Hello everyone!
大家好!
I may be the only commencement speaker who stands on a chair to deliver a
speech. This is what Babson teaches me – Don't think to be the best. Think to be
the only.
我可能是毕业典礼上唯一站在凳子上演讲的人——这就是百森(商学院)教给我的：不要(只)想着去做最好，要想着去做唯一。[百森商学院是美国历史上唯一连续23年在创业管理学(Entrepreneurship)领域蝉联第一的商学院。]
It is my great honor to speak at our commencement because the audience has no
chance to put up laptops and pretend to listen. Today our campus has the highest
net worth in the entire year, because we have gathered so many successful
leaders from different areas of the world for our commencement.
我非常荣幸能在毕业典礼上演讲，因为我知道(在座的各位)听众在这个场合没机会打开笔记本电脑，假装听我演讲。(在百森商学院，学生上课可以自由看电脑、手机，非常考验教授的授课水平。)今天是我们校园的资本净值在一年里最高的一天(指与会的企业家很多)，因为我们把这么多成功的业界领袖从世界各地聚集到了今天的典礼。
I am not as successful as many of you. Then why did I come on to the stage to
speak? What wisdom can I share when I have not yet recognized the same
successes? Well, I found one thing that is reason for me to talk. That thing is
called failure. Yes, I guess I cannot go wrong in speaking about failure.
我并不像在座各位那么成功。那为什么今天我会站在台上给大家致辞呢?当我还没有像你们一样成功的时候，我能分享一些什么智慧呢?我想来想去，终于找到一个合适的主题，它就是——失败。对，我来谈论失败肯定错不了。
On the first week of our program when we played the game of quilts and
puzzles, one of our classmates, Jinji offered a nice definition of failure that
I still remember today. He said failure means nothing but NOT-SUCCESSFUL-YET.
我记得在 MBA
课程开始的第一个星期，当我们在玩“被子和拼图”游戏项目的时候，我的一个同学柳锦基给失败下了个很巧妙的定义。他说：失败，只不过是“还没有成功”。
Many business schools teach the case study of successes. At Babson, we
learned about life. We learned that failure is an integral part of
entrepreneurship. I feel so fortunate that many of my favorite professors have
ruthlessly warned us how many twists and turns an entrepreneur needs to
experience before he or she succeeds. Babson has a featured methodology called
Entrepreneurial Thought and Action. And here is my simplified version of it: as
an entrepreneur, I need to try out my ideas, fail fast at an affordable cost,
reflect on the failure, make adjustments, try it again, fail again. Try it again
and again. Fail again and again, and keep trying until one day I make it to
success.
很多商学院都在给学生讲关于成功的企业案例。但在百森商学院，我们学习的却是真实的人生(真实的人生不可能不学习失败就成功)。我们学到的知识是：失败是创业不可分割的一部分。我觉得自己来到百森非常幸运，因为这里很多我最喜欢的教授都无数次地、很“残忍”地告诫我们，一个真正的创业者在成功前一定会经历很多迂回曲折。百森有一个招牌的创业方法论叫“创业思维和行动“，我把它提炼成一句话就是：“作为一个创业者，我需要试验我的创业想法，让它在一个可承受的范围内迅速失败，然后立即反省失败、调整思路。然后再次试验，再次失败;一次又一次失败、一次又一次试验，直到我走到成功那一天。”
Failure is such an important factor for success that I would argue everyone
of us, future entrepreneurial leaders has to experience failure before we can
make some thing really great. Here's a case study for you. Just one more. Think
about Apple, the company that changed our lives. Think about their products: the
Apple III, the Apple Lisa, the Apple Newton. Wait? Why don't these names sound
quite right? Because these products all failed. Now the question is – Could
Apple have become what it is today had it waited to launch a perfect product
that would never fail? A successful product cannot wait to fail, neither can a
person.
正因为失败是成功的重要配方，所以我想提醒在座的各位同学——未来的企业家们，我们甚至必须先经历失败的磨练，才能成就伟大的事业。我举一个案例，仅此多举一个(美国商学院的学生每天有读不完的案例，所以听到案例就压力山大)。我们就说改变了世界的苹果公司吧，我们来想想他们的产品：苹果
III
个人电脑、苹果丽莎电脑、苹果牛顿掌上电脑。等一下，为什么这些名字听得不对劲呢?——因为这些产品全都失败了。那么我要问你，假如当年的苹果一直等着做出一款绝不失败的完美产品才肯面对世人，那么苹果还有机会成为今天的苹果吗?一个成功的产品不能因为害怕失败就原地等待;一个创业者也是一样。
This is a big weekend for us, and it's even bigger for me. I am graduating
today and I am getting married tomorrow. As we leave Babson to start a new
chapter of life, let's remember: There are basically three groups of people:
Those who do and create, those who watch and comment, and those naysayers who
make sarcastic comments. Of all the three groups, only those doers who never
keep themselves from trying new and crazy ideas could fail. But they are not
afraid to make mistakes, because they know they didn't come to the world to
avoid making mistakes. They came to the world to do things that they believe are
meaningful. They came to make the world a better place by turning ideas and
words into actions. We call these people entrepreneurs.
这个周末是我们人生的一个重要时刻，更是我个人的重要时刻。因为今天正好是我的毕业典礼，而明天正好是我的婚礼。(在讲台上给了未婚妻一个飞吻)。同学们，当我们离开百森、打开人生新的篇章时，让我们一起记住：这世界上有三类人。第一类人动手创造;第二类人旁观评论;第三类人讽刺挖苦。在这三类人里，只有第一类人有可能失败(另外两类人没有失败的资格)。因为第一类人的内心总有一股难以克制的冲动，他们总想去尝试疯狂的点子和新的想法。尽管可能失败，但是他们不害怕失败。因为他们知道自己不是为了躲避失败才来到这个世界上。他们来到世上是为了做他们认为有意义的事情。他们的使命就是把想法和语言变成实际行动，把这个世界变得更美好。这一类人就叫做——创业者。
To quote prof. JB's words, we have studied so many important cases of
entrepreneurs BUT we have not studied the most important one which is our own
case. My friends, as we celebrate our graduation, let's also celebrate the start
of our journey to the real world. Let's embrace failures in the future! Let's
write our own cases by DOING things! DON'T sit back and complain. REMEMBER,
Action trumps everything!
最后，我想引用 J.B. Kassarjian
教授(百森商学院管理学系资深教授)的一句话：“我们虽然已经学了这么多重要的创业案例，但是还没学到那个最重要的案例——也就是我们自己的案例”。朋友们，今天，当我们一起庆祝毕业的时候，让我们也一起庆祝我们通往真实世界旅程的开始吧!走向未来，让我们拥抱失败!让我们在实践中写出自己的案例。不要只说不做、消极抱怨。请记住：行动胜过一切!
Congratulations class of 2016! Thank you!
2016 届毕业生，祝贺大家!谢谢!
