Often when I'm out in public, a child will stare at me. And if the child is particularly brave, they'll approach me and ask: "Are you a pirate?"

当我在公共场所的时候，总会有个小孩盯着我。如果这个小孩比较勇敢，他会走过来问我：“你是海盗吗？”

To which I then need to respond, once again, "Yes."

而我就得再一次回答，“没错。”

I mean, let's be honest: I've got two hooks, prosthetic legs and a penchant for hard liquor.

我是说，大家都知道的：我手装俩钩子，双腿义肢，还嗜好烈酒。

All I need is an eye-patch and a parrot, and I'm basically there.

再加一个眼罩和一只鹦鹉就齐活了。

But I like being a pirate. I find many advantages to having a disability, and I'm not just talking about the money I save on gloves ...

不过我喜欢当海盗。我发觉残疾也能有许多好处，我指的不仅是可以省下买手套的钱……

or the fantastically legitimate excuse for never having to master chopsticks.

或是有不用学用筷子的极其合理的借口。

I'm talking about real advantages I feel I've gained, having gone through physical adversity.

我指的是在经受了身体上的患难后，我觉得我真正得到的好处。

When I was 19, I contracted a disease that resulted in the loss of both my arms at the elbows, both my legs below the knee, and left enough scars on my face to elicit jealousy in Freddy Krueger.

在我 19 岁时，我染上了一种病，使我失去了手肘以下的双臂，膝盖以下的双腿，在我脸上留下的伤疤之多，可以让杀手弗莱迪都嫉妒三分。

Now, I may never be able to communicate in sign language, but my increased resilience and general ability to problem-solve has been heightened by being forced to think laterally to overcome problems that most people aren't faced with.

我也许永远也不能用手语交流了，但我的适应力和解决问题的能力已经得到大幅提高，因为我被迫横向思考，来克服大多数人都不会遇到的问题。

One of the first lessons that I learned immediately followed the painful and arduous task of learning how to walk again, but it went on to pay dividends for the rest of my life. It happened when I attempted to step up a curb.

我最早学会的一课伴随着重新学走路这项痛苦而艰巨的任务，不过我的余生都从中受益。那是在我尝试踏上马路牙子的时候。

Now as rudimentary as this action sounds to most of you, stepping up a curb is somewhat of a challenge for those of us without ankle movement. So I tried stepping up the curb the way I'd always known how, front on, for days on end, with no success, until it became obvious that the time and effort I was investing into this endeavor was clearly disproportionate to the benefit of its outcome.

虽说对于你们中大多数人来说，这动作听起来很基础，但对于我们这些脚踝没法动的人来说，踏上马路牙子算是一种挑战。于是我试图用我熟知的办法，从正面踩上马路牙子，可连续多日的尝试都以失败告终，直到能明显察觉，我投入的时间与努力和它带来的好处根本不成正比。

So, I decided to inspect the problem from a different angle. If I couldn't use an ankle joint to achieve the range of motion that I required to mount the curb, I would have to use a different joint, like my hip. So I turned my body perpendicular to the curb and placed my foot up sideways, and I was able to step up immediately. Within five minutes, no staircase was safe from my advances.

所以我决定从另外的角度来审视这个问题。如果我没法用踝关节做出足够幅度的动作来登上马路牙子，我就得用别的的关节，比如我的髋关节。于是我把身体扭成与路边垂直，把我的一只脚侧着放上去，然后我一下子就能踏上去了。五分钟之内，没有楼梯能逃过我前进的步伐。

That very day, I climbed a staircase of three flights, which I was quite impressed with as well, except I realized that I didn't know how to get back down again.

就在那一天，我一口气爬上了三层楼梯，连我自己都震惊了，然后我发现，我不知道该怎么下楼梯。

That was a long weekend.

那可真是个漫长的周末。

Now, in my past life as an able-bodied person, I'd been a guitarist. I was alright as a player, but I'd never really taken it further. I'd never really started a band or played live all that much. Nonetheless, music was a great passion of mine, and when I lost my arms, the idea that it may no longer be a part of my life critically challenged my will to keep living.

在我过去身体还健全时，我曾是个吉他手。我弹得还算可以，不过从没有要更上一层楼。我从没组建过乐队，或是频繁现场演出。但无论如何，音乐是我的一大挚爱，当我失去双臂的时候，想到音乐可能从此与我无缘，我的求生意志便受到了致命打击。

However, the thought that emerged immediately after being discharged from hospital was: "If Ray Charles can play the piano while blind as a bat, let's get to work on a solution for this guitar problem." 

但是，在出院之后，我立刻想到的是：“如果雷·查尔斯（Ray Charles）眼盲得像只蝙蝠也可以弹钢琴，我也可以为这个吉他难题想想办法。”

So, consulting with an engineer, I designed a slide system that would hook into my left hook, and I devised another pick-holder system that would clip into my right hook. Now, if this worked, I would be able to play the guitar open tuned on my lap, like a slide.

于是，咨询了一位工程师后，我设计了一个滑音管装置，钩在我的左手钩子上，然后我又设计了一个拨片固定装置，夹在我右手钩子上。如果这样行得通，我就可以把吉他平放在腿上，用开放定弦弹奏，像幻灯片吉他那样。

So after weeks of testing and alterations, I finally had the accessories back to play the guitar again, and I was right back where I was before losing my hands -- being issued with noise complaints from my neighbors, obviously.

经过数周的调试和修改之后，我终于有装备可以重新弹吉他了，然后我立刻回到了我失去双手前的状态——那自然是被邻居投诉噪音太大。

But this time, I took it further. I started a band with my friends. We wrote songs and recorded them. We even played gigs to real people. Not as many as this.

不过这次，我又更进一步，和朋友们组建了一支乐队。我们自己写歌、录音，甚至还给真人观众们演出。没像现在那么多人啦。

But even though it was a just a tiny step, it was a giant leap from what I'd achieved when I was all in one piece.

尽管这只是一小步，但和我还完好无缺时的成就相比，这已经是一次巨大的飞跃。

Now while relearning every action that one has ever cultivated might seem like a significant undertaking -- and believe me, it very much was, in the short term -- it was nonetheless having a positive effect on the way that I approached everything else in my life. 

的确，重学每一个曾经习得的动作听起来像是件任重而道远的事情——而且相信我，在短期来说，它的确如此——它依然积极地影响了我处理人生中所有其他事情的方式。

Not only did it transform my ability to problem-solve, but I also felt I became more pragmatic, less sensitive to hindrances, in some cases, more patient, and magically transformed people's abilities to offer me their seats on public transport.

它不仅仅转变了我解决困难的能力，它还让我变得更加务实，对挫折没那么敏感，在某些情况下，更有耐心，还能很神奇地让人们在公共交通工具上给我让座。

Trivial setbacks began to pale in comparison to challenges I'd previously overcome, and this allowed me to take a calm and measured approach to these challenges, keeping them in perspective and often even finding new and improved ways to overcome them. 

琐碎的小挫折跟我之前克服的困难相比就相形见绌了，而这让我可以冷静谨慎地面对这些挑战，保持客观务实，还经常能发现更好的新办法来克服困难。

The benefit of not dwelling on the negative and just getting on with the task at hand became self-evident. It even encouraged me to pursue some more fulfilling career paths that may otherwise have been inadvisable.

不拘泥于负能量，只管完成手头上的任务，这样做的好处不言而喻。它甚至鼓舞我去追寻曾经显得并不可取，却让我感到更加充实的事业道路。

And who would have thought that an appropriate job for me might involve the meticulous operation of electronic equipment to curate dance music to people in inaccessible places under the influence of alcohol.

而谁能想到，适合我的工作竟会涉及对电子设备的精密操作，在难以企及的地方给一群喝醉的人们播放电音舞曲。

Not I.

我可没想到。

So in a competitive industry where DJs have been relentlessly honing their craft, desperate to attain gigs, sending demos to clubs, my best friend and I took a different approach, and we started our own club night, and we employed ourselves as the DJs.

在这个竞争激烈行业中， DJ 们不断磨炼他们的技艺，拼了命地接活出演，给夜店发歌曲小样，而我和我的至交好友选择了另一种方式，我们自己开了家夜店，然后聘用我们自己当 DJ。

Suddenly, we had a headline slot.

一夜之间，我们就成了舞台上的焦点。

Now, when we started that club night, I could not DJ. The first time I ever got behind the decks was on our opening night, in front of hundreds of people. I'd only just learned where the play button was.

我们刚开始举办夜店活动的时候，我甚至还不会打碟。我人生第一次用打碟机是在我们开业的那晚，面对数百个人。我才刚搞清楚播放键在哪儿。

But, being previously faced with so many ultimatums, one's forced to be astute in adapting to new situations.

不过，一个人先前面临了如此多最后通牒的情况，他已经被迫在适应新状况时灵活变通。

That club night went on to become the longest-running weekly club night in Sydney, and we as DJs went on to play Australia's biggest music festivals. So eventually, I either learned quickly, or the standards of clubs have gone really downhill.

我们的夜店演出之后成为了悉尼最经久不衰的每周夜店演出，而我们之后也作为 DJ 在澳洲最大的音乐节上出演。所以最后，要么是我学习得很快，要么是夜店标准已经一落千丈了。

Coming close to death can be an educational experience. It's certainly true that one's priorities receive somewhat of a realignment immediately afterwards. And it's also true that some of those priorities are met with an increased sense of urgency.

濒临死亡可以是一次很有教育意义的体验。可以肯定的是，在这之后一般人多少都会重新安排自己的优先事项。同样可以肯定的是，其中一些优先事项会因为更加强烈的紧迫感而被完成。

But another, more salient realization that comes to light is the triviality of our own self-importance and self-consciousness. To truly understand the extent to which your self-consciousness prohibits you from engaging in opportunities should lead everyone to take risks they otherwise wouldn't. We're merely a blip on the time line of the universe, right? Act accordingly.

不过另一个更加突出的感悟是，自己的虚荣心和不安感是多么不值一提。当真正明白了过剩的自我意识有多么阻碍你去抓住机遇，这应该会让所有人冒他们本不会去冒的险。我们只不过是浩瀚宇宙时间线上的一瞬而已，对吧？抓紧时间去行动。

Now the ideas that I'm presenting today were imbued upon me through some otherwise unfortunate circumstances, granted, but they're lying dormant in the lives of anyone who's willing to exploit them. 

今天我讲述的理念确实是通过一些不幸的境况灌输给我的，不过这些理念沉睡在每一个愿意去发掘它们的人的心中。

If we all understand that we all have unique weaknesses, and if we're honest about what they are, we can learn how to best take advantage of them, whether they be mounting a curb or fear of presenting sales reports or the inability to sufficiently manage one's finances -- looking at that guy --

如果我们都理解我们都有独特的缺陷，并且如果我们坦诚面对这些缺陷，我们就可以学会如何充分利用它们，无论是难以踏上马路牙子，还是畏惧介绍销售报告，抑或是无法好好管理自己的财务状况——看看那家伙——

there lies the ability to learn, to adapt, and even the ability to rewire one's instinctual response to challenges.

利用好缺陷可以获得学习和适应的能力，甚至还有能力重塑一个人对待挑战的本能反应。

Adversity is good, and it has the potential to make you stronger. And, at the very least, you can scare the hell out of kids if you look like a pirate.

遇到困境是件好事，它有潜力让你变得更强。而且，如果你看起来像个海盗，最起码你可以把小孩子吓得屁滚尿流。

Thanks.

谢谢

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