前言：我们每个人都应该让自己做好准备，迎接每天可以预见的挑战和突如其来的挫折。假如我们相信生活并非十全十美，我们就能够避免因一时冲动而放弃追求。
Success Is a Choice
All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up every day. If we expect that life won't be perfect, we'll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.
我们每天都应该让自己做好准备，迎接可预见的挫折和挑战。如果我们相信生活不可能是完美的。我们就能避免因一时的冲动而放弃追求。但即使你拥有坚强的意志，能够挺过生活和工作中的困难，有时你也会遭遇逆境，它会在你背后给你狠狠一击。
Whether it's a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones, or some other traumatic event in your life these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.
不管是出现经济损失，或是失去同辈及亲人的尊敬，或是遭受生命创伤，这些重大挫折都会使你对自己产生怀疑，并且怀疑情况是否好转。
Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it's lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self-delusion.
我们每个人都可能遭遇困境，并且它时常发生。有些大灾难不是即刻发生就是待在角落等待时机。忽视逆境其实就是在欺骗自己。
But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God. Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult childhood, depression, the death of two sons, and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably our greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.
但是你必须认识到历史上有许多事例都讲述了克服重重困难之后才获得成功的人。那些困难，足以粉碎他们的意志，让他们流落尘世。摩西有口吃，但他后来却成为上帝的福音使者。亚伯拉罕林肯战胜了童年的困难`绝望`丧失了两个儿子痛苦以及内战中接踵而来的嘲笑，最终成为美国历史上无可置疑的最伟大的总统。海伦凯勒早年双目失明，又是个聋哑，但是她还是对世界产生了巨大影响，而富兰克林罗斯福则患有小儿麻痹症。
There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.
类似的例子不胜枚举。这些人不仅大胆的面对困难，而且从中学到了克服困难的宝贵经验。然后勇往直前。