Reading is the most important habit throughout our lives
--Lei Jun’s speech on the graduation ceremony of ICC
From: RDFZ ICC; Author: Changjun Zhou; Editor: Jiangbo Sun; Time: 2016-06-21
Translated by: Dara Duan
To be honest, I was very excited the moment I was invited for the speech because this is the first time for me to attend a high school’s graduation ceremony. In my opinion, the 3 years of high school are the most unforgettable years in everyone’s life because there are so many beautiful memories. However, despite of the past memories, I believe that most of you are now thinking that you are finally free! So now, I am going to congratulate you all graduating and wish you all bright futures!
25 years before, I graduated from my high school, because I loved to read books, I spent most of my college time in the school library. When I was in the library, I happened to read a book called The Fire of Silicon Valley, which was about how Steve Jobs found his company. I was so excited after reading this book that I kept walking around the campus deciding that I should be a great person in my life. When I set this goal, I started from the small target that I could see: finishing all the courses of 4 years in 2 years. Successfully, I made it. What I want to say is not that how important a dream is and how wonderful the book The Fire of Silicon Valley is; instead, what I want to say is that reading is truly a vital habit in our lives. Many friends of mine stopped reading after graduation from high school, they thought it was too tiring to read, and I have no idea whether you ICC guys like reading or not. But I really suggest that you should keep on reading no matter what happened, because reading is the most important habit throughout our lives.
As a die-hard fan for Steve Jobs, I want to share another story about him. Do you know what Steve was doing when he was a freshman in college? He wanted his calligraphy to be better, so he chose a ‘weird’ course called ‘English Calligraphy’. Do you know how his ‘weird’ choice led to a huge impact on human being? 30 years before, the characters on computers looked like dot matrix, and it was really ugly. When Steve Jobs was inventing his APPLE computers, he made up his mind to make the characters more beautiful and with more diverse styles. So, if you feel bored when you go to colleges, you can choose some ‘weird’ courses out of your interests, and you might get surprising results. When you go into college, you might feel that getting a good grade is not the most important thing. If you have spare time, read more books and learn something new.
Above all, these are the suggestions I could provide for you. I wish all of you could be happy everyday like the blue sky of Beijing today, and I hope you to remember that no matter what you encounter, the world is still a beautiful place. Thank you again for your listening, and thanks for principle Zhai and Mr. Turner for giving me this opportunity to speak in front of you, thank you!
The collating of words: Changjun Zhou
This speech is according to the recording, and have not been corrected by the speaker himself.