People who worry about looking good typically hide what they don’t know and hide their weaknesses, so they never learn how to properly deal with them and these weaknesses remain impediments in the future.Thesepeople typically try to prove that they have the answers, even whenthey really don’t. Why do they behave in this unproductive way? They typically believe the senseless but common view that great people are those who have the answers in their heads and don’t have weaknesses. Not only does this view not square with reality, but it also stands in the way of progress.

担心表面上看起来是否体面的人，一般是在掩盖自己不清楚的地方或缺点，这种人从来不去学怎么处理自己的无知与缺点，任凭其成为未来的拦路虎。这类人就算不知道答案是什么，也试图努力证明自己知道正确答案。为什么他们做如此低效的事情？因为他们持有一个虽可笑但普遍的观点，认为成功人士脑袋里装的只有正确答案、没有缺点。这种观点本身就与事实不符，也会阻碍前进的步伐。

For example, if you are dumb or ugly, you are unlikely to acknowledge it, even though doing so would help you better deal with that reality. Recognizing such “harsh realities” is both very painful and very productive.

例如，假如你是愚蠢或丑陋的，你可能不会承认，尽管这么做会助你更好地面对现实。认识到这种“残酷的现实”虽痛苦，但很有成效。

I have never met a great person who did not earn and learn their greatness. They have weaknesses like everyone else—they have just learned how to deal with them so that they aren’t impediments to getting what they want. In addition, the amounts of knowledge and the capabilities that anyone does not have, and that could be used to make the best possible decisions, are vastly greater than that which anyone (no matter how great) could have within them.

我所遇到的成功人士没有一个不是历经犯错学习才获得成功的。他们和大家一样都有缺点，不过他们懂得如何应对自己的缺点，不会使其阻碍梦想的实现。除此之外，这些成功人士学识渊博，能力超凡，这些都能助我找到最佳的决策方案，这种资源比任何单个成功的人（无论他多成功）所拥有的优势都大得多。

I am not saying that we all have the same potential, just that to get the most of your potential—whatever that is—you must learn and earn.

我不是说大家的潜力是一样的，无论这种潜力是什么，要想完全开发就得学习然后获得。

As I mentioned in the first chapter, you don’t have to know everything to get what you want. You just have to be honest with yourself about what you don’t know and know who to ask for help.

我在第一章提过，要想实现梦想不必什么都知道，坦诚面对自己对某些东西不知道的事实，懂得找他人寻求帮助。

This explains whypeople who are interested in making the best possible decisions rarely areconfident that they have the best possible answers. So they seek to learn more (often by exploringthe thinking of other believable people, especially those who disagree with them) and they are eager to identify their weaknesses so that they don’t let these weaknesses stand in the way of them achieving their goals.

这解释了为什么乐于做出最佳决策的人极少会对自己的方案表示十足的信心。所以他们希望学到更多（通过探索其他值得信赖之人，尤其是持异见之人的想法），并渴望发现自身缺点，避免这些缺点阻碍自己实现目标。

So, what are your biggest weaknesses? Think honestly about them because if you can identify them, you are on the first step toward accelerating your movement forward. So think about them, write them down, and look at them frequently.

所以你最大的缺点是什么呢？若你能发现这些缺点，请坦诚思考一下，这是加速自己成功的第一步。想想这些缺点，写下来，时常看看。

One of my biggest weaknesses is my poor rote memory: I have trouble remembering things that don’t have reasons for being what they are, such as names, phone numbers, spelling, and addresses. Also, I am terrible at doing tasks that require little or no logic, especially if I have to do them repeatedly. On the other hand, I have a great contextual memory and good logic, and I can devote myself to things that interest me for untold hours. I don’t know how much of what I am bad at is just the other side of what I am good at—i.e., how much of what I am good at is due to my brain working in a certain way that, when applied to certain tasks, does well and when applied to others does poorly—and how much of what I am good at was developed in order to help compensate for what I am bad at. But I do know that I have created compensating approaches so that what I am bad at doesn’t hurt me much; e.g., I surround myself with people who have good rote memories who do the things that I am bad at, and I carry around tools like my BlackBerry.

我最大的缺点是识记能力差，特别是没有上下文推理的东西我就很难记住，比如姓名、电话号码、单词拼写、地址等等。没什么逻辑的任务我也干不好，如果是机械重复的工作我更是不在行。但从另一方面来看，我情景记忆力和逻辑思维都很强，感兴趣的事情我愿投身其中，不眠不休。不知道我不擅长某些事的原因会不会正好就是我擅长另一些事的原因，也就是说，我擅长某些事是因为大脑的某种思维方式应用到某些具体任务上发挥了很好的效果，但应用到别的一些任务时效果就很差。也不知道我擅长的思维方式是不是得到了开发，足以弥补我的缺点。但可以肯定的是我自己想出了补偿方法，不会因为这些缺点而吃什么大亏。比方说，我身边结交很多识记能力很强的人，他们可以做我不擅长的事情，我随身带着黑莓手机这种电子设备就足够了。

How much do you worry about looking good relative to actually being good?

你有多担心看起来好不好呢？你又有多担心实际上好不好呢？

Fourth:

第四个选择：

People who overweigh the first-order consequences of their decisions and ignore the effects that the second- and subsequent-order consequences will have on their goals rarely reach their goals. Thisis because first-order consequences often have opposite desirabilities from second-orderconsequences, resulting in big mistakes in decision-making. For example, the first-order consequences of exercise (pain and time-sink) are commonly considered undesirable, while the second-order consequences (better health and more attractive appearance) are desirable. Similarly, food that tastes good is often bad for you and vice versa, etc. If your goal is to get physically fit and you don’t ignore the first- order consequences of exercise and good-tasting but unhealthy food and connect your decisions with their second- and third-order consequences, you will not reach your goal.

过于看重一级效应一级效应，忽略二、三级效应的人，一般很难实现目标。因为一级效应和二级效应的意愿经常是对立的，容易使人做决策时犯大错。例如，健身的一级效应一级效应为承受痛苦，花费时间，这一般不是人们渴望的。而其二级效应，即更健康，外貌变得更具吸引力，则是人们渴望的。类似的道理，可口的食物一般对健康无益，反之亦然。比如，你的目标是身体健康，但是如果你不忽视运动与美味但不健康的饮食之间的一级效应，不将决策建立在二、三级效应之上，那么你就无法实现目标。

Sometimes it can be difficult to anticipate the 2nd or 3rd order consequences of a decision, such as one that involves using complex technology like X-Rays or DDT, where either things are not what they seem to be or there are too many unknown variables to make a sound decision. For more on the probabilities of personal decision-making, please refer to the “To Make Decisions Effectively” section at the end of Part 3.

某项决定的二、三级效应有时是很难预料的，比如某人使用像X光或数字资料发送机这种复杂的科技设备时就是如此，因为这两样东西表面上很难预测后果，存在太多未知变数，没法做出很好的决定。关于个人抉择的可能性，请参阅第三章末的《有效决策》部分。