我几乎从来不翻译文章，因为翻译是一种艺术，不是人人都适合从事翻译工作的。不过，在看到沃伦-巴菲特回答Emory大学商学院学生的这个问题之后，我决定尝试一次。因为这段回答实在太美妙了。如果你原先不尊敬巴菲特，这段回答能让你尊敬他；如果你原先就尊敬巴菲特，这段回答能让你崇拜他。
Emory大学学生：
你怎么定义幸福？你生活中的什么事物使你感觉最幸福？当你做了一笔成功的投资，你会允许自己兴高采烈地享受成功吗？从另一面讲，如果一笔投资失败了，你会不会感觉到同样的失望？或者说，你尝试尽可能地把感情排除出你的工作？
巴菲特：
我享受我做的事情，我每天都跳着踢踏舞去工作。我和我喜欢的人一起工作，做我喜欢的事情。我唯一希望尽可能避免的事情是解雇员工。我把我的时间用来思考未来，而不是过去。未来是激动人心的。正如伯特兰德-罗素说的，“成功是得到自己想要的，快乐是想要自己得到的。”我出生的那天赢得了卵巢彩票（注：指精子发育为受精卵的过程），你们所有人都一样。我们都很成功，聪明，受过教育。专注于那些你没有的东西是一个可怕的错误。在我们人人拥有的天赋之下，如果你仍然不快乐，那是你自己的错误。
我认识一个八十多岁的妇人，她是一个波兰犹太人，曾经和全家一起被赶进集中营，其中有人死在了里面。她说：“我慢慢地开始交朋友，因为我看着人们，脑海中有一个问题：他们会把我藏起来吗？”如果你到了我这个岁数（注：沃伦-巴菲特已经年满77岁），或者年轻一点，而有一大群人愿意把你藏起来，那么你完全可以为自己过去的生活感到骄傲。我认识一些出现在《财富》400富豪排行榜上的人，他们的子女不会把他们藏起来的。（他们的子女会说：）“他在阁楼上面！他在阁楼上面！”其中有些人占据着董事会席位，或者获得名誉学位，借此褒扬自己；但这不会改变事实——在他们死了之后，没有人会有一丁点在乎他们。世界上最强大的力量是无条件的爱。把它私藏起来是人生的巨大错误。你给别人的爱越多，你获得的回报就越多。从个人角度来讲，重要的是谁对你有价值，你就一定要对他们有价值。
如果你能购买一个同班同学未来收入的10%，你会怎么做？你不会购买那些IQ最高的人，成绩最好的人，等等，但你会买那些给你留下最深刻印象的人。你喜欢那些慷慨的人，尽力而为的人，正直坦率的人。现在想象一下你可以卖空你的一个同班同学的10%。当你开始环顾整个房间的时候，这一般会更有趣。看看那些没有人愿意与之相处的人，那些惹人厌恶或者只顾自己利益的人。如果你有一副500匹马力的引擎却只发挥出了50马力，你会被另外一个拥有300匹马力引擎却发挥出了250马力的人击败。潜在能力和实际发挥之间的区别取决于人的品质。你可以列出你最仰慕的品质，以及你最厌恶的那些。转换一下角色，想想如果这是我对以上品质的反应，这个世界对我会有怎样的反应？你可以学着养成那些你想要的品质，戒掉那些你不想要的品质。你很难察觉由习惯构成的枷锁；一旦你察觉到了，又很难破除它。你不可能到了60岁才去改变；现在就是做一个列表的时候了。
原文如下：
Emory:
How do you define happiness and what about your life makes you most happy? When you make good on an investment, do you allow yourself to enjoy that success by getting excited - and on the flip-side, when an investment turns down, do you find yourself equally disappointed - or do you try to remove emotion from your work, as much as possible?
Buffett:
I enjoy what I do, I tap dance to work every day. I work with people I love, doing what I love. The only thing I would pay to get rid of is firing people. I spend my time thinking about the future, not the past. The future is exciting. As Bertrand Russell says, “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” I won the ovarian lottery the day I was born and so did all of you. We’re all successful, intelligent, educated. To focus on what you don’t have is a terrible mistake. With the gifts all of us have, if you are unhappy, it’s your own fault.
I know a woman in her 80’s, a Polish Jew woman forced into a concentration camp with her family but not all of them came out. She says, “I am slow to make friends because when I look at people, I have one question in mind; would they hide me?” If you get to be my age, or younger for that matter, and have a lot of people that would hide you, then you can feel pretty good about how you’ve lived your life. I know people on the Forbes 400 list whose children would not hide them. “He’s in the attic, he’s in the attic.” Some of them keep compensating by joining board seats or getting honorary degrees, but it doesn’t change the fact that no one will give a damn when they are gone. The most powerful force in the world is unconditional love. To horde it is a terrible mistake in life. The more you try to give it away, the more you get it back. At an individual level, it’s important to make sure that for the people that count to you, you count to them.
What if you could buy 10% of one of your classmates and their future earnings? You wouldn’t buy the ones with the highest IQ, the best grades, etc, but the most effective. You like people who are generous, go out of their way, straight shooters. Now imagine that you could short 10% of one of your classmates. This part is usually more fun as you start looking around the room. You wouldn’t choose the ones with the poorest grades. Look for people nobody wants to be around, that are obnoxious or like to take all the credit. If you have a 500 HP engine and only get 50 HP out of it, you’ll be beat by someone else that has a 300 HP engine but gets 250 HP output. The difference between potential and output comes from human qualities. You can make a list of the qualities you admire and those you despise. To turn the tables, think if this is the way I react to the qualities on the list, which is the way the world will react to me. You can learn to turn on those qualities you want and turn off those qualities you wish to avoid. The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. You can’t change at 60; the time to look at that list is now. |
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