異類:不一樣的成功啟示錄 第37期:通向成功的路徑

By the time Gates dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore year to try his hand at his own software company,

當讀大學二年級的蓋茨從哈佛大學退學，決定騰出手來創(chuàng)辦自己的軟件公司的時候，

he'd been programming nonstop for seven consecutive years. He was way past ten thousand hours.

此前他已經無間斷地編寫了七年的程序。這個時間遠遠超過10,000個小時。

How many teenagers in the world had the kind of experience Gates had?

世界上有多少年輕人擁有和蓋茨相類似的經歷?

"If they were fifty in the world, I'd be stunned," he says.

“假如在世界上能找出50個，都會把我驚倒，”他說，

"There was C-Cubed in the payroll staff we did, then TRW, all those things came together.

他說，“我先后做過電腦中心公司和員工工資單，接著是TRW——所有的事情遇到了一塊。

I had a better exposure to software development at a young age than I think anyone did in that period of time,

我很小就進入了軟件開發(fā)領域，我想那時候沒多少人在做這行，

and all because of an incredibly lucky series of events."

所有這一切都非常幸運, 簡直令人難以置信。”

If we put the stories of hockey players and the Beatles and Bill Joy and Bill Gates together,

假如我們把曲棍球運動員、甲殼蟲樂隊、比爾.喬伊和比爾.蓋茨的故事聯(lián)系起來思考，

I think we get a more complete picture of the path to success.

我相信你一定能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)更加清晰的通向成功的路徑。

Joy and Gates and the Beatles are all undeniably talented.

不可否認，喬伊、蓋茨和甲殼蟲樂隊確實才華卓著。

Lennon and McCartney had a music gift of the sort that comes along once in a generation,

列儂和麥卡特尼擁有音樂才華，這種才華與生俱來，

and Bill Joy, let's not forget, had a mind so quick

而比爾.喬伊，他頭腦的運算能力非常快，

that he was able to make up a complicated algorithm on the fly that left his professors inawe.

我們不該忘記，他開發(fā)了復雜的飛行程序，這讓聽他答辯的教授們都心生敬意。

That much is obvious.

顯然，他們確實擁有過人的才華。

But what truly distinguishes their histories is not their extraordinary talent but their extraordinary opportunities.

然而，他們人生的真正差異，不在于他們非凡的天賦，而在于他們非比尋常的機遇。

The Beatles, for the most random of reasons, got invited to go to Hamburg.

甲殼蟲樂隊能去漢堡，這樣的機會少之又少。

Without Hamburg, the Beatles might well have taken a very different path.

如果沒有漢堡之行，甲殼蟲樂隊的人生軌跡將大為不同。

"I was very luck," Bill Gates said at the very beginning of our interview.

“我真的非常幸運。”在我們采訪比爾.蓋茨的過程中，這是他對我們說的第一句話。

That doesn't mean he isn't brilliant or an extraordinary entrepreneur.

這并不是要否認他的才氣和作為企業(yè)家的非凡才干，

It just means that he understands what incredible good fortune it was to be at Lakeside in 1968.

這僅是說，他心里知道，能夠在1968年進入湖邊學校，是多么難以置信的一次絕好的機會。

All the outliers we've looked at so far were the beneficiaries of some kind of unusual opportunity.

我們現(xiàn)在看到的所有那些出類拔萃之人，他們都受到非同尋常的好運的惠顧。

Lucky breaks don't seem like the exception with software billionaires and rock bands and star athletes.

好運氣并不是對那些軟件領域的億萬富翁、搖滾天才和體育明星才重要，

They seem like the rule.

對其他領域的佼佼者來說，依舊不可或缺。