书城文学生命是一场旅行(上)
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第13章 拥有今天(2)

我不知道是谁写的,可我很喜欢这句话,它提醒我们未来是由自己创造的。我们可以把神秘、不可知的未来塑造成我们想象中的任何模样,犹如雕刻家将未成形的石头刻成雕像。

我们每个人都像是农夫。撒下良种将有丰收,播下劣种或生满野草便将毁去收成。没有耕耘则会一无所获。

我希望未来比过去更加美好,希望未来不会沾染历史的错误与过失。我们都应举目向前,因我们的余生要用未来书写。

往昔已逝,静如止水;我们无法再作改变。而前方的未来正生机勃勃;我们所做的每一件事都将会影响着它。只要我们认识到这些,无论是在家中还是在工作上,每天我们的面前都会展现出新的天地。在人类致力开拓的每一片领域上,我们正站在进步的起跑点。

Love: The One Creative Force

爱:能够创造奇迹的力量

A college professor had his sociology class go into the Baltimore slums to get case histories of 200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation of each boy"s future. In every case the students wrote," He hasn"t got a chance." Twenty-five years later another sociology professor came across the earlier study. He had his students follow up on the project to see what had happened to these boys.

With the exception of 20 boys who had moved away or died, the students learned that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen.

The professor was astounded and decided to pursue the matter further. Fortunately, all men were in the area and he was able to ask each one," How do you account for your success?" In each case the reply came with feeling," There was a teacher."

The teacher was still alive, so he sought her out and asked the old but still alert lady what magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of the slums into successful achievement.

The teacher"s eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. "It"s really very simple," she said. "I loved those boys."

一个大学教授在上社会学课的时候,让他的学生去巴尔的摩贫民窟找200个男孩的历史记录,并且要求写出对每个男孩未来的评估。对每个孩子,学生都这样评价着:“他这辈子完了。”25年以后另外一个社会学教授发现了这个早期的研究,并让他的学生继续探究这个研究,看看这些男孩到底怎么样了。

这些男孩中除了已经去世或者迁居的20位以外,学生发现,剩下的180人中有176人都获得了比普通人更大的成就,他们中有律师,医生,还有商人。

教授大吃一惊并决定进一步地探究下去。幸运的是,这些长成人的孩子还都在这个地区,因此教授有机会挨个去问他们:“你是如何获得你的这些成就的?”很让人感动的是,他们的回答如出一辙:“因为我有一位好老师。”

这个老师还健在。教授找到这位年迈但仍不失机警的妇人,问她到底有什么魔法能让这些贫民窟的孩子都获得如此成就。

这位老师眼里闪耀着光芒,她的嘴唇露出一抹温柔微笑,“很简单,”她说,“因为我爱这些孩子。”

Out of fear

走出恐惧

As a child, I was afraid of everything:escalators, heights and New Orleans cockroaches. At the age of 8 I even became afraid of getting Halloween candy. Normally on October 31, my twin brother and I would step out of our house and rush to every home with in a three-block radius1. Most of the houses were only a step or two off the ground. Easy.

That year, when we approached one of the bigger houses——a house known to have the best candy but with 10 tall cement steps leading to the front door——my fear of heights stopped me cold. My brother was already up the stairs, while I stood frozen at the bottom.

I told myself I might stumble in the dark and drop my bag of treats. I might crash to the concrete below. I might tear my homemade fairy costume. I wanted the candy, but there was no way I was going up those stairs to get it.

I lost more than candy. I lost my confidence.

The fear of stepping out took me along the safe, no-risk route through high school, nursing school and into a secure hospital job. After six years in nursing, unsatisfied with the career choice I had made, I woke up to a different kind of fear: The fear of becoming like the other no-risk nurses——tired, burned out and old before their time. I faced a decision: step out into the unknown or spend the rest of my life at the bottom of those steps, never tasting the best candy.

I wanted to start a consulting business advising at torneys4 on medical-related cases. I settled for reading business books instead. Then I thought back to the worst thing that ever happened to me: my mom dying at age 48 of breast cancer. Compared with that, how bad could a business failure be” So, with only 100 in my savings account, I nurse consultant. To my horror he answered the phone. About to hang up, I thought: If he was wearing a hospital gown with his backside showing, I would have no problem introducing myself. I sputtered out some thing unintelligible, and he be came my first client.

Climbing the stairs of business hasn’t been easy. Once I lost my biggest client. The old fears returned, but I’d tasted the candy, and the memory of my mom put me right back on those stairs.

Success is not about the achievement. Every time I step out into the unknown, win or lose, I succeed. I might break a leg or invest in a losing business idea, but I won’t end up at my 90th birth day with nothing more than stale white cake and regrets.

Bad things can happen when we step out, but I believe worse things happen to our souls when we don’t.

小时候,我对一切都心存恐惧,比如电梯和新奥尔良蟑螂;另外,我还恐高。在我八岁时,我甚至害怕在万圣节前夜去讨各家为我们小孩准备的糖果(在万圣节,孩子们会玩挨家讨糖吃的游戏)。每年的10月31日,我和我的双胞胎哥哥会走出家门冲进三个街区范围内的每户人家。大部分人家的房子离地都不到两步高,很容易上去拿到糖果。

那一年,我和哥哥来到一个较大的房子。听说,这间房子里有最好的糖果。但是,要进入这间房子,必须先爬上由10级高高的混凝土台阶。因为恐高,我看着台阶不知所措。当我还像木偶一样站在房子下面发呆时,哥哥早已爬上了楼梯。

我对自己说,我可能会在黑暗中绊倒,将袋子里已有的糖果洒满一地;我可能会一不小心撞到混凝土墙壁上;我还可能弄坏家人为我缝的漂亮衣服。我想要糖果,但是让我爬那么高的楼梯去拿我可不愿意。

那一刻,我失去的不仅仅是糖果,也丢掉了自信。

对走出去的恐惧让我一直平平坦坦,也从无冒险地行走于我的人生道路。高中毕业后,我去了护士学校,然后在医院做了一名护士,一份很安稳的工作。这一切都是那么的平淡无奇与水到渠成。做了六年的护士后,我开始不满足于自己曾经的职业选择,我在另一种恐惧中惊醒。我害怕我和其他很多护士一样,过着波澜不惊的生活,然后在身心疲惫中慢慢老去。我面临一个抉择:要么走出去进入一个未知的世界,要么保持现有的生活状态,永远也不爬上台阶去品尝最好的“糖果”。

我想开一家医疗法律顾问公司,专门为受理有关医疗案件的律师提供咨询。我开始看创业方面的书籍。那时,我想到了我这一生到现在为止发生的最悲惨的事情,那就是我的母亲在48岁时因乳腺癌离我而去。与这比起来,一次创业失败又算得了什么。因此,我以仅有的100美元存款作为资本,开始了创业历程。我打电话给第一个律师,以一名合法护理咨询师的身份,向他推荐我的咨询服务。他接了电话,可我的内心一片空白。就在他要挂电话的那一刻,我突然想:如果他穿着白大褂,背对着我,我会毫无困难地向他介绍我自己。顷刻间,我滔滔不绝地说了很多现在想来都莫名其妙的话,就这样,他也莫名其妙地成了我的第一个客户。

攀登创业的“楼梯”并不是件容易的事。有一次,我失掉了我最大的客户,曾经的恐惧又朝我袭来,我想到了放弃,但是我已经尝到了创业的“糖果”,关于我母亲的记忆又让我回到了登上创业顶峰的“楼梯”。

成功不以成就来衡量。每次我进入一个未知的世界,不管是胜利还是失败,我都成功了。我可能会摔断一条腿,也可能是投资了一个必赔的领域,但我都不会让自己在90岁生日时,发现自己除了遗憾,一无所有。

当我们走出平淡的生活时,可能会有糟糕的事情等在前方,但我仍然坚信,如果我们不走出去,将会有更糟糕的事情发生在我们心里。

Traces of life

生命的痕迹

My teammates on the United States Disabled Ski Team used to tease me about the size of my chest, joking that my greatest handicap wasn’t my missing leg but my missing cleavage1. Little did they know how true that would become.