一个人最容易被低估的特质是什么?
What is the single most underrated trait a person can have?
From：Hannah Yang
One of my classmates at Yale is taking a course at the business school called “Mastering Influence and Persuasion.” Last month, one of his homework assignments was to practice getting rejected.
我在耶鲁的一位同学正在商学院上一门名为“掌握影响力与说服力”的课程。上个月，他的一项家庭作业是练习被拒绝。
He decided to do his homework at an upscale hotel down the street, one with uniformed doormen and sparkling chandeliers.
他决定在这条街上的一家高档酒店做功课，那里有穿着制服的门卫和闪闪发光的吊灯。
Dressed in his usual t-shirt and jeans, my friend ambled through their beautiful glass doors and asked the man at the front desk, “Excuse me, sir, do you have any vacancies tonight?”
我的朋友穿着他平常穿的t恤和牛仔裤，缓步穿过漂亮的玻璃门，问前台的人:“对不起，先生，你们今晚有空房间吗?”
The guy replied that they did have a couple of rooms available.
那人回答说，他们确实还有几个房间可以出租。
“Great. What’s the rate for the cheapest single?”
“好了。最便宜的单人房多少钱?”
The response fell somewhere around $300 or $400.
回答是在300美元或400美元左右。
“Cool,” said my friend. “Could I…uh…get that room tonight for free?”
“好，”我的朋友说。“我可以……呃……今晚免费得到那个房间吗?”
The guy looked at him like he was crazy.
那家伙看着他，好像他疯了一样。
My friend said, “I don’t have enough money to rent a room, but it would be great if I could stay a night without having to pay for it.”
我的朋友说:“我没有足够的钱去租一个房间，但是如果我可以住一晚而不用付钱那就太好了。”
Incredulously, the guy at the desk explained that this was against company policy.
难以置信的是，前台的人解释说这违反了公司的政策。
So my friend said, “Okay, sir, I understand. Could we negotiate some other arrangement? For example, I’m in an a cappella group - I’d be happy to sing for your customers in the lobby, in exchange for one night’s stay.”
于是我的朋友说:“好的，先生，我明白了。我们可以再谈些别的安排吗？例如，我参加了一个无伴奏合唱小组——我很乐意在大厅为你的顾客唱歌，作为交换来在这里住一晚。”
At this point, the guy politely told my friend to get the heck out of his hotel, and my friend politely got the heck out.
在这一点上，那个人礼貌地告诉我的朋友离开他的酒店，我的朋友礼貌地离开了。
Afterwards, when my friend told me this story, I thought it was a really interesting assignment. It was the first time I realized how much I live my life in fear of rejection. And it was also the first time I realized how harmless a lot of rejections really are, when you stop being afraid of them.
后来，当我的朋友告诉我这个故事时，我觉得这是一个非常有趣的任务。这是我第一次意识到我的生活是多么害怕被拒绝。这也是我第一次意识到很多拒绝其实是无害的，当你不再害怕它们的时候。
My friend’s professor based this assignment on the project “100 Days of Rejection” by an entrepreneur named Jia Jiang. After his startup got turned down by investors, Jiang realized that one of the main roadblocks in his path was his own fear of rejection. To desensitize himself, Jiang spent a hundred days asking for simple, relatively harmless things that he thought likely to be rejected. For example, he asked strangers to give him compliments. He asked to assemble his own sandwich at Subway. He asked to make an announcement over the intercom at Costco.
我朋友的教授根据一个名叫贾江的企业家的“100天的拒绝”项目布置了这个作业。在他的初创公司被投资者拒绝后，江意识到他前进道路上的一个主要障碍是他自己对被拒绝的恐惧。为了让自己变得不那么敏感，江花了100天的时间来要求一些简单、相对无害的东西，他认为这些东西可能会被拒绝。例如，他让陌生人称赞他。他要求在地铁里自己做三明治。他要求通过好市多的内部通讯系统宣布一件事。
Speaking as a relatively shy introvert, I know I’d feel starkly uncomfortable making any of those requests.
作为一个相对内向害羞的人，我知道如果我提出这些要求，我会感到非常不舒服。
But here’s the thing - every successful person I know has, at some point, faced the risk of worse rejections. And maybe they felt starkly uncomfortable asking for what they wanted, too. Still, when it really mattered, they pushed past their discomfort and asked anyway.
但事情是这样的——我认识的每一个成功人士，在某种程度上，都面临着被更糟的拒绝的风险。也许他们在问自己想要什么时也会感到非常不自在。尽管如此，当这真的很重要的时候，他们还是克服了自己的不适，提出了要求。
To me, that’s the single most underrated trait a person can have - the courage to ask for what you want, even when you’re afraid.
对我来说，这是一个人最容易被低估的品质——即使在你害怕的时候，也要有勇气去追求你想要的。
Ninety percent of the time, you might be told to get the heck out of the hotel. But in the long run, you’ll get a lot farther than if you’d been too scared to ask at all.
90%的情况下，你可能会被告知离开酒店。但从长远来看，你会比害怕不敢开口问的人走得更远。
小编zzz总结
因为害怕被拒绝，所以自己常常不太懂得怎么去拒绝别人。
Because of the fear of be rejected, they often do not know how to refuse others.
你是不是也一样？
Is it the same with you?
