那一年，我被炒了鱿鱼。你怎么可能被自己创立的公司炒鱿鱼？是这样的，在苹果快速成长的时候，我们雇了一个我觉得很有天分的家伙和我一起管理公司，最初几年，公司运转得很好。但后来我们对未来的看法发生了分歧，最终吵了起来。面对不可调和的分歧，董事会站在了他那一边。(史蒂夫·乔布斯) (来源：英语学习门户 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. (Steve Jobs)

那时我想，最惨的会是什么呢？也就是失业吧。结果，我真的失业了。我的节目在做了6年后，没有告知我就停播了，我看了报纸才知道。家里的电话3年没有再响过，没人找我做节目，没人愿意提及我。(艾伦·德杰尼勒斯)

And I thought, “What’s the worst that could happen? I can lose my career.” I did. I lost my career. The show was canceled after 6 years, without even telling me, I read it in the paper. The phone didn’t ring for 3 years. I had no offers. Nobody wanted to touch me at all. (Ellen DeGeneres)

[抉择篇]

我当时的东家康柏公司是当时全球最大的个人电脑生产商。我咨询一位CEO朋友的意见，他坚定地说，我脑袋被驴踢了才会为了苹果(当时还是一个很小的公司)离开康柏。(蒂姆·库克)

My employer at the time, Compaq Computer, was the largest personal computer company in the world. One CEO I consulted felt so strongly about it. He told me I would be a fool to leave Compaq for Apple (a small company then). (Tim Cook)

我打电话给我父亲，告诉他我要辞掉这个百万美元的工作来写一本只有4万美元预付款的书。电话那边沉默了很久。他说：”也许你该再考虑一下。”我根本不需要考虑。(迈克尔·刘易斯)

I called up my father. I told him I was going to quit this job that now promised me millions of dollars to write a book for an advance of 40 grand. There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “You might just want to think about that,” he said. I didn’t need to think about it. (Michael Lewis)

16年前，我萌生了创办亚马逊的想法。那时我刚刚30岁，结婚才1年。我告诉妻子想辞去工作，然后去做这件疯狂而且很可能失败的事情。她告诉我，我应该放手一搏。(杰夫·贝索斯)

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work. She told me I should go for it. (Jeff Bezos)

【名人演讲第五招：温情回归】

每当提到自己的家人，演讲者们都是充满自豪感和温情的。此情此景，常常令人动容。

我父亲是如此的充满生命力，与他在一起做任何事都是一种探险。(兰迪·波许)

My dad was so full of life; anything with him was an adventure. (Randy Pausch)

很久以前，1962年的寒冷9月，这座校园里有一家史蒂文消费合作社，学生志愿者负责打扫厨房的天花板。想象这样一幅场景：一位名叫格洛里亚的女大学生，爬上了高高的梯子，努力地打扫那脏兮兮的天花板。另一位名叫卡尔的寄宿生站在地上，对此情此景钦佩不已。这是他俩的初次邂逅。他们就是我的父母。(拉里·佩奇)

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. 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. (Larry Page)

我得到诺贝尔奖的时候，我想我妈妈会高兴。但是我错了。消息公布的那天早上，我给她打电话，她听了只说：”这是好消息，不过我想知道，你打算什么时候来看我？”(朱棣文)

When I was awarded a Nobel Prize, I thought my mother would be satisfied. Not so. When I called her on the morning of the announcement, she replied, “That’s nice, but when are you going to visit me next.” (Steven Chu)

【名人演讲第六招：引经据典】

他们演讲时说的话经常被我们拿来当励志名言，但其实呢，他们自己也需要励志名言。

电影《我的朋友叫哈维》中，斯图尔特扮演的艾尔伍德说得很对。他说：”多年前，母亲曾对我说：活在这个世界上，你要么做一个聪明人，要么做一个好人。”我做聪明人已经好多年了。但我推荐你们做好人。(朱棣文)

Jimmy Stewart, as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie “Harvey” got it exactly right. He said: “Years ago my mother used to say to me, ‘In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’” Well, for years I was smart… I recommend pleasant. (Steven Chu)

17岁的时候, 我读到一句话: “如果你把每一天都当作生命中最后一天去生活的话,那么有一天你会发现你是正确的。”"记住你即将死去”是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言。它帮我做出生命中的重要抉择。(史蒂夫·乔布斯)

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. (Steve Jobs)