Name: 別再爬公司階梯了 — 贏家敢冒險！| Molly Graham | TED (Forget the Corporate Ladder — Winners Take Risks | Molly Graham | TED)
Uploaded: 2026-02-27T08:14:59.000Z
Duration: 9 min 32 s

to 不定詞

There's a lot of pressure around what it takes to build a great career.

關於如何建立成功的 career，大家壓力都很大。

And it all comes back to this idea that you're supposed to know what you want to do.

這一切都回到一個想法，就是你應該知道自己想做什麼。

It's an idea that I like to call the stairs.

這個想法我稱之為「爬樓梯」。

You show up in college and you're supposed to know what you want to major in.

你上大學，就應該知道自己想念什麼 major。

That major is supposed to lead you to your first job.

這個 major 應該會帶你找到第一份工作。

And then you get another job and you get promoted and promoted and promoted forever.

然後你換了另一份工作，接著就被 promoted、promoted、promoted 一直下去。

The best part about the stairs is safety and security.

爬樓梯最棒的地方就是 safety and security。

It feels like you know what you need to do to get ahead.

感覺好像你知道該怎麼做才能更上一層樓。

The worst part of the stairs is that it's like a weird video game that you can get stuck inside of for years.

爬樓梯最糟的地方，就像一個奇怪的電玩遊戲，你可能會卡在裡面好幾年。

The stairs will make you feel like your self worth is tied to your title or your last performance rating or your next promotion.

樓梯會讓你覺得你的 self worth 跟你的 title、上次的 performance rating 或下次的 promotion 綁在一起。

But the truth is that the stairs are an illusion these days.

但事實是，現在的樓梯其實是個 illusion。

Excellent careers are not built by excellent stair climbers.

很棒的 career 並不是靠很會爬樓梯的人建立的。

Said differently, one of the most important things you can get good at in your career is taking risks.

換句話說，在你的 career 中，你最需要學會的一件事就是 taking risks。

Or as I like to call it, jumping off cliffs.

或者我喜歡稱之為 jumping off cliffs。

讓我用一個故事來解釋我的意思。

When I was 25, I got offered a crazy job.

我 25 歲的時候，有個 crazy job 找上我。

I had spent a couple of years climbing the stairs in human resources at Facebook when the leader of another department came to me and asked me to help him start a new project doing something that I knew nothing about.

我在 Facebook 的 human resources 待了幾年 climbing the stairs，這時候一個 department 的 leader 來找我，請我幫他開始一個我完全不懂的新 project。

It was a long term project, it was risky, and

這是一個 long term project，而且有風險，

a lot of people told me it would probably fail.

So I talked to a bunch of different people and I have to admit, a lot of them told me not to take it.

所以我問了很多不同的人，我得承認，很多人都叫我不要接受。

But there was this little voice inside me that just kept saying, I wonder, I wonder if I can be capable if in this completely new environment.

但我心裡有個小小的聲音一直說，我很好奇，在這個全新的環境裡，我能不能做得來。

所以我冒險做了這個決定，接下了這份工作。

Now, I'd like to say that what happened next was that it was obviously a great decision and I was immediately successful.

現在，我會說接下來發生的事，很明顯是個很棒的決定，而且我立刻就成功了。

But actually, the first nine months on this project felt a lot more like falling off of a very steep cliff.

但事實上，這個 project 的前九個月，感覺比較像是在從一個很陡的懸崖上掉下去。

I had gone from feeling competent to and capable in HR to feeling like an absolute idiot.

我從一個在 HR 覺得自己很有能力、很勝任，變成一個感覺自己像個笨蛋。

All the time I was sitting in rooms with brilliant people asking very dumb questions.

我整個人都在跟聰明人開會，問著很蠢的問題。

Six months into this job, I got the lowest performance rating of my entire life.

工作六個月後，我拿到了我人生中最差的 performance rating。

I had so many moments when all I wanted to do was run back to the safety and security of the stairs.

有好多時刻，我只想趕快跑回 climbing the stairs 那個 safety and security 的地方。

But about nine months in, something interesting happened.

但事實上，九個月後，發生了一件有趣的事。

It sounds simple, but it was a big meeting.

聽起來很簡單，但那是一個很重要的會議。

It was a complicated debate about a nuanced part of this project.

那是一個關於這個 project 中一個細微部分的複雜辯論。

I was successful, and I so vividly remember walking out of that meeting feeling like myself again.

我成功了，我非常清楚地記得走出會議室時，感覺又找回了自己。

I had gone from feeling like a beginner in this new environment to feeling confident and capable.

我從在這個新環境裡感到像個新手，轉變成感到自信且有能力。

I spent another three years on this project learning and growing, and

我在這個 project 上又待了三年，學習和成長，

on the other side of it, I was a completely different person.

在那之後，我變成了一個完全不同的人。

I was offered jobs that no one would have offered me if I had stayed in hr.

我獲得了許多工作機會，如果我留在 HR，這些機會是不可能有的。

That's the thing about jumping off cliffs.

這就是 jumping off cliffs 的地方。

It doesn't just take you a couple flights up on the stairs.

這不只是讓你爬幾層樓梯而已。

It's like a weird elevator that takes you to a whole new place.

感覺就像搭乘一臺奇特的電梯，把你帶到一個全新的境界。

Cliff jumps teach you who you are and what you are capable of in ways that the stairs can never.

跳懸崖會讓你認識自己是誰，以及你的能耐，這是爬樓梯永遠無法帶來的。

To get good at jumping off cliffs, you have to get good at three things.

要擅長 jumping off cliffs，你得先學會三件事。

The first is actually jumping off the cliff.

After many years of coaching people through career decisions, I know that sometimes it is just not the right time to take a risk.

在多年指導人們做 career decisions 後，我知道有時候真的不是 taking risks 的好時機。

But I can also tell you that most people do not stay stuck on the stairs out of necessity.

但我也可以告訴你，大多數人並不是因為必要而停留在 climbing the stairs。

The trick is to learn to tell the difference between the kind of fear that says I'm scared I might run out of money, which you should actually listen to, and

訣竅在於學會分辨哪種恐懼是「我擔心會沒錢」，這種你真的該聽進去，

the kind of fear that says I'm scared I might fail, which you should take as a giant green flashing light to jump.

哪種恐懼是「我擔心我可能會失敗」，這種你應該把它當成一個巨大的綠燈閃爍，告訴你該跳了。

Cliff jumps teach you what you are capable of in spite of fear.

跳崖能讓你明白，即使害怕，你還是有辦法的。

The second thing you have to get good at in order to get good at jumping off cliffs is surviving the fall.

為了學會跳崖，你第二件要學會的，是承受墜落。

Jumping off a cliff is taking a giant step backwards into the land of being a beginner again.

跳崖就像是向後邁出一大步，回到當個初學者的狀態。

That means it's a very big learning process.

這意味著這是一個非常大的學習過程。

And with that comes a huge emotional rollercoaster.

隨之而來的是一場巨大的情緒過山車。

每天、每週，有時候甚至每小時。

All of my jumps have involved vacillating wildly between feeling like, oh, maybe I'm going to be good at this, and

我所有的跳崖經驗，都曾在「喔，也許我會擅長這個」和

then immediately feeling like, who the hell even gave me this job in the first place?

「天啊，當初是誰給我這份crazy job的？」之間劇烈擺盪。

All of that is normal and it doesn't actually mean that anything is wrong.

這些都是正常的，並不代表有什麼不對。

You have to learn to expect the roller coaster and ignore it at the same time.

你必須學會預期過山車的起伏，同時又忽略它。

The most valuable mantra for me in this phase has been give it two weeks.

對我來說，這個階段最有價值的咒語就是「給它兩週」。

A lot of people will tell you to sleep on it.

很多人會跟你說「再想想看」。

I can tell you most of these emotions don't go away overnight.

我可以告訴你，這些情緒大多不會一夜之間消失。

Two weeks is a great barometer for things that you should actually pay attention to.

兩週是個很棒的指標，可以判斷哪些事你真的該注意。

The third thing you have to get good at in order to get good at jumping off cliffs is becoming a professional idiot.

為了擅長跳崖，你必須學會的第三件事就是成為一個專業的傻瓜。

I can tell you that this is one of my greatest strengths.

我可以告訴你，這是我最大的優勢之一。

I am great at sitting in rooms with brilliant people asking very dumb questions.

我很擅長坐在聰明人中間，問一些非常愚蠢的問題。

But what that actually means is that I have become an extraordinary learner.

但這其實意味著我已經成為一個非凡的學習者。

My favorite phrase is, sorry if this is a stupid question, but

我最喜歡的說法是，「抱歉，這問題可能有點笨，但是」

when you ask it that way, everybody wants to make you feel better.

當你這樣問的時候，大家都會想讓你感覺好一點。

They're like, no, no, that's not a dumb question.

他們會說，不，不，這不是個笨問題。

And then they would love to teach you what they know.

然後他們會很樂意教你他們知道的東西。

The other thing you discover is that most stupid questions aren't actually stupid.

另一件事你會發現，大多數所謂的笨問題其實一點也不笨。

So many people are afraid of sounding dumb that the world is littered with important questions that never got asked.

太多人害怕聽起來很笨，結果世界上充斥著許多重要的問題，卻從來沒有被問出口。

Questions like, can you define that word for me?

像是「可以請你解釋一下這個詞的意思嗎？」

Embracing being a professional idiot often actually makes you the most valuable person in the room.

擁抱當個專業的傻瓜，其實往往讓你成為在場最有價值的人。

There's a last thing, part of the illusion of the stairs that becomes really obvious the more cliffs that you jump off of.

還有最後一點，樓梯的幻覺，當你跳下越多懸崖，它就越明顯。

And that is the idea that there is one set of stairs, one definition of success.

那就是認為只有一套樓梯，一種成功的定義。

I have a lot of friends that have climbed up the stairs to some version of the top, a fancy title, a lot of money, fame, and

我有很多朋友爬上了某種頂峰，有了響亮的 title，賺了很多錢、名聲，

then they've realized that they're miserable.

然後他們才發現自己過得很 miserable。

One friend described becoming CEO of her company and immediately thinking, is this all there is?

有一位朋友說，她當上公司 CEO 後，立刻想到，這就是全部了嗎？

She went from being the CEO of a marketing agency to helping people who were dying.

她從一家行銷公司的 CEO，轉而幫助那些臨終的人。

Hospice success is not the same for everyone.

臨終關懷的成功對每個人來說都不一樣。

I know that what I'm talking about isn't easy.

It takes bravery to trade the known for the unknown.

需要勇氣才能捨棄已知，擁抱未知。

It takes courage to do something that might seem like a step sideways or backwards to someone else, but

需要勇氣去做別人看來是原地踏步，甚至是往後退一步的事情，但是

you will never really know who you are or what you are capable of until you learn how to try.

你永遠不會真正知道自己是誰，或是你有多大的潛力，除非你學會去嘗試。

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別再爬公司階梯了 — 贏家敢冒險！| Molly Graham | TED (Forget the Corporate Ladder — Winners Take Risks | Molly Graham | TED)

weird

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illusion

debate