CHAPTER 8
LOOKING BACK FROM A HIGHER LEVEL
从更高的维度回顾过去
As I look back on my
experiences, it’s interesting to reflect on how my perspectives have changed.
When I started out, each and every twist and turn I encountered, whether in the
markets or in my life in general, looked really big and dramatic up close, like
unique life-or-death experiences that were coming at me fast.
With time and experience, I came to see each encounter as “another one of those”
that I could approach more calmly and analytically, like a biologist might
approach an encounter with a threatening creature in the jungle: first
identifying its species and then, drawing on his prior knowledge about its
expected behaviors, reacting appropriately. When I was faced with types of
situations I had encountered before, I drew on the principles I had learned for
dealing with them. But when I ran into ones I hadn’t seen before, I would be
painfully surprised. Studying all those painful first-time encounters, I
learned that even if they hadn’t happened to me, most of them had happened to
other people in other times and places, which gave me a healthy respect for
history, a hunger to have a universal understanding of how reality works, and
the desire to build timeless and universal principles for dealing with it.
Watching the same things happen again and again, I began to see reality as a gorgeous
perpetual motion machine, in which causes become effects that become causes of
new effects, and so on. I realized that reality was, if not perfect, at least
what we are given to deal with, so that any problems or frustrations I had with
it were more productively directed to dealing with them effectively than complaining
about them. I came to understand that my encounters were tests of my character
and creativity. Over time, I came to appreciate what a tiny and short-lived
part of that remarkable system I am, and how it’s both good for me and good for
the system for me to know how to interact with it well.
In gaining this perspective, I began to experience painful moments in a radically
different way. Instead of feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, I saw pain as
nature’s reminder that there is something important for me to learn.
Encountering pains and figuring out the lessons they were trying to give me
became sort of a game to me. The more I played it, the better I got at it, the
less painful those situations became, and the more rewarding the process of reflecting,
developing principles, and then getting rewards for using those principles
became. I learned to love my struggles, which I suppose is a healthy
perspective to have, like learning to love exercising (which I haven’t managed
to do yet).
In my early years, I looked up to extraordinarily successful people, thinking that
they were successful because they were extraordinary. After I got to know such
people personally, I realized that all of them—like me, like everyone—make
mistakes, struggle with their weaknesses, and don’t feel that they are
particularly special or great. They are no happier than the rest of us, and
they struggle just as much or more than average folks. Even after they surpass
their wildest dreams, they still experience more struggle than glory. This has
certainly been true for me. While I surpassed my wildest dreams decades ago, I
am still struggling today. In time, I realized that the satisfaction of success
doesn’t come from achieving your goals, but from struggling well. To understand
what I mean, imagine your greatest goal, whatever it is—making a ton of money,
winning an Academy Award, running a great organization, being great at a sport.
Now imagine instantaneously achieving it. You’d be happy at first, but not for
long. You would soon find yourself needing something else to struggle for. Just
look at people who attain their dreams early—the child star, the lottery
winner, the professional athlete who peaks early. They typically don’t end up
happy unless they get excited about something else bigger and better to
struggle for. Since life brings both ups and downs, struggling well doesn’t
just make your ups better; it makes your downs less bad. I’m still struggling
and I will until I die, because even if I try to avoid the struggles, they will
find me.
Thanks to all that struggling and learning, I have done everything I wanted to do,
gone everywhere I wanted to go, met whomever I wanted to meet, gotten
everything I wanted to own, had a career that has been enthralling, and, most
rewardingly, had many wonderful relationships. I have experienced the full
range, from having nothing to having an enormous amount, and from being a
nobody to being a somebody, so I know the differences. While I experienced them
going from the bottom up rather than from the top down (which was preferable
and probably influenced my perspective), my assessment is that the incremental
benefits of having a lot and being on top are not nearly as great as most
people think. Having the basics—a good bed to sleep in, good relationships,
good food, and good sex—is most important, and those things don’t get much
better when you have a lot of money or much worse when you have less. And the
people one meets at the top aren’t necessarily more special than those one meets
at the bottom or in between.
The marginal benefits of having more fall off pretty quickly. In fact, having a lot
more is worse than having a moderate amount more because it comes with heavy
burdens. Being on top gives you a wider range of options, but it also requires
more of you. Being well-known is probably worse than being anonymous, all
things considered. And while the beneficial impact one can have on others is
great, when you put it in perspective, it is still infinitesimally small. For
all those reasons, I cannot say that having an intense life filled with
accomplishments is better than having a relaxed life filled with savoring,
though I can say that being strong is better than being weak, and that
struggling gives one strength. My nature being what it is, I would not have
changed my life, but I can’t tell you what is best for you. That is for you to
choose. What I have seen is that the happiest people discover their own nature
and match their life to it.
Now that my desire to succeed has given way to a desire to help others succeed,
that’s become my current struggle. It’s now clear to me that my purpose, your
purpose, and the purpose of everything else is to evolve and to contribute to
evolution in some small way. I didn’t think about that at the start; I just
went after the things I wanted. But along the way I evolved, and now I am
sharing these principles with you to help you evolve too. This is my attempt to
help you succeed by passing along to you what I learned about how to struggle
well—or, at the very least, to help you get the most out of each unit of effort
you put in.
译文：
当我回顾过去的经历，我发现我的观点变化的反映很有趣。
当我刚开始，每一件，我遇到的每一个挫折和机会，不论是在市场上或者在平常的生活中，看起来真的很大也非常有戏剧性，就像唯一的生或死的体验来的太快了。
随着时间和经历，我开始将每个“另一个那些中的一个”遇见看做我能愈发的平和与分析，就像一个博物学家可能会将每一个中他遇到的雨林中的威胁物种：首先辨别他的种属然后根据他先前的经验预测他的行为，并作出适当的反应。当我开始面对以前已经遇到的情形，我就用我已经掌握的原则来处理它。但当我遇到我不曾见过的，我会非常痛定思痛。研究那些初次遇见的痛苦案例，我知道即使假设他们没有发生在我身上，他们当中的大多数也会发生到其他人在其他的时间和地方，也让我对历史有了更加健康的尊敬，一个饥饿的人对于真实是如何工作的会有，寄望建立无时间限制和统一的原则解决问题。
目睹相同的事情一再发生，我开始明白真实世界就像一架华丽的永动机，因果来自因导致了新的果，诸如此类。我意识到真实是，如果不是完美的，至少我们能拿来处理的，我遇到的任何问题或者挫折都越来越富有成效具备方向性去更高效的解决问题比抱怨他们。我开始理解我的遭遇都是我的性格和创造性的考验。随着时间过去，我开始欣赏那些非凡系统中断微小和短暂的部分。以及他们是如何有益于我和有益于系统-便于我理解如何与他们更加融洽的互动。
获得这种视角，我开始以一种完全不同的方式体验这种痛苦时刻，而不是仅仅感觉沮丧或者被痛苦淹没，我把痛苦视为自然提醒-那里一定有什么重要的事情需要去掌握。遭遇痛苦和并刻画出这痛苦带来的教训变成一种游戏。我体验的越多，我就能更好的掌握它，并介绍那种痛苦的情况，也从过程中获得更多的回馈。改进原则，然后从使用那些原则进而获得反补。我学会热爱我的奋斗，那就是我设想的一种健康的视角，比如理解热爱练习（我还米有设法去做）。
在我早些年，我仰望那些非常成功的人，认为他们成功是因为他们不是普通人。在我认识这些人之后，我意识到所有那些人—像我，像每个人一样—会犯错，同他们的弱点战斗，不再感觉他们有什么特殊或伟大。他们比我们这些人更加不快乐。他们只是和普通人一样或者比他们更加努力。这对我来说非常确定。即使在他们已经超越了自己的梦想之后，他们任然需要经历比曾经的辉煌更大的挑战，这些在我身上已经发生过了，而在我超越了自己最疯狂的梦想后，我还依旧非常努力，就在那时我意识到我获得的那些成功的满足感并不来源于我达成了目标，而是来自于奋斗本身，想要理解我说的，可以想象你最伟大的目标，不论是什么，--挣巨量的钱，获得学术大奖，掌管一家伟大的公司，在某个体育领域做到最好，假设你很快就实现了以上目标，开始你可能会非常满足，这种愉悦感不会持续太久，你就会发现你需要更大的挑战，看看那些很早就达成目标的人，比如童星，彩票获奖者，年少成名的体育健将，通常他们都不会以幸福收场，除非他们发现了更大，更难的挑战目标，既然生活带给你起伏，奋斗可能不会让你更好，但能让你不至于太糟糕，我还会继续奋斗下去直到我死亡，因为即使我不努力了，那些挑战也会来找我。
感谢所有的磨难和学习，我已经达成了所有我想做的事情，去过我想去的任何地方，见了我想见的人，得到了我想要的东西，有一份令人羡慕的职业，并且，比大多数职业的回报都高，拥有众多非凡的人脉。我已经体验过全部，从一无所有到拥有巨量资产，从一文不名到一个有身份的人，所以我知道这些的区别。即使我是从波谷攀升而不是波峰跌落，我的估计是那些增值和成为最好并不是那些伟大的人思考的全部。拥有基础—一张好床可以睡觉，优质的友谊，优质的食物，很棒的性爱—也许才是最重要的，而那些东西并不会在你有钱的时候变的更好或者没钱也不会太糟。那些在巅峰的人们并不比那些在谷底的人需要什么特别的东西。
边际效应会下降的非常快。事实上，拥有太多比相对平均的收入更加糟糕，因为那样会带来沉重的负担。成为顶尖当然会给你打来一条宽广的选择，但他同时需要你付出更多。家喻户晓也许比默默无名更加糟糕，所有事情都需要考虑。而收益会影响你衡量抉择，当你客观的考虑，其实仍旧是非常小的。所有那些理由，我不能说一段充满抱怨的生活比拥有闲暇欢乐的生活更好，但我可以说变强比弱小更好，而那些奋斗会给人力量。我的天性就是如此，我不会想去改变我的生活，但我不能告诉你什么是最适合你的。那需要你自己选择。而我看的是最快乐的人就是那些发现他们的天性并与生活匹配的人。
现在我的愿望是帮助他人成功，已经成我目前的奋斗目标了。现在对我来说已经很明确了我的目标，你的目标，所有其他的目标是解决并将之贡献在一些微小的方面。开始阶段我不会考虑这些；我只是在追求我想要的。但沿着我进化的路，现在我正在与你们分享这些原则并帮助你也进化。我意识到传递知识就像传送dna—比单个个体更加总要，因为他给出了超出独立个体生命。这些就是我企图去帮助你成功—通过将我掌握的知识传递给你-或者快速帮你取得成效。
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