想象这样一个场景：你的公司发布了一个招聘信息，在筛选简历之后，最后确定了两位候选人。

候选人 A ：名牌大学毕业，绩点 4.0 ，完美的履历，出色的推荐信。

候选人 B ：非名牌大学毕业，辗转于各种工作之间，甚至做过收银员和服务生。

前提是，两位候选者对于岗位的要求都是满足的。这时候，你会选择哪一位？

以下为演讲正文：

your company launches a search for an open position. The application starts rolling in and the qualified candidates are identified. Now the chossing begins.

你的公司发布了一个公开招聘的职位。申请表开始滚滚而来，合格的人选已经被挑选出来。现在开始挑选。

Person A: IVY League4.0, flawless resume, great recommedations. All the right stuff.

候选人 A ：常春藤名校绩点 4.0 完美的简历，出色的推荐信。所有好的要素都具备。

Person B: Stateschool, fair amount of job hopping and odd jobs like cashier and singing waitress.

候选人B：公立学校毕业，辗转于各种工作之间，甚至包括收银员和唱歌的服务生。

But remember—both arequalified. So I ask you: who are you going to pick?

不过请记得——两位都是符合要求的。所以我想问你们：你们会选择谁？

My colleagues and Icreated very official terms to describe two distinct categories of candidates.

我和我的同事发明了一些非常正式的术语来描述两个不同类别的候选人。

We call A “the silver spoon”, the one who clearly had advatages and was destined for success and we call B “the scrapper”, the one who had to fight against tremendous odds to get the samepoints. You just heard human resources director refer to people as silver spoons and scrappers, which is not exactly politically correct and sounds a bit judgemental. But before my human resources certification gets revoked--Let me explain.

我们把 A 称为含着“金钥匙”的人,一个明显具有优势而且注定会成功的人。我们把 B 称作拳击手，他必须努力冲破重重难关去达到相同的目标。你们刚刚听到了一个人力资源总监将应聘者比作金钥匙和拳击手，这听起来在政治上不太正确而且还有些武断，但是在我的人力资源证书被吊销前让我解释一下。

A resume tells a story. And over years, I’ve learned something about people whose experiences read like a patchwork quilt that makes me stop and fully consider before tossing their resume away.

一份简历讲了一个故事。过去的那些年，我了解到那些经历好似拼布床单的人会让我在把他们的简历扔掉之前好好考虑。

A series odd jobs may indicate inconsisitency, lack of focus, unpredictability. Or it may signal acommitted struggle against obstacles. At the very least, the scrapper deserves an interview. To be clear, I don’t hold anything against the silver spoon getting into and graduating from an elite university takes a lot of hard workand sacrifice. But your whole life has been engineered toward success, how will you handle the tough time?

一系列杂乱的工作可能意味着易变，不专心，难以捉摸。或者，它可能标志着努力挣扎跨越障碍。至少，拳击手应该得到一次面试机会。我要强调一下，我并不排斥金钥匙，能够被精英大学录取并且能顺利毕业同样需要付出很多心血和牺牲。但是，如果你的一生都被设计为走向成功，你该怎么度过艰难时期？

One person I hired felt that because he attented an elite university, there were certain assignments that were beneath him like temporarily doing manual labor to better understandan operation. Eventually, he quit. But on the flip side, what happens when your whole life is destined for failure and you actually succeed? I want to urge you to nterview the scrapper. I know a lot about this because I am a scrapper.

一个我曾经雇佣过的人认为, 因为他毕业于精英大学，某些类型的工作对他而言是低下的，比如短时间从事体力劳动以更好地了解公司运作。最终，他离开了。但是，另一方面，如果你的人生注定失败，而你成功了，这是怎么回事呢？我会建议你去面试拳击手，我很了解这些，因为我自己就是一个拳击手。

Before I was born, my father was diagnosed with paranold schizophrenia，and he couldn’t hold a job in spite of his brilliance. Our lives were one part “Cuckoo’s Nest”，one part “Awakenings”, and one part “A beautiful mind”. I am the fourth of five children raised by a single mother in arough neighborhod in Brooklyn, New York. 

在我出生之前，我的父亲就被诊断为精神分裂症，他无法继续工作，尽管他很有才华。我们的生活就像飞越疯人院，无语问苍天和美丽心灵的合集。我是一位单身母亲五个孩子中的第四个，我们在纽约布鲁克林一个混乱的街区生活。

We never owned a home, a car, a washingmachine and for most of my childhood, we didn’t even have a telephone. I washifhly immotivated to understand the relationship between business success and scrappers because my life could easily have turned out very differently. As I met successful business people and read profiles of high-powered leaders.

我们从未拥有一个家，一辆车，或是一个洗衣机，在我童年的大部分时期，我们甚至没有一部电话。我极其愿意去理解生意场的成功和拳击手的关联，因为我的人生很容易就会发展出不同的结局。我见过成功的商人也阅读过具备出色领导能力的人的资料。

I notice some commonality. Many of them had experienced early hardships，anywhere from poverty, abandonment, death of a parent while young, to learning disabilities, alcoholism and violence. The conventional thinking has been that trauma leads to distress and there’s been a lot of focus on the resulting dysfunction.

我看到了一些共性，他们很多人都经过早年的困顿，可能是贫穷，被抛弃，父母一方早逝，也可能是学习障碍，酗酒和暴力。传统的思维认为创伤会导致痛苦，而且还重点强调了失败的结果。

But during studies of dysfunction, data revealed an unexpected insight: that even the worst circumstances can result in growth and transformation. A remarkable and counterintuitive phenomenon has been discovered, which scientists call posttraumatic growth. 

但我在研究这些不成功的案例期间，得出的数据却揭示了一个出乎意料的结论：即使最糟糕的境遇也能导致成长和转变。一个显著但是有悖常理的现象已经被发现了，科学家们称之为“创后成长”。

In one study designed to measure the effects of adversity on children at risk, among a subset of 698 children who experienced the most severe and extreme conditions, fully one-third grew up to lead healthy, successful and productive lives. In spite of everything and against tremendous odds, they  succeeded. One third.

在一项设计用来衡量逆境对困苦的孩子会产生怎样影响的研究表明，在 698 位参与测试的孩子，在经历了最艰苦严苛的考验后，他们中的三分之一长大后获得了健康、成功以及丰富的人生。尽管经历了巨大的艰难，但最后还是成功了。三分之一那么多。

Take this resume. This guy’s parents give him up for adoption. He never finishes college. He job-hops quite a bit, goes on a sojourn to india for a year, and to top it off, he has dyslexia. Would hire this guy? His name is Steve Jobs. 

看看这份简历。他被亲生父母抛弃，交由他人抚养。他没有完成大学学业。他在某段时间内频繁跳槽，在印度逗留了一年，不止如此，他还有阅读障碍。你会雇佣他吗？他的名字是史蒂夫·乔布斯。

In a study of the world’s most highly successful entrepreneurs, it turns out a disproportionate number have dyslexia. In the US, 35 percent of the entrepreneurs studied haddyslexia. What’s remarkable--among those entrepreneurs who experience posttraumatic growth, they now view their learning disability as a desirable difficulty whch provided them an advantage, because they bacame better listeners and paid greater attention to detail. 

一个对全球最成功企业家群体的研究表明，相当数量的企业家有阅读障碍。在美国， 35% 的企业家有阅读障碍。更加值得注意的是—这些企业家中，那些经历过创后成长的人，成功后的他们将这样的学习障碍看作是值得经历的困难，这样的困难给予了他们优势，他们因此成为更好的听众，并且更加关注细节。

They don’t think they are who they are in spite of adversity, they know who they are because of adversity. They embrace their trauma and hardships as key elements of who they’ve become, and know that without those experiences, they might not have developed the muscle and grit required to become successful.

他们在经历逆境前并没有看到自己的潜力，而因为逆境，他们准确定位了自己。他们拥抱伤害和困顿，这是他们成为成功企业家的关键要素，他们知道，如果没有这些经历，他们也许没有办法发展出成功者需要具备的勇气和毅力。

One of my colleagues had his life completely upended as a result of the chinese cultural revolution in 1966. At age of 13, his parents were relocated to the countryside, the school wereclosed, and he was left alone in Beijing to fend for himself until 16 when he got a job in a clothing factory. 

我的一位同事因为中国 1966 年的文化大革命，他的人生彻底颠覆了。 13 岁那年，他的父母被下放农村。学校关闭了，而他独自在北京谋生直到 16 岁,他在服装厂找到了一份工作。

But instead of accepting his fate, he made a resolution that he could continue his formal education. Eleven years later,when the political landsccape changed, he heard about a highly selective university admisssions test. He had three months to learn the entire curriculum of middle and high school. So, every day he came home from the factory, took a nap, studied until 4.am, went back to work and repeated this cycle every day for three months. 

与其接受自己的命运，他决心不如继续完成学业。 11 年后政治版图改变了，他听说了一个竞争相当激烈的大学入学考试。他只有三个月来学习整个初中和高中的课程。于是，每天他从工厂回家后，先睡一小觉，然后学习到凌晨四点，回去工厂工作，就这样日复一日过了整整三个月。

He did it, he succeed. His commitment to his education was  unwavering and he never lost hope. Today, he holds a master degree and his daughters each have degrees from Cornell and Harvard.

他做到了，他成功了。他继续求学的决心非常坚定，也从未放弃希望。今天，他拥有了硕士学位。他的两个女儿则分别毕业于康奈尔大学和哈佛大学。

Scrappers are propelled by the belief that the only person you have full control over is yourself. When things turns out not well, scrappers ask, “what can I do diferently to create a better result”. Scrappers have a sense of purpose that prevents them from giving up on themselves, kind of like if you’ve survived poverty, a crazy father and several muggings, you figure, “business is challenge? Really? Pieceof cake. I got this.” 

拳击手被信念推动向前进，相信只有自己才能掌握自己的命运。当事情发展的不尽如人意的时候，拳击手会问，我能做些什么别的来创造一个更好的结果? 拳击手有目标意识，那就是永不放弃自己。如果你从贫穷，疯狂的父亲和数次被抢劫的经历中存活下来，你会觉得，“商业挑战？——这还算事儿吗？太简单了。我能搞定。”

And that reminds me--humor. Scrappers know that humor gets you through the tough times and laughter helps you change your perspective. And finally, they are relationships. People who overcome adversity don’t do it alone. Somewhere along the way, they find people who bring out the best in them and who are invested in their success. Having someone you can count on no matter what is essential to overcoming adversity. 

这不禁让我想起——幽默感。拳击手知道，幽默能够帮你度过最艰难的时刻，嘲笑你的人会帮助你改变对未来的看法。最后，还有人际关系。那些克服困难的人并非一直单打独斗。奋斗过程中的某时某刻，他们会遇到伯乐以及在他们成功的道路上倾囊相助的人。不管发生什么事，总有一个人可以依靠，这是克服困顿的关键。

I was lucky. In my first job after college, I didn’t have a car, so I carpooled across two bridges with a woman who was the president’s assistants. She watched me work, and encourage me to focus on my future and not dwell on my past. 

我是幸运的。得到大学毕业的第一份工作时，我没有车，所以我与人拼车，跨越两座桥去上班，那位女士当时还是总统助理。他看到我工作，并鼓励我放眼未来，不要老是想着过去。

Along the way, I have met many people who’ve provided me brutally honest feedback, advice and mentorship. These people don’t mind that I once worked as a singing waitress to help pay for college. I’ll leave you with one final, valuable insight.

一路走来，我遇到了很多人，让我懂得了忠言逆耳，他们都是我的良师益友。他们并不在意我曾经是个为了支付上大学的开销而唱歌打工的女服务生。

Companies that arecommitted to diversity and inclusve practices tend to support scrappers and outperform their peers. According to diversity Inc, a study of their top 50 companies for diversity outperformed the S&P 500 by 25 percent. So back tomy origianal question, who are you going to bet on: silver spoon or scrapper？I say choose the underestimated contender, whose secret weaons are passion and purpose. Hire the scrapper.

最后再分享一个有价值的见解，那些致力于多样化和包容开放行为的公司更愿意去支持拳击手，让他们比同辈更出色。《多元化企业》杂志的运营表现超越了标准普尔 500 指数 25% 。那么回到我最初的问题，你将把赌注放在谁身上：金钥匙或拳击手？我会选择被低估的竞争者，他的秘密武器是激情和决心。请雇佣拳击手。