【正文】 unately miss that salutary branch of business education. But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt the newest er to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of those sweepers myself. Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is “aim high”. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm. Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. Say to yourself, “My place is at the top.” Be king in your dreams. And here is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it. The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here there, and everywhere. “Don?t put all your eggs in one basket.” is all wrong. I tell you to “put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.” Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets that breaks most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration. To summarize what I have said: aim for the highest。 do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals。 never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund。 break orders always to save owners。 put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket。 lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves.” 譯文： 成功之道 年輕人創(chuàng)業(yè)之初，應(yīng)該從最底層干起，這是件好事。我注意到我們現(xiàn)在辦公室里都有工友，于是年輕人就不幸錯(cuò)過了商業(yè)教育中這個(gè)有益的環(huán)節(jié)。在必要時(shí)新來的員工掃掃地也無妨，不會(huì)因?yàn)槎惺裁磽p失。 假如你已經(jīng)被錄用，并且有了一個(gè)良好的開端，我對(duì)你的建 議是：要志存高遠(yuǎn)。不論職位有多高，你的內(nèi)心都不要滿足于做一個(gè)總管，領(lǐng)班或者總經(jīng)理。一旦開始從事某種職業(yè)，就要下定決心在那一領(lǐng)域闖出一片天地來；做這一行的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人物，采納每一點(diǎn)改進(jìn)之心，采用最優(yōu)良的設(shè)備，對(duì)專業(yè)知識(shí)熟稔于心。他們向這方面投資，又向那方面投資；在這里投資，在那里投資，到處都投資。我要對(duì)你說：“把所有的雞蛋都放在一個(gè)籃子里，然后小心地看好那個(gè)籃子?？垂芎蛿y帶一個(gè)籃子并不太難。提三個(gè)籃子的人，必須把一個(gè)頂在頭上，而這個(gè)籃子很可能倒下來，把他自己絆倒。 把我的話歸納一下：要志存高遠(yuǎn)；不要出入酒吧；要滴酒不沾，或 要喝也只在用餐時(shí)喝少許；不要做投機(jī)買賣；不要寅吃卯糧；要把公司的利益當(dāng)作自己的利益；取消訂貨的目的永遠(yuǎn)是為了挽救貨主；要專注；要把所有的雞蛋放在一個(gè)籃子里，然后小心地看好它；要量入為出；最后，要有耐心，正如愛默生所言，“誰都無法阻止你最終成功，除非你自己承 認(rèn)自己失敗。 but I have been interested in men in general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself, but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal. They display their oddities because it has never struck them that they are odd. And after all it is with the mon run of men that we writers have to deal。 it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never e to the end of the surprises he has in store for you. For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a veterinary surgeon than with a prime minister. 譯文： 論見名人 許多人熱衷于見名人，我始終不得其解。名人個(gè)個(gè)練就了一套處世高招，無論遇上誰，都能應(yīng)付自如。他們扮演的是大家期待的角色，演得多了，最后都能演得惟妙惟肖。 我自己就喜歡一些人，非常喜歡他們。正如康德勸告的那樣，我從來沒有把認(rèn)識(shí)某人作為目的，而是將其當(dāng)作對(duì)一個(gè)作家有用的創(chuàng)作素材。他們常常顯得較為自然真實(shí)，他們無須再創(chuàng)造另一個(gè)人物形象，用他來保護(hù)自己不受世人干擾，或者用他來感動(dòng)世人。因?yàn)樗麄儚膩頉]有引起公眾的關(guān)注，也就從來沒有想到過要隱瞞什么。總之，作家要寫的是普通人。去撰寫這些人物經(jīng)常是作家們難以抗拒的冒險(xiǎn)之舉，可為此付出的努力不免以失敗告終，這說明這些人物都過于特殊，無法成為一件藝術(shù)作品的創(chuàng)作根基，作家也不可能把他們寫得真真切切。大人物經(jīng)常是千人一面，小人物身上才有一組組矛盾元素，是取之不盡的創(chuàng)作源泉，讓你驚喜不斷。 ?第十篇： The 50Percent Theory of Life 生活理論半對(duì)半 The 50Percent Theory of Life I believe in the 50percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal。 having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son?s baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he?s swimming with the dogs, discovering his passion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos. But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flipflop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50percent theory. One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so floodprone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutalthe worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The airconditioned died。 the marriage ended。 the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tunemusic I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits. Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn?t last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals? recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest. For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed