Source text in English | Translation by James_xia (#10555) — Winner |
I remember reading once that some fellows use language to conceal thought, but it's been my experience that a good many more use it instead of thought. A businessman's conversation should be regulated by fewer and simpler rules than any other function of the human animal. They are: Have something to say. Say it. Stop talking. Beginning before you know what you want to say and keeping on after you have said it lands a merchant in a lawsuit or the poorhouse, and the first is a short cut to the second. I maintain a legal department here, and it costs a lot of money, but it's to keep me from going to law. It's all right when you are calling on a girl or talking with friends after dinner to run a conversation like a Sunday-school excursion, with stops to pick flowers; but in the office your sentences should be the shortest distance possible between periods. Cut out the introduction and the peroration, and stop before you get to secondly. You've got to preach short sermons to catch sinners; and deacons won't believe they need long ones themselves. Give fools the first and women the last word. The meat's always in the middle of the sandwich. Of course, a light butter on either side of it doesn't do any harm if it's intended for a man who likes butter. Remember, too, that it's easier to look wise than to talk wisdom. Say less than the other fellow and listen more than you talk; for when a man's listening he isn't telling on himself and he's flattering the fellow who is. Give most men a good listener and most women enough note-paper and they'll tell all they know. Money talks -- but not unless its owner has a loose tongue, and then its remarks are always offensive. Poverty talks, too, but nobody wants to hear what it has to say. | 《戒子書》 —— 喬治•H•洛裏默(George Horace Lorimer) 曾憶書中有雲:人或以語言掩飾其思想。然,據吾之經驗,以語言取而代之者為數尤眾。 大凡經商之士,談話應以簡要規矩範之,此或更勝於人類之其他動物本能。亦即: 言之有物; 言之; 言畢。 若非有備而論,人之恣言妄行均難逃牢獄之苦,亦或有傾家之虞,且前者距後者僅一步之遙。吾備有一法律部屬,其耗資不菲,然可解司法之憂。 約訪異性談話,或餐後朋友閒聊,一如週末校外出遊,於路邊擷花,皆人之常情。然處公事之際,所言宜簡明意賅。免套語,忌拖遝。稍事停頓,而後續談。循循勸導以代問責之詞,雖的近(Deacons)律政之輩,亦厭長篇噫語。談話宜先易後難,如三明治之中夾肉,勞費心思者置於其間。誠然,順其所好,略表溢美之詞亦無傷大雅。 裝腔作勢易,言之有物難。與人交談,少言已事,多聞他人心聲。蓋人於傾聽之時,未嘗自言他顧,以顯對話者應有之尊重。若同為男士商談,宜多傾聽;遇女士論事,則需備足筆墨。唯此,話者當知無不言,言無不盡。恰逢權貴之人,若非委實健談者,所作之任何評論均有失偏頗。適遇貧寒之士亦如此,惟無人在乎所言之實質。囑此勿忘。 |