探寻真正的成功

你对那帮你总结职业生涯的七大问题是如何回答的？是不是感到自己还有很多梦想没有实现？还是虽然实现了梦想却依然不快乐？我们来继续谈一谈，如何在职业生涯上乃至整个人生上获得真正的成功。

Making a Real Difference真正的不同

Let me introduce three individuals I recently spent time with, all of whom are building a legacy. Before you say, "Oh, it's easy for them," recognize that among the three, one is a self-made tech entrepreneur, another has been a lifelong academic, and the third is a restaurant owner who immigrated to the United States from Ireland and didn't graduate high school.

Rob Glaser is the chairman and CEO of RealNetworks (RNWK), a company he established in 1994. Well known as one of the founding fathers of streaming media (流媒体), Rob has played an integral role in the transformation of the Internet into a mass medium.

While running this half-billion dollar company is more than a full-time job, he has another mission that also consumes his aspirations. Long dedicated to social causes, Rob has made the following commitment: "I want to change the political discourse in America from the antagonistic 'liberal versus conservative' paradigm to a more constructive 'progressive versus conservative,' and in so doing create a durable progressive majority."

Through a joint effort of his family's Glaser Progress Foundation, which has distributed over $21 million for philanthropic (博爱的) causes since its creation in 1993, and the Center for American Progress, Rob wants to educate Americans about what it means to be a progressive. Approaching the issue with the same entrepreneurial zeal that led to RealNetworks, Rob has led the development and testing of 30-second TV ads to hone the progressive message and support the movement. (You can check out one of the spots on YouTube.)

No Laptop Left Behind 一台笔记本也不能少

Nicholas Negroponte is the founder and chairman of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a not-for-profit educational organization. Negroponte is on leave from MIT, where he's the cofounder and director of the MIT Media Lab. A pioneer in the field of computer-aided design and a member of the MIT faculty since 1966, Negroponte is also the author of the 1996 bestseller "Being Digital《走向数码》 ," which has been translated into more than 40 languages.

Beyond the classroom, Negroponte has been working for years to make education a reality for the children of the developing world. With OLPC, he's assembled the leading computer hardware, software, industrial design, manufacturing, and distribution resources to make the best possible laptop at the lowest possible cost, and is distributing it as widely as possible to children in developing countries as an educational tool.

Negroponte has said that "OLPC is an education company, not a computer company." The introduction of the eye-catching, Internet-enabled, rugged computers, called XO Laptops (which are designed for effective use in bright sunlight and with limited power), has literally transformed villages in Africa. "Once the kids have the XO, it unleashes their creativity and accelerates their learning. It has also led to immediately greater school attendance, since kids want to be part of it."

Mass production of the XO machines has just started. "The first kids just got their laptops in Peru and Mexico," Negroponte said. "We're only making about 5,000 a week now, but we hope to make a million a month next year. In laptop-land, where everyone in the world combines to make 5 million laptops a month, this is a big number." When asked why he chose to make OLPC a nonprofit, Negroponte said, "Being a nonprofit leads to exceptional clarity of purpose for everyone involved, and purity of interactions with governments around the world. There isn't a head of state that won't take a meeting on this, which they certainly would not do if we were a for-profit company."

Food for Thought 引人深思

Noel Cunningham is the founder and owner of Strings restaurant in Denver, a popular destination for locals and out-of-towners alike. Having moved to the United States in the mid-'70s, he considers the restaurant a way to earn a living and a vehicle to help others.

Cunningham has served on the board of Share Our Strength, an organization of restaurateurs that helps the hungry worldwide. Along with his wife, Tammy, he also founded the Cunningham Foundation in 2003 to raise and distribute money to assist with education and community development in Ethiopia.

Why Ethiopia? "In 1984," he said, "when I was a chef at a posh private dining club in Los Angeles, I was distraught when the owners refused to hold a benefit for victims of a tragic famine in Ethiopia. I vowed that if I ever owned a restaurant, I would never withhold the ability to support important causes." He started a program called Quarters for Kids, which encourages the 225,000 high school students in Colorado to forgo a soda or candy bar for a day and give the dollar it would cost to the program.

"In Ethiopia," Cunningham stresses, "a quarter will buy breakfast, a quarter will buy lunch, and fifty cents will help pay for a school uniform and shoes." Every year, he takes six Colorado students (chosen randomly from all donors) on a trip to Ethiopia to experience firsthand the difference their efforts are making.

A Homework Assignment 家庭作业

As these cases hopefully illustrate, true success is achieved when you devote your energies to something you're passionate about that benefits others. Those who have amassed great wealth, power, and fame are remembered not for the achievements they racked up for themselves, but for the success they bestowed upon the world at large. 正如以上这些实例希望能给展示给您的，真正的成功是当你能将精力投入到充满热情的、能帮助他人的活动中去。那些聚集了巨大财富、权利、和名誉的人们之所以被人们所铭记并不是因为他们为自己所挣得的业绩，而是因为他们给整个世界带来的成功。

As you look at your life at the end of 2007, don't just plan for success and stop once you've attained it. There are so many worthy and important causes out there to work for. The more you can transcend personal achievement and enhance the lives of others, the more your positive impact spreads. 在2007年的岁末，当你审视人生，不要只计划去获得成功，一旦获得成功，就止步不前。 世界上有太多重要的事业值得人们去做。超越个人成就越多、把别他人的生活提高越多，你传播的积极影响就越多。

With that in mind, here's an assignment:

记住了这一点，下面是一份家庭作业：

Reflect on your answers to the seven questions above.

回顾你对以前七个问题的答案。

Write a paragraph about what you'll be doing 10 years from now and send it to me at dynamicpath@spencerstuart.com.