Let us again repeat our syllabus, and by slightly changing the closing statements bring it to the point we have now reached. There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.
在本章结束之际,让我们重新来温习一遍我们的信条,只不过,这一次我对结尾部分稍稍做了些变化,从而让它能涵盖至今为止我们所了解到的全部内容:有一种会思考的源物质,世上所有事物的形成皆源自于它。最初,这一物质本是宇宙的填充物,宇宙的每一丝空隙都由它占据着。
A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. Man can, form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the thing she wants, and do, with faith and purpose, all that can be done each day, doing each separate thing in an efficient manner.
首先,在这种物质当中出现了思想,接着,思想再按照其想像的模式制造出世间万物。人类的思想可造万物,而且通过让自己的思想作用于无形的源物质,人类就能够将脑海中的想像变为现实。为了让这些信念植根于我们的脑海当中,人类必须首先转变思想,彻底抛弃那些不正当竞争的观点,我们的脑海当中必须首先有一幅清晰的关于梦想的蓝图,然后依靠坚定的信念和不变的目标的支持,竭尽所能地做好每一天的工作,以一种高效率的方式完成每一次行动。
Chapter Thirteen Getting into the Right Business.
第十三章 找准自己的行业
SUCCESS, in any particular business, depends for one thing upon your possessing in a well-developed state the faculties required in that business. Without good musical faculty no one can succeed as a teacher of music; without well-developed mechanical faculties no one can achieve great success in any of the mechanical trades; without tact and the commercial faculties no one can succeed in mercantile pursuits.
无论你在哪家公司或企业就职,能否获得事业上的成功首先都取决于你是否具备该公司或企业所要求的能力。不具备良好的音乐才能的人是绝对不可能胜任音乐教师这份职业的;没有完备的机械知识的人要想在机械制造业取得佳绩则简直比登天还难;而一个缺乏经济头脑,不擅长察言观色的人要想在商界出人头地,成为一名出色的商人,这种可能性不是没有,只是真的很小很小。
But to possess in a well-developed state the faculties required in your particular vocation does not insure getting rich. There are musicians who have remarkable talent, and who yet remain poor; there are blacksmiths, carpenters, and so on who have excellent mechanical ability, but who do not get rich; and there are merchants with good faculties for dealing with men who nevertheless fail.
不过,即使你具备了从事的职业所要求的全部才能,也同样不能确保你就一定能够成功致富。古往今来,有许多天资聪颖的音乐家终其一生都是个穷光蛋,有-些铁匠和木匠,虽然技艺娴熟,手艺精湛,可日子却同样过得紧巴巴,甚至还有些商人,为人处事都十分圆滑并且精于理财之道,但不知为何就是与财富无缘。
The different faculties are tools; it is essential to have good tools, but it is also essential that the tools should be used in the Right Way. One man can take a sharp saw, a square, a good plane, and so on, and build a handsome article of furniture; another man can take the same tools and set to work to duplicate the article, but his production will be a botch. He does not know how to use good tools in a successful way. The various faculties of your mind are the tools with which you must do the work which is to make you rich; it will be easier for you to succeed if you get into a business for which you are well equipped with mental tools.
我们既然生活在这个世界上,就必须通过工作和劳动来养活自己,工作和劳动都需要利用工具,而我们所具备的各种技能就好比不同的工具,工具的好坏自然会影响到工作效率的高低。然而,同样的工具,同样的家具模型,经由另一个人之手出来的很可能就是一套拙劣的复制品。当我们有一把锋利的锯子、一把精确的角尺以及一副好使的刨子等工具时,只要合理地加以利用,就一定能够制造出一套精美的家具;后者失败的原因很直观,因为他不懂得如何正确地利用工具。可是,另一方面,如果我们不懂得运用工具,即使是拥有再好的工具也无法物尽其用,因此,使用工具的方式与工具的好坏一样,都对我们的工作具有至关重要的作用。
Generally speaking, you will do best in that business which will use your strongest faculties; the one for which you are naturally "best fitted." But there are limitations to this statement, also. No man should regard his vocation as being irrevocably fixed by the tendencies with which he was born. You can get rich in ANY business, for if you have not the right talent, you can develop that talent; it merely means that you will have to make your tools as you go along, instead of confining yourself to the use of those with which you were born.
通常来说,假如你恰好能在工作中发挥自己所长,那你在工作中自然也就会干得得心应手,而这也就是我们常说的“理想工作”。不过,这样的称谓也具有一定的局限性。毕竟,个人的技能从某种程度上来说已经超出了我们人力所能控制的范围,所以,我们不应该将天赋当成是决定自身职业的惟一标准。事实上,无论你从事的是何种职业,都一样可以成为大富翁,因为,个人的天赋虽然是无法改变的既成事实,但是我们却完全有能力通过后天的训练有目的地培养工作所需的技能,换句话说,我们应当让天赋和能力成为工作的好帮手,而不是让它们变成限制我们发展的拦路虎。
It will be EASIER for you to succeed in a vocation for which you already have the talents in a well-developed state; but you CAN succeed in any vocation, for you can develop any rudimentary talent, and there is no talent of which you have not at least the rudiment.
当你某方面的技能已经相当娴熟之后,你自然能够十分轻松地在其相关行业取得成功,只不过,你必须明白一个道理,你完全可以在任何行业都取得不俗的成绩,因为你绝对有能力通过后天的训练和培养获得该行业所需的相关技能。现在的你绝对具备学习所有技能所需的基本能力。