"呆伯特" 畫家討論熱情與成敗 - offer

[譯註一：文長，再加英漢對照。]
[譯註二：我翻譯並不代表我同意，就醬。]

“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams talks to WSJ editor Gary Rosen about how to
draw lessons, skills and ideas from your failures—and why following your
passion is asking for trouble.

"呆伯特" 畫家史考特。亞當斯 (Scott Adams) 接受華爾街日報編輯蓋瑞。羅森專訪，關
於如何從失敗中學到教訓、技能、以及想法 - 還有為何跟隨你的熱情只是自找麻煩。

If you're already as successful as you want to be, both personally and
professionally, congratulations! Here's the not-so-good news: All you are
likely to get from this article is a semientertaining tale about a guy who
failed his way to success. But you might also notice some familiar patterns
in my story that will give you confirmation (or confirmation bias) that your
own success wasn't entirely luck.

如果你於公於私都已成功達標，恭喜了!但壞消息是，這篇文章對你將沒什意義，不過只
是篇稍微有意思的故事，描述某人如何一直失敗失到成功。但你也可能從我的故事裡認出
一些你熟悉的模式，讓你確認到 (或只是讓你犯確認偏誤) 你自己的成功並非全靠運氣。

If you're just starting your journey toward success—however you define it—
or you're wondering what you've been doing wrong until now, you might find
some novel ideas here. Maybe the combination of what you know plus what I
think I know will be enough to keep you out of the wood chipper.

但如果你才剛邁出往成功的第一步 - 不論你對成功的定義為何 - 或是你一直不懂你到現
在為止倒底是哪裡做錯，那這篇文章可能可以提供些新看法給你。你的知識加上我的自以
為是希望可以讓你避免一敗塗地。

Let me start with some tips on what not to do. Beware of advice about
successful people and their methods. For starters, no two situations are
alike. Your dreams of creating a dry-cleaning empire won't be helped by
knowing that Thomas Edison liked to take naps. Secondly, biographers never
have access to the internal thoughts of successful people. If a biographer
says Henry Ford invented the assembly line to impress women, that's probably
a guess.

我先從"何事不可為"開始。你要小心那些照成功人士的做法來依樣葫蘆的建議，首先這是
因為大家都不一樣：知道愛迪生喜歡小瞑，對你創造乾洗帝國的夢想毫無幫助。再來，
寫偉人傳的人都不知道那些偉人腦子裡到底裝什飛機。如果有人說亨利福特發明裝配線
只是要把妹，他大概是猜的。

But the most dangerous case of all is when successful people directly give
advice. For example, you often hear them say that you should "follow your
passion." That sounds perfectly reasonable the first time you hear it.
Passion will presumably give you high energy, high resistance to rejection
and high determination. Passionate people are more persuasive, too. Those are
all good things, right?

但是，最危險的還是那些成功人士直接給你的建議。例如，他們常說"跟隨你的熱情"。這
句話乍聽似乎合情合理，熱情讓你有活力、能不屈不撓、能堅持到底。而且熱情的人更有
說服力。這些都是好事，對不？

Here's the counterargument: When I was a commercial loan officer for a large
bank, my boss taught us that you should never make a loan to someone who is
following his passion. For example, you don't want to give money to a sports
enthusiast who is starting a sports store to pursue his passion for all
things sporty. That guy is a bad bet, passion and all. He's in business for
the wrong reason.

我的反辯就是：我在某銀行當商貸審核員時，我的老闆教我們絕不可以借錢給跟隨熱情的
人，例如一位熱愛體育的人想貸款開一間體育用品店來滿足他對一切運動的熱愛；那傢伙
不值得銀行冒險，不管他熱情有多旺盛，因為他經商的理由是錯誤的。

My boss, who had been a commercial lender for over 30 years, said that the
best loan customer is someone who has no passion whatsoever, just a desire to
work hard at something that looks good on a spreadsheet. Maybe the loan
customer wants to start a dry-cleaning store or invest in a fast-food
franchise—boring stuff. That's the person you bet on. You want the grinder,
not the guy who loves his job.

我那個審核商貸30年的老闆說，最好的商貸客戶是那種毫無熱情，而只期望努力把一個試
算起來不錯的事業搞好的那種人。這種客戶可能只想開間乾洗店或是投資快餐連鎖店 -
很無聊的玩意。那種兢兢業業的人才值得銀行賭，而不是滿腔熱情的人。

For most people, it's easy to be passionate about things that are working
out, and that distorts our impression of the importance of passion. I've been
involved in several dozen business ventures over the course of my life, and
each one made me excited at the start. You might even call it passion.

對大部分的人而言，狀況好的時候熱情很容易維持，這也扭曲了我們認知裡"熱情"的重要
性。我這輩子參與過數十個商業企劃，而我一開始對每一個都很興奮，甚至可稱之為熱情
。

The ones that didn't work out—and that would be most of them—slowly drained
my passion as they failed. The few that worked became more exciting as they
succeeded. For example, when I invested in a restaurant with an operating
partner, my passion was sky high. And on day one, when there was a line of
customers down the block, I was even more passionate. In later years, as the
business got pummeled, my passion evolved into frustration and annoyance.

但那些失敗的企劃 - 絕大多數都失敗 - 澆熄了我的熱情，而那些成功的案子則讓我的熱
情更是旺盛。舉個例子，當我跟人合夥開餐廳時，我熱情高漲，而在開幕第一天人潮排到
轉角的時候我更是熱情衝腦，但後來業績每況越下的時候我的熱情就變成了挫折感跟惱怒
。

On the other hand, Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I
was willing to try. When it started to look as if it might be a success, my
passion for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden
ticket. In hindsight, it looks as if the projects that I was most passionate
about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved
with my success. Success caused passion more than passion caused success.

另外，呆伯特漫畫一開始只是我姑且一試的許多賺錢方案之一，但隨著這漫畫越來越成功
，我對漫畫的熱情也是與日俱增，因為我逐漸了解到這漫畫可能會變成我的金雞母。我的
後見之明似乎顯示我最有熱情的計畫也是我最成功的計畫，但客觀來說，我的熱情是隨著
計畫的成功一起增加的。換言之："成功增加熱情"多於"熱情帶來成功"。

So forget about passion. And while you're at it, forget about goals, too.

所以別再靠滿腔熱情了。既然講到不可靠的東西，我認為"目標"也可以丟了。

Just after college, I took my first airplane trip, destination California, in
search of a job. I was seated next to a businessman who was probably in his
early 60s. I suppose I looked like an odd duck with my serious demeanor, bad
haircut and cheap suit, clearly out of my element. I asked what he did for a
living, and he told me he was the CEO of a company that made screws. He
offered me some career advice. He said that every time he got a new job, he
immediately started looking for a better one. For him, job seeking was not
something one did when necessary. It was a continuing process.

我大學剛畢業時，坐的第一趟飛機是去加州，找工作。我當時坐在一位大約60出頭的生意
家旁邊。我穿著癟腳西裝、頭髮剪的參差不齊、看來又嚴肅無比，活像個一無所知的小毛
頭。我問他在哪高就，他說他是某螺絲公司的CEO，然後給我一些求職建議。他說他每次
找到一份工作，都會馬上開始找更好的下一份工。對他來說，求職不是一件必要時再作的
東西，而是一個現在進行式。

This makes perfect sense if you do the math. Chances are that the best job
for you won't become available at precisely the time you declare yourself
ready. Your best bet, he explained, was to always be looking for a better
deal. The better deal has its own schedule. I believe the way he explained it
is that your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job.

如果你拿出數學頭腦算算，你就知道他說的完全沒錯。他解釋說，你最適合的工作大多不
會在你準備周全的時候出現，所以你最好的做法就是一直不懈的尋找更好的條件，因為更
好的條件要來時他自己會來。我認為他解釋的重點就是：你的工作不是你的工作，而是要
找到更好的工作。

This was my first exposure to the idea that one should have a system instead
of a goal. The system was to continually look for better options.

這是我第一次聽到這個概念：不要有目標，要有系統。這個系統就是"你要一直尋找更好
的選擇"。

Throughout my career I've had my antennae up, looking for examples of people
who use systems as opposed to goals. In most cases, as far as I can tell, the
people who use systems do better. The systems-driven people have found a way
to look at the familiar in new and more useful ways.

在我職業生涯裡我一直在留意那些有系統而不是有目標的人。據我所知，有系統的人表現
大多優於有目標的人。這些有系統的人能夠從尋常裡找出不尋常且有用的東西。

To put it bluntly, goals are for losers. That's literally true most of the
time. For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds, you will spend every
moment until you reach the goal—if you reach it at all—feeling as if you
were short of your goal. In other words, goal-oriented people exist in a
state of nearly continuous failure that they hope will be temporary.

老實說，目標是給魯蛇 (loser) 在用的。這句話絕大多數時候都完全正確。如果你的目
標是減重10磅，你在沒達到目標前的每一刻 (甚至有時你根本達不到) 你都是個達不到目
標的魯蛇。換句話說，有目標的人是處在持續的失敗當中，而希望這失敗只是暫時的。

If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you
realize that you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction.
Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of
your success until they bore you, or to set new goals and re-enter the cycle
of permanent presuccess failure.

如果你達到了你的目標，你會雀躍狂喜一陣子，直到你發現你人生的動力與方向已隨著目
標的達成而消失。你可以感覺空洞且無用，享受你的勝利果實直到厭煩，或者你可以訂立
新目標，再次陷入成功前的持續失敗循環。

I have a friend who is a gifted salesman. He could have sold anything, from
houses to toasters. The field he chose (which I won't reveal because he
wouldn't appreciate the sudden flood of competition) allows him to sell a
service that almost always auto-renews. In other words, he can sell his
service once and enjoy ongoing commissions until the customer dies or goes
out of business. His biggest problem in life is that he keeps trading his
boat for a larger one, and that's a lot of work.

我有個朋友，是位行銷天才。他從烤麵包機到房地產，甚麼都能賣。但他選的領域 (我不
講明因為我知道他不會喜歡一堆人聽說他的領域這麼好而跳進來搶生意) 讓他能賣一種到
期時幾乎都會自動展延的服務，也就是說他賣一次就可以享受佣金直到客戶掛點或關門為
止。他人生最大的問題就是他的遊艇越換越大，每次換都費一番功夫。

Observers call him lucky. What I see is a man who accurately identified his
skill set and chose a system that vastly increased his odds of getting
"lucky." In fact, his system is so solid that it could withstand quite a bit
of bad luck without buckling. How much passion does this fellow have for his
chosen field? Answer: zero. What he has is a spectacular system, and that
beats passion every time.

旁觀者可能會說他運氣好，但我認為他正確了解他的能力所在，然後選擇了一個能夠大大
增加他運氣的系統。他的系統好到能夠承擔許多壞運也不會垮。那這位仁兄對他的領域有
多少熱情？答案是零。他有的是一個表現優於熱情的好系統。

As for my own system, when I graduated from college, I outlined my
entrepreneurial plan. The idea was to create something that had value and—
this next part is the key—I wanted the product to be something that was easy
to reproduce in unlimited quantities. I didn't want to sell my time, at least
not directly, because that model has an upward limit. And I didn't want to
build my own automobile factory, for example, because cars are not easy to
reproduce. I wanted to create, invent, write, or otherwise concoct something
widely desired that would be easy to reproduce.

至於我的系統：我大學畢業後就粗略描出了我的經商計畫，要創造一個有價值，而且 (這
是關鍵) 容易生產且無生產上限的東西。我不想賣我的時間 (至少不是直接賣)，因為時
間有限。我也不想 (比方說) 自己製造車輛，因為汽車不容易生產。我想創造、發明、撰
寫、或是無論如何的搞出某個受大眾喜歡且容易生產的東西。

My system of creating something the public wants and reproducing it in large
quantities nearly guaranteed a string of failures. By design, all of my
efforts were long shots. Had I been goal-oriented instead of system-oriented,
I imagine I would have given up after the first several failures. It would
have felt like banging my head against a brick wall.

這個系統幾乎保證我將經歷一連串失敗。依照系統來說，我成功的可能性都很小。如果我
是靠目標的，那我經歷幾次失敗後可能就放棄了，因為連續的失敗會讓人感到像拿頭撞牆
一般的苦惱。

But being systems-oriented, I felt myself growing more capable every day, no
matter the fate of the project that I happened to be working on. And every
day during those years I woke up with the same thought, literally, as I
rubbed the sleep from my eyes and slapped the alarm clock off.

但我不是目標性的，我是系統性的，所以我反而感覺每天都變得更有能力，不論我現在搞
的計畫落到何種下場。那些年我每天起床，一邊揉眼睛一邊關鬧鐘時，我的腦裡都有一個
念頭：

Today's the day.
成功就是今天。

If you drill down on any success story, you always discover that luck was a
huge part of it. You can't control luck, but you can move from a game with
bad odds to one with better odds. You can make it easier for luck to find
you. The most useful thing you can do is stay in the game. If your current
get-rich project fails, take what you learned and try something else. Keep
repeating until something lucky happens. The universe has plenty of luck to
go around; you just need to keep your hand raised until it's your turn. It
helps to see failure as a road and not a wall.

每個成功故事，追根究底，都很靠運氣。運氣是沒法控制的，但你可以別玩失敗率高的遊
戲，而改玩較能贏的遊戲。你不能叫運氣來，但你可以開門讓運氣較容易來。最重要的就
是一直玩下去，你現在的賺錢計畫失敗，把教訓學起來然後換下一個，一直換到你走運為
止。世界上運氣是很多的，不過你得一直排隊等到叫號叫到你為止。這時，把失敗當作過
程而不是阻攔對你會有幫助。

I'm an optimist by nature, or perhaps by upbringing—it's hard to know where
one leaves off and the other begins—but whatever the cause, I've long seen
failure as a tool, not an outcome. I believe that viewing the world in that
way can be useful for you too.

我不知是出生就樂觀還是被養的樂觀，但無論如何，我一直認為失敗是個工具而不是個結
果。我認為這樣的世界觀對各位讀者也有好處。

Nietzsche famously said, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." It sounds
clever, but it's a loser philosophy. I don't want my failures to simply make
me stronger, which I interpret as making me better able to survive future
challenges. (To be fair to Nietzsche, he probably meant the word "stronger"
to include anything that makes you more capable. I'd ask him to clarify, but
ironically he ran out of things that didn't kill him.)

尼采有哲言：殺不死我們的東西只會讓我們更強壯。這句話乍聽似乎很有道理，但這還是
魯蛇哲學。我可不要我的失敗讓我變的更能承受失敗。(雖然尼采的意思應該是"讓我們變
得更有能力"，我希望他能解釋，但他經歷過太多殺不死他的東西，最終還是掛了)

Becoming stronger is obviously a good thing, but it's only barely optimistic.
I do want my failures to make me stronger, of course, but I also want to
become smarter, more talented, better networked, healthier and more
energized. If I find a cow turd on my front steps, I'm not satisfied knowing
that I'll be mentally prepared to find some future cow turd. I want to shovel
that turd onto my garden and hope the cow returns every week so I never have
to buy fertilizer again. Failure is a resource that can be managed.

想像你變得更強壯當然是一件好事，但這只是個稍微正面的想法而已。我希望我的失敗讓
我變得更強壯，但也希望變得更聰明、更有才華、更有人脈、更健康、更有活力等。如果
我今天在門廊上發現一坨牛大便，我不會滿足於獲得未來更能接受牛大便的能力，我會想
要把那坨牛大便鏟到我花圃裡，然後希望這頭牛每個禮拜都來，這樣我就不必再買肥料了
。失敗是一種資源，是可以利用的。

Before launching Dilbert, and after, I failed at a long series of day jobs
and entrepreneurial adventures. Here are just a few of the worst ones. I
include them because successful people generally gloss over their most
aromatic failures, and it leaves the impression that they have some magic you
don't.

在我開始畫呆伯特之前，甚至之後，我的許多工作與發財計畫都失敗，在這裡我想跟大家
分享一下我的一些失敗例子，因為許多成功人士都會掩埋掉他們最臭不可及的一些失敗，
來營造一個他們就是與眾不同的幻覺。

When you're done reading this list, you won't have that delusion about me,
and that's the point. Success is entirely accessible, even if you happen to
be a huge screw-up 95% of the time.

等你看完這篇，你對我就不會有這種幻覺，這就是我的重點。成功是人人可及的，就算你
95%的時候都敗的慘兮兮也一樣。

My failures:
我的失敗：

Velcro Rosin Bag Invention: In the 1970s, tennis players sometimes used rosin
bags to keep their racket hands less sweaty. In college, I built a prototype
of a rosin bag that attached to a Velcro strip on tennis shorts so it would
always be available when needed. My lawyer told me it wasn't patentworthy
because it was simply a combination of two existing products. I approached
some sporting-goods companies and got nothing but form-letter rejections. I
dropped the idea.

魔鬼氈松脂粉袋：在1970年代，許多網球愛好人士會用松脂粉來幫他們的握拍手除汗。我
在大學時做了個松脂粉袋，可以用魔鬼氈黏在網球褲上，讓選手容易取用松脂粉。我的律
師說這發明沒有專利價值，因為這只是把兩個現有產品合在一起而已。我再找了些運動用
品公司，但他們都不想發展這個東西，最後我也放棄了。

But in the process I learned a valuable lesson: Good ideas have no value
because the world already has too many of them. The market rewards execution,
not ideas. From that point on, I concentrated on ideas that I could execute.
I was already failing toward success, but I didn't yet know it.

但是我學到了一課：一個好點子其實毫無價值，因為好點子滿天飛，大家都有。有價值的
是執行，而不光是那靈光一閃。從那時我就把精力放在我能執行的想法上面。我從那時就
走上了我"往成功一路失敗下去"的道路，只是我還不知道而已。

Gopher Offer: During my banking career, in my late 20s, I caught the
attention of a senior vice president at the bank. Apparently my b.s. skills
in meetings were impressive. He offered me a job as his gopher/assistant with
the vague assurance that I would meet important executives during the normal
course of my work, which would make it easy for him to strap a rocket to my
backside—as the saying roughly went—and launch me up the corporate ladder.

特助職缺：我20多歲在銀行界時，銀行有位資深副總留意到了我。據說我在開會時指鹿為
馬的能力令他印象深刻。他問我要不要當他的特助，據說當他特助能夠時常遇到位於要職
的人士，也能夠讓他能夠快速拉拔我一步登天。

On the downside, the challenge would be to survive his less-than-polite
management style and do his bidding for a few years. I declined his offer
because I was already managing a small group of people, so becoming a gopher
seemed like a step backward. I believe the senior vice president's exact
characterization of my decision was "[expletive] STUPID!!!" He hired one of
my co-workers for the job instead, and in a few years that fellow became one
of the youngest vice presidents in the bank's history.

問題是，當他的特助就得忍耐他那不甚禮貌的管理風格，而且要幫他打雜個幾年。我拒絕
了他，因為我當時已經在管幾個人了，當他小弟感覺像是倒退。據說那位資深副總聽到我
的決定時，他的反應是"X他媽白癡"。後來他拉了我的一個同事去當他特助，幾年後那同
事就變成了銀行有史以來最年輕的副總之一。

I worked for Crocker National Bank in San Francisco for about eight years,
starting at the very bottom and working my way up to lower management. During
the course of my banking career, and in line with my strategy of learning as
much as I could about the ways of business, I gained an extraordinarily good
overview of banking, finance, technology, contracts, management and a dozen
other useful skills. I wouldn't have done it any differently.

我在舊金山克羅克國家銀行工作了八年，從最底層幹到低層幹部，我完全依照我的策略，
在職時盡一切努力學習經商，對於銀行、融資、科技、合約、管理及其他許多領域都得到
了極廣的了解。要我再來一次的話我還是會拒絕他。

Webvan: In the dot-com era, a startup called Webvan promised to revolutionize
grocery delivery. You could order grocery-store items over the Internet, and
one of Webvan's trucks would load your order at the company's modern
distribution hub and set out to service all the customers in your area.

Webvan：在網路泡沫時期，有間新創公司叫做 Webvan，宣稱要革命雜貨市場。你可以用
網路訂購食雜貨，Webvan的卡車就會在他們的貨運中心裝貨然後送貨到你家跟其他與你同
區的客戶家。

I figured Webvan would do for groceries what Amazon had done for books. It
was a rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor. I bought a bunch of
Webvan stock and felt good about myself. When the stock plunged, I bought
some more. I repeated that process several times, each time licking my lips
as I acquired ever-larger blocks of the stock at prices I knew to be a steal.

我以為 Webvan 在於雜貨將會像亞馬遜 (Amazon) 在於書一樣。這可是個絕佳良機，可以
盡早參與公司的成長。我買了一堆 Webvan 股票，自我感覺非常良好。股價下跌時我就
加碼。這樣來回幾次我的股票越買越多，也越相信我是便宜撿好貨。

When the company announced that it had achieved positive cash flow at one of
its several hubs, I knew that I was onto something. If it worked in one hub,
the model was proved, and it would surely work at others. I bought more
stock. Now I owned approximately, well, a boatload.

當公司宣布他們的貨運中心之一成功達到淨正現金流的時候，我更確定我的眼光獨到。如
果一個中心做得起來，代表這模式已通過考驗，在其他中心也一定行的通，所以我再加碼
。現在我有。。。"一狗票" Webvan 股票了。

A few weeks later, Webvan went out of business. Investing in Webvan wasn't
the dumbest thing I've ever done, but it's a contender. The loss wasn't
enough to change my lifestyle. But boy, did it sting psychologically. In my
partial defense, I knew it was a gamble, not an investment per se.

幾周後，Webvan 倒了。投資 Webvan 雖然不是我這一生中做過最愚蠢的事，但也是數一數
二的蠢。我的損失並沒讓我變的窮困潦倒，但我的自尊可是受了重擊。我今天只能說其實
我知道自己是在賭博，而不是真正的在投資。

What I learned from that experience is that there is no such thing as useful
information that comes from a company's management. Now I diversify and let
the lying get smoothed out by all the other variables in my investments.

我這次學到的則是，公司管理階層不會給你任何有用的資訊。現在我會分散投資，讓謊話
被投資組合中的其他因素中合掉。

These failures are just a sampling. I'm delighted to admit that I've failed
at more challenges than anyone I know.

我這些失敗只是我敗犬人生當中的一小部分而已。我在此驕傲表示，我失敗的次數在我認
識的所有人當中排名第一。

As for you, I'd like to think that reading this will set you on the path of
your own magnificent screw-ups and cavernous disappointments. You're welcome!
And if I forgot to mention it earlier, that's exactly where you want to be:
steeped to your eyebrows in failure.

至於各位，我希望這篇故事能帶你走上可歌可泣的失敗以及無可倫比的失望之路。各
位走上這條路之後不用謝我；如果我還沒講清楚的話，我要在此重申一遍：你應該沒頂於
失敗當中。

It's a good place to be because failure is where success likes to hide in
plain sight. Everything you want out of life is in that huge, bubbling vat of
failure. The trick is to get the good stuff out.

因為成功常常喜歡躲在失敗裡。人生的一切目標都在那堆失敗裡，你要學到如何把成功挖
出來。

Mr. Adams is the creator of Dilbert. Adapted from his book "How to Fail at
Almost Everything and Still Win Big," to be published by Portfolio, a member
of Penguin Group (USA), on Oct. 22.

--
'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet, You're a slave to money then you die
-Bittersweet Symphony, The Verve


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