MBA英语素材：年轻人必看的三段英文演讲

TED：20多岁决定你未来的人生

20-30岁是人生的关键期，你走的每一步，做出的每一个决定，都会影响你以后的人生。

心理咨询师Meg Jay根据自己多年的经验，给处在这个重要时期的年轻人一些中肯的建议：过好20多岁的日子，为将来做准备。

在20-30岁这个阶段，很多人会产生身份危机，不知该如何定位自己，Meg Jay建议大家与其纠结于此，不如做些实际的事情去增加自身价值，利用那些看起来比较远的关系拓展自己的人脉，认真考虑和选择自己将来的新家庭。

❶ To forget about having an identity crisis an identity crisis and get some identity capital .

忘掉身份危机，获得一些身份资本。

By get identity capital, I mean do something that adds value to who you are.

做些可以增加你自身价值的事。

❷ The urban tribe is overrated.

不要局限于你的核心小圈子。

urban tribe：住在大城市的年轻人组成的小圈子。

New piece of capital, new person to date almost always comes from outside the inner circle. New things come from what are called our weak ties.

新的资本，新的约会对象大都来自圈外。新事物正是来自所谓的弱关系里。

❸ The time to start picking your family is now.

现在是时候选择你自己的家庭了。

The best time to work on your marriage is before you have one, and that means being as intentional with love as you are with work.

考虑婚姻问题的最佳时间是开始婚姻前，这意味着像挑选工作那样有意识地挑选爱情。

30 is not the new 20, so claim your adulthood, get some identity capital, use your weak ties, pick your family. Don't be defined by what you didn't know or didn't do. You're deciding your life right now.

30岁并非新20岁，所以要认清成人期，获得一些身份资本，利用弱关系，选择自己的家庭。不要被你不知道的，没做过的事情定义人生，你要自己去决定。

J·K·罗琳2008哈佛毕业演讲

在很多人眼中，罗琳是成功人士的代表。但是在这篇演讲里，罗琳女士与哈佛的毕业生们畅谈了自己年轻时所经历的困苦。

她曾经饱尝失败的滋味，但正是这些失败，让她重获新生。她从自身的经历出发，告诉大家要坚持梦想，不要害怕失败。

跟很多人一样，罗琳也曾在自己的理想和父母对她的期望之间挣扎。

❶ They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature.

他们希望我去拿个职业学位，而我想去攻读英国文学。

但是，罗琳也教导年轻人，我们不应该因此责怪父母。


❷ I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.

我不会因为父母的观点，而责怪他们。埋怨父母给你指错方向是有一个时间段的。当你成长到可以控制自我方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。

坚持自己理想的罗琳在毕业后尝到了失败的滋味。她婚姻破裂，成为单亲母亲，一贫如洗，前途渺茫。但是，此时的她反而体会到了失败的重要性。

❸ Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.

失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。我因此不再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信自己真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。

❹ Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

失败使我的内心产生一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。

MBA英语素材：年轻人必看的三段英文演讲

我们不应该害怕面对失败，而是应该从失败中获得智慧。

❺ It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.

生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。

❻ The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.

从挫折中获得智慧、变得坚强，意味着你比以往任何时候都更有能力生存。

最后，罗琳女士送给年轻人这样两句话：

❼ Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life.

幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成绩单，你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活。

❽ As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

生活就像故事一样：不在乎长短，而在于质量，这才是最重要的。

娜塔莉·波特曼2015哈佛毕业演讲

在这篇感人至深的演讲中，波特曼袒露了自己看似开挂的人生背后的故事。在哈佛读书时，我们的女神也曾一度不自信地抬不起头来。

但是，她默默努力，克服了每一个挑战。她说，“我对自己很严苛，但这也带给我愉悦，为我即将成为最好的自己而愉悦。”

因为自己演员的身份，波特曼在哈佛校园很不自信。于是她故意选修了神经生物学和高等现代希伯来文学来证明自己的严肃和智慧。但是她发现自己并不快乐。

❶ I realized that seriousness for seriousness’s sake was its own kind of trophy, and a dubious one, a pose I sought to counter some half-imagined argument about who I was.

我发现，为了严肃而严肃，这本身就是一种虚荣，是一种模棱两可，是为了反抗我想象出的自我而采取的一种姿态。

相反，只有过程中的快乐，才能让自己真正得到享受。

❷ And the joy and work ethic and virtuosity we bring to the particular can impart a singular type of enjoyment to those we give to and of course, ourselves.

做某事时的快乐、敬业和炉火纯青，可以给我们服务的对象带来一种特定的享受，当然也让我们自己得到享受。

她说，年轻人要抓住自己的“盲目”自信放手去搏，因为过了这个时期，我们可能会太过清醒，变得畏手畏脚。

❸ Make use of the fact that you don't doubt yourself too much right now. As we get older, we get more realistic, and that includes about our own abilities — or lack thereof. And that realism does us no favors.

要好好利用你如今不是那么怀疑自己这件事，随着年龄增长，我们变得更加现实，这包括对我们自己能力和缺陷的认知，而这种现实对我们没有好处。

不要害怕自己的无知和没有经验，这些都是你独一无二的财富。

❹ Your inexperience is an asset, and will allow you to think in original and unconventional way. Accept your lack of knowledge and use it as your asset.

你的无经验是种财富，能让你有原创和跳出常规的点子。接受你知识上的匮乏，把它当成财富来用。

波特曼也提醒大家，要关注他人，要抓住身边美好的人和事。

❺ Getting out of your own concerns and caring about some else’s life for a while, remind you that you are not the central of the universe.

跳出你自己的事，偶尔关心一下他人的生活，这会提醒你，你不是宇宙的中心。

❻ Grab the good people around you. Don't let them go. The biggest asset this school offers you is a group of peers that will be both your family and your school for life.

抓紧你身边的好人，别让他们跑掉，这所学校能给你们的最大财富，就是一群将来会成为你一辈子的家人，也是良师益友的同学。