We are our choice

　　Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy-they're given after all. Choicescan be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'llprobably be to the detriment of your choices.

　　——Jeff Bezos

　　聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。天赋得来很容易——毕竟它们与生俱来。而选择则颇为不易。如果一不小心，你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。

　　——杰夫·贝索斯

　　背景资料

　　杰夫·贝索斯（Jeff Bezos），创办了全球最大的网上书店Amazon（亚马逊），并成为经营最成功的电子商务网站之一，引领时代潮流。更可贵的是，随着互联网泡沫破灭，他面对“破产”的批评，不畏艰辛，在保持持续增长的情况下，步步走向盈利，重新树立起世界对电子商务的信心。贝索斯依然是全球电子商务的第一象征。1999年当选《时代》周刊年度人物。2013年8月，贝索斯以个人名义花费2.5亿美元收购《华盛顿邮报》。2014年2月，年仅50岁的杰夫·贝索斯以2250亿元人民币高居2014年世界富豪榜第7位。亚马逊2013全球经济500强排名第149名。

　　本篇节选自杰夫·贝索斯2010年在普林斯顿毕业典礼的演讲，在演讲中作者以身说法，呼吁年轻人要勇于创新，做出人生正确的抉择，进而成就辉煌的人生。

　　We are our choice

　　——Jeff Bezos

　　What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices.

　　Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy-they're given after all. Choices can behard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably beto the detriment of your choices.

　　This is a group with many gifts. I'm sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capablebrain. I'm confident that's the case because admission is competitive and if there weren't somesigns that you're clever, the dean of admission wouldn't have let you in.

　　Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels . We humans-plodding as we are-will astonish ourselves. We'll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lotof it. Atom by atom, we'll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. Thismonth comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we've synthesized life. In thecoming years, we'll not only synthesize it, but we'll engineer it to specifications . I believe you'lleven see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton- all thecurious from the ages would have wanted to be alive right now. As a civilization , we will haveso 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 wasgrowing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and theidea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles-something that simply couldn't exist inthe physical world-was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been marriedfor a year.

　　I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing thatprobably wouldn't work since most startups don't, and I wasn't 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. Asa young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filledtires, a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms toentrap my siblings . I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow mypassion .

　　I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and Ihad a brilliant boss that I much admired . I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start acompany selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listenedcarefully to me and finally said, "That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an evenbetter idea for someone who didn't already have a good job."That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours beforemaking a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately , Idecided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I wouldalways be haunted by a decision not to try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safepath to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice.

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

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

　　Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

　　Will you follow dogma , 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 ?

　　Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, 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 swashbuckling ?

　　When it's tough , will you give up, or will you be relentless ?

　　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 hazard a prediction . When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflectionnarrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be mostcompact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are ourchoices. Build yourself a great story.

　　Thank you and good luck!

　　参考译文

　　选择塑造人生

　　——杰夫·贝索斯

　　今天我想对你们说的是，天赋和选择的不同。聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。

　　天赋得来很容易——毕竟它们与生俱来。而选择则颇为不易。如果一不小心，你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。

　　在座各位都拥有许多天赋。我确信你们的天赋之一就是拥有精明能干的头脑。之所以如此确信，是因为入学竞争十分激烈，如果你们不能表现出聪明智慧，便没有资格进入这所学校。

　　你们的聪明才智必定会派上用场，因为你们将在一片充满奇迹的土地上行进。我们人类，尽管跬步前行，却终将令自己大吃一惊。我们能够想方设法制造清洁能源，也能够一个原子一个原子地组装微型机械，使之穿过细胞壁，然后修复细胞。这个月，有一个引人注目、不可避免的事情发生了——人类终于合成了生命。在未来几年，我们不仅会合成生命，还会按说明书驱动它们。我相信你们甚至会看到我们了解了人类的大脑，儒勒·凡尔纳，马克·吐温，伽利略，牛顿——所有那些充满好奇之心的人都希望能够活到现在。作为文明人，我们会拥有如此之多的天赋，就像是坐在我面前的你们，每一个生命个体都拥有许多独特的天赋。

　　你们要如何运用这些天赋呢？你们会为自己的天赋感到骄傲，还是会为自己的选择感到骄傲？

　　16年前，我萌生了创办亚马逊的想法。彼时我面对的现实是互联网使用量以每年2300％的速度增长，我从未看到或听说过任何增长如此快速的东西。创建涵盖几百万种书籍的网上书店的想法令我兴奋异常，因为这个东西在物理世界里根本无法存在。那时我刚刚30岁，结婚才一年。

　　我告诉妻子MacKenzie想辞去工作，然后去做这件疯狂的事情，很可能会失败，因为大部分创业公司都是如此，而且我不确定那之后会发生什么。MacKenzie她也是普林斯顿大学的毕业生，就坐在第二排告诉我，我应该放手一搏。在我还是一个男孩儿的时候，我是车库发明家。我曾用水泥填充的轮胎制作了一个自动关门器、用雨伞和锡箔做了一个太阳能灶，烤盘报警器。我一直想做一个发明家，MacKenzie支持我追随内心的热情。

　　我当时在纽约一家金融公司工作，同事是一群非常聪明的人，我的老板也很有智慧，我很敬佩他。我告诉我的老板我想开办一家在网上卖书的公司。他带我在中央公园漫步良久，认真地听我讲完，最后说：“听起来真是一个很好的主意，但是对那些目前没有谋到一份好工作的人来说，这个主意会更好。”

　　这一逻辑对我而言颇有道理，他说服我在作出最终决定之前再考虑48小时。那样想来，这个决定确实很艰难，但是最终，我决定拼一次。我认为自己不会为尝试过后的失败而遗憾，倒是有所决定但完全不付诸行动会一直煎熬着我。在深思熟虑之后，我选择了那条不安全的道路，去追随我内心的热情。我为那个决定感到骄傲。

　　明天，非常现实地说，你们从零塑造自己人生的时代即将开启。

　　你们会如何运用自己的天赋？你们又会作出怎样的抉择？

　　你们是被惯性所引导，还是追随自己内心的热情？

　　你们会墨守成规，还是勇于创新？

　　你们会选择安逸的生活，还是选择一个奉献与冒险的人生？

　　你们会屈从于批评，还是会坚守信念？

　　你们会掩饰错误，还是会坦诚道歉？

　　你们会因害怕拒绝而掩饰内心，还是会在面对爱情时勇往直前？

　　你们想要平稳安逸，还是想要搏击风浪？

　　你们会在严峻的现实之下选择放弃，还是会义无反顾地前行？

　　你们要做愤世嫉俗者，还是踏实的建设者？

　　你们要不计一切代价地展示聪明，还是选择善良？

　　我要做一个预测：在你们80岁时某个追忆往昔的时刻，只有你一个人静静对内心诉说着你的人生故事，其中最为充实、最有意义的那段讲述，会被你们作出的一系列决定所填满。最后，是选择塑造了我们的人生。为你自己塑造一个伟大的人生故事。

　　谢谢，祝你们好运！