名校励志英语演讲 42:我人生中的三个故事

 　　My second story is about love and loss.

　　我的第二个故事是关于好恶与得失。

　　I was lucky—I 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 two billion dollar company with over 4000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation—the Macintosh—a 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 diverge¹ and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. And 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 devastating².

　　幸运的是，我在很早的时候就发现自己喜欢做什么。我在20岁的时候和沃兹（苹果公司创始人之一）在我父母的车库里办起了苹果公司。我们干的很卖力，十年后，苹果公司从车库里只有我们两个人的小公司发展成为一个拥有20亿美元资产、4,000余名员工的大企业。那时，我们刚刚推出了我们最好的产品——Macintosh电脑——那是在第9年，我刚满30岁。可接下来，我被解雇了。你怎么会被自己办的公司解雇呢？是这样的，随着苹果公司越做越大，我们聘请了一位我认为非常有才华的人和我一起管理公司。在开始的一年多时间里，一切都很顺利。可是，随后我们两人对公司前景的看法开始出现分歧，最后我们反目了，而董事会站在了他那一边。所以在30岁那年，我离开了公司，而且这件事闹得满城风雨。我失去了成年后的整个生活重心，这使我心力交瘁。

　　I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down—that I had dropped the baton³ as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me: I 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 decided⁴ to start over.

　　一连几个月，我真的不知道该怎么办。我感到自己给老一代的创业者丢脸了——因为我扔掉了交到自己手里的接力棒。我去见了戴维·帕卡德（惠普公司创始人之一）和鲍勃·诺伊斯（英特尔公司创建者之一），想为把事情搞得这么糟糕说声道歉。这次失败弄得沸沸扬扬，我甚至想过逃离硅谷。但是，渐渐地，我开始有了一个想法——我仍然热爱我过去做的一切。在苹果公司发生的这些风波丝毫没有改变这一点。我虽然被拒之门外，但我仍然深爱我的事业。于是，我决定从头开始。

　　release

　　vt. 发行；释放

　　eg. He was released from prison after serving a sentence of five years.

　　他在服刑五年后从狱中释放出来。

　　vision

　　n. 洞察力；视野

　　eg.An enterpriser should have the wide vision.

　　一个企业家应具有开阔的视野。

　　diverge

　　vi. 分歧

　　eg. Our position diverges⁵ from that of the ministry⁶.

　　我们的态度与部里的不一致。

　　have a falling out

　　吵翻；反目

　　eg. I don't want to have a falling out with you over this, can we try to just calm down and talk it out?

　　我可不想为这事跟你翻脸，我们能不能尽量都冷静些，然后再谈呢？

　　devastating

　　adj. 毁灭性的

　　eg. If we link to the wrong places, it can be devastating.

　　可要是链接到错误的地方，结果就可能是毁灭性的。

　　baton

　　n. 指挥棒;接力棒

　　eg. The policeman used his baton to battle the rascal⁷.

　　警察用警棍和歹徒搏斗。

　　screw up

　　弄糟；搞乱；拧紧

　　eg. He always screwed himself up before going into her home.

　　他进她家前总是情绪紧张。

1 diverge   

v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向

参考例句：

• This is where our opinions diverge from each other.这就是我们意见产生分歧之处。
• Don't diverge in your speech.发言不要离题。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 diverges   

分开( diverge的第三人称单数 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳

参考例句：

• The beam of flashlight diverges, but it can be refocused with lenses. 一个发散的闪光灯束可以用透镜重新聚焦。
• At the end of the wood, the path diverges to the left. 在树林的尽头，小路向左拐去。

6 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

7 rascal   

n.流氓；不诚实的人

参考例句：

• If he had done otherwise,I should have thought him a rascal.如果他不这样做，我就认为他是个恶棍。
• The rascal was frightened into holding his tongue.这坏蛋吓得不敢往下说了。