名人演講:We Are What We Choose 選擇塑造人生[杰夫·貝索斯]

We Are What We Choose 選擇塑造人生

—— Jeff Bezos 杰夫·貝索斯

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[00:02.29]As a kid,

[00:06.36]I spent my summers

[00:07.84]with my grandparents

[00:10.20]on their ranch in Texas.

[00:12.61]I helped fix windmills,

[00:14.91]vaccinate cattle,

[00:16.92]and do other chores.

[00:20.03]We also watched soap operas

[00:21.65]every afternoon,

[00:23.20]especially Days of our Lives.

[00:27.06]My grandparents

[00:28.88]belonged to a Caravan Club,

[00:31.68]a group of Airstream

[00:33.42]trailer owners

[00:34.93]who travel together

[00:36.70]around the U.S. and Canada.

[00:39.25]And every few summers,

[00:41.44]we'd join the caravan.

[00:44.74]We'd hitch up the Airstream

[00:46.61]to my grandfather's car,

[00:49.46]and off we'd go

[00:52.67]in a line with 300 other

[00:55.22]Airstream adventurers.

[00:58.02]I loved and worshipped

[00:59.58]my grandparents

[01:02.31]and I really looked forward

[01:03.62]to these trips.

[01:06.51]On one particular trip,

[01:09.00]I was about 10 years old.

[01:11.61]I was rolling around

[01:14.49]in the big bench seat

[01:16.42]in the back of the car.

[01:19.03]My grandfather was driving.

[01:21.66]And my grandmother

[01:23.53]had the passenger seat.

[01:25.80]She smoked throughout these trips,

[01:30.62]and I hated the smell.

[01:38.92]At that age,

[01:40.62]I'd take any excuse

[01:42.92]to make estimates

[01:43.92]and do minor arithmetic.

[01:45.91]I'd calculate our gas mileage

[01:47.96]figure out useless statistics

[01:50.23]on things like grocery spending.

[01:53.53]I'd been hearing an ad campaign

[01:55.33]about smoking.

[01:57.69]I can't remember the details,

[02:00.01]but basically the ad said,

[02:02.06]every puff of a cigarette

[02:04.24]takes some number of minutes

[02:05.80]off of your life:

[02:07.44]I think it might have been

[02:08.87]two minutes per puff.

[02:10.99]At any rate,

[02:12.36]I decided to do the math

[02:13.66]for my grandmother.

[02:15.78]I estimated the number

[02:16.85]of cigarettes per day,

[02:19.11]estimated the number of puffs

[02:20.60]per cigarette and so on.

[02:22.71]When I was satisfied that

[02:24.10]I'd come up with a reasonable number,

[02:26.62]I poked my head

[02:27.51]into the front of the car,

[02:29.56]tapped my grandmother

[02:31.24]on the shoulder,

[02:32.56]and proudly proclaimed,

[02:34.61]At two minutes per puff,

[02:37.32]you've taken nine years off your life

[02:44.28]I have a very vivid memory

[02:45.47]of what happened next,

[02:48.81]and it was not what I had expected.

[02:52.70]I expected to be applauded

[02:53.82]for my cleverness

[02:56.20]and my arithmetic skills.

[03:01.05]Jeff, you're so smart.

[03:04.91]You had to have made some tricky estimates,

[03:07.98]figure out the number

[03:08.98]of minutes in a year

[03:10.89]and do some division.

[03:14.50]That's not what happened.

[03:17.18]Instead,

[03:19.06]my grandmother burst into tears.

[03:26.01]I sat

[03:27.19]in the backseat

[03:28.36]and did not know what to do.

[03:29.82]While my grandmother was crying,

[03:31.81]my grandfather,

[03:33.49]who had been driving in silence,

[03:35.39]pulled over

[03:36.63]onto the shoulder of the highway.

[03:38.76]He got out of the car

[03:40.47]and came around

[03:41.19]and opened my door

[03:42.80]and waited for me to follow.

[03:44.86]Was I in trouble?

[03:47.09]My grandfather was a highly intelligent,

[03:49.40]quiet man.

[03:51.01]He had never said a harsh word to me,

[03:53.38]maybe this was to be the first time?

[03:55.80]Or maybe he would ask

[03:57.95]that I get back in the car

[03:59.94]and apologize to my grandmother.

[04:02.37]I had no experience

[04:03.49]in this realm

[04:05.14]with my grandparents

[04:06.44]and no way to gauge

[04:08.35]what the consequences might be.

[04:11.28]We stopped beside the trailer.

[04:14.37]My grandfather looked at me,

[04:17.51]and after a bit of silence,

[04:19.52]he gently and calmly said,

[04:23.11]Jeff,

[04:24.88]one day

[04:26.69]you'll understand

[04:28.80]that it's harder to be kind

[04:31.46]than clever.

[04:38.18]But what I want to talk to you

[04:39.64]about today

[04:41.15]is the difference

[04:42.44]between gifts and choices.

[04:45.98]Cleverness is a gift,

[04:48.27]kindness is a choice.

[04:50.96]Gifts are easy

[04:52.50]they're given after all.

[04:55.13]Choices can be hard.

[04:57.37]You can seduce yourself

[04:58.88]with your gifts

[04:59.62]if you're not careful,

[05:01.26]and if you do,

[05:02.56]it'll probably be to

[05:03.81]the detriment of your choices.

[05:06.61]This is a group with many gifts.

[05:09.28]I'm sure one of your gifts

[05:10.84]is the gift of a smart

[05:11.98]and capable brain.

[05:14.38]I'm confident that's the case

[05:16.06]because admission is competitive

[05:18.84]and if there weren't some signs

[05:20.34]that you're clever,

[05:21.71]the dean of admission

[05:22.76]wouldn't have let you in.

[05:26.98]Your smarts will come in handy

[05:28.22]because you will travel

[05:29.96]in a land of marvels.

[05:32.65]We humans,

[05:33.52]plodding as we are,

[05:35.45]will astonish ourselves.

[05:37.75]We'll invent ways to generate

[05:39.18]clean energy and

[05:40.18]a lot of it.

[05:42.01]Atom by atom,

[05:43.59]we'll assemble small machines

[05:45.56]that will enter cell walls

[05:46.85]and make repairs.

[05:48.70]This month comes the extraordinary

[05:51.32]but inevitable news

[05:53.23]that we've synthesized life.

[05:55.59]In the coming years,

[05:56.57]we'll not only synthesize it,

[05:58.75]but engineer it to specifications.

[06:01.92]I believe you'll even see us understand

[06:03.72]the human brain.

[06:05.59]Jules Verne,

[06:07.02]Mark Twain,

[06:08.27]Galileo,

[06:09.59]Newton

[06:10.89]all the curious from the ages

[06:13.68]would have wanted to be alive

[06:15.73]most of all right now.

[06:18.93]As a civilization,

[06:20.68]we will have so many gifts,

[06:23.41]just as you as individuals

[06:25.03]have so many individual gifts

[06:26.96]as you sit before me.

[06:29.26]How will you use these gifts?

[06:31.31]And will you take pride in your gifts

[06:33.86]or pride in your choices?

[06:36.35]I got the idea to start Amazon

[06:38.65]16 years ago.

[06:41.39]I came across the fact

[06:42.26]that Web usage

[06:43.81]was growing at 2,300 percent per year.

[06:46.74]I'd never seen or heard

[06:47.99]of anything that grew that fast,

[06:52.40]and the idea of building an online bookstore

[06:54.64]with millions of titles

[06:56.57]something that simply couldn't exist

[06:58.18]in the physical world

[06:59.68]was very exciting to me.

[07:02.29]I just turned 30 years old,

[07:04.47]and I'd been married for a year.

[07:06.63]I told my wife MacKenzie

[07:08.80]that I wanted to quit my job

[07:10.67]and go do this crazy thing

[07:12.97]that probably wouldn't work

[07:14.71]since most startups don't,

[07:16.83]and I wasn't sure what would happen

[07:18.51]after that.

[07:20.48]MacKenzie,

[07:21.96]also a Princeton grad

[07:23.33]and sitting here in the second row,

[07:25.51]told me I should go for it.

[07:29.53]As a young boy,

[07:30.34]I'd been a garage inventor.

[07:34.57]I'd invented an automatic gate closer

[07:36.69]out of cement-filled tires,

[07:38.79]a solar cooker

[07:40.33]that didn't work very well,

[07:41.52]out of an umbrella

[07:42.52]and aluminum foil,

[07:44.76]baking-pan alarms

[07:46.00]to entrap my siblings.

[07:48.36]I'd always wanted to be an inventor,

[07:50.79]and she wanted me to follow my passion.

[07:54.21]I was working

[07:55.83]at a financial firm

[07:57.14]in New York City

[07:58.32]with a bunch of very smart people,

[08:00.90]and I had a brilliant boss

[08:02.08]that I much admired.

[08:04.26]I went to my boss

[08:06.65]and told him I wanted to start a company

[08:08.83]selling books on the Internet.

[08:11.77]He took me on a long walk

[08:12.95]in Central Park,

[08:14.63]listened carefully to me,

[08:17.56]and finally said,

[08:19.48]That sounds like a really good idea

[08:22.28]but it would be an even better idea

[08:24.65]for someone who didn't already

[08:26.09]have a good job.

[08:31.24]That logic made some sense to me,

[08:34.54]and he convinced me

[08:35.28]to think about it

[08:36.09]for 48 hours

[08:37.69]before making a final decision.

[08:42.69]Seen in that light,

[08:44.40]it really was a difficult choice,

[08:47.01]but ultimately,

[08:48.24]I decided I had to give it a shot.

[08:51.32]I didn't think I'd regret

[08:53.03]trying and failing.

[08:55.47]And I suspected

[08:56.56]I would always be haunted

[08:58.49]by a decision to not try at all.

[09:03.46]After much consideration,

[09:05.76]I took the less safe path

[09:08.70]to follow my passion,

[09:11.04]and I'm proud of that choice.

[09:16.11]Tomorrow,

[09:17.52]in a very real sense,

[09:19.32]your life

[09:20.85]the life you author

[09:22.62]from scratch on your own

[09:24.86]begins.

[09:27.24]How will you use your gifts?

[09:29.27]What choices will you make?

[09:31.52]Will inertia be your guide,

[09:35.22]or will you follow your passions?

[09:39.09]Will you follow dogma,

[09:41.36]or will you be original?

[09:45.25]Will you choose a life of ease,

[09:48.14]or a life of service and adventure?

[09:52.70]Will you wilt under CRIticism,

[09:56.90]or will you follow your convictions?

[10:00.60]Will you bluff it out

[10:01.56]when you're wrong,

[10:03.51]or will you apologize?

[10:07.16]Will you guard your heart

[10:09.66]against rejection,

[10:12.12]or will you act

[10:13.65]when you fall in love?

[10:16.41]Will you play it safe,

[10:18.72]or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

[10:22.70]When it's tough,

[10:24.84]will you give up,

[10:26.96]or will you be relentless?

[10:31.92]Will you be a cynic,

[10:35.43]or will you be a builder?

[10:40.53]Will you be clever

[10:43.61]at the expense of others,

[10:47.25]or will you be kind?

[10:54.12]I will hazard a prediction.

[10:57.02]When you are 80 years old,

[10:59.79]and in a quiet moment

[11:02.49]of reflection

[11:05.29]narrating for only yourself

[11:08.26]the most personal version

[11:10.66]of your life story,

[11:13.50]the telling

[11:16.13]that will be most compact

[11:18.12]and meaningful

[11:19.83]will be the series of choices

[11:22.12]you have made.

[11:24.17]In the end,

[11:25.55]we are our choices.

[11:28.18]Build yourself a great story.

[11:31.59]Thank you and good luck!