英語演講稿：內向性格的力量

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.

當我九歲的時候 我第一次去參加夏令營 我媽媽幫我整理好了我的行李箱 裏面塞滿了書 這對於我來説是一件極為自然的事情 因為在我的家庭裏 閲讀是主要的家庭活動 聽上去你們可能覺得我們是不愛交際的 但是對於我的家庭來説這真的只是接觸社會的另一種途徑 你們有自己家庭接觸時的温暖親情 家人靜坐在你身邊 但是你也可以自由地漫遊 在你思維深處的冒險樂園裏我有一個想法 野營會變得像這樣子，當然要更好些 (笑聲) 我想象到十個女孩坐在一個小屋裏 都穿着合身的女式睡衣愜意地享受着讀書的過程。

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

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.

野營這時更像是一個不提供酒水的派對聚會 在第一天的時候呢 我們的顧問把我們都集合在一起 並且她教會了我們一種今後要用到的慶祝方式 在餘下夏令營的每一天中 讓“露營精神”浸潤我們 之後它就像這樣繼續着 R-O-W-D-I-E 這是我們拼寫“吵鬧"的口號 我們唱着“噪音，喧鬧，我們要變得吵一點” 對，就是這樣 可我就是弄不明白我的生活會是什麼樣的 為什麼我們變得這麼吵鬧粗暴 或者為什麼我們非要把這個單詞錯誤地拼寫 (笑聲) 但是我可沒有忘記慶祝。我與每個人都互相歡呼慶祝了 我盡了我最大的努力 我只是想等待那一刻 我可以離開吵鬧的聚會去捧起我摯愛的書。

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.

但是當我第一次把書從行李箱中拿出來的時候 牀鋪中最酷的那個女孩向我走了過來 並且她問我：“為什麼你要這麼安靜?” 安靜，當然，是R-O-W-D-I-E的反義詞 “喧鬧”的反義詞 而當我第二次拿書的時候 我們的顧問滿臉憂慮的向我走了過來 接着她重複了關於“露營精神”的要點並且説我們都應當努力 去變得外向些

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.

於是我放好我的書 放回了屬於它們的行李箱中 並且我把它們放到了牀底下 在那裏它們度過了暑假餘下的每一天 我對這樣做感到很愧疚 不知為什麼我感覺這些書是需要我的 它們在呼喚我，但是我卻放棄了它們 我確實放下了它們，並且我再也沒有打開那個箱子，直到我和我的家人在夏末的時候一起回到家中。

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.

現在，我向你們講述這個夏令營的故事 我完全可以給你們講出其他50種版本就像這個一樣的故事-- 每當我感覺到這樣的時候 它告訴我出於某種原因，我的寧靜和內向的風格 並不是正確道路上的必需品 我應該更多地嘗試一個外向者的角色 而在我內心深處感覺得到，這是錯誤的內向的人們都是非常優秀的，確實是這樣 但是許多年來我都否認了這種直覺 於是我首先成為了華爾街的一名律師 而不是我長久以來想要成為的一名作家 一部分原因是因為我想要證明自己 也可以變得勇敢而堅定 並且我總是去那些擁擠的酒吧 當我只是想要和朋友們吃一頓愉快的晚餐時 我做出了這些自我否認的抉擇 如條件反射一般 甚至我都不清楚我做出了這些決定。

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.

這就是很多內向的人正在做的事情 這當然是我們的損失 但這同樣也是同事們的損失 我們所在團隊集體的損失 當然，冒着被指為誇大其詞的風險我想説，更是世界的損失 因為當涉及創造和領導的時候 我們需要內向的人做到最好 三分之一到二分之一的人都是內向的-- 三分之一到二分之一 你要知道這可意味着每兩到三個人中就有一個內向的 所以即使你自己是一個外向的人 我正在説你的同事 和你的配偶和你的孩子 還有現在正坐在你旁邊的那個傢伙-- 他們都要屈從於這樣的偏見 一種在我們的社會中已經紮根的現實偏見 我們從很小的時候就把它藏在內心最深處 甚至都不説幾句話，關於我們正在做的事情。

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.

現在讓我們來清楚地看待這種偏見 我們需要真正瞭解“內向”到底指什麼 它和害羞是不同的 害羞是對於社會評論的恐懼 內向更多的是 你怎樣對於刺激作出迴應 包括來自社會的刺激 其實內向的人是很渴求大量的鼓舞和激勵的 反之內向者最感覺到他們的存在 這是他們精力最充足的時候，最具有能力的時候 當他們存在於更安靜的，更低調的環境中 並不是所有時候--這些事情都不是絕對的-- 但是存在於很多時候 所以説，關鍵在於 把我們的天賦發揮到最大化 這對於我們來説就足夠把我們自己 放到對於我們正確又合適的激勵的區域中去。

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.

但是現在偏見出現了 我們最重要的那些體系 我們的學校和工作單位 它們都是為性格外向者設計的 並且有適合他們需要的刺激和鼓勵 當然我們現在也有這樣一種信用機制 我稱它為新型的“團隊思考” 這是一種包含所有創造力和生產力的思考方式 從一個社交非常零散的地方產生的。

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)

當你描繪今天典型教室的圖案時 當我還上學的時候 我們一排排地坐着 我們靠着桌子一排排坐着就像這樣 並且我們大多數工作都是自覺完成的 但是在現代社會，所謂典型的教室 是些圈起來並排的桌子-- 四個或是五個或是六、七個孩子坐在一起，面對面 孩子們要完成無數個小組任務 甚至像數學和創意寫作這些課程 這些你們認為需要依靠個人閃光想法的課程 孩子們現在卻被期待成為小組會的成員 對於那些喜歡 獨處，或者自己一個人工作的孩子來説 這些孩子常常被視為局外人 或者更糟，被視為問題孩子 並且很大一部分老師的報告中都相信 最理想的學生應該是外向的 相對於內向的學生而言 甚至説外向的學生能夠取得更好的成績 更加博學多識據研究報道 (笑聲)

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.