奥里森·马登/Orison Marden
"But I'm good for something," pleaded a young man whom a merchant was about to discharge for his bluntness.
"You are good for nothing as a salesman," said his employer.
"I am sure I can be useful." said the youth.
"How? Tell me how."
"I don't know, sir, I don't know."
"Nor do I," said the merchant, laughing at the earnestness of his clerk.
"Only don't put me away, sir, don't put me away. Try me at something besides selling. I cannot sell; I know I cannot sell."
"I know that, too," said the principal; "that is what is wrong."
"But I can make myself useful somehow," persisted the young man; "I know I can."
He was placed in the counting-house, where his aptitude for figures soon showed itself, and in a few years he became not only chief cashier in the large store, but an eminent accountant.
"Rue it as he may, repent it as he often does," says Robert Waters, "the man of genius is drawn by an irresistible impulse to the occupation for which he was created. No matter by what difficulties surrounded, no matter how unpromising the prospect, this occupation is the only one which he will pursue with interest and pleasure. When his efforts fail to procure means of subsistence, and he finds himself poor and neglected, he may, like Burns, often look back with a sigh and think how much better off he would be had he pursued some other occupation, but he will stick to his favorite pursuit, nevertheless."
“可我并非一点用处也没有啊！”一个即将被老板解雇的年轻人苦苦哀求道。
雇主冷冷地说：“你根本没有做推销员的潜质！”
“我肯定自己是有价值的！”年轻人答道。
“什么价值？证明给我看啊！”
“我不知道，先生，我不知道。”