People who achieve success and drive progress deeply understand the cause-effect relationships that govern reality and have principles for using them to get what they want. The converse is also true: Idealists who are not well grounded in reality create problems, not progress.
取得成功并推动进步的人，是深刻理解支配现实的因果关系，并拥有利用它们来获得自己想要的东西的原则。反之亦然：不立足现实的理想主义者会制造问题，而不是进步。

What does a successful life look like? We all have our own deepseated needs, so we each have to decide for ourselves what success is. I don’t care whether you want to be a master of the universe, a couch potato, or anything else—I really don’t. Some people want to change the world and others want to operate in simple harmony with it and savor life. Neither is better. Each of us needs to decide what we value most and choose the paths we take to achieve it.
成功的人生是什么样的？我们都有自己根深蒂固的需求，所以我们每个人都必须自己决定什么是成功。我不在乎你是否想成为宇宙主宰、电视迷或者其他任何人——我真的不想。有些人想要改变世界，而另一些人则想要与世界简单和谐相处并品味生活。两者都不是更好。我们每个人都需要决定我们最看重什么，并选择实现它的路径。

Take a moment to reflect on where you are on the following scale, which illustrates an overly simplified choice you should think about. Where would you put yourself on it?
花点时间思考一下你在以下范围内的位置，它说明了你应该考虑的过于简单的选择。你会把自己放在哪里？

The question isn’t just how much of each to go after, but how hard to work to get as much as possible. I wanted crazy amounts of each, was thrilled to work hard to get as much of them as possible, and found that they could largely be one and the same and mutually reinforcing. Over time I learned that getting more out of life wasn’t just a matter of working harder at it. It was much more a matter of working effectively, because working effectively could increase my capacity by hundreds of times. I don’t care what you want or how hard you want to work for it. That’s for you to decide. I’m just trying to pass along to you what has helped me get the most out of each hour of time and each unit of effort.
问题不只是要追求多少，而是要付出多大的努力才能获得尽可能多的东西。我对每一种都想要疯狂的数量，很高兴能够努力工作以尽可能多地获得它们，并且发现它们在很大程度上可以是相同的并且相辅相成的。随着时间的推移，我了解到，从生活中获得更多并不仅仅在于更加努力地工作。这更重要的是有效工作，因为有效工作可以使我的能力提高数百倍。我不在乎你想要什么，也不在乎你想为此付出多大的努力。这由你决定。我只是想向你传达一些帮助我充分利用每一小时时间和每单位努力的信息。

source:https://www.principles.com/principles/0cabe170-46ae-414c-ac92-44844983c73b/