工作带来的十大启示

The other day my eight year old son asked me: "What did you learn at work today?" He was, of course, mimicking my daily question about what he learned at school. Even so, his question got me thinking: "What HAVE I learned at work?" Not just today, but every day.

有一天我8岁的孩子问我：“你今天在工作中学到什么了呀?”当然，他那是在戏仿我每天都问他在学校学到了什么。但即使如此，他的提问还是令我陷入了沉思：“我在工作中学到了什么呢?”不止是今天，而是每一天。

So I sat back and thought about it for a while and I came up with this list, which encapsulates the most valuable things I've learned over the years working with everybody from programmers to salespeople to top executives:

于是我坐下来思考了一段时间，于是我想出了这些东西，它们浓缩了我多年来和从程序员到销售员到最高执行官的所有人一起工作所学到的东西。

1. You can do anything, but you can't do everything.

1.你能做任何事，但你没法做所有事。

Life has an infinite number of possibilities and your ability to achieve success is limited only by your imagination. However, there are always trade-offs and sometimes moving in one direction prevents you from moving in another.

人生有无数的可能，而你获得成功的能力也仅仅受到你想象力的限制。然而，有时候总是要顾此失彼，往一个方向的行动也会导致你就无法往另一个方向行动。

2. You can't argue somebody out of a belief.

2.你没法改变别人的信念。

Most people think their beliefs result from objective fact. Actually, people organize and interpret facts according to their beliefs. Therefore, the more facts that you marshal for your argument, the less the other person is likely to change beliefs.

大多数人认为他们的信念是基于客观的事实。但事实上，人们是在根据自己的信念来组织和解释事实。所以，你越是为你的说法列举事实，你就越难改变另一个人的信念。

3. Pressure creates resistance.

3.压力带来阻力。

The natural human reaction to being pushed is to push back. This is why the "hard sell" doesn't work today and, indeed, has never worked. It's also why heavy-handed management techniques always fail.

当人们被推时，自然的反应是推回去。这就是为什么“强行推销”在今天不起作用，事实上，从来都不起作用。这也是为什么铁腕的管理策略总是失败的原因。

4. All you can change are your thoughts and actions.

4.你所能改变的仅仅是你的想法和行动。

Most of the misery and disappointment in life and in business emerges from the fruitless quest to 1) make other people change and 2) change the course of outside events. All you truly control is how you think, what you say, and what you do.

生活和工作中大多数的痛苦和失望来自大量的对1)让别人作出改变以及2)改变外界事物的需求。但你真正所能控制的全部只是你自己的想法、说法和做法。

5. You never know what other people are thinking.

5.你永远不知道其他人在想什么。

Everyone in the world has three faces. The first they present to the world at large, the second they share with their friends and family, and the third they keep completely to themselves.

世界上的每个人都有三面。第一面是他们展现给世界的，第二面是他们展现给家人和朋友的，而第三面是他们完完全全隐藏起来的。

6. You live up (or down) to your expectations.

6.你的期望决定了你的生活。

I once met a guy who was dead broke, on drugs, overweight, often drunk and who had drifted in and out of jail and bad relationships. On his right shoulder was a tattoo he'd gotten when he was 16. It read "Born Loser."

我曾经遇到过一个一文不值的人，他吸毒，超重，酗酒，而且不停地进出监狱，社会关系也非常糟糕。在他的左肩上有个纹身，那是他16岁的时候纹上去的，上面写着“天生的失败者”。

7. The "good old days" weren't all that good.

7.那些“曾经美好的时光”其实并没有那么美好

Many people wish they'd been born in a simpler time, like the 1950s, the Victorian period, or the middle ages. What utter foolishness! By any reasonable measure, we live in the best, the healthiest, and the happiest time in all history.

很多人希望他们自己生活在一个更单纯的年代，比如1950年代，或者维多利亚时代，又或是中世纪。这是多么愚蠢的想法!无论是何种统计方式，我们都生活在一个历史上最高、健康程度最高、幸福指数也最高的时代。

8. Great product ideas are a dime a dozen.

8.好点子总是很多。

There are millions of great ideas floating around that, if implemented, could make somebody millions of dollars. But it's never the ideas that matter. It's the ability to implement one idea and make it something real.

有成千上万的好点子在世界各地涌现，如果他们能够实施，就能让任何人成为百万富翁。但是往往真正起作用的并不是那些点子，而是那种实践点子并且将它们变成现实的能力。

9. Nobody has a monopoly on truth.

9.任何人对真理都没有独断的权利。

Politicians, priests, prophets, and pundits all claim that they (and they alone) know the truth. While they may be sincere, they are human beings and therefore their "truth" is a product of a fallible human mind, and therefore incomplete.

政治家、祭祀、先知还有权威人士都声称他们(而且只有他们)知道真理。虽然他们这么说是认真的，但他们只是人类，所以他们的“真理”也只是不可靠的人类思维的产物，因此是不完整的。

10. All you need is love.

10.你需要的是爱。

The Beatles may have been seriously pot-addled in the 1960s, but they definitely got this one right. When it comes down to it, it's your ability to feel and express love that will bring you both the greatest happiness and success.

披头士在1960年代爆红，但他们的这个观点确实非常对。当你拥有爱时，你的感受爱和表达爱的能力会给你带来最大的幸福和成功。