Speech at Harvard University Graduation Ceremony: The Meaning of Life

According to the tradition of this ancient school, I should be eager to teach you some of the wisdom of lifelong use. Now I am standing on the pulpit. This dress may have scared the prestigious ancestors, and some ancestors may have come to the roots of witch extinction. But since I am here, you are all there, then let's talk about the truth.

In fact, as early as the winter of 2007, when I was in office, I was already preparing for this speech.

At the time, when I was having lunch at Cran School and eating dinner at Leverett, when I met my classmates during office hours, even when I met a student who had just graduated from abroad, my classmates would ask me a question: Why are so many of our Harvard students going into the fields of finance, consulting and e-banking?

I quote Willyton's words today to answer you. When he was asked why he robbed the bank, he said: There is a lot of money in the bank.

High salary, irresistible blindness from the recruitment psychology, to New York and many friends to work and live together, to enjoy the sense of practicality of life, so that everyone is dedicated to those areas.

I am more interested in knowing why you are asking this question than answering your questions. Why does this problem bother so many people?

I think that you are worried because you don't want to achieve success in the traditional sense, but also want to make people meaningful, but you don't know how to combine these two goals. You are not sure if you have a well-paid and promising job in a well-known brand-name company, you will be able to get spiritual satisfaction.

In fact, what you have been asking are some of the most basic questions: about value, about how to reconcile the relationship between things that might be competitive, and about the incomprehensibility of fish and bear's paw. You are now in a transitional phase where you need to make a choice. Choosing any of these things, such as work, career, or graduate study, means discarding other options. Every decision means choosing to embrace a possibility while giving up a possibility. Your question is your sense of loss in the way you choose in the future.

You are anxious because you want to succeed. You know very well that education is not only to change your current situation, to make yourself comfortable and satisfied, but to change the status quo around you. Now, it’s time for you to try to achieve this.

I think the second reason you are anxious is that you want to be happy. You have picked up the "Optimistic Psychology" and "Happiness", and you want to find some secrets. How can I find happiness? I give you an inspiring answer: grow up. The survey shows that older people, such as my age, are more likely to be younger than young people.

Whenever I hear you talking about the choices you face, I can hear that you are very worried about dealing with the relationship between success and happiness. To be precise, how to define success can bring it or contain real happiness, instead of Just money and fame. You are worried that the rewarding work is not necessarily the most meaningful and satisfying.

The answer is: you only know if you have tried it.

If you don't try to do what you like to do, if you don't try to pursue what you think is the most meaningful, you will regret it. There is a long way to go. There are many opportunities to choose a second choice, but don't take it as your first choice.

I call this the parking space theory in career choices: don't park your car 20 yards away from the destination because there is no parking space. Wherever you want to go, go back to where you should go.

The most important thing is to keep in mind our expectations that you are too high to be high. Even if you feel that our expectations are too high to be higher, remember that our expectations, like the Polaris, can guide you to the other side that is meaningful to you and to the world. The meaning of your life is all about yourself.