So I had the chance to meet with some of the kids in the program today. Where are you? Scream(尖叫) out. There you go. I love those kids. And so what I thought I would do, because they gave me a little bit of time to say whatever(任何) I want, is offer you a little bit of some observations(观察) for your future.
I have five little rules that you can follow as you find(找到) your spark(火花) and bring your spark(火花) to life. The first is to go after the things that you want. Let me tell you a story. So a friend of mine(矿) and I, we went for a run in Central Park. The Roadrunners Organization, on the weekends, they host(主人) races. And it's very common at the end of the race, they'll have a sponsor(发起者) who will give away something, apples or bagels or something.
And on this particular day, when we got to the end of the run, there were some free bagels. And they had picnic tables set(设置) up. And on one side was a group of volunteers(志愿者). On the table were boxes of bagels. And on the other side was a long line of runners waiting to get their free bagel. So I said to my friend, "Let's get a bagel."
And he looked at me and said, "Ah, that line's too long." And I said, "Free bagel." And he said, "I don't want to wait in line." And I was like(喜欢), "Free bagel." And he says, "Nah, it's too long." And that's when I realized that there's two ways to see the world.
Some people see the thing that they want. And some people see the thing that prevents them from getting the thing that they want. I could only see the bagels. He could only see the line. And so I walked up to the line. I leaned(倾斜) in between two people, put my hand in the box, and pulled out two bagels.
And no one got mad(发疯的) at me. Because the rule is you can go after whatever you want. You just cannot deny(否定) anyone else to go after whatever(任何) they want. Now, I had to sacrifice(牺牲) choice. I didn't get to choose which bagel I got. I got whatever I pulled out.
But I didn't have to wait in line. So the point is, is you don't have to wait in line. You don't have to do it the way everybody else has done it. You can do it your way. You can break the rules. You just can't get in the way of somebody else getting what they want.
That's rule number one. Rule number two. I like this one. In the 18th century, there was something that spread( 延伸) across Europe and eventually(终于) made its way to America called "puerple fever(发热)," also known as the "black death of child bed." Basically(基本上) what was happening is women were giving birth and they would die within(在……之内) 48 hours after giving birth. This black death of childbirth was the ravage(毁坏) of Europe and it got worse and worse and worse over the course of over a century.
In some hospitals, it was as high as 70 percent(百分之…) of women who gave birth who would die as a result of giving birth. But this was the Renaissance(复兴). This was the time of empirical(完全根据经验的) data and science and we had thrown away things like tradition and mysticism. These were men of science. These were doctors. These doctors and men of science wanted to study and try and find the reason for this black death of child bed.
They got to work studying and they would study the corpses(尸体) of the women who had died. In the morning, they would conduct(指挥) autopsies and then in the afternoon, they would go and deliver(投递) babies and finish their rounds(圆). It wasn't until somewhere in the mid-1800s that Dr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of Supreme Court(法院) Justice(正义) Oliver Wendell Holmes, realized that all of these doctors who were conducting autopsies in the morning weren't washing their hands before they delivered babies in the afternoon. And he pointed(指向) it out and said, "Guys, you're the problem." And they ignored(不顾) him and called him crazy for 30 years until finally somebody realized that if they simply(简单地) washed their hands, it would go away. And that's exactly what happened.
When they started sterilizing(杀菌) their instruments and washing their hands, the black death of child bed disappeared. My point is, the lesson here is sometimes you're the problem. We've seen this happen all too recently with our new men of science and empirical studyers and these men of finance(财政) who are smarter(聪明的) than the rest of us until the thing collapsed(倒塌).