失败是件好事
文/荷叶
上周，孙女开始上幼儿园，我循规蹈矩地祝她成功。我在说谎，我实际上希望她失败，我相信失败的力量。
成功很无聊。它证明你能够做已知能做的事情，或者说第一次就把事情做得很得体，这种成功往往带有问题。第一次的成功通常是侥幸。相反，第一次的失败却在意料之中。这是万物的自然规律。
失败是学习的过程。我听说过非洲用“她打破了很多锅”来描述一个好厨师。如果你在厨房里花了很多时间，打破了许多锅，那很有可能你对烹饪有了相当的了解。我曾经和一群厨师共进晚餐，他们花时间比较着切伤和烫伤的疤痕。他们懂得是失败给了他们信誉。
我的工作是为一家日报撰写专栏。我知道每周都会有一个专栏将成为本周最差专栏。我一心不想做这个最差的，每天都在尽最大努力。然而每周还是会有一个专栏较差，有时会格外明显地差。
我已学会珍惜这个专栏。成功的专栏通常意味着重复做着老本行，运用着有效的技巧，如向教堂的唱诗班布道，或如以华丽的言辞掩饰着普通的观点。而在那些较差的专栏里，我却常常在努力完成着以前从没做过的事情，甚至是一些没有把握能做的事情。
我小女儿是个高空秋千表演者。她花了三年时间准备了一个动作。这一动作在太阳马戏团里很多年来一直表演得很成功。她没有理由改变这一动作，但她还是这样做了。她说她不再学习新东西了，感到无聊，再让自己的身体经受这样的压力已毫无意义。因此，她改变了这一动作。为了满足灵魂的需要，她甘冒失败和当众出丑的危险。如果她能在十五英尺的高空中做到这一步，我们每个人都应该能够做到。
我孙女是个完美主义者，可能太追求完美了。她会感觉到自己的失败，我想安慰她。但也希望我会提醒她从失败中学到了什么，不管是什么事，她下次都会做得更好。我不大可能告诉她失败是件好事，因为这不是一个五岁的孩子所能听懂的。然后，我希望我能告诉她这不是世界末日。真的，幸运的是，世界才刚刚开始。
附：原文
Failure is a Good Thing
Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten, and, as is conventional,I wished her success. I was lying. What I actually wish for her is failure. Ibelieve in the power of failure.
Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something thatyou already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, whichcan often be a problematical victory. First-time success is usually a fluke.First-time failure, by contrast, is expected; it is the natural order ofthings.
Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrasedescribing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots." If you'vespent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably youknow a fair amount about cooking. I once had a late dinner with a group ofchefs, and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars. They knew howmuch credibility their failures gave them.
I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I amaware that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don't setout to write it; I try my best every day. Still, every week, one column isinferior to the others, sometimes spectacularly so.
I have learned to cherish that column. A successful column usually meansthat I am treading on familiar ground, going with the tricks that work,preaching to the choir or dressing up popular sentiments in fancy words. Oftenin my inferior columns,I am trying to pull off something I've never done before, something I'm noteven sure can be done.
My younger daughter is a trapezeartist. She spent three years putting together an act. She did itsuccessfully for years with the Cirque du Soleil. There was no reason for herto change the act -- but she did anyway. She said she was no longer learninganything new and she was bored; and if she was bored, there was no point insubjecting her body to all that stress. So she changed the act. She riskedfailure and profound public embarrassment in order to feed her soul. And if shecan do that 15 feet in the air, we all should be able to do it.
My granddaughter is a perfectionist, probably too much of one. Shewill feel her failures, and I will want to comfort her. But I will also, Ihope, remind her of what she learned, and how she can do whatever it is betternext time. I probably won't tell her that failure is a good thing, becausethat's not a lesson you can learn when you're five. I hope I can tell her,though, that it's not the end of the world. Indeed, with luck, it is thebeginning.
发表于 2014-4-6 02:30:13
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发表于 2014-4-9 20:58:59
