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It’s Never Too Late for Success 成功不分先后

[日期:2007-04-30]   [字体: ]

You and your parents can stop worrying—Edison,Darwin and lots more were far from being geniuses in their teens.

History books seldom mention it,but the truth is that many of our GREatest figures were practically“beatniks” when they were teenagers. They were given to daydream-ing,indecision,hebetude(plain dullness),and they showed no promise of being a doctor,lawyer or teacher.

So,young men and women,if you suffer from the same symptoms,don't despair.The world was built by men and women whose parents worried that they would“never amount to a hill of beans”.You don't hear too much about their early failures because parents prefer to cite more inspiring examples.

A MAN THEY DON'T TELL YOU ABOUT

If you take piano lessons and your attitude towards practicing is marked by laziness,your parents might justly complain and flaunt before you the famous picture of little Mozart in his ruffled night-shirt,playing the piano at midnight in the attic.But the point is,your parents would not show you a picture of a certain party who never showed a whit of interest in m usic during his form ative years.In fact he never showed talent in any direction whatever.Finally put to studying law,he barely passed his final exams.It was not until he was 22 that he suddenly became fired with a GREat passion for m usic and his name was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

EDISON W AS“ADDLED”

In the sciences,there have been hundreds of geniuses who aimed straight at the goal from their earliest years,and hundreds who showed no aptitude at all.So it goes.You have the W right Brothers,who were brilliant in engineering in their early teens,and you have Thom as Alva Edison, whose teacher tried to get him out of the class because his brain was“addled”.You have the Nobel Prize physicist Enrico Fermi,who at 17 had read enough mathem atics to qualify for a doctor's deGREe.And you have the great Albert Schweitzer,who wavered between music and the church until he was 30.Then he started his medical studies.

DARW IN HATED SCHOOL

Charles Darwin's early life was a mess.He hated school,and his father once shouted:“You care for nothing but shooting dogs and ratcatching,and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family!”He was sent to Glasgow to study medicine,but he couldn't stand the sight of blood.He was sent to divinity school and barely managed to graduate. Whereupon he chucked the whole business and shipped out to the South Seas on the famous exploring ship Beagle.On that voyage,one of history's GREatest scientists was born.It was here that he colleted the material for the book that would revolutionize biological science—The Origin of the Species.

FAULKNER FAILED IN ENGLISH

Politics offers a familiar example of contrast. Herbert Hoover must have learned adm inistration in the cradle.When he was at school he was drafted as football manager,though he didn't know the game, and the glee club manager,though he couldn't sing a note.W hatever he touched went smoothly,glee club or food for a starving Europe.

But one of his successors in the White House had about as checkered a youth as can be imagined.Turned down by West Point because of poor vision,Harry Truman tried a dozen jobs,including in a drugstore,a bank,a bottling works,and a railroad yard.But he got there just the same.

GREat writers are supposed to be born,not made,but here again there are many fascinating exceptions.William Faulkner quit school in the fifth grade and rattled around the country as a house painter and a dishwasher.

Once he tried attending college,but failed in freshman English and quit.He wangled a postm aster's job in a small Mississippi town,and infuriated the populace by getting the mail all mixed up and closing the office whenever he felt like it.Faulkner was 25 before he started the writing career that won him a Nobel Prize.

HOW ABOUT THOSE PRODIGIES

And added to all the aforem entioned paradoxes you have a small army of child prodigies who were graduated from college when they were 15,and are now obscure clerks in accounting departments.And you have a small army of men who were too stupid or indolent to get into or finish college and who are today presidents of the firms that hire the prodigies.

So who's to say what about youth?Any young boy or girl who knows what he wants to do in life is probably the better off for it.But no teenager need despair of the future.He has that one special advantage over the GREatest man alive—time!If you don't think time counts,look at Grandm a Moses,she never sold a painting till she was 80.

你和你的父母不必再担忧了———爱迪生、达尔文与许多其他人10来岁的时候远远算不上天才。

虽然史书很少提及,但实际上,在家喻户晓的杰出人物中,有一大批人在少年时代曾为十足的嬉皮士。他们通常异想天开,优柔寡断,反应迟钝(不折不扣的呆笨),让人丝毫看不出做医生、律师或教师的潜力。

所以,姑娘小伙子们,如果你们身上也存在同样的毛病,不要悲观失望。世界最初就是由令父母发愁将一事无成的男男女女建造的。关于他们早期的失败经历,你们听的不太多,因为父母总喜欢举一些令人振奋的例子。

●一个他们不让你了解的人

如果你在学弹钢琴,而你懒得练习,父母可能一味抱怨,在你面前挥动小莫扎特的名画,只见他穿着睡衣,半夜在顶楼弹钢琴。但问题是,父母不会拿某个人的一幅画,他在性格形成的岁月中,从未对音乐产生兴趣。其实,他在任何方面都没有显露什么才气。最后被迫学习法律,他差点没通过期末考试。直到22岁,他突然迸发了对音乐的酷爱,他的名字叫彼得·伊里奇·柴柯夫斯基。

●爱迪生“思维混乱”

在自然科学领域,有数百位英才从幼年起始终在探究自然奥秘,也有一些人小时候并未展现一点才华。的确如此,譬如莱特兄弟,他们刚过10岁就在设计学上聪明过人;还有托玛斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生,由于他的大脑“思维混乱”,老师想着法子逼他离开课堂。此外,恩里科·费密,他17岁读的数学书就足以使他有资格获得博士学位;著名的阿尔伯特·施韦策,30岁前,一直在音乐和神职间犹豫不决。后来,他开始投身医学研究。

●达尔文讨厌学校

查尔斯·达尔文的早年生活十分糟糕。他讨厌上学,父亲曾冲他大叫:“你就热衷猎狗捕鼠,你不光自己丢人,也给全家人的脸上抹黑!”他被送到格拉斯哥学医,可他见不得血淋淋的场景。他又被送往神学院,结果勉强毕业。因此,他改弦易辙,乘闻名遐迩的“贝格尔”号考察船去了南太平洋。那次航海期间,历史上最伟大的一位科学家诞生了。正是在这里,他为将对生物科学进行变革的《物种起源》一书搜集素材。

●福克纳英语考试不及格

政治界提供了一个人们熟悉的相反的例子。赫伯特·胡佛肯定在摇篮中便学会了行政管理。在学校,他被聘为足球队队长,尽管他完全是个门外汉,而且,他还是校合唱团的团长,虽然他对唱歌一窍不通。凡是他参与的活动总能顺利进行,组织合唱团也好,为欧洲筹措食品也罢。

但是,在白宫他的一位接班人青年时代却历尽艰辛。由于视力不佳,西点军校拒绝录取的哈里·杜鲁门试着做过一打工作,包括在药店、银行、装瓶厂和铁路调车场上班,可他一样登上总统的宝座。

按说,杰出的作家是天生的,不是凭个人的努力造就的。但这儿也有许多典型的例外。威廉·福克纳五年级便辍学了,之后,他浪迹全国各地,靠给人油漆房子和洗碗谋生。

他曾尝试走过上大学的路子,连大一学生的英语都没能考及格,于是就再也不上了。他通过欺骗手段在密西西比州的一个小镇上弄到一份邮政局长的工作,而他把邮件都给弄乱了,并想何时停业就何时停业,为此犯下众怒。福克纳开始荣获诺贝尔奖的创作生涯时,已经25岁了。

●神童的今天

除了前面提到的怪才外,你们还知道不少神童,他们15岁即大学毕业,如今却是财务处的无名小卒;而当年太笨或太懒上不了大学或没能大学毕业的人现在竟成为雇佣这些神童的公司的总裁。

所以,谁敢对年轻后生的前程妄下定论呢?任何一个确立生活目标的少男或少女都很有希望功成名就,无论哪个花季少年都不必对未来丧失信心。与在世的最伟大的人相比,他有一个特殊的优势———时间!假若你不相信时间的威力,请看摩西奶奶,她80岁才卖出一幅自己的绘画作品。


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