瑞·达利欧 Ray Dalio：痛苦加反思，才是人生真正的进步（演讲稿）

人生最宝贵的，不是文凭，而是面对生活的态度

Pain + Reflection = Progress

Thank you, President Klein. Thank you, Dean Bates. Dean Pallaro. Congratulations to the class of 2026. Congratulations also to all the parents, the grandparents, the brothers, the sisters, and all of the family and friends who have been with the graduates through their journeys. There is nothing more valuable than meaningful relationships. Please give each other an enthusiastic round of applause.

谢谢，克莱因校长；谢谢，贝茨院长；帕拉罗院长。祝贺 2026 届的同学们，也祝贺所有父母、祖父母、兄弟姐妹，以及一路陪伴毕业生走过人生旅程的家人和朋友。没有什么比有意义的人际关系更宝贵。请为彼此献上热烈的掌声。

I’m thrilled to be your commencement speaker, because it’s an opportunity for me to tell you who I was fifty-five years ago, and what I’ve learned in the fifty-five years since I graduated from LIU that, hopefully, will be of some help to you.

我很激动能成为你们的毕业典礼演讲者，因为这是一个机会，让我告诉你们：五十五年前我是怎样的人，以及自我从 LIU 毕业后的这五十五年里，我学到了什么——希望这些能对你们有所帮助。

I remember being where you are. When I was twenty-one years old, graduating in 1971 from what was then called C.W. Post College, I don’t remember who the commencement speaker was or what he said, and I suspect that you won’t remember that later in your lives either. But all I remember was nursing a hangover from celebrating hard the night before, and being elated at graduating, and reflecting on how hugely LIU had had an impact on my life, in improving my life.

我还记得自己当年也和你们一样。1971 年、我 21 岁，从当时名为 CW Post 学院的学校毕业。我不记得那年的演讲者是谁，也不记得他讲了什么，我猜你们日后也不会记得。我只记得自己还在缓解前一晚狂欢的宿醉，为毕业而欣喜若狂，同时也在回想 LIU 对我的人生、对改善我的生活，产生了多么巨大的影响。

You see, I got into LIU on probation, because I was a lousy high school student with a rebellious nature. I remember hating high school, because it seemed to me that most of my education consisted of teachers forcing me to memorize what they wanted me to remember, which included a lot of useless stuff. And it didn’t help that I had a very bad rote memory.

要知道，我是以留校察看的身份进入 LIU 的，因为我是个糟糕的高中生，天性叛逆。我记得自己讨厌高中，因为在我看来，我受到的大部分教育，就是老师逼我死记硬背他们想让我记住的东西——其中有很多毫无用处。更糟的是，我的机械记忆能力很差。

At the same time, I loved playing the markets, which is where my attention went. I got hooked on playing the markets when I was twelve, while working as a caddy at the Links Golf Club, which was not far from here. The stock market was hot, and the people I carried for would walk around with me and we would talk about stocks. So I took the money that I earned and I put it in the stock market.

与此同时，我热爱投资，我的注意力全在那上面。我十二岁那年迷上了投资，当时我在离这里不远的林克斯高尔夫俱乐部当球童。那时股市很火，我服务的客人会带着我边走边聊，我们会谈论股票。于是我把赚来的钱投进了股市。

The first stock I bought was the only stock I’d heard of that was selling for less than five dollars a share. I thought I could buy more shares, so that if they went up, I’d make more money — which was a dumb strategy. The company I bought was about to go bankrupt, but I got lucky: another company acquired it and it tripled in value. I thought, this game is easy. And I became hooked on playing this investment game at twelve.

我买的第一只股票，是我唯一听说过、股价低于每股五美元的股票。我以为这样能多买些股，一旦上涨就能赚更多钱——这其实是个愚蠢的策略。我买的那家公司当时快要破产了，但我运气好：另一家公司把它收购了，股价涨了三倍。我心想，这游戏太简单了。就这样，我从十二岁起便迷上了这个投资游戏。

So at the time when I came here, I hated school and I loved playing the markets — until I got into Post. I loved being here, because I could take classes that interested me and engaged me in quality thinking. And I did well, and so I went on to Harvard Business School, which was another eye-opening learning experience.

所以当我来到这里时，我讨厌上学，却热爱投资——直到我进入 Post 学院。我爱这里，因为我可以选修那些让我感兴趣、能激发我高质量思考的课程。我学得不错，于是又去了哈佛商学院，那又是一次大开眼界的学习经历。

· · ·

When I was nineteen and a sophomore here, I learned something that I found even more powerful than my formal education. The Beatles went to India to learn to meditate, and they raved about it, so I learned to meditate — which has been invaluable to me. Meditation gives you an equanimity; it aligns your subconscious with your conscious mind; and it is also restful and healthy. It also gives you a sense of spirituality. What I mean by a sense of spirituality is a connection to the whole — you have a sense of where you are within the context of the whole.

我十九岁、在这里读大二时，学到了一样我认为比正规教育更有力量的东西。披头士乐队去印度学习冥想，还对它赞不绝口，于是我也学会了冥想——这对我而言无比宝贵。冥想让你内心平和，让潜意识与显意识对齐，同时也令人放松、有益健康。它还会给你一种“灵性”。我所说的灵性，是指与整体的连接——你会感受到自己在整体中所处的位置。

So as a graduation gift to those of you who want it, I’m going to give you lessons in transcendental meditation. It is the most valuable gift that I can give anyone.

所以，作为送给那些愿意接受的同学的毕业礼物，我要送你们超觉冥想的课程。这是我能送给任何人的、最宝贵的礼物。

Over my fifty-five years since graduating, I’ve learned a lot about how life works, and how to deal with it in order to be successful — including what being successful really is. I learned that life is a journey of discovery, in which the goal is to understand your own nature and find the right path to suit you. There is nothing more important than having good principles to guide you. By principles, I mean ways of handling certain situations. Over my lifetime I’ve accumulated hundreds of principles, which is far too many to cover in the fifteen minutes that I have with you. So I’m also giving you my book, Principles: Life and Work, which I hope will help you find the right principles for you and get what you want out of life. You can find it below your seat, along with the card to sign up for the meditation.

从我毕业至今的五十五年里，我学到了很多关于生活如何运作、以及如何应对它才能成功的道理——包括“成功”究竟是什么。我明白了：人生是一场发现之旅，其目标是理解你自己的天性，找到适合你的正确道路。没有什么比拥有好的原则来指引你更重要。我所说的原则，是指处理特定情境的方法。这一生我积累了数百条原则，实在太多，没法在这十五分钟里讲完。所以我还要送你们我的书《原则：生活与工作》，希望它能帮助你们找到适合自己的正确原则，并从人生中得到你们想要的。你们可以在座位下面找到它，还有报名冥想的卡片。

· · ·

So it seems to me that you are about to travel along a similar life path — a similar arc in life — to the one I’ve traveled on, and that most people travel on, experiencing the same phases and having many of the same encounters I had. So I want to tell you what to expect, and give you some tips.

在我看来，你们即将踏上一条与我走过的相似的人生道路——一段相似的人生轨迹，也是大多数人走过的：经历相同的阶段，遇见许多和我相同的际遇。所以我想告诉你们，将会发生什么，并给你们一些建议。

Looking back on my life and others’ lives, I came to see that life unfolds in three big phases that are very different from each other. In the first phase, you are learning and you’re dependent on others. In the second phase, you are working and others are dependent on you. And in the third phase — which is the phase where I am — you are free from obligations and able to pass along what you’ve learned.

回顾我和其他人的一生，我逐渐看到：人生会展开为三大阶段，彼此非常不同。第一阶段，你在学习，依赖他人；第二阶段，你在工作，他人依赖你；而第三阶段——也就是我现在所处的阶段——你摆脱了义务的束缚，能够把学到的东西传递下去。

The second phase, which you are about to enter, is more opposite than similar to the first. Rather than being in an education program and having instructors, you will guide yourself to achieve your goals. And you will encounter thrilling opportunities and painful setbacks which, if you reflect on them well, will teach you what you want, what you like, and how to be successful. You will learn that thinking for yourself, making painful mistakes and learning from them, and knowing how to deal with what you don’t know, is what is most valuable.

你们即将进入的第二阶段，与第一阶段更多是相反，而非相似。不再像在学校那样有老师教导，你要自己引导自己去实现目标。你会遇到激动人心的机遇，也会遇到痛苦的挫折——如果你好好反思，它们会教会你：你想要什么、你喜欢什么，以及如何成功。你会明白：独立思考、犯下痛苦的错误并从中学习、懂得如何应对你所不知道的事——这些才是最宝贵的。

In the early part of this second phase — which will be about your next ten years — the most important thing for you is to experiment and reflect well, so that you discover your nature and what path is best for you. When entering this phase two, you are almost certainly making the mistake of thinking you know more than you actually know, especially if you got good grades in school. You don’t yet have a clue about what life is really like, and you don’t yet know what being successful really means for you, let alone what to go after and how to get it. You couldn’t possibly know these things, because you haven’t yet experienced or thought about what you will encounter.

在第二阶段的早期——也就是你们接下来的十年——对你们最重要的事，是去尝试、并好好反思，这样你才能发现自己的天性，以及什么才是最适合你的道路。刚进入第二阶段时，你几乎一定会犯这样的错误：以为自己懂的比实际懂的更多，尤其如果你在学校成绩很好。你对生活究竟是什么还毫无概念，也还不知道成功对你究竟意味着什么，更别提该追求什么、如何得到它。你不可能知道这些，因为你还没有经历、也没有思考过你将会遇到的一切。

In the first phase, your teachers and parents typically led you to believe that success is a matter of learning what you are taught and not making mistakes, and you were taught to take pride in what you know. That probably made you a bit arrogant — like I was a bit arrogant when I graduated from here. But it is living life and encountering your realities that will teach you. The question is: will you learn well?

在第一阶段，你的老师和父母通常会让你相信：成功就是学会别人教你的东西、并且不犯错误；你也被教导要为自己所知的东西感到自豪。这大概会让你有点傲慢——就像我当年从这里毕业时也有点傲慢。但真正教会你的，是去过好生活、去直面你的现实。问题是：你能不能学好？

· · ·

My nature and my encounters with realities led me to become a professional investor, which led me to start an investment firm out of my two-bedroom apartment. I ran it for fifty years, built it into the largest hedge fund in the world, and then passed it along to the next generation — which many people consider a great success story. But I know that it was learning from my painful mistakes that made me successful.

我的天性，以及我与现实的碰撞，让我成为一名职业投资人，也让我在自己的两居室公寓里创办了一家投资公司。我经营了它五十年，把它打造成世界上最大的对冲基金，然后把它传给了下一代——这被许多人视为一个伟大的成功故事。但我心里清楚：正是从痛苦的错误中学习，才让我成功。

For example, when I was thirty-four years old and had run Bridgewater for eight years, I calculated that American banks had lent much more money to emerging countries than those countries were going to be able to pay back, and that that would lead to a great debt crisis — almost the largest since the Great Depression. It was a very controversial view. But in August 1982, Mexico defaulted on its debt, and a number of other countries followed, and we did have the greatest debt crisis since the Great Depression.

举个例子。我 34 岁那年，已经经营桥水公司八年了，我计算出：美国的银行借给新兴国家的钱，远远超过这些国家能够偿还的数额，那些国家将无力偿还——而这会引发一场巨大的债务危机，几乎是自大萧条以来最严重的一次。这是一个非常有争议的观点。但在 1982 年 8 月，墨西哥债务违约，随后许多国家也相继违约，我们确实遭遇了自大萧条以来最严重的债务危机。

Because I had anticipated it, I was asked to testify to Congress and to appear on Wall Street Week, which was the show at the time. I thought the stock market would fall a lot. But I couldn’t have been more wrong: the stock market and the economy went up rather than down. And I lost so much money, for myself and my clients, that I had to let almost everybody go. I was so broke that I had to borrow four thousand dollars from my dad to help with my family bills.

因为我预料到了这一切，我被邀请到国会作证，还登上了当时的热门节目《华尔街一周》。我以为股市会大幅下跌，可我大错特错：股市和经济不跌反涨。我为自己和客户损失了太多钱，以至于不得不几乎遣散所有员工。我穷困潦倒，甚至不得不向父亲借了四千美元，来支付家里的账单。

It was one of the most painful experiences of my life. But it turned out to be one of the most valuable experiences of my life, because it gave me the humility I needed to balance with my audacity. Rather than thinking I’m right, I thought about how do I know I’m right, and how do I find that out. That led me to find the smartest people who would disagree with me, to understand their perspectives and have my own perspective stress-tested. It also led me to understand diversification — how I could reduce my risk without reducing my returns. From that point on, my company Bridgewater did very well, because what I learned, I never would have learned without that painful mistake.

那是我人生中最痛苦的经历之一。但它最终成为我人生中最宝贵的经历之一，因为它给了我所需的谦逊，去平衡我的大胆。我不再一味认为“我是对的”，而是去想：我怎么知道自己是对的？我该如何弄清楚？这促使我去寻找那些最聪明、又会反对我的人，去理解他们的观点，让我自己的观点接受压力测试。它也让我理解了“多元化”——如何在不降低回报的前提下降低风险。从那以后，我的公司桥水做得非常好，因为我所学到的一切，若没有那次痛苦的错误，我永远学不到。

· · ·

My life journey also led me to meet and marry a wonderful woman, whom I’ve been married to for forty-eight years. It led me to have four children, which led me to have eight grandchildren, who are the joys of my life. Such is life. I believe that the most important decision in your life will be who you choose as your life partner. So that may be ahead, and that’s an important decision — for me, for everyone, and it will be true for you.

我的人生旅程还让我遇见并娶了一位了不起的女性，我和她结婚已经四十八年了。它让我有了四个孩子，又有了八个孙辈，他们是我生命中的欢乐。人生就是如此。我相信，你们一生中最重要的决定，将是选择谁作为你的人生伴侣。这也许还在前方，而这是一个重要的决定——对我、对每个人都是，对你们也一样。

There are lots of ups and downs along the way — some unimaginably great, and some unimaginably terrible. For example, I lost my son, which was worse than losing everything, including my life. What helped me through these challenges were two things: my meditation, and my calmly reflecting on how reality works, to arrive at and write down the best principles for dealing with my realities. This habit changed my whole perspective on life. I began to see almost everything as just another one of those things that had happened to many people before, in their own ways, and to know that there’s a better way to deal with each one of those.

一路上会有很多起起落落——有些好得难以想象，有些糟得难以想象。比如，我失去了儿子，那比失去包括生命在内的一切都更痛。帮我度过这些挑战的，有两样东西：我的冥想，以及我平静地反思现实如何运作，从而得出并写下应对我的现实的最佳原则。这个习惯改变了我对人生的整个看法。我开始把几乎所有事情，都看作“又一次那样的事”——许多人都曾以各自的方式经历过；并且明白，每一种情况都有更好的应对之道。

One of my favorite principles that I learned through these sorts of experiences is: pain plus reflection equals progress. I got in the habit of viewing pain as a signal that I have a problem, which I view as a puzzle to solve that will give me a gem in the form of a great principle. I learned to value my painful experiences, because they became my best learning experiences and led me to make my best advances. I found this approach — learning from encounters with reality — to be a much better way of succeeding in life than remembering what others were trying to teach me. Those experiences, and making the most of them, especially the painful ones, are your opportunities.

在这类经历中，我学到的最喜欢的原则之一是：痛苦 + 反思 = 进步。我养成了一个习惯：把痛苦看作一个信号，说明我遇到了问题；而我把问题看作一道待解的谜题——解开它，就会得到一颗“宝石”，也就是一条伟大的原则。我学会了珍视痛苦的经历，因为它们成了我最好的学习经历，也让我取得了最大的进步。我发现，这种“从与现实的碰撞中学习”的方法，远胜于记住别人试图教我的东西。那些经历，以及充分利用它们——尤其是痛苦的经历——就是你们的机会。

· · ·

Remember that you were born with a certain nature, and you are on your journey to understand it and find what suits you. Knowing your nature is always critically important to helping you understand what success is for you. People have different goals in life, so I can’t literally tell you what is best for you. But I can tell you that success is not having a lot more money or status than you need — though most people think that’s what it is, and in fact it can become an unhealthy obsession for a lot of people. So avoid that. Logically, having a lot more money than you need couldn’t possibly be a source of great happiness compared with the alternatives. For example, it isn’t more important than having the time and freedom to do what you most want to do.

记住，你生来就带着某种天性，而你正走在理解它、并找到适合自己的东西的旅程上。了解自己的天性，始终至关重要，它能帮你理解“成功”对你意味着什么。人们的人生目标各不相同，所以我没法确切地告诉你什么最适合你。但我可以告诉你：成功，并不是拥有远超你所需的金钱或地位——尽管大多数人以为那就是成功，而事实上，对很多人来说，它会变成一种不健康的执念。所以，请避开它。理性地看，拥有远超所需的金钱，与其他选择相比，根本不可能成为巨大幸福的来源。比如，它并不比“拥有时间与自由去做你最想做的事”更重要。

So what do I believe success is for most people? I believe that it is a matter of having meaningful work and meaningful relationships. I’ll say that again: meaningful work and meaningful relationships. In other words, work and relationships that you are thrilled by. If you can make your work and your passion one and the same, and you can do it with people who you care about and who care about you, you will have a happy, successful life.

那么，我认为对大多数人而言，成功是什么？我相信，它在于拥有有意义的工作，和有意义的人际关系。我再说一遍：有意义的工作，和有意义的人际关系。换句话说，就是让你为之兴奋的工作和关系。如果你能让你的工作和你的热爱合而为一，并且能和那些你在乎、也在乎你的人一起去做，你就会拥有幸福而成功的人生。

As you travel along on life’s journey, you have a choice of your approach to life. When life doesn’t give you what you want, you can be angry or sad for yourself — or you can learn about how reality works and develop principles that will work well to get you what you want. I urge you to own your life and take responsibility to make it great. Think about how reality works; be radically open-minded to hear how you can be better; and plan the moves to make in order to improve your life. And if you want to be really successful, recognize that you have to work damned hard at doing these things well. Excellence is worth it. That’s just how life works.

在人生旅途中，你对人生的态度是可以选择的。当生活没有给你想要的东西时，你可以为自己生气或难过——也可以去了解现实如何运作，并制定出能切实帮你得到所想的原则。我恳请你们掌控自己的人生，并负起责任，让它变得精彩。去思考现实如何运作；以极度开放的心态，去听取自己如何能变得更好；并规划出为改善人生该采取的行动。而如果你想真正成功，就要认识到：你必须极其努力，把这些事做好。卓越，值得你付出。生活本就是这样运作的。

So the message that I want to leave you with today is that the most valuable thing you can have in the next phase of your life is not your diploma, or even what you’ve learned thus far. It is your approach to life. If you take advantage of your experiences — good or painful — as opportunities to learn, you will find great principles that will help you deal with your reality well. In the process, you will discover your nature, and find excellent work and excellent relationships that will suit you, which will give you the best possible life. So, class of 2026, congratulations.

所以，今天我想留给你们的讯息是：在人生的下一个阶段，你能拥有的最宝贵的东西，不是你的文凭，甚至也不是你迄今学到的东西——而是你面对生活的态度。如果你把自己的经历——无论好的还是痛苦的——都当作学习的机会，你就会找到伟大的原则，帮你妥善应对你的现实。在这个过程中，你会发现自己的天性，找到出色的工作和适合你的出色的人际关系，而这会给你尽可能好的人生。所以，2026 届的同学们，恭喜你们。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9OMgqxweq5FFKWJ9KAareQ