chapter one: meeting rejection

Opus 1 - Victor Servranckx

二月份开始读 Rejection Proof 这本书，想简单了解下这本书的内容，推荐看下TED演讲《被拒一百天》（附在阅读原文），我去年看过觉得还可以，自己也有很多想法照着做，但基本都失败，甚至是连尝试的勇气都没有，至今还是会犹犹豫豫想来想去，错过一个又一个时机，但还是怕被拒。

刚才又看了一遍他的演讲，这次由于都熟悉故事情节，所以比较注重中英语言，分享几个语言点：

1)get roasted  尴尬至极，roast 是炙，烤的意思，还有个词public roast

2）dictate my life 支配我的生活，够胆可以对父母和朋友们说这句话：

    I do not want you to dictate my life!

3）desensitize yourself from the pain 对痛苦感到麻木，sensitive是敏感的，sensitize是动词形式，de-是反义前缀

4）film myself, 给自己录像，film做动词

5）invited me to explain 给我机会去解释

6）I feel myself life and death 我感觉自己紧张到死

7）fame and notoriety didn't do anything to me 名声对我毫无益处

8）sometimes you could be rejected by lighting

这类演讲可以被归为励志电影，因为你看完别人尝试了那么多，有成功有失败，自己也跃跃欲试。但是要么两三天之后自己就忘记了，要么去做时碰到其他困难就想放弃了。这是很正常的，毕竟看视频和读书不能代替亲身感受的经历。

没想到演讲者 Jia Jiang 还出了一本书，网站上介绍说：

网站：https://www.rejectiontherapy.com/

希望读完这本书，我能够做到 empower my courage，自己多去尝试明知很可能被拒的事情，但也要 maximize my chance to get yes.

1】提炼句型

1) In many ways, I was living the American dream. At just thirty years old, I had a secure six-figure job at a Fortune 500 company. Tracy and I owned a 3,700-square-foot house with a pond view. We even had a golden retriever named Jumbo—the quintessential suburban American dog—and now we were weeks away from the birth of our son. Best of all, my wife and I had an incredible relationship, and not a day went by that I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be loved by such an amazing woman. In other words, I should have been overjoyed with my circumstances. But the truth was, I was as depressed as I could be. My misery wasn’t personal, though—it was professional.

例句：

Not a day went by that I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be loved by such an amazing woman.

句型：

Not a day went by that I didn't realize how .........

模仿：

Not a day went by that I didn't realize how stupid and lazy I was to be embarrassed by such an occasion.

2) Throughout this shaky start, my dream of becoming an entrepreneur in America stayed as strong as ever. In fact, I didn’t believe there was any way that I could fail. Becoming an entrepreneur felt more like my fate or destiny than any sort of choice on my part. The goal was so deeply embedded in my heart that I don’t think I could have shaken it if I tried.

例句：

 Becoming an entrepreneur felt more like my fate or destiny than any sort of choice on my part. 

句型：

......felt more like my fate or destiny than ......

造句：

Becoming a poor white collar feels more like my fate or destiny than any sort of choice on my part or my effort.

句型模仿方法改造升级，源于老师点评剖析，详见：仿写的正确姿势

我摘抄的句型都是惊讶于它所表达的中文意思，和如果是我去翻译却易平淡的话，这样特别好的都是相当地道，值得背诵，随时准备脱口而出，写作才能顺手拈来。现在做的还不够，具体需要怎么做才比较好还在构思中。

2】导读问题

1） Why did the author sob for hours? 

Because the snowfield of his dream and ambition is gradually melting away in the sun of the relentless ticking life clock.

2） Did you have dreams in your childhood? 

Maybe, if what I said counts now when I was little and never figured what life means to me, to my family, instead of in the films.

3）   If you were Jia Jiang, what would you do after seeing the content in the email?

Totally upset, disheartened, discouraged, probably I just give up. In despair anyway.

3】记录想法

Actually, the first chapter described what Jia didn't deliver in his TED Talk,  as required in the short time. Nowaways, I always think, why so many people have chance to consider about their dreams. The first one comes into my mind is that they try many times and in each time they fuc* it very hard. Not to mention other factors, this one disqualifies many craving for what they want.

It is easy to read, watch and listen but so hard to do, even to have a try. Because in the process of doing anything, here I mean do it proactively not passively, such as write, run, ask, think and learn instead of look others do.

No matter how/what, it is easy to say, hard to do. Actions speak louder than words. So use your performances and achievement to prove, to try, not words.

4】短语词汇

1) I pestered my family into buying me a brand-new top-of the-line computer and started teaching myself how to write programming code.

• pester: to annoy someone——不断骚扰，用这词表示作者说的确实多了，喋喋不休

2) I learned that their older son had been convicted of murder a year prior to my arrival, and it was his bed that I slept in.

convict sb of sth

convict sth on sb

这里是被动用法，不要看成convict of

3) One day, as I was flipping through an old photo album, I saw a picture of myself roller skating as a kid

• flip through, 同flick through, search quickly——快速翻阅

4) Excelling at school was a surefire way to win the approval of my family, especially my uncle

• flsurefire——一定能成功的，非正式用法

5) I thought the accolades and approval I would receive from my prestigious degree and my new six-figure income would satisfy my inner entrepreneur

• accolade ——荣誉，和近义词approval搭配

6) Wouldn’t quitting my job drive him over the edge ?

• drive sb over the edge 把人推道刀刃上，非常形象

7) If by the end of that time I still had no traction and no investment, I would hop back on the corporate ladder

• hop——人单脚跳，也可以是一步跳过去，这里讲的是置之死地而后生了

8)  I had been mulling one over for a while, something I believed in and that was better —and more sophisticated—than wheels on shoes

• mull: think deeply and at length——反复思考，仔细考虑，比consider更深层

9) I was very proud of my team and honored that they believed in my vision and were willing to jump on board.

• jump on board——跳到甲板上，就是大家一条船上的人（一根绳上的蚂蚱）

10) As personnel and operation costs piled up, those funds started dwindling.

• costs piled up; funds started dwindling，也很押韵了，成本上升，资金短缺

11) Afterward, we high-fived each other in celebration. And then the
waiting began—the most agonizing wait I’d ever experienced.

• high-five: greet with such a gesture——举手击掌致意，非正式用语

12) Those were nerve-racking moments, with life-changing decisions hanging
in the balance

• nerve-racking, life-changing, banlance-hanging，这些都是名词+动名词构成形容词的形式，值得注意

13) My hand started to shake, and an ominous feeling engulfed me.

• engulf: powerly affet someone, overwhelm——击垮， 比be in despair简短有力

14) I held the phone for a long time without opening the e-mail, trying to channel all kinds
of positive mental energy into its content

• hchannel energy into...——把能量注入...非常

5】好词佳段

1)I rejected my own ideas before they could be rejected by the world. Giving up at the first sign of rejection felt much safer than putting my ideas out there to be further criticized. It was so much easier to do the rejecting all by myself.

2)A loud explosion went off in the sky, and the darkness was lit up with bright colors. Sitting there, contemplating my future, it was almost as if I could see in the sky an imaginary slide show of what the rest of my life would look like.

So many times in different scenes, I look up at the sky, wishing to see my future. But never, not once, I could guess what the next year goes.