10. Does luck have anything to do with success?

Here is a true story, a story about an African man called Cinque who slew a most terrifying beast that any one has ever seen, a lion. His siblings in the village who know about this anecdote gave him great respect and call him the big man.

However, he told the truth later.

"It had killed several people, even hunters among us. Everyone including me was afraid. "

"I was lying down with my family, when out of nowhere it appeared."

"As it came for me, I picked up a big rock and I threw it. And that wasn't bravery, because any man would do the same to protect his family. "

"But by some miracle, you see, I hit it. I don't know how that killed it, but it did. A rock, you see, a rock. "

"I received the gratitude of everyone in the village. I was given respect. They treated me as if I was a prince. They gave me the finest country cloth. All these things they gave me, I took them all. But I knew I didn't deserve it, for when I threw that rock at that beast, if I missed it, I wouldn't be sitting here today trying to explain these things to you or somebody else, I'd just be dead. I'm not a big man, just a lucky one."

You see, luck does exist. When it appears, mathematicians describe in such a way that something has an extremely small probability but it does happen. People often say, one has to have an opportunity to succeed. In this case, luck is the opportunity, and to some extent is an indispensable factor to achieve success.

When people say luck has nothing to do with success, I wonder it is not their intention to deny existence of luck, but to encourage. Because luck in fact is a factor that one can not and should not count on, even though we know people who have succeeded have their own luck. It is somewhere, but nobody knows where. It happens sometime, but we don't know when. By contrast, hard work is something that everyone can count on, and as is often the case, hard work might bring luck. Therefore, luck itself is of no hope, and lack of luck should not be an excuse to failure.

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10. 运气与成功有关吗？

这是一个真实的故事，讲的是一个叫辛克的非洲人杀死了一头最令人害怕的野兽——

狮子的故事。村子里知道这段故事的亲属对他抱有极大的尊敬并称他为大人物。然而后来他说出了真相。“它咬死了好几个人，甚至我们中间的猎人。所有人包括我都很害怕。”“我正和我的家人一起躺着，这时它突然出现了。”“正当它向我冲过来的时候，我拾起一块大石头向它扔去。那不算勇敢，因为任何一

个男人在保护他的家人时都会那样做的。”“但是奇迹发生了，你看，我打中它了。我不知道是怎么杀了它的，可是确实杀了它。一块石头，你看，一块石头。”

“我接受了全村人的感激。我受到了尊敬。他们把我当一位王子对待。他们给我村里最精美的布料。这些我全接受了。但我知道我不值得这些，因为当我向那只野兽掷石头的时候，如果我没打中，我今天就不会坐在这里向你或其他人解释这些事了，我早就死了。我不是个大人物，我只是个幸运的人。”

你看，运气确实存在。当它出现的时候，数学家将其描述为具有极小可能性发生的事情确实发生了。人们常说，人必须有机会才能成功。在这个例子中运气就是机会，在某种程度上来说是实现成功的不可缺少的因素。

当人们说成功与运气无关时，我怀疑他们并不是想否认运气的存在，而是想鼓励别人。因为运气确实是人不能也不该指望的一个因素，尽管我们知道那些成功的人都有自己的运气。它在某个地方，但没人知道在哪儿。它在某个时候发生，但没人知道是什么时候。比较而言，努力是每个人都可以指望得上的东西，而且经常是努力可以带来运气。所以，运气本身并没有什么可指望的，缺少运气不应该成为失败的借口。

Word List

• sibling ［ˈsibliŋ］ n. 兄弟，姐妹，同胞
• anecdote ［ˈænikˌdəut］ n. 轶事，奇闻
• gratitude ［ˈgrætitu:d］ n. 感激
• indispensable ［ˌindiˈspensəbl］adj. 不可缺少的
• count on 指望