Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Der Bergsport scheint eine Aneinanderreihung von Antworten auf eine Frage zu sein, die sich mit der Art und Weise, wie wir unser Leben verbringen sollen, beschäftigt. Auch in diesem Blog, als ich letztens die Frage nach dem Restrisiko im Bergsport diskutiert habe. Nun, es ist wieder soweit. Als ich heute die Nachricht vom Ableben von Steve Jobs erfahren habe, der mit 56 Jahren an Krebs verstorben ist, musste ich an seine vor wenigen Jahren gehaltene Rede denken.

In dieser Rede wendet er sich an junge Collegestudenten, die gerade ihr Studium abgeschlossen haben. Er erzählt ihnen aus seinem Leben und richtet eine Erkenntnis an diese, die er in seinem Leben gelernt hat: Stay hungry, stay foolish:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Ich denke, das gilt für uns alle, die aus Entdeckungslust, Abenteuer und Herausforderung in die Berge gehen. Das Neue entdecken, den nächsten Gipfel suchen, unserer Nase folgen. Keine Kompromisse, ob und wie wir gehen. Es ist ein einziges Leben, machen wir das Beste daraus, was wir nur können. Folgen wir unseren Idealen und Leidenschaften, nicht Vorgaben und falschen Idolen. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Patagonia Time Lapse Video from Adam Colton on Vimeo.