的英里里程。

9. ad campaign： 广告宣传。

10. puff： 抽（烟）。

11. poke into： 迅速将（身体部位）移进……。

12. tricky： 困难的，复杂的；division： 除法。

13. shoulder： 路肩，（公路两旁的）紧急停车道。

14. harsh： 严厉的，难听的。

15. realm： 领域，范围；gauge： 估计，判断。

16. 你一不小心就会被天赋所诱，这样就会妨害你作出选择。seduce： 引诱；detriment：损害，不利。

17. dean：（学院或大学的）院长，系主任。

18. come in handy： 迟早有用，派得上用场；marvel： 令人惊奇的人（或事物），奇迹。

19. plodding： 工作努力但缺乏创造力的。

20. assemble： 组装，装配；cell wall： 细胞壁。

21. synthesize： 合成。

22. 未来几年，我们不仅能够合成生命，还能根据说明对其进行设计。specifications： [常用复] 规格，说明书。

23. Jules Verne： 儒勒·凡尔纳（1828—1905），法国小说家、剧作家及诗人，代表作有《海底两万里》、《神秘岛》等，被称为“科幻小说之父”；Mark Twain： 马克·吐温（1835—1910），美国作家，代表作品有《百万英镑》、《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》等；Galileo： 伽利略（1564—1642），意大利物理学家、数学家、天文学家，是近代实验科学的奠基人之一；Newton： 牛顿（1643—1727），英国物理学家、数学家，提出了万有引力和三大运动定律。

24. startup： 新创办的小公司（或企业）。

25. 我曾用水泥填充的轮胎制造了自动关门器，用伞和锡箔制作了太阳能灶，虽然不太好用，还做过烤盘报警器，用来唬我的兄弟姐妹。cement： 水泥；solar cooker： 太阳能灶；tinfoil：锡箔，锡纸；entrap： 使陷入圈套，诱骗。

26. Central Park： 中央公园，是位于纽约曼哈顿中心的一座大型公园，于1857年建成，并于1962年被列为国家历史名胜。

27. give it a shot： 尝试一下。

28. author： 创始，发起；from scratch：从零开始，白手起家。

29. inertia： 惰性，长期维持现状的趋势。

30. dogma： 教条。

31. wilt： 萎靡不振；conviction： 坚定的信仰，信念。

32. bluff it out： 蒙混过关。

33. swashbuckling： 喜欢冒险的。

34. relentless： 有恒心的，有毅力的。

35. hazard： 大胆猜测，冒昧提出。

36. 当你活到80岁，一个人静静地追思自己的人生故事时，其中最精炼也最有意义的部分就是你一生做出的一系列选择。compact：紧凑的，精炼的。