《哈利波特》之母JK罗琳的11堂人生课

何航

So you didn’t have a perfect childhood? Sorry for your loss. What a great excuse you may have for not going all the way to make your dreams come true.

你的童年不够美好？对此我深表遗憾。可这又算什么理由，竟能阻碍你一路追逐梦想的实现！

Warning: today your excuses may be gone forever, no matter what your life looks like. After reading these golden nuggets of life delivered by JK Rowling to a graduating class at Harvard, you will be in on her life secrets. These mini lessons take you from any excuse to the life of your dreams. Read at your own risk. By the end of this post, you will have no reason left to stuff your big and little dreams under the mattress.

提醒一句：不管生活过得怎样，从今天起或许你将再也不找借口了。读完JK罗琳给哈佛毕业生们的金玉良言，你便能学到她的人生智慧。这些言简意赅的道理将使你不再为人生梦想而不断找借口。请勇敢往下读吧。最后，你将再也不会找任何借口任由各种梦想搁浅停滞了

何航

A lightning idea struck, and she became a billionaire author. Are you ready to enter your magical life? Here are some of her life philosophies that you too can take on.

只是灵光一闪，罗琳就变成了亿万文豪。你是否也准备开启自己的奇幻人生了呢？下面是罗琳的人生哲学，或许你能从中受益：

1. Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

最低谷成了我重建生活的坚实根基。

Here is how JK perceived her rock bottom:

罗琳是这样理解“人生低谷”的：

I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short lived marriage hadimploded and I was a jobless alone parent and as poor as it was possible to be in Britain without being homeless.

我遇到了前所未有的挫败。意外短暂的婚姻遗憾而终，我成了一个没有工作的单身母亲，除了还不至于无家可归外，当时要多穷有多穷。

You too can build up from your own rock bottom, laying a foundation for your dreams and goals, no matter where you are at in this very moment.

不管此时此刻境遇如何，你都可以从低谷开始，为自己的梦想和目标夯实基础。

2. Failure gave me an inner security that I have never had by passing examinations.

失败给了我一种内心安全感，这是我通过考试都不曾有过的感觉。

Does inner security comes from a job, money, getting an A? The perfect spouse or relationship?

内心安全感源于工作、金钱还是成绩得A？抑或完美的伴侣或人际关系？

Not according to Jo. Her inner security came from failure.

至少罗琳不是如此。她的内心安全感来自于失败。

Failure meant the stripping away of the inessential.

失败意味着剥离无关紧要的一切。

What can you strip away? What is inessential in your life? What will be left? What’s left is only what’s important to you along with inner security that you are choosing only a path that is right for you.

你能摆脱什么？哪些是你生活中无关紧要的？剩下的又会是什么？剩下的才是真正重要的，怀着内心的安全感，你选择那条唯一正确的道路。

3. Poverty itself is romanticized only by fools. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.

无知的人才会将贫穷浪漫化。贫穷意味着数不尽的羞辱和艰辛。

Some people associate poverty with spirituality. Or they think that it’s romantic to be writhing in hunger and cold, scratching out your craft anyway, digging deep.

有人将贫穷与灵性修养联系在一起，或者认为在饥饿寒冷中痛苦挣扎、任凭本领渐渐磨灭、深入骨髓的境遇，是浪漫的。

Jo disagrees. Why romanticize humiliation and hardships?

罗琳对此并不认同。为什么要把羞辱和艰辛浪漫化呢？

I cannot criticize my parents for hoping I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves and I have since been poor. And I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.

我不能指责父母希望我永远都不要经历贫穷。他们一直活在贫穷之中，我自己也是。所以我非常认同父母的看法：贫穷并不是什么体面的境遇。

It may be time for you to romanticize wealth and abundance, and look forward to bringing your gifts to this world, while satiated, with some extra money in the bank. Now that is ennobling.

或许现在你应该将财富浪漫化，期待为世界贡献自己的价值，同时能获得回报，银行里有点存款。这才是体面的境遇。

何航

4. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

天赋和才能并不会使你免遭命运无常的捉弄。

So you have a college education or know you’re smart. That’s great, but as far as the fates, well as Jo says, "Your qualifications are not your life." There’s no room for self-judgment here—life is what it is for all of us. Do what you can to get what you want. Keep on keeping on, and don’t give up.

你有大学文凭，自认为很聪明，是吧?那也无可厚非。但在命运这里，罗琳认为“你的资历并不能构成你的人生”。毫无自我评判的余地——生活对所有人都是自行其道。所以，请量力而行地争取渴望的东西。请坚持再坚持，千万不要放弃！

5. The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

当你成熟到足够自己把握方向盘的时候，责任也随之而来。

If you’re blaming someone else for you not finding your own dream and bringing it to life, grab the wheel; you’re old enough to drive.

如果你还不知道自己的梦想是什么、该如何实现，却又去埋怨别人的话，就请握好方向盘吧——你已经到了可以自己驾驶的年纪了。

I do not blame my parents…there is an expiry date for blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected.

我不会去怪父母……埋怨父母错了方向也是有期限的。我发现自己的毅力和自律远比想象的强大。

You have what it takes, so take it. The minute you stop blaming, you can start steering.

既得之，则用之。一旦停止抱怨，你也就开始掌控了自己的方向。

6. We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.

我们不需要魔法来改变世界，因为我们的内心就已经拥有了所有力量。

Wouldn’t it be nice to have Harry or Hermione’s magic wand? Or to go into a wand shop and browse?

如果能拥有哈利或赫敏的魔杖岂不是很厉害？或者去魔杖店亲自挑选呢？

If Jo tells you that you have magic and power inside yourself, then you do. Believe it, allow it to surface and get ready for a wild ride.

如果罗琳认为你自身就拥有神奇力量，那你确实就有。请相信你的力量、发挥出你的力量，去开启一段疯狂旅程吧！

7. The crucial importance of imagination.

想象力极其重要。

Did you think imagination is to be left for the kids? Maybe you’re just a big kid after all.

你以为只有小孩才有想象力吗？或许你自己就是个大小孩呢！

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not and therefore the fount of all invention…we have the power to imagine better.

想象力不仅是人类独有的想象能力，同时也是所有发明的源泉……我们有能力想象得更美好。

It is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we never shared.

这种力量能让我们体会到自身不曾经历的他人经验。

Go ahead and daydream. Let your imagination run where it may and imagine a better life, a better world. You have Jo’s permission.

请尽情做梦吧。让想象力自由奔放，去想象更美好的生活、更和谐的社会。罗琳允许你这么做！

何航

8. The first story I finished was when I was six years old.
我6岁时写完了第一个故事。
Our childhoods have lots of clues. What were you doing when you were six? What toy did you want? What did you play with?
从小看到老。6岁时你在干什么？你喜欢过什么样的玩具，又有哪些玩伴儿？
If you can’t remember, take a trip to the virtual toy store and see what you want to play with and play. It may lead to what you really want to be doing.
如果你记不起来，可以到实体玩具店看看自己喜欢什么，然后玩一玩。或许你就能发现自己真正想要从事什么。
9. I began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
我开始把所有精力投入到唯一重要的事情中去。
What work matters to you?
什么样的事情对你而言是重要的？
I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was.
我不再假装是真实自我之外的其他人。
What might you be pretending to be? What box are you in? Climb on out.
你会假装成什么样的人？你陷在怎样的围城里？赶紧出来吧。
10. Harry Potter gave me back self-respect. Harry gave me a job to do that I loved more than anything else.
《哈利波特》为我赢得了自尊，让我从事了自己最喜欢的工作。
Do what you love and what you are meant to do and the self-respect will follow.
选你所爱、做你所想，自尊便会自然而来。
11. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might not have lived at all, in which case you fail by default.
活着不可能不犯错，除非你过得极其谨慎、仿佛不曾活过一样，可这样你其实也还是犯了错失败了。
Failure is good. It means you are out in the ring, not in the nosebleed section, watching other people battle it out.
失败是有益的。失败意味着你出局了，不在血腥的现场，看别人你争我斗。
There was a point where I really felt I had ‘penniless divorcee lone parent’ tattooed on my head.
有一段时间，我真的觉得自己脑门上刻着‘身无分文的离异单亲妈妈’字样。
What I feared most; failure. I was the biggest failure I knew.
我最最害怕的就是失败，可我自己就是最大的失败。
What do you think you have tattooed on your forehead? Too old to start? Young and inexperienced? Too poor? Too scared?
你觉得你脑门上刻着什么字？年纪太大为时已晚？年轻青涩毫无经验？太穷？没胆量？
Time to pour the concrete and lay the foundation for greater things.
是时候去为更美好的事情和泥砌根基了。
Here is a bonus life lesson:
以下是额外的人生课堂：
"I don’t think about who the audience is for my books." Expectations of others can rule our lives if we let them. IF we let them.
“我不会考虑书的读者是谁。” 如果我们允许，真的只要我们允许，别人的期望就能约束我们的生活。
"I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself and what those closest to me expected of me."
“我很努力地去平衡自我抱负和身边人对我的期许。”
Take a break from wondering how to create your career based on what others want. If you do what helps you, with the gifts you have, you will do as Jo did.
先缓一缓，不要困惑如何按照别人的期许来创造你的职业生涯。如果能做好有用之事，再凭借自身天赋，你也会像罗琳那样成功。
So there you have it. Life on JK Rowling’s terms.
这就是你能学到的。这就是JK罗琳的人生教诲。
"I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized. And I was still alive and I still had a daughter whom I adored and I had an old typewriterand a big idea." Go ahead. Set yourself free. Your failures can be your stepping stones to greatness. This one life you have is yours to live. Do what you love and want to do—that’s where the magic is. Believe in yourself.
“我自由了，因为最大的恐惧已成为现实。我还活着，还有一个深爱着的女儿；我有一台旧打字机，并且有一个很棒的想法。” 开始行动，给自己自由吧！你的失败也可能是将来成功的垫脚石。这辈子需要由你自己来过。所以，请做自己喜欢和渴望的事情——这才是魔法魅力所在。请相信你自己！
Light yourself up and dig deep for the magic inside you. It’s there, and it’s in all of us. Harry leads the way!
请点亮内心希望，发挥你内在的魔力吧。魔力是存在的，所有人都拥有这样的魔力。哈利波特，请领路！