成功的秘訣

The secret of success

A young man asked Socrates the secret of success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning.

They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk with him towards the river.

When the water got up to their necks, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water.

The man struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until he started turning blue. The young man struggled hard and finally managed to get out and the first thing he did was to gasp and take deep breath.

Socrates asked, “What did you want most when you were there?” The man replied, “Air.”

Socrates said, “That’s the most important secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted air, you will get it. There is no other secret.”

【助讀詞匯】

◇duck vt. 把（人等）猛按入水中

◇gasp  vi. 喘息，氣喘 vt. 氣喘吁吁地說

【參考譯文】

成功的秘訣

一名年輕男子向蘇格拉底請教成功的秘訣。蘇格拉底告訴他次日早晨在河邊相見。

兩人如期而遇。蘇格拉底要這個年輕男子和他一起向河中走去。

當河水漫到他們脖子的時候，蘇格拉底突然抓住該男子并把他猛按入水中。

男子掙扎著想出來，但是蘇格拉底非常強壯有力，一直摁著該男子，直到他臉色變青。年輕男子拼命掙扎并最終沖出了水面，緊接著就是大口喘氣與深呼吸。

蘇格拉底問道：“在水里時，你最想得到什么？”男子答道：“空氣。”

蘇格拉底說：“這就是成功的最重要的秘訣。當你像渴望空氣一樣迫切渴望成功時，你就會成功。沒有其他的秘訣。”

【人生啟迪】

我們每個人都渴望成功，都想擁有成功的秘訣，但是成功的秘訣其實很簡單，首先就是要有對成功的渴望，只有如此，我們才會付出種種努力去追求成功，否則，連對成功最迫切的渴望都沒有，自然沒有動力去追求，又何來成功呢？