The Power of Introverts (1) 内向者的力量

Igot the message that somehow my quiet and introverted style of being was not necessarily the right way to go,that I should be trying to pass as more of an extrovert.And I always sensed deep down that this was wrong and that introverts werepretty excellent just as they were. But for years I denied this intuition, and so I became a Wall Street lawyer, ofall things, instead of the writer that I had always longed to be -- partlybecause I needed to prove to myself that I could be bold and assertive too. And I was always going off to crowdedbars when I really would have preferred to just have a nice dinner withfriends. And I made these self-negating choicesso reflexively, that I wasn't even aware that I was making them.

不知怎么我总觉得我安静和内向的风格并不正确。我应该更多地尝试一个外向者的角色。而在我内心深处总觉得这是不对的，因为内向的人都是非常优秀的。但是多年来我都否认了这种直觉，于是我成为了华尔街的一名律师，而不是我长久以来想要成为的一名作家。部分是因为我想要证明自己也可以变得勇敢而坚定。当我只是想要和朋友们吃一顿愉快的晚餐时，我却总是去那些拥挤的酒吧。我做出了这些自我否认的选择，如条件反射一般，甚至我都不清楚我做出了这些决定。

introvert /'ɪntrəvɜːt/ 内向的人

extrovert /'ekstrəvɜːt/ 外向的人

intuition /ɪntjʊ'ɪʃ(ə)n/ n. 直觉

assertive /əˈsɜːtɪv/ adj. 果断的，积极的，自信的

negate /nɪ'ɡeɪt/ v. 否认，否定；取消，使无效

Nowthis is what many introverts do, and it's our loss for sure, but it is also ourcolleagues' loss and our communities' loss. And at the risk of sounding grandiose, it is the world's loss. Because when itcomes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they dobest. A third to a half of the population are introverts -- a third to a half.So that's one out of every two or three people you know. So even if you're anextrovert yourself, I'm talking about your coworkers and your spouses and your children and the person sitting nextto you right now -- all of them subject to thisbias that is pretty deep and real in our society. We all internalize it from a very early age without evenhaving a language for what we're doing.

这就是很多内向的人正在做的事情。这当然是我们的损失，但这同样也是同事们的损失，我们所在团队集体的损失。当然，冒着被指为夸大其词的风险我想说，更是世界的损失。因为当涉及创造和领导的时候，我们需要内向的人做到最好，三分之一到二分之一的人都是内向的，三分之一到二分之一。你要知道这可意味着每两到三个人中就有一个内向的，所以即使你自己是一个外向的人。我正在说你的同事和你的配偶和你的孩子，还有现在正坐在你旁边的那个家伙--他们都要屈从于这样的偏见，一种在我们的社会中已经扎根的真实的偏见。我们从很小的时候就把它藏在内心最深处，甚至对于我们正在做的事情都不说什么。

grandiose /'ɡrændiəʊs/ adj. 浮夸的，不切实际的

spouse /spaʊz/ n. 配偶

subject /səb'dʒekt/ v. 使隶属，使顺从；使遭受

internalize /ɪn'tɜːnəlaɪz/ v. 使……内在化