名人演讲第四招：挫折与抉择.

　　几乎每个成功人士的背后，好像都至少有一次面临挫折和抉择，然后绝处逢生的经历。是的，我们总能够从一些英文演讲中听到名人们讲述自己曾经遭遇的一些挫折，然后在这些挫折中进行的抉择。来吧，我们看看下面的双语句子来了解这种心态吧。

　　我等待着希望听到蔡尔兹教授告诉我我的论文写得多么好。但他没有。于是等了45分钟后，我终于开口问，”那你怎么评价我的写作呢?” “这么说吧，”他说。”千万不要靠这个谋生。”(迈克尔·刘易斯)

　　I listened and waited for Professor Childs to say how well written my thesis was. He didn’t. And so after about 45 minutes I finally said, “So. What did you think of the writing?” “Put it this way,” he said. “Never try to make a living at it.” (Michael Lewis)

　　那一年，我被炒了鱿鱼。你怎么可能被自己创立的公司炒鱿鱼?是这样的，在苹果快速成长的时候，我们雇了一个我觉得很有天分的家伙和我一起管理公司，最初几年，公司运转得很好。但后来我们对未来的看法发生了分歧，最终吵了起来。面对不可调和的分歧，董事会站在了他那一边。(史蒂夫·乔布斯)

　　And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. (Steve Jobs)

　　那时我想，最惨的会是什么呢?也就是失业吧。结果，我真的失业了。我的节目在做了6年后，没有告知我就停播了，我看了报纸才知道。家里的电话3年没有再响过，没人找我做节目，没人愿意提及我。(艾伦·德杰尼勒斯)

　　And I thought, “What’s the worst that could happen? I can lose my career.” I did. I lost my career. The show was canceled after 6 years, without even telling me, I read it in the paper. The phone didn’t ring for 3 years. I had no offers. Nobody wanted to touch me at all. (Ellen DeGeneres)

　　[抉择篇]

　　我当时的东家康柏公司是当时全球最大的个人电脑生产商。我咨询一位CEO朋友的意见，他坚定地说，我脑袋被驴踢了才会为了苹果(当时还是一个很小的公司)离开康柏。(蒂姆·库克)

　　My employer at the time, Compaq Computer, was the largest personal computer company in the world. One CEO I consulted felt so strongly about it. He told me I would be a fool to leave Compaq for Apple (a small company then). (Tim Cook)

　　我打电话给我父亲，告诉他我要辞掉这个百万美元的工作来写一本只有4万美元预付款的书。电话那边沉默了很久。他说：”也许你该再考虑一下。”我根本不需要考虑。(迈克尔·刘易斯)

　　I called up my father. I told him I was going to quit this job that now promised me millions of dollars to write a book for an advance of 40 grand. There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “You might just want to think about that,” he said. I didn’t need to think about it. (Michael Lewis)

　　16年前，我萌生了创办亚马逊的想法。那时我刚刚30岁，结婚才1年。我告诉妻子想辞去工作，然后去做这件疯狂而且很可能失败的事情。她告诉我，我应该放手一搏。(杰夫·贝索斯)

　　I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work. She told me I should go for it. (Jf Bezos)