英语演讲稿：内向性格的力量

when i was nine years old i went off to summer camp for the first time. and my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. because in my family, reading was the primary group activity. and this might sound antisocial to you, but for us it was really just a different way of being social. you have the animal warmth of your family sitting right next to you, but you are also free to go roaming around the adventureland inside your own mind. and i had this idea that camp was going to be just like this, but better. (laughter) i had a vision of 10 girls sitting in a cabin cozily reading books in their matching nightgowns.

当我九岁的时候 我第一次去参加夏令营 我妈妈帮我整理好了我的行李箱 里面塞满了书 这对于我来说是一件极为自然的事情 因为在我的家庭里 阅读是主要的家庭活动 听上去你们可能觉得我们是不爱交际的 但是对于我的家庭来说这真的只是接触社会的另一种途径 你们有自己家庭接触时的温暖亲情 家人静坐在你身边 但是你也可以自由地漫游 在你思维深处的冒险乐园里我有一个想法 野营会变得像这样子，当然要更好些 (笑声) 我想象到十个女孩坐在一个小屋里 都穿着合身的女式睡衣惬意地享受着读书的过程。

(laughter)

(笑声)

camp was more like a keg party without any alcohol. and on the very first day our counselor gathered us all together and she taught us a cheer that she said we would be doing every day for the rest of the summer to instill camp spirit. and it went like this: "r-o-w-d-i-e, that's the way we spell rowdie. rowdie, rowdie, let's get rowdie." yeah. so i couldn't figure out for the life of me why we were supposed to be so rowdy, or why we had to spell this word incorrectly. (laughter) but i recited a cheer. i recited a cheer along with everybody else. i did my best. and i just waited for the time that i could go off and read my books.

野营这时更像是一个不提供酒水的派对聚会 在第一天的时候呢 我们的顾问把我们都集合在一起 并且她教会了我们一种今后要用到的庆祝方式 在余下夏令营的每一天中 让“露营精神”浸润我们 之后它就像这样继续着 r-o-w-d-i-e 这是我们拼写“吵闹"的口号 我们唱着“噪音，喧闹，我们要变得吵一点” 对，就是这样 可我就是弄不明白我的生活会是什么样的 为什么我们变得这么吵闹粗暴 或者为什么我们非要把这个单词错误地拼写 (笑声) 但是我可没有忘记庆祝。我与每个人都互相欢呼庆祝了 我尽了我最大的努力 我只是想等待那一刻 我可以离开吵闹的聚会去捧起我挚爱的书。

but the first time that i took my book out of my suitcase, the coolest girl in the bunk came up to me and she asked me, "why are you being so mellow?" -- mellow, of course, being the exact opposite of r-o-w-d-i-e. and then the second time i tried it, the counselor came up to me with a concerned expression on her face and she repeated the point about camp spirit and said we should all work very hard to be outgoing.

但是当我第一次把书从行李箱中拿出来的时候 床铺中最酷的那个女孩向我走了过来 并且她问我：“为什么你要这么安静?” 安静，当然，是r-o-w-d-i-e的反义词 “喧闹”的反义词 而当我第二次拿书的时候 我们的顾问满脸忧虑的向我走了过来 接着她重复了关于“露营精神”的要点并且说我们都应当努力 去变得外向些

and so i put my books away, back in their suitcase, and i put them under my bed, and there they stayed for the rest of the summer. and i felt kind of guilty about this. i felt as if the books needed me somehow, and they were calling out to me and i was forsaking i did forsake them and i didn't open that suitcase again until i was back home with my family at the end of the summer.

于是我放好我的书 放回了属于它们的行李箱中 并且我把它们放到了床底下 在那里它们度过了暑假余下的每一天 我对这样做感到很愧疚 不知为什么我感觉这些书是需要我的 它们在呼唤我，但是我却放弃了它们 我确实放下了它们，并且我再也没有打开那个箱子，直到我和我的家人在夏末的时候一起回到家中。

now, i tell you this story about summer camp. i could have told you 50 others just like it --all the times that i got the message that somehow my quiet and introverted style of beingwas not necessarily the right way to go, that i should be trying to pass as more of an extrovert. and i always sensed deep down that this was wrong and that introverts were pretty excellent just as they were. but for years i denied this intuition, and so i became a wall street lawyer, of all things, instead of the writer that i had always longed to be -- partly because i needed to prove to myself that i could be bold and assertive too. and i was always going off to crowded bars when i really would have preferred to just have a nice dinner with friends. and i made these self-negating choices so reflexively, that i wasn't even aware that i was making them.

现在，我向你们讲述这个夏令营的故事 我完全可以给你们讲出其他50种版本就像这个一样的故事-- 每当我感觉到这样的时候 它告诉我出于某种原因，我的宁静和内向的风格 并不是正确道路上的必需品 我应该更多地尝试一个外向者的角色 而在我内心深处感觉得到，这是错误的内向的人们都是非常优秀的，确实是这样 但是许多年来我都否认了这种直觉 于是我首先成为了华尔街的一名律师 而不是我长久以来想要成为的一名作家 一部分原因是因为我想要证明自己 也可以变得勇敢而坚定 并且我总是去那些拥挤的酒吧 当我只是想要和朋友们吃一顿愉快的晚餐时 我做出了这些自我否认的抉择 如条件反射一般 甚至我都不清楚我做出了这些决定。

now this is what many introverts do, and it's our loss for sure, but it is also our colleagues' loss and our communities' loss. and at the risk of sounding grandiose, it is the world's loss. because when it comes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best. a third to a half of the population are introverts -- a third to a half. so that's one out of every two or three people you know. so even if you're an extrovert yourself, i'm talking about your coworkers and your spouses and your childrenand the person sitting next to you right now -- all of them subject to this bias that is pretty deep and real in our society. we all internalize it from a very early age without even having a language for what we're doing.

这就是很多内向的人正在做的事情 这当然是我们的损失 但这同样也是同事们的损失 我们所在团队集体的损失 当然，冒着被指为夸大其词的风险我想说，更是世界的损失 因为当涉及创造和领导的时候 我们需要内向的人做到最好 三分之一到二分之一的人都是内向的-- 三分之一到二分之一 你要知道这可意味着每两到三个人中就有一个内向的 所以即使你自己是一个外向的人 我正在说你的同事 和你的配偶和你的孩子 还有现在正坐在你旁边的那个家伙-- 他们都要屈从于这样的偏见 一种在我们的社会中已经扎根的现实偏见 我们从很小的时候就把它藏在内心最深处 甚至都不说几句话，关于我们正在做的事情。

now to see the bias clearly you need to understand what introversion is. it's different from being shy. shyness is about fear of social judgment. introversion is more about, how do you respond to stimulation, including social stimulation. so extroverts really crave large amounts of stimulation, whereas introverts feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they're in quieter, more low-key all the time -- these things aren't absolute -- but a lot of the time. so the key then to maximizing our talents is for us all to put ourselves in the zone of stimulation that is right for us.

现在让我们来清楚地看待这种偏见 我们需要真正了解“内向”到底指什么 它和害羞是不同的 害羞是对于社会评论的恐惧 内向更多的是 你怎样对于刺激作出回应 包括来自社会的刺激 其实内向的人是很渴求大量的鼓舞和激励的 反之内向者最感觉到他们的存在 这是他们精力最充足的时候，最具有能力的时候 当他们存在于更安静的，更低调的环境中 并不是所有时候--这些事情都不是绝对的-- 但是存在于很多时候 所以说，关键在于 把我们的天赋发挥到最大化 这对于我们来说就足够把我们自己 放到对于我们正确又合适的激励的区域中去。

but now here's where the bias comes in. our most important institutions, our schools and our workplaces, they are designed mostly for extroverts and for extroverts' need for lots of stimulation. and also we have this belief system right now that i call the new groupthink,which holds that all creativity and all productivity comes from a very oddly gregarious place.

但是现在偏见出现了 我们最重要的那些体系 我们的学校和工作单位 它们都是为性格外向者设计的 并且有适合他们需要的刺激和鼓励 当然我们现在也有这样一种信用机制 我称它为新型的“团队思考” 这是一种包含所有创造力和生产力的思考方式 从一个社交非常零散的地方产生的。

so if you picture the typical classroom nowadays: when i was going to school, we sat in rows. we sat in rows of desks like this, and we did most of our work pretty nowadays, your typical classroom has pods of desks -- four or five or six or seven kids all facing each other. and kids are working in countless group assignments. even in subjects like math and creative writing, which you think would depend on solo flights of thought, kids are now expected to act as committee members. and for the kids who preferto go off by themselves or just to work alone, those kids are seen as outliers often or, worse, as problem cases. and the vast majority of teachers reports believing that the ideal student is an extrovert as opposed to an introvert, even though introverts actually get better grades and are more knowledgeable, according to research. (laughter)

当你描绘今天典型教室的图案时 当我还上学的时候 我们一排排地坐着 我们靠着桌子一排排坐着就像这样 并且我们大多数工作都是自觉完成的 但是在现代社会，所谓典型的教室 是些圈起来并排的桌子-- 四个或是五个或是六、七个孩子坐在一起，面对面 孩子们要完成无数个小组任务 甚至像数学和创意写作这些课程 这些你们认为需要依靠个人闪光想法的课程 孩子们现在却被期待成为小组会的成员 对于那些喜欢 独处，或者自己一个人工作的孩子来说 这些孩子常常被视为局外人 或者更糟，被视为问题孩子 并且很大一部分老师的报告中都相信 最理想的学生应该是外向的 相对于内向的学生而言 甚至说外向的学生能够取得更好的成绩 更加博学多识据研究报道 (笑声)

okay, same thing is true in our workplaces. now, most of us work in open plan offices,without walls, where we are subject to the constant noise and gaze of our coworkers. and when it comes to leadership, introverts are routinely passed over for leadership positions,even though introverts tend to be very careful, much less likely to take outsize risks --which is something we might all favor nowadays. and interesting research by adam grant at the wharton school has found that introverted leaders often deliver better outcomes than extroverts do, because when they are managing proactive employees, they're much more likely to let those employees run with their ideas, whereas an extrovert can, quite unwittingly, get so excited about things that they're putting their own stamp on things, and other people's ideas might not as easily then bubble up to the surface.

好了。同样的事情也发生在我们工作的地方 现在呢，我们中的绝大多数都工作在宽阔没有隔间的办公室里 甚至没有墙 在这里，我们暴露 在不断的噪音和我们同事的凝视目光下工作 而当谈及领袖气质的时候 内向的人总是按照惯例从领导的位置被忽视了 尽管内向的人是非常小心仔细的 很少去冒特大的风险-- 这些风险是今天我们可能都喜欢的 宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的亚当·格兰特教授做了一项很有意思的研究 这项研究表明内向的领导们 相对于外向领导而言总是会生产更大的效益 因为当他们管理主动积极的雇员的时候 他们更倾向于让有主见的雇员去自由发挥 反之外向的领导就可能，当然是不经意的 对于事情变得十分激动 他们在事务上有了自己想法的印迹 这使其他人的想法可能就不会很容易地 在舞台上发光了。

now in fact, some of our transformative leaders in history have been introverts. i'll give you some examples. eleanor roosevelt, rosa parks, gandhi -- all these peopled described themselves as quiet and soft-spoken and even shy. and they all took the spotlight, even though every bone in their bodies was telling them not to. and this turns out to have a special power all its own, because people could feel that these leaders were at the helm,not because they enjoyed directing others and not out of the pleasure of being looked at;they were there because they had no choice, because they were driven to do what they thought was right.

事实上，历史上一些有改革能力的领袖都是内向的人 我会举一些例子给你们 埃莉诺·罗斯福，罗沙·帕克斯，甘地 -- 所有这些人都把自己描述成 内向，说话温柔甚至是害羞的人 他们仍然站在了聚光灯下 即使他们浑身上下 都感知他们说不要 这证明是一种属于它自身的特殊的力量因为人们都会感觉这些领导者同时是掌舵者 并不是因为他们喜欢指挥别人 抑或是享受众人目光的聚焦 他们处在那个位置因为他们没有选择， 因为他们行驶在他们认为正确的道路上。

now i think at this point it's important for me to say that i actually love extroverts. i always like to say some of my best friends are extroverts, including my beloved husband. and we all fall at different points, of course, along the introvert/extrovert spectrum. even carl jung, the psychologist who first popularized these terms, said that there's no such thing as a pure introvert or a pure extrovert. he said that such a man would be in a lunatic asylum, if he existed at all. and some people fall smack in the middle of the introvert/extrovert spectrum, and we call these people ambiverts. and i often think that they have the best of all worlds. but many of us do recognize ourselves as one type or the other.

现在我觉得对于这点我有必要说 那就是我真的喜爱外向的人 我总是喜欢说我最好的几个朋友都是外向的人 包括我亲爱的丈夫 当然了我们都会在不同点时偏向 内向者/外向者的范围 甚至是卡尔·荣格，这个让这些名词为大众所熟知的心理学家，说道 世上绝没有一个纯粹的内向的人 或者一个纯粹的外向的人 他说这样的人会在精神病院里 如果他存在的话 还有一些人处在中间的迹象 在内向与外向之间 我们称这些人为“中向性格者” 并且我总是认为他们拥有世界最美好的一切 但是我们中的大多数总是认为自己属于内向或者外向，其中一类。

and what i'm saying is that culturally we need a much better balance. we need more of a yin and yang between these two types. this is especially important when it comes to creativity and to productivity, because when psychologists look at the lives of the most creative people, what they find are people who are very good at exchanging ideas and advancing ideas, but who also have a serious streak of introversion in them.

同时我想说从文化意义上讲我们需要一种更好的平衡 我们需要更多的阴阳的平衡 在这两种类型的人之间 这点是极为重要的 当涉及创造力和生产力的时候 因为当心理学家们看待 最有创造力的人的生命的时候 他们寻找到的 是那些擅长变换思维的人 提出想法的人 但是他们同时也有着极为显著的偏内向的痕迹。

and this is because solitude is a crucial ingredient often to creativity. so darwin, he took long walks alone in the woods and emphatically turned down dinner party dor geisel, better known as dr. seuss, he dreamed up many of his amazing creations in a lonely bell tower office that he had in the back of his house in la jolla, california. and he was actually afraid to meet the young children who read his books for fear that they were expecting him this kind of jolly santa claus-like figure and would be disappointed with his more reserved persona. steve wozniak invented the first apple computer sitting alone in his cubical in hewlett-packard where he was working at the time. and he says that he never would have become such an expert in the first place had he not been too introverted to leave the house when he was growing up.

这是因为独处是非常关键的因素 对于创造力来说 所以达尔文 自己一个人漫步在小树林里 并且断然拒绝了晚餐派对的邀约 西奥多·盖索，更多时候以苏索博士的名号知名 他梦想过很多的惊人的创作 在他在加利福尼亚州拉霍亚市房子的后面的 一座孤独的束层的塔形办公室中 而且其实他很害怕见面 见那些读过他的书的年轻的孩子们 害怕他们会期待他 这样一位令人愉快的，圣诞老人形象的人物 同时又会因发现他含蓄缄默的性格而失望 史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克发明了第一台苹果电脑 一个人独自坐在他的机柜旁 在他当时工作的惠普公司 并且他说他永远不会在那方面成为一号专家 但他还没因太内向到要离开那里 那个他成长起来的地方。

now of course, this does not mean that we should all stop collaborating -- and case in point, is steve wozniak famously coming together with steve jobs to start apple computer -- but it does mean that solitude matters and that for some people it is the air that they breathe. and in fact, we have known for centuries about the transcendent power of solitude. it's only recently that we've strangely begun to forget it. if you look at most of the world's major religions, you will find seekers -- moses, jesus, buddha, muhammad --seekers who are going off by themselves alone to the wilderness where they then have profound epiphanies and revelations that they then bring back to the rest of the community. so no wilderness, no revelations.

当然了 这并不意味着我们都应该停止合作-- 恰当的例子呢，是史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克和史蒂夫·乔布斯的著名联手 创建苹果电脑公司-- 但是这并不意味着和独处有重大关系 并且对于一些人来说 这是他们赖以呼吸生存的空气 事实上，几个世纪以来我们已经非常明白 独处的卓越力量只是到了最近，非常奇怪，我们开始遗忘它了 如果你看看世界上主要的宗教 你会发现探寻者-- 摩西，耶稣，佛祖，穆罕默德 -- 那些独身去探寻的人们 在大自然的旷野中独处，思索 在那里，他们有了深刻的顿悟和对于奥义的揭示 之后他们把这些思想带回到社会的其他地方去没有旷原，没有启示。

this is no surprise though if you look at the insights of contemporary psychology. it turns out that we can't even be in a group of people without instinctively mirroring, mimicking their opinions. even about seemingly personal and visceral things like who you're attracted to, you will start aping the beliefs of the people around you without even realizing that that's what you're doing.

尽管这并不令人惊讶 如果你注意到现代心理学的思想理论 它反映出来我们甚至不能和一组人待在一起 而不去本能地模仿他们的意见与想法 甚至是看上去私人的，发自内心的事情 像是你被谁所吸引 你会开始模仿你周围的人的信仰 甚至都觉察不到你自己在做什么。

and groups famously follow the opinions of the most dominant or charismatic person in the room, even though there's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas -- i mean zero. so ... (laughter) you might be following the person with the best ideas, but you might not. and do you really want to leave it up to chance? much better for everybody to go off by themselves, generate their own ideas freed from the distortions of group dynamics, and then come together as a team to talk them through in a well-managed environment and take it from there.

还曾跟随群体的意见 跟随着房间里最具有统治力的，最有领袖气质的人的思路 虽然这真的没什么关系 在成为一个卓越的演讲家还是拥有最好的主意之间-- 我的意思是“零相关” 那么...(笑声) 你们或许会跟随有最好头脑的人 但是你们也许不会 可你们真的想把这机会扔掉吗?如果每个人都自己行动或许好得多 发掘他们自己的想法 没有群体动力学的曲解 接着来到一起组成一个团队 在一个良好管理的环境中互相交流 并且在那里学习别的思想。

now if all this is true, then why are we getting it so wrong? why are we setting up our schools this way and our workplaces? and why are we making these introverts feel so guilty about wanting to just go off by themselves some of the time? one answer lies deep in our cultural history. western societies, and in particular the u.s., have always favored the man of action over the man of contemplation and "man" of contemplation. but in america's early days, we lived in what historians call a culture of character, where we still, at that point, valued people for their inner selves and their moral rectitude. and if you look at the self-help books from this era, they all had titles with things like "character, the grandest thing in the world." and they featured role models like abraham lincoln who was praised for being modest and unassuming. ralph waldo emerson called him "a man who does not offend by superiority."