亞馬遜CEO杰夫·貝索斯英語演講稿
Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they're given after all. Choices canbe hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probablybe to the detriment of your choices.
聰明是一種天賦，而善良是 一種選擇，
亞馬遜CEO杰夫·貝索斯英語演講稿
。天賦得來很容易——畢竟它們與生俱來。而選擇卻頗為艱難。如果一不小心， 你可能被天賦所誘惑，這可能會損害到你做出的選擇。As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fixwindmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas everyafternoon, especially "Days of our Lives." My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a groupof Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every fewsummers, we'd join the caravan. We'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car,and off we'd go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped mygrandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather wasdriving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, andI hated the smell.
在我還是一個孩子的時候，我的夏天總是在德州祖父母的農(nóng)場中度過。我?guī)兔π蘩盹L(fēng)車，為牛接種疫苗，也做其它家務(wù)。每天下午，我們都會看肥皂劇，尤其是《我們的歲月》。我的祖父母參加了一個房車俱樂部，那是一群駕駛Airstream拖掛型房車的人們，他們結(jié)伴遍游美國和加拿大。每隔幾個夏天，我也會加入他們。我們把房車掛在祖父的`小汽車后面，然后加入300余名Airstream探險者們組成的浩蕩隊伍。我愛我的祖父母，我崇敬他們，也真心期盼這些旅程。那是一次我大概十歲時的旅行，我照例坐在后座的長椅上，祖父開著車，祖母坐在他旁邊，吸著煙。我討厭煙味。
At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate ourgas mileage -- figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing anad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puffof a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been twominutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated thenumber of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When Iwas satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front ofthe car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, "At two minutesper puff, you've taken nine years off your life!"
在那樣的年紀(jì)，我會找任何借口做些估測或者小算術(shù)，
資料共享平臺
《亞馬遜CEO杰夫·貝索斯英語演講稿》(http://www.szmdbiao.com)。我會計算油耗還有雜貨花銷等雞毛蒜皮的小事。我聽過一個有關(guān)吸煙的廣告。我記不得細(xì)節(jié)了，但是廣告大意是說，每吸一口香煙會減少幾分鐘的壽命，大概是兩分鐘。無論如何，我決定為祖母做個算術(shù)。我估測了祖母每天要吸幾支香煙，每支香煙要吸幾口等等，然后心滿意足地得出了一個合理的數(shù)字。接著，我捅了捅坐在前面的祖母的頭，又拍了拍她的肩膀，然后驕傲地宣稱，“每天吸兩分鐘的煙，你就少活九年!”I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to beapplauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. "Jeff, you're so smart. You had to havemade some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do somedivision." That's not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in thebackseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, whohad been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of thecar and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? Mygrandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, andmaybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car andapologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and noway to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfatherlooked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, "Jeff, one day you'llunderstand that it's harder to be kind than clever."
我清晰地記得接下來發(fā)生了什么，而那是我意料之外的。我本期待著小聰明和算術(shù)技巧能贏得掌聲，但那并沒有發(fā)生。相反，我的祖母哭泣起來。我的祖父之前一直在默默開車，把車停在了路邊，走下車來，打開了我的車門，等著我跟他下車。我惹麻煩了嗎?我的祖父是一個智慧而安靜的人。他從來沒有對我說過嚴(yán)厲的話，難道這會是第一次?還是他會讓我回到車上跟祖母道歉?我以前從未遇到過這種狀況，因而也無從知曉會有什么后果發(fā)生。我們在房車旁停下來。祖父注視著我，沉默片刻，然后輕輕地、平靜地說：“杰夫，有一天你會明白，善良比聰明更難。”
What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness isa gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy -- they're given after all. Choices can be hard. Youcan seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to thedetriment of your choices.
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