有独立思考能力的人，绝不轻易相信别人 Independent-minded people reject to swallow ideas of others
3月3日下午，全国政协十二届五次会议在北京人民大会堂开幕。会后，政协委员崔永元接受媒体采访，被问及对自己这些年的表现打几分时，小崔表示，“我给自己打100分。”同时，他认为年轻人要有独立思考的能力，不要轻易相信别人。
On the afternoon of March 3, the Fifth Session of the 12th National Committee of CPPCC opened at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. After the meeting, Cui Yongyuan, a CPPCC member, received the interview from the media. When he was asked, "Howe would you rate your performance in the past few years?” He answered with smiles, “I give myself 100 points.” At the same time, he pointed out that young people should have the independent thinking capacity and should take ideas or advice of others with a grain of salt.
崔永元先生是名人大家，说起话了掷地有声，自然能传导一定的正能量，所以他的话一定会引起人们的高度关注和思考。
Mr. Cui is a famous celebrity and his idea can easily resonate with (引起共鸣) many people, thus transmitting some positive energy and attracting the closer attention from others who will pore over (深入思考) his advice.
然而，“不要轻易相信别人”并不是说对别人的意见和建议一概拒之门外。当然，任何时候都我们不能也不应该轻易相信别人。即便别人说的话或给出的建议和意见是正确的，我们也要进行全面分析和解读，甄别别人的话或意见和建议是不是符合逻辑，是不是靠谱，有没有误导和忽悠之嫌。
However, “taking the advice of others with a grain of salt” does not mean you turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to the ideas and advice of others. As a matter of course, we are supposed not to swallow the advice or ideas of others at any time. Even if the ideas or advice given by others are correct, we should also give it a comprehensive analysis and interpretation, reasonably judge whether they stand to reason (合乎道理或情理), whether they are reliable or kind of misleading or phony.
一旦轻易相信这种人的意见和建议，势必要上当受骗或被忽悠或恶搞，反而吃了大亏。这就要求我们有很强的是非判断能力，能权衡利弊，发现别人话语中隐含的误导信息，做出正确选择和取舍，好的意见采纳，不良意见一概拒之千里之外。
Once we accept the ideas and suggestions of this kind of people, we are bound to be taken in or bamboozled or spoofed, so we are sure to come to grief (倒霉；遭受不幸；失败). So we are required to have the strong ability to judge right and wrong and weigh the advantages and disadvantages. When we find the implicit misleading information in ideas of others, we are to make a correct choice: to adopt and discard them with a critical eye. Remember to keep a good distance from others even though they give you ideas or advice.
所以，任何人都应该培养和具有“独立思考的能力”。没有“独立思考的能力”，做决定和采取一项措施的时候，往往耳根子软，听信他人的意见和建议，不加任何分析和甄别就全盘接受，结果可能事与愿违，或造成不可估量的损失，那就亏大发了。
In this regard, any one of us should cultivate and gradually develop “the independent thinking ability”. If you lack this ability and are a soft touch (易被说服者/欺骗者; 软耳根子的人) by nature, you have no doubts in easily accepting the ideas and advice of others and decide upon something or take an action without analyzing and reasonably identifying them. As a result, your plan or action just backfires (事与愿违), or you may sustain heavy losses and just lose out in the end.
只有当年轻人养成良好的独立思考能力，才会不轻易相信别人。所谓“独立思考”是要求全面考量问题的关键要素，弄清问题根源，然后进行逻辑思考，参考、整合并分析他人的意见和建议，厘清解决问题的思路，，排除干扰因素和负面的影响，从而得出自己的结论。
Only when the young people cultivate good habits of thinking ingeniously can they take the ideas and advice of others with a grain of salt. The so-called “independent thinking” calls for your full consideration of the key elements so that you can figure out the ins and outs of the matter and then think logically about it by drawing on, integrating and analyzing the ideas and advice of others so as to clarify and identify the problem-solving methods, eliminate interference factors and the negative impact and come to your own conclusion.
一个血气方刚的年轻人，鲜有社会阅历，往往做决定或采取某个措施的时候，本来就没有养成独立思考的能力，又拒绝听取他人的建议，一时兴起，心血来潮，屁股决定脑袋，草草行事，结果是可想而知的。这种年轻人完全是“人凭心气傲，傲气心凭人”。不可否认这样的年轻人势必会屡屡遭受失败的打击。
A fledgling man full of sap tends to be seized by a whim on the spur of the moment to act hastily without the independent thinking ability and listening attentively to the ideas and advice from others as the butt rules the mind, so the result is predictable. Such a young man can easily fall into a stereotyped pattern “the arrogant man just play by heart; a lofty and unyielding man acts by following his own ingenious conception.” So such a rash man is sure to repeatedly suffer the blow of failures.
小聂家庭条件比较优越。可是上学期间总是心有旁骛，学习成绩很差，结果连大专也没考上，父母拿他没办法，只好托人安排他去当兵。部队里，他也没有什么长进，只是结交了一帮死党。
Xiao Nie has the well-to-do parents, but he was preoccupied with something else instead of his studies in school years with the unsatisfactory scores so that he was not allowed the access to a junior college. His parents found no better way to deal with him, so they had to pull strings （走私人关系；走后门）to send him to the army where he didn’t get anywhere but only associated with (与…交往) some sworn followers.
复员回到地方，通过父母的社会关系，他有幸在工商银行谋取了一份非常体面的工作，他的那些死党都有些羡慕嫉妒恨，觉得他命真好。
After he was demobilized from the army and got back home, he was lucky enough in landing a decent job in ICBC because his parents took a short cut through social connections. His sworn followers were all green with envy, thinking that he had good luck and was blessed by god.
银行收入很高，他的同事一有时间就学习金融知识，提高银行业务技能，他却一门心思想着倒腾生意，而且他原来结识的那帮死党时不时给他灌迷魂药，炫耀自己近期倒腾某个生意又发财了。
Bankers are highly paid, so his college made good use of every minute to learn financial knowledge and improve the bank business skills, but he was obsessed with odd ideas to drum up some business. What’s worse, his sworn followers fed him with temptations from time to tome, showing off their windfall for having engaged in the business.
2000年工行效益很不好，总行采取了减员增效的措施，鼓励员工买断工龄，自谋职业。小聂不顾父母的反对，也不听老同事的意见，反而受一群死党的蛊惑，毅然决定买断工龄，拿着这笔钱，心满意足地去倒腾生意了，梦想自己有朝一日也会过上富人的生活，心里美滋滋的。
In 2000, ICBC had the poor business performance, so its head office adopted a measure for increasing efficiency by downsizing employees and giving them the buy-out offer to support themselves. Regardless of the opposition from his parents and the kind advice from his colleagues, he was deluded by his sworn followers and resolutely decided to accept the buy-out offer (买断工龄) and the lump-sum severance pay(一次性遣散费), quite satisfied to engage in business. He had the dream that some day he could have the life of the rich, feeling greatly flattered.
三年过去了，小聂买断工龄的那笔钱已经被他折腾一空，依然两手空空，他的死党没有一个愿意帮助他度过难关。这时，他好像变了个人似的，心气也没有从前那么高了，生意一天不如一天，后来干脆关门大吉，什么也不做了，呆在家里啃老。
Three years later, almost all his lump-sum severance pay went down the drain(付之东流；化为乌有；打水漂了), and Xiao Nie still got nothing in his hands (两手空空). None of his sworn followers were willing to giving him a helping hand to tide over the difficulty. Now he looks like another person without the previous state of mind. To crown it all (更糟糕的是；尤其是), his business went from bad to worse, so later he closed it outright without doing anything at all but stayed at home to live off his parents(啃老).
当然，小聂一定很后悔，要是当初不轻易听信死党的意见，而是听父母的话并接受老同事的意见不离开工行，同时注重自己的业务能力提升，那他现在的生活一定很稳定，事业也会风生云起，照样受人羡慕。
I bet Xiao Nie must be quite regretful. If he had not swallowed the advice of his sworn followers but had followed the advice of his parents and accept the ideas of his colleagues without quitting his job from ICBC, and paid more attention to the improvement of his business capacity, he would have a steady life and he would have made rapid advances in his career, and sure he would be highly admired and respected by others.
无论任何人，一定要注重自身修养，塑造良好品行；培养自己分析问题和解决问题的能力，特别是独立思考的能力。另外，遇到问题要广纳谏言，对别人的意见和建议多多思量，权衡利弊，三思而后行，确保所做出的决定有很高的胜算率，失误越少越好。只有不轻易相信别人，同时具有很强的独立思考的能力，就可以少犯错误，少做愚蠢的事情。
Anyone must pay attention to their self-cultivation, shape their moral character, cultivate their ability to analyze and solve problems, particularly the independent thinking ability. On the other hand, you’d better pool the wisdom of others, carefully size up the ideas and advice of others, weigh up the pros and cons and look carefully before you leap to ensure your decision has the higher odds with less and less fault. As long as you can take the ideas and advice of others with a grain of salt and also have the strong independent thinking ability, you can make fewer mistakes and do fewer stupid things.