小人物怎样才能取得大成就?

Repression

压迫

Today, as I was relaxing at the beach, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a conversation four high school kids we having on the beach blanket next to me. Their conversation was about making a positive difference in the world. And it went something like this…“It’s impossible to make a difference unless you’re a huge corporation or someone with lots of money and power,” one of them said.“Yeah man,” another replied. “My mom keeps telling me to move mountains – to speak up and stand up for what I believe. But what I say and do doesn’t even get noticed. I just keep answering to ‘the man’ and then I get slapped back in place by him when I step out of line.”“Repression…” another snickered.I smiled because I knew exactly how they felt. When I was their age, I was certain I was being repressed and couldn’t possibly make a difference in this world. And I actually almost got expelled from school once because I openly expressed how repressed I felt in the middle of the principals’ office.

今天，我在海滩上休息时，不经意间听到了我旁边沙滩垫上的四个高中生谈话。他们谈论的是在世上建功立业，内容大致是这样的：

“除非你有钱有势，或者开了一家大公司，否则你不可能有所作为，”其中一个说。

“没错，”有一个答道。“我妈总是告诉我要竭尽全力——说出自己的信仰，坚持到底。但是我的言行甚至没有引起任何人注意。每当离开常轨，我就被打回原位。我只能循规蹈矩。”

“压迫……”另一个苦笑着说。

我笑了笑，因为我理解他们的确切感受。我在他们这个年纪，也确信自己饱受压迫，不可能在这个世界上有所作为。事实上，我曾经差点被学校开除了，因为我公开抱怨说在校长办公室感到很无比压抑。

I Have A Dream

我有一个梦想

Suddenly, one of the kids noticed me eavesdropping and smiling. He sat up, looked at me and said, “What? Do you disagree?” Then as he waited for a response, the other three kids turned around too.Rather than arguing with them, I took an old receipt out of my wallet, ripped it into four pieces, and wrote a different word on each piece. Then I crumbled the pieces into little paper balls and handed a different piece to each one of them.“Look at the word on the paper I just gave you and don’t show it to anyone else.” The kids looked at the single word I had handed each of them and appeared confused. “You have two choices,” I told them. “If your word inspired you to make a difference in this world, then hold onto it. If not, give it back to me so I can recycle the paper.” They all returned their words.I scooted over, sat down on the sand next to their beach blanket and laid out the four words that the students had returned to me so that the words combined to form the simple sentence, “I have a dream.”“Dude, that’s Martin Luther King Jr.,” one of the kids said.“How did you know that?” I asked.“Everyone knows Martin Luther King Jr.” the kid snarled. “He has his own national holiday, and we all had to memorize his speech in school a few years ago.”“Why do you think your teachers had you memorize his speech?” I asked“I don’t really care!” the kid replied. His three friends shook their heads in agreement. “What does this have to do with us and our situation?”“Your teachers asked you to memorize those words, just like thousands of teachers around the world have asked students to memorize those words, because they have inspired millions of repressed people to dream of a better world and take action to make their dreams come true. Do you see where I’m going with this?”“Man, I know exactly what you’re trying to do and it’s not going to work, alright?” the fourth kid said, who hadn’t spoken a word until now. “We’re not going to get all inspired and emotional about something some dude said thirty years ago. Our world is different now. And it’s more screwed up than any us can even begin to imagine, and there’s little you or I can do about it. We’re too small, we’re nobody.”

突然，他们当中有一个孩子发现了我在偷听，还在笑。他坐起来，看着我说：“怎么？你不同意吗？”他等着我的答复，另外三个孩子也转过身来。

我没有和他们争论，而是从钱包里拿出一张旧收据，撕成四块，每块都写上一个不同的词。然后揉成小纸团，分别递给他们。

“看看我刚给你们那张纸上的词，但不要给别人看。”这些孩子看了之后一脸迷茫。“你们有两个选择，”我告诉他们，“如果你看到的那个词鼓舞了你，要在这个世界上干出一番事业，那你就拿着。不行的话就还给我，我好回收利用。”他们都把纸条还给了我。

我往前挪了一点，坐在他们沙滩垫旁的沙地上，把他们还给我的四个词摊开，拼成这句简单的话，“我有一个梦想。”

“老兄，那是马丁·路德·金，”其中一个孩子说。

“你怎么知道的？”我问。

“没有人不知道马丁·路德·金。”这个孩子咆哮道。“他有他自己的全国纪念日（注：1986年起美国政府将每年1月的第三个星期一定为马丁路德金全国纪念日)，几年前我们在学校都要背诵他的演讲。”

“为什么你们老师要你们记住他的演讲呢？”我问他。

“我才不在乎呢！”这个孩子回答。他的三个朋友不约而同摇了摇头。“这和我们或者我们的处境有什么关系吗？”

“世界上成千上万的老师都要求学生记住那些话，你们的老师也一样，因为这些话激励了无数受压迫的人去梦想一个更美好的世界，并采取行动，实现梦想。你们明白我的意思吗？”

“嗨，我很清楚你想要干什么，但这一点用都没有，不是吗？”

第四个孩子说道。他之前一直没有做声。“ 30年前某个家伙说的话对我们一点启发和影响都没有。我们的世界现在大不相同了。这个世界比我们想象的还要一团糟，而你或者我都无可奈何。我们太渺小了，什么也不是。”

Together

团结

I smiled again because I once believed and used to say similar things. Then after holding the smile for a few seconds I said, “On their own, ‘I’ or ‘have’ or ‘a’ or ‘dream’ are just words. Not very compelling or inspiring. But when you put them together in a certain order, they create a phrase that has been powerful enough to move millions of people to take action – action that changed laws, perceptions, and lives. You don’t need to be inspired or emotional to agree with this, do you?”The four kids shrugged and struggled to appear totally indifferent, but I could tell they were listening intently. “And what’s true for words is also true for people,” I continued. “One person without help from anyone else can’t do much to make a sizable difference in this crazy world - or to overcome all of the various forms of repression that exist today. But when people get together and unite to form something more powerful and meaningful then themselves, the possibilities are endless.Together is how mountains are moved. Together is how small people make a big difference.

我又笑了笑，因为我曾经也这样认为，还常常说类似的话。

笑容持续了几秒之后，我说道：“分开来看，‘我’﹑‘有’﹑‘一个’或者‘梦想’都只是词而已，既不引人注目，也不令人振奋。但是把它们以一定的次序放在一起，就创造了一句力量无比强大的话，激励数百万人采取行动——采取行动改写法律，改变观念，改善生活。你不需要获得启发或者感动才赞同这一点，对吗？”

这四个孩子耸了耸肩，尽量摆出漠不关心的样子，但我看得出他们听得很认真。“词是这样，人也是这样，”我继续说道。“在这个疯狂的世界，一个人单枪匹马是很难有所成就的，也无法克服当今社会存在的各种形式的压迫。但是如果人们聚到一起，团结起来，就会形成一股更强大，更有意义的力量，从而变得无所不能。”

团结一致可移山。团结就是小人物取得大成就的秘诀。