The little risks you can take to increase your luck

Tina Seelig

I've spent nearly two decades observing what makes people luckier than others and trying to help people increase their luck.?

我花了近二十年的時(shí)間，觀察是什么使有些人比他人更幸運(yùn)，并試圖幫助人們提升運(yùn)氣。

You see, I teach entrepreneurship, and we all know that most new ventures fail, and innovators and entrepreneurs need all the luck they can get.

我教授創(chuàng)業(yè)學(xué)，大家都知道，多數(shù)新企業(yè)均以失敗告終，創(chuàng)新者和企業(yè)家需要所有可以得到的運(yùn)氣。

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So what is luck? Luck is defined as successor failure apparently caused by chance. Apparently. That's the operative word.It looks like it's chance because we rarely see all the levers that come into play to make people lucky.

那么，運(yùn)氣是什么呢？運(yùn)氣，被定義為顯然由偶然原因?qū)е碌某晒蚴　！@然‘’，是其中的關(guān)鍵詞?？雌饋磉\(yùn)氣具有偶然性，是因?yàn)槲覀儤O少看到所有的因素同時(shí)作用而產(chǎn)生好運(yùn)。

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But I've realized, by watching so long, that luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic. It's much more like the wind,blowing constantly. Sometimes it's calm, and sometimes it blows in gusts, and sometimes it comes from directions that you didn't even imagine.

但通過長(zhǎng)期的觀察，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，運(yùn)氣很少像閃電那樣，孤立而戲劇性地降臨。它更像風(fēng)，不斷地吹，有時(shí)靜止不動(dòng)，有時(shí)，則陣陣襲來，有時(shí)，它會(huì)從你根本想不到的方向吹來。

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So how do you catch the winds of luck? It's easy, but it's not obvious. So I'm going to share three things with you that you can do to build a sail to capture the winds of luck.

那么，如何捕捉幸運(yùn)之風(fēng)呢？做起來很簡(jiǎn)單，卻并非人人知曉其中的奧妙。所以，我要分享三件你們可以做到的事情，去創(chuàng)建一面風(fēng)帆，以捕捉幸運(yùn)之風(fēng)。

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The first thing you want to do is to change your relationship with yourself. Be willing to take small risks that get you out of your comfort zone. Now, when we're children, we do this all the time.

你要做的第一件事，就是改變你與自己的關(guān)系，去承擔(dān)小小的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，走出自己的舒適區(qū)，這是我們兒時(shí)常做的事。

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We have to do this if we're going to learn how to walk or talk or ride a bike or even quantum mechanics. Right? We need to go from someone one week who doesn't ride a bike to, next week, someone who does.

如果要學(xué)走路、學(xué)說話、學(xué)騎自行車、甚至量子力學(xué)，就必須走出舒適區(qū)。我們必須經(jīng)歷這周還不會(huì)騎自行車呢，下周就會(huì)騎的過程。

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And this requires us to get out of our comfort zone and take some risks. The problem is, as we get older, we rarely do this. We sort of lock down the sense of who we are and don't stretch anymore.

這需要我們走出舒適區(qū)，并承擔(dān)一些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。問題是，隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，我們就很少這樣做了。我們變得喜歡固步自封，不再拓展自己的能力。

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Now, with my students, I spend a lot of time giving them encouragement to get out of their comfort zone and take some risks. How do I do this? Well, I start out by having them fill out a risk-o-meter.

對(duì)于我的學(xué)生，我花了很多時(shí)間鼓勵(lì)他們走出舒適區(qū)，并承擔(dān)一些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。我怎么做的呢？我先讓他們填寫風(fēng)險(xiǎn)承受表，

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Now, it's basically a fun thing we developed in our class where they map out what risks they're willing to take.

這其實(shí)就是我們?cè)谡n堂開展的一項(xiàng)有趣的活動(dòng)，讓他們標(biāo)出愿意承擔(dān)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

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And it becomes clear very quickly to them that risk-taking is not binary. There are intellectual risks and physical risks and financial risks and emotional risks and social risks and ethical risks and political risks.

他們很快就會(huì)明白，承擔(dān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)可不是非零即一那么簡(jiǎn)單，有智力風(fēng)險(xiǎn)、物理風(fēng)險(xiǎn)、金融風(fēng)險(xiǎn)、情感風(fēng)險(xiǎn)、社會(huì)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)、道德風(fēng)險(xiǎn)和政治風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

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And once they do this, they compare their risk profiles with others, and they quickly realize that they're all really different.

一旦確定自己肯承擔(dān)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)后，他們會(huì)將風(fēng)險(xiǎn)表與他人的比較，然后很快就意識(shí)到，大家的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)表竟然截然不同。

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I then encourage them to stretch, to take some risks that get them out of their comfort zone. For example, I might ask them to do an intellectual risk and try to tackle a problem they haven't tried before;or a social risk, talking to someone sitting next to them on the train; or an emotional risk, maybe telling someone they really care about how they feel.

然后我鼓勵(lì)他們挑戰(zhàn)一下，承擔(dān)一些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，使自己走出舒適區(qū)。例如，我可能會(huì)要求他們冒一下智力風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，設(shè)法解決一個(gè)他們以前從沒嘗試過的問題；或社會(huì)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，在火車上與鄰座的旅客交談；或者是情緒上的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，比如告訴真正在乎的人自己對(duì)他們的感受。

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I do this myself all the time. About a dozen years ago, I was on an airplane, early, early morning flight on my way to Ecuador. And normally, I would just put on my headphones and go to sleep, wake up, do some work,but I decided to take a little risk, and I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me. I introduced myself, and I learned that he was a publisher. Interesting.

我自己一直這樣做。大約12年前，我在很早的一班去往厄瓜多爾的飛機(jī)上。通常情況下，我會(huì)戴上耳機(jī)，先睡一覺，睡醒再工作一會(huì)兒，但我決定冒點(diǎn)兒風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，我開始和旁邊的人聊天。我介紹了自己，隨后得知他是一個(gè)出版商。還真是巧啊。

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We ended up having a fascinating conversation. I learned all about the future of the publishing industry. So about three quarters of the way through the flight, I decided to take another risk, and I opened up my laptop and I shared with him a book proposal I put together for something I was doing in my class.

由此我們有了一段精彩的談話，我了解到了出版業(yè)的未來。因此，當(dāng)飛行旅程進(jìn)行到大約四分之三時(shí)，我決定再冒一次險(xiǎn)，我打開筆記本電腦，和他分享我整理的一本書的提案，這些東西是我上課使用的。

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And he was very polite, he read it, and he said, "You know what, Tina, this isn't right for us, but thank you so much for sharing." It's OK. That risk didn't work out. I shut my laptop. At the end of the flight, we exchanged contact information.

他很有禮貌，讀完以后，他說，“知道嗎，蒂娜，我們這樣做不太合適，但是，很感謝你的分享”。這次冒險(xiǎn)沒有成功，不過沒關(guān)系。我關(guān)上了筆記本電腦。在飛行結(jié)束時(shí),我們互留了聯(lián)系方式。

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A couple of months later, I reached out to him, and I said, "Mark, would you like to come to my class? I'm doing a project on reinventing the book, the future of publishing." And he said,"Great. I'd love to come." So he came to my class. We had a great experience.

幾個(gè)月后，我又聯(lián)系他，說："馬克，你愿意來我的課堂嗎？我在做一個(gè)有關(guān)‘重塑書本’的項(xiàng)目，有關(guān)出版業(yè)的未來?！彼f："好極了。我很樂意去?！彼运麃淼轿业恼n堂，我們相處得非常愉快。

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A few months later, I wrote to him again. This time, I sent him a bunch of video clips from another project my students had done. He was so intrigued by one of the projects the students had done, he thought there might be a book in it, and he wanted to meet those students.

幾個(gè)月后，我又寫信給他，這次，我發(fā)給他一組視頻剪輯，這些剪輯來自學(xué)生們做的另一個(gè)項(xiàng)目。學(xué)生們做的項(xiàng)目中，有一個(gè)引起了他極大的興趣，他認(rèn)為可以出一本相關(guān)的書，而且，他想面見那些學(xué)生。

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I have to tell you, I was a little bit hurt.I mean, he wanted to do a book with my students and not with me, but OK, it's all right.

實(shí)話說，我有點(diǎn)小小的受傷。我是說，他想和我的學(xué)生們出版一本書，而不是和我，不過，沒啥大不了。

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So I invited him to comedown, and he and his colleagues came to Stanford and met with the students, and afterwards, we had lunch together. And one of his editors said to me,"Hey, have you ever considered writing a book?"

因此我邀請(qǐng)他過來，他和同事們來到斯坦福，和同學(xué)們見了面，隨后我們共進(jìn)了午餐。他的一位編輯問我，“嘿，你有沒有想過要寫一本書啊？”

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I said, "Funny you should ask." And I pulled out the exact same proposal that I had showed his boss a year earlier. Within two weeks, I had a contract, and within two years, the book had sold over a million copies around the world.

我說，“你問得真巧，”于是我拿出一本書的提案給他，就是一年前給他老板看的那本。兩周內(nèi)，我們就簽了合同，兩年內(nèi)，這本書在全球銷售了超過一百萬本。

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Now, you might say, "Oh, you're so lucky." But of course I was lucky, but that luck resulted from a series of small risks I took, starting with saying hello. And anyone can do this, no matter where you are in your life,no matter where you are in the world -- even if you think you're the most unlucky person, you can do this by taking little risks that get you out of your comfort zone. You start building a sail to capture luck.

現(xiàn)在，你可能會(huì)說，“噢，你太幸運(yùn)了?！碑?dāng)然，我是幸運(yùn)的呀，但幸運(yùn)來自我承擔(dān)的一系列小風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，而這一切，都是從打招呼開始的。誰都能做到這一點(diǎn)，無論你在人生的哪個(gè)階段，無論你身在何處，即使你認(rèn)為自己是最倒霉的人，也可以通過承擔(dān)小風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，把自己帶出舒適區(qū)，開始打造那一葉捕捉好運(yùn)的帆。

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The second thing you want to do is to change your relationship with other people. You need to understand that everyone who helps you on your journey is playing a huge role in getting you to your goals.

第二件要做的事情，就是改善與他人的關(guān)系。要明白，每個(gè)在旅途中幫助過你的人，在你實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)的過程中，都起了非常重要作用。

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And if you don't show appreciation, not only are you not closing the loop, but you're missing an opportunity. When someone does something for you, they're taking that time that they could be spending on themselves or someone else, and you need to acknowledge what they're doing.

若你沒有心懷感激之情，這不僅僅是你沒與他們互動(dòng)交流的問題，而是讓你錯(cuò)過了一次機(jī)會(huì)。當(dāng)有人為你做某件事時(shí)，他們把本可以花在自己或別人身上的時(shí)間花在了你身上，你要對(duì)他們的行為表示感謝。

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Now, I run three fellowship programs at Stanford, and they are very competitive to get into, and when I send out the letters to those students who don't get in, I always know there are going to be people who are disappointed.

目前，我管理著斯坦福的三個(gè)獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金項(xiàng)目，這三個(gè)項(xiàng)目的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)都很激烈，當(dāng)我寄信給那些沒有入圍的學(xué)生時(shí)，我知道有人會(huì)很失望。

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Some of the people who are disappointed send me notes, complaining. Some of them send notes saying what could I do to make myself more successful next time around? And every once in a while, someone sends me a note thanking me for the opportunity.

有些失望的人給我寫信，抱怨。有的人寫信問我，自己該如何做，才能讓自己下次更成功？時(shí)不時(shí)地，也有人寫信來，感謝我給他們的機(jī)會(huì)。

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This happened about seven years ago. A young man named Brian sent me a beautiful note saying, "I know I've been rejected from this program twice, but I want to thank you for the opportunity. I learned so much through the process of applying."

有一件大概七年前發(fā)生的事，一個(gè)叫布萊恩的年輕人給我寄來一封感人的信，他說：“我已經(jīng)被該項(xiàng)目拒絕了兩次，但我很想感謝您給的機(jī)會(huì)，在申請(qǐng)獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金的過程中，我學(xué)到了很多東西。”

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I was so taken by the graciousness of his message that I invited him to come and meet me. And we spent some time chatting and cooked up an idea for an independent study project together.

他信中的感恩話語極大地觸動(dòng)了我，因此，我邀請(qǐng)他來見我。我們一起聊了一會(huì)兒，共同想出了一個(gè)"自主學(xué)習(xí)項(xiàng)目"的主意。

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He was on the football team at Stanford, and he decided to do a project on looking at leadership in that context.

他當(dāng)時(shí)是斯坦福的足球隊(duì)成員，他決定做一個(gè)這方面關(guān)于領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力的項(xiàng)目。

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We got to know each other incredibly well through that quarter, and he took the project that he started working on in the independent study and turned it, ultimately, into a company called Play for Tomorrow,

那半個(gè)學(xué)期里，我們很好地了解了彼此，他拿到了自己著手準(zhǔn)備的“自主學(xué)習(xí)項(xiàng)目"，最終，把它變成了一個(gè)叫做"為明天而戰(zhàn)"的公司，

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where he teaches kids from disadvantaged backgrounds how to, essentially, craft the lives they dream to live.

在那里，他教那些家庭狀況不佳的孩子們，如何從根本上精心規(guī)劃他們夢(mèng)想的生活。

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Now, the important thing about this story is that we both ended up catching the winds of luck as a result of his thank-you note. But it was the winds that we didn't expect in the first place.

這個(gè)故事的重點(diǎn)是，我倆都抓住了幸運(yùn)之風(fēng)，一切都源于他的感謝信，這是我們倆起初根本預(yù)料不到的。

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Over the course of the last couple of years, I've come up with some tactics for my own life to help me really foster appreciation. My favorite is that at the end of every single day, I look at my calendar and I review all the people I met with, and I send thank-you notes to every single person.

在過去的幾年里，我為自己的生活制定了一些策略，來幫助我真正地培養(yǎng)感激之心。我最喜歡在每天晚上，看著日歷，回想所有我（今天）見過的人，并給每個(gè)人發(fā)一封感謝信。

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It only takes a few minutes, but at the end of every day, I feel incredibly grateful and appreciative, and I promise you it has increased my luck.

只需要幾分鐘的時(shí)間，但在每一天的結(jié)束時(shí)，我都感到特別感恩和感激，我向各位擔(dān)保，這個(gè)過程增加了我的好運(yùn)。

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So first, you need to take some risks and get out of your comfort zone. Second, you need to show appreciation. And third, you want to change your relationship with ideas.

因此，首先你需要冒一下險(xiǎn)，走出你的舒適區(qū)。其次，你需要心懷感激。第三，你需要改變與想法的關(guān)系。

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Most people look at new ideas that come there way and they judge them. "That's a great idea" or "That's a terrible idea." But it's actually much more nuanced. Ideas are neither good or bad. And in fact, the seeds of terrible ideas are often something truly remarkable.

大多數(shù)的人會(huì)面對(duì)新想法，并對(duì)其進(jìn)行評(píng)判，"這是一個(gè)很好的主意"或"這個(gè)想法很糟糕"。但這個(gè)過程實(shí)際上很微妙。主意并沒有好壞之分。事實(shí)上，糟糕的想法產(chǎn)生的結(jié)果往往才是真正了不起的東西。

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One of my favorite exercises in my classes on creativity is to help students foster an attitude of looking at terrible ideas through the lens of possibilities. So I give them a challenge:to create an idea for a brand new restaurant. They have to come up with the best ideas for a new restaurant and the worst ideas for a new restaurant.

在課堂上，我最喜歡的關(guān)于創(chuàng)新的練習(xí)之一，是幫助學(xué)生培養(yǎng)一種以可能性的視角來看待糟糕想法的態(tài)度。所以，我給了他們一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)：為一家全新的餐廳想點(diǎn)子。他們必須為新餐館想出金點(diǎn)子和最壞的點(diǎn)子。

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So the best ideas are things like a restaurant on a mountaintop with a beautiful sunset, or a restaurant on a boat with a gorgeous view. And the terrible ideas are things like a restaurant in a garbage dump, or a restaurant with terrible service that's really dirty, or a restaurant that serves cockroach sushi.

金點(diǎn)子，如欣賞美麗日落的山頂餐廳，或能觀賞靚麗景色的船上餐廳；糟糕的點(diǎn)子，如建在垃圾堆里的餐館，或一家服務(wù)差、環(huán)境臟的餐館，或是一家供應(yīng)蟑螂壽司的餐館。

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So they hand all the ideas to me, I read the great ideas out loud, and then I rip them up and throw them away. I then take the horrible ideas and redistribute them.Each team now has an idea that another team thought was horrible, and their challenge is to turn it into something brilliant.

他們把所有的點(diǎn)子交給我，我大聲讀出那些金點(diǎn)子，然后把它們撕毀、扔掉；接下來，我把糟糕的點(diǎn)子重新分配給他們?，F(xiàn)在，每個(gè)隊(duì)都有一個(gè)另一隊(duì)認(rèn)為很糟糕的點(diǎn)子，他們的挑戰(zhàn)就是讓這些點(diǎn)子化腐朽為神奇。

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Here's what happens. Within about 10seconds, someone says, "This is a fabulous idea." And they have about three minutes before they pitch the idea to the class. So the restaurant in the garbage dump? What does that turn into?

接下來，奇妙的事情發(fā)生了：在大約10秒內(nèi)，有人說，"這真是個(gè)絕妙的主意。"他們約有三分鐘的準(zhǔn)備時(shí)間，然后向全班兜售他們的點(diǎn)子。那個(gè)垃圾堆里的餐館會(huì)變成什么呢？

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Well, they collect all the extra food from Michelin star restaurants that was going to get thrown out, and they have another restaurant at a much lower price, with all the leftovers. Pretty cool?Or the restaurant that's dirty with terrible service? Well, that turns into a restaurant that's a training ground for future restauranteurs to figure out how to avoid all the pitfalls.

他們從米其林星級(jí)餐廳收集那些將被白白扔掉的多余食物，他們還有另一家價(jià)格更低的餐館，供應(yīng)的都是剩飯。棒不棒？那服務(wù)不好、環(huán)境骯臟的餐廳呢？它變成了一家餐廳訓(xùn)練場(chǎng)，供未來餐廳老板找出如何避免所有的隱患。

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And the restaurant with cockroach sushi? It turns into a sushi bar with all sorts of really interesting and exotic ingredients.

賣蟑螂壽司的餐廳呢？它變成了一個(gè)壽司酒吧，里面融入了各種真正有趣而富有異國(guó)情調(diào)的元素。

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If you look around at the companies, the ventures that are really innovative around you, the ones that we now take for granted that have changed our life, well, you know what?They all started out as crazy ideas. They started ideas that when they pitched to other people, most people said, "That's crazy, it will never work."

如果你環(huán)顧四周的公司，你周圍那些真正創(chuàng)新的企業(yè)，那些我們坦然接受的改變我們生活的公司和企業(yè)，噢，你知道嗎？他們都是從瘋狂的想法開始的。在向其他人推銷時(shí)，他們就開始實(shí)施想法了，多數(shù)人說"這太離譜了,根本行不通的?！?/p>

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So, yes, sometimes people were born into terrible circumstances, and sometimes, luck is a lightning bolt that hits us with something wonderful or something terrible.

是的，有時(shí)人們出生在糟糕的環(huán)境中，有時(shí)，運(yùn)氣像一道閃電，用奇妙或可怕的東西擊中我們。

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But the winds of luck are always there, and if you're willing to take some risks, if you're willing to really go out and show appreciation and willing to really look at ideas,even if they're crazy, through the lens of possibilities, you can build a bigger and bigger sail to catch the winds of luck.Thank you.

但幸運(yùn)之風(fēng)總是在那里，如果你愿意承擔(dān)一些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，如果你愿意真正走出去，并心懷感激之情，愿意真正去正視各種想法，即使這些想法很瘋狂，通過可能性的視角，你仍然可以打造一面更大的帆，去捕捉幸運(yùn)之風(fēng)。謝謝。