库克毕业典礼演讲：我这一代人“辜负”了你们！
5 月 18 日，苹果 CEO 库克在杜兰大学毕业典礼发表演讲，他讲述自己 1998 年，从快要破产的康柏转投苹果公司，并为自己能与苹果公司一起改变世界而感激。他敦促年轻一代做得更好，要大胆地实现目标。
“生活试图告诉你‘你不能，你不可以，你不应该，如果你没有尝试，你会过得更好’…但是，当你们毕业走向世界，不仅要鼓起勇气，还要倾听，不仅要采取行动，还要共同行动。”
“在某些重要的方面，我这一代人已经失败了。我们专注于打斗，花太多时间辩论，而没有足够重视进步，最失败的例子就在身边，比如气候问题。”
Hello Tulane!
Thank you Presient Fitts, Provost Forman, istinguishe faculty, other faculty [laughs], an the entire Tulane family, incluing the workers, ushers, [an] volunteers who prepare this beautiful space. An I feel uty-boun to also recognize the har-working barteners at The Boot. Though they're not here with us this morning, I'm sure some of you are reflecting on their contributions as well. [The Boot is a popular college bar right next to Tulane's campus which has been aroun for ecaes.]
An just as many of you have New Orleans in your veins, an perhaps your livers, some of us at Apple have New Orleans in our bloo as well. When I was a stuent at Auburn, the Big Easy was our favorite getaway. It's amazing how quickly those 363 miles fly by when you're riving towar a weeken of beignets an beer. An how slowly they go in the opposite irection. Apple's own Lisa Jackson is a prou Tulane alum. Yes. She brought the Green Wave all the way to Cupertino where she heas our environment an public policy work. We're thrille to have her talent an leaership on our team.
OK, enough about us. Let's talk about you. At moments like this, it always humbles me to watch a community come together to teach, mentor, avise, an finally say with one voice, congratulations to the class of 2019!
Now there's another very important group: your family an friens. The people who, more than anyone else, love, supporte, an even sacrifice greatly to help you reach this moment. Let's give them a roun of applause. This will be my first piece of avice. You might not appreciate until much later in your life how much this moment means to them. Or how that bon of obligation, love, an uty between you matters more than anything else.
In fact, that's what I really want to talk to you about toay. In a worl where we obsessively ocument our own lives, most of us on't pay nearly enough attention to what we owe one another. Now this isn't just about calling your parents more, although I'm sure they' be grateful if you i that. It's about recognizing that human civilization began when we realize that we coul o more together. That the threats an anger outsie the flickering firelight got smaller when we got bigger. An that we coul create more — more prosperity, more beauty, more wisom, an a better life — when we acknowlege certain share truths an acte collectively.
Maybe I'm biase, but I've always thought the South, an the Gulf Coast in particular, have hung on to this wisom better than most. [Tim Cook grew up in Robertsale, Alabama, which is about an hour from New Orleans an is similarly close to the Gulf of Mexico.] In this part of the country, your neighbors check up on you if they haven't hear from you in a while. Goo news travels fast because your victories are their victories too. An you can't make it through someone's front oor before they offer you a home-cooke meal.
Maybe you haven't thought about it very much, but these values have informe your Tulane eucation too. Just look at the motto: not for one's self, but for one's own. You've been fortunate to live, learn, an grow in a city where human currents blen into something magical an unexpecte. Where unmatche beauty, natural beauty, literary beauty, musical beauty, cultural beauty, seem to spring unexpectely from the bayou. The people of New Orleans use two tools to buil this city: the unlikely an the impossible. Wherever you go, on't forget the lessons of this place. Life will always fin lots of ways to tell you no, that you can't, that you shouln't, that you' be better off if you in't try. But New Orleans teaches us there is nothing more beautiful or more worthwhile than trying. Especially when we o it not in the service of one's self, but one's own.
For me, it was that search for greater purpose that brought me to Apple in the first place. I ha a comfortable job at a company calle Compaq that at the time looke like it was going to be on top forever. As it turns out, most of you are probably too young to even remember its name. But in 1998, Steve Jobs convince me to leave Compaq behin to join a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. They mae computers, but at that moment at least, people weren't intereste in buying them. Steve ha a plan to change things. An I wante to be a part of it.
It wasn't just about the iMac, or the iPo, or everything that came after. It was about the values that brought these inventions to life. The iea that putting powerful tools in the hans of everyay people helps unleash creativity an move humanity forwar. That we can buil things that help us imagine a better worl an then make it real.
There's a saying that if you o what you love, you'll never work a ay in your life. At Apple, I learne that's a total crock. You'll work harer than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hans. As you go out into the worl, on't waste time on problems that have been solve. Don't get hung up on what other people say is practical. Instea, steer your ship into the choppy seas. Look for the rough spots, the problems that seem too big, the complexities that other people are content to work aroun. It's in those places that you will fin your purpose. It's there that you can make your greatest contribution. Whatever you o, on't make the mistake of being too cautious. Don't assume that by staying put, the groun won't move beneath your feet. The status quo simply won't last. So get to work on builing something better.
In some important ways, my generation has faile you in this regar. We spent too much time ebating. We've been too focuse on the fight an not focuse enough on progress. An you on't nee to look far to fin an example of that failure. Here toay, in this very place, in an arena where thousans once foun esperate shelter from a 100-year isaster, the kin that seem to be happening more an more frequently, I on't think we can talk about who we are as people an what we owe to one another without talking about climate change.
[applause] Thank you. Thank you.
This problem oesn't get any easier base on whose sie wins or loses an election. It's about who has won life's lottery an has the luxury of ignoring this issue an who stans to lose everything. The coastal communities, incluing some right here in Louisiana, that are alreay making plans to leave behin the places they've calle home for generations an hea for higher groun. The fishermen whose nets come up empty. The willife preserves with less willife to preserve. The marginalize, for whom a natural isaster can mean enuring poverty.
Just ask Tulane's own Molly Keogh, who's getting her Ph.D. this weeken. Her important new research shows that rising sea levels are evastating areas of Southern Louisiana more ramatically than anyone expecte. Tulane grauates, these are people's homes. Their livelihoos. The lan where their granparents were born, live, an ie.
When we talk about climate change or any issue with human costs, an there are many, I challenge you to look for those who have the most to lose an fin the real, true empathy that comes from something share. That is really what we owe one another. When you o that, the political noise ies own, an you can feel your feet firmly plante on soli groun. After all, we on't buil monuments to trolls, an we're not going to start now.
If you fin yourself spening more time fighting than getting to work, stop an ask yourself who benefits from all the chaos. There are some who woul like you to believe that the only way that you can be strong is by bullozing those who isagree or never giving them a chance to say their peace in the first place. That the only way you can buil your own accomplishments is by tearing own the other sie.
We forget sometimes that our preexisting beliefs have their own force of gravity. Toay, certain algorithms pull towar you the things you alreay know, believe, or like, an they push away everything else. Push back. It shouln't be this way. But in 2019, opening your eyes an seeing things in a new way can be a revolutionary act. Summon the courage not just to hear but to listen. Not just to act, but to act together.
It can sometimes feel like the os are stacke against you, that it isn't worth it, that the critics are too persistent an the problems are too great. But the solutions to our problems begin on a human scale with builing a share unerstaning of the work ahea an with unertaking it together. At the very least, we owe it to each other to try.
It's worke before. In 1932, the American economy was in a free-fall. Twelve million people were unemploye, an conventional wisom sai the only thing to o was to rie it out, wait, an hope that things woul turn aroun. But the governor of New York, a rising star name Franklin Roosevelt, refuse to wait. He challenge the status quo an calle for action. He neee people to stop their rosy thinking, face the facts, pull together, an help themselves out of a jam. He sai: "The country emans bol, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a metho an try it. If it fails, amit it an try another. But above all, try something."
This was a speech to college stuents fearful about their future in an uncertain worl. He sai: "Yours is not the task of making your way in the worl, but the task of remaking the worl." The auacious empathy of young people, the spirit that says we shoul live not just for ourselves, but for our own. That's the way forwar. From climate change to immigration, from criminal justice reform to economic opportunity, be motivate by your uty to buil a better worl. Young people have change the course of history time an time again. An now it's time to change it once more.
I know, I know the urgency of that truth is with you toay. Feel big because no one can make you feel strong. Feel brave because the challenges we face are great but you are greater. An feel grateful because someone sacrifice to make this moment possible for you. You have clear eyes an a long life to use them. An here in this staium, I can feel your courage.
Call upon your grit. Try something. You may succee. You may fail. But make it your life's work to remake the worl because there is nothing more beautiful or more worthwhile than working to leave something better for humanity.
Thank you very much, an congratulations class of 2019!
