For me they normally happen, these career crises, often, actually, on a Sunday evening, just as the sun is starting to set, and the gap between my hopes for myself and the reality of my life starts to diverge so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow.
Meni se karierne krize običajno dogajajo, v bistvu pogosto, v nedeljo zvečer, ravno ko začne sonce zahajati in se vrzel med mojimi upanji ter dejanskim življenjem poveča do te mere, da ponavadi končam smrkajoč v blazino.
I'm mentioning all this -- I'm mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem; you may think I'm wrong in this, but I think we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated by career crises, by moments when what we thought we knew -- about our lives, about our careers -- comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality.
Vse to razlagam, ker mislim, da to ni le osebni problem. Morda mislite, da se motim. A mislim, da živimo v času, ko so naša življenja pogosto poudarjena s kariernimi krizami, s trenutki, ko pride vse, kar smo mislili, da vemo o svojih življenjih, o svojih karierah, v stik z realnostjo grozeče vrste.
It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weeping softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs.
Mogoče je danes lažje kot kadarkoli prej dobro zaslužiti. Mogoče pa je težje kot kadarkoli prej ostati miren, brez bojazni za kariero. Če dovolite, bi predstavil nekaj razlogov, zaradi katerih se mogoče počutimo tesnobno ob misli na svoje kariere. Zaradi katerih smo mogoče žrtve kariernih kriz, ko tiho smrkamo v naše blazine. Eden od razlogov za naše trpljenje je, da smo obkroženi s snobi.
In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford from abroad. There's a real problem with snobbery, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we are a global organization, this is a global phenomenon. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.
Imam nekaj slabih novic, posebej za tiste, ki so v Oxford prišli iz tujine. Snobovstvo je resničen problem. Ljudje, ki niso iz Velike Britanije, si včasih predstavljajo, da je snobovstvo značilno za Britance, obsedene s podeželskimi hišicami in nazivi. Slaba novica je, da to ni res. Snobovstvo je globalni pojav. Vsi smo globalna organizacija. To je globalni pojav. Obstaja. Kdo je torej snob? Snob je vsak, ki vzame delček vas in ga uporabi za celotno vizijo tega, kdo ste. To je snobovstvo.
The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery. You encounter it within minutes at a party, when you get asked that famous iconic question of the early 21st century, "What do you do?" According to how you answer that question, people are either incredibly delighted to see you, or look at their watch and make their excuses.
Danes prevladuje snobovstvo na podlagi zaposlitve. Na zabavah prepoznate snoba v trenutku, ko vam postavi znamenito vprašanje zgodnjega 21. stoletja: "Kaj pa delate?" In glede na vaš odgovor so ljudje ali izjemno veseli, da vas vidijo, ali pa pogledajo na uro in najdejo izgovor.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother.
Čisto nasprotje snoba je vaša mama.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine, but, as it were, the ideal mother, somebody who doesn't care about your achievements. Unfortunately, most people are not our mothers. Most people make a strict correlation between how much time, and if you like, love -- not romantic love, though that may be something -- but love in general, respect -- they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy.
Ne nujno vaša mama ali moja. Ampak idealna mama, če ta obstaja. Nekdo, ki ga ne zanimajo vaši dosežki. Na žalost večina ljudi ni naša mama. Večina ljudi se odloči, koliko časa in ljubezni, ne romantične ljubezni, čeprav bi to lahko bilo nekaj, ampak ljubezni na splošno, spoštovanja, so nam pripravljeni dati v skladu
And that's a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers
z našim položajem v družbeni hierarhiji.
and indeed start caring so much about material goods. You know, we're often told that we live in very materialistic times, that we're all greedy people. I don't think we are particularly materialistic. I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods. It's not the material goods we want; it's the rewards we want. It's a new way of looking at luxury goods. The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think, "This is somebody who's greedy." Think, "This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love."
Zato se toliko ukvarjamo s karierami. Zato se toliko ukvarjamo z materialnimi dobrinami. Dostikrat slišimo, da živimo v zelo materialističnih časih, da smo vsi pohlepni ljudje. Mislim, da nismo posebno materialistični. Mislim, da živimo v družbi, ki je preprosto povezala določene čustvene nagrade s pridobivanjem materialnih dobrin. Nočemo materialnih dobrin. Hočemo nagrade. To je nov način gledanja na luksuzne dobrine. Naslednjič, ko vidite nekoga v Ferariju, ne pomislite: "Ta je pa pohlepen." Pomislite: "Ta človek je izjemno ranljiv in potrebuje ljubezen."
(Laughter)
Z drugimi besedami ... (smeh)
Feel sympathy, rather than contempt.
Namesto prezira občutite sočustvovanje.
There are other reasons --
So še drugi razlogi ...
(Laughter)
(smeh)
There are other reasons why it's perhaps harder now to feel calm than ever before. One of these, and it's paradoxical, because it's linked to something that's rather nice, is the hope we all have for our careers. Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their lifespan. We're told, from many sources, that anyone can achieve anything. We've done away with the caste system, we are now in a system where anyone can rise to any position they please. And it's a beautiful idea. Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality; we're all basically equal. There are no strictly defined hierarchies. There is one really big problem with this,
So še drugi razlogi, da se morda danes težje kot kdajkoli prej počutimo mirne. Eden od njih - presenetljivo povezan z nečim prijetnim - je upanje, ki ga vsi gojimo za svoje kariere. Nikoli prej niso bila pričakovanja o tem, kaj lahko človek doseže v svojem življenju, tako visoka. Iz različnih virov slišimo, da vsakdo lahko doseže karkoli. Odpravili smo kastni sistem. Živimo v sistemu, kjer lahko vsakdo doseže položaj, ki si ga želi. To je lepa ideja. Vsebuje nekakšen duh enakosti. Vsi smo v bistvu enaki. Ni nobenih strogo določenih vrst hierarhij.
and that problem is envy. Envy, it's a real taboo to mention envy, but if there's one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy. And it's linked to the spirit of equality.
Samo en problem je pri tem. Ta problem je zavist. Zavist. Pravi tabu je govoriti o zavisti, ampak v moderni družbi je zavist prevladujoče čustvo. Povezana je z duhom enakosti. Naj razložim.
Let me explain. I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching, to be envious of the Queen of England. Even though she is much richer than any of you are, and she's got a very large house, the reason why we don't envy her is because she's too weird.
Mislim, da bi bilo zelo nenavadno, če bi kdorkoli zavidal Angleški kraljici. Čeprav je dosti bogatejša od vseh nas. Ima zelo veliko hišo. Ne zavidamo ji, ker je preveč čudaška.
(Laughter)
Preprosto preveč čudna je.
She's simply too strange. We can't relate to her, she speaks in a funny way, she comes from an odd place. So we can't relate to her, and when you can't relate to somebody, you don't envy them.
Ne občutimo povezave z njo. Smešno govori. Prihaja iz nenavadnega kraja. Ne občutimo povezave z njo. Če ne občutiš povezave z nekom, mu ne zavidaš. Bližje sta si dva človeka po starosti in preteklosti,
The closer two people are -- in age, in background, in the process of identification -- the more there's a danger of envy, which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion, because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with. The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody's wearing jeans, everybody's the same. And yet, they're not. So there's a spirit of equality combined with deep inequality, which can make for a very stressful situation.
večja je nevarnost zavidanja pri procesu identifikacije. Zato ne hodite na obletnico mature. Kajti ni močnejše povezave, kot je tista z ljudmi, s katerimi smo hodili v šolo. Problem moderne družbe je, da spreminja cel svet v šolo. Vsi nosijo kavbojke, vsi so enaki. Ampak niso. Tu je torej duh enakosti, združen z globokimi neenakostmi. Kar je lahko zelo stresna situacija.
It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy. But the point is, it doesn't feel that way. It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage -- you, too, could start a major thing.
Verjetno je danes malo verjetno, da bi postali bogati in slavni kot Bill Gates, kot je bilo v 17. stoletju malo verjetno, da bi napredovali na položaje francoske aristokracije. Ampak bistvo je, da nimamo tega občutka. Zaradi revij in drugih medijev se počutimo, da bi lahko začeli velik posel, če bi imeli voljo, nekaj pametnih idej o tehnologiji in garažo.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
The consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops. When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections, as I sometimes do -- if you analyze self-help books produced in the world today, there are basically two kinds. The first kind tells you, "You can do it! You can make it! Anything's possible!" The other kind tells you how to cope with what we politely call "low self-esteem," or impolitely call, "feeling very bad about yourself."
Posledice tega problema začutite v knjigarnah. Ko v veliki knjigarni zavijete na oddelek za samopomoč, kot jaz včasih naredim, in preučite knjige za samopomoč, ki so na voljo, najdete v bistvu dve vrsti. Prva vam govori: "To lahko naredite! Vse je mogoče!" Druga vrsta vam govori, kako se soočati s prijazno poimenovano "nizko samozavestjo" ali neprijazno rečeno "zelo slabim mnenjem o sebi".
There's a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything, and the existence of low self-esteem. So that's another way in which something quite positive can have a nasty kickback. There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious -- about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before. And it's, again, linked to something nice. And that nice thing is called meritocracy.
Obstaja dejanska povezava med družbo, ki sporoča ljudem, da lahko dosežejo vse, in obstojem nizke samozavesti. To je še en način, kako nekaj precej pozitivnega grdo udari nazaj. Še en razlog je, da morda danes bolj kot kdajkoli prej občutimo tesnobo zaradi svojih karier in položaja v svetu. Tudi ta je povezan z nečim prijetnim. Ta prijetna stvar je meritokracija.
Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right, agree that meritocracy is a great thing, and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic. In other words -- what is a meritocratic society? A meritocratic society is one in which, if you've got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top, nothing should hold you back. It's a beautiful idea. The problem is, if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you'll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way, believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there. In other words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental, but merited and deserved. And that makes failure seem much more crushing.
Danes se vsi, vsi politiki na levi in desni, strinjajo, da je meritokracija krasna stvar. Vsi bi se morali truditi, da bi bile naše družbe meritokratske. Kaj je torej meritokratska družba? To je družba, v kateri boš prišel do vrha, če imaš talent, voljo in veščine. Nič te ne bi smelo ustaviti. To je lepa ideja. A če verjameš v družbo, kjer tisti, ki si zaslužijo priti do vrha, pridejo do vrha, boš posledično, na dosti grši način, verjel v družbo, kjer tisti, ki si zaslužijo priti na dno, tudi pridejo na dno in tam ostanejo. Tvoj položaj v življenju se ne zdi več naključen, ampak zaslužen. To naredi neuspeh dosti bolj uničujoč.
You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an "unfortunate" -- literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate. Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, they may unkindly be described as a "loser." There's a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser, and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives. It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat.
Če bi v srednjeveški Angliji srečal zelo revnega človeka, bi ga opisal kot "nekoga, ki nima sreče". Dobesedno nekdo, ki ni bil blagoslovljen s srečo, nesrečnež. Če danes, predvsem v ZDA, srečaš nekoga z dna družbe, je ta neprijazno označen kot "zguba". Razlika med nesrečnežem in zgubo je velika. Kaže na 400 let evolucije v družbi in našega prepričanja o tem, kdo je odgovoren za naša življenja. Niso več bogovi, mi smo. Mi smo za volanom.
That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not. It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim -- it leads to increased rates of suicide. There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world. And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally -- they own their success, but they also own their failure.
To je zelo razveseljivo, če vam gre dobro, in zelo uničujoče, če vam ne gre. V najslabših primerih vodi, po analizah sociologov, kot je na primer Emil Durkheim, v povišano število samomorov. V razvitih individualističnih državah je več samomorov kot kjerkoli drugje po svetu. Eden od razlogov je tudi to, da ljudje jemljejo stvari, ki se jim zgodijo, skrajno osebno. Posedujejo svoj uspeh. Vendar posedujejo tudi svoj neuspeh.
Is there any relief from some of these pressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to a few of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.
Lahko kaj olajša te pritiske, o katerih govorim? Mislim, da lahko. Poglejmo nekaj primerov. Vzemimo meritokracijo. Zamisel, da si vsakdo zasluži biti, kjer je. Mislim, da je to nora ideja, popolnoma nora. Podprl bom kateregakoli politika, levega ali desnega, s katerokoli napol dostojno idejo meritokracije. V tem smislu sem meritokrat. Ampak mislim, da je noro verjeti, da bomo kdaj dejansko zgradili meritokratsko družbo. To so nemogoče sanje. Zamisel, da bomo kdaj ustvarili družbo,
The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible. There are simply too many random factors: accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc. We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.
kjer je dobesedno vsak ocenjen, dobri na vrhu in slabi na dnu, in to točno tako, kot si zaslužijo, je nemogoča. Preprosto preveč naključnih dejavnikov je. Nesreče, nesreče pri rojstvu, stvari, ki po nesreči padejo ljudem na glavo, bolezni, itd. Nikoli jih ne bo mogoče oceniti. Nikoli ne bo mogoče oceniti ljudi, kot si zaslužijo.
I'm drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in "The City of God," where he says, "It's a sin to judge any man by his post." In modern English that would mean it's a sin to come to any view of who you should talk to, dependent on their business card. It's not the post that should count. According to St. Augustine, only God can really put everybody in their place; he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment, with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open. Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me. But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.
Všeč mi je ljubek citat sv. Avguština v "Božjem mestu", ki pravi: "Greh je soditi kogarkoli po njegovem položaju." Danes bi to pomenilo, da se je greh odločati, s kom boste govorili, na podlagi njegove vizitke. Položaj ne bi smel biti pomemben. In po sv. Avguštinu je samo Bog tisti, ki lahko razsodi, kdo kam spada. To bo naredil na sodni dan z angelčki in s trobentami, in nebo se bo odprlo. Nora ideja, če tako kot jaz niste verni. Ne glede na to je nekaj zelo dragocenega v njej.
In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people. You don't necessarily know what someone's true value is. That is an unknown part of them, and we shouldn't behave as though it is known. There is another source of solace and comfort for all this. When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure, one of the reasons why we fear failing is not just a loss of income, a loss of status. What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. And it exists.
Ustavite torej konje, ko želite soditi o ljudeh. Ni nujno, da poznate dejansko vrednost nekega človeka. To je neznan del njih. Ne bi se smeli obnašati, kot da ga poznamo. Obstaja še en vir tolažbe in lagodja. Ko pomislimo, da nam v življenju ne bo uspelo, se ne bojimo neuspeha le zaradi izgube prihodka ali izgube položaja. Bojimo se obsojanja in posmeha drugih ljudi. Posmeh obstaja. Številka ena na področju posmeha
The number one organ of ridicule, nowadays, is the newspaper. If you open the newspaper any day of the week, it's full of people who've messed up their lives. They've slept with the wrong person, taken the wrong substance, passed the wrong piece of legislation -- whatever it is, and then are fit for ridicule. In other words, they have failed. And they are described as "losers." Now, is there any alternative to this? I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative, which is tragedy.
je danes časopis. Odprite časopis katerikoli dan v tednu. Poln je ljudi, ki so zavozili svoja življenja. Spali so z napačno osebo. Vzeli so napačno substanco. Sprejeli so napačen zakon. Karkoli že. Nato so primerni za posmeh. Odpovedali so. Nato so označeni za "zgube". Ali obstaja kakšna alternativa? Mislim, da nam je zahodna tradicija
Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece, in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form devoted to tracing how people fail, and also according them a level of sympathy, which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them. A few years ago, I was thinking about this, and I went to "The Sunday Sport," a tabloid newspaper I don't recommend you start reading if you're not familiar with it already.
dala veličastno alternativo: tragedijo. Tragična umetnost, kot je bila razvita v gledališčih antične Grčije v 5. stoletju pr.n.št., je bila v bistvu oblika umetnosti, posvečena orisu človekovega neuspeha. A mu je dala tudi določeno mero sočutja, ki mu je običajno življenje ne bi nujno podarilo. Nekaj let nazaj, ko sem razmišljal o tem, sem šel do rumenega časopisa "The Sunday Sport". A ne priporočam, da ga začnete brati, če ga še ne poznate.
(Laughter)
Z njimi sem želel govoriti
And I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art. I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories, if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon.
o nekaterih velikih tragedijah zahodne umetnosti. Hotel sem videti, kako bi se lotili bistva določenih zgodb, če bi te kot novice
I mentioned Othello; they'd not heard of it but were fascinated.
prišle v uredništvo v soboto popoldne.
Za Othella še niso slišali, a jih je prevzel.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
I asked them to write a headline for the story. They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter." Splashed across the headline. I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary. Again, a book they were enchanted to discover. And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud."
Prosil sem jih, naj napišejo naslov za zgodbo o Othellu. Izmislili so si "Od ljubezni nor imigrant ubije hčerko senatorja" čez celo naslovnico. Povedal sem jim zgodbo Gospe Bovary. Še ena knjiga, nad katere odkritjem so bili navdušeni. Napisali so "Zapravljiva prešuštnica pogoltnila arzenik po posojilni prevari".
(Laughter)
(smeh)
And then my favorite -- they really do have a kind of genius of their own, these guys -- my favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King: "Sex With Mum Was Blinding."
In še moja najljubša. Ti ljudje imajo resnično neko svojo vrsto genialnosti. Moja najljubša je Sofoklesov "Ojdip". "Seks z mamo je bil oslepljujoč"
(Laughter)
(smeh)
(Applause)
(aplavz)
In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy, you've got the tabloid newspaper. At the other end of the spectrum, you've got tragedy and tragic art. And I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit about what's happening in tragic art. It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He is not a loser, though he has lost. And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why it's so very, very important, I think.
Na nek način imamo na eni strani spektra sočutja rumene časopise. Na drugi strani spektra imamo tragedijo in tragično umetnost. Mislim, da si moramo pobliže ogledati, kaj se dogaja pri tragični umetnosti. Noro bi bilo reči, da je Hamlet zguba. Ni zguba, čeprav je izgubil. Mislim, da je to zelo, zelo pomembno sporočilo tragedije za nas.
The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety, is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human. We are the first society to be living in a world where we don't worship anything other than ourselves. We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should; we've put people on the Moon, done all sorts of extraordinary things. And so we tend to worship ourselves. Our heroes are human heroes.
Moderna družba povzroča tesnobo tudi zato, ker je v njenem središču človek. Mi smo prva družba na svetu, ki ne časti nič drugega razen samih sebe. Zelo visoko mnenje imamo o sebi. In prav je tako. Poslali smo ljudi na luno. Naredili smo izjemne stvari. Zato častimo sami sebe.
That's a very new situation. Most other societies have had, right at their center, the worship of something transcendent: a god, a spirit, a natural force, the universe, whatever it is -- something else that is being worshiped. We've slightly lost the habit of doing that, which is, I think, why we're particularly drawn to nature. Not for the sake of our health, though it's often presented that way, but because it's an escape from the human anthill. It's an escape from our own competition, and our own dramas. And that's why we enjoy looking at glaciers and oceans, and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc. We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human, and that is so deeply important to us.
Naši junaki so človeški junaki. To je popolnoma nova situacija. Večina drugih družb je imela v samem središču čaščenje nečesa transcedentnega. Boga, duha, naravne sile, vesolje. Karkoli že, nekaj drugega je čaščeno. Mi smo izgubili to navado. Kar je po mojem mnenju razlog, da nas tako privlači narava. Ne zaradi zdravja, čeprav je velikokrat tako predstavljeno. Ampak ker je v naravi pobeg pred človeškim mravljiščem. V naravo zbežimo pred svojo lastno tekmovalnostjo in svojimi lastnimi dramami. Zato tako uživamo, ko gledamo ledenike in oceane ter razmišljamo o Zemlji zunaj njenih meja, itd. Radi smo v stiku z nečim, kar ni človeško. To nam je zelo pomembno.
What I think I've been talking about really is success and failure. And one of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. If I said that there's somebody behind the screen who's very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind. You'd think that person might have made a lot of money, achieved renown in some field. My own theory of success -- I'm somebody who's very interested in success, I really want to be successful, always thinking, how can I be more successful? But as I get older, I'm also very nuanced about what that word "success" might mean.
Mislim, da sem dejansko govoril o uspehu in neuspehu. Zanimivo dejstvo o uspehu je, da mislimo, da vemo, kaj pomeni. Če bi vam rekel, da je za zaslonom nekdo, ki je zelo uspešen, bi takoj dobili določene zamisli. Mislili bi, da je morda zaslužil veliko denarja, dosegel ugled na nekem področju. Moja osebna teorija o uspehu, in jaz sem človek, ki ga uspeh zelo zanima. Res želim biti uspešen. Vedno razmišljam: "Kako bi bil bolj uspešen?" A z leti imam vedno več odtenkov pomena besede "uspeh".
Here's an insight that I've had about success: You can't be successful at everything. We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance. Nonsense. You can't have it all. You can't. So any vision of success has to admit what it's losing out on, where the element of loss is. And I think any wise life will accept, as I say, that there is going to be an element where we're not succeeding.
Tole je vpogled, ki sem ga dobil o uspehu. Ne morete biti uspešni pri vsem. Veliko se govori o ravnotežju med službo in življenjem. Neumnost. Ne morete imeti vsega. Ne morete. Vsaka vizija uspeha mora priznati, na katerem področju izgublja, kje je dejavnik izgube. Mislim, da se bo vsak pameten človek strinjal, ko rečem, da na nekem področju ne bomo uspešni.
And the thing about a successful life is that a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They're sucked in from other people; chiefly, if you're a man, your father, and if you're a woman, your mother. Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years. No one's quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe it's true.
Dejstvo o uspešnem življenju je, da velikokrat naše ideje o tem, kaj pomeni, da živimo uspešno, niso naše. Vsrkamo jih od drugih ljudi. Če ste moški, predvsem od očeta. In če ste ženska, od mame. Psihoanaliza oznanja to sporočilo že 80 let. Nihče zares ne posluša, ampak jaz mislim, da zelo drži.
And we also suck in messages from everything from the television, to advertising, to marketing, etc. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. When we're told that banking is a very respectable profession, a lot of us want to go into banking. When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking. We are highly open to suggestion.
Prav tako vsrkavamo sporočila televizije, oglaševanja, marketinga, itd. To so zelo močne sile, ki določajo, kaj hočemo in kako vidimo sami sebe. Ko nam rečejo, da je bankirstvo spoštovanja vreden poklic, nas hoče dosti delati na banki. Ko delo na banki ni več tako spoštovano, izgubimo interes. Zelo smo dovzetni za vplive.
So what I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas, and make sure that we own them; that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it's bad enough not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want, and find out, at the end of the journey, that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along.
Ne pravim, da bi morali opustiti svoje ideje o uspehu. Ampak da bi se morali prepričati, da so res naše. Osredotočiti bi se morali na svoje lastne ideje. In se prepričati, da so res naše, da smo mi res avtorji naših ambicij. Ker že tako je slabo, če ne dobimo, kar hočemo. Ampak še slabše je, če nimamo pojma, kaj sploh hočemo, in na koncu poti odkrijemo, da v bistvu to ni to, kar smo ves čas hoteli.
So, I'm going to end it there. But what I really want to stress is: by all means, success, yes. But let's accept the strangeness of some of our ideas. Let's probe away at our notions of success. Let's make sure our ideas of success are truly our own.
S tem bom zaključil. To, kar hočem dejansko poudariti, je vsekakor uspeh. Ampak sprejmimo nenavadnost nekaterih naših idej. Raziščimo svoje pojmovanje uspeha. Prepričajmo se, da so naše ideje o uspehu resnično naše lastne.
Thank you very much.
Hvala lepa.
(Applause)
(aplavz)
Chris Anderson: That was fascinating. But how do you reconcile this idea of it being bad to think of someone as a "loser," with the idea that a lot of people like, of seizing control of your life, and that a society that encourages that, perhaps has to have some winners and losers?
To je bilo fascinantno. Kako uskladite idejo, da je nekdo ... da je slabo misliti o nekom, da je zguba, z idejo, ki je veliko ljudem všeč - prevzeti kontrolo nad svojim življenjem. Da družba, ki to spodbuja, morda mora imeti nekaj zmagovalcev in nekaj poražencev.
Alain De Botton: Yes, I think it's merely the randomness of the winning and losing process that I want to stress, because the emphasis nowadays is so much on the justice of everything, and politicians always talk about justice. Now I'm a firm believer in justice, I just think that it's impossible. So we should do everything we can to pursue it, but we should always remember that whoever is facing us, whatever has happened in their lives, there will be a strong element of the haphazard. That's what I'm trying to leave room for; otherwise, it can get quite claustrophobic.
Da. Mislim, da je samo naključnost procesa zmagovanja in izgubljanja tisto, kar sem hotel poudariti. Ker je danes poudarek predvsem na pravičnosti vsega. Politiki vedno govorijo o pravičnosti. Trdo verjamem v pravičnost. A mislim, da jo je nemogoče doseči. Morali bi narediti vse, kar lahko, da jo poskušamo doseči. A na koncu dneva se moramo spomniti, da je vedno prisoten zelo močan dejavnik naključja, ne glede na to, kdo nam stoji nasproti in kaj se mu je v življenju zgodilo. Temu želim pustiti nekaj prostora. Ker drugače lahko postane precej klavstrofobično.
CA: I mean, do you believe that you can combine your kind of kinder, gentler philosophy of work with a successful economy? Or do you think that you can't, but it doesn't matter that much that we're putting too much emphasis on that?
Ali verjamete, da lahko združite vašo prijaznejšo, nežnejšo filozofijo dela z uspešnim gospodarstvom? Ali morda menite, da to ni možno? Da morda niti ni pomembno in da temu dajemo preveč poudarka?
AB: The nightmare thought is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them, and that somehow the crueler the environment, the more people will rise to the challenge. You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad? And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle. And it's a very hard line to make. We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society, avoiding the two extremes, which is the authoritarian disciplinarian on the one hand, and on the other, the lax, no-rules option.
Morasta misel je, da je ustrahovanje najboljši način, da ljudje dobro delajo. Bolj bo okolje kruto, bolj se bodo ljudje soočili z izzivom. Pomislite, koga bi radi za svojega idealnega očeta? Vaš idealni oče je strog, ampak nežen. To črto je zelo težko potegniti. Potrebujemo očete, recimo temu zgledne očetovske figure v družbi, ki se bodo izogibale obeh skrajnosti. Samovoljnosti in discipliniranja po eni strani, in ohlapnosti brez pravil po drugi.
CA: Alain De Botton.
Alain de Botton.
AB: Thank you very much.
Najlepša hvala.
(Applause)
(aplavz)