You can achieve almost any goal that you have the courage to set—but sometimes it takes a painful experience to light the way.

　　凡是你有勇气定下的目标，你几乎都能实现——但有时候得有一段痛苦的经历照亮你的前程。

　　That was so in my case. When I was 17 years old, I broke my father’s heart. He had saved enough from a very average income to send me to college to become an attorney; 90 days later I was home telling him that I had quit college—and for the first time I saw him cry. With tears in his eyes he said, “Son, I’m always going to love you even though you’ll never amount to anything.”

　　我的情况就是如此。17 岁的时候，我伤透了父亲的心。他的收入非常一般，却攒够了钱送我上大学，让我成为一名律师。90 天之后，我回到家告诉他我退学了——那是我第一次见到他哭。他含着眼泪说：“儿子，即使你将来一事无成，我还是会爱你的。” That was my first motivational speech. 那是我第一次听到的激励演说。

　　When I walked out of that room, I was burning with something not everyone has the chance to feel. I didn’t just want to succeed—I had to succeed.

　　走出房间，我热血沸腾，那种感觉不是每个人都能有机会感受到的。我不仅想要成功——我非成功不可。

　　But I couldn’t see how to do it. I became a bridge deck specialist and carried steel up construction ramps for 18 months—and all the time my father’s words were eating at me. I had a wage job that led nowhere except to old age.

　　可是我不知道怎样才能成功。我成了一名桥板专家，往一个建筑工地的斜坡上扛钢材，一扛就是 18 个月——而父亲的话一直困扰着我。我的工作是按劳计酬，除了混日子，不会有任何前途。

　　I went into sales—and the wages stopped. I earned nothing because that’s what I knew about my profession. Then, just as I was going under for the third time in sales, a man came by and soldme on the Edwards training seminar. I went, I learned the closes and techniques; I lost no time putting them to work. Soon after that, I started tasting the sweet fruits of success for the first time.

　　我开始做销售——薪水就这样停掉了。我没有挣到一分钱，因为我对销售一无所知。然后，就在我做销售要经历第三次失败的时候，有个人找到我，劝我参加爱德华兹培训研讨会。我去了，我学会了各种技巧，我赶紧把这些技巧用到我的工作当中。很快，我就首次尝到了成功的甜头。

　　Some time later, I told the management of the company where I worked that my goal was to meet personally with Mr. Edwards. They arranged it for me. When the day came, I told him, “Mr. Edwards, my goal is to someday take your place and someday be able to train people as well as you trained me.”

　　过了一段时间，我对公司主管说，我的目标是亲自见见爱德华兹先生。他们为我做了安排。到了那一天，我对他说：“爱德华兹先生，我的目标是有朝一日取代您的位置，有朝一日能像您当初培训我一样培训别人。”

　　That all came to pass because I set goals to make it happen. Committing to the goal was the essential element. You can’t rise unless you set goals that make you stretch.

　　这一切都实现了，因为我立志要实现这些目标。坚持自己的目标是最重要的。除非你制定的目标使你倾注全力，否则你很难出人头地。