成功秘诀:需要一点儿失败 The Secret to Success

We idealize icons and look up to heroes such as George Washington or 4)John Glenn. Yet we shouldn’t discount the heroes who labor outside the limelight. Those are the men and women who quietly go about the business of raising a family and taking care of their neighbors.
我们习惯于把偶像理想化，推崇像乔治·华盛顿或约翰·格伦这样的英雄。但我们不应该小看在聚光灯外苦干的众多英雄，他们就是那些默默地承担起赡养家庭和帮助邻居重任的男男女女。

The most admirable are ones who invent their own success. They know how to seize the moment and let the chips fall where they may. They know that the best way to measure success is by living each day to the fullest.
最值得钦佩的人是那些开创自身成功模式的人。他们知道如何抓住时机，不计较结果。他们知道衡量成功的最佳方式是充分把握每一天。

True success is giving something back. And you don’t have to have a lot in the wallet to attain it. There are many people, young and old, who give back by serving in literacy campaigns and soup kitchens.
真正的成功是予以回馈。你无须钱包厚实就能做到这一点。有很多人——有年轻的也有年长的——通过参加扫盲和救济活动作出了回馈。

As my father used to say: “Make sure you leave the world a better place than it was when you entered it. At least clean up after yourself.”
正如我父亲曾经说过的一句话：“要确保你留下的世界比你来到时更美好。至少要把你自己留下的东西清理干净。”

The beginning of the school year is a good time to start reorienting ourselves. It’s a good time to see our failures in a new light.
开学是着手为自己重新确定方向的一个大好时机，也是从新的角度来看待失败的一个大好时机。

After Thoreau died in 1862, his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5)lamented that Henry hadn’t blossomed into a great leader of the nation. His books were little read, his ideas seemed 6)skewed. And yet, less than 100 years later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed to Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience as one of the sparks that ignited the civil rights movement and profoundly shaped American society.
1862年梭罗去世后，他的导师拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生哀叹亨利没能成为我国的一位杰出领袖。他的书无人问津，他的思想似乎离经叛道。然而过了不到一百年，马丁·路德·金说，梭罗的文章《论公民的不服从》是点燃美国民权运动的火种之一，并对美国社会产生了深刻影响。

Not a bad legacy for a failure.
对一个失败者来说，这可是笔不错的精神财富。