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Ten days ago my husband went to a reunion at Eton College for the leavers of 1974. About 150 men crowded into the 15th-century chapel to belt out a quick “Praise my Soul the King of Heaven” before settling down to eat, drink and reminisce about schoolboy pranks while quietly trying to work out who had done best in the 40 years since then.
十天前，我丈夫去參加伊頓公學(Eton College)1974屆畢業生的重聚會活動。約150人擠進那座15世紀的教堂，快速地大聲唱過《我心應當來稱頌主》(Praise my Soul the King of Heaven)之后，坐下來享用可口的飲食，緬懷孩提時代的惡作劇，同時默默合計一下畢業后40年里誰混得最好。
Afterwards he made two observations. The first was how good they all looked. These men, blessed by breeding, education and money, still look at 57 and 58 easily recognisable as their teenage selves.
結果他發現了兩個現象。第一個現象是他們看上去都如此神采奕奕。由于教養、教育及金錢的緣故，這些57到58歲的人仍然很容易認出少年時代的樣子。
The second was how relatively undistinguished their careers had turned out to be. Apart from one senior politician and one former newspaper editor, they were a middling group of lawyers, property investors and fund managers, rich by national standards, but disappointing if you consider their start in life. They arrived at that school at 13, clever and mostly from wealthy families, to spend five years wearing tailcoats and becoming members of one of the world’s most elite networks. Yet there they were, in their prime, and it had amounted to not very much at all.
第二個現象就是，相對來說，他們的職業生涯并非特別耀眼。除了一位資深政界人士和一位前報社總編輯，他們構成了一個由律師、房地產投資人和基金經理人組成的中層團體。按照國家平均標準來說，他們確實很富有。然而，一考慮到他們人生的起點，他們的成就便令人失望了。當初進入伊頓公學時，13歲左右的他們天資聰明，多數來自富有家庭，在那里他們穿著燕尾服度過五年，并融入了世界最精英化的人脈網絡之一。然而，年富力強的他們，成就卻沒高到哪去。
His observation turns on its head the usual complaint about Eton – that it is an exclusive club of men who run the country. It is true there is currently a trinity of Etonians in power, as prime minister, mayor of London and Archbishop of Canterbury. But they are the exceptions to a more surprising rule that Eton is a club of men born to do great things but who increasingly fail to do anything much at all.
人們通常抱怨伊頓公學畢業生構成一個封閉的“俱樂部”，掌管著英國的命脈，而我丈夫卻有不同的發現。沒錯，目前有三位伊頓人大權在握，他們分別是英國首相、倫敦市長和坎特伯雷大主教(Archbishop of Canterbury)。不過他們其實只是一個更令人吃驚的規律的特例，這個規律是：盡管組成伊頓“俱樂部”成員生來就準備做大事，但沒什么太大成就的人卻越來越多。
Last week I stumbled on an answer to the Eton College 1974 leavers’ conundrum. It is contained in the combustible new book, The Triple Package, by “tiger mother” Amy Chua and her husband Jed Rubenfeld, which sets out to explain why Jews, Mormons and the Chinese do much better than other groups in the US. They argue that it is down to three things: a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control. None of these is any good on its own, it is essential to have all three. Too much superiority, you have no incentive to lift a finger. Too much insecurity, and your doubts are paralysing. And without impulse control, or self-discipline, it is hard to crack on with anything.
就在上周，我無意間發現了伊頓公學1974屆校友之謎的答案。答案就在一本引發爭議的新書里。這本書名為《成功三法寶》(The Triple Package)，由“虎媽”蔡美兒(Amy Chua)和她丈夫杰德•魯賓費爾德(Jed Rubenfeld)合作而成。該書旨在解釋為什么在美國猶太裔、摩門教徒和華裔表現比其他族群好得多。他們聲稱，原因有三點：優越情結、不安全感和自控力。單獨而言，以上三個要素起不到任何作用，必須同時具備這三者才能起作用。太過優越，你就沒有動力做出任何努力了；不安全感太強，多疑會削弱你的行動能力；缺乏自控力或自律，你就難以應對任何問題。
If you apply this triple package to Etonians, you see at once what holds them back. They have superiority in spades. But they are low on insecurity, and have little impulse control as the culture relies on any achievement appearing effortless.
如果拿這三大要素來對照伊頓人，你馬上就會發現是什么原因令他們止步不前。他們的優越感確實異乎尋常。然而，他們的不安全感很弱，而且幾乎沒什么自控力，這是因為伊頓文化的背后，是一種取得任何成就似乎都不費吹灰之力的觀念。
Not only have Chua and Rubenfeld answered the Eton question, they have come up with the best universal theory of success I’ve seen. They intended it to apply to groups, but it works still better at explaining why some people from the same slice of society do better than others.
蔡美兒和魯賓費爾德不僅僅回答了伊頓公學的問題。在我所見過的普適成功學理論中，他們提出的觀點是最佳的一個。他們原打算用這一理論解釋不同族群的差異，不過，它更適合用來解釋為什么同一社會階層的人中，部分人表現比其他人更好一些。
I’ve never met David Cameron. But I know Archbishop Justin Welby and Mayor Boris Johnson well enough to guess that neither is a stranger to insecurity. Both, too, have the capacity to work like dogs.
我從沒與戴維•卡梅倫(David Cameron)打過交道。不過，我對賈斯汀•韋爾比(Justin Welby)大主教和鮑里斯•約翰遜(Boris Johnson)市長有足夠的了解。我完全能想象得到，他倆對于不安全感都不陌生。同樣，他倆都有約束自己勤懇工作的能力。
The triple package helps make sense of other success theories. We are endlessly told how many dyslexics and people who lost a parent young make it to the top. Now we know the reason: such things make them insecure. We also now know for the deprivation to work, the bereaved dyslexic must also know he’s great, and be prepared to do the necessary to become greater.
這三大法寶還有助于解釋其它成功學理論。我們總會聽到許多失讀癥患者和幼年喪父者如何攀上人生頂峰的成功故事。如今，我們終于明白了他們成功的原因：這是由于那些缺陷令他們缺乏安全感。我們還明白，要讓這類缺陷發揮作用，擁有該缺陷的失讀癥患者還必須對自己的優秀心知肚明，必須做好準備通過必要的努力使自己更優秀。
One cheering thing about the theory is it has no time for passion – which has never struck me as either a necessary or a sufficient condition of great achievement. Nor is there any mention of other traits so often invoked including optimism, networking, resilience or life-long learning. From the triple package theory all other characteristics will flow, as needed.
該理論一個振奮人心的地方在于，它對“激情”只字未提——對我來說，激情既不是偉大成就的必要條件，也不是充分條件。另外，對于人們常常提及的樂觀、人脈、韌性或終身學習之類的品質，該書也絲毫沒有提及。根據三大法寶的理論，所有其它品質在必要時會自然涌現出來。
Less cheering is that it explains why the successful are seldom good eggs. Superior people are alienating; insecure people are exhausting. People who are both are doubly unbearable, especially when you take into account all the dissembling they usually do to mask both traits. And too much discipline is a dull trait in a friend as it means it is impossible to get them to down tools and open a bottle of wine instead.
相對來說，讓人不那么振奮的一點是，該理論解釋了為什么成功人士很少是討人喜歡的人。有優越感的人會令他人敬而遠之，沒有安全感的人則會讓他人失去耐性。這兩者兼而有之的人則更加令人難以忍受。如果考慮他們通常會為掩飾這兩種品質而做出的種種舉動，情況就更是如此了。而過于自律對朋友來說又太過沉悶，因為這意味著不可能讓他停下工作，開瓶葡萄酒享受一下。
Yet as a parent I extract a shred of comfort from The Triple Package. Chua’s first book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, upset liberal mothers everywhere, making us feel uneasy about being such softies with our children. This time, I feel slightly let off the hook. Surely anything I do to try to increase my children’s superiority will lessen their feeling of inadequacy. While if I try to make them more insecure, I’ll risk denting their superiority. So the lesson I choose to extract is to muddle through, exactly as before.
不過，身為人母，我卻從《成功三法寶》中得到一絲安慰。蔡美兒第一本書《虎媽戰歌》(Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)曾讓各地的寬容媽媽十分不安，使我們為曾經這么軟弱地對待子女感到憂慮。而這一次我感到一絲解脫。誠然，我所做的任何提升孩子們優越感的舉動都會削弱他們對自身不足的感覺能力。然而，如果我試圖降低他們的安全感，就有可能傷害到他們的優越感。因此，我從這本書中吸取的教訓是：就像過去那樣，胡亂應付就行了。
