英雄莫问出处,“成功”当思缘由。时下,人们容易将学历看成是成功的必要条件,殊不知,学历从来都不能“包办”成功。要想成功,还得靠睿智的头脑、敏锐的眼光、创新的勇气和不懈的努力。来看看以下几位辍学牛人的传奇故事,从中或许能够悟出些许成功的奥妙。
Graduation season is upon us, and everyone from President Obama to John Grisham1) is delivering commencement speeches across the United States. But now let’s look at some of the most successful people to never receive their sheepskins2).
又到了毕业的季节。美国各地的毕业典礼演讲不绝于耳,从总统奥巴马到小说家约翰·格里沙姆全都参与其中。但现在,且让我们稍稍移开目光,来看看那些从未拿到过毕业证书却收获了巨大成功的人都是谁。
No. 1 Bill Gates比尔·盖茨 
The Harvard Crimson called him “Harvard’s most successful dropout” — the rest of the world just calls him ridiculously rich. For more than a decade, Bill Gates has been one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, men in the world. Gates entered Harvard in the fall of 1973, only to drop out two years later to found Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen. In 2007, more than thirty years after he left Harvard, the co-founder of Microsoft would finally receive his degree (an honorary doctorate) from his alma mater3). At the commencement, Gates said, “I’m a bad influence.
That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.”
《哈佛深红报》称比尔·盖茨为“哈佛史上最成功的辍学生”——而其他地球人只称他为富可敌国的人。十几年来,盖茨即使不是全球最富有的人,也是最富有的人之一。盖茨于1973年秋季进入哈佛大学学习,两年后辍学,与童年好友保罗·艾伦共同创办了微软公司。2007年,在离开哈佛三十多年之后,这位微软的合伙创办人最终从母校获得了荣誉博士学位。在毕业典礼上,盖茨说:“我是一个反面教材。这也解释了为什么我会受邀在你们的毕业典礼上发表演讲。如果我是在你们的开学典礼上演讲,恐怕你们当中的不少人今天就无法出现在这里了。”
No. 2 Steve Jobs斯蒂夫·乔布斯 
The Mac, the iPod, even Buzz Lightyear4) probably wouldn’t have existed had Steve Jobs stayed in school. The future wizard5) of One Infinite Loop6) dropped out of Reed College after just six months because of the undue7) financial strain it placed on his working-class parents. He would go on to eventually found Apple, NeXT Computer and Pixar, becoming an instrumental force in shaping the landscape of modern culture. However, his brief tenure8) in academia was not for naught9). In a 2005 commencement speech he gave at Stanford University, Jobs credited a calligraphy10) class he took at Reed College with forming the basis for the typography11) used in the first Macintosh computer.
如果斯蒂夫·乔布斯没有辍学的话,这个世界上就不会有今天的苹果电脑,苹果MP3播放器,甚至连巴斯光年也不会存在。这位苹果帝国的天才人物在里德大学学习了六个月便辍学了,因为读书所需的高昂费用令他那身处工薪阶层的父母不堪重负。乔布斯一路打拼,最终创立了苹果公司、NeXT计算机公司、皮克斯动画工作室,对于当代文化的塑造和形成起到了重要的推动作用。然而,他短暂的大学生涯并非毫无价值。在2005年斯坦福大学的毕业典礼上,乔布斯说,他在里德大学上过的一门书法课程奠定了第一代Macintosh电脑字体样式的基础。
No. 3 Buckminster Fuller巴克敏斯特·富勒 
Buckminster Fuller—architect, thinker, inventor, futurist, college dropout. Expelled from Harvard not once, but twice, Fuller’s
post-dropout period was anything but successful. He suffered a string of bad business ventures and years of anguish12) following his daughter’s death. While Fuller could have settled for a less than extraordinary life—he even contemplated suicide—he refused to buck13) to the bevy of bad breaks. At the age of 32, Fuller set out on a one- man quest to change the world for the better. His unorthodox14) ideas such as the dymaxion15) house and dymaxion car captivated the nation, while his geodesic domes16) would bring him international fame and recognition.
巴克敏斯特·富勒——建筑师、思想家、发明家、未来派画家、辍学者。他曾被哈佛大学开除不是一次,而是两次。富勒辍学之后的岁月毫无成功可言。他屡次投资经营,皆以失败告终,而女儿的死又让他饱尝了数年的痛苦。富勒原本有可能就这样庸庸碌碌地了此一生——他甚至想过自杀——但最终他拒绝了向这一系列的噩运低头。32岁时,他踏上了改善世界的个人探索的征程。他设计的包括戴马克松房子和戴马克松汽车等在内的非正统创意令所有美国人着迷,而由他设计的网格球顶更是为他带来了国际声誉与认可。
No. 4 James Cameron詹姆斯·卡梅隆 
The Academy Award-winning director followed a circuitous17) route to Hollywood. Born and raised in Canada, he and his family moved to Brea, California in 1971. It was there that the young Cameron enrolled in Fullerton College to study physics. His academic life did not last long. He would drop out, marry a waitress and eventually become a truck driver for the local school district. It was not until he saw Star Wars in 1977 that Cameron would trade his blue collar career for one creating some of the late 20th-century’s most stunning science-fiction movies.
奥斯卡奖得主詹姆斯·卡梅隆闯入好莱坞的道路算得上是迂回曲折。卡梅隆在加拿大出生和长大,1971年与家人一起迁到了加利福尼亚州的贝瑞阿。在加州,卡梅隆被富勒顿学院录取,攻读物理专业。但他的学术生涯并没有持续太久。他中途退学,娶了一个女服务员,最后在当地的校区干起了卡车司机的营生。1977年,卡梅隆看了一部电影——《星球大战》。正是这部电影改变了他的人生——他放弃蓝领职业,投身电影领域,创作出了20世纪后期最引人注目的几部科幻电影。
No. 5 Mark Zuckerberg马克·扎克伯格 
Most college students use their dorm rooms to sleep, study, or do things their parents probably don’t want to know about. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his. Originally meant only for Harvard students, the popular social networking site quickly spread to the rest of the Ivies18) and other colleges across the nation. As Facebook’s popularity exploded, Zuckerberg packed up his bags and relocated the fledgling19) company to Palo Alto, California, forever leaving behind Harvard’s hallowed20) halls. So far, the decision has worked out pretty well for the twenty-something. According to Forbes, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world, with a 2010 net worth of $4 billion.
多数大学生在宿舍里都是睡觉、学习或者干一些父母也许都不愿知道的事情,而马克·扎克伯格却在宿舍里创立了Facebook。设计这个社交网站的初衷只是为了方便哈佛学生的交流,但它却很快地传播到了其他的常春藤盟校,继而风靡全国的其他高校。随着Facebook的迅猛普及,扎克伯格打点好行囊,将羽翼未丰的公司迁到了加利福尼亚州的帕落阿尔托,从此永远地离开了哈佛圣坛。截至目前来看,这一决定对这位二十几岁的年轻人来说还是很不错的。根据《福布斯》的排名,扎克伯格现在是世界上最年轻的亿万富豪,2010年,他的净资产达到了40亿美元。
No. 6 Tom Hanks汤姆·汉克斯 
Time has called Tom Hanks America’s chronicler in chief21); Sacramento State can call him their most famous dropout. The storied actor left college to intern full time at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. There, he learned various aspects of theater from lighting to set design, laying the foundation for his Hollywood career as a movie star, producer, director and writer. Not one to forget his own past, in 2009 Hanks helped
raise funds to help renovate22) the Cleveland theater where he got his start.
《时代》周刊称汤姆·汉克斯为美国历史的首要记录者,而加州大学萨克拉门托分校则称他为该学校最知名的辍学者。当初,这位史上有名的演员离开大学,来到俄亥俄州克利夫兰的五大湖戏剧节进行全职实习。在那里,他学到了从灯光到舞台设计等各方面的戏剧知识,这为他日后成为好莱坞的一代影星、制片人、导演和编剧奠定了基础。汉克斯不忘过去,懂得感恩:2009年,他帮忙集资,修缮了克利夫兰的大剧院——他事业的起航地。
No. 7 Harrison Ford哈里森·福特 
Apparently a college degree isn’t a prerequisite for flying the Millennium Falcon23). Harrison Ford, of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame, majored in philosophy at Ripon College, but dropped out shortly before graduation. He subsequently landed several small parts in Hollywood productions, but unhappy with such minor roles, turned to a career in professional carpentry24) instead. Almost ten years later, he would co-star in George Lucas’ 1973 graduation night comedy American Graffiti and subsequently joined Lucas in a galaxy far, far away in the 1977 blockbuster Star Wars.
显然,一纸大学文凭并非驾驶“千年隼”号飞船的必要条件。哈里森·福特因电影《星球大战》和《夺宝奇兵》而成名,他曾在瑞普学院主修哲学,但却在临近毕业时辍学。之后,他在好莱坞电影中出演了几个小角色,但对这样的小角色并不满意,于是便转行做了木匠。将近十年之后,也就是1973年,他才在乔治·卢卡斯执导的喜剧电影《美国风情画》中谋到了一个主演角色,影片讲述的是一个毕业之夜发生的故事。之后的1977年,他又加盟了卢卡斯导演的鸿篇巨制《星球大战》,与卢卡斯一起在遥远的银河系畅游。
No. 8 Lady Gaga
Before she was a Gaga, she was a Germanotta. Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, the artist better known as Lady Gaga attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, but dropped out after just a year to pursue her music career full time. She broke onto the New York club scene with her burlesque25) performances and was signed to Interscope Records by the age of 20. Her 2008 debut album, The Fame, has had the world going gaga26) for Gaga ever since.
在成为Gaga之前,她是杰尔马诺塔。她原本的全名叫斯蒂芬妮·乔安妮·安吉莉娜·杰尔马诺塔,但作为一个艺人,Lady Gaga这一称呼则更为世人所熟知。Lady Gaga曾就读于纽约大学提斯克艺术学院,但只读了一年便辍学了,开始全心经营她的音乐事业。Lady Gaga凭借自己滑稽搞怪的表演登上了纽约的俱乐部舞台,并在20岁那年与环球音乐公司签约。2008年,Gaga首发了专辑《超人气》,从此全世界为之疯狂不已。
1. John Grisham:约翰·格里沙姆(1955~),美国知名畅销书作家,以法律惊悚小说见长。代表作有《糖衣陷阱》(The Firm)、《鹈鹕案卷》(The Pelican Brief)和《终极证人》(The Client)等。
2. sheepskin [5Fi:pskIn] n.〈非正式用语〉毕业证书
3. alma mater:母校
4. Buzz Lightyear:巴斯光年,是动画片《玩具总动员》里的虚构角色。这部动画片由迪士尼与乔布斯创办的皮克斯动画工作室合作拍摄,且首次全部用电脑制作。
5. wizard [5wIzEd] n. 天才,奇才
6. One Infinite Loop:苹果公司总部地址。Infinite Loop是环绕着苹果公司总部的六大建筑的街道,位于加利福尼亚州的库珀蒂诺。
7. undue [7Qn5dju:] adj. 过度的,过分的,超出合适或正常的
8. tenure [5tenjuE] n. 任期,(职位等的)占有
9. naught [5nC:t] n. 零,此处相当于nothing
10. calligraphy [kE5lI^rEfI] n. 书法,书法艺术
11. typography [taI5pC^rEfI] n. 字体,印刷版式
12. anguish [5AN^wIF] n. 痛苦,苦恼
13. buck [bQk] vi. 低头撞去
14. unorthodox [7Qn5C:WEdCks] adj. 非正统的,异端的
15. dymaxion [daI5mAksIEn] adj. 最大限度利用能源的,以最少结构提供最大强度的;dymaxion house是富勒设计的节能房子,它在工厂建造,然后移到建筑地点进行装配,该类房子能够适用于各种环境,也能有效利用资源,达到节能的目的;dymaxion car也是富勒设计的一款车,它共有三个轮子,外形酷似停留在地面上的飞艇,这种车耗油量小、速度快。
16. geodesic dome:网格球顶,由富勒发明的一种建筑结构。该结构由多面体、球体等拼接而成,形状接近球状,其设计理念是以最少的精力和材料消耗来创造最佳的问题解决方案。目前,该建筑结构得到广泛的应用,我国的国家大剧院便是应用该建筑结构的一个典型例证。
17. circuitous [sE5kjuItEs] adj. 迂回的,曲折的
18. Ivies:常青藤盟校,是由美国七所大学和一所学院组成的大学联合会,它们分别是哈佛大学、耶鲁大学、哥伦比亚大学、普林斯顿大学、布朗大学、康奈尔大学、达特茅斯学院和宾夕法尼亚大学。
19. fledgling [5fledVlIN] adj. 年轻的,无经验的
20. hallowed [5hAlEJd] adj. 神圣的,神圣化的
21. America’s chronicler in chief:美国历史的首要记录者。之所以称汤姆·汉克斯为美国历史的首要记录者,是因为他导演、制作或主演了一系列历史题材的电影和电视剧,包括《血战太平洋》(The Pacific)、《查理的战争》(Charlie Wilson’s War)、《拯救大兵瑞恩》(Saving Private Ryan)、《兄弟连》(Band of Brothers)、《从地球到月球》(From the Earth to the Moon)、《约翰·亚当斯》(John Adams)等。
22. renovate [5renEuveIt] vt. 革新,修复
23. Millennium Falcon:“千年隼”号飞船,《星球大战》中虚构的一艘传奇飞船
24. carpentry [5kB:pIntrI] n. 木工工作
25. burlesque [bE:5lesk] adj. 滑稽的,可笑的
26. gaga [5^B:^B:] adj. 狂热的,着迷的