Public schools are supposed to remove barriers so people can succeed. For some, the system does remove barriers and provide a solid base for achievement. For others, the system replaces one set of barriers with another. For example, creativity is killed by pressuring students to accept the status quo, by establishing a fear to be different and a fear of failure. Independent thinking is replaced by dependency. In some cases, pressure to excel in academics kills ethics, loyalty and motivation, skills needed for success in the real world. People who have a vision, that motivates them, can overcome all barriers with integrity intact.
My story begins in Summit, NJ, at the age of sixteen, where I am sitting in a classroom starring out the window. Out of the first window I could see myself exploring the jungles of South America searching for gold, I could see myself drifting down the Amazon River on a raft, I could see monkeys swinging through the trees, I could see myself as Tarzan swinging on a vine. Through the next window, I could see the bow of my sailboat plowing through the towering waves, heading toward the South Pacific. I could see myself on a white sand beach chasing girls.
Then BANG! The teacher"s yardstick hitting my desk brought me back to the real world where subjects did not relate to my interest and dreamers are related to dummies. In a loud voice the teacher said, "You are a failure! If you don"t pay attention you will continue to be a failure!"
When the bell rang, instead of going to the next class I walked out of school never to return. I was tired of being called a failure. Right or wrong, I took charge of my future. When I left school, I carried the single most important element for success… A DREAM. During the next twenty years, every one of my teenage dreams came true.
You may be asking, "How does one make their dreams come true?" There are three elements:
First—We must have a dream that motivates us. No one has ever achieved anything without a dream attached to a burning desire.
Second—We must learn how-to-learn. In school, we learn how to memorize or be taught. Learning how to learn frees our dependency on others for knowledge.
Third—We must learn from failure and learn how to bounce back from failure. No one ever succeed without failure. In the classroom, failure is a no-no.
In my early teens, I read the book Kon-Tiki. This is a story about six Norwegians sailing a raft across the Pacific Ocean. Their adventure inspired my dream of duplicating their raft voyage. As a teenager, with normal parents, a dream like this was considered ridicules. Not only did friends and family not support my dream, they told me to get serious. But the Kon-Tiki dream turned me on. I wanted to know more about the ocean world and how it could be challenged. I went to the public library looking for more books and found plenty.
During the next few years, I joined the seas scouts, read boating magazines and nautical books, and went to boat shows. To help understand seamanship techniques, I made model charts, buoys, and boats. With models, comprehension was easy. Unknowingly, I was learning the art of learning how-to-learn… Self-education… A technique that would follow me the rest of my life, a technique that would bring me success and make my wildest dreams come true.
At the age of nineteen, during the Korean War, I was in the Marine Corps and in Japan. On my first day of duty an officer
told me, "You are a machinist and will be in charge of the machine shop." As he gave me the shop keys, he pointed to a trailer. In the Marine Corps, everything is on wheels. When I opened the doors, I had my first look ever at a machine shop. In the shop was one short instruction manual titled "How to Run a Lathe." When a job came in, I followed the manual"s instructions. I was surprised at my ability to complete assigned tasks. The Marine Corps experience launched my machinist career. It also made me realize that learning how-to-learn is a powerful tool. For example, every manmade object around us is the result of someone"s dream and failures. Consider the light bulb. Thomas Edison believed something could burn white-hot and not burn up. A wild unrealistic dream? Everyone knows everything burns up in a short time. A thousand failures later, Thomas Edison burned a steel wire white hot that never burned up. Continuous white heat creates light.
Opportunity is attracted to people with a dream. They are the first to be hired, first to be offered opportunity, and first to be promoted. Bigger the dream the faster doors open. People without a dream are last to be hired, last to be promoted, and first to be 14)laid-off in a force reduction. For non-dreamers, doors remain closed. "WHY?" People with a dream act differently than non-dreamers. Dreamers develop an attitude that radiates energy; they have a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. Radiant energy is an attitude that bosses like and to which they offer opportunity. This is how the impossible becomes possible.
When I was discharged from the Marine Corps, I decided people were right, my wild teenage dream was ridicules. Real people do not drift across oceans on rafts. I am now an adult, I should think and act like one. The raft dream was dead. For the next five years my life went nowhere, my ambition, hope, dreams were gone. Something else was also gone… Opportunity that came fast during my earlier years also dried up.
One day I dusted off the Kon-Tiki book. My dream jumped off the pages and came to life. I said to myself, "I must find a way!" Two years later, I was in Hawaii and learned how the Polynesian people populated the Pacific Islands in dugout canoes 2,000 years ago. My dream was changed from a raft to a dugout canoe. At this time, opportunity came back and fast.
I helped crew a 36-foot sailboat from Hawaii to California. This provided my ocean sailing experience. Next, I was hired by the Panama Canal Company, Panama. Soon, my supervisor asked me to attend hard-hat diver school at company expense. With this skill, money was no longer a problem.
A short time later, I was living on a beach in Tahiti building a 40-foot Polynesian double-hull boat named Liki Tiki. The hulls were built by Choco Indians in the Darien Providence of Panama and shipped to Tahiti. I built the boat according to popular theory and information supplied by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Three days at sea convinced me the double-hull theory was wrong. The two hulls worked against each other and would soon breakup.
Back in Panama, I took the problem to the Indians in the Darien Jungle. They said, "18)Outriggers is what works." I then succeed in sailing a 36-foot dugout canoe with outriggers, named Liki Tiki Too, from Panama, 5,000 miles, to Hawaii.
Opportunity never stopped. For the Navy Undersea Center Hawaii I help develop a two-man Plexiglas submarine. Moving back to the Panama Canal Zone, I learned five computer languages and became supervisor of the computer department. I became Captain of the Canal Zone"s training schooner, Chief Aptakisic on which we took a group of teenagers to New York. My wife and I spent five years sailing the South Pacific Ocean in our own 50-foot sail boat, Hunky-Dory, which I designed and self-built. Opportunity came my way because I was motivated and did not let a wild teenage dream die.
公立學校普遍被認爲可以爲學生走向成功而掃清障礙。對一些人來說，公立學校的確取消了對他們的限制，併爲他們未來的成就打下了堅實基礎;而對另一些人來說，這種教育模式只是以一種限制代替另一種限制而已。比如說，在這種教育模式的灌輸和壓力下，學生們變得安於現狀、不敢與衆不同、害怕失敗，這樣，學生的創造力自然也就被扼殺。而且，依賴性取代了獨立思考的精神。爲了取到優異的學習成績，學生們甚至捨棄了很多東西，如道德、忠誠、激勵，以及其他在現實世界中成就事業所必需的技能。只有那些富有遠見的人能不斷地鼓勵自己，能在克服障礙的同時不改變自己完整的人格。
我的故事要從新澤西州申美特這個地方說起。那時我正在課堂上聽講，16歲的我顯得心不在焉。透過第一個窗戶，我彷彿看見自己在南美叢林中探險尋金;我還看見自己乘着木筏在亞馬遜河上漂流。只見頑猴在樹叢之間盪來盪去，我跟人猿泰山一樣懸蕩在藤蔓上。透過另一個窗戶，我彷彿看見自己正乘風破浪向南太平洋進發，還看到自己在白沙灘上和女孩子們追逐嬉戲。
突然“啪”一聲，老師的教鞭打在我桌上，我被拉回到了現實世界中來——在這個世界裏，我對所學的科目沒有半點興趣，愛做夢的我被當成白癡。老師劈頭就吼：“你真是個笨蛋!如果上課你再開小差的話，你就永遠也沒有出息!”
鈴聲響了，我沒有去上下一節課，而是頭也不回地步出了校門。我已經厭倦了給人說我沒出息。不管對錯，我要主宰自己的前途。離開學校的時候，我一無所有，只有一個夢想——而夢想正是成功最需要的元素。在接下來的20年裏，我年少時的每個夢想都得到逐一實現。
你可能會問：“要怎樣才能實現夢想呢?”答案是，要具備以下三大要素。
首先，我們必須要有一個激勵自己的夢想。沒有夢想加熱情，人們就會一事無成。
其次，我們必須學會如何學習。在學校裏，我們學的是如何死記硬背，如何更好地接受老師的教誨。學會了怎樣學習，我們就可以不倚賴別人也能學到知識。
最後，我們必須善於從錯誤中學習，學會從失敗中振作起來。沒有失敗的磨礪也就沒有成功人士。可惜在課堂裏，失敗犯錯卻是個禁忌。
我十幾歲的時候看過一本叫《木筏之旅》的書，講的是六個挪威人乘坐木筏橫渡太平洋的故事。他們的探險經歷讓我突發奇想，有一天我也要像他們那樣來一次木筏航行。作爲普通家庭出身的少年，我的這個夢想人人都覺得荒謬。親朋好友都不支持我，他們還叫我不要開這樣的玩笑。但這個木筏夢想卻在我心裏燃燒，我想更深入地瞭解海洋世界的奧祕，學習怎樣挑戰它。於是我開始往公共圖書館裏跑，並找了很多相關的書籍來看。
後來的幾年，我參加了海洋探險訓練營，閱讀航船雜誌和航海專著，還觀摩了多次的船艇展覽。爲了學習船舶駕駛技巧，我做了航海圖、浮標和船艇的模型。有了模型做參考，理解起來就容易多了。其實當時我是不自覺地學習如何學習，也就是自學的技巧。這個本領使我終生受用，成就了後日的輝煌，也讓我那遙不可及的夢想成爲了現實。
十九歲那年正值朝鮮戰爭，我加入了海軍陸戰隊，並被派遣到了日本。第一天報到的時候，一個軍官跟我說：“你現在是我們的機械師，負責機修部。”他邊指着一輛拖車，邊遞給我一串鑰匙。在海軍陸戰隊裏，所有的東西都連接到了車軌上。我打開拖車的門，第一次看到了海軍陸戰隊的機修車間。裏面有本操作手冊，標題是《如何操作車牀》。以後每次接到任務的時候，我就按着手冊的指引去做，連我也有點不敢相信自己可以勝任派遣的任務。海軍陸戰隊的經歷開始了我的機械工程師生涯，也讓我懂得學會怎麼學就是一種有力的工具。其實，我們身邊所有的人造發明都凝聚了一些人的夢想和挫敗。看看電燈泡的例子，愛迪生就相信總有某些物質可以達到白熾而不會燒起來。有點癡人說夢吧?人人都知道任何東西都會在短時間內燒完。不過愛迪生在千次失敗嘗試後，的的確確找到了一種可以升溫至白熾卻不會燒起來的鋼絲，持續的白熾就帶來了燈光。
機遇只會眷顧那些有夢想的人。他們總是最先被錄用、最先被賜予機遇、也是最先被提升的。夢想越是宏大，機會之門就會開得越快。沒有夢想的人，招聘升遷的好事總輪不到他，人員精簡的時候卻會被最先給刷下來。對沒有夢想的人，機會之門始終是緊閉的。爲什麼?這是因爲有夢想和沒有夢想的人的處事方式完全不同。有夢想的人爲人處世散發出一股熱力，他們對自己的'生命有種使命感，積極追求人生的意義。這種四射的熱忱正是上司欣賞的特質，機遇也就因此而降臨。這也就是有夢想的人化腐朽爲神奇的祕密。
從陸戰隊退役下來以後，我發覺別人的看法是對的——我年少時的夢想實在太荒唐了。現實生活中的人是不會乘坐皮筏漂流橫渡大海的，我都長成個成人了，想法和做法要像個成人才行。於是我的皮筏漂流夢就這樣灰飛煙滅了。在接着的五年時間裏，我沒有一絲的長進，什麼抱負、願望、理想統統都給拋諸腦後了。有些東西也就隨之消失了……年輕時常降臨的機遇也慢慢枯竭了。
有天在我替那本《木筏之旅》撣塵的時候，我的夢想立即從書本里跳出來復活了。我對自己說：“我得找條出路!”兩年後，我跑到了夏威夷。在那裏我學到了2000年前波利尼西亞人是怎樣靠獨木舟來到這個太平洋小島定居的。我的夢想已經從木筏轉爲獨木舟航行了，這時候幸運之神再次光臨。
我在一艘36英尺長帆船上謀到了一份船員的工作，這艘船常年遊弋在夏威夷和加州之間，這就培養了我的航海經驗。接着巴拿馬運河公司聘請了我，沒多久，部門主管就派我到專門的深海潛水學校接受培訓，費用由公司負責。學會了這個本領，錢也就再也不是問題了。
過了不久，我來到了塔希提島的一個海灘上，在這裏我造了一艘長40英尺的雙層船身波利尼西亞船，命名爲Liki Tiki。它的船身是在巴拿馬的達裏恩省由巧克族印第安人做的，然後運到塔希提島來。我根據我的航海知識和在檀香山的主教博物館裏找到的資料，建造了這艘船。在海上試航三天後，我就確信雙層船身理論是錯誤的。因爲這樣的話，兩層船殼互相抗衡，熬不了多久船身就會斷裂。
回到巴拿馬，我到達裏恩叢林裏向當地的印第安人請教。他們告訴我：“加上舷外支架就可以了。”於是我重新造了一隻長36英尺的獨木舟，裝上了舷外支架，我把它也命名爲Liki Tiki，乘着它我成功地航行了5000英里，從巴拿馬到了夏威夷。
機會一直在閃現，我爲夏威夷海軍海底中心研發了一種承載雙人的樹脂玻璃潛艇。在搬回巴拿馬運河區後，我學會了五種電腦程序語言，當上了電腦部的主管。我還是運河區一艘訓練用帆船Chief Aptakisic號的船長，帶過一批青少年去紐約。我自己另外又設計了一艘50英尺的帆船——Hunky-Dory號，我和妻子乘這艘帆船在南太平洋上航行了五年。得到機遇的眷顧是因爲我積極主動，而且不讓年少輕狂的夢想之火熄滅。
