By+Mark+Zuckerberg

Facebook的創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官馬克·扎克伯格被冠以“第二蓋茨”的美譽，而且也可以說是哈佛最成功的肄業(yè)生之一。今年5月25日，扎克伯格在輟學(xué)13年后終于回到母校哈佛大學(xué)，并被授予榮譽法學(xué)博士學(xué)位。在隨后的演講中，他懇切地表達了對母校的感激之情，并說：如果沒有當初的使命感，就不會有今天的一切……衡量一個社會的進步也不能只看GDP，而要看有多少人生活得有意義。

Mark Zuckerbergs 2017 Harvard Commencement1 Speech

President Faust， Board of Overseers， faculty， alumni， friends， proud parents， members of the ad board and graduates of the greatest university in the world...2

Im honored to be with you today， because lets face it， you accomplished something I never could.3 If I get through this speech， itll be the first time I actually finish something at Harvard. Class of 2017， congratulations！

Im an unlikely speaker， not just because I dropped out， but because were technically4 in the same generation. We walked this yard less than a decade apart， studied the same ideas and slept through the same Ec105 lectures. We may have taken different paths to get here， but today I want to share what Ive learned about our generation and the world were building together.

But first， the last couple of days have brought back a lot of good memories.

What about your first lecture at Harvard？ Mine was Computer Science 121. I was late， so I threw on a T-shirt and didnt realize until afterwards it was inside out6. I couldnt figure out why no one would talk to me—except one guy， KX Jin， he just went with it. We ended up doing our problem sets together， and now he runs a big part of Facebook. And that， Class of 2017， is why you should be nice to people.

But my best memory from Harvard was meeting Priscilla7. I had just launched this prank website Facemash， and the ad board wanted to “see me.”8 Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out. My parents came to help me pack. My friends threw me a going away party. As luck would have it， Priscilla was at that party with her friend. We met in line for the bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower9， and in what must be one of the all time romantic lines， I said： “Im going to get kicked out in three days， so we need to go on a date quickly.”

I didnt end up getting kicked out—I did that to myself.10 Priscilla and I started dating. Shes the most important person in my life. Thats why Im so grateful to this place. Thanks， Harvard.

Today I want to talk about purpose. Were millennials11. Well try to do that instinctively. Instead， Im here to tell you finding your purpose isnt enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.endprint

One of my favorite stories is when John F. Kennedy visited the NASA space center， he saw a janitor carrying a broom and he walked over and asked what he was doing.12 The janitor responded： “Mr. President， Im helping put a man on the moon.”

I remember the night I launched Facebook from my little dorm in Kirkland House. I went to Nochs13 with my friend KX. I remember telling him I was excited to connect the Harvard community， but one day someone would connect the whole world.

A couple years in， some big companies wanted to buy us. I didnt want to sell. Nearly everyone else wanted to sell. Without a sense of higher purpose， this was the startup dream come true.14 It tore our company apart. After one tense argument， an advisor told me if I didnt agree to sell， I would regret the decision for the rest of my life. Relationships were so frayed15 that within a year or so， every single person on the management team was gone. That was my hardest time leading Facebook.

Today I want to talk about three ways to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose： by taking on big meaningful projects together， by redefining equality so everyone has the freedom to pursue purpose and by building community across the world.

First， lets take on big meaningful projects.

Every generation has its defining works. More than 300，000 people worked to put a man on the moon—including that janitor. Millions of volunteers immunized children around the world against polio.16

Its good to be idealistic. But be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision will get called crazy， even if you end up right. Anyone working on a complex problem will get blamed for not fully understanding the challenge.

The second is redefining equality to give everyone the freedom they need to pursue purpose.

Now， an entrepreneurial culture thrives when its easy to try lots of new ideas. Facebook wasnt the first thing I built. I also built games， chat systems， study tools and music players. Im not alone. J. K. Rowling17 got rejected 12 times before publishing Harry Potter. Even Beyoncé had to make hundreds of songs to get “Halo.”18 The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail.19

But today， we have a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone. Right now our society is way over-indexed on rewarding success and we dont do nearly enough to make it easy for everyone to take lots of shots.20endprint

Every generation expands its definition of equality. Previous generations fought for the vote and civil rights. Now its our time to define a new social contract for our generation. We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics21 like GDP， but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful.

And yes， giving everyone the freedom to pursue purpose isnt free. People like me should pay for it. Thats why Priscilla and I started the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative22 and committed our wealth to promoting equal opportunity. These are the values of our generation. It was never a question of if we were going to do this. The only question was when.

Purpose doesnt only come from work. The third way we can create a sense of purpose for everyone is by building community. In a survey asking millennials what defines our identity， the most popular answer wasnt nationality， religion or ethnicity， it was“citizen of the world.”

We get that our greatest opportunities are now global—we can be the generation that ends poverty， that ends disease. But we live in an unstable time. There are people left behind by globalization across the world. This is the struggle of our time. The forces of freedom， openness and global community against the forces of authoritarianism， isolationism and nationalism.23 This is not a battle of nations， its a battle of ideas.

Change starts local. Even global changes start small—with people like us. Before you walk out those gates one last time， as we sit in front of Memorial Church， I am reminded of a prayer， Mi Shebeirach， that I say whenever I face a challenge， that I sing to my daughter thinking about her future when I tuck her into bed.24 It goes： “May the source of strength， who blessed the ones before us， help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing.”

I hope you find the courage to make your life a blessing.

Congratulations， Class of 2017！ Good luck out there.

1. commencement： 畢業(yè)典禮。

2. overseer：（某體系的）監(jiān)督者，監(jiān)督機構(gòu)；faculty： 全體教員；alumni：//校友，畢業(yè)生；ad board： administrative board，管理委員會。

3. 此處扎克伯格暗指自己從哈佛輟學(xué)了。

4. technically： 根據(jù)確切意義地，嚴格按照事實地。

5. Ec10： 哈佛大學(xué)提供的一門經(jīng)濟學(xué)課程。

6. inside out： 里面翻到外面，指衣服穿反了。

7. Priscilla： 普莉希拉·陳（Priscilla Chan），扎克伯格的妻子，慈善家及兒科醫(yī)生。

8. 我剛剛建立了一個惡作劇網(wǎng)站Facemash，學(xué)校管理委員會的人要審查我。prank：惡作劇。

9. Pfoho Belltower： 是哈佛大學(xué)學(xué)生宿舍樓Pforzheimer House里的一個大套房，包括公共休息室、臥室、聯(lián)誼室、酒吧等等。下文中的Kirkland House也是哈佛大學(xué)學(xué)生宿舍樓。

10. 我沒有被開除，而是自己選擇了退學(xué)。

11. millennials： // 千禧一代，指出生于1980到2000年的一代年輕人。

12. John F. Kennedy： 約翰·肯尼迪（1917—1963），美國第35任總統(tǒng)；NASA： 美國國家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration）；janitor：大樓管理員，看門人；broom： 掃帚。

13. Nochs： 匹諾曹比薩店（Pinocchios Pizzeria ）的縮寫。

14. 若沒有更高的目標，這對創(chuàng)業(yè)公司來說就是夢想成真了（指很多創(chuàng)業(yè)者都想通過出售公司掙快錢）。

15. fray： 磨損。

16. immunize： 給……接種疫苗；polio： // 脊髓灰質(zhì)炎，小兒麻痹癥。

17. J.K. Rowling： J. K. 羅琳，英國作家，代表作為《哈利·波特》系列作品。

18. Beyoncé： 碧昂絲，美國著名女歌手；“Halo”： 碧昂絲最有名的個人單曲之一。

19. 最偉大的成功都要經(jīng)過無數(shù)的失敗。

20. 如今我們的社會過于注重獎勵成功，缺乏足夠的條件讓每個人都能不斷去嘗試（指經(jīng)歷多次失?。?。way： adv. 非常；over-indexed： 指數(shù)過高的；take a shot： 嘗試。

21. metric： 度量標準。

22. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative： 扎克伯格-陳計劃，由扎克伯格和妻子在女兒出生之際創(chuàng)立的以慈善為目的的有限責(zé)任公司，資產(chǎn)價值約450億美元（99%Facebook股票），旨在“推進人類潛能，促進下一代所有孩子在健康、教育、科學(xué)研究等方面的平等權(quán)益”。

23. authoritarianism， isolationism and nationalism： 獨裁主義、孤立主義和民族主義。

24. Mi Shebeirach： 一種猶太教的祈禱文；tuck sb. into bed： 給某人蓋上被子使安睡。endprint