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欣逢育良小學及培德中學三十周年慶，葉教授與夫人周瑞芬女士邀請我和你們談談「過有意義的生活」。他們希望我談談我自己、我做過些什麼事，以及我在這艘地球太空船上的78年間學了些什麼。
讓我稍微談談我是誰、我做過些什麼事、我學過些什麼。我的好妻子卡蘿，與我結褵55年半...可是好像不比55又1/4年多過一天。我們有兩個很棒的孩子：黛碧有兩個兒子，大偉有兩個兒子及兩個女兒；除了一個經營家庭事業的孫子住在洛杉磯之外，我們家人都住在內華達州的雷諾。
我是位擁有約200種美國及外國專利的發明家，而且經常被稱為「連續性企業家」。我目前在美國及海外參與多種事業經營。我活似馬糞肥...幾乎到處可以看到我。我大學拿的是教育文憑，學習如何學習以及學習如何教導，成了我生命中兩項最重要的技巧。我還從美軍醫藥特種兵團學校的藥劑系畢業，我有拉丁美洲學院的國際貿易系文憑，而且榮獲美國體育學院的榮譽博士學位──這是美國唯一被認證的體育大學；我是此所學院的創辦人、第一任董事會主席，而且在它成立的34年以來，一直擔任理事。
我曾擔任戰地醫護人員，後來在二次大戰結束時，在美國醫療團任職藥劑師。1940年代後期，我唸大學時，擁有一家進出口公司。一畢業，我即服務於一家航空公司，它開啟了低廉經濟艙航空旅遊的概念。
1950年代初期，我把電視節目賣給電視台及贊助商。1950年代中期，我成立一家廣告代理公司，它後來躋身世界第55大排名。在1970年代中期，我賣掉廣告代理公司，成了付費電視業的創始人。1980年代中期，我開始協助手機行業的創立；又參與英國11個新開發有線電視系統中的3個，來成立英國的有線服務；並且為歐洲最大也最成功的付費電視服務Canal Plus出主意。1990年代，我的公司把高科技通訊帶到東歐與亞洲，在波蘭、俄羅斯的新西伯利亞與孟加拉共和國創辦現代化的電話公司，以及在捷克斯拉夫（現捷克共和國）開發有線電視系統。
從2000起，我參與許多在中國的商業活動。目前，我是「劃時代娛樂集團」的董事長，這個公司參與以地方色調為基本的娛樂設計；我們設計侏羅紀公園、飛車、T2-3D、星際遊體驗、凱撒宮內的古羅馬廣場商店，以及許多世界各地的娛樂設施。我們目前在中國和韓國做很多工作，很快會去杜拜和俄國。我另外一家公司美國國際娛樂，也預訂了一些重要的表演，例如瑪賴雅‧凱莉、莉安‧萊姆(皆是知名歌星)及關穎珊（華裔溜冰皇后）。我是三度空間（3D）商業工具企業管理系統的創辦人及董事長，這個管理系統，是我設計的很大一套軟體，用來幫助企業家作較好的商業抉擇。正是透過3D商業工具的聯繫，我才認識了你們優秀又傑出的葉祖堯博士。
我是「船務公司」董事長，它是美國唯一的高頻率無線電信設備公司，提供海上船隻語音、電子郵件與資料庫的服務。我也是「情報技術組織」（ITG）的董事長，這是一家合作經營的公司，專門解決不相容通訊系統之間相聯繫的問題。你也許不知道，警察局、消防局、司法單位、公路巡邏隊、醫院救護車等等之間，無法用他們的無線電訊互相通話；因為他們用的無線電訊系統無法相容，這對國家安全是個很大的問題。我們的公司設計出優雅、不昂貴又有效的法子，克服這個問題，而無需更改任何人的無線電訊系統，我們稱之為「靈巧電路網絡工作平台」。
緊接著可翠納颶風，美國海岸保衛隊召喚船務公司，問我們是否可以接管海岸保衛隊的通訊管理，因為他們事務所的屋頂被颶風吹跑了，他們的無線電訊設備被毀了。我們也受到暴風的損害，可是我們依然可以無線通訊。毫無疑問地，我們接管救援行動的通訊，以及為在海上有麻煩的船隻監看大海。我們聯運性的技術受到考驗，並且運作地毫無差錯。當你看到海岸保衛隊的直昇機在紐奧良把人從屋頂接走時，那是我們的公司透過靈巧電路網絡工作平台與直昇機通訊，告訴他們開到什麼地方；我們從海岸保衛隊獲得很好的獎勵，因為我們幫助他們救了三萬三千人。
因此，很明顯地，我保持忙碌，這正是我所希望的。
接著，談談我學了些什麼。
當我思考如何分享我對「過有意義生活」的想法時，我像往常的做法，列出一張清單。我把清單濃縮成十一項我在這趟短暫生命之旅中所學到的最重要課程。我把這份清單命名為「生存的課程」。以下是第一課：
一、每樣事情都相關聯 ── 一旦你明白每樣事情都相關聯，每樣事情就都變得有趣味而切要。能夠看出相關性是很重要的天分，當你想找出其中的關係，你肯定處處找得到。這兒有兩個例子﹕
我今天來到此地，就是第一個例子。如果你們其中一位，在散會之後，因為我今天所說的話，而有較好的機會過有意義的生活，那會使得我的生命更有意義。雖然我們素昧平生，你我是相關聯的；我們一直相聯著，因為每樣事情都相關聯。
依另一層次而言，假如要對「每樣事情都相關聯」的原理來個挑戰，那麼愛因思坦肯定會以有名的方程式「能量等於質量乘光速的平方(E=mc2)」，來終結這場辯論。
1905年的夏季，愛因思坦在瑞士伯恩的專利辦公室工作時，悟解到他在當年六月發表的「相對論」隱含從未被了解的物質與能量間之驚人關係。這使得愛因思坦去猜想，是否「上帝也許在暗笑...並牽著我的鼻子走。」
九月份，愛因思坦寫下三頁的「相對論補註」。這也許是科學史上最具深度的後續思考。愛因思坦這篇短文的結尾方程式就是E=mc2。那麼E=mc2和「每樣事情都相關聯」，或者和你們、和「過有意義的生活」有何相干？答案是：全都有關…你做的每件事、每個舉動、每種思想，都直接計入E=mc2。愛因思坦簡單的方程式解釋出宇宙如何運作的基本事實，這個方程式道出每件事、物質（或質量）與能量的架構方塊，及彼此間不尋常的關係；不幸的是，在我們的日常生活中，它大多被忽略了。
我唸研究所時，所學到的是「物質與能量不同，兩者既不可生，也不可滅」。我八年級時，在科學課寫了一篇「愛因思坦相對論以及E=mc2含義」的報告；老師告訴我，全世界只有12個人明白愛因思坦的理論。我大膽地告訴她，我明白，而且如果她讀了我的報告，再用點心，她或許也可以明白。當然啦！我並非確實明白愛因思坦的成就，但是我足以明白，他們在學校所教的物質與能量，並非正確。物質與能量是體同形異...好比水是液體，冷度夠時就變成固體的冰。你可以把物質想像成能量的凍結形態。當然啦！E=mc2是發明原子能與原子彈的基礎概念...這是我們每一天聽到與讀到的頭條主題...每樣事情都相關聯的另一方式。
一旦你明白每樣事情都相關聯，你就會領悟到：你所說、所做，影響到每一件事與每一個人。你的生命有意義，你須決定那個意義是什麼──這就銜接到我生存的第二課。
待續
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On this, the 30th anniversary of the Instilling Goodness & Developing Virtue Schools (IGDVS), Dr. Yeh and Priscilla Yeh asked me to talk with you about “Living a Meaningful Life”. They wanted me to tell you about myself, what I have done and what I have learned in my 78 years aboard spaceship Earth.
So here’s a bit about who I am, what I have done and, a heaping of what I have learned. My wonderful wife, Carol, and I have been married for 55 ½ years… and it doesn’t seem like a day more than 55 ¼. We have two marvelous children, Debbie, who has 2 sons and David who has 2 sons and 2 daughters. All of our immediate family lives in Reno, Nevada except for one of our grandchildren who works in our family businesses and lives in LA.
I’m an inventor with about 200 US and foreign patents and am often called a serial entrepreneur. I am currently involved in multiple business activities in the US and overseas. I’m a lot like horse manure… you can find me almost everywhere. My undergraduate degree is in education. Learning to learn and learning to teach have been two of the most important skills in my life. I also graduated from the US Army Medical Corps School of Pharmacy, I have a degree in foreign trade from the Latin American Institute and an honorary doctorate awarded to me by the United States Sports Academy, America’s only accredited Sports University. I’m a founder of the Academy, its first chairman and have been a Trustee for all of its 34 years.
I was a combat medic and later a pharmacist in the US Medical Corps at the end of WW-II. In the late 1940s I owned an Export/Import company while going to college. Right after college I worked for an airline that started the concept of low cost coach air travel.
In the early 1950s I sold television programs to stations and sponsors.
In the mid 1950s I founded an advertising agency that became the 55th largest in the world.
In the mid 1970s I sold my advertising agency and became a founder of the pay-tv industry. In the mid 1980s I began helping to create the cellular telephone industry, participated in 3 of the 11 cable systems launched in England to establish cable service in the UK and created the idea for Canal Plus, the largest and most successful pay television service in Europe.
In the 1990s my company brought high-tech communications to Eastern Europe and to Asia starting modern telephone companies in Poland, Novosibirsk Siberia and Bangladesh and a cable television system in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).
Since 2000 I have been involved in several business activities in China. Currently, I am the Chairman of Landmark Entertainment Group, a company involved in designing themed location based entertainment. We designed Jurassic Park, the ride, T2-3D; Star Trek the experience, the Forum shops at Caesars Palace and many other entertainment facilities around the world. We are now doing a lot of work in China, Korea and soon Dubai and Russia. Another company, American Entertainment International books major acts like Mariah Carey, Lee Ann Rimes, and Michelle Quan. I am the founder and chairman of 3D Business Tools Enterprise Management System, a large software suite that I designed to help businesspeople make better business decisions. It is in connection with 3D Business Tools that I work with your wonderful and brilliant Dr. Ray Yeh.
I am chairman of ShipCom, America’s only HF radio facility that provides voice, e-mail and data services to ships at sea. I am also the Chairman of ITG a joint venture company that solved the problem of connecting non-compatible communication systems. You may not know that Police departments, Fire departments, Sheriff Departments, Highway Patrol, Hospital Ambulances, and so on cannot talk with each other over their radios because they use radio systems that are not compatible. This is a tremendous problem for Homeland Security. Our company has designed an elegant, inexpensive and efficient way to overcome this problem without changing anyone’s radio system. We call it a Smart Network Platform.
Immediately following hurricane Katrina ShipCom was called by the US Coast Guard and asked if we could take over communication management for the Coast Guard because the roof of their facility was blown off by the hurricane and their radio equipment was damaged. We experienced damage from the storm as well but we stayed on the air. Of course, we jumped in and took over communications for the rescue operations as well as the sea watch for ships at sea in trouble. Our interoperability technology was put to the test and worked flawlessly. When you watched the Coast Guard helicopters picking people off of roofs in New Orleans, it was our company that was communicating with those helicopters through our Smart Network Platform to tell them where to go. We received a very nice award from the Coast Guard for helping them to save the lives of 33,000 people.
So it’s pretty obvious that I keep busy. That’s the way I want it.
Now, to what I have learned.
As I thought about sharing my thoughts on “Living a Meaningful Life” I did what I always do, I made a list. I boiled the list down to 11 of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my short visit to this life. I call my list, “Lessons to LIVE By”. So here goes, Lesson number 1
1. Everything is connected to everything – Once you understand that everything is connected to everything, everything also becomes interesting and relevant. Seeing connectedness is an important talent. When you look for connectedness you are sure to find it… everywhere. Here are two examples of connectedness:
My being here today is the first example. If even one of you leaves with a better chance to live a meaningful life because of what I say today, it will make my life more meaningful. Though we’ve never met, you and I are connected; we’ve always been connected because everything is connected to everything.
On another level, if there ever was a challenge to the postulate that everything is connected to everything, Einstein certainly ended the discussion with a famous equation E=mc2.
During the summer of 1905, while working in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland, Albert Einstein realized that his Special Theory of Relativity, published in June of that year, implied a startling relationship between matter and energy heretofore not understood. That led Einstein to wonder whether “the Lord might be laughing ... and leading me around by the nose.”
In September Einstein wrote a three-page supplement to his Special Theory of Relativity. It is probably the most profound afterthought in the history of science. The final equation of Einstein’s short article was E = mc². So what does E=mc2 have to do with “Everything is connected to everything” or with you, or with Living a Meaningful Life? The answer is, everything… everything you do, every move you make and every thought you have maps directly to E = mc². Einstein’s simple equation explains a fundamental truth about how the universe works. It’s an equation that speaks of the building blocks of everything, matter (or mass) and energy and the remarkable relationship between them. Unfortunately, it goes largely unnoticed in our everyday life.
When I was in grade school, I was taught that “matter and energy are different and that neither could be created nor destroyed”. In the 8th grade, when I wrote a paper on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and the implications of E=mc2 for my science class the teacher told me that there were only 12 people in the world that understood Einstein’s theory. I brashly told her that I understood it and that if she read my paper and tried hard, she could probably understand it too. Of course, I didn’t really understand Einstein’s work but I did understand enough to know that what they were teaching me about matter and energy in school was not correct. Matter and energy were the same thing in different forms… like water is a liquid until it gets cold enough to become ice and then it’s a solid. You can think of mass (matter) as a frozen form of energy.
Of course, E=mc2 is the fundamental concept that underlies atomic energy and atomic bombs… a subject we hear about and read about in the headlines every day… another way everything is connected to everything.
When you understand that everything is connected to everything you will realize that, what you say and what you do affects everything and everyone. Your life has meaning and you get to decide what that meaning is. This leads to my second lesson to live by.
To be continued
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