译文的第一部分做了大篇幅的修改，如果没有看完的要回看了。
Part 2: My Most Fundamental Life Principles
我的最基本的生活原则
I learned that the popular picture of success—which is like a glossy photo of an ideal man or woman out of a Ralph Lauren catalog, with a bio attached listing all of their accomplishments like going to the best prep schools and an Ivy League college, and getting all the answers right on tests—is an inaccurate picture of the typical successful person. I met a number of great people and learned that none of them were born great—they all made lots of mistakes and had lots weaknesses—and that great people become great by looking at their mistakes and weaknesses and figuring out how to get around them. So I learned that the people who make the most of the process of encountering reality, especially the painful obstacles, learn the most and get what they want faster than people who do not. I learned that they are the great ones—the ones I wanted to have around me.
我所知道的最流行的成功的写照就像是来自Ralph Lauren网站精美的照片——一群来自常春藤盟校受过良好教育的有理想有抱负的男男女女头顶着各种成功的光环，显然这是不准确的。我所遇到的很多伟大的人物没有一个是天生赢家，他们犯过很多错误，也有很多弱点。成功的人之所以成功是因为他们不断的从自己的错误和弱点中学习，并且想办法绕过这些弱点和错误。我认识到那些能从现实中不断总结学习，特别是从感到棘手的问题中总结学习的人总是能够很快达成他们的目标。我觉得他们才是最棒的，我也希望我的身边环绕这这样的人。
In short, I learned that being totally truthful, especially about mistakes and weaknesses, led to a rapid rate of improvement and movement toward what I wanted.
总之，我认识到我们必须完全的实事求是，特别是面对错误和自己的弱点的时候，这会让我们快速的改进并朝着目标前进。
While this approach worked great for me, I found it more opposite than similar to most others’ approaches, which has produced communications challenges.
这个认知对我来说非常有效，但是同时我也发现这个认识和别人的认知有着诸多的分歧，这些分歧对于相互沟通有着很多的挑战。
Specifically, I found that:
以下是我发现的有分歧的地方：
While most others seem to believe that learning what we are taught is the path to success, I believe that figuring out for yourself what you want and how to get it is a better path.13
很多人相信通向成功的途径是相信教条，但是我认为找准目标并找到实现目标的方法更为重要；
While most others seem to believe that having answers is better than having questions, I believe that having questions is better than having answers because it leads to more learning.14
很多人相信获得答案比问出问题更好，但是我认为能够问出问题更好，因为问题可以让我们学习更多。
While most others seem to believe that mistakes are bad things, I believe mistakes are good things because I believe that most learning comes via making mistakes and reflecting on them.
很多人认为犯错误是个坏事情，但是我认为犯错误是好事情，因为我相信很多认知的获得需要从错误中得到反馈。
While most others seem to believe that finding out about one’s weaknesses is a bad thing, Ibelieve that it is a good thing because it is the first step toward finding out what to do about them and not letting them stand in your way.
很多人认为找出别人的弱点是个坏事情，但是我认为这是个好事情，这是认识别人的第一个环节，同时我们也可以尽力避免与有致命弱点的人合作。
While most others seem to believe that pain is bad, I believe that pain is required to become stronger.15
很多人认为痛苦是不好，但是我认为痛苦意味着需要我们变得更加有力量。
One of the advantages of my being over 60 years old—and there aren’t many—is that we can look back on my story to see how I came by these beliefs and how they have worked for me. It is now more than 35years after I started Bridgewater and about the same number of years since I got married and began my family. I am obviously not your Ralph Lauren poster child for success, yet I’ve had a lot of successes,though they’re probably not what you’re thinking.
我的一项优势是我已经60多岁了，我可以回看我的经历，去总结我是如何与这些原则相伴而行，这些原则又是如何回报我。我创办桥水资本已经35年了，也就是在那年我组建了自己的家庭。显然我不是Ralph Lauren宣传的成功人士，但是我确实取得了一些成功，虽然或许不是你想要的成功。
Yes, I started Bridgewater from scratch, and now it’s a uniquely successful company and I am on the Forbes 400 list. But these results were never my goals—they were just residual outcomes—so my gettingthem can’t be indications of my success. And, quite frankly, I never found them very rewarding.16
是的，我白手起家创办了桥水资本，现在那是一家非常成功的公司，而我也进入了福布斯排行前400名。但是这些成绩绝不是我当初的目标，他们仅仅是附带的收获，因此取得这些成绩不能彰显我的成功。坦白的说，我从来没有觉得这些荣誉是对我最好回报。
13 After all, isn’t the point of learning to help you get what you want? So don’t you have to start with what you want and figure out what you have to learn in order to get it?
毕竟，学习的重点难道不是帮你得到你所想要的？难道你不是以你所想开始，并且想办法学习如何达成目标？
14 In fact I believe that most people who are quick to come up with answers simply haven’t thought about all the ways that they canbe wrong.
实际上，我相信大多数的人都急于得到一个简单的答案而不是深思熟虑想一想每一种可能性和自己有可能出错的地方。
15 I don’t mean that the more pain the better. I believe that too much pain can break someone and that the absence of pain typically prevents growth so that one should accept the amount of pain that is consistent with achieving one’s objectives.
我的意思不是越痛苦越好。我相信太多的痛苦会伤害一个人，但是痛苦的缺失也会妨碍一个人的成长。因此，一个人要接受一定量痛苦本身的训练，这会让人保持客观。
16 I have been very lucky because I have had the opportunity to see what it’s like to have little or no money and what it’s like to havea lot of it. I’m lucky because people make such a big deal of it and, if I didn’t experience both, I wouldn’t be able to know how important it really is for me. I can’t comment on what having a lot of money means to others, but I do know that for me, having a lot more money isn’t a lot better than having enough to cover the basics. That’s because, for me, the best things in life—meaningful work, meaningful relationships, interesting experiences, good food, sleep, music, ideas, sex, and other basic needs and pleasures—are not, past a certain point, materially improved upon by having a lot of money. For me, money has always been very important to
我非常幸运的见识到了没有钱的日子和暴富的日子对一个人意味着什么。我很幸运，如果我没有经历两者，我就不能体会有钱和没钱对我意味着什么。对我来说，有很多钱的美好并不多过刚刚覆盖生活所需。因为，对我来说，有意义的工作，有意义的关系，令人兴奋的体验，好的睡眠...才是最重要的。当物质生活生活超过一个临界点的时候上升空间就非常小了
What I wanted was to have an interesting, diverse life filled with lots of learning—and especially meaningful work and meaningful relationships. I feel that I have gotten these in abundance and I am happy. And I feel that I got what I wanted by following the same basic approach I used as a 12-year-old caddie trying to beat the market, i.e., by
- working for what I wanted, not for what others wanted me todo;
- coming up with the best independent opinions I could muster to move toward my goals;
- stress-testing my opinions by having the smartest people I could find challenge them so I could find out where Iwas wrong;
- being wary about overconfidence, and good at not knowing; and
- wrestling with reality,experiencing the results of my decisions, and reflecting on what I did to produce them so that I couldimprove. I believe that by following this approach I moved faster to my goals by learning a lot more than ifI hadn’t followed it.
我想要的是一个被有意义的工作和关系填充的，有趣的，丰富多彩的生活。我感觉我已经得到了我想要的，我也感到很快乐。我认为我获得了我想要的，仅仅通过我12岁作为球童就遵守的规则。
1.做你认为正确的事，而不是做别人认为正确的事。
2.独立思考，并且朝着你的目标方向努力。
3.通过与优秀的人交流找出自己思考的漏洞。
4.警惕过分自信，要善于发现自己的过分自信的状态。
5.善于行动，用现实检验我们的思考结果，并在此过程中不断总结和进化。
我相信因为我遵守了以上的准则，我学到的远多于我不遵守这些规则的所学。
Here are the most important principles that I learned along the way.
以下是我在此过程中学到非常重要的原则：
My Most Fundamental Principles
我最基本的原则
In pursuing my goals I encountered realities, often in the form of problems, and I had to make decisions. I found that if I accepted the realities rather than wished that they didn’t exist and if I learned how to work with them rather than fight them, I could figure out how to get to my goals. It might take repeated tries, and seeking the input of others, but I could eventually get there.
在我实现目标的过程中我尝尝遇到一些事实，它们常常以问题的形式表现出来，面对它们我必须做一些决定。我在处理这些现实问题的时候，我会接受现实而不是假装它们不存在，我学会了如何与现实问题共生而不是站在它们的对立面，如此我尝尝能够达到我的目标。虽然这个过程需要很多次的尝试和向别人求教，但是我最终会到达那里。
As a result, I have become someone who believes that we need to deeply understand, accept, and work with reality in order to get what we want out of life. Whether it is knowing how people really think and behave when dealing with them, or how things really work on a material level—so that if we do X then Y will happen—understanding reality gives us the power to get what we want out of life, or at least to dramatically improve our odds of success. In other words, I have become a “hyperrealist.”
最终，我成为一个为达成自己的目标，深入了解真相，接受真相，与真相为伍的人。无论了解一个人真正的想法和行为，还是了解事情运行的基础逻辑，可以大幅度的增加我们成功的概率。换句话说，我已经成为了一个现实主义者。
When I say I’m a hyperrealist, people sometimes think I don’t believe in making dreams happen. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, I believe that without pursuing dreams, life is mundane. I am just saying that I believe hyperrealism is the best way to choose and achieve one’s dreams. The people who really change the world are the ones who see what’s possible and figure out how to make that happen. I believe that dreamers who simply imagine things that would be nice but are not possible don’t sufficiently appreciate the laws of the universe to understand the true implications of their desires, much less how to achieve them.
由于我说我是一个现实主义的人，很多人认为我不相信梦想。这与事实并不相符，实际上我相信，如果没有梦想的追求生活是这么的无趣。我相信现实主义是选择和实现梦想的最佳路径。真正能够实现梦想的人是那些能够分辨什么是可能的，并且知道如何一步步实现这种可能性的人。我相信那些仅仅心怀梦想却不能实现的人就是应为没有很好的认识到现实对他们梦想的影响，当然他们对于如何实现自己的梦想缺少想法。
Let me explain what I mean.
I believe there are an infinite number of laws of the universe and that all progress or dreams achieved come from operating in a way that’s consistent with them. These laws and the principles of how to operate in harmony with them have always existed. We were given these laws by nature. Man didn’t and can’t make them up. He can only hope to understand them and use them to get what he wants.
让我来解释一下。
我相信世界上存在非常多的底层规律，所有事情的进展和梦想的实现都是因为遵守了这些底层规律。如何利用这些底层规律的方法和原则也确实存在。我们只能接受这些规律的恩赐，使用这些规律达成我们自己的目标，我们是无法创造出这些规律的。
For example, the ability to fly or to send cellular phone signals imperceptibly and instantaneously around the world or any other new and beneficial developments resulted from understanding and using previously existing laws of the universe. These inventions did not come from people who were not well-grounded in reality.17 The same is true for economic, political, and social systems that work.
比如说，在人们毫无察觉的情况下即时的将手机信号传遍全球，或者其他新奇的技术进步和创造，都是对已经存在的自然规律使用的结果。这些产品不会被那些不接地气的人们发明出来。这个规律在经济，政治，社会系统中同样起作用。
Success is achieved by people who deeply understand reality and know how to use it to get what they want. The converse is also true: idealists who are not well-grounded in reality create problems, not progress. For example, communism was a system created by people with good intentions who failed to recognize that their idealistic system was inconsistent with human nature. As a result, they caused more harm than good.
成功只属于那些能够深入理解真相并且知道如何使用这些真相达成他们目标的人们。这句话反过来说同样成立：理想主义者脱离实际的做法，只能制造麻烦，也很难取得进步。举例来说：共产主义是人们怀着美好的意图创造的系统，但是创造者们太过理想化进而脱离了人类的天性。因此，这个系统弊大于利。
This brings me to my most fundamental principle:
Truth—more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality— is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.
根据上面这些分析我创建了非常基础的理论：
真相——对事情本来面目的精确理解——是取得好的结果的最本质基础。
While I spend the most time studying how the realities that affect me most work—i.e., those that drive the markets and the people I deal with—I also love to study nature to try to figure out how it works because, to me, nature is both beautiful and practical.
我花了非常多的时间学习真相是如何影响我自己的，即这些真相是如何驱动市场如何影响与我相关的人。我也非常喜欢研究自然，从中认识到大自然对人们的作用，因为对于我来说自然是美妙而又实际的。
Its perfection and brilliance staggers me. When I think about all the flying machines, swimming machines, and billions of other systems that nature created, from the microscopic level to the cosmic level, and how they interact with one another to make a workable whole that evolves through time and through multi- dimensions, my breath is taken away. It seems to me that, in relation to nature, man has the intelligence of a mold growing on an apple—man can’t even make a mosquito, let alone scratch the surface of understanding the universe.
巧夺天工的大自然吸引着我。当我脑海中出现飞机、轮船，还有数以万计的其他创作，从显微镜到望远镜，究竟是什么样的机理才会让他们从时间到空间结合成为精密的整体，这些神奇的创造让我感到窒息的惊讶。人类在跟大自然互动过的过程中，人类只能在现有的事物或者规律上加以创作，就像给苹果做一个塑形外壳，人类甚至不能创造像蚊子这样的简单生物，更不用说是深入了解浩瀚的宇宙。
Though how nature works is way beyond man’s ability to comprehend, I have found that observing how nature works offers innumerable lessons that can help us understand the realities that affect us. That is because, though man is unique, he is part of nature and subject to most of the same laws of nature that affect other species.
虽然大自然如何运行这件事超过了人类的想象能力，但是观察自然的运动规律能够帮助我们了解到真相是如何影响我们自己的。那是因为人类本来就是大自然的一部分，人类也收到大自然规律的限制，这些规律并不只作用于其他的物种。
For example, I have found that by looking at what is rewarded and punished, and why, universally—i.e., in nature as well as in humanity—I have been able to learn more about what is “good” and “bad” than by listening to most people’s views about good and bad.
举例来说，我并不是通过听取别人的观点，而是通过观察自然界和人类活动中什么样的行为收到奖赏什么样的行为受到惩罚来学习好和坏的定义。
It seems to me that what most people call “good” and “bad” typically reflects their particular group’s preferences: the Taliban’s definitions are different than Americans’, which are different than others’—and within each group there are differences and they are intended to paint a picture of the world the way they’d like it to be rather than the way it really is.
大多数的人所说“好”还是“坏”深受他们所在团队喜好的影响：塔利班对于好坏的定义与美国有着巨大的差别，同样其他人对于好坏的定义也有着天壤之别。对于不同的团体，他们倾向于描绘一幅他们想象之中的正确图卷而不是事情本来的面目。
So there are many different takes on what is good and bad that each group uses to call others “bad” and themselves “good,” some of which are practical and others of which are impractical. Yet all of them, and everything else, are subject to the same laws of nature–i.e., I believe that we all get rewarded and punished according to whether we operate in harmony or in conflict with nature’s laws, and that all societies will succeed or fail in the degrees that they operate consistently with these laws.
因此不同的团体定义自己想象中的好与坏，同时指责别人认知中的好与坏。这些定义当中总有一些是具有实践意义的，同时也有一些是没有实践意义的。但是无论我们如何定义自己心目中的好与坏，我们都将受到自然规律的约束。举例来说：我相信我们都会因为遵守自然规律而受到奖励，也会因为违背自然规律而受到惩罚。所有的社会行为都会因为遵守或者违背自然规律而取得成功或者走向失败。
This perspective gives me a non-traditional sense of good and bad: “good,” to me, means operating consistently with the natural laws, while “bad” means operating inconsistently with these laws. In other words, for something to be “good” it must be grounded in reality. And if something is in conflict with reality—for example, if morality is in conflict with reality—it is “bad,” i.e., it will not produce good outcomes.ethical
这个看问题的角度让我拥有了有别于传统的对与好和坏的领悟：对于我来说，好就是实践行为和自然规律相吻合，同样的“坏”就是实践行为违背了自然规律。换句话说，“好”必须是来源于真相。如果某件事与真相相冲突，它必定是“坏的”，当然也不可能取得好的结果。
In other words, I believe that understanding what is good is obtained by looking at the way the world works and figuring out how to operate in harmony with it to help it (and yourself) evolve. But it is not obvious, and it is sometimes difficult to accept.
换句话说，我相信知道什么是“好”来自于对于世界运行规律的观察以及和这些规律和谐的相处。但是这并不容易，甚至可以说想要洞察非常困难。
17 I recognize that sometimes a discovery is made by accident, but the discovery is of some basic underlying principle that creates understanding of a cause-effect relationship that leads to a desired result.
我认识到一些发现来自于意外，但是这些发现是由一些存在因果关系的底层理论创造而来。
个人思考：这里提到的底层理论或者原则非常重要，成甲在好好学习这本书中特别强调归纳底层规律的重要性，巴菲特和芒格的很多名言都是对底层理论的归纳。这些底层原则和理论是由很强的生命力和繁殖力，掌握了他们就可以在很多方面大展身手。看来优秀的人也是在相互抄袭的。
For example, when a pack of hyenas takes down a young wildebeest, is this good or bad? At face value, this seems terrible; the poor wildebeest suffers and dies. Some people might even say that the hyenas are evil. Yet this type of apparently evil behavior exists throughout nature through all species and was created by nature, which is much smarter than I am, so before I jump to pronouncing it evil, I need to try to see if it might be good. When I think about it, like death itself, this behavior is integral to the enormously complex and efficient system that has worked for as long as there has been life. And when I think of the second- and third-order consequences, it becomes obvious that this behavior is good for both the hyenas, who are operating in their self-interest, and in the interests of the greater system, which includes the wildebeest, because killing and eating the wildebeest fosters evolution, i.e., the natural process of improvement. In fact, if I changed anything about the way that dynamic works, the overall outcome would be worse.
举例来说，一只猎狗猎杀了一只野羚羊。这件事是好还是坏呢。从单一个体来讲，或者从羚羊的角度来说，猎狗的行为是有害的，是残暴的。大自然中每天都充斥着这样的故事。如果我们跳过对于残暴的讨论，而从整个系统的角度来看，当我们跳过直接结果考虑间接导致的第二或者第三结果，这件事对于羚羊和猎狗的种群进化来说都是有着莫大的好处。实际上，如果我改变了这些动态的平衡，最终的结果肯定很是糟糕。
I believe that evolution, which is the natural movement toward better adaptation, is the greatest single force in the universe, and that it is good.18 It affects the changes of everything from all species to the entire solar system. It is good because evolution is the process of adaptation that leads to improvement. So, based on how I observe both nature and humanity working, I believe that what is bad and most punished are those things that don’t work because they are at odds with the laws of the universe and they impede evolution.
我相信那些向着更好适应性发展的活动是宇宙中最好的推动力。这些活动影响着各种种群甚至太阳系。这些活动被列为“好”的范畴，因为它们是让整个系统改善的过程。因此，基于对于自然和人类的观察，我相信那些不好的事情之所以不能有效的运行是因为这些事情违背了宇宙规律，阻碍了进化。
未完待续～
I believe that the desire to evolve, i.e., to get better, is probably humanity’s most pervasive driving force. Enjoying your job, a craft, or your favorite sport comes from the innate satisfaction of getting better. Though most people typically think that they are striving to get things (e.g., toys, better houses, money, status, etc.) that will make them happy, that is not usually the case. Instead, when we get the things we are striving for, we rarely remain satisfied.19 It is natural for us to seek other things or to seek to make the things we have better. In the process of this seeking, we continue to evolve and we contribute to the evolution of all that we have contact with. The things we are striving for are just the bait to get us to chase after them in order to make us evolve, and it is the evolution and not the reward itself that matters to us and those around us.
It is natural that it should be this way—i.e., that our lives are not satisfied by obtaining our goals rather than by striving for them—because of the law of diminishing returns.20 For example, suppose making a lot of money is your goal and suppose you make enough so that making more has no marginal utility. Then it would be foolish to continue to have making money be your goal. People who acquire things beyond their usefulness not only will derive little or no marginal gains from these acquisitions, but they also will experience negative consequences, as with any form of gluttony. So, because of the law of diminishing returns, it is only natural that seeking something new, or seeking new depths of something old, is required to bring us satisfaction.
In other words, the sequence of 1) seeking new things (goals); 2) working and learning in the process of pursuing these goals; 3) obtaining these goals; and 4) then doing this over and over again is the personal evolutionary process that fulfills most of us and moves society forward.
I believe that pursuing self-interest in harmony with the laws of the universe and contributing to evolution is universally rewarded, and what I call “good.” Look at all species in action: they are constantly pursuing their own interests and helping evolution in a symbiotic way, with most of them not even knowing that their self-serving behaviors are contributing to evolution. Like the hyenas attacking the wildebeest, successful people might not even know if or how their pursuit of self-interest helps evolution, but it typically does.21
18 In fact, it appears to me that everything other than evolution eventually disintegrates and that we all are, and everything else is, vehicles for evolution.
19 Of course, we are often satisfied with the same things – relationships, careers, etc.—but when that is the case, it is typically because we are getting new enjoyments from the new dimensions of these things.
20 The marginal benefits of moving from a shortage to an abundance of anything decline. 21 When pursuing self-interest is in conflict with evolution, it is typically punished.
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Self-interest and society’s interests are generally symbiotic: more than anything else, it is pursuit of self- interest that motivates people to push themselves to do the difficult things that benefit them and that contribute to society. In return, society rewards those who give it what it wants. That is why how much money people have earned is a rough measure of how much they gave society what it wanted—NOT how much they desired to make money. Look at what caused people to make a lot of money and you will see that usually it is in proportion to their production of what the society wanted and largely unrelated to their desire to make money. There are many people who have made a lot of money who never made making a lot of money their primary goal. Instead, they simply engaged in the work that they were doing, produced what society wanted, and got rich doing it.22 And there are many people who really wanted to make a lot of money but never produced what the society wanted and they didn’t make a lot of money. In other words, there is an excellent correlation between giving society what it wants and making money, and almost no correlation between the desire to make money and how much money one makes. I know that this is true for me—i.e., I never worked to make a lot of money, and if I had I would have stopped ages ago because of the law of diminishing returns. I know that the same is true for all the successful, healthy (i.e., non-obsessed) people I know.23
This process of productive adaptation—i.e., the process of seeking, obtaining, and pursuing new goals— does not just pertain to how individuals and society move forward. It is equally relevant when dealing with setbacks, which are inevitable. That is why many people who have had setbacks that seemed devastating at the time ended up as happy as (or even happier than) they were before, once they successfully adapted to them. The faster that one appropriately adapts, the better. As Darwin described, adaptation—i.e., adjusting appropriately to changes in one’s circumstances—is a big part of the evolutionary process, and it is rewarded.24 That is why some of the most successful people are typically those who see the changing landscape and identify how to best adapt to it.25
So, it seems to me that desires to evolve are universal and so are symbiotic relationships that lead to the evolution of the whole to occur via the pursuit of individuals’ self-interests. However, what differentiates man from other species is man’s greater ability to learn. Because we can learn, we can evolve more and faster than other species.
I also believe that all things in nature have innate attributes that are both good and bad, with their goodness and their badness depending on what they are used for. For example, the thorns on a rose bush, the stinger on a bee, the aggressiveness of a lion, the timidity of a gazelle are all both good and bad, depending on their applications. Over time, nature evolves toward the right balance through the process of natural selection—e.g., an overly aggressive animal will die prematurely, as will an overly timid animal. However, because man has the ability to look at himself and direct his own change, individuals have the capacity to evolve.
Most of us are born with attributes that both help us and hurt us, depending on their applications, and the more extreme the attribute, the more extreme the potential good and bad outcomes these attributes are likely to produce. For example, highly creative, goal-oriented people who are good at imagining the big picture often can easily get tripped up on the details of daily life, while highly pragmatic, task-oriented people who are great with the details might not be creative. That is because the ways their minds work make it difficult for them to see both ways of thinking. In nature everything was made for a purpose, and so too were these different ways of thinking. They just have different purposes. It is extremely important
22 Of course, there are many people who give society what it wants but are paid poorly. This is explained by the law of supply and demand.
23 I do know some successful people who are obsessed with making money despite making money having little or no marginal benefit for them.
24 Darwin is reported to have said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
25 Your ability to see the changing landscape and adapt is more a function of your perceptive and reasoning abilities than your ability to learn and process quickly.
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to one’s happiness and success to know oneself—most importantly to understand one’s own values and abilities—and then to find the right fits. We all have things that we value that we want and we all have strengths and weaknesses that affect our paths for getting them. The most important quality that differentiates successful people from unsuccessful people is our capacity to learn and adapt to these things.
Unlike any other species, man is capable of reflecting on himself and the things around him to learn and adapt in order to improve. He has this capability because, in the evolution of species man’s brain developed a part that no other species has—the prefrontal cortex. It is the part of the human brain that gives us the ability to reflect and conduct other cognitive thinking. Because of this, people who can objectively reflect on themselves and others —most importantly on their weaknesses are—can figure out how to get around these weaknesses, can evolve fastest and come closer to realizing their potentials than those who can’t.
However, typically defensive, emotional reactions—i.e., ego barriers—stand in the way of this progress. These reactions take place in the part of the brain called the amygdala. As a result of them, most people don’t like reflecting on their weaknesses even though recognizing them is an essential step toward preventing them from causing them problems. Most people especially dislike others exploring their weaknesses because it makes them feel attacked, which produces fight or flight reactions; however, having others help one find one’s weaknesses is essential because it’s very difficult to identify one’s own. Most people don’t like helping others explore their weaknesses, even though they are willing to talk about them behind their backs. For these reasons most people don’t do a good job of understanding themselves and adapting in order to get what they want most out of life. In my opinion, that is the biggest single problem of mankind because it, more than anything else, impedes people’s abilities to address all other problems and it is probably the greatest source of pain for most people.
Some people get over the ego barrier and others don’t. Which path they choose, more than anything else, determines how good their outcomes are. Aristotle defined tragedy as a bad outcome for a person because of a fatal flaw that he can’t get around. So it is tragic when people let ego barriers lead them to experience bad outcomes.
The Personal Evolutionary Process
As I mentioned before, I believe that life consists of an enormous number of choices that come at us and that each decision we make has consequences, so the quality of our lives depends on the quality of the decisions we make.
We aren’t born with the ability to make good decisions; we learn it.26 We all start off as children with others, typically parents, directing us. But, as we get older, we increasingly make our own choices. We choose what we are going after (i.e., our goals), which influences our directions. For example, if you want to be a doctor, you go to med school; if you want to have a family, you find a mate; and so on. As we move toward our goals, we encounter problems, make mistakes, and run into personal weaknesses. Above all else, how we choos