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三、不要在未盡全力時停下來──視「盡全力而為」為必然的習慣…沒什麼不尋常。沒有盡全力而為是對平凡妥協，這是我們很容易陷進去的習慣，要避免它。
你們都得到良好教育、良好道德基礎、良好精神基礎，以及父母的福蔭，真的！你若有意願，你已擁有對社會做重要貢獻的所有條件。那麼誰負責確認你有意願、誰負責你確實做的事情對？你的父母？你的學校？你的宗教團體？或者是你？當然是你！你的父母、學校、宗教團體有責任對你闡明，並協助你採取負責任的價值，最終還是由你來感受、思考和行動。如果連你都無法把握自己、自己的感受、自己的思考與自己的動機，沒人有辦法幫得上忙！這兒有幾點提示，可以幫你掌控自己，踏上過有意義生活之路。
•每天省思廣大遠景──每天花幾分鐘來反省。想想你為自己所打算之路，進行得怎樣了？認清你的方向，可以避免無謂的分心。花幾分鐘時間計劃明日，尤其是必需完成的最重要事項；做筆記或做個「應作事項」清單，是好主意，我經常這麼做。
•每天想想改進之道──我剛進入在芝加哥的航空業時，是個電話訂位接線生。我有一些如何增加業務的主意，因此要求經理設立建議箱。他設了。於是每一天我至少在建議箱投入一個如何增加業績的建言，往往箱子裏只有我的建議；有些建言最終成了增加業績的良策。
過了幾個月，我被升級為業務員，專門推銷主意給旅行社，以便銷售我們航空公司的機票。不到四個月，我接洽的所有旅行社賣出我們公司的機票，多過全部其它旅行社的總合。我做得到那樣，是因為每一天我強迫自己想出可以為航空公司增加業績的法子。
我很快的發覺自己不必把客戶局限在現有的旅行社，很多人願意從事；所以我任他們為我們航空公司的旅行社。我甚至把芝加哥的「猶太肉販工會」當做旅行社。我們有一段航線是從芝加哥到邁阿密，很多猶太人飛去邁阿密；你無法想像「猶太肉販工會」賣了多少張去邁阿密的機票。另外一個不尋常的「旅行社」是殯儀館。我還為他們寫了標語 … 「要去任何地方嗎？」他們出售機票給客戶的外地親人。過了幾個月，公司要我去底特律開辦事處。
他們開給我一張一千元支票，要我去底特律，開個銀行帳號，再開個辦事處。一開始，我就照樣列出使業務成長方法的清單。每天清晨，我寫下五個主意，有些成了非常好的主意。不到一年，我們底特律辦事處賣出的底特律到洛杉磯機票，多過美國航空公司；從底特律到邁阿密，多過東方航空公司。因此他們要我當區域經理，管理從匹茲堡到堪薩斯市與從密耳瓦基到聖路意斯的所有辦事處。幾年後，我辭職轉到另一新的行業──電視。我仍然在想運作業務的新法子，最後協助創設了付費電視。
•想想你是誰，你又可以成為誰──有些人認為我們就是我們所吃的食物。我必須承認，這個說法我們的身體就是我們所吃的是有些道理。
然而，我們的個性、我們的價值觀、我們的承諾、我們的言談，以及最重要的──我們的作為，才真正定義了我們是誰。我們的基因組合、父母的愛，在學校、教會或寺廟所受的訓練，和我們交往的朋友，都影響我們的歸屬；但是這一切的關鍵人物，還是你自己！你不能決定是否下雨，但是你可以決定對下雨的感覺和如何應付。你可以覺得沮喪，光想下雨害你不能做些什麼；或是你可以慶祝下雨、在雨中舞蹈，並為雨水滋潤周遭生命而欣喜。往好的想！想解決的法子，而非儘想問題；想奉獻，而非搭便車佔便宜；想布施，而非接受。
•建立目標──如果你不知道自己的方向，任何路都可以到…但即使到了，你也不知道。一旦知道要去哪兒，就必需想辦法抵達。最好的法子，是訂立稱為「里程碑」的中程目標。每到一站，就會對完成終極目標更有信心。一如我們所見的，對自己的信心非常重要。
順便提一下，有時候很難訂立簡明的目標；有時候標出所有你想避免的事，也是一個認清目標的方法。隨著你成熟的轉變，你的目標也會成熟，那樣很好。生命不是條到達終點的單一跑道，一路上有很多的遊戲。
•緊握變化──沒多久以前，人們相信一個事實，認為明日就像昨日一樣。那種時代已過！每一件事在變化，即使變化本身也在變化，它變化的速度在加快。所以要學習去應付變化：學習預先考量它、學習運用它，並學習管理它。
•對自己的行為負責──對自己所做或沒做的事負責。出了差錯時，試圖找出失敗的真正原因，如此你能從錯誤中學習，也敏捷的接受在過程中屬於自己的責任。不做不錯…對我而言，那是任何人所做的最大錯誤。
四、你可以同時是對與錯的──我曾經同時是對與錯的，我肯定會繼續做下去。記得，你會同時是對與錯的。這不會阻擋你的正確，更不會讓你避免犯錯；但是可以培養你的質疑。別怕質問自己，也別怕質問你的假設。
五、尊重不同──幾乎總是有一個以上的正確方法，如果為自己找到正確的路，那很好；如果你認為那條路只有別人行得通，那就很糟糕了。別誤解我！肯定是有走錯路的時候，邪惡人做邪惡事。有時候，甚至好人也會做邪惡事。我不是認為我們應接受邪惡或惡行，我是說為生命加上色彩，會產生不同效果；我們一定要尊重不同，而非製造雷同。
有時候美國被認為是個熔爐…我看它更像是個瑪賽克(一種細工鑲嵌而成的圖飾)，由許多不同的單片拼湊成一個大圖案。只有每一單片保持其獨特性，才能組成更大、更具意義的成品。如果每個單片都一樣，那這個瑪賽克看起來會怎樣？不會很有意思。這個課程應能協助你保有自己的獨特性，同時讓身為團體一份子的你，依然可以在較大的團體中參與他人；這是因為你的獨特，而非別人所能的。
六、讓信任成為意識性的決定：幾乎我們生活中所做的每件事都與信任有關。有些人信任每個人及每件事，直到信任受到侵損；有些人不信任每個人及每件事，直到贏得了信任。大部分人並不考慮信任，而是去「感受」它。我相信我們的直覺、感覺，對我們有象徵性的效果；但是如果加入意識性的思考，會更有效。
一生中，你會有許多夥伴…就說這幾個吧：婚姻夥伴、事業夥伴、友誼夥伴等等。學習做個好夥伴，也協助你的夥伴做個好夥伴。我對「好夥伴」的定義是：我為他們留神警覺時，他們也為我留神警覺。互相信賴、互相尊重、互相協助的關係，使得彼此齊心相處；一旦你開始只想從合夥關係中掠取，而夥伴亦如是之時，你們就會拆夥分道揚鑣。
待續
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3. Don’t settle for less than the best you can do: Doing your best should be a habit… nothing unusual. Doing less than your best is a compromise with mediocrity. It’s an easy habit to fall into. Avoid it.
You are all blessed with a good education, a good moral foundation, a good spiritual foundation and parents that take their job in your life seriously. You’ve got all the tools to make important contributions to society if you’re motivated.
So who do you think is responsible for being sure that you are motivated and that you actually do the right things? Your parents? Your school? Your religious institutions? Or you? You, of course. While your parents, your school and your religious institutions have a responsibility to expose you to and help you adopt responsible values, in the end, it is up to you to feel, to think and to act. If you can’t manage yourself, your feelings, your thoughts and your motivation, no one can. So here are a few tips that will help you take control of yourself and launch you on the way to living a meaningful life.
• See the big picture every day. Set aside a few minutes every day for review. Think about how you have advanced along the path you set for yourself. Identify the distractions you could do without. Take a few minutes to plan tomorrow, especially focus on the most important things you need to accomplish. It’s a good idea to write notes or make a list of Things To Do. I do it all the time.
• Every day, think about how you can improve what you do. When I started in the airline business in Chicago, I was a telephone reservation operator. I had some ideas on how to increase sales so I asked my manager to put up a suggestion box. He did. And every day I put at least one suggestion into the suggestion box about how to improve sales. Most of the time, my suggestions were the only ones in the box. Some of the suggestions turned out to be good ideas that increased sales.
In a few months they promoted me to being a salesman selling travel agents on the idea of selling tickets on our airline. Within four months my travel agents were selling more tickets on our airline than all the other travel agents combined. I was able to do that because every day I forced myself to think about a way I could grow the business for the airline. I soon realized that I did not have to limit my clients to existing travel agents. A lot of people would like to be travel agents so I made them travel agents for our airline. I even made the Kosher Butcher’s Association of Chicago a travel agent. One of our routes was from Chicago to Miami, and a lot of Jewish people flew to Miami. You can’t believe how many tickets to Miami Kosher Butchers sold.
Another unusual “travel agent” was a mortuary. I even wrote a slogan for them…“Traveling anywhere?” They sold tickets to out of town family members of their clients. So, in a few more months they asked me to open an office in Detroit.
They gave me a check for $1,000 and told me to go to Detroit, open a bank account and then open an office. I did what I do. I started making lists of ways to grow the business. Every morning I wrote down five ideas. Some of them turned out to be very good ideas. In less than a year, our office in Detroit was selling more tickets from Detroit to Los Angeles than American Airlines and more tickets from Detroit to Miami than Eastern Airlines. So they asked me to become the regional manager for all the offices from Pittsburgh to Kansas City and from Milwaukee to St. Louis. A few years later I quit and went to work in another new industry, television. I kept on thinking of new ways to make business work and eventually helped create the pay television industry.
• Think about who you are and who you can be: Some people think we are what we eat. And I must admit that in some sense we can say our body is what we eat.
However, our personality, our values, our commitments, what we say and most of all, what we do, really defines who we are. Our genetic makeup, the love of our parents, the training in school and in church or temple, and the friends we keep all affect who we become. But the key player in all of this is you. You don’t get to decide if it rains, you get to decide how to feel about the rain and what to do about it. You can get into a funk and think about all the things the rain is preventing you from doing or you can celebrate the rain, dance in it and rejoice knowing that rain nurtures life all around you. Think good thoughts. Think about solutions, not problems; about contributing, not getting a free ride. Think about giving, not receiving.
• Establish goals: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there… but you won’t know when you’ve arrived. Once you know where you are going, you have to figure out how to get there. The best way is to set interim goals called milestones. As you reach each milestone, you gain confidence in achieving your ultimate goal. As we have already seen, your confidence in yourself is very important.
By the way, sometimes it is difficult to define your goals succinctly. Sometimes you can discover a way to express your goals by identifying all the things you want to avoid.
As you mature, your goals will mature. That’s good. Life is not a single race to the finish line. There are lot’s of games along the way.
• Embrace change: Not long ago people relied on the fact that tomorrow would be just like yesterday. That time has passed. Everything is changing, even change is changing. It is changing at an increasing rate. So learn to deal with change. Learn to anticipate it, learn to use it, and learn to manage it.
• Take responsibility for your actions: Be responsible for what you do or don’t do. When things go wrong, try to determine the actual cause of the failure so that you can learn from the mistakes but also be ready to accept responsibility for your part in the process. The only people that don’t make mistakes are people that do nothing… and to me, that is the biggest mistake anyone can make.
4. You can be positive and wrong at the same time: I have been both positive and wrong at the same time, and I’m sure that I will do it again and again: Keep in mind that you can be both positive and wrong at the same time. That should not keep you from being positive and it certainly won’t keep you from being wrong. But it will nurture your skepticism. Don’t be afraid to question yourself and question your assumptions.
5. Respect difference: There is almost always more than one right way: When you have found a right way for yourself, that’s wonderful. When you begin to think it is the only right way for others, it’s terrible. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely wrong ways. And evil people do evil things. Sometimes, even good people do evil things. I’m not suggesting that we should accept evil or evil acts. But I am saying that it is difference that adds color to life and that we must respect difference not try to create uniformity.
America is sometimes thought of as a melting pot…I see it more as a mosaic, a lot of different pieces that go together to make a greater whole. Only so long as each piece maintains its unique characteristic will they form a larger and even more meaningful organization. What would the mosaic look like if all the pieces were the same? It would not be very interesting. This lesson should help you maintain your uniqueness, yet be a member of a group and still allow you to join with others in a larger context because of your differences not in spite of them.
6. Make trust a conscious decision: Almost everything we do in life involves trust. Some people trust everyone and everything until the trust is violated and some people don’t trust anyone or anything until trust is earned. Most people don’t think about trusting, they “feel” it. I believe that our instincts, feelings, typically serve us well, but they work better when aided by conscious thought.
Throughout life you will have partners… partners in marriage, partners in business and partners in friendship to name a few. Learn to be a good partner and to help your partners be good partners. I define a good partner as someone that watches out for me while I am watching out for them.
A relationship of mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual help brings partners together. When you start to focus on what you are getting out of the partnership and your partner does the same, you are pulled apart.
To be continued
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