极端的成功源自极端的个性，并且要在其他方面付出代价。我认为，极端的成功与你所说的“成功”不同，所以你要清楚，你不必像理查德•布兰森或埃隆•穆斯克一样富有，成就卓绝，或者保持高的生活水准。这样一来，你便更有可能获得幸福。

但如果你也属于极端的人，你必须坚持自己的方式，这意味着幸福或多或少已经无关紧要。

极端的人往往与社会格格不入，他们不得不用常人难以想象的、具有挑战性的方式，来体验这个世界。他们会形成一套自己的生存策略，随着年龄的增长，他们会通过各种方式将这些策略应用到其他方面，从而为他们创造出强大的独特优势。他们的思维方式异于常人。他们看待事物的角度与众不同，能够启发新的想法和见解。其他人甚至会认为他们是疯子。

沉迷！

沉迷！！

沉迷！！！

如果你没有沉迷于自己所作的事情，不妨停下来，寻找一件能够真正让你着迷的事情去做。拥有自我意识会有所帮助，但要想激励优秀人才来帮助你，那你必须献身于更大的事业。也许，人们会围绕在你身边，赞美你多了不起，你的成就多么伟大，即便这些并非事实。此时，“更大的事业”可以防止你因为这些恭维而变得飘飘然。

不要因为你想变得伟大而去做一件事情。致力于某件事情的原因在于它令你着迷——因为追求的过程本身便能吸引你，促使你为之努力。极端的人会将聪明智慧与疯狂的工作态度相结合，所以，如果工作本身不能驱动你，你会感觉精疲力竭甚至半途而废，或者会有同样极端的竞争对手将你打垮，让你品尝失败的苦果。

追随你所痴迷的事业，等待问题的出现。这个问题非常重要，发人深省，并且极富挑战性，会影响到许多人，你下定决心去解决它或为之付出全部。而要找到这样的问题可能需要数年时间，因为你必须探索不同领域的知识，收集不同的细节，然后将它们联系起来，勾勒出一个完整的问题。

拥有超出常人的精力和毅力也会有所帮助。如果你没有上天赐予的优秀基因，那就应该努力达到最佳身体状态。你将面对时差反应、心理疲劳、疯狂的派对、孤独且毫无意义的会面、重大的挫折、家庭变故、与聚少离多的另一半的问题、在深夜拷问灵魂、令你感到厌烦和烦恼的人、睡眠过少甚至彻夜不眠等等。身体健康才能保证头脑清醒。这将给你带来回报。

学会处理超越大多数人极限的压力。

不要走前人走过的路，也不要想着模仿你的偶像。永远没有“下一步”。极端的成功不同于其他类型的成功——对某个人有效的方法，不见得适合你。他们都有大胆的观点，知道如何利用自己独一无二的特殊优势。他们特立独行，他们之所以能够成为今天的成功企业家，原因之一是他们不能或者不愿适应公司生活的结构和例行程序。他们有阅读障碍症，孤独症，注意力缺陷障碍，与这个世界格格不入，时常惹怒他人，陷入争执，惹是生非，看不起文书工作。他们会通过我前文所说的那些策略，将劣势变成新的优势，并且对于自己能力不足的领域，他们会寻找其中的出类拔萃者，使其成为自己的合作伙伴。

他们从不害怕失败——或者即便他们害怕失败，也依旧会勇往直前。他们将经历巨大的、惨烈的、令人蒙羞的、公开的失败，但他们会不断尝试，直到重新获得成功。他们经历过他人无法经历的失败，因此他们也将学到其他人没有学到而且永远无法学到的东西。他们有惊人的勇气和韧性。

他们不可能阅读这样的文章。（这样说并不是在抨击或批评本文的读者。我本人也喜欢阅读这样的内容。）他们可能会直接读一本书，如名人传记，例如亚历山大大帝、叶卡捷琳娜二世或他们心目中的其他伟人。上网非常浪费时间，并且他们知道自己的时间极其宝贵，即便在他们的时间尚没有如此宝贵的时候，他们也不敢浪费。

我还可以列举更多这类人的特点。这是一个有趣的话题，但你应该能明白我的意思。祝你好运，希望你获得力量。如果有需要，你或许可以来一杯烈酒。

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

审校：任文科

Extreme success results from an extreme personality and comes at the cost of many other things. Extreme success is different from what I suppose you could just consider “success,” so know that you don’t have to be Richard or Elon to be affluent, accomplished and maintain a great lifestyle. Your odds of happiness are better that way. But if you’re extreme, you must be what you are, which means that happiness is more or less beside the point. These people tend to be freaks and misfits who were forced to experience the world in an unusually challenging way. They developed strategies to survive, and as they grow older they find ways to apply these strategies to other things, while creating for themselves a distinct and powerful advantage. They don’t think the way other people think. They see things from angles that unlock new ideas and insights. Other people consider them to be somewhat insane.

Be obsessed.

Be obsessed.

Be obsessed.

If you’re not obsessed, then stop what you’re doing and find whatever does obsess you. It helps to have an ego, but you must be in service to something bigger if you are to inspire the people you need to help you (and make no mistake, you will need them). That “something bigger” prevents you from going off into the ether when people flock around you and tell you how fabulous you are when you aren’t and how great your stuff is when it isn’t. Don’t pursue something because you want to be great. Pursue something because it fascinates you — because the pursuit itself engages and compels you. Extreme people combine brilliance and talent with an insane work ethic, so if the work itself doesn’t drive you, you will burn out or fall by the wayside, or your extreme competitors will crush you and make you cry.

Follow your obsessions until a problem starts to emerge — a big, meaty, challenging problem that impacts as many people as possible — that you feel hellbent to solve or die trying. It might take years to find that problem, because you have to explore different bodies of knowledge, collect the dots and then connect and complete them.

It helps to have superhuman energy and stamina. If you are not blessed with godlike genetics, then make it a point to get into the best shape possible. There will be jet lag, mental fatigue, bouts of hard partying, loneliness, pointless meetings, major setbacks, family drama, issues with the significant other you rarely see, dark nights of the soul, people who bore and annoy you, little sleep, and less sleep than that. Keep your body sharp to keep your mind sharp. It pays off.

Learn to handle a level of stress that would break most people.

Don’t follow a pre-existing path, and don’t look to imitate your role models. There is no next step. Extreme success is not like other kinds of success — what has worked for someone else probably won’t work for you. They are individuals with bold points of view who exploit their very particular set of unique and particular strengths. They are unconventional, and one reason they become the entrepreneurs they become is because they can’t or don’t or won’t fit into the structures and routines of corporate life. They are dyslexic, they are autistic, they have ADD, they are square pegs in round holes, they piss people off, get into arguments, rock the boat, and laugh in the face of paperwork. But they transform weaknesses in ways that create added advantage — the strategies I mentioned earlier — and seek partnerships with people who excel in the areas where they have no talent whatsoever.

They do not fear failure — or they do, but they move ahead anyway. They will experience heroic, spectacular, humiliating, very public failure but find a way to reframe until it isn’t failure at all. When they fail in ways that other people won’t, they learn things that other people don’t and never will. They have incredible grit and resilience.

They are unlikely to be reading stuff like this. (This is not to slam or criticize people who do. I love to read this stuff myself.) They are more likely to go straight to a book, perhaps a biography of Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great or someone else they consider great. Surfing the Internet is a deadly timesuck, and given what they know their time is worth — even back in the day when technically it was not worth that — they can’t afford it.

I could go on. It’s a fascinating subject, but you get the idea. I wish you luck and strength and perhaps a stiff drink should you need it.