07 Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (C)求知若饥，虚心若愚 (C)

My second story is about love and loss.

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 10years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a two billion dollar company with over 4000employees. 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 diverge 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 devastating.

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 baton 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 decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, To y Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, and I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

我的第二个故事，有关爱与失去。

我非常幸运，年轻时就发现自己爱做什么事。我二十岁时，跟沃兹尼·艾克在我爸妈的车库里开创了苹果计算机的事业。我们拼命工作，苹果计算机在十年间从一间车库里的两个小伙子扩展成了一家员工超过四千人、市价二十亿美元的公司，在那之前一年推出了我们最棒的作品--Macintosh，而我才刚迈入人生的而立之年，就被炒了鱿鱼。

一个人怎么会被自己创办的公司炒鱿鱼呢？好吧，当苹果计算机成长后，我请了一个我以为他在经营公司上很有才干的家伙来，他在头几年也确实干得不错。可是我们对未来的愿景不同，最后只好分道扬镳，董事会站在他那边，炒了我鱿鱼，公开把我踢了出去。曾经是我整个成年生活重心的东西不见了，我不知所措，我失去了贯穿我成年生活的重心，遭受重创。

有几个月，我实在不知道要干什么好。我觉得我令企业界的前辈们失望了，我把他们交给我的接力棒弄丢了。我见了创办惠普的戴维·帕卡德和创办英特尔的鲍勃·诺伊斯，跟他们说我很抱歉把事情搞砸了。我成了人人皆知的失败者，我甚至想要离开硅谷。但是渐渐的，我发现，我还是喜爱我做的事情，在苹果经历的事件没有丝毫改变我爱做的事。我被否定了，但我的热忱不改，所以我决定从头来过。

当时我没发现，但是现在看来，被苹果开除，是我所经历过最好的事情。成功的沉重被凤凰涅槃的轻松所取代，每件事情都不那么确定，让我以自由之躯进入这辈子最有创意的阶段。接下来五年，我开了一家叫作NeXT的公司，又开了一家叫作皮克斯的公司，结识了后来成为我太太的曼妙女郎。皮克斯接着制作了世界上第一部全计算机动画电影——《玩具总动员》——现在这家公司是世界上最成功的动画制作公司。然后，苹果买下了NeXT，我回到了苹果，我们在NeXT发展的技术成了苹果后来复兴的核心。我跟劳伦斯也拥有了幸福家庭。

单词解析 Word Analysis

garage ['gærɑːʒ] n． 汽车修理厂；车库 v． 把……放入车库

例 He sent his car to the garage for repair.

他把汽车送到修车厂修理。

release [rɪ'liːs] n． 释放；让渡；发行 v． 释放；让与；准予发表；发射

例 The prisoner was questioned before his release.

囚犯被释放之前受到了审问。

diverge [daɪ'vɜːdʒ] v． 分歧；分叉

例 Our views diverged so greatly that it was impossible to agree.

我们的观点存在着严重的分歧，绝无调和余地。

devastating ['devəsteɪtɪŋ] adj． 毁灭性的；破坏性的；惊人的；压倒性的；有魅力的

例 The area is subject to devastating seasonal winds.

这个地区常遭破坏性季风的袭击。

previous['priːviəs] adj．以前的；先于；在……之前

例 His previous attempts had been unsuccessful.

他以前的尝试没有成功。

entrepreneur ['ɒntrəprə'nɜː(r)] n． 企业家；承包商；主办者

例 The entrepreneur has become a news figure.

这位企业家变成了新闻人物。

baton ['bætɒn] n． 指挥棒；接力棒；警棍；权杖；短棍

例 The conductor swept her baton through the air.

指挥家将她的指挥棒在空中挥舞。

animate [‘ænɪmeɪt] v．使有生气；赋予生命；鼓励 adj．有生命的；有活力的

例 A smile animated her face.

一丝笑容使她脸上平添了生气。

renaissance [rɪ'neɪsns] n． 文艺复兴；再生

例 Her book captures the quintessence of Renaissance humanism.

她的书抓住了文艺复兴时期人文主义的精髓。

语法知识点 Grammar Points

① Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me……

这个句子中有一个结构“run the company”，表示“经营公司”。

例 Career managers run the company for you—in theory.

职业经理替你经营这个公司——理论上是这样。

② When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.

这个句子中有一个结构“side with”，表示“支持，站在……的一边”。

例 The public opinion believes that it shows China's firm support for the UN and multilateralism and indicates that China will always stand side by side with developing countries.

舆论普遍认为，这充分展示了中国对联合国和多边主义的坚定支持，表明中国始终与广大发展中国家站在一起。

③ ...I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly.

这个句子中有一个结构“screw up”，表示“拧紧；鼓舞；弄糟，搞砸”。

例 This is an easy one to screw up.

这很容易搞砸。

经典名句 Famous Classics

1. If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.

如果一件事情够重要，即便成功的概率不高，你还是应该去做。

2. The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

用自身的能力做了什么，是我们衡量自己的标准。

3. I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That's what makes you a champion.

我不数我做了几下仰卧起坐，只有痛的时候我才开始数。那时我才开始数，因为那才有意义，那才能让你成为冠军。

4. However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

不管生活多么困难，总是有你可以做以及取得成功的事。

5. It's kind of fun to do the impossible.

做不可能的事蛮有趣的。

读书笔记

__________________________________________________________________