英语美文朗读 第533期 The most important innovation in your life

Growing up in a lower middle-class community on the south side of Chicago, virtually everyone important in my life, my family, my teachers, my girlfriend, wanted me to be a doctor. Overtime, their dreams became my dreams.

 

芝加哥南部的一个底层中产阶级社区，这就是我长大的地方。在我的生命中，几乎所有重要的人，我的家人，我的老师，我的女友，都想让我成为一位医生。久而久之，他们的梦想，变成了我的梦想。

 

They convinced me I should be a doctor, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't do it. I was unable to make myself into the person that I thought I should be, so I decided to stop trying. I was 21 years old when I dropped out of college.

他们让我相信，我应该成为一位医生。但是，无论我多么努力，我都做不到，我无法变成理想中的自己。所以，我不再尝试这样做。那时，我21岁，从大学辍学了。

 

During my California springs and summers, I spent most of my days in the High Sierras in Yosemite Valley, working as a river guide and a rock-climbing instructor. I loved those jobs, but unfortunately, they didn't pay that well. So, I also got a job working a couple of days a week as a computer programmer back in Berkeley.

在加州度过的那几年，大多数时候，我都待在约塞米蒂峡谷的西亚拉山区，我在那儿当河道向导，当攀岩教练。我爱这些工作，然而，不幸的是，它们带来的薪水并不高。所以，我也在当伯克利当程序员，每周在那儿工作几天。

 

I had learned program in college. I didn't love programming but it was fun and I was good at it. I started taking classes at UC Berkeley. I took several classes, but the only one I can remember was a sailing class taught at Berkeley marina. When my class was over, I wanted to buy a sailboat.

我在大学的时候学过编程，我不喜欢编程，但编程还挺有趣的，而且我很擅长编程。我开始在加州大学伯克利分校上课，我选了几门课，但是，只有一门课让我记忆犹新，那就是在伯克利码头那里上的帆船课。这门课结束后，我想买一艘帆船。

 

My wife said, this was a single stupidest idea she had ever heard in her entire life. She accused me of being irresponsible, and she told me I lacked ambition. She kicked me out, and then she divorced me. This is a pivotal moment in my life.

我的妻子说，这是她听过的最愚蠢的想法。她指责我，说我不负责任，说我胸无大志。她把我赶出家门，然后和我离婚了。这可是我人生中的关键时刻。

 

My family was still mad at me for not going to medical school, and now my wife was divorcing me because I lacked ambition. It looked like a reoccurrence of the same old problem. Once again, I was unable to live up to the expectations of others, but this time, I was not disappointed in myself for failing to be the person they thought I should be.

我的家人还在生我的气，因为我不学医了。我的妻子要跟我离婚，因为我没有抱负。这一切，就像在重蹈覆辙。我无法满足别人的期待，这已经不是第一次发生了。换做以往，我会对自己感到失望，因为我没能成为他们认为我该成为的人，然而，这一次，我不再对自己失望。

 

Their dreams and my dreams were different. I would never confuse the two of them again. Throughout my 20s, I continued experimenting, trying different things, racing bikes and boats and constantly changing jobs. I searched and I searched, but I just could not find a software engineering job thought that I loved as much as I loved sailing. So, I tried to create one.

他们的梦想，和我的梦想，是不一样的，我再也不会混淆这两者。在二十多岁这段时光里，我不断试验，尝试不同的事情，骑自行车，划船，不断换工作。我很热爱帆船运动，然而，这些年里，我找了很久，都没有一份编程工作能让我感受到同样的热爱。所以，我尝试自己创造一份这样的工作。

 

My goal was to create the perfect job for me, a job I truly loved. I never expected the company to grow beyond 50 people, so, maybe I really did lack ambition or vision back then. Today Oracle employs around 150,000 people, but when I started, it was not my intention to build a big company.

我的目标，就是为自己打造一份完美的工作，一份我真心热爱的工作。我从来没想过，我的公司规模会超过50人。所以，也许，当时我确实是没多大野心，也没什么远见。如今，我们公司有十五万员工。但是，在创业初期，我没有想过要把公司做得这么大。

 

We assembled an all-star team of gifted programmers, who were among the best in the world at what they did. That team plus one crazy idea gave birth to a giant company. I call it a crazy idea, because of the time everyone told me it was a crazy idea. The idea was to build the world's first relational database.

我们把很有才的程序员们聚到一起，组成了一个全明星团队，他们是各自领域里的顶尖行家。一个优秀的团队，加上一个疯狂的想法，就产生了一个超大规模的公司。我把它称之为疯狂的想法，是因为，曾经，所有人都告诉我，想创造世界上第一个关系数据库，这个想法很疯狂。

 

But back then, the collective wisdom of computer experts was, that while relational data bases could be built, they would never be fast enough to be useful. I thought, all those so-called computer experts were wrong, and when you start telling people that all the experts are wrong, at first, they call you arrogant, and then they say you're crazy.

但是，当时，电脑专家们都认为，要建一个关系数据库，可以，但这个数据库的运行速度会很慢，所以它没什么用处。我认为，那些所谓的电脑专家们，他们的看法都是错的。当你告诉别人，说专家们都是错的，人们就会说，你很傲慢，然后他们会说，你太疯狂了。

 

So, remember this, graduates, when people start telling you that you're crazy you just might be onto the most important innovation in your life. Oracle doubled in size year after year after year for 10 years. It was growing so fast that it was impossible for anyone to control. It was like sailing in a hurricane. And then we went public.

所以，毕业生们，请记住，如果有人跟你说，你很疯狂，那么，你可能正要经历人生最重要的变革。我们公司的规模，连续十年实现翻倍。它发展得非常快，势不可挡，它就像是在风暴中航行一样。然后，我们就上市了。

 

Oh my god. Maybe I should have been a doctor.

噢，也许我本应该当个医生！