读者文摘:魔术改变了我的生活(5)（在线收听）

I stood on a boat in the middle of the river wearing nothing but biking shorts and a thick snarl of chains, padlocks, and weights around my wrists and ankles.

我站在河中央的一条船上，只穿着自行车运动短裤，戴着一串厚厚的链子、挂锁，手腕和脚踝上都是重物。

The sky was dead and gray, and the water was dead and gray, and a frigid breeze blew across its surface.

天空灰沉沉的，水是死水，也是灰蒙蒙的，一阵寒风从水面吹过。

I had delayed this stunt by two weeks because the river was frozen.

由于河水结冰，我把这次冒险推迟了两个星期。

Now the ice had cleared and spring had come, reluctantly, but the water was still only 52 degrees at the surface, and colder in the depths below.

现在冰已融化，春天已经来临，无奈水面仍然只有52度，水深处更冷。

Technically, I succeeded. I jumped into the water, sank to the bottom,

严格意义上讲，我成功了。我跳进水里，沉到水底，

and escaped from the locks and the chains before swimming to the surface.

挣脱了链子、挂锁，然后游到水面。

But it didn't feel like a success.

但感觉上并不成功。

When Houdini did it, thousands of people turned up to watch.

当霍迪尼表演时，成千上万的人前来观看。

I had about a dozen who stopped on their way to class, and the police showed up because someone thought it was a suicide attempt.

我有十几个学生在去上课的路上停下来，警察出现了，因为有人认为这是在企图自杀。

I am living proof, though, that if you throw enough time and effort at something—maybe even anything—you can become good at it.

然而，我就是活生生的例子，如果你在某件事上投入足够的时间和精力——也许是任何事——你就能变得擅长。

I found inspiration in a quote attributed to Houdini:

我从霍迪尼的一句话中得到了灵感：

"The real secret to my success is simple: I work from seven in the morning to midnight and I like it."

“我成功的真正秘诀很简单：我从早上7点工作到午夜，我喜欢这样。”

This quote lived on a scrap of paper stuck to the wall by my bed for ten years.

我把这句话写在一张小纸片上在我床边放了十年。

I had hit Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours of dedicated practice by the time I turned 22, and he's right—I got pretty good.

在我22岁的时候，我已经完成了马尔科姆·格拉德威尔的10000小时的专门实践，他是对的——我受益匪浅。