通往成功道路上的十大必備心理(上)

For decades, sociologists have been trying to understand why certain people rise to the top of their fields. A number of theories have emerged, so if you're struggling on the path of success, perhaps these will give you some new insight.

幾十年以來，社會學家一直在嘗試着弄明白，爲什麼有些人可以成爲他們所在領域的佼佼者，一系列的理論學說也由此產生。因此，如果你正在通往成功的道路上掙扎，那麼以下所述也許可以刷新你對"成功"的看法。

g an Underdog Can be Advantageous

10.弱者也能佔上風

You're probably familiar with Malcolm Gladwell, who writes and researches on the topic of success. In his book David and Goliath, he examines the concept of the underdog and argues that they actually have a greater advantage than the so-called "Goliaths." When the Goliaths win, it's often because the underdog is playing by Goliath's rules. However, if "David" looks at the situation from a completely different angle and approaches it with their own unique take, then the underdog has a better chance at winning. According to Gladwell, the underdog can substitute effort for ability under the right conditions.

大家應該很熟悉馬爾科姆·格拉德威尓,他致力於研究成功學，並以此爲主題寫作。在其《大衛與歌利亞》一書中，他重新審視了弱者理論，並且提出了爭鋒相對的反駁意見。他認爲，弱者實際上要比那些所謂的"歌利亞"更有優勢。強者之所以取得勝利，通常是因爲弱者被他們的規則玩弄了。如果"大衛"們從一個全新的角度來看待現實情況，並用自己獨特的方式扭轉劣勢，那麼接下來，他們就會有更大的把握獲得成功。正如格拉德威尓所言，在適當的情境下，弱者可以用努力來彌補自身能力的不足。

Using the titular biblical example, Goliath was expecting hand-to-hand combat. David approached it differently and used a sling to fire a stone at Goliath's head. David essentially brought a gun to a fistfight. This wasn't against the rules, and David won because he didn't go along with Goliath's expectations. For an additional example, see that famous sword "fight" scene in Indiana Jones. History is full of underdogs beating the favored opponent simply because they were innovative. The Spartans held off the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, and T. E. Lawrence led the Bedouins across the desert to fight the Turks. Innovation and thinking outside the box can be more advantageous than being skillful. So if the odds are against you, perhaps you just need to stop playing by everyone else's rules and embrace your strengths.

以一個聖經故事——歌利亞和大衛的戰爭——爲例。歌利亞原本以爲此戰會是一場肉搏戰。而大衛的做法卻完全出乎了歌利亞的意料——他用投石彈弓打中了歌利亞的頭。其實大衛本來也是帶着一把槍準備搏鬥的，但大衛投石的做法並不違規，也正是因爲不按常理出牌，他才贏得了勝利。還有一個例子就是《奪寶奇兵》中那場著名的劍戰。歷史上弱者出奇制勝打敗強者的例子隨處可見。斯巴達人在溫泉關戰役中戰勝了波斯人以及托馬斯·愛德華·勞倫斯帶領貝多因人翻越沙漠抗擊土耳其人……別出心裁的想法往往比出衆的能力更具優勢。所以如果遇到勁敵，你所要做的大概就是跳出常規的牢籠並使出殺手鐗來打敗對方。

ety Has Built-in Obstacles

9.社會總是存障礙

There are certain obstacles in our lives that are hard to overcome. It can be as simple as when and where you're born — in Malcolm Gladwell's popular book, Outliers, he gives the example of hockey players that are drafted to the NHL.

在我們的生活中，有很多難以克服的障礙，即使是生於何時何地這樣簡單的問題都有可能成爲一個人發展的攔路石——對此，馬爾科姆·格拉德威尓在他的著作《異類》中，給出了北美國家冰上曲棍球聯盟徵招曲棍球員的例子。

As children, all hockey players who are born in the same year play in the same division. However, if you compare an eight year old who was born on January 1 to a player who was born December 31, there are drastic differences. The player born in January has had almost a whole extra year to grow and develop, meaning they could be faster, stronger and simply better than a player born in December. Then when it comes time to pick players for more competitive teams, the older and more developed children will have an advantage. They're more likely to be chosen to go on for more training and play against other elite players. That cycle will continue, and the players born in December will always be playing catch up. Between 1980 and 2007, 36% of players drafted into the NHL were born in the first quarter of the year, while only 14.5% of the players that were drafted were born in the last quarter of the year. This shows that there are always going to be challenges in life, but it also presents an interesting idea. What would happen if youth hockey had one league for children born in the first six months and one for children born in the last six months? This would possibly change the playing field and double the amount of great players. Hockey is far from the only field that uses rigid timetables. School, which often builds the foundation for success, is also structured so children born earlier in the year have more time to learn and mature than those born later in the year. What would happen if schools had enrollment times every six months instead of once a year?

所有同年出生的曲棍球運動員在孩提時期就開始爲同一支隊伍效力。但是，如果把兩個同爲八歲，但分別出生在1月1日和12月31日的隊員進行比較的話，你就會發現巨大的不同。1月出生的隊員幾乎多出一年的時間來成長和發展，這也就意味着他們動作會更敏捷，身體會更強壯，因而輕而易舉就能把12月出生的隊員給比下去。到了爲更具競爭力的隊伍挑選隊員時，發展得更好的年長隊員就佔據了優勢。他們似乎更容易被選出來接受更多的訓練，並和其他精英球員對賽。這種循環會持續下去，12月出生的球員會被不斷趕超。從1980到2007年間，36%被招進NHL球員都是在第一季度出生的，而出生在最後一個季度的入選球員僅僅只佔到14.5%的比例。這表明，生活中的挑戰無處不在，卻又能同時引發我們的思考。試想，如果有兩支曲棍球青年隊，其中一支只有上半年出生的球員，而另一支的球員都出生在下半年，那情況又會如何？這可能就會使整個曲棍球領域發生翻天覆地的改變，優秀的球員數量倍增。曲棍球領域絕不是一個規則死板的領域。而學校作爲爲人們的成功奠定基礎的地方，如今這種一年招生一次的規定，使得那些一年中出生較早的孩子比出生較晚的孩子有更多的時間去學習，也更加的成熟。如果學校可以每半年招生一次而不是一年一次，那麼事情又會變得怎樣呢？

One Succeeds on Their Own

8.成功也需得援助

While it would be nice to succeed simply because we work hard, life doesn't work that way. We need help and support from friends, family and teachers, and then we need chances from employers and other key figures in the fields we choose to pursue. To illustrate this point, in Outliers Gladwell talks about two men with genius level intellect — Christopher Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. Many readers may know Oppenheimer as the "father of the atomic bomb," but Langan is much more obscure.

如果只要努力就能獲得成功，那再好不過了，但生活並非如此。我們需要朋友、家人和老師的幫助與支持，需要所處行業僱主或其他高層給的機會。爲闡釋這一點，在《異類》一書中，馬爾科姆·格拉德威爾談到兩個天才級別的人—克里斯托弗·蘭根和羅伯特·奧本海默。很多讀者可能知道奧本海默是"原子彈之父"，但蘭根卻遠沒那麼出名。

Langan was born in 1952 and has an IQ between 195 and 210, which is higher than both Einstein and Stephen Hawking. However, Langan isn't teaching theoretical physics at Harvard — he's a rancher in Missouri. While there's nothing wrong with being a rancher, it's an odd profession for one of the smartest living people. Gladwell points out that the men grew up in two different environments. Langan was born into a poor rural family and attended public schools that didn't recognize his brilliance. After high school he attended Reed College, but had to drop out in the second semester because his mother had failed to fill out scholarship forms. A year and a half later, after working in construction and as a forest firefighter, he enrolled at Montana State University. However, he was having problems getting to school because his car broke down. He asked the school if he could change from two morning classes to afternoon classes because he could get a ride later in the day, but the university refused. Langan became increasingly frustrated and eventually dropped out. Oppenheimer, on the other hand, was raised in an environment where his gifts were cultured, he was encouraged from a young age, and was given the best education possible. While at Cambridge, he tried to poison a professor he was envious of. He was caught but only put on probation, and was allowed to continue studying. It's amazing that both brilliant men went down such different paths based on the help they received. Langan was frustrated by a lack of support, while Oppenheimer committed a serious crime and got away with a slap on the wrist. The lesson is that in order to succeed, the gifts and interests of a person need to be encouraged, especially at a young age. Then as they grow up, people need to be given opportunities, breaks and second chances. Without help from other people, it makes it impossible to succeed because as Gladwell points out, "… no one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone."

蘭根生於1952年，智商介於195到210之間，已經高過愛因斯坦和史蒂芬·霍金了。然而，蘭根最終也沒能在哈佛教授理論物理—他只是密蘇里的一名農場工人。做一名農場工人本身沒錯，但作爲世界上最聰明的人之一，蘭根從事這個職業就太過古怪了。格拉德威爾指出這兩個人在完全不同的環境中長大。蘭根出生於貧窮的農民家庭，就讀於公立學校——這些學校完全無法發掘出他的聰明才智。高中畢業後，他進入裏德學院學習， 但第二學期就被迫輟學，因爲他媽媽之前忘了幫他填寫拿獎學金所必需的財力證明表！這使他錯失了獎學金，導致學費無以爲繼。蘭根通過在工地打工、當森林消防員積攢學費，終於在一年半後進入了蒙大拿州立大學。可是他的車壞了，去上學不方便。他便和學校商量，看是否可以將上午兩門課換到下午——因爲下午可以搭順風車，但學校不同意。因此蘭根越來越沮喪，最終輟學了。與之相反，奧本海默在優渥的環境中長大，他的天賦得到了很好的發展。他自小受鼓勵，接受最好的教育。在劍橋時，奧本海默曾因試圖毒殺一名他嫉妒的教授而被捕，但只被處以緩刑，仍可繼續學習。兩個同樣聰慧的人走上截然不同的路，只因他們所受到的幫助不同，這不能不讓人吃驚！ 蘭根因缺乏支持而備感沮喪，而奧本海默犯了重罪卻被從輕處罰。結論就是：一個人要獲得成功，天賦和興趣的培養需要他人的鼓勵，越是年幼，這種支持就越是重要。長大後，人們需要的是機遇，是諒解，是重頭再來的機會。如果沒有他人的幫助，取得成功是不可能的，就像格拉德威爾所說得，"沒有人——沒有搖滾明星，專業球員或軟件億萬富翁，甚至沒有一個天才是單靠自己成功的。"

is Overrated

7.智商也會被高估

In the business world, it always seems like the smartest guys are the most successful. After all, firms hire the best and brightest from schools. However, while people with high test scores do have more opportunities, that doesn't necessarily mean that smart people are more successful. In fact, in many fields the link between success and intelligence is often weak or non-existent.

在商界，最聰明的人似乎總是最成功的。畢竟企業招聘的都是學校裏最優秀、最聰明的畢業生。然而，儘管高分學生確實擁有更多機會，這也並不意味着聰明的人就會更成功。實際上，在很多領域，成功與智商的關係微乎其微，甚至根本就毫無關聯。

Intelligence is a complicated thing with many different facets, yet society still measures intelligence with IQ tests, grades in school and exam results. That ignores critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence. Sociologists performed a test that involved betting on horses, which is similar to picking stocks because you're given little pieces of information on performance and then it's up to you to pick a winner. What they found was that people with lower intelligence performed better. When a person with higher IQ did do better, it was only for a short time. While a person with a higher IQ may do a new task better than a person with a lower IQ, the more they practice the gap decreases and they perform at a similar level. Hard work and experience can overcome the perceived advantage of a high IQ level. So while having a high IQ doesn't hurt, it simply isn't the driving factor for why some people are more successful than others.

智商原本是個很複雜的概念，涵蓋很多方面，然而社會卻僅僅通過IQ測試，學業成績和其他考試結果來衡量它。這就忽略了批判性思維能力和情商的作用。社會學家進行了一項賭馬測試。賭馬與選股類似，人們無法預估馬兒當場的表現是好是壞，所以對贏家的選擇完全取決於主觀判斷。結果他們發現智商較低的人表現更好，"聰明人表現好"的現象持續時間則並不長。高智商的人在做新任務時表現會比智商偏低的人好一些，但隨着實踐越多，他們之間的差距就越小，最後兩者便水平相當了。勤奮努力和經驗最終戰勝了高智商的感知優勢。因此，雖然高智商無害，但它絕不是一些人比其他人更成功的主要驅動因素。

Name Matters

6.名字也能定成敗

One of the things that has the biggest influence in our life is something we have no control over. Studies have shown that your name can play into your success, for better or for worse.

對我們的生活影響最大的，往往是那些我們無法掌控的事。研究表明，一個人的名字會在他的成功之路上發揮或好或壞的作用。

One interesting theory is a phenomenon called "nominative determinism," which is that your name can actually influence which way your life goes and which profession you choose. Probably the best example of this is Usian Bolt. We tend to like things that remind us of ourselves — for example, someone with the last name "Smith" is more likely to marry another "Smith." Usian Bolt may have been attracted to running because it reminded him of his name. People may have also wanted to encourage him because his name made him sound fast. Subconsciously, when choosing a runner to train, who would the coach be more inclined to choose — Usian Bolt or Steve Molasses? Your name can have a profound impact on what you pursue and how people treat you. Names can also imply social class, and teachers pick up on that. Some don't feel that children with names that indicate a lower socioeconomic class are worth investing their time in. This would start a lifelong problem where the child might not be able to get caught up, simply because teachers, either consciously or subconsciously, didn't like their name. As people get older, there have been studies that show bias against people with "ethnic" sounding names when they apply for a job. Keep all that in mind if you decide to have kids.

在一個名叫"姓名決定論"的學說趣論中有提到，名字確實能影響到你的人生導向和職業選擇。尤賽恩·博爾特大概是這個學說最好的例子。通常情況下，我們會更喜歡那些能讓我們聯想到自己的東西，比如說，姓史密斯的人也許就更傾向於同另一個"史密斯"結合。尤賽恩·博爾特之所以會愛上賽跑，也是因爲這能讓他聯想到自己的名字。人們也非常支持與鼓勵博爾特，因爲他的名字聽起來就讓人感覺這個人好像跑得很快。教練在選擇運動員參加訓練時，在尤賽恩·博爾特和史蒂夫·莫拉斯兩人中，他又會下意識地選擇誰呢？（這結果是不言而喻的吧！）所以說，你的名字能對你的事業乃至於別人對你的態度產生深遠的影響。名字同樣也會反映出一個人的社會地位，老師們對其中隱含的社會地位的判斷就相當準確。有的老師認爲，姓名中折射出社會低層家庭環境的孩子，就不值得他們爲之投入寶貴的教育時間。這就會導致這些孩子可能僅僅由於老師對他們名字的不喜，而受不到老師的重視，從而留下一生的遺憾。有研究證明，一些名字聽起來帶有"族裔"概念的人在成年後求職時都會屢遭歧視。因此，給孩子起名字的時候，可別忘了把上述因素考慮進去哦。

審校：梅子九 來源：前十網