Sir Edmund Hillary is famous for being the first person to climb Mt. Everest (n. 珠穆朗瑪峰).
What many people do not know is that Sir Hillary did not make it to the top of Everest the first time he tried. The first attempt was a complete failure. His climbing party encountered one problem after another and more than half his climbing party died.
Nonetheless (adv. 雖然如此), the British Parliament (n. 議會) decided to honor him with some type of award. When he entered the chamber to receive his award, Sir Hillary saw that a large picture of Everest had been set up.
During the standing ovation (n. 熱烈歡迎) that he was receiving, he walked over to the picture, shook his fist at it and said, 「You won, this time. But you are as big as you are ever going to get. And I'm still growing.」
We frequently hear the stories of people who have succeeded. And we frequently assume that they succeeded the first time.
But in fact it's the exact opposite.
The road to success is paved with the bricks of failure.
埃德蒙·希拉蕊爵士是登上珠穆朗瑪峰的第一人，他因此而聞名天下。
然而，很多人並不知道，希拉蕊爵士第一次試著攀登珠穆朗瑪峰時並未成功登頂。第一次登山以徹底的失敗而告終。他們接二連三遇到問題，登山隊中超過半數的人都喪生了。
儘管如此，英國議會還是決定授予他某種獎勵。希拉蕊爵士走進議會大廳領獎時，看到裡面豎著一幅很大的珠穆朗瑪峰的畫。
大家起立熱烈歡迎希拉蕊爵士，這時他走到畫跟前，衝畫揮動了一下拳頭，說道：「你這次贏了。但是你就這麼高，再也不會長，而我還在長。」
我們常常聽到成功人士的故事。我們常常以為他們第一次就成功了。
但事實恰恰相反。
成功之路是由失敗之磚墊就的。