I believe that our society's “mistakephobia” is crippling, a problem that begins in most elementary schools, where we learn to learn what we are taught rather than to form our own goals and to figure out how to achieve them. We are fed with facts and tested and those who make the fewest mistakes are considered to be the smart ones, so we learn that it is embarrassing to not know and to make mistakes. Our education system spends virtually no time on how to learn from mistakes, yet this is critical to real learning. As a result, school typically doesn’t prepare young people for real life—unless their lives are spent following instructions and pleasing others. In my opinion, that’s why so many students who succeed in school fail in life.

我认为社会上“犯错恐惧症”会带来严重后果。这个问题从小学就开始了，老师教什么，我们就学什么，也不会教我们树立自己的目标或实现梦想的方法，摆在我们面前的是机械地学习一堆知识并参加考试。犯错最少才被认为是最聪明的。要犯错或承认自己不懂，我们会觉得很丢人。我们的教育制度重心从来都不教学生从错误中学习，但其实从犯错中学习才是真正的学习。因此，学校培养出来的年轻人难以适应现实生活，不过如果他们愿意一生只做遵守指令、取悦他人的人，那就另当别论了。所以我觉得很多学校成绩优异的学生，人生并不成功。

I learned that the popular picture of success—which is like a glossy photo of an ideal man or woman out of a Ralph Lauren catalog, with a bio attached listing all of their accomplishments like going to the best prep schools and an Ivy League college, and getting all the answers right on tests—is an inaccurate picture of the typical successful person. I met a number of great people and learned that none of them were born great—they all made lots of mistakes and had lots weaknesses—and that great people become great by looking at their mistakes and weaknesses and figuring out how to get around them. So I learned that the people who make the most of the process of encountering reality, especially the painful obstacles, learn the most and get what they want faster than people who do not. I learned that they are the great ones—the ones I wanted to have around me.

我发现，大众对于成功的概念是这样的：穿着拉夫·劳伦服装，像一幅光鲜亮丽的宣传照旁边附上自己的成就介绍：上最好的私立预科学校，考入常青藤联盟的名牌大学，能答对所有的考试题。其实这是对真正成功人士生活的误读。我阅人无数，没一个成功人士天赋异禀，他们也常犯错，缺点也不少，他们成功是因为正视错误与缺点，找到日后避免犯错、解决问题的方法。所以我觉得，全力利用好直面现实的过程，尤其是在和困难障碍斗争时的痛苦经历，从中竭力吸取教训，这样定能更快实现目标。这样的人，才能成为成功人士，这才是我想打交道的人群。

In short, I learned that being totally truthful, especially about mistakes and weaknesses, led to a rapid rate of improvement and movement toward what I wanted.

简而言之，要直面真相，特别是自己的错误和弱点，会大大促进自我提升，离梦想越来越近。

While this approach worked great for me, I found it more opposite than similar to most others’ approaches, which has produced communications challenges.

尽管这个方法对我很适用，可是似乎与其他方法比起来，显得与众不同，很多人不认同，交流起来甚是困难。

Specifically, I found that:

具体来说，我发现：

* While most others seem to believe that learning what we are taught is the path to success, I believe that figuring out for yourself what you want and how to get it is a better path.

尽管很多人认为教你什么就好好学才能实现成功。但我认为，发现自己想要什么，明白实现梦想的方法，这才是更光明的道路。

After all, isn’t the point of learning to help you get what you want? So don’t you have to start with what you want and figure out what you have to learn in order to get it?

学习的目的不就是实现梦想吗？那一开始是不是就应该先弄明白自己想要什么以及要实现梦想需要学什么呢？

While most others seem to believe that having answers is better than having questions, I believe that having questions is better than having answers because it leads to more learning.

尽管很多人认为答案比问题更好，但我认为问题比答案好，因为问题能让我们学到更多。

In fact I believe that most people who are quick to come up with answers simply haven’t thought about all the ways that they can be wrong.

事实上，我认为那些很快就想出答案的人并没有考虑自己会出错的方方面面。

While most others seem to believe that mistakes are bad things, I believe mistakes are good things because I believe that most learning comes via making mistakes and reflecting on them.

尽管很多人认为犯错是坏事，但我认为犯错是好事，因为人们主要都是从对犯错的反思中受益进而学习和提高自己的。

While most others seem to believe that finding out about one’s weaknesses is a bad thing, I believe that it is a good thing because it is the first step toward finding out what to do about them and not letting them stand in your way.

尽管很多人认为发现缺点是坏事，但我认为缺点是好事，因为认识到缺点是寻找解决办法的第一步，进而不让缺点成为自己的绊脚石。

While most others seem to believe that pain is bad, I believe that pain is required to become stronger.

尽管很多人认为痛苦不好，但我认为想要变得强大，就需要经受痛苦。

I don’t mean that the more pain the better. I believe that too much pain can break someone and that the absence of pain typically prevents growth so that one should accept the amount of pain that is consistent with achieving one’s objectives.

我不是说越疼越好，我认为过于疼痛会对人产生损害。没有痛苦一般不利于成长，所以我们应在与实现自己目标相一致的前提下，承受一定的痛苦。

One of the advantages of my being over 60 years old—and there aren’t many—is that we can look back on my story to see how I came by these beliefs and how they have worked for me. It is now more than 35 years after I started Bridgewater and about the same number of years since I got married and began my family. I am obviously not your Ralph Lauren poster child for success, yet I’ve had a lot of successes, though they’re probably not what you’re thinking.

我60多岁了，我这个年纪的人优势已经不多了，其中之一就是我能回望过去，审视这些原则是否真的发挥过作用。我成立桥水联合基金公司35年，结婚成家也差不多这么多年，从我的经历来看，显然我不是大家想的那种拉夫·劳伦宣传海报上的成功典范，但我还是取得了很多成功，尽管不一定是你想象的那种成功。

Yes, I started Bridgewater from scratch, and now it’s a uniquely successful company and I am on the Forbes 400 list. But these results were never my goals—they were just residual outcomes—so my getting them can’t be indications of my success. And, quite frankly, I never found them very rewarding.

成立桥水联合基金，我算是白手起家，现在这家公司已经非常成功，我也在福布斯400富豪榜上占有一席。但这些从来都不是我的目标，算是附加回报吧，这些不能说明我就是成功的。说实在的，我也不觉得这些所谓的成就有什么意义。

I have been very lucky because I have had the opportunity to see what it’s like to have little or no money and what it’s like to have a lot of it. I’m lucky because people make such a big deal of it and, if I didn’t experience both, I wouldn’t be able to know how important it really is for me. I can’t comment on what having a lot of money means to others, but I do know that for me, having a lot more money isn’t a lot better than having enough to cover the basics. That’s because, for me, the best things in life—meaningful work, meaningful relationships, interesting experiences, good food, sleep, music, ideas, sex, and other basic needs and pleasures— are not, past a certain point, materially improved upon by having a lot of money. For me, money has always been very important to the point that I could have these basics covered and never very important beyond that. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think that having more is good–it’s just that I don’t think it’s a big deal. So, while I spend money on some very expensive things that cost multiples relative to the more fundamental things, these expensive things have never brought me much enjoyment relative to the much cheaper, more fundamental things. They were just like cherries on the cake. For my tastes, if I had to choose, I’d rather be a backpacker who is exploring the world with little money than a big income earner who is in a job I don’t enjoy. (Though being in a job that provides me with what I want is best of all, for me). Also, from having come from having next-to-nothing to having a lot, I have developed a strong belief that, all things being equal, offering equal opportunity is fundamental to being good, while handing out money to capable people that weakens their need to get stronger and contribute to society is bad.

我一直都很幸运，因为我有机会体验身无分文，也知道富有是什么感觉。现在很多人都花很大精力赚钱，我如果没体验过贫穷与富有两种状态，就不会明白金钱对于我来说是否真的重要。富有对别人来说意义如何我是无法评论的，但对我来说，赚更多的钱同只能满足基本需求的收入相比，并没有那么大的差别。因为我觉得人生最棒的事情是：有意义的工作，有意义的人脉，有趣的经历，吃得好睡得好，听歌，各种新点子，性等其他基本需求和令人愉悦之物。当金钱积累达到某个临界点后，增加再多，也就不会明显提升这些我认为人生最棒的东西。金钱对我来说的重要性就是，能够满足我的基本生活需求，再多我就认为不重要了。我不是说认为拥有更多不好，只是觉得这没什么大不了的。花钱的时候，有些东西特别昂贵，购买这些东西并不能给我带来多少快乐，购买经济实惠且更重要的东西才能给我带来快乐。这就像蛋糕上的樱桃一样，锦上添花罢了。要我选的话，与其做一份高薪但不喜欢的工作，我宁可做个环游世界的穷背包客。对我来说，从事的工作如果做的是自己想做的就是最好了。从几乎一无所有到拥有甚多，我培养了一个很强的信念，即万物皆平等，提供平等的机会对成功很重要，有能力的人获得的报酬丰富，就可能削弱他们渴望变强大贡献社会的意愿，这对社会发展不利。