you'll excel

You spent a lot of years in school. You learned a lot.
你读书多年，满腹学识。

Some of what you learned you need to un-learn as soon as possible. Here are five key attitudes you should adopt instead:
可有些你学到的东西却应该尽快抛弃，转而养成以下5个态度：

1. If you only do what you're told, you'll excel.
1. 如果还是循规蹈矩，那你就出局了。

I know. School was hard.
的确，读书不容易。

But not that hard.
但也还不算难于上青天吧。

If you did what you were told--go to class, do the reading, turn in assignments on time, etc.--you could get As. Initiative was not required and, in fact, was often frowned on.
在学校，如果规规矩矩上课看书或按时提交作业，你会得到全优成绩。读书不要求你有什么创举，要是你搞什么新奇玩意儿，或许还会被责罚。

Now--whether you work for someone else or run your own business--doing what you're told makes you average. Not superior, not excellent... just average.
现在，不论是替别人打工还是自主创业，如果还是别人交待一件，你就只做一件的话，你永远只能平庸无为——不拔尖、不出色，就这样碌碌无为下去。

To be above average, or to achieve better than average results, you must do two things:
若想摆脱平庸，取得更高成就，你必须做到以下两点：

Do what others are willing to do, and do it better, and Do what others aren't willing to do
别人乐意做的事情，你要做得更好；别人不愿意做的事情，你更要亲力亲为。

Otherwise, you're just average.
否则，你只能沦为芸芸众生。

micro-managed

2. Being micro-managed is to be expected.
2. 意识到自己会处在“微观管理”的环境下

Sure, you felt overly-controlled in school: Dates, timelines, rules... not to mention the seemingly arbitrary policies and nonsensical assignments. You saw graduation as the day you would finally have more freedom.
毋庸置疑，学校管理都很严格：时间、期限、校规……当然还有一堆“独裁”政策和让人无语的安排。你以为等到毕了业就自由了。

Nope.
做梦！

In school you paid people to criticize, direct, and at times micro-manage you. Now you're the one getting paid... yet you somehow don't feel it's fair that investors, partners, or customers can dictate what you do, sometimes down to the smallest detail?
上学是你花钱请人批评、引导并时常约束你，现在只是换成你拿薪水罢了。就算这样，你还是觉得不公平：那些投资商、合作商或客户凭什么对你指手画脚，有时甚至连芝麻大的细节都不放过？

Don't expect someone to trust you to perform a task or service–and give you money to perform that service–until you've proven you can be trusted to perform that service.
除非你证明自己有能力完成任务或提供服务，否则别期望别人会凭空信任你，付你报酬去进行任务或服务。

Then, once you've proven your skills, if you still feel micro-managed it's your responsibility to change the situation. Communicate before you are communicated to. Answer questions before questions are asked. Demonstrate your value before you are asked to prove your value.
接下来，如果你已经证明了自己的能力，但还是被人微观管理，那就该自己站出来改变现状了。你要趁对方还没行动前先主动进行沟通，抢在对方提问前就把所有答案摆上台面，不等对方提出要求就把自己的实力展现出来。

No one wants to micro-manage you. They have better things to do with their time.
没人喜欢过多干涉你的事情。大家都不是闲着没事干的人。

If you're being micro-managed it's probably because you need to be.
所以，如果你正处在微观管理的环境，那原因很可能出在你自己身上。

highlight of the year

3. Your time off is the highlight of the year.
3. 休息时间是你全年最大的盼头

You may have forgotten your mom's birthday, but I'll bet you knew the exact day every semester ended and the start and end of Spring Break. And you lived for snow days.
你可能会忘记老妈的生日，但我打赌你绝不会忘了什么时候学期结束、什么时候放春假。你可是掰着指头盼假期呢！

So it only makes sense to see weekends and vacations as the highlight of your working year, right?
所以，工作时的盼头也只剩下周末和假期了，对不？

Actually, no: If you feel you endure the workweek just to get to the payoff of the weekend, you're in the wrong business. Find work you enjoy; then you won't see time off as a chance to finally do something fun but as a chance to do something else fun.
其实未必：如果你只为了周末而苦熬上班时间，那就大错特错了。找份喜欢的工作吧，这样你就不至于苦巴巴等待唯一的放松时光，周末假期只是你快乐的一部分而已。

While you'll never love everything you do in your professional life, you should enjoy the majority of it.
虽然你无法喜欢工作中的一切，但至少可以享受其中的大部分吧。

Otherwise you're not living–you're just working.
要不然，你只是一台工作机器——根本就没有生活。

Getting criticized

4. Getting criticized means you failed.
4. 受人批评表示自己很失败

Here's another pay/paid dichotomy. In college you paid professors to critique your work.
这也是付酬与领薪的区别。在学校，你付钱请教授指正你的学业。

So now that you are the one getting paid, why is it unfair for someone--like a customer, investor, or key partner–to critique your work?
现在你是领取薪水的那个人。那么，为什么当客户、投资商或重要合作伙伴指正你的工作时，你还会觉得不公平呢？

It's not.
显然不应该啊。

When you get negative feedback, see it as an opportunity. Think, "Wow, I didn't realize I wasn't doing that right. I didn't realize I wasn't doing that as well as I could."
如果受到批评，那就把它当作一次机会呗。你就想：“哇，我自己都没发现出了问题，原来我还可以做得更好啊。”

Criticism is a chance to learn--and this time you're getting paid to learn.
批评也是学习的良机——何况你还因此领取报酬呢。

Never complain when someone pays you to learn.
要是别人既付你钱又指正你，那还有什么可抱怨的！

Success

5. Success is based on toeing the line.
5. 成功来自顺从与认同

Say you disagreed with a professor's point of view on a particular point. You may even have been right... but the only way to get an A in the class was to parrot the professor's take on the subject. Except in rare cases, confirming and following the rules was everything.
比方说，你不认同教授对某个问题的观点，而且有可能你的看法是正确的，但为了成绩得A，你还是会拍教授的马屁。除非是遇到极少数情况，否则认同并按规则办事就是王理。

In business, conforming only ensures that you will achieve the same results as other people.
在职场上，认同即意味着你只能取得跟别人一样的成果。

If you want to achieve different results you'll have to think and act differently. Do your homework, think critically, and don't be afraid to create your own path.
如果你想获得不同的结果，那就得开动脑筋、特立独行。多做做功课，批判性思考问题，勇敢开创自己的道路。

But don't be different just for the sake of being different. Be different because it's who you are and what you believe... and because it will get you where you want to go, with your integrity and your sense of self intact.
但也别为了故意标新立异而显得格格不入。要与众不同，是因为你这个人和你的信念原本就是独一无二的，而你的所信所向、诚实和自我则会引领你到达渴望的地方。