文：Ｃａｒｌｙ Ｆｉｏｒｉｎａ 译：许 轶
在硅谷的高精尖世界里，男性一直是主角。如果有人能把女性的阴柔与枯燥的高科技结合在一起，那该是创世纪的杰作。也许正因为这样，惠普公司前女总裁卡尔利·菲奥里纳的出现才如一缕轻风，在业界激起层层涟漪。本文通过她在麻省理工学院2000年的毕业典礼致辞入手，让读者感受一下这位女强人的职业生涯规划和成长历程。
“我发现我的CEO之路始于我决定从法律学校退学的那天。”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Commencement(excerpts)
Good morning. Thank you very much.
It is perhaps an understatement to say it"s an honor to be back at MIT, addressing the graduating class of the year 2000. As I look out on this crowd, it is both humbling and inspiring.
In 1989, as a graduating Sloan3) Fellow, I can honestly say I didn"t expect to be CEO of a company like Hewlett-Packard; truthfully, I don"t think I expected to be a CEO at all.
When I sat where you are eleven years ago, or when I sat in a different chair three thousand miles away at Stanford twenty-four years ago, the proud holder of an undergraduate degree in Medieval History—yes, that"s true —or when I worked as a secretary in the shipping department of a company called Hewlett-Packard, typing bills of lading, logic and intellect would never have predicted that I would one day return to run that same Palo Alto4) company.
And this is, of course, exactly my point. At any one moment in time you often can"t see where your path is heading and logic and intellect alone won"t lead you to make the right choices, won"t in fact take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also master listening to your heart and listening to your gut. One has to look beyond the immediate choice of it all. It is too easy to freeze up at moments exactly like today. I can sympathize.
I see now also that I began my path to become a CEO on the day I decided to quit law school. After I knew I couldn"t paint like my artist mother, I automatically assumed that I would follow in my father"s footsteps. My father was a law professor and a judge, and his guidance and example have always meant the world to me. And so, after studying medieval things at Stanford, I went on to law school. I followed the logical path that I, and others, had always presumed for me. I wanted my father to be proud of me. I wanted to follow in his footsteps.
But it quickly became apparent to me in law school that I didn"t like studying the law. For me, the emphasis on precedent felt confining. And so this presented for me a gut-wrenching dilemma5). Do I risk letting my father down? Do I stick it out in law school? Or do I go do something else?
Finally, I made the decision and I didn"t blink and I left law school. What seemed at the moment, especially to my father, a random, ill-advised move, was actually an important life lesson and a marker in my own journey.
And I genuinely believe that life teaches lessons in strange ways. The lesson I learned at that life marker was love what you do, or don"t do it. Don"t make a choice of any kind, whether in career or in life, just because it pleases others or because it ranks high on someone else"s scale of achievement or even because it seems to be, perhaps even for you at the time, simply the logical thing to do at that moment on your path. Make the choice to do something because it engages your heart as well as your mind. Make the choice because it engages all of you. Remember as a graduate of a world class university, as a graduate of this place, with your double-E or your degree in Physics or Computer Science or Architecture, the freedom to choose is now yours.
And to make the most of that freedom, use your mind and your heart and your gut. Freedom to choose can sometimes feel like a terrible burden, but the burden is greatly lightened when we learn how to use our whole selves, when we realize that we have everything we need for this journey of life.
But your mind alone won"t do it. When you leave here you start on the second important journey, figuring out how to listen to your heart. Now, of course, for some of you, engaging all of yourself is natural; it"s easy for you. You"ve known how to do it perhaps since birth. But for the rest of us, getting there is a process. It can take years, decades. Some of us never get to know our whole selves, but we need to keep trying.
And finally, remember that throughout this journey, the only limits that really matter are the ones you put on yourself, and that those crucial moments in your life, when you know what you need to do, but others advise against what they perceive to be a detour6) from your path, know yourself, trust your whole self, and don"t blink. If you do these things, when you look back, or maybe when you look down from this podium7), you will know that this journey was a wonderful gift and that you have made as much of this wonderful gift as you could have.
Thank you very much.
早上好, 非常感谢大家！
可能仅仅用一句“很荣幸重返麻省理工”给2000级毕业生们做致辞不足以表达我现在的心情。因为当我向人群中望去,我感到既渺小又备受鼓舞。
1989年，作为一名斯隆基金的毕业生，坦白地说，我并没有想到我会成为一个像惠普这样的公司的首席执行官；事实上，我根本没想过会当CEO。
当我11年前坐在你们现在的位置上的时候，当我24年前坐在3000英里之处斯坦福大学毕业典礼上充满骄傲地握着中世纪史学士学位证书的时候——这可是真事儿——或者当我在一个叫惠普公司的货运部当秘书，整天往电脑里输入提货单的时候，任何逻辑和智力都没有预示我将来的某一天会回来管理这家帕洛·阿尔托公司。
然而这恰恰是我想说的。有些时候你看不到前面路的方向，单凭逻辑和智商你无法做出正确的选择，事实上也无法带你走上正确的道路。于是你不但要学会聆听自己的头脑，还要聆听来自于自己内心深处以及感觉的声音。你要超越眼前纵观大局。而在今天这样的时刻不知所措实在是再平常不过的事情了，我可以感同身受。
如今我发现我的CEO之路始于我决定从法律学校退学的那天。当我发现自己无法如艺术家母亲一样绘画时，我自然而然地感觉到自己应该按照父亲的足迹走下去。我的父亲是一位法律教授兼法官。他的指导和榜样对我来说特别重要。于是，在斯坦福完成了我中世纪史的学习之后，我进入法律学校进修，沿着自己以及他人认为理所应当的轨迹走下去。我希望父亲为我骄傲。我希望追随他的脚步。
但是在法律学校我很快发现自己显然不喜欢法律。法律重视先例，而这种观念使我倍感束缚。于是，我面临着一个令人痛苦的两难选择。是冒险让父亲失望还是坚持读完法律学校？或者我应该选择其他的事情来做？
最后我做出决定，连眼都不眨一下就从法律学校退学了。这在当时，尤其是在我父亲看来，是十分随意的不明智的举动。然而这事实上成了我人生重要的一课，也是我人生旅途的里程碑。
我真切地认为生活以种种奇怪的方式教育我们。我从这个里程碑里学到的就是热爱你所从事的事业，否则就不要选择它。不要为了取悦他人而做出选择，不论是事业上的还是生活上的；不要为了达到别人眼中所谓成就的某种高度而做选择；更不要因为它看上去就是——甚至可能在那时对你而言——你人生路上合乎逻辑的选择。选择那些能让人全身心投入的事情去做，选择它是因为它让你全身心投入。请记住，作为世界一流大学的麻省理工的毕业生们，你们拥有电子工程、物理、计算机科学或者建筑的学位，现在，你们有做出选择的自由。
为了能充分利用这种自由，你们应该用头脑去思考，用心灵去感觉。选择的自由有时候就像一种可怕的负担，但是当我们学会使自己全情投入，当我们意识到自己已经整装待发的时候，这种负担的感觉自然会极大地减轻。
然而仅仅有头脑还是不够的，当离开这里踏上下一个重要的旅程，你们要学会倾听心灵的声音。当然对你们中的一些人来说，全身心投入是很自然的事情，很容易就做到了，也许你一出生就知道怎么做。但是对于另外一些人，做到这点要经历一个过程。也许是几年，也许是几十年。我们中有些人永远也无法了解我们自己，但是我们仍应不懈地尝试。
最后，请牢记在这个人生的旅途中，真正要紧的是那些你加在自己身上的限制，是那些生命中重要的时刻，即当你知道自己应该做什么却遭反对，因为在别人看来你选择走了弯路的时候，请了解自己，相信自己，不要犹豫。如果你做到了，当你回过头来看的时候，或者当你从这个讲台上看下去的时候，你将会发现这段旅程会是一份美好的礼物，你已经为这份礼物尽了最大努力。
非常感谢大家！
1.commencement [kE5mensmEnt] n. 毕业典礼
2.Carly Fiorina：卡尔利·菲奥里纳, 惠普公司前总裁兼首席执行官。连续6年, 她位列《财富》杂志评选的50位女强人；2005年她被评选为第10位女强人。
3.Sloan [slEun] n. 斯隆, 曾任通用汽车公司总裁、董事长。曾捐款给以其姓氏命名的基金会并资助慈善事业。
4.Palo Alto：帕洛·阿尔托：美国加利福尼亚西部城市, 是电子工业聚集区。
5.dilemma [dI5lemE7 daI-] n. 进退两难的局面, 困难的选择
6.detour [5dI:tJE(r)] n. 便道, 绕路
7.podium [5pEudIEm] n. 乐队指挥台, 讲台
