比尔·盖茨毕业演讲：世界多么不平等 想法改变

　　2007年6月7日，比尔•盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上做了演讲，以下为全文翻译。
　　Bill Gates: Never surrender to complexity
　　―― 比尔•盖茨:世界多么不平等 想法改变
　　President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers,
　　members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates:
　　尊敬的Bok校长，Rudenstine前校长，即将上任的Faust校长，哈佛集团的各位成员，监管理事会的各位理事，各位老师，各位家长，各位同学：
　　I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: "Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree."
　　有一句话我等了三十年，现在终于可以说了：“老爸，我总是跟你说，我会回来拿到我的学位的！”
　　I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor.I'll be changing my job next year …
　　and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.
　　我要感谢哈佛大学在这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年，我就要换工作了（注：指从微软公司退休）……我终于可以在简历上写我有一个本科学位，这真是不错啊。
　　I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route
　　to your degrees. For my part, I'm just happy that the Crimson has called me "Harvard's most successful dropout."
　　I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class …
　　I did the best of everyone who failed.
　　我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴，你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。哈佛的校报称我是“哈佛大学历史上最成功的辍学生”。我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言……在所有的失败者里，我做得最好。
　　But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer
　　to drop out of business school. 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.
　　但是，我还要提醒大家，我使得Steve Ballmer（注：微软总经理）也从哈佛商学院退学了。因此，我是个有着恶劣影响力的人。这就是为什么我被邀请来在你们的毕业典礼上演讲。如果我在你们入学欢迎仪式上演讲，那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多吧。
　　Harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me.
　　Academic life was fascinating.
　　I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn't even signed up for.
　　And dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn't worry about getting up in the morning.
　　That's how I came to be the leader of the anti-social group.
　　We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of  all those social people.
　　对我来说，哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。校园生活很有趣，我常去旁听我没选修的课。哈佛的课外生活也很棒，我在Radcliffe过着逍遥自在的日子。每天我的寝室里总有很多人一直待到半夜，讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道我从不考虑第二天早起。这使得我变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头，我们互相粘在一起，做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿态。
　　Radcliffe was a great place to live. There were more women up there,
　　and most of the guys were science-math types.
　　That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean. This is where I learned the sad lesson
　　that improving your odds doesn't guarantee success.
　　Radcliffe是个过日子的好地方。那里的女生比男生多，而且大多数男生都是理工科的。这种状况为我创造了最好的机会，如果你们明白我的意思。可惜的是，我正是在这里学到了人生中悲伤的一课：机会大，并不等于你就会成功。
　　One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975,
　　when I made a call from Currier House to a company in Albuquerque
　　that had begun making the world's first personal computers.
　　I offered to sell them software.