苹果CEO库克在华盛顿大学20xx年毕业典礼演
（2015-05-20）
5月18日，苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克（Tim Cook）参加了美国乔治华盛顿大学毕业典礼，并发表了题为《总会有人改变世界的——这个人可能就是你》（someone has to change the world — it might as well be you）的主题演讲。
与十年前乔布斯的“求知若饥，虚心若愚”遥相呼应，库克这次面对乔治华盛顿大学即将走向社会的毕业生讲出的“金句”也是频频发人深省。
公平是一种权利！毕业生要与不公平抗争
库克发表演讲的地方是在华盛顿国家广场，那里距离华盛顿纪念碑不远。华盛顿大学宣称，当时有2.5万人参加此次毕业典礼，包括6000名毕业生。库克称：“正是在这里，金挑战所有美国人，让民主的观念深入人心。正是在这里，里根总统号召我们相信自己，相信我们能够做出伟业。大学毕业生应该坚守自己的信念，他还说自己一路奋斗走来，让他愈发觉得，公平是一种权利，而作为毕业生要勇于与不公平做抗争。”
·与州长见面不是我的荣誉，握着他的手就像是对我信仰的背叛
演讲刚开始，库克就讲述了美国近代史的一些故事。他说，他心中的英雄是马丁路德金和总统肯尼迪，因为他们将正义和民主带到现实中来。16 岁时库克因为获得一次论文大赛的奖项，时任阿拉巴马州州长 George Wallace 亲自接待了库克以及其他获奖的小伙伴。而库克为 Wallace 的“接见”感到耻辱，因为后者曾推进种族隔离，并禁止黑人上大学。他说：”与州长见面不是我的荣誉，握着他的手就像是对我信仰的背叛。” ·毕业生们不光要吃饱饭 也要坚持梦想
你不必在“做正确的事”和“好的生活”中作抉择。若说乔布斯的那次演讲代表着一往无前的勇气，库克的理念则更接地气，他希望同学们在吃饱肚子的前提下坚持梦想。
·总会有人改变世界，可能就是你
他还鼓励学生：“不要害怕挑战，也不要一味愤世嫉俗或批评别人，历史从来都不是由一个人写下的，但也从来不会忘记一个人的贡献，这个写下历史的人可能就是你，那个人应该就是你，那个人必须就是你。”
·我遇到的第一个让我开始质疑一切的人就是史蒂夫·乔布斯
库克谈到，当时他年近 40，浑浑噩噩，正如当时的苹果公司。直到乔布斯邀请他去改变世界，让他所有关于未来的假设被颠覆。当时的库克觉得改变世界很好，但是与工作无关，而乔布斯认为这就应该是同一件事。
·你必须找到你的北斗星（价值观），那意味着你必须做出选择
“我们认为一个具有价值观并真心为其付出的公司真的可以改变世界。个人也是一样。这可能是你，也一定是你。毕业生们，你们的价值观十分重要。它们是你的北极星。否则，它就只是一个工作，对于工作来说人生太短了……寻找你的北极星。让它指导你在生活和工作，或者说你一生奉献的工作……”库克说。
·将强大的技术转变成容易使用的工具。这些工具可帮助人们实现自己的梦想，更好地改变世界
史蒂夫创造了一个成功的公司，然后被赶走。当他再回来时，公司已是一座废墟。他正打算把一生奉献给公司，尽管当时并不知道苹果将达到无人能想象的高度。很多人不记得，当时的苹果放任自流、群龙无首，但史蒂夫相信苹果能再次变得伟大。他问我是否愿意加入。他对苹果的愿景是把强大的科技变成好用的工具，用这些工具帮助人们实现梦想，并把世界变的更好。
·世界需要你的能量、热情，和你躁动的努力
你们不用从“做对的事情”和“过好的生活”中抉择，这根本不是一个抉择，尤其在今天。工作应该是：让你付起房租，吃饱肚子，然后做正确、正当的好事。无论你从事什么工作，都会有批评者和愤世者打击你，同时也有很多沉默的好心人。仍有人在被迫害，仍有疾病需要治疗，世界需要你的能量、热情，和你躁动的努力。
·在硅谷，人们相信任何问题都能被解决，无论它有多么困难
在演讲结束前，库克还提及苹果和硅谷的价值观。库克说，在硅谷，人们相信任何问题都能被解决，无论它有多么困难。这是非常真诚的乐观精神。苹果也信奉类似价值观。他说：“我在苹果的一个朋友喜欢这样说：解决问题的最好方式就是走出满是苹果工程师的房间，远离‘这不可能’的论调。取得重大进展是可能的，无论你做出何种选择，总是有冷眼旁观者和批评者，同时好心却无贡献者也对实现目标毫无意义。”
·加入苹果17年来，我从未后悔过
库克表示，他当时依然忠于自己的价值观，但只在工作中坚持它们。他说：“我觉得工作就是工作。在工作中保持专业性和谦逊态度非常重要。但乔布斯是个理想主义者，他让我相信：如果我们努力工作，制作出更好产品，我们也能改变世界。我接受了他的邀请，这改变了我的生活。17年来，我从未后悔过。”
离开讲台前，库克还拿出自己的iPhone 6，拍摄了一张众多毕业生的照片。这种至今为止只有苹果才会缔造出的社会价值在即将毕业的莘莘学子面前讲述是再适合不过的了。
这是一种最好的广告，也是一份最平常的“炫耀”。
Hello GW.
Thank you very much President Knapp for that kind intro. Alex, trustees, faculty and deans of the university, my fellow honorees, and especially you the class of 2015. Yes.
Congratulations to you, to your family, to your friends that are
attending today's ceremony. You made it. It's a privilege, a rare privilege of a lifetime to be with you today. And I think thank you enough for making me an honorary Colonial.
Before I begin today, they asked me to make a standard announcement. You’ve heard this before. About silencing your phones. Those of you with an iPhone, just place it in silent mode. If you don't have an iPhone, please pass it to the center aisle. Apple has a world-class recycling program.
You know, this is really an amazing place. And for a lot of you, I’m sure that being here in Washington, the very center of our democracy, was a big draw when you were choosing which school to go to. This place has a powerful pull. It was here that Dr. Martin Luther King
challenged Americans to make real the promises of democracy, to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
And it was here that President Ronald Reagan called on us to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds. I'd like to start this morning by telling you about my first visit here. In the summer of 1977 -- yes, I’m a little old -- I was 16 years old and living in
Robertsdale, the small town in southern Alabama that I grew up in. At the end of my junior year of high school I’d won an essay contest sponsored by the National Rural Electric Association. I can't remember what the essay was about, what I do remember very clearly is writing it by hand, draft after draft after draft. Typewriters were very expensive and my family could not afford one.
I was one of two kids from Baldwin County that was chosen to go to Washington along with hundreds of other kids across the country. Before we left, the Alabama delegation took a trip to our state capitol in
Montgomery for a meeting with the governor. The governor's name was George C. Wallace. The same George Wallace who in 1963 stood in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama to block African
Americans from enrolling. Wallace embraced the evils of segregation. He pitted whites against blacks, the South against the North, the working class against the so-called elites. Meeting my governor was not an honor for me.
My heroes in life were Dr. Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy, who had fought against the very things that Wallace stood for. Keep in mind, that I grew up, or, when I grew up, I grew up in a place where King and Kennedy were not exactly held in high esteem. When I was a kid, the South was still coming to grips with its history. My textbooks even said the Civil War was about states’ rights. They barely mentioned slavery. So I had to figure out for myself what was right and true. It was a search. It was a process. It drew on the moral sense that I’d learned from my parents, and in church, and in my own heart, and led me on my own journey of discovery. I found books in thepublic library that they
probably didn't know they had. They all pointed to the fact that Wallace was wrong. That injustices like segregation had no place in our world. That equality is a right.
As I said, I was only 16 when I met Governor Wallace, so I
shook his hand as we were expected to do. But shaking his hand felt like a betrayal of my own beliefs. It felt wrong. Like I was selling a piece of my soul.
From Montgomery we flew to Washington. It was the first time I had ever been on an airplane. In fact it was the first time that I traveled out of the South. On June 15, 1977, I was one of 900 high schoolers greeted by the new president, President Jimmy Carter, on the south lawn of the
White House, right there on the other side of the ellipse. I was one of the lucky ones, who got to shake his hand. Carter saw Baldwin County on my name tag that day and stopped to speak with me. He wanted to know how people were doing after the rash of storms that struck Alabama that year. Carter was kind and compassionate; he held the most powerful job in the world but he had not sacrificed any of his humanity. I felt proud that he was president. And I felt proud that he was from the South. In the space of a week, I had come face to face with two men whoguaranteed themselves a place in history. They came from the same region. They were from the same political party. They were both governors of
adjoining states. But they looked at the world in very different ways. It was clear to me, that one was right, and one was wrong. Wallace had built his political career by exploiting divisions between us. Carter's
message on the other hand, was that we are all bound together, every one of us. Each had made a journey that led them to the values that they lived by, but it wasn't just about their experiences or their circumstances, it had to come from within.
My own journey in life was just beginning. I hadn't even applied for college yet at that point. For you graduates, the process of discovering yourself, of inventing yourself, of reinventing yourself is about to begin in earnest. It's about finding your values and committing to live by them. You have to find your North Star. And that means choices. Some are easy.
Some are hard. And some will make you question everything. Twenty years after my visit to Washington, I met someone who made me question everything. Who upended all of my assumptions in the very best way. That was Steve Jobs.
Steve had built a successful company. He had been sent away and he returned to find it in ruins. He didn't know it at the time, but he was about to dedicate the rest of his life to rescuing it, and leading it to
heights greater than anyone could ever imagine. Anyone, that is, except for Steve. Most people have forgotten, but in 1997 and early 1998, Apple had been adrift for years. Rudderless. But Steve thought Apple could be great again. And he wanted to know if I’d like to help.
His vision for Apple was a company that turned powerful technology into tools that were easy to use, tools that would help people realize their dreams. And change the world for the better. I had studied to be an engineer and earned an M.B.A. I was trained to be pragmatic,
a problem solver. Now I found myself sitting before and listening to this veryanimated 40-something guy with visions of changing the world. It was not what I had expected. You see, when it came to my career, in 1998, I was also adrift. Rudderless.
I knew who I was in my personal life, and I kept my eye on my North Star, myresponsibility to do good for someone else, other than myself.
But at work, well I always figured that work was work. Values had their place and, yes, there were things that I wanted to change about the world, but I thought I had to do that on my own time. Not in the office. Steve didn't see it that way. He was an idealist. And in that way he reminded me of how I felt as a teenager. In that first meeting he convinced me if we worked hard and made great products, we too could help change the world. And to mysurprise, I was hooked. I took the job and changed my life. It's been 17 years and I have never once looked back.
At Apple we believe the work should be more than just about
improving your own self. It's about improving the lives of others as well. Our products do amazing things. And just as Steve envisioned, they empower people all over the world. People who are blind, and need information read to them because they can't see the screen. People for whom technology is a lifeline because they are isolated by distance or disability. People whowitness target=_blank
class=infotextkey>witness injustice and want to expose it, and now they can because they have a camera in their pocket all the time.
Our commitment goes beyond the products themselves to how they’re made. To our impact on the environment. To the role we play in
demanding and promoting equality. And in improving education. We believe that a company that has values and acts on them can really change
the world. And an individual can too. That can be you. That must be you. Graduates, your values matter. They are your North Star. And work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it's just a job, and life is too short for that. We need
the best and brightest of your generation to lead in government and in business. In the science and in the arts. In journalism and in academia. There is honor in all of these pursuits. And there is opportunity to do work that is infused with moral purpose. You don't have to choose
between doing good and doing well. It's a false choice, today more than ever.
Your challenge is to find work that pays the rent, puts food on the table, and lets you do what is right and good and just.
So find your North Star. Let it guide you in life, and work, and in your life's work. Now, I suspect some of you aren't buying this. I won't take it personally. It's no surprise that people are skeptical, especially here in Washington. Where these days you’ve got plenty of reason to be. And a healthy amount of skepticism is fine. Though too often in this town, it turns to cynicism. To the idea that no matter who’s talking or what they’re saying, that their motives are questionable, their character is
suspect, and if you search hard enough, you can prove that they are lying.
Maybe that's just the world we live in. But graduates, this is your world to change.
As I said, I am a proud son of the South. It's my home, and I will
always love it. But for the last 17 years I’ve built a life in Silicon Valley; it's a special place. The kind of place where there’s no problem that can't be solved. No matter how difficult or complex, that's part of its essential quality. A very sincere sort of optimism. Back in the 90s, Apple ran an advertising campaign we called “Think Different.” It was pretty simple. Every ad was a photograph of one of our heroes. People who had the audacity to challenge and change the way we all live. People like Gandhi and Jackie Robinson, Martha Graham and Albert Einstein, Amelia
Earhart and Miles Davis. These people still inspire us. They remind us to live by our deepest values and reach for our highest aspirations. They make us believe that anything is possible. A friend of mine at Apple likes to say the best way to solve aproblem is to walk into a room full of Apple engineers and proclaim, “this is impossible.”
I can tell you, they will not accept that. And neither should you. So that's the one thing I’d like to bring to you all the way from Cupertino, California. The idea that greatprogress is possible, whatever line of work you choose. There will always be cynics and critics on the sidelines tearing people down, and just as harmful are those people with good
intentions who make no contribution at all. In his letter from the
Birmingham jail, Dr. King wrote that our society needed to repent, not merely for the hateful words of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
The sidelines are not where you want to live your life. The world needs you in the arena. There are problems that need to be solved. Injustices that need to be ended. People that are still being persecuted, diseases still in need of cure. No matter what you do next, the world needs your energy. Your passion. Your impatience with progress. Don'tshrink from risk. And tune out those critics and cynics. History rarely yields to one person, but think, and never forget, what happens when it does. That can be you. That should be you. That must be you.
Congratulations Class of 2015. I’d like to take one photo of you, because this is the bestview in the world. And it's a great one.
Thank you very much.