顶级投资人 雷·达里奥 作品《原则》9- 第二章 你的第三个重要选择

Third:

第三个选择：

People who worry about looking good typically hide what they don’t know and hide their weaknesses, so they never learn how to properly deal with them and these weaknesses remain impediments in the future. These people typically try to prove that they have the answers, even when they really don’t. Why do they behave in this unproductive way? They typically believe the senseless but common view that great people are those who have the answers in their heads and don’t have weaknesses. Not only does this view not square with reality, but it also stands in the way of progress.

担心表面上看起来是否光鲜的人，一般是在掩藏自己不知道的东西或者自己的弱点，他们从不去学怎么解决这些问题，以至于这些弱点在未来就一直成为自己的障碍。这类人就算真的不知道答案是什么，也试图努力证明自己知道正确答案。为什么他们做如此低效的事情？因为他们持有一个虽可笑但普遍的观点，认为成功人士脑袋里装的只有正确答案、没有缺点。这种观点不但本身就是与事实不符， 还会阻碍前进的步伐。

For example, if you are dumb or ugly, you are unlikely to acknowledge it, even though doing so would help you better deal with that reality. Recognizing such “harsh realities” is both very painful and very productive.

例如，假如你是愚蠢或丑陋的，你可能不会承认，尽管这么做会助你更好地面对现实。认识到这种“残酷的现实”虽痛苦，但很有用。

I have never met a great person who did not earn and learn their greatness. They have weaknesses like everyone else—they have just learned how to deal with them so
that they aren’t impediments to getting what they want. In addition, the amounts of knowledge and the capabilities that anyone does not have, and that could be used to make the best possible decisions, are vastly greater than that which anyone (no matter how great) could have within them.

我所遇到的成功人士没有一个不是历经犯错并从中学习而获得成功的。他们和其他人一样都有缺点，不过他们懂得如何应对自己的缺点，不会使其阻碍梦想的实现。而且，用来做出最好决定所需要的知識和能力，是任何人都不可能具備的，也远远大于任何一個人（无论他多厉害或者多偉大）自身所具備的知識和能力。

I am not saying that we all have the same potential, just that to get the most of your potential—whatever that is—you must learn and earn.

我不是说大家的潜力是一样的，无论这种潜力是什么，要想完全开发就得学习然后获得。

As I mentioned in the first chapter, you don’t have to know everything to get what you want. You just have to be honest with yourself about what you don’t know and know who to ask for help.

我在第一章提过，要想实现梦想不必什么都知道，你只需要坦诚面对自己对某些东西不知道的事实，懂得找他人寻求帮助。

This explains why people who are interested in making the best possible decisions rarely are confident that they have the best possible answers. So they seek to learn more (often by exploring the thinking of other believable people, especially those who disagree with them) and they are eager to identify their weaknesses so that they don’t let these weaknesses stand in the way of them achieving their goals.

这解释了为什么乐于做出最佳决策的人极少会对自己的方案表示十足的信心。他们因此希望学到更多（通过探索其他值得信赖之人，尤其是持异见之人的想法），并渴望发现自身缺点，避免这些缺点阻碍自己实现目标。

So, what are your biggest weaknesses? Think honestly about them because if you can identify them, you are on the first step toward accelerating your movement forward. So think about them, write them down, and look at them frequently.

所以你最大的缺点是什么呢？若你能发现这些缺点，请坦诚思考一下，这是加速自己成功的第 一步。想想这些缺点，写下来，时常看看。

One of my biggest weaknesses is my poor rote memory: I have trouble remembering things that don’t have reasons for being what they are, such as names, phone numbers, spelling, and addresses. Also, I am terrible at doing tasks that require little or no logic, especially if I have to do them repeatedly. On the other hand, I have a great contextual memory and good logic, and I can devote myself to things that interest me for untold hours. I don’t know how much of what I am bad at is just the other side of what I am good at—i.e., how much of what I am good at is due to my brain working in a certain way that, when applied to certain tasks, does well and when applied to others does poorly—and how much of what I am good at was developed in order to help compensate for what I am bad at. But I do know that I have created compensating approaches so that what I am bad at doesn’t hurt me much; e.g., I surround myself with people who have good rote memories who do the things that I am bad at, and I carry around tools like my BlackBerry.

我最大的缺点是识记能力差，特别是没有上下文推理的东西我就很难记住，比如姓名、电话号 码、单词拼写、地址等等。没什么逻辑的任务我也干不好，如果是机械重复的工作我更是不在 行。但从另一方面来看，我情景记忆力和逻辑思维都很强，感兴趣的事情我愿投身其中，不眠不休。不知道我不擅长某些事的原因会不会正好就是我擅长另一些事的原因，也就是说，我擅长某些事是因为大脑的某种思维方式应用到某些具体任务上发挥了很好的效果，但应用到别的一些任务时效果就很差。也不知道我擅长的思维方式是不是得到了开发，足以弥补我的缺点。 但可以肯定的是我自己想出了补偿方法，不会因为这些缺点而吃什么大亏。比方说，我身边结交很多识记能力很强的人，他们可以做我不擅长的事情，我随身带着黑莓手机这种电子设备就足够了。

How much do you worry about looking good relative to actually being good?

比起真正的好，你有多担心看起来好不好呢？