奧裏森·馬登/Orison Marden
“Fifty years ago,”said Hezekiah Conan, the millionaire manufacturer and philanthropist of Pawtucket, R. I.“I persuaded my father to let me leave my home in Dudley, Mass.and strike out for myself. So one morning in May，1845，the old farm horse and wagon was hitched up, and, dressed in our Sunday clothes, father and I started for Worcester. Our object was to get me the situation offered by an advertisement in the Worcester County Gazette as follows：”
Boy Wanted.
Wanted Immediately. At the Gazette Offce, a well disposed boy, able to do heavy rolling.
Worcester, May 7.
“The financial inducements were thirty dollars the first year, thirty-fve the next, and forty dollars the third year and board in the employer's family. These conditions were accepted, and I began work the next day. The Gazette was an ordinary four-page sheet. I soon learned what heavy rolling meant for the paper was printed on a Washington hand-press, the edition of about 2000 copies requiring two laborious intervals of about ten hours each, every week. The printing of the outside was generally done Friday and kept me very busy all day.”
“The inside went to press about three or four o'clock Tuesday afternoon, and it was after three o'clock on Wednesday morning before I could go to bed, tired and lame from the heavy rolling. In addition, I also had the laborious task of carrying a quantity of water from the pump behind the block around to the entrance in front, and then up two flights of stairs, usually a daily job. I was at first everybody's servant. I was abused, called all sorts of nicknames, had to sweep out the offce, build fres in winter, run errands, post bills, carry papers, wait on the editor, in fact I led the life of a genuine printer's devil；but when I showed them at length that I had learned to set type and run the press, I got promoted, and another boy was hired to succeed to my task, with all its decorations. That was my frst success, and from that day to this I have never asked anybody to get me a job or situation, and never used a letter of recommendation；but when an important job was in prospect the proposed employers were given all facilities to learn of my abilities and character. If some young men are easily discouraged, I hope they may gain encouragement and strength from my story. It is a long, rough road at frst, but, like the ship on the ocean, you must lay your course for the place where you hope to land, and take advantage of all favoring circumstances.”
It is said that the career of Benjamin Franklin is full of inspirationfor any young man. When he left school for good he was only twelve years of age. At frst he did little but read. He soon found, however, that reading, alone, would not make him an educated man, and he proceeded to act upon this discovery at once. At school he had been unable to understand arithmetic. Twice he had given it up as a hopeless puzzle, and finally left school almost hopelessly ignorant upon the subject. But the printer's boy soon found his ignorance of fgures extremely inconvenient. When he was about fourteen he took up for the third time the“Cocker's Arithmetic,”which had baffled him at school, and ciphered all through it with ease and pleasure. He then mastered a work upon navigation, which included the rudiments of geometry, and thus tasted“the inexhaustible charm of mathematics.”He pursued a similar course, we are told, in acquiring the art of composition, in which, at length, he excelled most of the men of his time. When he was but a boy of sixteen, he wrote so well that the pieces which he slyly sent to his brother's paper were thought to have been written by some of the most learned men in the colony.
The most successful man is he who has triumphed over obstacles, disadvantages and discouragements.
羅得島州帕特基市的富商和慈善家海澤基亞·科南特回憶說：“50年前，我想離開馬薩諸塞州的達德利去開創自己的天空。起初父親並不同意，可經不住我苦苦哀求。最終，1845年5月的一天清晨，農場裏的那匹老馬身上多了一輛舊的四輪馬車，父親和我拿出了隻有節日才穿的盛裝，踏上去往伍斯特市的路途。《伍斯特報》廣告中的招聘職位是吸引我前往的主要目的，廣告的內容如下：”
招募男孩
急招一名男孩，工作地點在報社，要求身體健康，能吃苦耐勞。
伍斯特報，5月7日
“具體的薪水是，第一年30美元，第二年35美元，第三年40美元，老板負責吃住。我很滿意這些條件。於是，到伍斯特市的第二天我就去了報社。伍斯特報的用紙是很普通的四頁紙。沒過多久，我就知道所謂的粗重工作的含義了。主要是用‘華盛頓’牌手動操作印刷機印刷報紙；為了印刷每期大約2000份的周報，兩個人每人需要10小時地輪流工作才能完成。每到星期五，外頁的印刷工作必須結束，這更是讓我忙得不可開交。”
“在星期二下午三四點鍾左右，內文便會被送來印刷，不到星期三淩晨三點，我不可能逃脫繁重的工作。三點後，我身心疲憊、步履蹣跚地去睡覺。除此之外，我還有一項艱巨的任務，從前門入口附近一塊大石後麵的水泵裏打水，然後爬兩層樓梯把水送到目的地。這已經成為我的日常工作了。剛去的時候，所有人都對我呼來喝去，很多人對我肆意辱罵，起一些五花八門的綽號。我還得沒日沒夜地工作：打掃辦公室，冬天的時候生火，聽人差遣，郵寄賬單，取紙張，服侍編輯。本質上，我的生活與印刷廠學徒工沒什麽區別。不過，當他們發現我掌握了排字和操作印刷機的技術時，我便有了晉升的機會。我的工作被一個新雇來的男孩兒承擔了，當然他也沒能躲過所有的苦役。那是我首次獲得成功，然後從那天以後時至今日，我從未因為一份工作或一個職位去懇求任何人，更不用說推薦信。不過，當遇到朝思暮想的重要工作時，我會絞盡腦汁地讓那個雇主知道我的能力和性格。假如一些年輕人遇到事情便輕易放棄的話，我期待他們從我的經曆中得到鼓舞和力量。剛剛踏上漫長、艱苦的成功之路時，你不會感到輕鬆，道理就像船隻在海上航行一樣。你一定要按照希望著陸的地方確定航程，並好好利用一切有益的環境。”
有一種廣為流傳的說法，許多年輕人知道本傑明·富蘭克林的職業生涯後，都很受鼓舞。年僅12歲的富蘭克林便離開學校，闖**天涯。剛出校門，他隻是埋頭看書。不過，沒過多久他便發現，自己光靠讀書成不了學識淵博的人。意識到這點後，他馬上采取了措施。上學的時候，富蘭克林就弄不懂數學。在數學上無可救藥的富蘭克林甚至還有兩次放棄的經曆，最後離開學校時，富蘭克林早已對數學徹底絕望。然而沒過多久，這個印刷學徒就體會到了貧乏的數字知識所帶來的重重困難。麵對在學校期間讓他頭昏腦漲的“算術”，大約14歲的富蘭克林第三次發起挑戰，並最終體會到掌握數學帶來的方便與快樂。隨後，在一本囊括幾何學入門知識的航海著作中，富蘭克林真正理解了書中的真諦，因此感受到了“數學的無窮魅力”。我們還聽人說，為了改進寫作技巧，富蘭克林後來還學習了一門類似的課程，並最終成為同時代的傑出人物。年僅16歲的富蘭克林，寫文章的水平已經達到登峰造極的程度。有一次，富蘭克林私下裏把自己的文章寄到他哥哥的報社，很多人誤認為是一些文學界知名人士的傑作。
通常，那些克服障礙、劣勢和挫折的人才能獲得最大的成功。
W詞匯筆記
lame[leim]adj.跛足的；僵痛的
例 He is lame in one leg and walks with the help of a crutch.
他的一條腿跛了，走路借助於拐杖。
errand['er?nd]n.差使；差事
例 I'll go there to do an errand.
我將去那裏辦件事。
decoration[,dek?'rei??n]n.裝飾；裝飾品
例 She'd put these whatnots in her hair as decoration.
她把那些也不知道是什麽的東西弄到頭發上當飾物。
baffle['b?fl]v.困惑；為難
例 The question baffled me completely and I could not answer.
這個問題把我徹底難倒了，我答不出來。
S小試身手
你一定要按照希望著陸的地方確定航程，並好好利用一切有益的環境。
譯________________________________________
假如一些年輕人遇到事情便輕易放棄的話，我期待他們從我的經曆中得到鼓舞和力量。
譯________________________________________
那些克服障礙、劣勢和挫折的人才能獲得最大的成功。
譯________________________________________
P短語家族
……and strike out for myself.
strike out：狠打；出擊；敲打出（火花等）
造________________________________________
The most successful man is he who has triumphed over obstacles, disadvantages and discouragements.
triumph over：獲得勝利
造________________________________________