励志美文精华《This, I believe》:你知道自己的特殊才能吗?
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Do you know your special talent?
Anne Heywood
What I am about to say may appear to be plugging my own business, but it’s what I know best—and I believe it deeply and sincerely. I believe that every human being has a talent—something that he can do better than anyone else. And I believe that the distinction between so-called “creative” talents and ordinary run-of-the-mill talents is an unnecessary and a man-made distinction. I have known exterminators and typists, waitresses and machinists whose creative joy and self-fulfillment in their work could not be surpassed by Shakespeare’s or Einstein’s.
When I was in my teens, I read a quotation from Thomas Carlyle: “Blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness.” At the time I thought that was a pretty grim remark, but I know now that Mr. Carlyle was right. When you find the thing that you can do better than anything else in the world, then all the wonderful byproducts fall in line: financial security, happy personal relationships, peace of mind. I believe that until you find it, your search for the byproducts will be in vain.
I also believe that in the process of searching, no experience is ever wasted, unless we allow ourselves to run out of hope. In my own case, I had 34 different jobs before I found the right one. Many of those jobs were heartbreakingly difficult. A few of them involved working with unscrupulous and horribly unpleasant people. Yet, in looking back, I can see that the most unpleasant of those jobs, in many cases, gave me the biggest dividends—the most valuable preparation for my proper life work.
And I have seen this happen in the destinies of hundreds of people. Periods which they thought were hopeless, dark, and of no possible practical value have turned out to be the most priceless experience they ever had. I know a girl who is a famous package designer for American industry. She was just given a promotion for which she competed with six well-qualified designers. Her past, like all of ours, had its good times and its bad times. One of the worst of the bad times was a period when she lost her husband and was left with two small children to support. She took a clerking job in a grocery store because her apartment was on the floor above it and between customers she could run up and keep an eye on the babies.
It was a two-year period of great despair, during which she was constantly on the verge of suicide. Yet the other day when she told me of her promotion to the top package design job, she exclaimed in astonishment, “And do you know that the single factor which swung it in my favor was that I alone had over-the-counter experience with the customers who buy our packaged foods!”
When people talk about the sweet uses of adversity, I think they unduly stress a grim and kind of hopeless resignation, a conviction that, like unpleasant medicine, it’s somehow “good for us.” But I think it’s much more than that. I know that the unhappy periods of our lives offer us concrete and useful plus-values, chief among them a heightened understanding and compassion for others. We may not see it at the time, we may consider the experience entirely wasted, but, as Emerson says, “The years teach much which the days never know.”
你知道自己的特殊才能吗?
安妮.海伍德
我相信，所谓“创造性”才能与普通才能间的差距不过是一种人为的不必要的区别。除非我们允许自己放弃希望，否则任何经历都会在找寻的过程中发挥作用。
也许我要说的这些话看起来像是为自己的生意做宣传，然而这却是我最了解的东西……我对它的信仰真诚而深切。
我相信，每个人都是天才——相比别人而言，有些事他可能做得更好。我相信，所谓“创造性”才能与普通才能间的差距不过是一种人为的不必要的区别。我认识的一些杀虫员、打字员、女侍者和机械工，他们在工作中所创造的快乐与实现的自我价值，也许是莎士比亚或爱因斯坦也无法超越的。
我在年少时曾读过托马斯.卡莱尔的一句话：“一个人若是找到适合自己的工作，他便是幸福的，请让他别再祈求其他的幸福了。”当时，我觉得这句话过于残酷沉闷，而如今才知道卡莱尔先生是正确的。当你找到世上你能做得最好的事情时，稳定的收入、快乐的人际关系以及平静的心情等所有奇妙的“副产品”都会接踵而来。我相信，除非你找到它，否则你对一切“副产品”的追求也不过是徒劳而已。
我也相信，除非我们允许自己放弃希望，否则任何经历都会在找寻的过程中发挥作用。就我而言，在找到合适的工作前，我曾尝试过34种不同的工作。其中有很多工作的艰难程度简直令人难耐。在有些工作中，还会与一些不道德且令人讨厌的人相处。但是，回过头来才领悟到，在很多情况下，我从那些最令人头疼的工作中得到了最丰厚的报酬，它们成为我正确事业生涯的最有价值的准备。
在成百上千人的命运中，我也看到了这一点。他们拥有的最宝贵的经历，正是那些曾经被认为绝望、黑暗、不可能有实用价值的时期。我的一位朋友现在是美国著名工业包装设计师。最近，在与6位高水平设计师的竞争中，她脱颖而出，得到了提升。像我们所有人一样，她的过去也有巅峰与低谷。她失去了丈夫，还得抚养两个孩子，那是她最艰难痛苦的时期。她在自家楼下找了一份杂货店营业员的工作，这样一来，在没有顾客时她就可以抽空跑上楼看看孩子。那是她最绝望的两年，期间她几度想要自杀。但是，在她告诉我她被提升为首席包装设计师的那天，她惊叹道：“你知道吗？只有我与购买我们包装食品的顾客有过直接的接触，而这正是我获得这份工作的唯一原因。”
我认为，人们在谈论逆境的益处时，过度强调了一种冷酷与绝望的顺从，一种良药苦口般的信仰——逆境或多或少都有益于我们。然而，我觉得它的益处远不止此。我知道，生活中的不幸会带给我们具体而有用的附加值，其中最主要的就是对人们更深切的理解与同情。也许，我们当时并未意识到这一点，也许会认为这些经历毫无价值，但是，正如爱默生所言：“年复一年所积累的学问，是每日每天所无法了解的。”
Iowa native Anne Heywood held 34 different jobs before founding the Career Changing Clinic in New York City to help service men and women returning from World War II find work.
Heywood was a syndicated columnist and the author of “There Is A Right Job For Every Woman.”
本文选自《这，我相信》，该书共选取自述性散文七十二篇。原文作者用简洁、朴实的文字讲述自己如何在逆境中领悟到生活的真谛而最后获得成功。原文短小精悍、语言平实，启迪读者心智。译文忠实于原文的内容和风格，可读性强。本书不仅是一本英汉对照的优秀励志读物，而且还是翻译佳作，可供在校大学生、英语自学者和翻译爱好者阅读学习。
本书译自美国畅销书This I Believe。This I Believe起初是一个广播节目，策划于1949年，旨在帮助美国人克服看重物质享受而轻视精神情操的社会倾向。该节目每日播出，每位嘉宾讲叙五分钟，其讲稿为一篇六百字的短文，每周在报纸上刊登。这些嘉宾或是社会名流，或是无名小卒，他们的肤色、职业、种族均不相同，但他们必须有一点共同之处——事业成功，应对生活成功。该节目获得巨大的成功!每天约有三千九百万美国人围在收音机旁聆听罗斯福总统夫人、海伦·凯勒、公司老板、商人或出租车司机讲述他们的信仰。
该广播节目最后成为一种文化现象，共有用六种语言播出、八十五家主要报纸开辟专栏每周刊登此节目的文章。1952年经仔细挑选，选中一百人的一百篇短文汇集出版。书名是This I Believe，畅销三十万册，是当年销售量仅次于《圣经》的畅销书。该书的阿拉伯译本创下了三天内售出三万册的记录。This I Believe至今仍然是美国全国性的媒体节目。它邀请各行各业的美国人撰文讨论指导他们生活的哲学。听众每周可在两个广播节目中听到这些人的自述，还可以在网上阅读他们的短文。
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