Chapter 7 Failure Is the Way Forward
一、问答
1. How would you define “failure”?
Failure is you didn’t reach your goals.
2. How failure could be a blessing in disguise? Please include a story of yours.
The first time I attended MBA examination, I failed. The second year I spent more time to prepare it, and worked harder on it, so I passed finally. The first failure is a blessing in disguise.
3. Who/What made us tend to avoid failure?
Our education system and our overbearing or critical parents made us tend to avoid failure, because they judge based on performance and punishes those who don’t do well.
4. Do you have any “VCR questions”? And what are they?
I remember when I was in primary school, my parent bought a new VCR, I was the only one in my family who knew how to use it, because I had tried every button. But when I grew up, I found my daughter was more practiced on these things. Most of time I just sit, stare and shake my head.
5. Have you done “do something” recently? Or are you going to do some “do something”?
Just like writing note, at beginning, we don’t know what the chapter is talking about. We just write several words or sentences. Than the more we read, the better we can understand the author’s main points.
二、感想
If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have. If someone is worse than you, it’s likely because he hasn’t been through all of the painful learning experiences you have.
任何成功都源于无数次的失败。如果某人比你成功，她可能比你经历了更多的失败。如果某人不如你，那么他可能还没有你经历的失败多。
And then we have all the mass media that constantly expose us to stellar success after success, while not showing us the thousands of hours of dull practice and tedium that were required to achieve that success.
我们所有媒体都是在报道成功人物，很少有报道他们获得成功之前所经历的数千个小时枯燥的练习。
It’s only when we feel intense pain that we’re willing to look at our values and question why they seem to be failing us.
我们总是在感到绝望时，才会重新审视我们的价值观，才会去思考我们为什么会失败。
三、字词
1. How failure could be a blessing in disguise?
a blessing in disguise 塞翁失马，焉知非福；有益的痛苦经验
如：Being laid off was a blessing in disguise to me.
2. Another large share of it comes from overbearing or critical parents who don’t let their kids screw up on their own often enough and instead punish them for trying anything new or not preordained.
Overbearing always trying to control other people without considering their wishes or feelings 好指使人的
这个词用来形容中国家长再贴切不过了
Preordained if something is preordained, it is certain to happen in the future because God or fate has decided it 命中注定的，上帝安排的
3. Two hundred crappy words per day, that’s it.”
crappy 蹩脚的；糟糕的；没价值的
如：The crappy food is difficult to digest.