Quora精選：致27歲還在浪費(fèi)時(shí)間的你

Answered by James Altucher

When I was 27 I had yet to do (or even start) anything or any path that eventually led to future successes. I had not started any companies. I later started over 10. I had not written any published books. I later published 10 and have another 5 this year. I had yet to be asked my opinion on anything important. I had yet to date someone I loved. I had yet to have kids. I had yet to travel to many of the countries I've since traveled to.

Most importantly, I had yet to massively fail. I did that all through my 30s.

Here are other examples of people who found great success not only after the age of 27, but after the age of 45:

Rodney Dangerfield didn’t succeed in comedy until his 40s. One of the funniest guys ever, he was an aluminum siding salesman. And then he had to start his own comedy club, Dangerfields, in order to actually perform as a comedian. He chose himself to succeed! But not until his 40s.

Ray Kroc was a milkshake salesman into his 50s. Then he stumbled onto a clean restaurant that served a good hamburger run by two brothers with the last name McDonald. He bought McDonalds when he was 52.

Henry Miller wrote his first big novel, Tropic of Cancer, at age 40.

Raymond Chandler, the most successful noir novelist of all time, wrote his first novel at age 52. But he was young compared with Frank McCourt, who won the Pulitzer for his first novel, Angela’s Ashes, written when he was 66. And, of course, Julia Child was a young 50 when she wrote her first cookbook.

One of my favorite writers of all time: Stan Lee, created the entire universe for which he is known for: the Marvel Universe, when he was 44, inventing the characters Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, etc.

If you don’t like to kill people but still need a weapon, consider the Taser, invented by Jack Cover when he was 50. He didn’t sell a single one until he was 60.

If you like restaurant reviews you might have read Zagats. Started by Tim Zagat who quit his job as a lawyer in order to create the book of reviews when he was 51.

Harry Bernstein was a total failure when he wrote his best selling memoir, “The Invisible Wall”. His prior 40 (Forty!) novels had been rejected by publishers. When his memoir came out he was 93 years old. A quote from him: “If I had not lived until I was 90, I would not have been able to write this book, God knows what other potentials lurk in other people, if we could only keep them alive well into their 90s.”

Peter Roget was a mediocre doctor who was finally forced to retire in his early 70s. But he became obsessed with words that have similar meanings. Was his “purpose” as a medical practitioner or as a guy who could play with words? Do you know him as a doctor or as the author of Roget’s Thesaurus which he wrote when he was 73.

When I was in college I ate Ramen noodles every day. One time in a grocery store a woman tried to tell me they were the worst thing I could eat. Really? Like worse than eating a brick, for instance? That was when I was 19. Now I’m 45. It didn’t hurt me that much that I ate Ramen noodles for an entire year because it was the only thing I could afford. If something costs 25 cents and has a few slivers of peas in it then its ok by me. Meanwhile, the inventor of Ramen noodles didn’t invent it until he was 48 years old. Thank god for him!

(I would have died of starvation if not for the guy who invented this).

Charles Darwin was a little bit “off” by most standards. He liked to just collect plants and butterflies on remote islands in the Pacific. And then he wrote Origin of Species when he was 50.

To top it all off, Henry Ford was a failure at his first Model T car, invented when he was 45, because he didn’t yet have the productivity efficiencies of the assembly line, which he developed when he was 60.

This is not meant to be inspirational. You might never have your “great” thing that you do. I’m not even saying “it’s the journey that one should love”. Because some journeys are very painful. And nobody says you get special marks in death if you wrote a great novel at the age of 50. Or came up with a great chicken, or a way to stuff lots of people into factories.

I’ve stumbled and fallen and got up and survived enough that I’m sick of goals and purposes and journeys. I want to cut out the middleman. The journey. The desperation and despair that thinking of a “purpose” entails. Fuck purpose. It’s ok to be happy without one. You don’t need to pay with lots of unhappiness to buy happiness.

Meanwhile, Harlan Sanders made such a great chicken that even though he had barely made a dime off of it (that would happen 15 years later), at the tender age of 45 the Governor of Kentucky made Sanders an honorary colonel.

Last week I turned 45 years old. So there’s still hope for me.

（以下中文轉(zhuǎn)載自@LinkedIn中國(guó)）

致27歲還在浪費(fèi)時(shí)間的你

James Altucher

在我27歲的時(shí)候，我還有完成任何對(duì)自己的未來有意義的事情。

我那時(shí)沒有開始創(chuàng)業(yè)，雖然我現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)是超過十家公司的老板了。我沒有出版任何書籍，雖然現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)出版了十余本書，今年還會(huì)再添五本。

27歲時(shí)在重要的事情上沒有人會(huì)過問我的意見。約會(huì)我從沒遇上好姑娘。27歲我還沒有可愛的寶寶。那時(shí)的我也沒去過幾個(gè)國(guó)家。

但我覺得這并不算失敗，因?yàn)槲?0多歲時(shí)完成了以上所有事。如果我的例子還不夠，那我再舉些例子——關(guān)于那些在45歲才取得成就的人。

著名的美國(guó)喜劇演員Rodney Dangerfield（飾演過《辛普森一家》等劇）在40歲之后才在他的喜劇事業(yè)上嶄露頭角。然而，這個(gè)世界上最好笑的人，曾經(jīng)卻是一個(gè)鋁板推銷員。在40歲之后，他終于找到了自己的興趣——喜劇演員，并取得了成功。

麥當(dāng)勞之父Ray Kroc直到50歲還在當(dāng)推銷賣奶昔。直到1954年他在偶然之中進(jìn)入了麥當(dāng)勞，他決定買下這家餐廳。他曾經(jīng)如此描繪這段往事：“我當(dāng)時(shí)已52歲，有糖尿病、早期關(guān)節(jié)炎，在早年的推銷生涯里摘除了膽囊和大部分的甲狀腺，但我始終相信，生命中最好的時(shí)光，還在前面?！?/p>

亨利·米勒，20世紀(jì)世界最重要的作家之一，在40歲才寫了第一部長(zhǎng)篇小說《北回歸線》。

“犯罪小說的桂冠詩(shī)人”雷蒙德·錢德勒，村上春樹的偶像，52歲才寫出第一部小說。但他跟普利策獎(jiǎng)得主弗蘭克·麥考特比起來還是太年輕了，他的獲獎(jiǎng)作品《安琪拉的灰燼》（Angela’s　Ashes）是他66歲的時(shí)候?qū)懗傻摹?/p>

我非常喜歡的漫畫家，“大白他爹”Stan Lee，也是44歲的時(shí)候才創(chuàng)作出了如今家喻戶曉的“蜘蛛俠”、“神奇四俠”、“復(fù)仇者聯(lián)盟”等形象的。

達(dá)爾文在當(dāng)時(shí)被人認(rèn)為行為怪異，連他父親都認(rèn)為他“游手好閑”、“不務(wù)正業(yè)”。1831年他以“博物學(xué)家”的身份登上英國(guó)海軍“小獵犬號(hào)”艦環(huán)繞世界的科學(xué)考察航行，到太平洋的偏遠(yuǎn)島嶼搜集植物和蝴蝶標(biāo)本。50歲時(shí)，他寫出了《物種起源》。

當(dāng)福特45歲設(shè)計(jì)出第一輛汽車的模型時(shí)，他并沒有成功，因?yàn)闆]有組裝線可以有足夠生產(chǎn)力生產(chǎn)他的汽車。直到他60歲自己發(fā)明了第一條汽車生產(chǎn)線。

最后我要感謝一個(gè)人，發(fā)明了方便面的人。

在我上大學(xué)的時(shí)候，我天天吃泡面。有一次我在便利店里遇見一位女士，她告訴我泡面是世界上最難吃的東西。真的嗎？她說像吃磚頭一樣。當(dāng)時(shí)我19歲，現(xiàn)在我45歲。那時(shí)我并不介意一整年都吃泡面因?yàn)檫@是當(dāng)時(shí)我能付得起的唯一東西。只要25美分而且還有豌豆包，我已經(jīng)覺得很好了。

順帶提一句，泡面的發(fā)明者安藤百福在48歲才發(fā)明了這么偉大的東西。

你說，27歲你還能做些什么？

我說這些并不是想給你灌雞湯。你估計(jì)現(xiàn)在也沒做什么能讓自己驕傲的事。我也不是要告訴你你必須熱愛你的事業(yè)，因?yàn)橛行┑缆反_實(shí)非常痛苦——有些人在50歲寫出了一本偉大的小說，卻在死之前都沒有得到認(rèn)可。

實(shí)際上，在福布斯富豪榜中，多數(shù)公司創(chuàng)始人實(shí)在35歲時(shí)才取得他們事業(yè)的最大突破。

圖片來自Funders and Founders

如果這些還無法打消你的“27歲焦慮”，如果你還在認(rèn)為自己 too late for something？你該去看看別人都是怎么做的?；蛟S你現(xiàn)在正在焦慮的事情，也正是曾經(jīng)煎熬過他們的。

1. 給自己設(shè)立一個(gè)榜樣

如果你是Bill Gates、Marissa Mayer甚至是奧巴馬的粉絲，你可以在LinkedIn領(lǐng)英上檢索他們的名字，閱讀他們的簡(jiǎn)歷，了解他們都經(jīng)歷過哪些選擇和轉(zhuǎn)變，這里是全球最大的人才庫(kù)。他們的故事將給你很大啟發(fā)。為什么不呢？

這是奧巴馬的工作經(jīng)歷，他花了11年的時(shí)間在芝加哥大學(xué)當(dāng)講師。

2. 探索你潛在的職場(chǎng)路徑

如果你正在市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷行業(yè)拼搏并且期待這某一天能在這個(gè)行業(yè)有所成就，那么你可以檢索“市場(chǎng)總監(jiān)”甚至是“市場(chǎng)副總裁”這個(gè)職位，看看那些現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)在市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷領(lǐng)域有所成就的人們，他們都走過了哪些工作崗位？他們平均在每個(gè)崗位上花費(fèi)了多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間？

通過與其他人的對(duì)照，你也將更加了解自己所處于的職業(yè)和人生階段（記住，排在你的搜索結(jié)果優(yōu)先列表里的，都是你的1度或者2度聯(lián)系人，你的困惑還可以直接與他們討論）。

3. 打開一雙發(fā)現(xiàn)優(yōu)秀的眼睛

在職業(yè)場(chǎng)合中，會(huì)遇見很多不同的人。同事、上司、下屬、會(huì)議演講嘉賓、合作伙伴、校友等等。你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)很多人非常優(yōu)秀，從很多維度各有特色。你是否好奇，他/她為什么這個(gè)方面是出色的，來自哪兒，如何鍛煉出來的。

LinkedIn領(lǐng)英用戶尤原慶（Yuanqing You）分享說，“在美國(guó)工作時(shí)，有一位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，每次會(huì)議的時(shí)候那個(gè)風(fēng)度翩翩真是令人發(fā)指，說話談吐優(yōu)雅到位，舉止得體。”

“一個(gè)開發(fā)人員為什么能做到這么優(yōu)雅？我查詢了他的Linkedin，才知道他在哈佛讀了JD后，擔(dān)任了一段時(shí)間的律師，才轉(zhuǎn)入互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)。知道他的背景后，我會(huì)理解他的行為模式是如何來的，并了解這個(gè)點(diǎn)他為什么優(yōu)秀?！?/p>

4. 為你的Dream offer早做準(zhǔn)備

如果你的目標(biāo)是進(jìn)入某一家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司（比如Google吧），那么他們目前/曾經(jīng)的員工都是什么樣的背景、有著什么樣的資歷？你需要在哪些方面更加努力？

回到最初的那個(gè)問題：如果你已經(jīng)渾渾噩噩地度過了自己職場(chǎng)的前幾年，假如你27歲了，你確實(shí)看不到美劇《迷失》的首播；你也不可能參加越南戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)；也不可能再次回到青春期或者去上護(hù)士學(xué)校。27歲開始把一門外語說得跟native speaker一樣也有些難度了。

但是你可以從現(xiàn)在開始閱讀莎士比亞全集；從現(xiàn)在開始學(xué)習(xí)電腦編程；學(xué)習(xí)舞蹈；環(huán)游世界；修煉廚藝；學(xué)習(xí)跳傘；學(xué)會(huì)鑒賞爵士樂；開始寫一本小說；再去學(xué)校中進(jìn)修；為你的退休生活存錢；可以開始讀《尋找失落的時(shí)間這本書》；你還能通過鍛煉練出腹肌……

總之，別把年齡當(dāng)作借口， 你并不是一個(gè)浪費(fèi)了27年的人。而是一個(gè)還有數(shù)十年人生的人，你該考慮的是如何過好這接下去的幾十年。

假如你已經(jīng)27歲，或者37歲、47歲，你還在思考是否要從現(xiàn)在開始你熱愛的事業(yè)？答案是：沒有所謂的晚不晚。你只需要記?。?strong>現(xiàn)在過的每一天，都是我們余下生命中最年輕的一天。

It's only too late if you decide it is. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

——《肖申克的救贖》