小人物怎樣才能取得大成就?
Repression
壓迫
Today, as I was relaxing at the beach, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a conversation four high school kids we having on the beach blanket next to me. Their conversation was about making a positive difference in the world. And it went something like this…“It’s impossible to make a difference unless you’re a huge corporation or someone with lots of money and power,” one of them said.“Yeah man,” another replied. “My mom keeps telling me to move mountains – to speak up and stand up for what I believe. But what I say and do doesn’t even get noticed. I just keep answering to ‘the man’ and then I get slapped back in place by him when I step out of line.”“Repression…” another snickered.I smiled because I knew exactly how they felt. When I was their age, I was certain I was being repressed and couldn’t possibly make a difference in this world. And I actually almost got expelled from school once because I openly expressed how repressed I felt in the middle of the principals’ office.
今天，我在海灘上休息時，不經意間聽到了我旁邊沙灘墊上的四個高中生談話。他們談論的是在世上建功立業，內容大致是這樣的：
“除非你有錢有勢，或者開了一家大公司，否則你不可能有所作爲，”其中一個說。
“沒錯，”有一個答道。“我媽總是告訴我要竭盡全力——說出自己的信仰，堅持到底。但是我的言行甚至沒有引起任何人注意。每當離開常軌，我就被打回原位。我只能循規蹈矩。”
“壓迫……”另一個苦笑着說。
我笑了笑，因爲我理解他們的確切感受。我在他們這個年紀，也確信自己飽受壓迫，不可能在這個世界上有所作爲。事實上，我曾經差點被學校開除了，因爲我公開抱怨說在校長辦公室感到很無比壓抑。I Have A Dream
我有一個夢想
Suddenly, one of the kids noticed me eavesdropping and smiling. He sat up, looked at me and said, “What? Do you disagree?” Then as he waited for a response, the other three kids turned around er than arguing with them, I took an old receipt out of my wallet, ripped it into four pieces, and wrote a different word on each piece. Then I crumbled the pieces into little paper balls and handed a different piece to each one of them.“Look at the word on the paper I just gave you and don’t show it to anyone else.” The kids looked at the single word I had handed each of them and appeared confused. “You have two choices,” I told them. “If your word inspired you to make a difference in this world, then hold onto it. If not, give it back to me so I can recycle the paper.” They all returned their words.I scooted over, sat down on the sand next to their beach blanket and laid out the four words that the students had returned to me so that the words combined to form the simple sentence, “I have a dream.”“Dude, that’s Martin Luther King Jr.,” one of the kids said.“How did you know that?” I asked.“Everyone knows Martin Luther King Jr.” the kid snarled. “He has his own national holiday, and we all had to memorize his speech in school a few years ago.”“Why do you think your teachers had you memorize his speech?” I asked“I don’t really care!” the kid replied. His three friends shook their heads in agreement. “What does this have to do with us and our situation?”“Your teachers asked you to memorize those words, just like thousands of teachers around the world have asked students to memorize those words, because they have inspired millions of repressed people to dream of a better world and take action to make their dreams come true. Do you see where I’m going with this?”“Man, I know exactly what you’re trying to do and it’s not going to work, alright?” the fourth kid said, who hadn’t spoken a word until now. “We’re not going to get all inspired and emotional about something some dude said thirty years ago. Our world is different now. And it’s more screwed up than any us can even begin to imagine, and there’s little you or I can do about it. We’re too small, we’re nobody.”
突然，他們當中有一個孩子發現了我在偷聽，還在笑。他坐起來，看着我說：“怎麼？你不同意嗎？”他等着我的答覆，另外三個孩子也轉過身來。
我沒有和他們爭論，而是從錢包裏拿出一張舊收據，撕成四塊，每塊都寫上一個不同的詞。然後揉成小紙團，分別遞給他們。
“看看我剛給你們那張紙上的詞，但不要給別人看。”這些孩子看了之後一臉迷茫。“你們有兩個選擇，”我告訴他們，“如果你看到的那個詞鼓舞了你，要在這個世界上幹出一番事業，那你就拿着。不行的話就還給我，我好回收利用。”他們都把紙條還給了我。
我往前挪了一點，坐在他們沙灘墊旁的沙地上，把他們還給我的四個詞攤開，拼成這句簡單的話，“我有一個夢想。”
“老兄，那是馬丁·路德·金，”其中一個孩子說。
“你怎麼知道的？”我問。
“沒有人不知道馬丁·路德·金。”這個孩子咆哮道。“他有他自己的全國紀念日（注：1986年起美國政府將每年1月的第三個星期一定爲馬丁路德金全國紀念日)，幾年前我們在學校都要背誦他的演講。”
“爲什麼你們老師要你們記住他的演講呢？”我問他。
“我纔不在乎呢！”這個孩子回答。他的三個朋友不約而同搖了搖頭。“這和我們或者我們的處境有什麼關係嗎？”
“世界上成千上萬的老師都要求學生記住那些話，你們的老師也一樣，因爲這些話激勵了無數受壓迫的人去夢想一個更美好的世界，並採取行動，實現夢想。你們明白我的意思嗎？”
“嗨，我很清楚你想要幹什麼，但這一點用都沒有，不是嗎？”
第四個孩子說道。他之前一直沒有做聲。“ 30年前某個傢伙說的話對我們一點啓發和影響都沒有。我們的世界現在大不相同了。這個世界比我們想象的還要一團糟，而你或者我都無可奈何。我們太渺小了，什麼也不是。”Together
團結
I smiled again because I once believed and used to say similar things. Then after holding the smile for a few seconds I said, “On their own, ‘I’ or ‘have’ or ‘a’ or ‘dream’ are just words. Not very compelling or inspiring. But when you put them together in a certain order, they create a phrase that has been powerful enough to move millions of people to take action – action that changed laws, perceptions, and lives. You don’t need to be inspired or emotional to agree with this, do you?”The four kids shrugged and struggled to appear totally indifferent, but I could tell they were listening intently. “And what’s true for words is also true for people,” I continued. “One person without help from anyone else can’t do much to make a sizable difference in this crazy world - or to overcome all of the various forms of repression that exist today. But when people get together and unite to form something more powerful and meaningful then themselves, the possibilities are ther is how mountains are moved. Together is how small people make a big difference.
我又笑了笑，因爲我曾經也這樣認爲，還常常說類似的話。
笑容持續了幾秒之後，我說道：“分開來看，‘我’﹑‘有’﹑‘一個’或者‘夢想’都只是詞而已，既不引人注目，也不令人振奮。但是把它們以一定的次序放在一起，就創造了一句力量無比強大的話，激勵數百萬人採取行動——採取行動改寫法律，改變觀念，改善生活。你不需要獲得啓發或者感動才贊同這一點，對嗎？”
這四個孩子聳了聳肩，儘量擺出漠不關心的樣子，但我看得出他們聽得很認真。“詞是這樣，人也是這樣，”我繼續說道。“在這個瘋狂的世界，一個人單槍匹馬是很難有所成就的，也無法克服當今社會存在的各種形式的壓迫。但是如果人們聚到一起，團結起來，就會形成一股更強大，更有意義的力量，從而變得無所不能。”
團結一致可移山。團結就是小人物取得大成就的祕訣。
