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Long before the iPhone made him the god of gadgets, Steve Jobs launched his tech career by hacking land lines to make free long-distance calls.
史蒂夫·喬布斯（Steve Jobs）通過iPhone成為電子設備教父，不過他很久之前就開始了高科技事業，做的是盜用本地通話線路從而實現免費遠程通話。
Bob Dylan’s band, the Golden Chords, lost a high-school talent competition to a tap dancing act.
鮑勃·迪倫（Bob Dylan）成為金牌音樂家之前，在高中達人秀比賽中輸給了一個踢踏舞表演。
Behind every success story is an embarrassing first effort, a stumble, a setback or a radical change of direction. It’s these first clumsy steps on the road to fame and fortune that fascinate writer Seth Fiegerman, who edits the blog OpeningLines.org, a collection of case studies on the origins of famous careers.
探究每個成功故事，你總能看到起步時的窘迫，蹣跚前進，被失敗打擊，或是突然決定轉向。這些通往名利財富路上的笨拙的起步吸引了作家塞斯·菲格曼（Seth Fiegerman），她收集了關于成功事業起點的眾多案例，并編寫了博客OpeningLines.org（起步線）。
“When you see someone who’s very successful, you almost imagine that it was a foregone conclusion, that they’re a genius, that they were destined for great things, ” says Fiegerman, who began the blog in 2009, after an early setback in his own career. “I think the big takeaway is failure and setbacks, far from being uncommon, are in many ways essential.”
2009年，菲格曼在事業受挫后選擇開博?！碑斈憧吹侥承┏晒θ耸繒r，你總會想象他們的成功是必然的，他們都是天才，注定建立豐功偉業，“她說：”我認為 最重要 的是經歷失敗與挫折，不甘于平庸。“
After Fiegerman, now 26, graduated from New York University in 2008, he landed a coveted first job as a research editor at Playboy magazine. But he had worked there for just half a year when management announced that most of the staff would soon be laid off.
今年26歲的菲格曼于2008年畢業于紐約大學。大學畢業后，他擁有了一個令人艷羨的工作——《花花公子》雜志的研究編輯。但他僅僅在這個工位上工作了半年，公司就開始大規模裁人。
As unemployment loomed, Fiegerman felt adrift. He began to explore the Playboy archives, discovering a trove of interviews with celebrities ranging from Marlon Brando to Malcolm X. Many of these successful people shared tales of their less promising early days, and Fiegerman quickly became obsessed with these origin stories.
面對裁員的危機，菲格曼感到茫然無措。他開始研究《花花公子》雜志檔案，并發行了一系列珍貴的名人訪問，包括馬龍白蘭度（Marlon Brando，美國最棒的男演員），馬爾科姆·X（Malcolm X，非裔美國人權利提倡者）等等。這些成功人士都經歷了看似前途渺茫的開端，這些成功起源的故事很快吸引了菲格曼。
“It kind of paired well with this feeling that I had of, ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’” Fiegerman says. “And I found solace, in some ways, reading about the obstacles that famous figures had to overcome.”
”這些故事與我彼時心情契合，我總在想‘老天，我該怎么辦？’“菲格曼說：”在某些方面，通過閱讀那些名人克服困難的故事，我找到了安慰?！?/div>
He began devouring biographies and soliciting interviews with writers and musicians he admired, using the blog to document the fits and starts that began the careers of the famous and the infamous. Success, he learned, was less a matter of innate talent and more the product of perseverance, a willingness to stumble and stand up again and again.
他開始大量閱讀傳記，并懇請自己欣賞的作家和音樂家接受采訪，這些人有成名的也有事業低迷的，菲格曼把他們的事業開端的起起伏伏記錄進博客。在調查中他發現，成功更多是源于堅持而非天賦。要有勇氣屢敗屢戰。
“You kind of assume that great geniuses are like Mozart, ” Fiegerman says. But few successful people were child prodigies, and prodigies don’t necessarily find success. “Most people don’t stick to it.”
”你可能覺得天才都是像莫扎特那樣的，“菲格曼說。但事實是幾乎沒什么成功人士是神童，神童未必成功?！贝蠖鄶等瞬幌矚g堅持一件事?！?/div>
Author Jennifer Egan stuck with it. She told Fiegerman that her first novel was so bad even her mother hated it. But Egan kept writing, and her writing got better—in 2011, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel about growing old in the digital age, A Visit From the Goon Squad.
作家詹妮弗·伊根（Jennifer Egan）做到了堅持。她告訴菲格曼他的第一部小說糟到連她母親都厭惡。但伊根并未放棄寫作，而且有了進步。2011年她的一篇描繪在數字時代老去的小說《打手隊的來訪》（A Visit From the Goon Squad）贏得了普利策獎（Pulitzer Price，美國新聞界最高榮譽）。
Knowing about a hero’s early flops and foibles might disillusion some fans, but Fiegerman finds comfort in rough beginnings. “The only thing that would have disappointed me is if I’d researched all these guys and women and found out that they got it right on the first try, because, OK, I did not, ” Fiegerman says with a laugh.
了解一個英雄人物早期的失敗和缺點也許會使某些粉絲的幻想破滅，但菲格曼卻從中得到慰藉?！比绻l現這些人首次嘗試就成功我倒要失望了，因為我自己的起步并不是如此?！胺聘衤χf。
Like his subjects, Fieger-man found that his own early setback wasn’t permanent. He landed a new job in journalism, and today he works at the tech news website Mashable, covering, appropriately enough, start-up businesses. While he has less time for the blog, he hopes his collection of origin stories will help other young people realize it’s OK to fail.
正如他的受訪者，菲格曼發現起初的失敗并不是永久的。他開始嘗試記者工作，如今他在科技新聞網站Mashable工作，可以說還包含很多起步階段的業務。雖然寫博客的時間少了，他希望自己收集的這些成功故事的起源可以幫助其他年輕人，告訴他們要允許失敗。
“I hope some of them benefit from it, ” he says. “But if nothing else, I feel like I benefited from it a little bit.”
”我希望有人能從中受益，“他說：”但就算沒什么效果，我覺得自己已經獲益良多了?！?/p>
| 重點單詞 | 查看全部解釋 | |||
| unemployment | ['ʌnim'plɔimənt] |
想一想再看 n. 失業，失業人數 |
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| announced | [ə'naunst] |
想一想再看 宣布的 |
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| infamous | ['infəməs] |
想一想再看 adj. 無恥的，臭名昭著的 |
聯想記憶 | |
| collection | [kə'lekʃən] |
想一想再看 n. 收集，收取，聚集，收藏品，募捐 |
聯想記憶 | |
| overcome | [.əuvə'kʌm] |
想一想再看 vt. 戰勝，克服，(感情等)壓倒，使受不了 |
聯想記憶 | |
| disappointed | [.disə'pɔintid] |
想一想再看 adj. 失望的 |
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| uncommon | [ʌn'kɔmən] |
想一想再看 adj. 不尋常的，不凡的，罕有的 |
聯想記憶 | |
| setback | ['setbæk] |
想一想再看 n. 頓挫，挫折，退步 |
聯想記憶 | |
| solace | ['sɔləs] |
想一想再看 n. 安慰，慰藉 v. 使快樂，使安慰，使緩和 |
聯想記憶 | |
| gadgets | [gæ,dʒets] |
想一想再看 n. 小配件；小工具（gadget的復數） |
