第一篇:哈佛大學女校長畢業典禮演講全文
哈佛大學女校長畢業典禮演講全文
Universities nurture the hopes of the world: in solving challenges that cross borders;in unlocking and harnessing new knowledge;in building cultural and political understanding;and in modeling environments that promote dialogue and debate...The ideal and breadth of liberal education that embraces the humanities and arts as well as the social and natural sciences is at the core of
Harvard’s philosophy.2011年5月哈佛大學迎來了第360屆畢業典禮。哈佛大學女校長福斯特(Drew Gilpin Faust,1947年9月18日-,美國歷史學家)在畢業典禮上發表了演講。福斯特是哈佛大學歷史上第一位女校長,也是自1672年以來第一位沒有哈佛學習經歷的哈佛校長。福斯特1947年出生于紐約,1964年畢業于馬薩諸塞州的私立寄宿中學 Concord Academy,后就讀于位于賓州費城郊外的一所女子文理學院 Bryn Mawr College;文理學院畢業后福斯特進入賓夕法利亞大學攻讀歷史學碩士,攻讀歷史碩士學位,1975年獲得了賓大美洲文明專業的博士學位,同年起留校擔任美洲文明專業的助教授。后由于出色的研究成果和教學,她獲任歷史學系教授。福斯特是一位研究美國南方戰前歷史和美國內戰歷史的專家,在美國內戰時期反映南方陣營思想的意識形態和南方女性生活方面都卓有成就,并出版了5本相關書籍,其中最著名的一本《創造之母:美國內戰南方蓄奴州婦女》在1997年獲得美國歷史學會美國題材年度非小說類最佳著
作獎。
2001年,福斯特進入哈佛大學,并擔任拉德克里夫高等研究院(Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)的首任正式院長,該學院的前身是拉德克利夫學院。2007年就任哈佛大學校長。
2011年福斯特就任哈佛大學校長屆滿四年,四年也是本科生完成學業的時間跨度,所以Class of 2011對于福斯特來說,有著不一樣的意義。在這篇演講中談到了她這四年的心路歷程,同時對美國教育的未來發展提出了自己的觀點,其中多次提到中國的教育發展。Commencement Address
Tercentenary Theatre, Cambridge, MA May 26, 2011
Distinguished guests.Harvard faculty, alumni, students, staff, friends.As we celebrate the Class of 2011 and welcome them to our alumni ranks, I feel a special sense of connection to those who just received their “first degrees,” to use the words with which I officially greeted them this morning.I began as president when they arrived as freshmen, and we have shared the past four years here together.Four world-changing years.From the global financial crisis, to a historic presidential election, to the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring — not to mention earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes.The choices and circumstances these new alumni face are likely to be quite different from the ones they expected when they moved into Harvard Yard in September 2007.And I hope and trust that they too are transformed — shaped by all they have learned and experienced as Harvard College undergraduates.Their departure marks a milestone for me as well.One that prompts me, as Harvard enters its 375th year, to reflect on what these four years have meant for universities, and what universities must do in this time of worldwide challenges when knowledge is becoming ever more vital to our economies, our societies and to us all.Education has never mattered more to individual lives.In the midst of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for college graduates in the United States was less than half that for those with just a high school diploma.Those with bachelor degrees earn half again as much as high school graduates.Doctoral or professional degrees nearly double, on average, earnings again.And education of course brings far more than economic benefits.We believe that the graduates of institutions like Harvard are instilled with analytic and creative habits of mind, with a capacity for judgment and discernment that can guide them through a lifetime that promises an abundance of change.But education is not just about individuals.Education has never mattered more to human progress and the common good.Much of what we have undertaken at Harvard in these past four years reflects our fundamental sense of that responsibility: to educate individuals who will understand the difference between information and wisdom, who will pose the questions, and create the knowledge that can address the world’s problems, who can situate today’s realities in the context of the past even as we prepare for the future.Yet universities have been deeply affected, as events have reshaped the educational landscape in the United States and abroad.The cost of higher education has become the source of even greater anxiety for American families.At a time when college matters more than ever, it seems increasingly less affordable.Access to higher education is a national priority, and at Harvard we have significantly enhanced our financial aid policies to make sure that Harvard is attainable for talented students regardless of their financial circumstances.This is fundamental to sustaining Harvard’s excellence.More than 60% of undergraduates received financial aid from Harvard this year;their families paid an average of $11,500 for tuition and room and board.The composition of our student body has changed as a result, and we have reached out to students who previously would not have imagined they could attend.This past year, for example, nearly 20% of the freshman class came from families with incomes below $60,000.We want to attract and invest in the most talented students, those likely to take fullest advantage of their experience at Harvard College.Our graduate and professional schools recognize a similar imperative and seek to ensure that graduates are able to choose careers based on their aspirations rather than on the need to repay educational debt.The Kennedy School, for example, has made increasing financial aid its highest priority;Harvard Medical School’s enhanced financial aid policies now assist over 70% of its student body.Like American families, institutions of higher education face intensified financial challenges as well.At our distinguished public universities, pressures on state funding threaten fundamental purposes.The governor of Pennsylvania, for example, proposes cutting state appropriations for higher education by half.Leaders of the University of California system warned last week of a possible tuition increase of 32% in response to reduced state support.Some in Congress are threatening to reduce aid for needy students, and to constrain the federal funding that fuels scientific research at Harvard and at America’s other distinguished universities.By contrast, support for higher education and research is exploding in other parts of the globe.In China, for example, undergraduate student numbers have more than quadrupled in little over a decade;India has more than doubled its college attendance rate and plans to do so again by 2020.Higher education, these nations recognize, is a critical part of building their futures.As battles rage in Washington over national priorities and deficit reduction, we need to make that case for America as well.Universities are an essential part of the solution—providing economic opportunity and mobility, producing discoveries that build prosperity, create jobs and improve human lives.And American higher education—in its dedication to knowledge in breadth and depth, beyond instrumental or narrow technical focus — has proved a generator of imagination, wisdom and creativity, the capacities that serve as foundations for building our common future.When I met last year with university presidents in China, they wanted to talk not about science or technology, where we all know they have such strength, but instead about the liberal arts and how to introduce them in their country.They believed those principles of broad learning had yielded the most highly regarded educational system in the world.This year, Tsinghua University in Beijing introduced a new required course called “Moral Reasoning and Critical Thinking.” It is modeled on Professor Michael Sandel’s famous Harvard undergraduate class, “Justice,” and he lectured in that course last week.This is a time for us to convince Americans of what these Chinese educational leaders affirmed to me: that we in the United States have developed a model of higher education that is unsurpassed in its achievements and distinction, in the knowledge it has created and in the students it has produced.It must be both supported and adapted to help secure the future in which our children and their children will live.That future encompasses a second powerful force shaping higher education.When Thomas Friedman famously proclaimed that the world was “flat” in 2005, he drew attention to the ways in which ideas and economies no longer respect boundaries;knowledge, he emphasized, is global.Yet societies, cultures and beliefs vary in ways that affect us ever more deeply.If the world is flat, it is far from homogeneous.Universities must embrace the breadth of ideas and opportunities unfolding across the world, and at the same time advance understanding of the differences among distinctive cultures, histories and languages.I am repeatedly struck when I meet with undergraduates at the intensity of their interest in language courses, which at Harvard now include nearly 80 languages.These undergraduates understand the kind of world they will live in, and they want to be prepared.One member of the class of 2011, who will be a Marshall scholar next year, told me about how she took up the study of Chinese at Harvard and when she traveled abroad recognized how speaking the language transformed her relationship to those she met.“When you learn a language,” she said, “you get goggles.My Chinese goggles.You have different kinds of conversations with people in their own language … we’re going to grow up in the world together in countries with such intertwined futures.We are,” she concluded, “an international generation.”
In these past four years, Harvard has reached into the world, and the world has reached into Harvard as never before.I have traveled as Harvard president on five continents.I have met with thousands of the more than 50,000 Harvard alumni who live outside the United States, and I have visited Harvard initiatives that address issues from AIDS in Botswana to preschool education in Chile to Renaissance studies in Italy to disaster response in China.Our new Harvard Center Shanghai joins 15 offices supporting Harvard faculty and student research and engagement abroad.We have over the past several years launched the university-wide China Fund, the South Asia Initiative, and an enhanced African Studies effort that recently received a coveted Title VI recognition as a National Resource Center.Undergraduate experiences abroad have more than doubled since 2003.Design School field studios reach from the favelas of Sao Paolo to the townships of Mumbai, and Harvard’s clinical and research opportunities in medicine and public health range from tuberculosis in Siberia to adolescent health in Fiji.Here in Cambridge, teaching incorporates an enhanced global perspective, from newly required international legal studies at the Law School to an international immersion experience beginning next year for all MBA students at the Business School, where 40% of case studies now have a significant international component.And we benefit from an increasingly international faculty and student body — 20% of our degree students overall.But it is not just knowledge that knows no boundaries.The world’s most critical challenges are most often borderless as well, and it is these pressing problems that attract the interest and talents of so many in our community.Universities are critical resources in addressing issues from economic growth to global health, to sustainable cities, to privacy and security, to therapeutics.To borrow a phrase from the Business School mission statement, Harvard faculty and students want to “make a difference in the world” by creating and disseminating critical knowledge.And we increasingly understand how to bring the elements of knowledge-creation together by crossing intellectual and disciplinary boundaries just as we cross international ones.I speak often of “one university,” for it is clear that we work most effectively when we unite Harvard’s unparalleled strengths across its schools and fields — and do so at every stage of the educational process, from College freshmen through our most accomplished senior faculty members.The new Harvard Global Health Institute is a case in point, engaging more than 250 faculty from across the university in addressing issues that range from post-earthquake response in Haiti and Chile to reducing cardiovascular disease in the developing world.We have established an undergraduate secondary field in Global Health, and over 1,000 College students are involved in courses, internships and related activities.Similarly, the Harvard Center for the Environment draws on graduate and undergraduate students and more than a hundred faculty, in law, engineering, history, earth sciences, medicine, health policy and business — to look comprehensively at problems like carbon capture and sequestration, or the implications of the Gulf oil spill for structures of environmental regulation.This brings us finally to innovation, a third powerful force in higher education — and in the wider world in which higher education plays such an important part.Students and faculty working together in new ways and across disciplines, are developing wondrous things — from inhalable chocolate to inhalable tuberculosis vaccine.Our undergraduates have invented a soccer ball that can generate enough power to light villages;Business School students are launching more and more start-ups;Medical School experiments have reversed the signs of aging — in mice at least.The Dean of our School of Education has been named one of the region’s foremost innovators for inventing a new degree, a doctorate in educational leadership — the Ed.L.D.— whose graduates, trained by faculty from the Business, Kennedy and Education schools, will be ready to lead change in America’s schools.New ideas and new ways of enabling those ideas to reach a wider world.That is the essence of what we are about.And we as an institution have some new ideas about how we do our own work as well.We have innovated after 350 years with governance, expanding and enhancing the Corporation.We are innovating(after almost as long)with the organization of our libraries — at the heart of how we learn and teach.We are in the second successful year of a new undergraduate curriculum.We created a new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.We are exploring new ways of teaching, with new technologies and new partners.We are integrating the arts into our teaching across fields, recognizing that the act of “making” — whether in the arts or, perhaps, engineering — is an essential part of creative learning.In the fall we will open a new Innovation Lab, to foster team-based invention that connects students across disciplines and with local entrepreneurs.Perhaps every generation believes that it lives in special times and perhaps every cohort of graduates is told just that at ceremonies like these.But both the depth of the challenges we face and the power of knowledge — and thus of universities--to address them is unprecedented.Harvard must embrace this responsibility, for it is accountable to you, its alumni, and to the wider world.Universities are among humanity’s greatest innovations and among humanity’s greatest innovators.Through universities we find a better future, where our graduates and their children and the greater global community may lead lives of peace, prosperity and purpose in the centuries to come.Thank you very much.-Drew Gilpin Faust
第二篇:哈佛大學女校長畢業典禮演講全文2011
哈佛大學女校長畢業典禮演講全文(組圖)作者:涂攀
2011年5月哈佛大學迎來了第360屆畢業典禮。哈佛大學女校長福斯特(Drew Gilpin Faust,1947
年9月18日-,美國歷史學家)在畢業典禮上發表了演講。福斯特是哈佛大學歷史上第一位女校長,也是自1672年以來第一位沒有哈佛學習經歷的哈佛校長。福斯特1947年出生于紐約,1964年畢業于馬薩諸塞州的私立寄宿中學 Concord Academy,后就讀于位于賓州費城郊外的一所女子文理學院 Bryn Mawr College;文理學院畢業后福斯特進入賓夕法利亞大學攻讀歷史學碩士,攻讀歷史碩士學位,1975年獲得了賓大美洲文明專業的博士學位,同年起留校擔任美洲文明專業的助教授。后由于出色的研究成果和教學,她獲任歷史學系教授。福斯特是一位研究美國南方戰前歷史和美國內戰歷史的專家,在美國內戰時期反映南方陣營思想的意識形態和南方女性生活方面都卓有成就,并出版了5本相關書籍,其中最著名的一本《創造之母:美國內戰南方蓄奴州婦女》在1997年獲得美國歷史學會美國題材非小說類最佳著作獎。
2001年,福斯特進入哈佛大學,并擔任拉德克里夫高等研究院(Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)的首任正式院長,該學院的前身是拉德克利夫學院。2007年就任哈佛大學校長。
2011年福斯特就任哈佛大學校長屆滿四年,四年也是本科生完成學業的時間跨度,所以Class of 2011對于福斯特來說,有著不一樣的意義。在這篇演講中談到了她這四年的心路歷程,同時對美國教育的未來發展提出了自己的觀點,其中多次提到中國的教育發展。
Commencement Address Tercentenary Theatre, Cambridge, MA May 26, 2011
Distinguished guests.Harvard faculty, alumni, students, staff, friends.As we celebrate the Class of 2011 and welcome them to our alumni ranks, I feel a special sense of connection to those who just received their “first degrees,” to use the words with which I officially greeted them this morning.I began as president when they arrived as freshmen, and we have shared the past four years here together.Four world-changing years.From the global financial crisis, to a historic presidential election, to the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring — not to mention earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes.The choices and circumstances these new alumni face are likely to be quite different from the ones they expected when they moved into Harvard Yard in September 2007.And I hope and trust that they too are transformed — shaped by all they have learned and experienced as Harvard College undergraduates.Their departure marks a milestone for me as well.One that prompts me, as Harvard enters its 375th year, to reflect on what these four years have meant for universities, and what universities must do in this time of worldwide challenges when knowledge is becoming ever more vital to our economies, our societies and to us all.Education has never mattered more to individual lives.In the midst of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for college graduates in the United States was less than half that for those with just a high school diploma.Those with bachelor degrees earn half again as much as high school graduates.Doctoral or professional degrees nearly double, on average, earnings again.And education of course brings far more than economic benefits.We believe that the graduates of institutions like Harvard are instilled with analytic and creative habits of mind, with a capacity for judgment and discernment that can guide them through a lifetime that promises an abundance of change.But education is not just about individuals.Education has never mattered more to human progress and the common good.Much of what we have undertaken at Harvard in these past four years reflects our fundamental sense of that responsibility: to educate individuals who will understand the difference between information and wisdom, who will pose the questions, and create the knowledge that can address the world’s problems, who can situate today’s realities in the context of the past even as we prepare for the future.Yet universities have been deeply affected, as events have reshaped the educational landscape in the United States and abroad.The cost of higher education has become the source of even greater anxiety for American families.At a time when college matters more than ever, it seems increasingly less affordable.Access to higher education is a national priority, and at Harvard we have significantly enhanced our financial aid policies to make sure that Harvard is attainable for talented students regardless of their financial circumstances.This is fundamental to sustaining Harvard’s excellence.More than 60% of undergraduates received financial aid from Harvard this year;their families paid an average of $11,500 for tuition and room and board.The composition of our student body has changed as a result, and we have reached out to students who previously would not have imagined they could attend.This past year, for example, nearly 20% of the freshman class came from families with incomes below $60,000.We want to attract and invest in the most talented students, those likely to take fullest advantage of their experience at Harvard College.(一名頭頂阿拉伯-英語詞典的阿拉伯學生)
Our graduate and professional schools recognize a similar imperative and seek to ensure that graduates are able to choose careers based on their aspirations rather than on the need to repay educational debt.The Kennedy School, for example, has made increasing financial aid its highest priority;Harvard Medical School’s enhanced financial aid policies now assist over 70% of its student body.Like American families, institutions of higher education face intensified financial challenges as well.At our distinguished public universities, pressures on state funding threaten fundamental purposes.The governor of Pennsylvania, for example, proposes cutting state appropriations for higher education by half.Leaders of the University of California system warned last week of a possible tuition increase of 32% in response to reduced state support.Some in Congress are threatening to reduce aid for needy students, and to constrain the federal funding that fuels scientific research at Harvard and at America’s other distinguished universities.By contrast, support for higher education and research is exploding in other parts of the globe.In China, for example, undergraduate student numbers have more than quadrupled in little over a decade;India has more than doubled its college attendance rate and plans to do so again by 2020.Higher education, these nations recognize, is a critical part of building their futures.As battles rage in Washington over national priorities and deficit reduction, we need to make that case for America as well.Universities are an essential part of the solution—providing economic opportunity and mobility, producing discoveries that build prosperity, create jobs and improve human lives.And American higher education—in its dedication to knowledge in breadth and depth, beyond instrumental or narrow technical focus — has proved a generator of imagination, wisdom and creativity, the capacities that serve as foundations for building our common future.When I met last year with university presidents in China, they wanted to talk not about science or technology, where we all know they have such strength, but instead about the liberal arts and how to introduce them in their country.They believed those principles of broad learning had yielded the most highly regarded educational system in the world.This year, Tsinghua University in Beijing introduced a new required course called “Moral Reasoning and Critical Thinking.” It is modeled on Professor Michael Sandel’s famous Harvard undergraduate class, “Justice,” and he lectured in that course last week.This is a time for us to convince Americans of what these Chinese educational leaders affirmed to me: that we in the United States have developed a model of higher education that is unsurpassed in its achievements and distinction, in the knowledge it has created and in the students it has produced.It must be both supported and adapted to help secure the future in which our children and their children will live.(這位老先生George Barner 是哈佛在世的最老的校友之一,1929屆畢業生。按推算,老先生已經90歲以上高齡)
That future encompasses a second powerful force shaping higher education.When Thomas Friedman famously proclaimed that the world was “flat” in 2005, he drew attention to the ways in which ideas and economies no longer respect boundaries;knowledge, he emphasized, is global.Yet societies, cultures and beliefs vary in ways that affect us ever more deeply.If the world is flat, it is far from homogeneous.Universities must embrace the breadth of ideas and opportunities unfolding across the world, and at the same time advance understanding of the differences among distinctive cultures, histories and languages.(另一位年逾古稀的哈佛校友Donald Brown;1930屆畢業生)
I am repeatedly struck when I meet with undergraduates at the intensity of their interest in language courses, which at Harvard now include nearly 80 languages.These undergraduates understand the kind of world they will live in, and they want to be prepared.One member of the class of 2011, who will be a Marshall scholar next year, told me about how she took up the study of Chinese at Harvard and when she traveled abroad recognized how speaking the language transformed her relationship to those she met.“When you learn a language,” she said, “you get goggles.My Chinese goggles.You have different kinds of conversations with people in their own language … we’re going to grow up in the world together in countries with such intertwined futures.We are,” she concluded, “an international generation.”
In these past four years, Harvard has reached into the world, and the world has reached into Harvard as never before.I have traveled as Harvard president on five continents.I have met with thousands of the more than 50,000 Harvard alumni who live outside the United States, and I have visited Harvard initiatives that address issues from AIDS in Botswana to preschool education in Chile to Renaissance studies in Italy to disaster response in China.Our new Harvard Center Shanghai joins 15 offices supporting Harvard faculty and student research and engagement abroad.We have over the past several years launched the university-wide China Fund, the South Asia Initiative, and an enhanced African Studies effort that recently received a coveted Title VI recognition as a National Resource Center.Undergraduate experiences abroad have more than doubled since 2003.Design School field studios reach from the favelas of Sao Paolo to the townships of Mumbai, and Harvard’s clinical and research opportunities in medicine and public health range from tuberculosis in Siberia to adolescent health in Fiji.Here in Cambridge, teaching incorporates an enhanced global perspective, from newly required international legal studies at the Law School to an international immersion experience beginning next year for all MBA students at the Business School, where 40% of case studies now have a significant international component.And we benefit from an increasingly international faculty and student body — 20% of our degree students overall.But it is not just knowledge that knows no boundaries.The world’s most critical challenges are most often borderless as well, and it is these pressing problems that attract the interest and talents of so many in our community.Universities are critical resources in addressing issues from economic growth to global health, to sustainable cities, to privacy and security, to therapeutics.To borrow a phrase from the Business School mission statement, Harvard faculty and students want to “make a difference in the world” by creating and disseminating critical knowledge.And we increasingly understand how to bring the elements of knowledge-creation together by crossing intellectual and disciplinary boundaries just as we cross international ones.I speak often of “one university,” for it is clear that we work most effectively when we unite Harvard’s unparalleled strengths across its schools and fields — and do so at every stage of the educational process, from College freshmen through our most accomplished senior faculty members.The new Harvard Global Health Institute is a case in point, engaging more than 250 faculty from across the university in addressing issues that range from post-earthquake response in Haiti and Chile to reducing cardiovascular disease in the developing world.We have established an undergraduate secondary field in Global Health, and over 1,000 College students are involved in courses, internships and related activities.Similarly, the Harvard Center for the Environment draws on graduate and undergraduate students and more than a hundred faculty, in law, engineering, history, earth sciences, medicine, health policy and business — to look comprehensively at problems like carbon capture and sequestration, or the implications of the Gulf oil spill for structures of environmental regulation.This brings us finally to innovation, a third powerful force in higher education — and in the wider world in which higher education plays such an important part.Students and faculty working together in new ways and across disciplines, are developing wondrous things — from inhalable chocolate to inhalable tuberculosis vaccine.Our undergraduates have invented a soccer ball that can generate enough power to light villages;Business School students are launching more and more start-ups;Medical School experiments have reversed the signs of aging — in mice at least.The Dean of our School of Education has been named one of the region’s foremost innovators for inventing a new degree, a doctorate in educational leadership — the Ed.L.D.— whose graduates, trained by faculty from the Business, Kennedy and Education schools, will be ready to lead change in America’s schools.New ideas and new ways of enabling those ideas to reach a wider world.That is the essence of what we are about.And we as an institution have some new ideas about how we do our own work as well.We have innovated after 350 years with governance, expanding and enhancing the Corporation.We are innovating(after almost as long)with the organization of our libraries — at the heart of how we learn and teach.We are in the second successful year of a new undergraduate curriculum.We created a new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.We are exploring new ways of teaching, with new technologies and new partners.We are integrating the arts into our teaching across fields, recognizing that the act of “making” — whether in the arts or, perhaps, engineering — is an essential part of creative learning.In the fall we will open a new Innovation Lab, to foster team-based invention that connects students across disciplines and with local entrepreneurs.Perhaps every generation believes that it lives in special times and perhaps every cohort of graduates is told just that at ceremonies like these.But both the depth of the challenges we face and the power of knowledge — and thus of universities--to address them is unprecedented.Harvard must embrace this responsibility, for it is accountable to you, its alumni, and to the wider world.Universities are among humanity’s greatest innovations and among humanity’s greatest innovators.Through universities we find a better future, where our graduates and their children and the greater global community may lead lives of peace, prosperity and purpose in the centuries to come.Thank you very much.互聯網界的讀者文摘
第三篇:哈佛大學畢業典禮演講
哈佛大學畢業典禮演講
朱棣文
尊敬的Faust校長,哈佛集團的各位成員,監管理事會的各位理事,各位老師,各位家長,各位朋友,以及最重要的各位畢業生同學:
感謝你們,讓我有機會同你們一起分享這個美妙的日子。
我不太肯定,自己夠得上哈佛大學畢業典禮演講人這樣的殊榮。去年登上這個講臺的是,英國億萬身家的小說家J.K.Rowling女士,她最早是一個古典文學的學生。前年站在這里的是比爾?蓋茨先生,他是一個超級富翁、一個慈善家和電腦天才。今年很遺憾,你們的演講人是我,雖然我不是很有錢,但是至少我是一個書呆子。
我很感激哈佛大學給我榮譽學位,這對我很重要,也許比你們會想到的還要重要。要知道,在學術上,我是我們家的異類。我的哥哥在麻省理工學院得到醫學博士,在哈佛大學得到哲學博士;我的弟弟在哈佛大學得到一個法律學位。我本人得到諾貝爾獎的時候,我想我的媽媽會高興。但是,我錯了。消息公布的那天早上,我給她打電話,她聽了只說:?這是好消息,不過我想知道,你下次什么時候來看我??如今在我們兄弟當中,我最終也拿到了哈佛學位,我想這一次,她會感到滿意。在哈佛大學畢業典禮上發表演說,還有一個難處,那就是你們中有些人可能有意見,不喜歡我重復前人演講中說過的話。我要求你們諒解我,因為兩個理由。
首先,為了產生影響力,很重要的方法就是重復傳遞同樣的信息。在科學中,第一個發現者是重要的,但是在得到公認前,最后一個做出這個發現的人也許更重要。
其次,一個借鑒他人的作者,正走在一條前人開辟的最佳道路上。哈佛大學畢業生、詩人愛默生曾經寫下:?我最好的一些思想,都是從古人那里偷來的。?畫家畢加索宣稱?優秀的藝術家借鑒,偉大的藝術家偷竊。?那么為什么畢業典禮的演說者,就不適用同樣的標準呢?
我還要指出一點,向哈佛畢業生發表演說,對我來說是有諷刺意味的,因為如果當年我斗膽向哈佛大學遞交入學申請,一定會被拒絕。我的妻子Jean當過斯坦福大學的招生主任,她向我保證,如果當年我申請斯坦福大學,她會拒絕我。我把這篇演講的草稿給她過目,她強烈反對我使用?拒絕?這個詞,她從來不拒絕任何申請者。在拒絕信中,她總是寫:?我們無法提供你入學機會。?我分不清兩者到底有何差別。不過,那些大熱門學校的招生主任總是很現實的,堪稱?拒絕他人的主任?。很顯然,我需要好好學學怎么來推銷自己。
畢業典禮演講都遵循古典奏鳴曲的結構,我的演講也不例外。剛才是第一樂章——輕快的閑談。接下來的第二樂章是送上門的忠告。這樣的忠告很少有價值,幾乎注定被忘記,永遠不會被實踐。但是,就像王爾德說的:?對于忠告,你所能做的,就是把它送給別人,因為它對你沒有任何用處。?所以,下面就是我的忠告。第一,取得成就的時候,不要忘記前人。要感謝你的父母和支持你的朋友,要感謝那些啟發過你的教授,尤其要感謝那些上不好課的教授,因為他們迫使你自學。從整體看,自學能力是優秀的文科教育中必不可少的,將成為你成功的關鍵。你還要去擁抱你的同學,感謝他們同你進行過的許多次徹夜長談,這為你的教育帶來了無法衡量的價值。當然,你還要感謝哈佛大學。不過即使你忘了這一點,校友會也會來提醒你。第二,在你們未來的人生中,做一個慷慨大方的人。在任何談判中,都把最后一點點利益留給對方。不要把桌上的錢都拿走。在合作中,不要把榮譽留給自己。成功合作的任何一方,都應獲得全部榮譽的90%。
電影《Harvey》中,Jimmy Stewart扮演的角色Elwood P.Dowd,就完全理解這一點。他說:?多年前,母親曾經對我說,‘Elwood,活在這個世界上,你要么做一個聰明人,要么做一個好人。’?我做聰明人,已經做了好多年了。……但是,我推薦你們做好人。你們可以引用我這句話。
我的第三個忠告是,當你開始生活的新階段時,請跟隨你的愛好。如果你沒有愛好,就去找,找不到就不罷休。生命太短暫,所以不能空手走過,你必須對某樣東西傾注你的深情。我在你們這個年齡,是超級的一根筋,我的目標就是非成為物理學家不可。本科畢業后,我在加州大學伯克利分校又待了8年,讀完了研究生,做完了博士后,然后去貝爾實驗室待了9年。在這些年中,我關注的中心和職業上的全部樂趣,都來自物理學。
我還有最后一個忠告,就是說興趣愛好固然重要,但是你不應該只考慮興趣愛好。當你白發蒼蒼、垂垂老矣、回首人生時,你需要為自己做過的事感到自豪。物質生活和你實現的占有欲,都不會產生自豪。只有那些受你影響、被你改變過的人和事,才會讓你產生自豪。
在貝爾實驗室待了9年后,我決定離開這個溫暖舒適的象牙塔,走進我眼中的?真實世界?——大學。我對貝爾實驗室的看法,可以引用Mary Poppins的話,?實際上十全十美?。但是,我想離開那種僅僅是科學論文的生活。我要去教書,培育我自己在科學上的后代。
我在斯坦福大學有一個好友兼杰出同事Ted Geballe。他也是從伯克利分校去了貝爾實驗室,幾年前又離開貝爾實驗室去了斯坦福大學。他對我們的動機做出了最佳描述: ?在大學工作,最大的優點就是學生。他們生機勃勃,充滿熱情,思想自由,還沒被生活的重壓改變。雖然他們自己沒有意識到,但是他們是這個社會中你能找到的最佳受眾。如果生命中只有一段時間是思想自由和充滿創造力,那么那段時間就是你在讀大學。進校時,學生們對課本上的一字一句毫不懷疑,漸漸地,他們發現課本和教授并不是無所不知的,于是他們開始獨立思考。從那時起,就是我開始向他們學習了。?
我教過的學生、帶過的博士后、合作過的年輕同事,都非常優秀。他們中有30多人,現在已經是教授了。他們所在的研究機構有不少是全世界第一流的,其中就包括哈佛大學。我從他們身上學到了很多東西。即使現在,我偶爾還會周末上網,向現在還從事生物物理學研究的學生請教。
我懷著回報社會的想法,開始了教學生涯。我的一生中,得到的多于我付出的,所以我要回報社會。這就引出了這次演講的最后一個樂章。首先我要講一個了不起的科學發現,以及由此帶來的新挑戰。它是一個戰斗的號令,到了做出改變的時候了。
過去幾十年中,我們的氣候一直在發生變化。氣候變化并不是現在才有的,過去60萬年中就發生了6次冰河期。但是,現在的測量表明氣候變化加速了。北極冰蓋在9月份的大小,只相當于50年前的一半。1870年起,人們開始測量海平面上升的速度,現在的速度是那時的5倍。一個重大的科學發現就這樣產生了。科學第一次在人類歷史上,預測出我們的行為對50~100年后的世界有何影響。這些變化的原因是,從工業革命開始,人類排放到大氣中的二氧化碳增加了。這使得地球的平均氣溫上升了0.8攝氏度。即使我們立刻停止所有溫室氣體的排放,氣溫仍然將比過去上升大約1度。因為在氣溫達到均衡前,海水溫度的上升將持續幾十年。
如果全世界保持現在的經濟模式不變,聯合國政府間氣候變化專門委員會(IPCC)預測,本世紀末將有50%的可能,氣溫至少上升5度。這聽起來好像不多,但是讓我來提醒你,上一次的冰河期,地球的氣溫也僅僅只下降了6度。那時,俄亥俄州和費城以下的大部分美國和加拿大的土地,都終年被冰川覆蓋。氣溫上升5度的地球,將是一個非常不同的地球。由于變化來得太快,包括人類在內的許多生物,都將很難適應。比如,有人告訴我,在更溫暖的環境中,昆蟲的個頭將變大。我不知道現在身旁嗡嗡叫的這只大蒼蠅,是不是就是前兆。
我們還面臨另一個幽靈,那就是非線性的?氣候引爆點?,這會帶來許多嚴重得多的變化。?氣候引爆點?的一個例子就是永久凍土層的融化。永久凍土層經過千萬年的累積形成,其中包含了巨量的凍僵的有機物。如果凍土融化,微生物就將廣泛繁殖,使得凍土層中的有機物快速腐爛。冷凍后的生物和冷凍前的生物,它們在生物學特性上的差異,我們都很熟悉。在冷庫中,冷凍食品在經過長時間保存后,依然可以食用。但是,一旦解凍,食品很快就腐爛了。一個腐爛的永久凍土層,將釋放出多少甲烷和二氧化碳?即使只有一部分的碳被釋放出來,可能也比我們從工業革命開始釋放出來的所有溫室氣體還要多。這種事情一旦發生,局勢就失控了。
氣候問題是我們的經濟發展在無意中帶來的后果。我們太依賴化石能源,冬天取暖,夏天制冷,夜間照明,長途旅行,環球觀光。能源是經濟繁榮的基礎,我們不可能放棄經濟繁榮。美國人口占全世界的3%,但是我們消耗全世界25%的能源。與此形成對照,全世界還有16億人沒有電,數億人依靠燃燒樹枝和動物糞便來煮飯。發展中國家的人民享受不到我們的生活,但是他們都看在眼里,他們渴望擁有我們擁有的東西。
這就是新的挑戰。全世界作為一個整體,我們到底愿意付出多少,來緩和氣候變化?這種變化在100年前,根本沒人想到過。代際責任深深植根于所有文化中。家長努力工作,為了讓他們的孩子有更好的生活。氣候變化將影響整個世界,但是我們的天性使得我們只關心個人家庭的福利。我們能不能把全世界看作一個整體?能不能為未來的人們承擔起責任?
雖然我憂心忡忡,但是還是對未來抱樂觀態度,這個問題將會得到解決。我同意出任勞倫斯?伯克利國家實驗室主任,部分原因是我想招募一些世界上最好的科學家,來研究氣候變化的對策。我在那里干了4年半,是這個實驗室78年的歷史中,任期最短的主任,但是當我離任時,在伯克利實驗室和伯克利分校,一些非常激動人心的能源研究機構已經建立起來了。
能夠成為奧巴馬施政團隊的一員,我感到極其榮幸。如果有一個時機,可以引導美國和全世界走上可持續能源的道路,那么這個時機就是現在。總統已經發出信息,未來并非在劫難逃,而是樂觀的,我們依然有機會。我也抱有這種樂觀主義。我們面前的任務令人生畏,但是我們能夠并且將會成功。
我們已經有了一些答案,可以立竿見影地節約能源和提高能源使用效率。它們不是掛在枝頭的水果,而是已經成熟掉在地上了,就看我們愿不愿意撿起來。比如,我們有辦法將樓宇的耗電減少80%,增加的投資在15年內就可以收回來。樓宇的耗電占我們能源消費的40%,節能樓宇的推廣將使我們二氧化碳的釋放減少三分之一。
我們正在加速美國這座巨大的創新機器,這將是下一次美國大繁榮的基礎。我們將大量投資有效利用太陽能、風能、核能的新方法,大量投資能夠捕獲和隔離電廠廢氣中的二氧化碳的方法。先進的生物燃料和電力汽車將使得我們不再那么依賴外國的石油。
在未來的幾十年中,我們幾乎肯定會面對更高的油價和更嚴厲的二氧化碳排放政策。這是一場新的工業革命,美國有機會充當領導者。偉大的冰球選手Wayne Gretzky被問到,他如何在冰上跑位,回答說:?我滑向球下一步的位置,而不是它現在的位置。?美國也應該這樣做。
奧巴馬政府正在為美國的繁榮和可持續能源,打下新的基礎。但是我們還有很多不知道的地方。這就需要你們的參與。在本次演講中,我請求在座各位哈佛畢業生加入我們。你們是我們未來的智力領袖,請花時間加深理解目前的危險局勢,然后采取相應的行動。你們是未來的科學家和工程師,我要求你們給我們更好的技術方案。你們是未來的經濟學家和政治學家,我要求你們創造更好的政策選擇。你們是未來的企業家,我要求你們將可持續發展作為你們業務中不可分割的一部分。
最后,你們是人道主義者,我要求你們為了人道主義說話。氣候變化帶來的最殘酷的諷刺之一,就是最受傷害的人,恰恰就是最無辜的人——那些世界上最窮的人們和那些還沒有出生的人。
這個最后樂章的完結部是引用兩個人道主義者的話。第一段引語來自馬丁〃路德〃金。這是1967年他對越南戰爭結束的評論,但是看上去非常適合用來評論今天的氣候危機。
?我呼吁全世界的人們團結一心,拋棄種族、膚色、階級、國籍的隔閡;我呼吁包羅一切、無條件的對全人類的愛。你會因此遭受誤解和誤讀,信奉尼采哲學的世人會認定你是一個軟弱和膽怯的懦夫。但是,這是人類存在下去的絕對必需。……我的朋友,眼前的事實就是,明天就是今天。此刻,我們面臨最緊急的情況。在變幻莫測的生活和歷史之中,有一樣東西叫做悔之晚矣。?
第二段引語來自威廉〃福克納。1950年12月10月,他在諾貝爾獎獲獎晚宴上發表演說,談到了世界在核戰爭的陰影之下,人道主義者應該扮演什么樣的角色。
?我相信人類不會僅僅存在,他還將勝利。人類是不朽的,這不是因為萬物當中僅僅他擁有發言權,而是因為他有一個靈魂,一種有同情心、犧牲精神和忍耐力的精神。詩人、作家的責任就是書寫這種精神。他們有權力升華人類的心靈,使人類回憶起過去曾經使他無比光榮的東西——勇氣、榮譽、希望、自尊、同情、憐憫和犧牲。?
各位同學,你們在我們的未來中扮演舉足輕重的角色。當你們追求個人的志向時,我希望你們也會發揚奉獻精神,積極發聲,在大大小小各個方面幫助改進這個世界。這會給你們帶來最大的滿足感。
最后,請接受我最熱烈的祝賀。希望你們成功,也希望你們保護和拯救我們這個星球,為了你們的孩子,以及未來所有的孩子。
第四篇:巴菲特演講【哈佛大學畢業典禮】
巴菲特的一次演講
(一)我想先講幾分鐘的套話,然后我就主要來接受你們的提問。我想談的是你們的所思所想。我鼓勵你們給我出難題,暢所欲言,言無不盡。(原文:我希望你們扔些高難度的球,如果你們的投球帶些速度的話,我回答起來會更有興致)你們幾乎可以問任何問題,除了上個禮拜的Texas A&M的大學橄欖球賽,那超出我所能接受的極限了。我們這里來了幾個SunTrust(譯者注:美國一家大型商業銀行)的人。我剛剛參加完Coca Cola的股東大會(譯者注:Warren Buffet的投資公司是Coca Cola的長期大股東之一),我坐在吉米●威廉姆斯邊上。吉米領導了SunTrust多年。吉米一定讓我穿上這件SunTrust的T恤到這來。我一直試著讓老年高爾夫聯盟給我贊助,但是都無功而返。沒想到我在SunTrust這,卻做的不錯。吉米說,基于SunTrust存款的增長,我會得到一定比例的酬勞。所以我為SunTrust鼓勁。(譯者注:巴菲特在開玩笑)
關于你們走出校門后的前程,我在這里只想講一分鐘。你們在這里已經學了很多關于投資方面的知識,你們學會如何做好事情,你們有足夠的IQ能做好,你們也有動力和精力來做好,否則你們就不會在這里了。你們中的許多人都將最終實現你們的理想。但是在智能和能量之外,還有更多的東西來決定你是否成功,我想談談那些東西。實際上,在我們Omaha(譯者注:Berkshire Hathaway公司的總部所在地)有一位先生說,當他雇人時,他會看三個方面:誠信,智能,和精力。雇一個只有智能和精力,卻沒有誠信的人會毀了雇者。一個沒有誠信的人,你只能希望他愚蠢和懶惰,而不是聰明和精力充沛。我想談的是第一點,因為我知道你們都具備后兩點。在考慮這個問題時,請你們和我一起玩玩這個游戲。你們現在都是在MBA的第二年,所以你們對自己的同學也應該都了解了。現在我給你們一個來買進10%的你的一個同學的權利,一直到他的生命結束。你不能選那些有著富有老爸的同學,每個人的成果都要靠他自己的努力。我給你一個小時來想這個問題,你愿意買進哪一個同學余生的10%。你會給他們做一個IQ測試嗎,選那個IQ值最高的?我很懷疑。你會挑那個學習成績最好的嗎,我也懷疑。你也不一定會選那個最精力充沛的,因為你自己本身就已經動力十足了。你可能會去尋找那些質化的因素,因為這里的每個人都是很有腦筋的。你想了一個小時之后,當你下賭注時,可能會選擇那個你最有認同感的人,那個最有領導才能的人,那個能實現他人利益的人,那個慷慨,誠實,即使是他自己的主意,也會把功勞分予他人的人。所有這些素質,你可以把這些你所欽佩的素質都寫下來。(你會選擇)那個你最欽佩的人。然后,我這里再給你們下個跘兒。在你買進10%你的同學時,你還要賣出10%的另外一個人。這不是很有趣嗎?你會想我到底賣誰呢?你可能還是不會找IQ最低的。你可能會選那個讓你厭惡的同學,以及那些令你討厭的品質。那個你不愿打交道的人,其他人也不愿意與之打交道的人。是什么品質導致了那一點呢?你能想出一堆來,比如不夠誠實,愛占小便宜等等這些,你可以把它們寫在紙的右欄。當你端詳紙的左欄和右欄時,會發現有意思的一點。能否將橄欖球扔出60碼之外并不重要,是否能在9秒3之內跑100碼也不重要,是否是班上最好看的也無關大局。真正重要的是那些在紙上左欄里的品質。如果你愿意的話,你可以擁有所有那些品質。那些行動,脾氣,和性格的品質,都是可以做到的。它們不是我們在座的每一位力所不能及的。再看看那些右欄里那些讓你厭惡的品質,沒有一項是你不得不要的。如果你有的話,你也可以改掉。在你們這個年紀,改起來比在我這個年紀容易得多,因為大多數這些行為都是逐漸固定下來的。人們都說習慣的枷鎖開始輕得讓人感受不到,一旦你感覺到的時候,已經是沉重得無法去掉了。我認為說得很對。我見過很多我這個年紀或者比我還年輕10歲,20歲的人,有著自我破壞性習慣而又難以自拔,他們走到哪里都招人厭惡。他們不需要那樣,但是他們已經無可救藥。但是,在你們這個年紀,任何習慣和行為模式都可以有,只要你們愿意,就只是一個選擇的問題。就象本杰明●格拉姆(上個世紀中葉著名的金融投資家)一樣,在他還是十幾歲的少年時,他四顧看看那些令人尊敬的人,他想我也要做一個被人尊敬的人,為什么我不象那些人一樣行事呢?他發現那樣去做并不是不可能的。他對那些令人討厭的品質采取了與此相反的方式而加以摒棄。所以我說,如果你把那些品質都寫下來,好好思量一下,擇善而從,你自己可能就是那個你愿意買入10%的人!更好的是你自己本就100%的擁有你自己了。這就是我今天要講的。
下面就讓我們開始談談你們所感興趣的。我們可以從這兒或那兒舉起的手開始。(二)問題:你對日本的看法?
巴菲特:我不是一個太宏觀的人。現在日本10年期的貸款利息只有1%。我對自己說,45年前,我上了本杰明●格拉姆的課程,然后我就一直勤勤懇懇,努力工作,也許我應該比1%掙的多點吧?看上去那不是不可能的。我不想卷入任何匯率波動的風險,所以我會選擇以日元為基準的資產,如地產或企業,必須是日本國內的。我唯一需要做的就是掙得比1%多,因為那是我資金的成本。可直到現在,我還沒有發現一家可以投資的生意。這真的很有趣。日本企業的資產回報率都很低。他們有少數企業會有4%,5%,或6%的回報。如果日本企業本身賺不了多少錢的話,那么其資產投資者是很難獲得好的回報的。當然,有一些人也賺了錢。我有一個同期為本杰明●格拉姆工作過的朋友。那是我第一次買股票的方法,即尋找那些股票價格遠低于流動資本的公司,非常便宜但又有一點素質的公司。我管那方法叫雪茄煙蒂投資法。你滿地找雪茄煙蒂,終于你找到一個濕透了的,令人討厭的煙蒂,看上去還能抽上一口。那一口可是免費的。你把它撿起來,抽上最后一口,然后扔了,接著找下一個。這聽上去一點都不優雅,但是如果你找的是一口免費的雪茄煙,這方法還值得做。不要做低回報率的生意。時間是好生意的朋友,卻是壞生意的敵人。如果你陷在糟糕的生意里太久的話,你的結果也一定會糟糕,即使你的買入價很便宜。如果你在一樁好生意里,即使你開始多付了一點額外的成本,如果你做的足夠久的話,你的回報一定是可觀的。我現在從日本沒發現什么好生意。也可能日本的文化會作某些改變,比如他們的管理層可能會對公司股票的責任多一些,這樣回報率會高些。但目前來看,我看到的都是一些低回報率的公司,即使是在日本經濟高速發展的時候。說來也令人驚奇,因為日本這樣一個完善巨大的市場卻不能產生一些優秀的高回報的公司。日本的優秀只體現在經濟總量上,而不是涌現一些優質的公司(譯者注:對中國而言,這樣的問題何止嚴重10倍!)。這個問題已經給日本帶來麻煩了。我們到現在為止對日本還是沒什么興趣。只要那的利息還是1%,我們會繼續持觀望態度。
問題:有傳聞說,你成為長期資金管理基金的救場買家?你在那里做了什么?你看到了什么機會?(譯者注:長期資金管理基金是一家著名的對沖基金。1994年創立。創立后的頭些年盈利可觀,年均40%以上。但是,在1998年,這家基金在4個月里損失了46個億,震驚世界)
巴菲特:在最近的一篇財富雜志(封面是魯本●默多克)上的文章里講了事情的始末。有點意思。是一個冗長的故事,我這里就不介紹來龍去脈了。我接了一個非常慎重的關于長期資金管理基金的電話。那是4個星期前的一個星期五的下午吧。我孫女的生日Party在那個傍晚。在之后的晚上,我會飛到西雅圖,參加比爾●蓋茨的一個12天的阿拉斯加的私人旅程。所以我那時是一點準備都沒有的。于是星期五我接了這個電話,整個事情變得嚴重起來。在財富的文章發表之前,我還通了其他一些相關電話。我認識他們(譯者注:長期資金管理基金的人),他們中的一些人我還很熟。很多人都在所羅門兄弟公司工作過。事情很關鍵。美聯儲周末派了人過去(譯者注:紐約)。在星期五到接下來的周三這段時間里,紐約儲備局導演了沒有聯邦政府資金卷入的長期資金管理基金的救贖行動。我很活躍。但是我那時的身體狀況很不好,因為我們那時正在阿拉斯加的一些峽谷里航行,而我對那些峽谷毫無興趣。船長說我們朝著可以看到北極熊的方向航行,我告訴船長朝著可以穩定接收到衛星信號的方向航行(才是重要的)(譯者注:巴菲特在開玩笑,意思是他在船上,卻一直心系手邊的工作)。星期三的早上,我們出了一個報價。那時,我已經在蒙塔那(譯者注:美國西北部的一個州)了。我和紐約儲備局的頭兒通了話。他們在10點會和一批銀行家碰頭。我把意向傳達過去了。紐約儲備局在10點前給在懷俄明(譯者注:美國西北部的一個州)的我打了電話。我們做了一個報價。那確實只是一個大概的報價,因為我是在遠程(不可能完善細節性的東西)。最終,我們對2.5億美元的凈資產做了報價,但我們會在那之上追加30到32.5億左右。Berkshire Hathaway(巴菲特的投資公司)分到30個億, AIG有7個億, Goldman Sachs有3個億。我們把投標交了上去,但是我們的投標時限很短,因為你不可能對價值以億元計的證券在一段長時間內固定價格,我也擔心我們的報價會被用來作待價而沽的籌碼。最后,銀行家們把合同搞定了。那是一個有意思的時期。
整個長期資金管理基金的歷史,我不知道在座的各位對它有多熟悉,其實是波瀾壯闊的。如果你把那16個人,象John Meriwether, Eric Rosenfeld,Larry Hilibrand,Greg Hawkins, Victor Haghani,還有兩個諾貝爾經濟學獎的獲得者,Myron Scholes和Robert Merton,放在一起,可能很難再從任何你能想像得到的公司中,包括象微軟這樣的公司,找到另外16個這樣高IQ的一個團隊。那真的是一個有著難以臵信的智商的團隊,而且他們所有人在業界都有著大量的實踐經驗。他們可不是一幫在男裝領域賺了錢,然后突然轉向證券的人。這16個人加起來的經驗可能有350年到400年,而且是一直專精于他們目前所做的。第3個因素,他們所有人在金融界都有著極大的關系網,數以億計的資金也來自于這個關系網,其實就是他們自己的資金。超級智商,在他們內行的領域,結果是他們破產了。這于我而言,是絕對的百思不得其解。如果我要寫本書的話,書名就是“為什么聰明人凈干蠢事”。我的合伙人說那本書就是他的自傳(笑)。這真的是一個完美的演示。就我自己而言,我和那16個人沒有任何過節。他們都是正經人,我尊敬他們,甚至我自己有問題的時候,也會找他們來幫助解決。他們絕不是壞人。但是,他們為了掙那些不屬于他們,他們也不需要的錢,他們竟用屬于他們,他們也需要的錢來冒險。這就太愚蠢了。這不是IQ不IQ的問題。用對你重要的東西去冒險贏得對你并不重要的東西,簡直無可理喻,即使你成功的概率是100比1,或1000比1。如果你給我一把槍,彈膛里一千個甚至一百萬個位臵,然后你告訴我,里面只有一發子彈,你問我,要花多少錢,才能讓我拉動扳機。我是不會去做的。你可以下任何注,即使我贏了,那些錢對我來說也不值一提。如果我輸了,那后果是顯而易見的。我對這樣的游戲沒有一點興趣。可是因為頭腦不清楚,總有人犯這樣的錯。有這樣一本一般般的書,卻有著一個很好的書名,“一生只需富一次”。這再正確不過了,不是碼?如果你有一個億開始,每年沒有一點風險的可以掙10%,有些風險,但成功率有99%的投資會賺20%。一年結束,你可能有1.1個億,也可能有1.2個億,這有什么區別呢?如果你這時候過世,寫亡訊的人可能錯把你有的1.2個億寫成1.1個億了,有區別也變成沒區別了(笑)。對你,對你的家庭,對任何事,都沒有任何一點點不同。但是萬一有點閃失的話,特別是當你管理他人的錢時,你不僅僅損失了你的錢,你朋友的錢,還有你的尊嚴和臉面。我所不能理解的是,這16個如此高智商的能人怎么就會玩這樣一個游戲。簡直就是瘋了。某種程度上,他們的決定基本上都依賴于一些事情。他們都有著所羅門兄弟公司的背景,他們說一個6或7西格瑪的事件(指金融市場的波動幅度)是傷他們不著的。他們錯了,歷史是不會告訴你將來某一金融事件發生的概率的。他們很大程度上依賴于數學統計,他們認為關于股票的(歷史)數據揭示了股票的風險。我認為那些數據根本就不會告訴你股票的風險!我認為數據也不會揭示你破產的風險。也許他們現在也這么想了?事實上,我根本不想用他們來作例子,因為他們的經歷換一種形式,很可能發生在我們中的每個人身上。我們在某些關鍵之處存在著盲點,因為我們懂得太多的其他地方。正象Henry Gutman所說的,破產的多是兩類人:一是一竅不通者;一是學富五車者。這其實是令人悲哀的。我們是從來不借錢的,即使有保險做擔保。即使是在我只有1萬塊錢的時候,我也決不借錢。借錢能帶來什么不同瑪?我只憑我一己之力時我也樂趣無窮。一萬,一百萬,和一千萬對我都沒有什么不同。當然,當我遇到類似緊急醫療事件的情況下會有些例外。基本上,在錢多錢少的情況下,我都會做同樣的事情。如果你從生活方式的角度來想想你們和我的不同,我們穿的是同樣的衣服,當然我的是SunTrust給的;我們都有機會喝上帝之泉(說這話的時候,巴菲特開了一瓶可樂),我們都去麥當勞,好一點的,奶酪皇后(譯者注:即DairyQueen,一家類似于麥當勞的快餐店),我們都住在冬暖夏涼的房子里,我們都在平面大電視上看Nebraska和Texas A&M(美國的兩所大學)的橄欖球比賽,我們的生活沒什么不同,你能得到不錯的醫療,我也一樣,唯一的不同可能是我們旅行的方式不同,我有我的私人飛機來周游世界,我很幸運。但是除了這個之外,你們再想想,我能做的你們有什么不能做呢?我熱愛我的工作,但是我從來如此,無論我在談大合同,還是只賺一千塊錢的時候。我希望你們也熱愛自己的工作。如果你總是為了簡歷上好看些就不斷跳槽,做你不喜歡的工作,我認為你的腦子一定是進了水。我碰到過一個28歲的哈佛畢業生,他一直以來都做得不錯。我問他,下一步你打算做些什么?他說,可能讀個MBA吧,然后去個管理資詢的大公司,簡歷上看著漂亮點。我說,等一下,你才28歲,你做了這么多事情,你的簡歷比我看到過的最好的還要強十倍,現在你要再找一個你不喜歡的工作,你不覺得這就好像把你的性生活省下來到晚年的時候再用嗎?是時候了,你就要去做的(不能老等著)。(這是一個比喻)但是我想我把我的立場告訴了他。你們走出去,都應該選擇那些你熱愛的工作,而不是讓你的簡歷看上去風光。當然,你的愛好可能會有變化。(對那些你熱愛的工作,)每天早上你是蹦著起床的。當我走出校園的時候,我恨不得馬上就給格拉姆干。但是我不可能為他白干,于是他說我要的工資太高了(所以他沒有要我)。但我總是不停地bug他,同時我自己也賣了3年的證券,期間從不間斷地給他寫信,聊我的想法,最終他要了我,我在他那兒工作了幾年。那幾年是非常有益的經驗。我總是做我熱愛的工作。拋開其他因素,如果你單純的高興做一項工作,那么那就是你應該做的工作。你會學到很多東西,工作起來也會覺得有無窮的樂趣。可能你將來會變。但是(做你熱愛的工作),你會從工作中得到很多很多。起薪的多寡無足輕重。不知怎么,扯得遠了些。總之,如果你認為得到兩個X比得到一個讓你更開心,你可能就要犯錯了。重要的是發現生活的真諦,做你喜歡做的。如果你認為得到10個或20個X是你一切生活的答案,那么你就會去借錢,做些短視,以及不可理喻的事情。多年以后,不可避免地,你會為你的所作所為而后悔。
序:至此,巴菲特的演講終于過半。
問題:講講你喜歡的企業吧, 不是企業具體的名字,而是什么素質的企業你喜歡?
巴菲特:
我只喜歡我看得懂的生意,這個標準排除了90%的企業。你看,我有太多的東西搞不懂。幸運的是,還是有那么一些東西我還看得懂。
設想一個諾大的世界里,大多數公司都是上市的,所以基本上許多美國公司都是可以買到的。讓我們從大家都懂的事情上開始講吧(巴菲特舉起他的可樂瓶),我懂得這個,你懂得這個,每個人都懂這個。這是一瓶櫻桃可樂,從1886年起就沒什么變化了。很簡單,但絕不容易的生意。我可不想要對競爭者來說很容易的生意,我想要的生意外面得有個城墻,居中是價值不菲的城堡,我要負責的、能干的人才來管理這個城堡。
我要的城墻可以是多樣的,舉例來說,在汽車保險領域的GEICO(譯者注:美國一家保險公司),它的城墻就是低成本。人們是必須買汽車保險的,每人每車都會有,我不能賣20份給一個人,但是至少會有一份。消費者從哪里購買呢?這將基于保險公司的服務和成本。多數人都認為(各家公司的)服務基本上是相同的或接近的,所以成本是他們的決定因素。所以,我就要找低成本的公司,這就是我的城墻。
當我的成本越比競爭對手的低,我會越加注意加固和保護我的城墻。當你有一個漂亮的城堡,肯定會有人對它發起攻擊,妄圖從你的手中把它搶走,所以我要在城堡周圍建起城墻來。
三十年前,柯達公司的城墻和可口可樂的城墻是一樣難以逾越的。如果你想給你6個月的小孩子照張像,20年或50年后你再來看那照片,你不會象專業攝影師那樣來衡量照片質量隨著時間的改變,真正決定購買行為的是膠卷公司在你的心目中的地位。柯達向你保證你今天的照片,20年,50年后看起來仍是栩栩如生,這一點對你而言可能恰恰是最重要的。30年前的柯達就有那樣的魅力,它占據了每個人的心。在地球上每個人的心里,它的那個小黃盒子都在說,柯達是最好的。那真是無價的。
現在的柯達已經不再獨占人們的心。它的城墻變薄了,富士用各種手段縮小了差距。柯達讓富士成為奧林匹克運動會的贊助商,一個一直以來由柯達獨占的位臵。于是在人們的印象里,富士變得和柯達平起平坐起來。與之相反的是,可口可樂的城墻與30年前比,變得更寬了。你可能看不到城墻一天天的變化。但是,每次你看到可口可樂的工廠擴張到一個目前并不盈利,但20年后一定會的國家,它的城墻就加寬些。企業的城墻每天每年都在變,或厚或窄。10年后,你就會看到不同。
我給那些公司經理人的要求就是,讓城墻更厚些,保護好它,拒競爭者于墻外。你可以通過服務,產品質量,價錢,成本,專利,地理位臵來達到目的。我尋找的就是這樣的企業。那么這樣的企業都在做什么生意呢?我要找到他們,就要從最簡單的產品里找到那些(杰出的企業)。因為我沒法預料到10年以后,甲骨文,蓮花,或微軟會發展成什么樣。比爾●蓋茨是我碰到過的最好的生意人。微軟現在所處的位臵也很好。但是我還是對他們10年后的狀況無從知曉。同樣我對他們的競爭對手10年后的情形也一無所知。
雖然我不擁有口香糖的公司,但是我知道10年后他們的發展會怎樣。互聯網是不會改變我們嚼口香糖的方式的,事實上,沒什么能改變我們嚼口香糖的方式。會有很多的(口香糖)新產品不斷進入試驗期,一些以失敗告終。這是事物發展的規律。如果你給我10個億,讓我進入口香糖的生意,打開一個缺口,我無法做到。這就是我考量一個生意的基本原則。給我10個億,我能對競爭對手有多少打擊?給我100個億,我對全世界的可口可樂的損失會有多大?我做不到,因為,他們的生意穩如磐石。給我些錢,讓我去占領其他領域,我卻總能找出辦法把事情做到。
所以,我要找的生意就是簡單,容易理解,經濟上行得通,誠實,能干的管理層。這樣,我就能看清這個企業10年的大方向。如果我做不到這一點,我是不會買的。基本上來講,我只會買那些,即使紐約證交所從明天起關門五年,我也很樂于擁有的股票。如果我買個農場,即使五年內我不知道它的價格,但只要農場運轉正常,我就高興。如果我買個公寓群,只要它們能租出去,帶來預計的回報,我也一樣高興。
人們買股票,根據第二天早上股票價格的漲跌,決定他們的投資是否正確,這簡直是扯淡。正如格拉姆所說的,你要買的是企業的一部分生意。這是格拉姆教給我的最基本最核心的策略。你買的不是股票,你買的是一部分企業生意。企業好,你的投資就好,只要你的買入價格不是太離譜。
這就是投資的精髓所在。你要買你看得懂的生意,你買了農場,是因為你懂農場的經營。就是這么簡單。這都是格拉姆的理念。我6、7歲就開始對股票感興趣,在11歲的時買了第一只股票。我沉迷于對圖線,成交量等各種技術指標的研究。然后在我還是19歲的時候,幸運地拿起了格拉姆的書。書里說,你買的不是那整日里上下起伏的股票標記,你買的是公司的一部分生意。自從我開始這么來考慮問題后,所以一切都豁然開朗。就這么簡單。
我們只買自己諳熟的生意。在坐的每一個人都懂可口可樂的生意。我卻敢說,沒人能看懂新興的一些互聯網公司。我在今年的Berkshire Hathaway的股東大會上講過,如果我在商學院任教,期末考試的題目就是評估互聯網公司的價值,如果有人給我一個具體的估價,我會當場暈倒的(笑)。我自己是不知道如何估值的,但是人們每天都在做!
如果你這么做是為了去競技比賽,還可以理解。但是你是在投資。投資是投入一定的錢,確保將來能恰當幅度地賺進更多的錢。所以你務必要曉得自己在做什么,務必要深入懂得(你投資的)生意。你會懂一些生意模式,但絕不是全部。問題:就如你剛才所說,你已經講了事情的一半,那就是去尋找企業,試著去理解商業模式,作為一個擁有如此大量資金的投資者,你的積累足以讓你過功成身退。回到購買企業的成本,你如何決定一個合適的價格來購買企業?
巴菲特:
那是一個很難作出的決定。對一個我不確信(理解)的東西,我是不會買的。如果我對一個東西非常確信,通常它帶給我的回報不會是很可觀的。為什么對那些你只有一絲感覺會有40%回報的企業來試手氣呢?我們的回報不是驚人的高,但是一般來講,我們也不會有損失。
1972年,我們買了See’s Candy(一家糖果公司)。See’s Candy每年以每磅1.95美元的價格,賣出1千6百萬磅的糖果,產生4百萬的稅前利潤。我們買它花了2千5百萬。我和我的合伙人覺得See’s Candy有一種尚未開發出來的定價魔力,每磅1.95美元的糖果可以很容易地以2.25的價錢賣出去。每磅30分的漲價,1千6百萬磅就是額外的4百80萬呀,所以2千5百萬的購買價還是劃算的。
我們從未雇過咨詢師。我們知道在加州每個人都有一個想法。每個加州人心中對See’s Candy都有一些特殊的印象,他們絕對認這個牌子的糖。在情人節,給女孩子送See’s Candy的糖,她們會高興地親它。如果她們把糖扔在一邊,愛理不理,那我們的生意就糟糕了。只要女孩子親吻我們的糖,那就是我們要灌輸給加州人腦子里的,女孩子愛親See’s Candy的糖。如果我們能達到這個目標,我們就可以漲價了。我們在1972年買的See’s Candy,那之后,我們每年都在12月26日,圣誕節后的第一天,漲價。圣誕節期間我們賣了很多糖。今年,我們賣了3千萬磅糖,一磅賺2個美元,總共賺了6千萬。十年后,我們會賺得更多。在那6千萬里,5千5百萬是在圣誕節前3周賺的。耶穌的確是我們的好朋友(笑)。這確實是一樁好生意。
如果你再想想,關于這生意的重要一點是,多數人都不買盒裝巧克力來自己消費,他們只是用它來做為生日或節日的饋贈禮品。情人節是每年中最重要的一天。圣誕節是迄今為止最最重要的銷售季節。女人買糖是為了圣誕節,她們通常在那前后2-3周來買。男人買糖是為了情人節。他們在回家的路上開著車,我們在收音機節目里放廣告,“內疚,內疚”,男人們紛紛從高速路上出去,沒有一盒巧克力在手,他們是不敢回家的。
情人節是銷售最火的一天。你能想像,在情人節那天,See’s Candy的價錢已經是11美元一磅了(譯者注:又漲價了)。當然還有別的牌子的糖果是6美元一磅。當你在情人節的時候回家(這些都是關于See’s Candy深入人心的一幕幕場景,你的那位接受你的禮品,由衷地感謝你,祝福剩下的一年),遞給你的那位(6塊錢的糖),說,“親愛的,今年我買的是廉價貨”?這絕不可能行得通!
在某種程度上,有些東西和價格是沒關系的,或者說,不是以價格為導向的。這就像迪斯尼。迪斯尼在全世界賣的是16.95或19.95美元的家庭影像制品。人們,更具體的說,那些當媽媽的對迪斯尼有著特殊的感情。在座的每個人在心中對迪斯尼都有著一些情愫。如果我說環球影視,它不會喚起你心中的那種特殊情愫;我說20世紀福克斯公司,你也不會有什么反應。但是迪斯尼就不同。這一點在全世界都如此。當你的年紀變老的時候,那些(迪斯尼的)影像制品,你可以放心讓小孩子每天在一邊看幾個小時。你知道,一個這樣的影片,小孩子會看上20遍。當你去音像店時,你會坐在那兒,把十幾種片子都看上一遍,然后決定你的孩子會喜歡哪一部?這種可能性很小。別的牌子賣16.95,而迪斯尼的賣17.95,你知道買迪斯尼的不會錯,所以你就買了。在某些你沒有時間的事情上,你不一定非要做高質量的決定。而作為迪斯尼而言,就可以因此以更高的價格,賣出多得多的影片。多好的生意!而對其他牌子來講,日子就不那么好過了。
夢想家們一直努力打造出類似于迪斯尼概念的品牌,來同它在世界范圍內競爭,取代人們心中對迪斯尼的那份特殊情愫。比如,環球影視吧,媽媽們不會在音像店里買他們的片子,而放棄迪斯尼的。那是不可能發生的。可口可樂是在全球范圍內和喜悅的情緒關聯在一起的。不管你花多少錢,你想讓全世界的50億人更喜歡RC可樂(譯者注:巴菲特杜撰出來的飲料牌子),那是做不到的。你可以搞些詭計,做折扣促銷,等等,但都是無法得逞的。這就是你要的生意,你要的城墻。
第五篇:中英文 哈佛大學女校長給本科畢業生的演講
中英文 哈佛大學女校長給本科畢業生的演講.txt54就讓昨日成流水,就讓往事隨風飛,今日的杯中別再盛著昨日的殘痕;唯有珍惜現在,才能收獲明天。哈佛大學女校長給2008年本科畢業生的演講(中英文)cVC大學生英語網
哈佛女校長Drew G.Faust給2008年本科畢業生的演講cVC大學生英語網
在這所久負盛名的大學的別具一格的儀式上,我站在了你們的面前,被期待著給予一些蘊含著恒久智慧的言論。站在這個講壇上,我穿得像個清教徒教長——一個可能會嚇到我的杰出前輩們的怪物,或許使他們中的一些人重新致力于鏟除巫婆的事業上。這個時刻也許曾激勵了很多清教徒成為教長。但現在,我在上面,你們在下面,此時此刻,屬于真理,為了真理。cVC大學生英語網
In the curious custom of this venerable institution, I find myself standing before you expected to impart words of lasting wisdom.Here I am in a pulpit, dressed like a Puritan minister — an apparition that would have horrified many of my distinguished forebears and perhaps rededicated some of them to the extirpation of witches.This moment would have propelled Increase and Cotton into a true “Mather lather.” But here I am and there you are and it is the moment of and for Veritas.cVC大學生英語網
You have been undergraduates for four years.I have been president for not quite one.You have known three presidents;I one senior class.Where then lies the voice of experience? Maybe you should be offering the wisdom.Perhaps our roles could be reversed and I could, in Harvard Law School style, do cold calls for the next hour or so.cVC大學生英語網
你們已經在哈佛做了四年的大學生,而我當哈佛校長還不到一年。你們認識了三個校長,而我只認識了你們這一屆大四的。算起來我哪有資格說什么經驗之談?或許應該由你們上來展示一下智慧。要不我們換換位置?然后我就可以像哈佛法學院的學生那樣,在接下來的一個小時內不時地冷不防地提出問題。cVC大學生英語網
cVC大學生英語網
We all do seem to have made it to this point — more or less in one piece.Though I recently learned that we have not provided you with dinner since May 22.I know we need to wean you from Harvard in a figurative sense.I never knew we took it quite so literally.cVC大學生英語網
學校和學生們似乎都在努力讓時間來到這一時刻,而且還差不多是步調一致的。我這兩天才得知哈佛從5月22日開始就不向你們提供伙食了。雖然有比喻說“我們早晚得給你們斷奶”,但沒想到我們的后勤還真的早早就把“奶”給斷了。cVC大學生英語網
cVC大學生英語網
But let’s return to that notion of cold calls for a moment.Let’s imagine this were a baccalaureate service in the form of Q & A, and you were asking the questions.“What is the meaning of life, President Faust? What were these four years at Harvard for? President Faust, you must have learned something since you graduated from college exactly 40 years ago?”(Forty years.I’ll say it out loud since every detail of my life — and certainly the year of my Bryn Mawr degree — now seems to be publicly available.But please remember I was young for my class.)cVC大學生英語網
現在還是讓我們回到我剛才提到的提問題的事上吧。讓我們設想下這是個哈佛大學給本科生的畢業服務,是以問答的形式。你們將問些問題,比如:“福校長啊,人生的價值是什么呢?我們上這大學四年是為了什么呢?福校長,你大學畢業到現在的40年里一定學到些什么東西可以教給我們吧?”(40年啊,我就直說了,因為我人生中的每段細節——當然包括我在布林茅爾女子學院的一年——現在似乎都成了公共資源。但請記住在哈佛我可是“新生”)cVC大學生英語網
cVC大學生英語網
In a way, you have been engaging me in this Q & A for the past year.On just these questions, although you have phrased them a bit more narrowly.And I have been trying to figure out how I might answer and, perhaps more intriguingly, why you were asking.cVC大學生英語網
在某種程度上,在過去的一年里你們一直都在讓我從事這種問答。從僅僅這些問題上,即使你們措辭問題都傾向于狹義,而我除了思考怎么做出回答外,更激發我去思考的,是你們為什么問這些問題。cVC大學生英語網
Let me explain.It actually began when I met with the UC just after my appointment was announced in the winter of 2007.Then the questions continued when I had lunch at Kirkland House, dinner at Leverett, when I met with students in my office hours, even with some recent graduates I encountered abroad.The first thing you asked me about wasn’t the curriculum or advising or faculty contact or even student space.In fact, it wasn’t even alcohol policy.Instead, you repeatedly asked me: Why are so many of us going to Wall Street? Why are we going in such numbers from Harvard to finance, consulting, i-banking?cVC大學生英語網
聽我解釋。提問從2007年冬天我的任職被公布時與校方的會面就開始了。然后提問一直持續,不論是我在Kirkland House(哈佛的12個本科生宿舍之一)吃午飯還是在Leverett House(哈佛的12個本科生宿舍之一,本科高年級學生使用)吃晚飯,或是當我在辦公時間與學生會見,甚至是我在與國外認識的剛考來的研究生的談話中。你們問的第一個問題不是關于課業,不是讓我提建議,也不是為了和教員接觸,甚至是想向我提建議。事實上,更不是為了和我討論酒精政策。相反,你們不厭其煩問的卻是:為什么我們之中這么多人將去華爾街?為什么我們大量的學生都從哈佛走向了金融,理財咨詢,投行?cVC大學生英語網
There are a number of ways to think about this question and how to answer it.There is the Willie Sutton approach.You may know that when he was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Professors Claudia Goldin and Larry Katz, whom many of you have encountered in your economics concentration, offer a not dissimilar answer based on their study of student career choices since the seventies.They find it notable that, given the very high pecuniary rewards in finance, many students nonetheless still choose to do something else.Indeed, 37 of you have signed on with Teach for America;one of you will dance tango and work in dance therapy in Argentina;another will be engaged in agricultural development in Kenya;another, with an honors degree in math, will study poetry;another will train as a pilot with the USAF;another will work to combat breast cancer.Numbers of you will go to law school, medical school, and graduate school.But, consistent with the pattern Goldin and Katz have documented, a considerable number of you are selecting finance and consulting.The Crimson’s survey of last year’s class reported that 58 percent of men and 43 percent of women entering the workforce made this choice.This year, even in challenging economic times, the figure is 39 percent.cVC大學生英語網
對于這個問題有多種思考和回答方式。有一種解釋就是如Willie Sutton所說的,一切向“錢”看。(Willie Sutton是個搶銀行犯,被逮住后當被問到為什么去搶銀行時,他說:“Because that is where the money is!”)你們中很多人見過的普通經濟學教授Claudia Goldin 和Larry Katz,基于對上世紀70年代以來的學生的職業選擇的研究,作出了差不多的回答。他們發現了值得注意的一點:即使從事金融業可以得到很高的金錢回報,很多學生仍然選擇做其它的事情。實事上,你們中間有37人簽到了“教育美國人”(Teach for America,美國的一個組織,其作用類似于中國的“希望工程”);1人將去跳探戈舞蹈并在阿根廷從事舞蹈療法;1人將致力于肯尼亞的農業發展;另有1人獲得了數學的榮譽學位,卻轉而去研究詩歌;1人將去美國空軍接受飛行員訓練;還有1人將加入到與乳癌抗戰當中。你們中的很多人將去法學院,醫學院或研究生院。但是,和Goldin 和Katz教授有據證明的一樣,你們中相當一部分人將選擇金融和理財咨詢。Crimson對于上屆學生的調查顯示,在就業的學生中,58%的男生和43%的女生做出了這個選擇。今年,即使在經濟受挑戰的一年,這個數據是39%。cVC大學生英語網
High salaries, the all but irresistible recruiting juggernaut, the reassurance for many of you that you will be in New York working and living and enjoying life alongside your friends, the promise of interesting work — there are lots of ways to explain these choices.For some of you, it is a commitment for only a year or two in any case.Others believe they will best be able to do good by first doing well.Yet, you ask me why you are following this path.cVC大學生英語網
也許是為了高薪——難以抵抗的招聘誘惑,也許是為了留在紐約然后和朋友們一起工作生活和享受人生,也許是為了做自己感興趣的工作——對于這些選擇可以有各種各樣的理由。對你們中的一些人,無論如何那也只是個一兩年的契約。其他的一部分人相信他們只有在過得“富有”了以后才有可能過得“富有”價值。不過,你們依然會問我,為什么要走這條路?cVC大學生英語網
I find myself in some ways less interested in answering your question than in figuring out why you are posing it.If Professors Goldin and Katz have it right;if finance is indeed the “rational choice,” why do you keep raising this issue with me? Why does this seemingly rational choice strike a number of you as not understandable, as not entirely rational, as in some sense less a free choice than a compulsion or necessity? Why does this seem to be troubling so many of you?cVC大學生英語網
我發現我自己有時候對于回答你們的問題并沒有多大興趣,比較而言更感興趣的卻是捉摸你們為什么提那些問題。如果果真如Goldin和Katz教授所說;如果去搞金融確實是一個“理性”的選擇,為什么你們會不停地向我提出這類問題?為什么看似理性的選擇卻讓你們當中相當一部分人認為是令人費解的,偽理性的,或出于某種需求和強迫所作出的并不自由的選擇?為什么這個問題似乎困擾著你們當中的很多一部分人?
You are asking me, I think, about the meaning of life, though you have posed your question in code — in terms of the observable and measurable phenomenon of senior career choice rather than the abstract, unfathomable and almost embarrassing realm of metaphysics.The Meaning of Life — capital M, capital L — is a cliché — easier to deal with as the ironic title of a Monty Python movie or the subject of a Simpsons episode than as a matter about which one would dare admit to harboring serious concern.cVC大學生英語網
我想,你們問我的是:關于人生價值的問題。雖然你們問得比較隱晦——即是些可以觀察和衡量的大四學生職業選擇的問題,而不是那抽象的,晦澀的,甚至會令人難堪的形而上學范疇的問題。人生價值,要人生?還是要價值?作為Monty Python那部片子(指的是六人行里《人生的價值》那一集)的諷刺意味的片名是不難理解的,作為《辛普森一家》(美國特別受歡迎的動畫連續劇)的其中一集的主題也是不難理解的,可是當關系到“生存問題”的時候,就是不那么好辦了。cVC大學生英語網
But let’s for a moment abandon our Harvard savoir faire, our imperturbability, our pretense of invulnerability, and try to find the beginnings of some answers to your question.cVC大學生英語網
那讓我們還是暫時摘下那戴著的哈佛面具,收起那缺乏熱情的冷漠,卸下我們看似刀槍不入的偽裝,讓我們嘗試去探尋你們問的一些問題的答案。(我覺得校長能說出這句話真太棒了!我想她當時面對的聽眾的表情和我們在聽課時的表情差不多。)cVC大學生英語網
I think you are worried because you want your lives not just to be conventionally successful, but to be meaningful, and you are not sure how those two goals fit together.You are not sure if a generous starting salary at a prestigious brand name organization together with the promise of future wealth will feed your soul.cVC大學生英語網
我覺得,你們之所以擔憂,是因為你們不想僅僅是獲得傳統意義上的成功,而且要活得有價值。可是你們不清楚“魚”與“熊掌”怎樣才能“兼得”。你們不清楚是否,一家擁有著名品牌的企業提供的數目可觀的并且預期著你未來財富的起薪,可以讓你們的靈魂得到滿足。cVC大學生英語網
Why are you worried? Partly it is our fault.We have told you from the moment you arrived here that you will be the leaders responsible for the future, that you are the best and the brightest on whom we will all depend, that you will change the world.We have burdened you with no small expectations.And you have already done remarkable things to fulfill them: your dedication to service demonstrated in your extracurricular engagements, your concern about the future of the planet expressed in your vigorous championing of sustainability, your reinvigoration of American politics through engagement in this year’s presidential contests.cVC大學生英語網
然而,你們為什么擔憂呢?這部分地是我們的責任。當你們一踏進這個學校,我們就告訴你們:你們將成為領導未來的中堅人物,你們將成為美國人民依賴的最頂尖、最杰出的精英,你們將改變整個世界。我們“望子成龍”的期望使你們背上了負擔。而你們為了實現這些期望也已經做得很好:在對課外活動的從事中,你們展示出對于服務性工作的奉獻精神;從對可持續發展的熱情擁護,你們表達出對這個星球的關懷;通過對今年總統競選的參與,你們做出了希望使美國政治重新恢復活力的實際行動。cVC大學生英語網
But many of you are now wondering how these commitments fit with a career choice.Is it necessary to decide between remunerative work and meaningful work? If it were to be either/or, which would you choose? Is there a way to have both?cVC大學生英語網
但你們中的很多人現在會問,“怎樣才能把做這些有價值的事情和一個職業選擇結合起來呢?”“是否必須在一份有報酬卻沒價值的工作和一份有價值卻沒報酬的工作間做出抉擇呢?”“如果是一個單選題,您會選哪一個?”“有沒有折中的辦法?”cVC大學生英語網
You are asking me and yourselves fundamental questions about values, about trying to reconcile potentially competing goods, about recognizing that it may not be possible to have it all.You are at a moment of transition that requires making choices.And selecting one option — a job, a career, a graduate program — means not selecting others.Every decision means loss as well as gain — possibilities foregone as well as possibilities embraced.Your question to me is partly about that — about loss of roads not taken.cVC大學生英語網
你們在問我,也是問你們自己問題,即關于價值觀的根本性的問題。你們在試圖調解兩個商品潛在的相互競爭,承認也許不可能兼得兩者。你們在經歷一次人生的轉折,而這個轉折需要你們自己做出一些決定。選擇一條道路——一份工作、一項事業或一個研究生課題——不單單是在選擇東西。每個決定都意味著“得”與“失”——過去與未來的種種可能。你們問我的問題其實有幾分是關于“失”,即你放棄的那條道路讓你失去了什么。
Finance, Wall Street, “recruiting” have become the symbol of this dilemma, representing a set of issues that is much broader and deeper than just one career path.These are issues that in one way or another will at some point face you all — as you graduate from medical school and choose a specialty — family practice or dermatology, as you decide whether to use your law degree to work for a corporate firm or as a public defender, as you decide whether to stay in teaching after your two years with TFA.You are worried because you want to have both a meaningful life and a successful one;you know you were educated to make a difference not just for yourself, forcVC大學生英語網
your own comfort and satisfaction, but for the world around you.And now you have to figure out the way to make that possible.cVC大學生英語網
金融、華爾街,“招聘”一詞已經成了這種博弈的符號,代表著比僅僅選擇一條職業道路更廣更深的一系列問題。這些問題早晚將面臨著你們每個人——如果你是從醫學院畢業,你將選擇一個具體從醫方向——做私人醫生還是專攻皮膚病,如果你學的是法律,你將決定是用你的法律知識為一個公司法人賣命還是成為公眾的正義化身,或是在 “教育美國人”兩年后你決定是否繼續從教。你們之所以擔憂,是因為你們想擁有充滿價值的同時又是成功的人生;你們知道,你們被教育要有大的作為,不僅僅是為了個人,為了自己生活地舒適,而是要讓周圍的世界因此而改變。(個人最喜歡這一句。——李江洪)因此你們才不得不思考怎樣才能讓其成為可能。cVC大學生英語網
I think there is a second reason you are worried — related to but not entirely distinct from the first.You want to be happy.You have flocked to courses like “Positive Psychology” — Psych 1504 — and “The Science of Happiness” in search of tips.But how do we find happiness? I can offer one encouraging answer: get older.Turns out that survey data show older people — that is, my age — report themselves happier than do younger ones.But perhaps you don’t want to wait.cVC大學生英語網
我認為你們之所以擔憂有第二個原因——和第一個有關系但不是完全一樣。你們希望過得幸福。你們蜂擁著去修“積極心理學”這門課——課程代號“心1504”——和“幸福的科學”這門課,不就是為了聽點人生“小貼士”?可是,我們怎樣才能獲得幸福?在這兒,我可以提供一個啟發性的答案:變老。調查數據顯示年長的人——也就是我這把年紀的人——覺得自己比年輕人更幸福。不過,很可能你們沒有人愿意去等著去看這個答案。cVC大學生英語網
I have listened to you talk about the choices ahead of you, I have heard you articulate your worries about the relationship of success and happiness — perhaps, more accurately, how to define success so that it yields and encompasses real happiness, not just money and prestige.The most remunerative choice, you fear, may not be the most meaningful and the most satisfying.But you wonder how you would ever survive as an artist or an actor or a public servant or a high school teacher? How would you ever figure out a path by which to make your way in journalism? Would you ever find a job as an English professor after you finished who knows how many years of graduate school and dissertation writing?cVC大學生英語網
在聊天時我聽過你們談到你們目前所面臨的選擇,我聽到你們一字一句地說出你們對于成功與幸福的關系的憂慮——也許,更精確地講,怎樣去定義成功才能使它具有或包含真正的幸福,而不僅僅是金錢和榮譽。你們害怕,報酬最豐厚的選擇,也許不是最有價值的和最令人滿意的選擇。但是你們也擔心,如果作為一個藝術家或是一個演員,一個人民公仆或是一個中學老師,該如何才能生存下去?然而,你們可曾想過,如果你的夢想是新聞業,怎樣才能想出一條通往夢想的道路呢?難道你會在讀了不知多少年研,寫了不知多少畢業論文終于畢業后,找一個英語教授的工作?cVC大學生英語網
cVC大學生英語網
The answer is: you won’t know till you try.But if you don’t try to do what you love — whether it is painting or biology or finance;if you don’t pursue what you think will be most meaningful, you will regret it.Life is long.There is always time for Plan B.But don’t begin with it.cVC大學生英語網
答案是:你不試試就永遠都不會知道。但如果你不試著去做自己熱愛的事情,不管是玩泥巴還是生物還是金融,如果連你自己都不去追求你認為最有價值的事,你終將后悔。人生路漫漫,你總有時間去給自己留“后路”,但可別一開始就走“后路”。
I think of this as my parking space theory of career choice, and I have been sharing it with students for decades.Don’t park 20 blocks from your destination because you think you’ll never find a space.Go where you want to be and then circle back to where you have to be.cVC大學生英語網
我把這叫做我的關于職業選擇的“泊車”理論,幾十年來我一直都在向學生們“兜售”我的這個理論。不要因為怕到了目的地找不到停車位而把車停在距離目的地20個路口的地方。直接到達你想去的地方,哪怕再繞回來停,你暫時停的地方只是你被迫停的地方。cVC大學生英語網
cVC大學生英語網
You may love investment banking or finance or consulting.It might be just right for you.Or, you might be like the senior I met at lunch at Kirkland who had just returned from an interview on the West Coast with a prestigious consulting firm.“Why am I doing this?” she asked.“I hate flying, I hate hotels, I won’t like this job.” Find work you love.It is hard to be happy if you spend more than half your waking hours doing something you don’t.cVC大學生英語網
你也許喜歡做投行,或是做金融抑或做理財咨詢。都可能是適合你的。那也許真的就是適合你的。或許你也會像我在Kirkland House見到的那個大四學生一樣,她剛從美國西海岸一家著名理財咨詢公司的面試回來。“我為什么要做這個?”她說,“我討厭坐飛機,我討厭住賓館,我是不會喜歡這份工作的。”找到你熱愛的工作。如果你把你一天中醒著的一大半時間用來做你不喜歡的事情,你是很難感到幸福的。cVC大學生英語網
But what is ultimately most important here is that you are asking the question —cVC大學生英語網
not just of me but of yourselves.You are choosing roads and at the same time challenging your own choices.You have a notion of what you want your life to be and you are not sure the road you are taking is going to get you there.This is the best news.And it is also, I hope, to some degree, our fault.Noticing your life, reflecting upon it, considering how you can live it well, wondering how you can do good: These are perhaps the most valuable things that a liberal arts education has equipped you to do.A liberal education demands that you live self-consciously.It prepares you to seek and define the meaning inherent in all you do.It has made you an analyst and critic of yourself, a person in this way supremely equipped to take charge of your life and how it unfolds.It is in this sense that the liberal arts are liberal — as in liberare — to free.They empower you with the possibility of exercising agency, of discovering meaning, of making choices.The surest way to have a meaningful, happy life is to commit yourself to striving for it.Don’t settle.Be prepared to change routes.Remember the impossible expectations we have of you, and even as you recognize they are impossible, remember how important they are as a lodestar guiding you toward something that matters to you and to the world.The meaning of your life is for you to make.cVC大學生英語網
但是我在這兒說的最重要的是:你們在問那些問題——不僅是問我,而是在問你們自己。你們正在選擇人生的道路,同時也在對自己的選擇提出質疑。你們知道自己想過什么樣的生活,也知道你們將行的道路不一定會把你們帶到想去的地方。這樣其實很好。某種程度上,我倒希望這是我們的錯。我們一直在標榜人生,像鏡子一樣照出未來你們的模樣,思考你們怎么可以過得幸福,探索你們怎樣才能去做些對社會有價值的事:這些也許是文科教育可以給你們“裝備”的最有價值的東西。文科教育要求你們要活得“明白”。它使你探索和定義你做的每件事情背后的價值。它讓你成為一個經常分析和反省自己的人。而這樣的人完全能夠掌控自己的人生或未來。從這個道理上講,文科——照它的字面意思——才使你們自由。(英語里文科是Liberal Art,照字面解釋是自由的藝術)學文科可以讓你有機會去進行理論的實踐,去發現你所做的選擇的價值。想過上有價值的,幸福的生活,最可靠的途徑就是為了你的目標去奮斗。不要安于現狀得過且過。隨時準備著改變人生的道路。記住我們對你們的我覺得是“過于崇高”的期待,可能你們自己也承認那些期待是有點“太高了”。不過如果想做些對于你們自己或是這個世界有點價值的事情,記住它們,它們將會像北斗一樣指引著你們。你們人生的價值將由你們去實現!cVC大學生英語網
I can’t wait to see how you all turn out.Do come back, from time to time, and let us know.cVC大學生英語網
我都等不及想看看你們都最終會如何。畢業以后和學校常聯系,常回“家”看看,讓我們了解你們的情況。