The air we breathe is so freely available that we take it for granted. Yet without it we could not survive more than a few minutes.

我们呼吸的空气如此易得，以至于我们视它为理所当然，但没了空气我们却 坚持不了几分钟。

For the most part, the same air is available to everyone, and everyone needs it.

从很大程度上来说，每个人呼吸到的空气都是一样的，并且每个人都离不开空气。

Some people use the air to sustain them while they sit around and feel sorry for themselves. Others breathe in the air and use the energy to make a magnificent life for themselves.

有些人靠空气来维持生命，但他们只会坐在那里自怨自艾。另外一些人吸进空气，利用空气提供的能量为自己开创壮丽的人生。

Opportunity is the same way. It is everywhere. Opportunity is so freely available that we take it for granted.

机遇也是如此。它无处不在。机遇如此易得，以至于我们视它为理所应当。

Yet opportunity alone is not enough to create success. Opportunity must be seized and acted upon in order to have value.

然而仅凭机遇却不足以创造成功，必须抓住机遇并采取行动才能实现其价值。

So many people are so anxious to "get in on the ground floor" of opportunity, as if the opportunity will do all the work. That’s impossible.

有许多人一得到机会，就急着要成功，好象有了机遇就万事大吉。这是不可能的。

Just as you need air to breathe, you need opportunity to succeed. It takes more than just breathing in the fresh air of opportunity, however. You must make use of that opportunity.

正如你需要空气来呼吸，你也需要机遇来获得成功。但是只机遇的新鲜空气 远远不够。你必须好好利用机遇。

That’s not up to the opportunity. That’s up to you. It doesn’t matter what "floor" the opportunity is on. What matters is what you do with it.

这并不取决于机遇本身，而是由你自己决定。 你在什么时候得到机遇并不重要。重要的是你怎样把握机遇。

There lies in the heart of every man and woman a quiet hunger：a longing for an earthshaking significance.

在我们每个人心中都深藏着一份无声而真实的渴望：一种创造辉煌人生的渴望。

It can be heard in the quiet, most unedited times like when our head hits the pillow at night.

这种渴望有时会在不经意的安静时刻，比如当我们在夜晚将头靠落有枕头上时听到。

As the pressures of the day fade away the voice catches our attention: “I was meant for more than this, there has got to be something more.”

当一天的压力逐渐退去，有种声音会震撼我们的灵魂：“生活不仅仅是这样，我的人生可以更灿烂。”

Many people have learned to accept a life of quiet resignation, committed to maintain the status-quo. But still, in the times we least expect it, we hear that distant call again: a call for meaning, purpose, passion, significance.

很多人已经接受了一种放弃追求梦想的生活，只安于现状。但是有时候就在我们最不经意的一霎那，我们会再次听到那遥远的呼唤：呼唤着一种充实，有内涵，富有激情和意义的生活。

It continues to haunt us, to stalk us, and as we try to silence it with reason and maturity we find that indeed, it is a fire within our bones and it will not yield.

这种呼唤会一直回荡在我们耳边，缠绕着我们，即使我们试图用理智和成熟去沉默它，我们却发现实事上它是我们内心骨子里的一团火焰，永远不会熄灭。

Our suspicions are correct. There is a larger story and we have a role to play in it. It has been said that what a man does during his life shall echo throughout eternity.

我们的直觉是正确的。有一个绚烂的人生故事，而我们就是这个故事的主角。有这样一句话：一个人的一生应荡气回肠，永不朽。