谁来决定我们的人生?

事实或是意见的分别-谁来决定我们的人生?

　　“你哪都别去了，孩子。你应该回去开你的卡车。” 如果猫王相信了美国乡村音乐协会这位经理对他1954年的演出的评论，还会成为猫王吗？或者甲壳虫乐队在1962年听从了得卡录音公司对他们的评论，“我们不喜欢他们的声音。吉它合奏已经落伍了。”

如果文学家Kipling听到三藩市的一个评论员告诉他“对不起，但是你真的不知道如何使用英语写作” ，而停止写作呢？或者是当迪士尼还是一个落魄的艺术家时，听到一个有名的大公司告诉他“不要申请这个工作，干点别的吧，因为你没有创造力和创新的思想” ，而停止他的艺术创作呢？

假如10岁的爱因斯坦相信了他的老师对他这样的评语“你永远数不清太大的数” ，而一蹶不振呢？或者是歌剧明星Caruso在听到他的声乐老师的评语“你的声音听上去像是风刮过窗户一样” ，而停止唱歌呢？

庆幸的是，他们没有相信他们听到的这些评论。但是我们很多人却很在乎。我们把别人的评论作为现实而接受。我们容许别人决定我们对自己的认识，我们的渴望，我们的梦想和我们的期待。别人对我们有限的认识成为我们对自己的认识，以至于他们掌控了我们的人生。

但是Jack Canfield 和Mark Victor Hansen没有这样作。他们的心灵鸡汤系列，现在出版了65个丛书，已经用27种语言出版了八千万册。可是起初的时候，他们的文摘在第一个月被33个主要的出版商拒绝，一共收到了140个回绝，直到他们的代理人把书稿还给他们说“我卖不出这本书。” 最后他们在一个出版商的文化节上从一个摊位走到另一个摊位，推销他们的见识，才有一个小出版社同意出版。

他们对工作及其内容的热诚促使他们向前。热诚也同样使得迪士尼和爱因斯坦努力向前。这是因为热诚是我们任何人所拥有的最有力的推动力。它促使我们发掘我们的天赋和才华。这是我从事管理工作20年来选择人才的关键衡量标准。你可以教别人一些技能，但是热望是教不出来的。

在工作中的成功人士相信他们自己和他们的梦想。他们不把暂时的后退看出是失败。不把路障看成死路。也不把负面的评论看成致命的否定。他们的热望促使他们在别人退后时还在努力向前。他们的热望在他们进取时成为他们达到目标的力量，使得他们百折不挠，坚持不懈，信心鼓舞。他们的热望帮助他们明白人们对他们的能力和生命的潜能的评价不代表事情的本质。他们的热望引导他们向前。

我欣赏路德的一段话：“永不屈服的人是不会被击倒的。” 当你对你的工作，梦想和生活充满渴望时，你是不会屈服的。

Fact or Opinion?

Nan Russell

　　“You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” What if Elvis believed this Grand Ole Opry manager’s critique after his 1954 performance? Or if the Beatles listened in 1962 when Decca Recording Company responded, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are□on the way out.”

What if Rudyard Kipling quit writing when the San Francisco Examiner told him, “I’m sorry, but you just don't know how to use the English language.” Or as a struggling artist, Walt Disney took seriously the words of a prospective employer to “try another line of work” because he “didn’t have any creative, original ideas.”

What if ten year old Albert Einstein believed his teacher’s words, “you will never amount to much.” Or opera star, Enrico Caruso, gave up singing after his first vocal teacher counseled, “your voice sounds like wind whistling through a window.”

Thankfully, they didn’t believe what they were told. But many of us do. We accept someone else’s opinion as our fact. We allow others to determine what we believe about ourselves, what we aspire to achieve, what we dream and what we become. Others people’s limiting beliefs about us become our own as we give them power over our life.

But, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen didn’t. Their Chicken Soup for the Soul series, now with 65 titles, has sold more than 80 million copies in 27 languages. Not bad for an anthology rejected by 33 major publishing houses in the first month, receiving more than 140 total rejections before their agent gave it back to them saying “I can’t sell this book.” Only by going booth to booth and pitching their vision to editors at a booksellers' convention did they finally find a small publisher who said yes.

Their passion about their work and its message kept them going. Passion kept Disney and Einstein and Kipling going, too. That’s because passion is the most powerful self-motivator any of us can have. It’s what drives us to use our talents and abilities. It’s the one criteria I’ve found most helpful when selecting people in my twenty years of management. You can teach most skills. But you can’t teach passion.

People who are winning at working believe in themselves and their dreams. They’re not likely to view setbacks as failures, roadblocks as dead-ends, or negative critique as fatal. It’s their passion that keeps them going when others give up. It’s their passion that provides strength of purpose, resilience, persistence and the confidence to keep trying.□ It’s their passion that helps them differentiate between opinion and fact about who they are and what they can do with their life. It’s their passion that guides them.

Like Babe Ruth said, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” When you are passionate about your work, your dreams and your life, you don’t give up.