异类之不一样的成功启示录 第38期:通向成功的路径

 　　By the time Gates dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore¹ year to try his hand at his own software company,

　　当读大学二年级的盖茨从哈佛大学退学，决定腾出手来创办自己的软件公司的时候，

　　he'd been programming nonstop for seven consecutive² years. He was way past ten thousand hours.

　　此前他已经无间断地编写了七年的程序。这个时间远远超过10,000个小时。

　　How many teenagers in the world had the kind of experience Gates had?

　　世界上有多少年轻人拥有和盖茨相类似的经历？

　　"If they were fifty in the world, I'd be stunned," he says.

　　“假如在世界上能找出50个，都会把我惊倒，”他说，

　　"There was C-Cubed in the payroll³ staff we did, then TRW, all those things came together.

　　他说，“我先后做过电脑中心公司和员工工资单，接着是TRW——所有的事情遇到了一块。

　　I had a better exposure to software development at a young age than I think anyone did in that period of time,

　　我很小就进入了软件开发领域，我想那时候没多少人在做这行，

　　and all because of an incredibly lucky series of events."

　　所有这一切都非常幸运, 简直令人难以置信。”

　　If we put the stories of hockey players and the Beatles and Bill Joy and Bill Gates together,

　　假如我们把曲棍球运动员、甲壳虫乐队、比尔.乔伊和比尔.盖茨的故事联系起来思考，

　　I think we get a more complete picture of the path to success.

　　我相信你一定能够发现更加清晰的通向成功的路径。

　　Joy and Gates and the Beatles are all undeniably talented.

　　不可否认，乔伊、盖茨和甲壳虫乐队确实才华卓著。

　　Lennon and McCartney had a music gift of the sort that comes along once in a generation,

　　列侬和麦卡特尼拥有音乐才华，这种才华与生俱来，

　　and Bill Joy, let's not forget, had a mind so quick

　　而比尔.乔伊，他头脑的运算能力非常快，

　　that he was able to make up a complicated algorithm on the fly that left his professors in awe⁴.

　　我们不该忘记，他开发了复杂的飞行程序，这让听他答辩的教授们都心生敬意。

　　That much is obvious.

　　显然，他们确实拥有过人的才华。

　　But what truly distinguishes their histories is not their extraordinary talent but their extraordinary opportunities.

　　然而，他们人生的真正差异，不在于他们非凡的天赋，而在于他们非比寻常的机遇。

　　The Beatles, for the most random⁵ of reasons, got invited to go to Hamburg.

　　甲壳虫乐队能去汉堡，这样的机会少之又少。

　　Without Hamburg, the Beatles might well have taken a very different path.

　　如果没有汉堡之行，甲壳虫乐队的人生轨迹将大为不同。

　　"I was very luck," Bill Gates said at the very beginning of our interview.

　　“我真的非常幸运。”在我们采访比尔.盖茨的过程中，这是他对我们说的第一句话。

　　That doesn't mean he isn't brilliant or an extraordinary entrepreneur.

　　这并不是要否认他的才气和作为企业家的非凡才干，

　　It just means that he understands what incredible good fortune it was to be at Lakeside in 1968.

　　这仅是说，他心里知道，能够在1968年进入湖边学校，是多么难以置信的一次绝好的机会。

　　All the outliers we've looked at so far were the beneficiaries of some kind of unusual opportunity.

　　我们现在看到的所有那些出类拔萃之人，他们都受到非同寻常的好运的惠顾。

　　Lucky breaks don't seem like the exception with software billionaires and rock bands and star athletes.

　　好运气并不是对那些软件领域的亿万富翁、摇滚天才和体育明星才重要，

　　They seem like the rule.

　　对其他领域的佼佼者来说，依旧不可或缺。

1 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

2 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

3 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

4 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

5 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。