Last night, I took a break from writing and watched a TV program on the history of a young man named Alexander Graham Bell. Bell had just patented his telephone, and was having growing pains because the demand for his new invention was so strong. Needing a bigger company, he then went to the giant at that time, Western Union, and asked them if they would buy his patent and his tiny company. He wanted $100,000 for the whole package. The president of Western Union scoffed at him and turned him down, saying the price was ridiculous. The rest is history. A multi-billion-dollar industry emerged, and AT&T was born.
昨天晚上，在写作的间隙，我看了一个电视节目，讲的是一个叫亚历山大。格雷厄姆。贝尔的年轻人的故事。那时候，贝尔刚刚为他的电话机申请了专利，但却发愁无法满足市场对于他新发明的强劲需求。为了得到大公司的支持，贝尔找到了当时的巨无霸——西部联合公司，问他们是否愿意购买他的专利和他的小公司，他的一揽子要价是10万美元。西部联合公司的老总嘲笑并拒绝了他，认为这个价格简直是荒谬可笑。后来发生了以下的事情：丁个拥有数十亿美元的产业产生了，而且最终成立了美国电报电话公司。
Lesson Five: The Rich Invent Money
第五课：富人的投资
The evening news came on right after the story of Alexander Graham Bell ended. On the news was a story of another downsizing at a local company. The workers were angry and complained that the company ownership was unfair. A terminated manager of about 45 years of age had his wife and two babies at the plant and was begging the guards to let him talk to the owners to ask if they would reconsider his termination. He had just bought a house and was afraid of losing it. The camera focused in on his pleading for all the world to see. Needless to say, it held my attention.
有关贝尔创业经历的节目之后是晚间新闻，其中一条谈到了本地一家公司又一次裁员，公司的工人们愤怒地谴责公司老板的做法。在工厂门口，一位大约45岁的下岗经理带着他的妻子和两个孩子，要求门卫允许他进去同老板对话，请老板重新考虑解雇他的决定，因为他刚刚购买了一套房子。镜头记录了他的呼吁，全世界都看见了，“这件事自然也引起了我的深思。
I have been teaching professionally since 1984. It has been a great experience and rewarding. It is also a disturbing profession, for I have taught thousands of individuals and I see one thing in common in all of us, myself included. We all have tremendous potential, and we all are blessed with gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical information that holds us back, but more the lack of self-confidence. Some are more affected than others.
我从1984年开始教育生涯，这是一种非常有益的经历，甚至是一种奖励。但这也是一个令人不安的职业，因为我曾经教过数千人，从中发现了所有人——包括我自己的一个共同点：我们都拥有巨大的潜能——这一上天赏赐的礼物。然而，问题是我们都或多或少地存在着某种自我怀疑，从而阻碍了自己的前进。阻碍我们前进的障碍很少是由于缺乏技术性信息，更多的是由于缺乏自信。
Once we leave school, most of us know that it is not as much a matter of college degrees or good grades that count. In the real world outside of academics, something more than just grades is required. I have heard it called “guts”, “chutzpah”, “balls”, “audacity”, “bravado”, “cunning”, “daring”, “tenacity” and “brilliance.” This factor, whatever it is labeled, ultimately decides one’s future much more than school grades.
一旦我们离开学校，我们之中大部分人就会意识到，仅仅有大学文凭或好分数是远远不够的。在校园之外的现实世界里，有许多比好分数更为重要的东西，我常常听到人们将这些东西称之为“魄力”、“勇气”、“毅力”、“大胆”、“气势”、“精明”、“勇敢”。“坚强”、“才华横溢”等等。不管怎么称呼，这都是比学校分数更能从根本上决定人们未来的因素。
Inside each of us is one of these brave, brilliant and daring characters. There is also the flip side of that character: people who could get down on their knees and beg if necessary. After a year in Vietnam, as a Marine Corps pilot, I intimately got to know both of those characters — inside of me. One is not better than the other.
在我们每个人的性格当中，既有勇敢、聪明、泼辣的一面，也有畏惧、愚昧和胆怯的一面，这就好像一些非常勇敢顽强的英雄有时也会跪下来乞求上帝的恩赐。作为一名海军特种部队的飞行员，我在越南战场上呆了一年后，发现这两种倾向在我身上同时存在，并不表现为哪种倾向更占优势。
Yet, as a teacher, I recognized that it was excessive fear and self-doubt that were the greatest detractors of personal genius. It broke my heart to see students know the answers, yet lack the courage to act on the answer. Often in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead but the bold.
但是，作为一名教师，我意识到过分的畏惧和自我怀疑是浪费我们才能的最大因素。看到学生们明明知道该做什么，却缺乏勇气付诸实践，我就感到十分悲哀。在现实世界里，人们往往是依靠勇气而不是聪明去领先于其他人的。
In my personal experience, your financial genius requires both technical knowledge as well as courage. If fear is too strong, the genius is suppressed.
在我的个人体验中，培养财务智慧既需要有专业知识，又需要有足够的勇气。如果畏难情绪太大，往往会压抑才能的发挥。
In my classes I strongly urge students to learn to take? risks, to be bold, to let their genius convert that fear into power and brilliance. It works for some and just terrifies others. I have come to realize that for most people, when it comes to the subject of money, they would rather play it safe. I have had to field questions such as:
在我的班上，我极力劝说学生们学着去冒险，去勇敢地发挥才能，把畏难情绪转化成动力和智慧。我的建议使许多人受到触动，并且有的人受到良好的影响，但我也明显意识到，对大多数人来说，一旦涉及到金钱的问题，他们总是把安全性放在第一位。我不得不即席答复这样一些问题，诸如：
Why take risks? Why should I bother developing my financial IQ? Why should I become financially literate?
为什么要去冒险？ 为什么必须不厌其烦地提高自己的财商？为什么必须懂得财务知识？
And I answer, “Just to have more options.”
对此，我回答说，“就是为了获得更多的选择机会。”
There are huge changes up head. Just as I started with the story of the young inventor Alexander Graham Bell, in the coming years there will be more people just like him. There will be a hundred people like Bill Gates and hugely successful companies like Microsoft created every year, all over the world. And there also will be many more bankruptcies, layoffs and downsizing.
更大的变化还未出现。就在我提到年轻的发明家亚力山大。格雷厄姆。贝尔的故事时，世界正产生着更多的像贝尔那样的人。 每年全世界会产生100个像比尔。盖茨那样的人，也会创立出更多的像微软一样成功的公司，当然，全世界每年也会有更多的公司破产并发生解雇和裁员。
So why bother developing your financial IQ? No one can answer that but you. Yet, I can tell you why I myself do it. I do it because it is the most exciting time to be alive. I’d rather be welcoming change than dreading change. I’d rather be excited about making millions than worrying about not getting a raise. This period we are in now is a most exciting time, unprecedented in our world’s history. Generations from now, people will look back at this period of time and remark at what an exciting era it must have been. It was the death of the old and birth of the new. It was full of turmoil and it was exciting.
那么，一个人为什么非要提高自己的财商呢？除了自己，没有人能回答这个问题。不过，我可以告诉你为什么我自己要这样做。原因很简单，做这些工作是我生命当中最快乐的事情，我更欢迎变化而不是抱怨变化，我更喜欢能挣到数百万元的钱而不是去担心能不能获得提升。当今我们所处的时代是历史上未曾有过的最激动人心的时代，当后人回顾今天这段历史时，他们一定会感叹这是一个多么充满机遇的时代。旧的东西消亡了，新的东西产生了，到处都在发生翻天覆地的变化，这的确让人兴奋不已。
So why bother developing your financial IQ? Because if you do, you will prosper greatly. And if you don’t, this period of time will be a frightening one. It will be a time of watching people move boldly forward while others cling to decaying life rings.
那么究竟为什么要努力提高自己的财商呢？因为这样做了，你就会获得更大的成功；而不这样做，对你来说，这个时代就会成为一个令人恐慌的时代。你会发现一些人勇敢地走在了前面，而另一些人却陷入生活的恶性循环并难以自拔。
Land was wealth 300 years ago. So the person who owned the land owned the wealth. Then, it was factories and production, and America rose to dominance. The industrialist owned the wealth. Today, it is information. And the person who has the most timely information owns the wealth. The problem is, information flies all around the world at the speed of light. The new wealth cannot be contained by boundaries and borders as land and factories were. The changes will be faster and more dramatic. There will be a dramatic increase in the number of new multimillionaires. There also will be those who are left behind.
三百年前，土地是一种财富，因此，谁拥有土地，谁就拥有财富。后来，美国依靠工厂和工业产品上升为世界头号强国，工业家占有了财富。今天，信息便是财富。问题是，信息以光的速度在全世界迅速传播，新的财富形式不再像土地和工厂那样具有明确的范围和界限。变化会越来越快，越来越显著，百万富翁的数目会极大地增加，同样，也会有许多人被远远地抛在后面。
Today, I find so many people struggling, often working harder, simply because they cling to old ideas. They want things to be the way they were; they resist change. I know people who are losing their jobs or their houses, and they blame technology or the economy or their boss. Sadly they fail to realize that they might be the problem. Old ideas are their biggest liability. It is a liability simply because they fail to realize that while that idea or way of doing something was an asset yesterday, yesterday is gone.
今天，我发现许多人在苦苦工作、苦苦挣扎，其原因就是因为他们依然固执于陈旧的观念。他们希望事情都能原封不动，他们抵制任何变化。那些失去了工作或房子的人总在抱怨技术进步，或是埋怨经济状况不佳以及他们的老板，却没有意识到，问题的症结在于他们本身。陈旧的思想是他们最大的包袱，也可以说是最大的债务。为什么呢？原因很简单：他们没有意识到已有的某种思想或方法在昨天还是一种资产，但今天却已经变成了负债。
One afternoon I was teaching investing using a board game I had invented, CASHFLOW, as a teaching tool. A friend had brought someone along to attend the class. This friend of a friend was recently divorced, had been badly burned in the divorce settlement, and was now searching for some answers. Her friend thought the class might help.
一天下午，我正在讲授投资问题，并以“现金流”游戏作为教学工具。我的朋友带了一位女士一道来听我的课。这位女士最近离婚了，在离婚问题的处置上她遭受到了沉重的打击，正想寻找某种答案。我的朋友认为听听我的课也许对她会有所帮助。
The game was designed to help people learn how money works. In playing the game, they learn about the interaction of the income statement with the balance sheet. They learn how “cash flows” between the two and how the road to wealth is through striving to increase your monthly cash flow from the asset column to the point that it exceeds your j monthly expenses. Once you accomplish this, you are able to get out of the “Rat Race” and out onto the “Fast Track”.
“现金流”游戏设计的目的，是为了帮助人们了解金钱是如何运动的。在玩游戏的过程中，人们可以了解收入表和资产负债表之间的互动关系，并弄懂如何在这两张表之间记录“现金流量”以及通过增加资产科目上的月现金流量，使你的月现金流量超过每月支出金额，进而达到财富增长，最终你就能从“老鼠赛跑”中挣脱出来，上升到“快车道”上。
After the class, her friend came by and told me that she was upset. She had come to the class to learn about investing and did not like the idea that it took so long to play a silly game.
课后，我的朋友过来告诉我，说这位女士不太开心。她来听课原本是为了学习投资知识，并不喜欢花这么长的时间来玩一个愚蠢的游戏。
Her friend attempted to tell her to look within herself to see if the game “reflected” on herself in any way. With that suggestion, the woman demanded her money back. She said that the very idea that a game could be a reflection of her was ridiculous. Her money was promptly refunded and she left.
她的朋友试图建议她反省一下自身，也许这个游戏在某些方面正好反映了她的情况。这个建议起了负作用，这位女士要回了自己的“钱”。她说，认为这样一种游戏会反映她的情况的想法，简直是荒谬绝伦。她的“钱”立即归还给了她，然后她就走了。
As I have said, some people hate the game, some love it, and others miss the point. This woman missed a valuable opportunity to learn something. In the opening round, she drew a “doodad” card with the boat on it. At first she was happy. “Oh, I’ve got a boat.” Then, as her friend tried to explain how the numbers worked on her income statement and balance sheet, she got frustrated because she had never liked math. The rest of her table waited while her friend continued explaining the relationship between the income statement, balance sheet and monthly cash flow. Suddenly, when she realized how the numbers worked, it dawned on her that her boat was eating her alive. Later on in the game, she was also “downsized” and had a child. It was a horrible game for her.
我曾经说过，一些人讨厌这个游戏，也有许多人喜欢这个游戏，还有一些人对这个游戏不太在意。这位女士就失去了一个学点财务知识的极好机会。在第一轮中，她得到了一张“零星支出”卡，开始她感到很高兴，“噢，我得到了一只游艇！”接着，当我的朋友试着向她解释如何在收人表和资产负债表上做数字记录时，她非常沮丧，因为她从不喜欢与数字打交道。桌上的其他玩家在一边等着她，而我的朋友则不停地向她解释收人表、资产负债表和月现金流量之间的关系。终于，她弄明白了数字记录的奥妙，并且意识到她的小艇实际上消耗了她的资金，影响了她的资产的流动性。后来在游戏中，她在“下岗”格停过，还添了一个孩子，不用说，这个游戏对她来说简直是糟糕透了。
In 1984, I began teaching via games and simulations. I always encouraged adult students to look at games as reflecting back to what they know, and what they needed to learn. Most importantly, a game reflects back on one’s behavior. It’s an instant feedback system. Instead of the teacher lecturing you, the game is feeding back a personalized lecture, custom made just for you.
从1984年，我开始使用游戏和模板来进行教学。我常常鼓励我的成人学生从游戏中看出哪些反映了他们所知道的情况，哪些是他们还需要学习的东西。最重要的是，要让游戏能反映一个人的行为方式，因为它是一个实时反馈系统。这个游戏不需要老师不停地讲解，它就像是一场个人间的交互式对话，时时刻刻都在与你本人进行沟通。
Since 1984, I have made millions simply by doing what the school system does not. In school, most teachers lecture. I hated lectures as a student; I was soon bored and my mind would drift.
自1984年以来，我仅仅是通过做学校正规教育系统所没做的事情，就赚了数百万美元。在学校，大部分老师都喜欢不停地讲解，我在当学生的时候就不喜欢这种授课方法，因为我很快就会厌倦走神。
Although she and her husband did not own a boat, they did own everything else imaginable. She was angry after their divorce, both because he had run off with a younger woman and because after twenty years of marriage, they had accumulated little in the way of assets. There was virtually nothing for them to split. Their twenty years of married life had been incredible fun, but all they had accumulated was a ton of doodads.
虽然她和她丈夫并不曾拥有一只游艇，可他们确实拥有其他所有他们期望得到的东西。对于离婚她感到愤怒，这既是因为她丈夫另有新欢离她而去，也是因为结婚20年来，他们几乎没有积存下什么资产，他们居然没有什么可供分割的财产。他们20年的婚姻生活确实充满了乐趣，但是所有的积累却是一大堆不值钱的东西。
The friend of the woman who left later called to give me an update. She said her friend was fine and had calmed down. In her cooling-off period, she could see some slight relationship between the game and her life.
后来我的朋友打电话告诉我有关那位女士的最新情况。她说，她的朋友——那位中途离开的女士现在很好，已经平静下来。当那位女士冷静下来时，她开始发现那个游戏与她的生活之间的确存在着某种微妙的关系。
Just like a board game, the world is always providing us with instant feedback. We could learn a lot if we tuned in more. One day not long ago, I complained to my wife that the cleaners must have shrunk my pants. My wife gently smiled and poked me in the stomach to inform me that the pants had not shrunk, something else had expanded me!
就像玩这种纸板游戏一样，现实世界也总是给我们以实时反馈。我们关注得越多，能够学到的也就越多。这就好像不久前的一天，我对太太抱怨说，洗衣店一定是把我的裤子洗缩水了。太太却微笑着拍着我的肚子说：“你没有注意到吗？不是裤子缩小了，而是别的东西变大了——你的肚子。”
She realized that her anger at doing the numbers — the income statement and balance sheet — came from her embarrassment of not understanding them. She had believed that finances were the man’s job. She maintained the house and did the entertaining, and he handled the finances. She was now quite certain that in the last five years of their marriage, he had hidden money from her. She was angry at herself for not being more aware of where the money was going, as well as for not knowing about the other woman.
她意识到对于数字的愤怒情绪来源于自己不懂得收入表和资产负债表中这些数字的含义。她认为财务是男人的事情，所以她只负责操持家务，而让丈夫掌管财权。现在她才意识到，在他们婚姻生活的最后5年里，他一定瞒着她藏了不少钱。她后悔自己没有多留意钱都用到哪儿去了，也没有去注意其他妇女是怎么做的。
The game CASHFLOW was designed to give every player personal feedback. Its purpose is to give you options. If you draw the boat card and it puts you into debt, the question is, “Now what can you do?” How many different financial options can you come up with? That is the purpose of the game: to teach players to think and create new and various financial options.
“现金流”游戏的设计能给每位玩家以不同的反馈，它的目的是给予你不同的选择机会。如果你抽到买游艇的卡片且因此而负债，问题就产生了：“现在你可以做什么？你可以采取多少种不同的财务选择？”这就是游戏的目的——教会玩家去思考和创造新的、各不相同的财务选择。
I have watched this game played by more than 1,000 people. The people who get out of the “Rat Race” in the game the quickest are the people who understand numbers and have creative financial minds. They recognize different financial options. People who take the longest are people who are not familiar with numbers and often do not understand the power of investing. Rich people are often creative and take calculated risks.
我曾经看过1000多人玩这套游戏，在游戏中，那些能从“老鼠赛跑”中最快胜出的人，都是对数学很精通而且具有创造性财务思维的人，他们懂得不同的财务选择的不同意义。在“老鼠赛跑”中花费时间最长的人往往是那些对数学不精通，且常常不懂得投资威力的人。富人更富有创造性，愿意经过精心筹划后再去冒险。
There have been people playing CASHFLOW who gain lots of money in the game, but they don’t know what to do with it. Most of them have not been financially successful in real life either. Everyone else seems to be getting ahead of them, even though they have money. And that is true in real life. There are a lot of people who have a lot of money and do not get ahead financially.
也有许多人在“现金流”游戏中挣到许多“钱”，却不懂得如何去利用钱。他们中的大部分人在现实生活中的个人财务也不太成功，即使他们有“钱”，但其他人似乎都超过了他们。而现实生活中，本来就是这样的。有很多人有很多钱，但在财务上却落后于别人。
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