异类之不一样的成功启示录 第187期:并不是只有最聪明的人才会成功

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　　而这种条件互换在什么情况下会失败呢？

　　Everything we have learned in Outliers says that success follows a predictable course.

　　在这本书中，所有我们看到的成功都是有迹可循，

　　It's not the brightest to succeed. If it were, Chris Langan would be up there with Einstein.

　　并不是只有最聪明的人才会成功。否则，克里斯·兰根将会和爱因斯坦齐名。

　　Nor success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift.

　　但是，成功也不仅仅是由于我们努力的累积，相反，它更像一件礼物。

　　The successful are those who have been given opportunities and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

　　成功的人都是在机会出现时，有能力抓住它们的人。

　　For hocky and soccer players born in January, it's a better shot at making the all-star team. For the beetles¹, it was Hamburg.

　　对于曲棍球和足球运动员来说，出生在1月是成为全明星队员的好机会。

　　For Bill Gates, the lucky break was being born at the right time and getting the gift of a computer terminal in junior high.

　　对于比尔·盖茨，幸运的机会是他出生的年代及他在初中时得到的计算机礼物。对于甲壳虫乐队，是汉堡。

　　Joe Flom and the founders² of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz got multiple breaks.

　　乔·弗洛姆和Wachtell的创始人利普顿、罗森、卡兹都得到很多这样的机会。

　　They were born at the right time with the right parents and the right ethnicity

　　恰到好处的出生时代、恰当的父母及恰当的民族划分，

　　which allowed them to practice takeover law for twenty years before the rest of the legal world caught on.

　　这些因素都使他们在其他法律行业盛行的前20年就开始从事法律。

　　And what Korean Air did, when it finally turned its operation around, was to give its pilots the opportunity to escape the constraints³ of their cultural legacy⁴.

　　大韩航空是怎么做的呢？是让飞行员有机会摆脱限制他们的文化传统。

　　The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked.

　　道理很简单，但令人惊讶的是，它常常被忽视。

　　The myth of the best and the brightest and the self-made men suggest that in order to bring out the most inhumane potential, we need only identify those with promise and our work is done.

　　最优秀的人，最聪明的人和自己通过努力获得成功的人的故事告诉我们，为了发挥最大的潜力，我们只要用承诺来实现他们，这就是我们的工作。

　　We look at Bill Gates and say, in a spirit of self-congratulation, our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously⁵ successful entrepreneur.

　　我们在看到比尔·盖茨的成功时，会自我庆贺地说，我们的国家让一个13岁的孩子成难以置信地成为一个成功的企业家。

　　But that's the wrong lesson. Our world allowed only one thirteen-year-old unlimited⁶ access to a time sharing terminal in 1968.

　　这是错误的，我们的国家不过是在1968年给一个13岁的孩子提供了一个分时终端。

　　If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today?

　　如果100万青少年得到同样的机会，那我们今天会多出多少微软公司呢？

　　When we misunderstand or ignore the real lessons of success, we squander⁷ talent.

　　当我们误解或忽略了成功的真正道理时，我们就是在浪费才干。

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