我不是苹果产品的粉丝，我自己也从未购买过任何一件苹果的产品。
但是我仍然记得几个月前从某英语杂志看到乔布斯在斯坦福的演讲时禁不住热泪凝眶的感觉，那种激越和感动，让我写下了一篇短文：“follow your own heart”。乔布斯的人生不是很长，可以算是英年早逝。但是他以无与伦比的勇气、激情和创造力改造了这个世界，颠覆了我们很多人对美的概念。正如他所说的，他的产品和设计是充满禅意的充满爱的。“大道至简”，当大多数世人追逐痴迷于繁复精致奢侈的享受时，他提出了“极致的简约才是真正的美”。他的人生短暂，然而他的创意、激情和理念已经改变了世界，他的精神终会鼓励更多的人投入到自己热爱的工作中去。我不为他的离去伤痛落泪，相反，我为他精彩绝伦而无憾的人生喝彩！
厚颜奉上我当时写的短文(暂时只有英文版本，回头抽空写成中文)
Follow Your Own Heart
(此文献给正在为人生为未来迷茫彷徨的朋友们)
When we were little, most of us had great dreams. We wanted to be a teacher, a scientist, a astronaut, an artist, a sportsman or a superstar. Those dreams may be very naive, maybe just pipe dreams. But they are all beautiful sparks in our lives.
As we grow older and gain more knowledge in school, we gradually learn to be rational. We all try to get high scores in our studies so we will have a chance to go to a famous university. Some may choose a hot major that hopefully guarantees finding a good job after graduation. When we grow even older, we think we know what we should pursue in our lives. We stay in large cities and find a good job, get promotions as fast as possible, earn as much money as possible to buy a nice car and a big house, marry someone decent and have a child. And after we have children, we try to send them to the best schools and make him/her learn as much as possible. We hope he/she can be an excellent student and go to the university we dreamt of when we were young, then enter a big company and earn a great deal of money……And then this pattern is passed on to the next generation. But there is a problem. We are not happy most of the time. Day by day, we get older and older, we find ourselves with no passion in life. We have lost our dreams. More importantly, we have lost ourselves. When we are getting close to death, we find we have accomplished little in our lives. We have little to hold on to from our past. We are filled with regret but have no idea how everything got to this point or, even more importantly, what we can do about it.
So how did all this happen? We refused to follow our heart. We followed dogmas and other people’s expectations. Actually, our hearts and intuition know what we want to become, what we can accomplish with our lives.
Maybe your heart has told you that you are very talented in painting. But your rational mind as well as other people tell you that you can’t make a living as a painter. 夀漀甀’ll never be rich and successful. So you choose to learn accounting or finance. They you become a smart accountant or financial analyst, working for a Big Four company or a famous investment bank in the CBD. You wear handsome suits and act gracefully all the time. You are the kind of respectable person people admire. However, you have little time to do the painting you love. You are not healthy because you seldom exercise or enjoy the sunshine and beauty of nature. 夀漀甀 often miss the important dates with your family and friends since you need to work overtime during the holidays. When the financial crisis comes, you become constantly anxious. You worry about failing to get a promotion, losing your job, the stock market crashing, the CPI increasing, or getting a divorce…… Your life is continually filled with fear, regret and anxiety. Your life becomes a disaster.
My friends, Be brave. Follow your own heart and intuition. Calm Down. Listen to your heart. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. Follow it. Somehow our hearts already know what we really love and what we are capable of. We may meet misunderstandings, setbacks and even failures. However, we can beat those obstacles with the passion and confidence that comes from doing what we truly love.
And when we are old with grey hair and wrinkles on our face, we can tell our grandchildren what a wonderful life we have lived.
P.S. Actually, when I mention “We all try to get high scores in our studies so we will have a chance to go to a famous university. Some may choose a hot major that hopefully guarantees finding a good job after graduation. When we grow even older, we think we know what we should pursue in our lives. We stay in large cities and find a good job, to get promotions as fast as possible, to earn as much money as possible to buy a nice car and a big house, marry someone decent and have a child.” That person was me. I am the one who had a dream to be a teacher, but when I grew older, got high scores in school, went to good university, chose a hot subject of accounting, stayed in Beijing, worked for a Big Four accounting firm for years, lost my dream and myself, felt anxious about the future. I was admired by many people but I didn’t feel happy most of the time. Luckily, I have found my mission of life right now with God’s guidance. Praise God! Amen!
