Do Dreams Count?

夢想無價（雙語閱讀）

Did you ever have a dream? I'm not talking about a dream you have when you sleep. I'm talking about a conscious dream where you would like to see a new future, a different choice of employment, and a business of you own. How many times have you wished that you could be living a different existence than the one you are currently experiencing?

你有過夢嗎?我指的不是睡覺時做的那種夢，而是當你展望一個全新的未來、期待一種不同的就業選擇，以及希望擁有自己的事業時，所產生的那種有意識的夢想。你曾多少次希望自己能夠生活在一種比現狀更好的不同的環境里呢?

Dreams. No doubt we've all had them from time to time in our lives. Did you fulfill your dream? If not, why not? Did you start on your way to fulfilling a dream only to be derailed by letting other life's events get in the way? Did you make some initial first steps only to find roadblocks in your way that convinced you to give up? Or, if you fulfilled some aspects of your dream, did you find that you had limited success, and, therefore gave in to a negative view that you weren't meant to succeed?

去夢想吧!毫無疑問，在生活中，我們時常都會有夢想。你實現過自己的夢想嗎?如果沒有實現過，為什么呢?你是否曾在開始實現自己夢想的時候，只因生活中其他事情的阻撓而半途而廢呢?你是否曾邁出了實現夢想的最初腳步，卻只因在前路上遇到障礙而放棄了夢想呢?或者，你是否曾在已經實現了部分夢想的情況下，卻因為發現自己只取得了有限的成就，從而產生消極想法，認為自己不可能成功呢?

Several years ago, I had a dream about inventing a board game that would change my life's fortunes. Along with a partner, who also had a similar dream, those dreams were turned into goals that were translated to action steps. After many long hours and many revisions, a board game was developed. Then came issues of financing. Not to be defeated by this obstacle, a plan was developed and carried out that saw shares being offered, all sold to a group of supporters, and a real live company created. Then, came marketing strategies, T.V. appearances, newspaper articles, trade show attendance, weekend promotional appearances, magazine advertising, and spot radio commercials.

幾年前，我曾有過發明一種棋盤游戲的夢想，那將能改變我一生的命運。我一直與一個和我有同樣夢想的伙伴合作，這個夢想就是我們的目標，而且我們已經將其轉變為實際行動。經過漫長的研究及無數次的修改之后，一種新的棋盤游成面世了。然后就是籌措資金的問題。要想戰勝這個困難，必須制訂一個能從中看到利潤的計劃，尋找一個愿意投資合作的集團，并創辦一個實體公司。然后就該制訂市場戰略了——電視宣傳、報紙介紹、貿易展覽、周末促銷、雜志廣告以及電臺廣告等。

It was an exciting time. The one time dream seemed to take off with sales starting to accumulate, a potential sale to a large and established game board company, and inroads to large chain stores. Then, it happened. Introduced to the board game market came one of the biggest his never seen before. In short, their sales blew us out of the water, our distributor failed to pay us, and the business, once dreamed of, came to a screeching halt.

那真是一個令人興奮的時刻。隨著銷售量開始累積、暢銷的可能性、棋盤游戲公司的建立，以及進一步發展成為連鎖公司，這個昔日的夢想正在成為現實。就在這時，不幸的事發生了。又有一種新的棋盤游戲進軍市場，它取得了史無前例的銷售成績。簡而言之，他們在市場上把我們打得落花流水，我們的銷售商已經沒有能力向我們付款;我們的生意和夢想就這樣亙然而止。

To make a long story short, the company was dissolved having dashed our dreams, and those of our shareholders. How devastating after all the hours of work, the hours of marketing, promotion, not to mention the loss of our own financial investment.

長話短說，公司的解散使我們和我們的那些股東的夢想都化為了泡影。耗費無數精力和時間的研究、生產、銷售、宣傳都毀于一且，更別提投入的資金的損失了。

Is that the end of the story? Well, it was for one of the game developers; the negative emotions, "it never was meant to be" thoughts. dominated any future dreams of a different life. This person returned to the daily grind of a nine to five job always cynical, always jealous of those who had succeeded.

這個故事就這樣結束了嗎?對于一個游戲研究者來說"永遠也不能成功了"的消極思想的確能夠支配一個人對未來生活的夢想。這個人很可能會回到日復一日的朝九晚五的工作之中，他會永遠處于一種憤世嫉俗的情緒之中，會對那些功成名就的人充滿嫉妒。

But, did it mean being unsuccessful to me? I didn't succeed to the level I wanted or desired, but, to me, at the very least I lived my dream by turning it into a reality. If I had never turned my dream into goal8 and then to action, I would have always wondered -what if. Was it then a failure? No, It wasn't. Was it the flaming success I'd hoped for -no. But, there were valuable lessons to be learned. After all, how many successful business people, inventors, authers, artists, etc. had immediate success in their first attempt? Probably none. Failure is our greatest teacher as long as the experience is viewed as lessons, and those lessons are internalized to provide fruits for greater achievernents later.

然而，對我來說，它也意味著失敗嗎?我的確沒有達到我所渴望的成功高度，但對我來說，至少我曾使自己的夢想變成了現實。如果我從來沒有把夢想當作目標，并去采取行動，那我就會一直在想——如果……會怎么樣。那么，這算是失敗嗎?不，并不是。那么，它是我所希望的那種驚人的成功嗎?——也不是;但我卻從中學到了非常有價值的教訓。畢竟，有多少成功的商人、發明家、作家、藝術家等是在他們初次嘗試的時候就立即取得成功了呢?很可能一個都沒有。失敗其實是最好的老師，將為日后取得更大的成功打下了堅實的基礎。

It may take a few more attempts, or many attempts but success is only achieved; once dreams are put into action, where failure becomes the launching pad for smarter choices, or better action plans in future endeavors. Will success come on the next adventure, or the next one after that, or will it take many more? Who is to say? The important point here is that success only comes by turning dreams into reality and realizing that obstacles3 are only stepping-stones to final success.

也許需要更多的嘗試，或者在多次嘗試之后才能取得一次成功，但一旦將夢想轉變為行動，失敗就會成為更明智的選擇的起飛臺，或者成為未來的努力中更好的行動 計劃。成功金在下一次，或再下一次，或更多次冒險之后到來嗎?誰敢說不會呢?關鍵在于，只有將夢想轉變為實際行動，才能取得成功;并且知道障礙只是通往最終成功的跳板而已。

For those who are wondering about my own eventual success, I'll tell you this.

對于那些對我的最終成功感到好奇的人，我要說的就是這些。

After many attempts，many failures, many lessons, and many false starts, success arrived but only through believing in what I've said earlier. Learn valuable lessons from failure; turn dreams into action plans, and don't let a dream only be that -a dream!

在經過無數次的嘗試、失敗、教訓和錯誤的開始之后，只有相信我在前面所說的，成功才會到來口要從失敗中吸取寶貴的經驗，將夢想轉變為實際行動，不要讓夢想只是一個夢想!

更多 英文短文、英語短文、英文美文、英語美文，請繼續關注 英語作文大全