thank you for inviting me here today I'm

honored to be with you for your

graduation from the University of

Southern California this morning I'd

like to talk with you about how a few

experiences and a couple of ideas taught

me some important lessons and helped me

discover my dreams when I was your age

living and going to school in Chicago

back in the 1960s I used to dream about

this place the University of Southern

California back then this is all true

back then my dream was to go to the USC

Medical School get married raise a

family and practice medicine in Los

Angeles growing up in a lower

middle-class community on the south side

of Chicago medicine was considered the

pinnacle of professions noble and humane

virtually everyone important in my life

my family my teachers my girlfriend

wanted me to be a doctor over time their

dreams became my dreams they convinced

me I should be a doctor but as hard as I

tried I couldn't do it after a few

difficult and unhappy years as a pre-med

student it became painfully clear to me

that I did not like the courses I was

taking I thought my comparative anatomy

class was a perversely pointless form of

psychological torture

especially the dissection labs and I

just could not make myself study

something that didn't interest me at the

time I thought I lacked discipline and

that I was selfish maybe so but whatever

the underlying reasons I was unable to

make myself into the person that I

thought I should

so I decided to stop trying I was 21

years old when I dropped out of college

packed everything I owned jeans t-shirts

leather jacket guitar into my car and

drove from Chicago to Berkeley

California

I guess one small part of that

University of Southern California dream

was mine after all the California part

Berkeley in the 1960s was at the center

of everything the anti-war movement the

Free Speech Movement the human rights

movement it was the perfect place for an

undisciplined selfish 20-something to

begin his search for himself a righteous

cause and a job that he loved everyone

living in Berkeley in the 1960s opposed

the Vietnam War I was no different

it was the Age of Aquarius but I never

had long hair and I never wore love

beads I learned to play popular protest

songs on my guitar but I was never a

committed serious anti-war protester I

did find a cause however one I still

feel passionately about today a few

hours east of Berkeley are the Sierra

Nevada mountains I fell in love with

those mountains and the ineffable

natural beauty of Yosemite Valley I

cared about the wilderness and I wanted

to help preserve it I joined the Sierra

Club

I became an environmentalist

during my California Springs and summers

I spent most of my days in the High

Sierras in Yosemite Valley working as a

river guide and a rock climbing

instructor I loved at those jobs but

unfortunately they didn't pay that well

so I also got a job working a couple of

days a week as a computer programmer

back in Berkeley I had learned a program

in college I didn't love programming but

it was fun and I was good at it and

computer program programming gave me the

same kind of satisfaction as solving

math problems and playing chess both

things I enjoyed before before I became

a confused teenager at this point in my

life I thought I was making real

progress on my journey of self-discovery

I had found a cause I had a couple of

jobs that I loved and one that was fun

and paid the bills I was pretty happy

with my life my wife was not what she

saw was a college dropout who spent too

much time in the mountains doing foolish

things she wanted me to work full-time

as a computer programmer or go back to

college and finish my degree we

compromised sort of I started taking

classes at UC Berkeley I took several

classes but the only one I can remember

was a sailing class taught at Berkeley

marina

once again I fell in love and began a

lifelong affair with the limitless

omnipotent Pacific Ocean when my class

was over I wanted to buy a sailboat

my wife said this was the single

stupidest idea she had ever heard in her

entire life she accused me of being

irresponsible and she told me I lacked

ambition

she kicked me out and then she divorced

me this is a pivotal moment in my life

[Applause]

my family was still mad at me for not

going to medical school and now my wife

was divorcing me because I lacked

ambition it looked like a reoccurrence

of the same old problem once again I was

unable to live up to the expectations of

others but this time I was not

disappointed in myself for failing to be

the person they thought I should be

their dreams and my dreams were

different I would never confuse the two

of them again I had discovered things

that I loved the Sierras Yosemite the

Pacific Ocean these natural wonders

brought me great joy and happiness and

would for the rest of my life I had an

interesting job programming computers

and more money than I needed for the

first time I was certain that I was

going to survive in this world a huge

burden of fear had been lifted I'll

never forget that moment it was a time

for rejoicing

I bought the sailboat and lived on board

just me and my cat in Berkeley marina in

the words of James Joyce I was alone and

young and willful and unheeded but I was

happy and near to the wild heart of life

throughout my 20s I continued

experimenting trying different things

racing bikes and boats and constantly

changing jobs it didn't take me long to

discover that the most interesting and

rewarding programming jobs were found at

a cluster of companies located south of

Stanford University in north of San Jose

Silicon Valley was in its infancy I was

still in my 20s when I went to work for

my first Silicon Valley startup Amdahl

where we developed the world's fastest

mainframe computer faster than anything

IBM had next stop was Ampex

where we built the world's largest

digital data storage system then on to

precision instruments where we built an

even larger data storage system this

time using lasers I was the vice

president and charged with software

development it was all very cutting-edge

and challenging and cool I like my work

most of the time but I didn't love it I

searched and I searched but I just could

not find a software engineering job that

I loved as much as I loved sailing so I

tried to create one I put together a

plan to start my own company that way I

could completely control my work

environment I would hire the most

talented programmers I knew and we would

all work together on the most

interesting and challenging software

projects my group my goal was to create

the perfect job for me a job I truly

loved I never expected the company to

grow beyond 50 people so maybe I really

did lack ambition or vision back then I

don't know it was a long time ago and I

was very young anyway today Oracle

employs around 150,000 people but when I

started it was not my intention to build

a big company what happened well at

first we did exactly what we set out to

do hired the most talented software

engineers in Silicon Valley we assembled

an all-star team of gifted programmers

who were among the best in the world at

what they did that team plus one crazy

idea gave birth to a giant company I

call it a crazy idea because at the time

everyone told me

it was a crazy idea the idea was to

build the world's first relational

database several theoretical papers

about relational databases had already

been published and IBM was building a

prototype in their research labs but

back then the collective wisdom of

computer experts was that while

relational databases could be built they

would never be fast enough to be useful

I thought all those so-called

computer experts were wrong and when you

start telling people that all the

experts are wrong at first

they call you arrogant and then they say

you're crazy so remember this graduates

when people start telling you that

you're crazy you just might be on to the

most important innovation in your life

of course the other possibility is

you're crazy

this is one of those times when the

experts were wrong arrogance and

insanity turned out to be innovation in

disguise the Oracle database proved to

be a defining technology at the dawn of

the Information Age the Oracle database

also totally upended my plans to build a

small comfortable company a perfect

place for me and a few of my friends to

work as the Information Age moved from

dawn to the full light of day technology

horizons were constantly shifting

revealing a brave and exciting world of

new possibilities and new opportunities

Oracle doubled in size year after year

after year for 10 years I had set out to

create the perfect programming job from

me instead I created a job where I had

to stop programming altogether I I

attempted to create an environment that

I could completely control instead I was

running a company with thousands and

thousands of people that was growing so

fast that it was impossible for anyone

to control it was like sailing in a

hurricane and then we went public oh my

god maybe I should have been a doctor

I was constantly learning on on-the-job

training I think they call it everyday

learned something new and interesting

something that I did not know the day

before unlike that my new job was

challenging captivating consuming I

worked all the time but thinking back

I'm pretty sure I didn't love it

or maybe I was just too tired to even

know how I felt but I had found a place

in the world my family finally forgave

me for not going to medical school and

nobody ever accused me of lacking

ambition again now I'd like to tell you

one last story about my best friend a

guy who had lots of crazy ideas and

taught me an important lesson my 30-year

friendship with Steve Jobs was made up

of a thousand walks if there was

something he wanted to talk about and

there always was we'd go for a walk we

climbed to the top of Windy Hill hiked

around Castle Rock or through the sands

on on the beach at Kona Village over the

years one particular walk stands out we

had a lot to talk about that day so we

jumped in the car put the top down and

headed out to Castle Rock Rock State

Park

in the Santa Cruz Mountains it was over

20 years ago back in mid-1995 Steve was

finishing up Toy Story at Pixar and

running next the computer company he

founded after he left Apple Apple was in

severe distress it had gone steadily

downhill during the ten years of Steve's

absence the problems were now so serious

people were wondering if Apple would

survive it was all too painful to watch

and stand by and do nothing so the

purpose of that particular hike through

the Santa Cruz Mountains on that

particular day was to discuss taking

over Apple Computer my idea was simple

by Apple and immediately makes Steve CEO

Apple wasn't worth much back then about

five billion dollars we both had really

good credit and I had already arranged

to borrow all the money all Steve had to

do was say yes Steve proposed a somewhat

more circuitous approach first persuade

Apple to buy next computer then Steve

would join the Apple board and over time

the board would recognize that Steve was

the right guy to lead the company I said

okay that might work but Steve if we

don't buy Apple how are we gonna make

any money suddenly Steve stopped walking

and turned toward me we were facing each

other when he put his left hand on my

right shoulder and his right hand on my

left shoulder staring unblinkingly into

my eyes Steve said Larry this is why

it's so important that I'm your friend

you don't need any more money I said

yeah I know I know then I came and I

said but we don't have to keep it we

could give it all away I was whining

Steve just shook his head and said I'm

not doing this for the money

I don't want to get paid if I do this I

need to do this standing on the moral

high ground the moral high ground I said

well that just might be the most

expensive real estate on earth but I

knew I had lost the argument

Steve had made up his mind right there

and then at Castle Rock in the summer of

1995 to save Apple his way at the end of

the hike right before we got back into

the car

I said Steve you created Apple it's your

company and it's your call I'll do

whatever you want me to do I went on the

Apple board and then I watched Steve

build the most valuable company on earth

[Applause]

the lesson here is very clear to me

Steve was right after a certain point it

can't be about the money after a certain

point you can't spend it no matter how

hard you try I know I've tried hard but

it's impossible in the end the only

practical option is to give nearly all

of it away so why did Steve go back to

Apple why did he devote so much of what

remained of his life to his job why do I

I believe the answer is that deep inside

of all of us all of us there's a primal

desire to do something important with

our lives and Freud said there are only

two things important in life love and

work he did not say love and work were

the same thing I'm passionate about my

work it continues to give me great

satisfaction in a sense of who I am but

passion and love are different at least

for me they are I love my family a few

precious friends four cats two dogs

cherry blossoms in Japan Pacific island

beaches and bays and the majestic Sierra

Nevada mountains where it all began for

me my feelings about work are very

intense but quite different

there's a TV advertisement for the

United States Navy that says it's not

just a job it's an adventure that's

exactly how I feel about my years in

Silicon Valley in interesting

challenging all-consuming adventure like

any ongoing adventure I have no idea how

it ends but I know it will for me and a

long long time for now from now for all

of you but today graduates you are

beginning your great adventure your

generation will change the world as

every generation does you will invent

new technologies and create new types of

art impossibilities will be transformed

into possibilities and unexpected

opportunities will present themselves

you will change the world and the world

will change you as you learn and grow

and discover more about yourself

remember this graduates in a constantly

changing world what is possible is a

moving target don't be afraid to

experiment and try lots of different

things and don't let the experts us

courage you when you when you challenge

the status quo like Mark Twain says

what's an expert anyway just some guy

from out of town each of you has a

chance to discover who you are rather

than who you should be a chance to live

your dreams not the dreams of others

each of you has an obligation to commit

to a righteous cause one that elevates

you and improves the conditions of

humanity and the planet soon many of you

will begin a new job I hope it interest

you and challenges you and rewards you

with a sense of purpose and satisfaction

but if it doesn't keep searching it's

out there it might take a while but keep

searching until you find a job that

ignites your passions like I did even

better you just might find one that you

love thank you and congratulations

[Applause]

{{}}

谢谢你今天邀请我来到这里我很

荣幸今天早上能和你一起参加

南加州大学的毕业典礼我

想和你谈谈一些

经历和一些想法是如何教会

我一些重要的教训和 1960

年代在芝加哥生活和上学时帮助我发现了我的梦想

我曾经梦想过

南加州大学这个地方，

那时这一切都是真的，

那时我的梦想是去南加州大学

医学院 学校 结婚

养家糊口 在洛杉矶行医

在芝加哥南部的中下阶层社区长大

医学被认为

是职业的

巅峰 随着时间的推移，我成为一名医生 他们的

梦想变成了我的梦想 他们说服

我我应该成为一名医生，但尽管我很

努力，但在经历了一些困难和不快乐之后，我还是无法

做到 rs 作为一名医学预科

生

，我痛苦地意识到我不喜欢我正在上的课程

我认为我的比较解剖学

课是一种毫无意义的

心理折磨，

尤其是解剖实验室，我

就是无法让自己学习

一些东西 当时我对此并不感兴趣，

我认为我缺乏纪律，

也许我很自私，但

无论是什么根本原因，我都无法

让自己成为我认为应该的人，

所以我决定停止尝试，我 21

岁 当我从大学辍学的时候，我

把所有的东西都

装进了我的车里，然后

从芝加哥开车到加州伯克利，

我想

南加州大学梦想的一小部分

是我的，毕竟加州的

伯克利 1960 年代

是反战运动、

言论自由运动、人权

运动的中心

开始寻找自己 一个正义的

事业和一份他爱的工作

1960 年代住在伯克利的每个人

反对越南战争 我没有什么不同

那是水瓶座时代 但我从来

没有长过头发 我从来没有戴过爱情

珠子 我学会了

用我的吉他演奏流行的抗议歌曲，但我从来都不是一个

坚定的、认真的反战抗议者

山脉和

优胜美地山谷不可言喻的自然美景 我

关心荒野，我

想帮助保护它 我加入了塞拉

俱乐部

我在加州春天和夏天成

为了一名环保主义者 我大部分时间都

在优胜美地山谷的高山脉工作 作为一名

河流向导和攀岩

教练，我喜欢那些工作，但

不幸的是他们的薪水不高，

所以我也找到了一份每周工作

几天的工作作为交流

回到伯克利的计算机程序员 我在大学里学过一个程序

我不喜欢编程，但

它很有趣而且我很擅长，

计算机程序编程给了我

同样的满足感，就像解决

数学问题和下棋一样

我喜欢 在我成为

一个困惑的青少年之前，在我生命中的这个阶段，

我认为我

在自我发现的旅程

中取得了真正的进步 我

对我的生活很满意 我的妻子不是她所

看到的大学辍学生 花了

太多时间在山上做愚蠢的

事情 她希望我全职

做计算机程序员或回到

大学完成我的学位 我们

妥协了 我开始

在加州大学伯克利分校上课 我上了几

门课，但我唯一记得的一门

是在伯克利码头教授的帆船课

我再次坠入爱河并开始

与 无边无际的

太平洋

下课我想买一艘帆船

我老婆说这是

她这辈子听过的最愚蠢的想法

她指责我

不负责任 她说我没有

野心

她把我赶出去了 然后她和

我离婚了这是我生命中的关键时刻

[鼓掌]

我的家人还在为我

不去医学院而生气，现在我的

妻子因为我缺乏雄心而与我离婚，

这看起来就像

老问题再次发生一样 我再次

无法辜负别人的期望，

但这一次我并没有

因为没有

成为他们认为我应该成为

他们梦想的人而对自己感到失望而且我的梦想

不同我再也不会混淆

他们两个我有

发现了我喜欢的东西 约塞米蒂山脉

太平洋 这些自然奇观

给我带来了极大的快乐和幸福，并且

在我的余生中，我有一份

有趣的计算机编程工作

比我第一次需要更多的钱

我确信我

将在这个世界上生存下来 巨大

的恐惧负担已经解除 我永远

不会忘记那一刻 那是欢欣的时刻

我买了帆船并继续生活 用詹姆斯乔伊斯的话

来说，只有我和我的猫在伯克利码头上船。

我孤独、

年轻、任性、不受重视，但在 20 多岁的时候，我很

快乐，接近生活的狂野之心。

我继续

尝试不同的东西，

骑自行车和划船 不断

换工作没多久我就

发现最有趣和最

有价值的编程工作是在

位于圣何塞北部斯坦福大学南部的一群公司中找到

的 我为

我的第一家硅谷创业公司 Amdahl 工作，

在那里我们开发了世界上

最快的大型计算机

IBM 的下一站是 Ampex

，我们在那里建造了世界上最大的计算机

数字数据存储系统，然后是

精密仪器，这次我们使用激光构建了一个

更大的数据存储系统

时间，但我不喜欢它我

搜索了，我搜索了，但我

找不到我喜欢的软件工程工作，

就像我喜欢航海一样，所以我

试图创建一个我制定了一个

计划以这种方式创办自己的公司 我

可以完全控制我的工作

环境 我会聘请

我认识的最有才华的程序员，我们将

一起合作开发最

有趣和最具挑战性的软件

项目 我的团队我的目标是

为我创造一份完美的工作，一份我真正喜欢的工作，

我从未想过 公司

发展到 50 人以上，所以也许我

当时确实缺乏野心或远见，我

不知道那是很久以前的事了，

反正我今天还很年轻甲骨文

员工大约 150,000 人 但是当我

开始的时候，我并没有打算建立

一家大公司，

起初我们做得很好，我们做了我们打算

做的事情，聘请了硅谷最有才华的软件

工程师，我们组建

了一支由天才程序员组成的全明星团队

在他们所做的事情上世界上最好的

那个团队加上一个疯狂的

想法诞生了一家巨大的

公司 已经发表了几篇

关于关系数据库的理论论文

，IBM

正在他们的研究实验室中构建原型，

但当时计算机专家的集体智慧

是，虽然

可以构建关系数据库，但它们

永远不会快到可以派上用场，

我认为所有这些 所谓的

计算机专家是错的，当你

开始告诉人们所有

专家都错了，

他们开始说你傲慢，然后他们说

你是 疯狂，所以记住这个毕业生，

当人们开始告诉你

你很疯狂时，你可能正在做

你生活中最重要的创新

当然另一种可能是

你疯了

这是

专家们错误傲慢的时代之一 和

疯狂原来是

变相的创新 Oracle 数据库在信息时代

的黎明被证明是一项定义性技术

Oracle 数据库

也完全颠覆了我建立一家舒适的小公司的计划，这

对我和我的几个朋友来说是一个完美的地方

随着信息时代从

黎明走向黎明，技术

视野不断变化，

揭示了一个充满新可能性和新机遇的勇敢而令人兴奋的世界，

甲骨文的规模年复一年地翻了一番，这是

我开始

创建的 10 年 我创造了一份完美的编程工作，

但我创造了一份工作，我

不得不完全停止编程我

试图创造一个

我能想到的环境 我完全控制了我在

经营一家拥有

成千上万人的公司，它发展得如此之

快，以至于任何人都

无法控制它就像在

飓风中航行，然后我们上市了，

天哪，也许我应该成为一名医生

我一直在学习在职

培训我认为他们称之为每天都

学到了一些新的和有趣的

东西，这是我前一天不知道的

，不像我的新工作

充满挑战迷人消耗我

一直在工作但回想起来

我 我很确定我不喜欢它，

或者也许我太累了，甚至不

知道自己的感受，但我在世界上找到了一个地方

，我的家人终于原谅了

我没有去医学院，

没有人指责我缺乏

野心 现在我想告诉

你最后一个故事，关于我最好的朋友

，他有很多疯狂的想法，

给了我重要的一课

是他想谈论的事情，而且

我们总是会去散步，我们

爬到 Windy Hill 的顶部，

在 Castle Rock 附近徒步旅行，或者穿过

Kona Village 海滩上的沙滩，这些

年来，一次特别的散步让我们脱颖而出

那天有很多话要说，所以我们

跳上车，把车顶下来，然后

前往圣克鲁斯山脉的 Castle Rock Rock 州立

公园，那是

20 多年前的 1995 年中期，史蒂夫正在

完成《玩具总动员》 皮克斯和

他离开苹果后创立的电脑公司 苹果公司

陷入了严重的困境，

在史蒂夫缺席的十年里，

它一直在稳步走下坡路

并且袖手旁观，什么也不做，所以

在那一天穿越圣克鲁斯山脉的

特别徒步旅行的目的是讨论

接管苹果电脑我的想法很简单

，苹果公司立即让史蒂夫 CE 哦，

苹果当时并不值多少钱，大约

50 亿美元，我们都有

很好的信用，我已经安排

好借所有的钱，史蒂夫所

要做的就是说是，史蒂夫提出了一个

更迂回的方法，首先说服

苹果下一步购买 电脑，然后史蒂夫

会加入苹果董事会，随着时间的推移

，董事会会认识到史蒂夫是

领导公司的合适人选

走着转向我，我们

面对面，他把左手放在我的

右肩上，右手放在我的

左肩上，一眨不眨地盯着

我的眼睛史蒂夫说拉里这

就是为什么我是你的朋友如此重要

不需要更多的钱我说

是的我知道我知道然后我来了我

说但我们不必保留它我们

可以把它全部捐出我在抱怨

史蒂夫只是摇摇头说我

不这样做 为了

我的钱 如果我这样做我不想得到报酬 我

需要站在道德

高地 道德高地 我说

得好 那可能是

地球上最昂贵的房地产 但我

知道我已经输掉了

史蒂夫的论点 1995

年夏天，他在Castle Rock 下定了决心，

在我们回到车上之前，在徒步结束时拯救苹果公司，

我说史蒂夫是你创造了苹果

公司，这是你的公司，这是你的电话

你想让我做什么

我就做什么 到了一定程度之后的钱，

无论你怎么努力，你都不能花掉

我知道我已经努力了，但

最终是不可能的

苹果为什么他把生命中剩下的这么多奉献

给了他的工作？ 你

确实相信答案是，在

我们所有人的内心深处，我们所有人都有一种原始的

愿望，想要为我们的生活做一些重要的事情

，弗洛伊德说生活中只有

两件事是重要的，爱和

工作他没有说爱和工作是

同样的事情我对我的

工作充满热情它继续让我

对我是谁感到非常满意但至少对我来说

热情和爱是不同的

他们是我爱我的家人一些

珍贵的朋友四只猫两只狗

樱花 在日本太平洋岛屿

海滩和海湾以及雄伟的

内华达山脉对

我来说，我对工作的感觉非常

强烈，但完全

不同。美国海军的电视广告

说这

不仅仅是一份工作，而是一次冒险

我对我在

硅谷的

这些年感觉如何

从现在开始

为你们所有人，但今天毕业生们，

你们开始了伟大的冒险，你们这

一代人将像

每一代人一样改变世界你们将发明

新技术，创造新的艺术类型，

不可能的事情将

变成可能性，意想不到的

机会将出现在

你身上 会改变世界，

随着你的学习和成长，世界也会改变你，你会

发现更多关于自己

当你

挑战现状

时不要让专家给

你勇气 活出自己

的梦想，而不是别人的梦想

人类和地球的状况很快你们中的许多人

将开始一份新工作我希望它能让你感兴趣

并挑战你并

以目标感和满足感奖励你

但如果它不继续寻找

它可能需要一段时间 但是继续

寻找，直到你找到一份

像我一样能点燃你的激情的工作，甚至

做得更好，你可能会找到一个你

喜欢的，谢谢你，恭喜

[鼓掌]