高效能人士的七个习惯中，效能是什么意思呢？且由一个伊索寓言说起。
Aesop's fable of the goose and the golden egg
This fable is the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the nest of his pet goose a glittering golden egg. At first, he thinks it must be some kind of trick. But as he starts to throw the egg aside, he has second thoughts and takes it in to be appraised instead.
The egg is pure gold! The farmer can't believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the nest and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy; it all seems too good to be true.
But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs——and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
这里讲了伊索寓言，鹅和金蛋的故事，农民因为贪婪为了金蛋最后不惜杀了下金蛋的鹅而一无所得。对应汉语中成语就是杀鸡取卵。
I suggest that within this fable is a natural law, a principle——the basic definition of effectiveness. Most people see effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are.
But as the story shows, true effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose).
If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglects the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces golden eggs. On the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won't have the wherewithal （做某事的)所需资金/设备）to feed yourself or the goose.
Effectiveness lies in the balance——what I call the P/PC Balance. P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs.
这个寓言对应着一个自然法则，即对效能的定义。大部分人可以从金蛋模型中看出效能：你产的越多，做的越多，你的效能越高。
但这个故事也表明真的效能需要两件事情组合起来才能实现。产出的东西（金蛋）以及用来产出东西的资产（鹅）。
如果你专注于金蛋而忽略产蛋的鹅，那么不久你就会失去产蛋的鹅。而如果你只顾照顾鹅而没有产金蛋的目标，不久你就没有养活你自己或鹅的资金。
那效能就在于这个平衡---产出和产能平衡。P代表的是理想的产品，金蛋。PC代表的是生产能力，即产出金蛋的能力。
通过寓言中鹅和金蛋的类比关系，效能的定义非常清楚的表达出来啦。
THREE KINDS OF ASSETS 三种资产
Basically, there are three kinds of assets: physical, financial, and human. Let's look at each one in turn.
A few years ago, I purchased a physical asset——a power lawnmower. I used it over and over again without doing anything to maintain it. The mower worked well for two seasons, but then it began to break down. When I tried to revive it with service and sharpening, I discovered the engine had lost over half its original power capacity. It was essentially worthless.
Had I invested in PC——in preserving and maintaining the asset——I would still be enjoying its P——the mowed lawn. As it was, I had to spend far more time and money replacing the mower than I ever would have spent, had I maintained it. It simply wasn't effective.
In our quest for short-term returns, or results, we often ruin a prized physical asset——a car, a computer, a washer or dryer, even our body or our environment. Keeping P and PC in balance makes a tremendous difference in the effective use of physical assets.
通常每个人都有三类资产：物力财力人力。
首先说物力。我买了一个电动割草机，我狠狠地使用它，没做任何保养，结果两个季度它就崩掉了。等我想修的时候，引擎已经失去了一半的动能，或者说它已经成了一堆废铁。我要是早点保养它，现在我还能用它割草，而像现在这个样子我来维持这个资产的话，我得花更多的时间和金钱换一部新的机器。这显然不符合效能法则。
急功近利会让我们常常毁了我们珍贵的物质财产，可能是一辆车，一台电脑,洗衣机或烘干机，甚至我们的身体，我们生活的环境。只有保持P和PC的平衡，我们拥有的物力才回发挥出最大的效能。（这一部分用例子表明对物资的过度使用导致效能降低，最后得出结论只有保持平衡才有高收益）
It also powerfully impacts the effective use of financial assets. How often do people confuse principal with interest? Have you ever invaded principal to increase your standard of living, to get more golden eggs? The decreasing principal has decreasing power to produce interest or income. And the dwindling capital becomes smaller and smaller until it no longer supplies even basic needs. 。
Our most important financial asset is our own capacity to earn. If we don't continually invest in improving our own PC, we severely limit our options. We're locked into our present situation, running scared of our corporation or our boss's opinion of us, economically dependent and defensive. Again, it simply isn't effective.
同样的情形也适用于金融资产。本金和利息在这里相当于产能和产出。你有没有为了提高生活水准而动用过本金？随着本金减少，它创造出来的利息和收入越来越少，财产总值随之缩水，直到连基本的生活都无法维持。
而我们最重要的金融资产是我们赚钱的本领。如果我们不持续提高我们的产出能力，发展的机会便会受到严重限制，只能停滞于现有的职位上，终日小心翼翼揣摩上司的心意，不仅经济上受制于人，还担心职位不保，最后落得一事无成。效能极其低下。（此处用类比法和反证法证明了提高产能的重要性）
In the human area, the P/PC Balance is equally fundamental, but even more important, because people control physical and financial assets.
When two people in a marriage are more concerned about getting the golden eggs, the benefits, than they are in preserving the relationship that makes them possible, they often become insensitive and inconsiderate, neglecting the little kindnesses and courtesies so important to a deep relationship. They begin to use control levers to manipulate each other, to focus on their own needs, to justify their own position and look for evidence to show the wrongness of the other person. The love, the richness, the softness and spontaneity begin to deteriorate. The goose gets sicker day by day.
对人力资产而言，产出与产能之间的平衡尤为重要。因为人力可以控制物质与金融资产。
比如，夫妻双方都关注于获得金蛋，享受婚姻的好处，却忽略了维护彼此的感情所需要的善意和礼貌，那最后他们通常会变得冷淡而疏远。因为夫妻如果开始耍手段操纵对方以满足自己的需要，忙着为自己辨护而去挑剔对方的缺点，那么相爱的感觉及亲密的关系自然会衰退，就像鹅的病情一天天恶化一样。
And what about a parent's relationship with a child? When children are little, they are very dependent, very vulnerable. It becomes so easy to neglect the PC work——the training, the communicating, the relating, the listening. It's easy to take advantage, to manipulate, to get what you want the way you want it——right now! You're bigger, you're smarter, and you're right! So why not just tell them what to do? If necessary, yell at them, intimidate them, insist on your way.
Or you can indulge them. You can go for the golden egg of popularity, of pleasing them, giving them their way all the time. Then they grow up without any internal sense of standards or expectations, without a personal commitment to being disciplined or responsible.
Either way——authoritarian or permissive——you have the golden egg mentality. You want to have your way or you want to be liked. But what happens, meantime, to the goose? What sense of responsibility, of self-discipline, of confidence in the ability to make good choices or achieve important goals is a child going to have a few years down the road? And what about your relationship? When he reaches those critical teenage years, the identity crises, will he know from his experience with you that you will listen without judging, that you really, deeply care about him as a person, that you can be trusted, no matter what? Will the relationship be strong enough for you to reach him, to communicate with him, to influence him?
那么亲子关系呢？他们年幼时很脆弱，必须完全依赖父母，父母很容易忽略产能工作-教养、沟通、倾听与感情交流，而以优势的地位来操纵子女，实现自身的愿望。或是纵容他们，或是讨好他们，以此得到孩子的喜爱和欢迎，在此环境下长大的儿童多半不懂规矩，缺乏责任感。
不论权威式还是纵容式的管教，基本心态都是偏重金蛋。父母只在乎孩子是否照着他们自己的意思行事，或能不能讨好子女。至于鹅，也就是孩子未来的责任感、纪律感以及自信心，似乎就无关紧要了。等到子女进入关键性的青春期，产生认同危机之后，过去与父母相处的经验——父母是否不带批判地倾听，是否真心地关怀等等——将决定父母能否与子女亲近、沟通，甚或影响子女的行为。
Suppose you want your daughter to have a clean room——that's P, production, the golden egg. And suppose you want her to clean it——that's PC, production capability. Your daughter is the goose, the asset, that produces the golden egg.
If you have P and PC in balance, she cleans the room cheerfully, without being reminded, because she is committed and has the discipline to stay with the commitment. She is a valuable asset, a goose that can produce golden eggs.
But if your paradigm is focused on production, on getting the room clean, you might find yourself nagging her to do it. You might even escalate your efforts to threatening or yelling, and in your desire to get the golden egg, you undermine the health and welfare of the goose.
假设你要求女儿保持房间整洁，这是你希望得到的产出——金蛋。而你的女儿就是产能——那只鹅。如果她觉得你的要求并不过分，便会心甘情愿地整理自己的房间，无须旁人催促，因为她知道许下承诺就不应食言。这时她是一项可贵的资产，一只会生金蛋的鹅。但是如果你只问房间是否整洁，毫不顾虑她的感受。那么即使频频唠叨，甚至以威胁、吼叫迫她就范，也是徒劳无功。因为你损害来鹅的需要与福祉，它自然不会生金蛋了。
这两部分从人的角度，用夫妻关系，亲子关系的例子论证产能和产出失衡时的糟糕的严重后果，最后用反证法正反对比论证，表明平衡才会有高的效能。
你看，不仅是对心爱之人，你需要去尊重和爱护，对心爱之物也是一样，尊重和爱护永远是双向的，流动的，你爱惜它，它也能感受到，随之为你创造更多的产能。原来爱才是最大的能量呀，爱才回产生最大的效能！
