拉里·佩奇（Larry Page）密歇根大学毕业典礼演讲
09级的同学，首先我希望大家站起来，向支持你们的亲朋好友挥手致意！展示你们的爱！
今天来到这里我很荣幸。
请等一下。我知道，刚才那句陈词滥调，大家可能在想：每一位毕业典礼的演讲人都会说——很荣幸，但就我而言，的确字真意深，因为我来到这里，要比你们所知的大多数人都更为特别而亲切。我想告诉大家个中缘由。
很久以前，1962年9月，这座校园里有一家名为史蒂文的消费合作社。该合作社有一间厨房，学生志愿者每十年左右来打扫厨房顶。当年有位名叫格 洛莉亚的女大学生，爬上了高高的梯子，努力打扫肮脏的天花板，地板上站着一位名叫卡尔的寄宿生，他钦佩地看着这位姑娘，这就是他俩的第一次见面。他俩就是 我的父母亲。我想你们会想，我就是厨房“化学实验”的直接成果，就在这里，密歇根大学。我的母亲今天和我们在一起，我们应该去找到他们的相遇之处，并且在 天花板上镶嵌一块铭牌，上刻“感谢爸爸、妈妈！”
我的祖父在密歇根弗林特的雪佛兰工厂工作，他是装配线上的一名工人。他曾开车带着他的两个孩子来到这里，并告诉他们：这是你们今后要上的大学。 他的两个孩子都是从密歇根大学毕业的，这就是“美国梦”。他的女儿，贝芙丽，今天也和我们在一起。我的祖母经常扛着一个大铁锤，那时工人们静坐罢工用以保 护自己。当我小的时候的时候，我就用那个大铁锤在地上砸树桩什么的。现在人们不再需要扛着个笨重的大家伙保护自己了，这很好。但今天万一出了状况，反正我 带着它来了。
我父亲后来成为密歇根州立大学的教授，我也是个非常有运气的孩子。教授的生活是非常有弹性的，他有大量的时间培养我，哪里有比在学校培养孩子更好的地方呢？
我想告诉大家的是，我来这里不仅仅是回家看看。我难以表达我来这里的自豪感，与我母亲、我哥哥、我的妻子露西，还有你们大家。我为你们感到骄傲，为你的亲朋好友骄傲，我们都加入了伟大的、大密歇根家庭，我感觉它是我生命的一部分。
我想告诉大家的是，我很清楚你们坐在座椅上，听着一个老家伙废话连篇地做毕业典礼演讲的感受，不要急，我会简短地说。
我有个关于追寻梦想的故事，更准确地说是一个发现梦想成真之路的故事。
你们知道，午夜甜梦中醒来是什么感觉吗？如果床边没有纸笔把梦记下，而第二天一早忘个精光又会怎样吗？
当我23岁的时候，我就做过这么一个梦。我猛地醒来，我想：如果我能把整个互联网下载下来，仅保存着链接......，我抓起一支笔开始写，有 时候从梦中醒来是非常重要的。我花了一个午夜的时间描绘了细节，并确信它将所有作为。不久后，我就告诉我的导师，特里·温诺格拉德(Terry Winograd)，要花两周时间下载整个网络，当时他点了点头，其实他完全知道要花更长的时间，但他很睿智，并没有告诉我。年轻人的乐观主义通常不可低 估！令人吃惊的是，我没有想过要打造一个搜索引擎。这一概念甚至没有进入我脑海。但后来，我突然想到了更好的给网页排序的方式，以形成真正的搜索引擎，谷歌就这样诞生了。当有伟大的梦想出现时，抓住它。
我在密歇根大学上学时，老师教导我如何梦想成真。我知道这听起来有些滑稽可笑，但我是从一次名为领导力成长的培训项目中得到了启发。该项目的口 号就是“漠视不可能”。这个项目激励着我追寻一个疯狂的想法：我想在校园内建造一套个人快速运输系统以代替公交。这是这种解决我们交通问题的未来方式。我 直到现在还想着很多有关交通的问题，你不要放任梦想，而要把它当作一种习惯去培育。现在人们花大力气干的很多事情，如做饭、保洁、开车，今后只会占用很少 的时间。也就是说，如果我们“漠视不可能”，就能找到解决方案。
我认为，实现雄心勃勃的梦想更为容易，我知道这听起来是一派胡言。既然没有人能疯狂到做这件事情，你也不可能完成。但最优秀的人就希望挑战。这 就是谷歌所面临的。我们的使命就是组织全球的信息，并且让它到处能接受，并发挥作用。这难道不会让大家兴奋吗？但是我们真的不想启动谷歌，因为谢林和我都 太担心拿不到博士学位。不过我们后来刷爆了三张信用卡，从一辆敞篷货车中买了硬盘，这也是谷歌最早的硬件。如果用一句话总结，如何改变世界，那就是在某种 极度兴奋的事业上发奋努力。
当我做博士的时候，我像做三个方面的项目。感谢我的导师，他对我说，“为什么你不做做网络呢？”他给了我一些非常好的建议，因为即使在1995 年，网络正随着人们和活动的增长而增长。技术和网络能使你变懒。变懒？我的意思是三人组合写的软件就可以让数以百计的人使用并受益，但三个人可以一天接上 百万次电话吗？找到撬起地球的杠杆，你就能变得更懒。
总而言之，我知道这个世界看起来已支离破碎，但这是一个伟大的时代，在你的一生中可以疯狂些，跟随你的好奇心，积极进取。不要放弃你的梦想。世界需要你们。
如果我的父亲能活到今天，我想他最开心的莫过于看到我、露西和我们的孩子在一起。我向他会因为我没能拿到博士学位而恼怒。我的父亲是一位对新事物充满洞悉力和激情的人，如果他活到今天，他一定会有新的想法，如果他今天也能来到这里，将是他一生中最为荣耀的一天之一。
感谢妈妈，感谢露西，感谢你们大家。
English version：
Class of 2009! First I’d like you to stand up, and wave and cheer your supportive family and friends! I’m sure you can find them out there. Show your love!
A long time ago, in this cold September of 1962, there was a Steven’s co-op at this very university. That co-op had a kitchen with a ceiling that had been cleaned by student volunteers probably every decade or so. Picture a college girl named Gloria, climbing up high on a ladder, struggling to clean that filthy ceiling. Standing on the floor, a young boarder named Carl was admiring the view. And that’s how they met. They were my parents, so I suppose you could say I’m a direct result of that kitchen chemistry experiment, right here at Michigan.
Everyone in my family went here to Michigan: my brother, my Mom, my Dad—all of us. My father’s father worked in the Chevy plant in Flint, Michigan. He was an assembly line worker. He drove his two children here to Ann Arbor, and told them: That is where you’re going to college. I know it sounds funny now. Both of his kids actually did graduate from Michigan. That was the American dream.
What I’m trying to tell you, this is WAY more than a homecoming for me. I have a story about following dreams. Or maybe more accurately, it’s a story about finding a path to make those dreams real.
You know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know how, if you don’t have a pencil and pad by the bed, it will be completely gone by the next morning?
Well, I had one of those dreams when I was 23. When I suddenly woke up, I was thinking: What if we could download the whole web, and just keep the links? And I grabbed a pen and started writing! Sometimes it’s important to wake up and stop dreaming. I spent the middle of that night scribbling out the details and convincing myself it would work. Soon after, I told my advisor, Terry Winograd, it would take a couple of weeks for me to download the web—he nodded knowingly, fully aware it would take much longer but wise enough not to tell me. The optimism of youth is often underrated! Amazingly, at that time, I have no thoughts building a search engine. The idea wasn’t even on the radar. But, much later we happened upon a better way of ranking and we made a really great search engine, and Google was born. When a really great dream shows up, grab it!
When I was here at Michigan, I had actually been taught how to make dreams real! I know it sounds funny, but that is what I learned in a summer camp converted into a training program called Leadershape. Their slogan is to have a “healthy disregard for the impossible”. That program encouraged me to pursue a crazy idea at the time: I wanted to build a personal rapid transit system on campus to replace the buses. I still think a lot about transportation—you never loose a dream, it just incubates as a hobby. Many things people labor hard to do now, like cooking, cleaning, and driving will require much less human time in the future. That is, if we “have a healthy disregard for the impossible” and actually build the solutions.
I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you’ll have little competition. The best people want to work on the big challenges. That is what happened with Google. Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. How can that not get you excited? But we almost didn’t start Google, actually, because my co-founder Sergey and I were too worried about dropping out of the Ph.D. program. You are probably on the right track if you feel like a sidewalk worm during a rainstorm! That is about how we felt after we maxed out three credit cards buying hard disks off the back of a truck. That was actually the first hardware for Google. Parents and friends: more credit cards always help. What is the one sentence summary of how you change the world? Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!
As a Ph.D. student, I actually had three projects I wanted to work on. Thank goodness my advisor said, “Why don’t you work on the web for a while?” Technology and especially the Internet can really help you be lazy. Lazy? What I mean is a group of three people can write software that then millions can use and enjoy. Can three people answer the phone a million times? Find the leverage in the world, so you can be truly lazy!
Overall, I know it seems like the world is crumbling out there, but it is actually a great time in your life to get a little crazy, follow your curiosity, and be ambitious about it. Don’t give up on your dream. The world needs you all!
So here’s my final story:
On a day like today, you might feel exhilarated—like you’ve just been shot out of a cannon at the circus—and even invincible. Don’t ever forget that incredible feeling. But also: always remember that the moments we have with friends and family, the chances we have to do things that might make a big difference in the world, or even to make a small difference to the ones we love—all those wonderful chances that life gives us, life also takes away. It can happen fast, and a whole lot sooner than you think.
In late March 1996, soon after I had moved to Stanford for grad school, my Dad had difficulty breathing and drove to the hospital. Two months later, he died. I was completely devastated. Many years later, after a startup, after falling in love, and after so many of life’s adventures, I found myself thinking about my Dad.
If my Dad were alive today, the thing I think he would be most happy about is that Lucy and I have a baby 14)in the hopper. If he were here today, well, it would be one of the best days of his life.
Many of us are fortunate enough to be here with family. Some of us have dear friends and family to go home to. Please keep them close and remember: They are what really matters in life.
Thanks, Mom; Thanks, Lucy.
And thank you, all, very much.
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