十位从失败到成功的名人

★Thomas Edison： In his early years， teachers told Edison he was “too stupid to learn anything”. Work was no better， as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor， Edison made 1，000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Of course， all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.

托马斯·爱迪生：在他年轻时，老师们对爱迪生的评价是“他太笨了，什么都学不会”。工作也没有改变这一状况，爱迪生的头两份工作都是因为效率低下而失去的。 即使作为一个发明家，他在发明电灯泡时就失败了一千次。当然，他最后终于成功地发明了电灯泡。

★Akio Morita： You may not have heard of Morita but youve undoubtedly heard of his company， Sony. Sonys first product was a rice cooker that unfortunately didnt cook rice so much as burn it， selling less than 100 units. This first setback didnt stop Morita and his partners as they pushed forward to create a multi-billion-dollar company.

盛田昭夫：你也许没有听过他，但是你一定听说过他的公司——索尼。索尼的第一台产品是一台电饭锅，不幸的是它煮熟的饭没有它煮煳得多，仅有不到一百台的销量。这次挫折不但没有阻止盛田昭夫和他的搭档（井深大），反而激励他们缔造出一家几十亿美元的公司。

★Winston Churchill： This Nobel Prize-winning， twice-elected Prime Minster of the United Kingdom wasnt always as well regarded as he is today. Churchill struggled in school and failed the sixth grade. After school he faced many years of political failures， as he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the ripe old age of 62.

温斯顿·丘吉尔：这位诺贝尔奖得主（1953年《第二次世界大战回忆录》获诺贝尔文学奖），两度出任英国首相的丘吉尔并非一直风光。丘吉尔童年的成绩一直不好，六年级还不及格。从学校毕业后又经历了几次政治失败，在每次的公职选举中他屡被击败，直到在他62岁时终于当选英国首相。

★Lucille Ball： During her career， Ball had thirteen Emmy nominations and four wins， also earning the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors. Before starring in I Love Lucy， Ball was widely regarded as a failed actress and a B movie star. Even her drama instructors didnt feel she could make it， telling her to try another profession. She， of course， proved them all wrong.

露西尔·鲍尔：鲍尔的演艺生涯中，一共获得了13次艾美奖的提名，其中4次得奖;在肯尼迪中心表演艺术大奖中获得终身成就奖。但是在鲍尔主演《我爱露西》之前，她被人稱为一个失败的演员和烂片演员。甚至连她的戏剧老师也不觉得她能成功，劝她从事别的行业。当然鲍尔证明了他们都是错误的。

★Vincent van Gogh： During his lifetime， Van Gogh sold only one painting， and this was to a friend and only for a very small amount of money. While Van Gogh was never a success during his life， he plugged on with painting， sometimes starving to complete his over 800 known works. Today， they bring in hundreds of millions.

文森特·凡·高：他的一生中仅卖出过一幅作品，并且这幅作品还是低价被他的朋友买走的。虽然凡·高生前从未获得成功，但他全身心投入到绘画中去，在饥饿中完成了超过800幅不知名的作品，今天这些作品价值数百万美元。

★Henry Ford： While Ford is today known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars， he wasnt an instant success. In fact， his early businesses failed and left him broke five time before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.

亨利·福特：如今以创造汽车装配流水线和美国制造汽车闻名的亨利·福特，并不是一夜成功的。事实上，在成立福特汽车公司前他破产了5次。

★Charles Robert Darwin： In his early years， Darwin gave up on having a medical career and was often criticized by his father for being lazy and too dreamy. Darwin himself wrote， “I was considered by all my masters and my father， a very ordinary boy， rather below the common standard of intellect.” Perhaps they judged too soon， as Darwin today is well-known for his scientific studies.

查尔斯·罗伯特·达尔文：达尔文早年就放弃了医学生涯，他的父亲常指责他“游手好闲”“不务正业”。达尔文自己写道：“我曾被所有的老师和我的父亲评价为一个普通的男孩，才智低于一般水平。”也许他们对达尔文下定论太早，因为如今达尔文以他的科学研究而闻名。

★Socrates： Despite leaving no written records behind， Socrates is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the Classical era. Because of his new ideas， in his own time he was called “an immoral corrupter of youth” and was sentenced to death. Socrates didnt let this stop him and kept right on， teaching up until he was forced to poison himself.

苏格拉底：尽管一生未留下任何著作，苏格拉底被认为是古希腊时期最伟大的思想家之一。在那时，由于其新思想，他被统治者以“不敬神”“腐蚀青年”的罪名处以死刑。苏格拉底并未因此而退缩，直到接受毒刑前都在继续教学实践。

★Jack London： This well-known American author wasnt always such a success. While he would go on to publish popular novels like White Fang and The Call of the Wild， his first story received six hundred rejection slips before finally being accepted.

杰克·伦敦：这位著名美国作家的成功之路并非坦途。也许他的《白牙》和《野性的呼唤》大获好评，但要知道他的第一篇故事被拒绝了600次才被出版。

★Walt Disney： Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise， movies and theme parks around the world， but Walt Disney himself had a bit of a rough start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because， “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After that， Disney started a number of businesses that didnt last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along， however， and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.

華特·迪士尼：现在的迪士尼公司在商品销售、电影制作和遍布世界的主题公园中获得巨大的利润。但是华特·迪士尼本人却有一个不太顺利的开始。他曾经被报纸编辑部以“缺乏想象力和好想法”为理由被开除。从那之后，他短暂地从事了一些其他的工作，都以失败和破产告终。但他继续埋头苦干，终于找到了成功的秘诀。

Vocabulary

attempt  n.& v. 尝试，企图，试图

defeat  v. 击败；战胜

prove  v. 证明；证实

starve  v. 挨饿；饿死；使挨饿