First, I told Emma to forget about having an identity crisis and get some identity capital. By get identity capital, I mean do something that adds value to who you are. Do something that's an investment in who you might want to be next.
首先,我告诉Emma忘掉她的自我认识危机,去获得一些身份认定的资本。身份资本是指做增加自我价值的事。为自己下一步想成为的样子做一些事一些投资。

I didn't know the future of Emma's career, and no one knows the future of work, but I do know this: Identity capital begets identity capital. So now is the time for that cross-country job, that internship, that startup you want to try.
我不知道Emma的工作将来是什么样的,也没人知道将来的工作是什么样的,但是我知道:身份资本会创造出更多身份资本。现在是时候去尝试你想要的海外工作、实习或者新起点。

I'm not discounting twentysomething exploration here, but I am discounting exploration that's not supposed to count, which, by the way, is not exploration. That's procrastination. I told Emma to explore work and make it count.
我不是轻视20多岁的自我探索,而是轻视那些随便玩玩无所谓的探索,或者从某种意义上说那不是探索。那是拖沓!我告诉Emma去探索工作,让她的探索有所回报。

Second, I told Emma that the urban tribe is overrated.
第二,我告诉Emma不要高估自己的朋友圈。

Best friends are great for giving rides to the airport, but twentysomethings who huddle together with like-minded peers limit who they know, what they know, how they think, how they speak, and where they work. That new piece of capital, that new person to date almost always comes from outside the inner circle.
好朋友会载你去机场,而和“志同道合的朋友” 瞎混的20多岁的人,他们的交际圈、知识面、思维方式、说话方式和工作层面都被限制住了。新的资本或者新的约会对方往往是从内部交际圈之外来的。

New things come from what are called our weak ties, our friends of friends of friends. So yes, half of twentysomethings are un- or under-employed. But half aren't, and weak ties are how you get yourself into that group. Half of new jobs are never posted, so reaching out to your neighbor's boss is how you get that un-posted job. It's not cheating. It's the science of how information spreads.
新的事情来自我们所谓的“远的关系”,我们朋友的朋友的朋友。没错,半数20多岁的人处在失业和半失业的状态。但是另外一半的人却不是这样的,“远的关系”正是你融入一个新的群体的纽带。有半数的新工作从来不公示出来,所以联络你邻居的老板是你找到那些未公示工作的方式。这不叫作弊,这是信息传播的科学方式。

Last but not least, Emma believed that you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends. Now this was true for her growing up, but as a twentysomething, soon Emma would pick her family when she partnered with someone and created a family of her own.
最后一点也很重要,Emma相信你无法选择你的家庭,但是你可以选择你的朋友。可这只是她成长时期的状况。作为一个20多岁的人,Emma很快会与某人为伴组建她自己的新家庭。

I told Emma the time to start picking your family is now. Now you may be thinking that 30 is actually a better time to settle down than 20, or even 25, and I agree with you. But grabbing whoever you're living with or sleeping with when everyone on Facebook starts walking down the aisle is not progress.
我告诉Emma现在就是你选择你家庭的时候。现在你也许会想相比于20岁,25岁或30岁时组建家庭会更好。我同意你的看法。但是当你Facebook上的朋友都开始步入婚姻殿堂时,你随便抓一个人一起生活、睡觉绝对不是组建家庭的过程。

The best time to work on your marriage is before you have one, and that means being as intentional with love as you are with work. Picking your family is about consciously choosing who and what you want rather than just making it work or killing time with whoever happens to be choosing you.
经营你婚姻的最佳时间是你还没结婚的时候,这意味要像你为了工作一样精心谋划。选择你的家庭是有意识地去选择你想要的人和事,而不是为了结婚或者消磨时光,任意选择一个正好选择你的人。

So what happened to Emma? Well, we went through that address book, and she found an old roommate's cousin who worked at an art museum in another state. That weak tie helped her get a job there. That job offer gave her the reason to leave that live-in boyfriend.
Emma发生了什么变化呢?我们翻了一遍通讯录,她发现她原来的舍友的表妹在另一个州的一家艺术博物馆工作。这层远关系帮助她在那里得到一份工作。这份工作给她一个理由离开她那同居的男友。

Now, five years later, she's a special events planner for museums. She's married to a man she mindfully chose. She loves her new career, she loves her new family, and she sent me a card that said, "Now the emergency contact blanks don't seem big enough."
现在五年过去了,她是一名博物馆特别活动策划者。她和一个她用心选择的男人结婚了。她爱她的事业,她爱她的新家,她寄给我一张贺卡写道,“现在紧急联系栏似乎不够填呢。”

Now Emma's story made that sound easy, but that's what I love about working with twentysomethings. They are so easy to help. Twentysomethings are like airplanes just leaving LAX, bound for somewhere west. Right after takeoff, a slight change in course is the difference between landing in Alaska or Fiji.
Emma的故事听起来简单,这正是为什么我爱和20多岁人打交道。帮助20多岁的人很容易。20多岁就像离开洛杉矶飞往西部某处的飞机,起飞之后,一点小小变化都会影响到它最终将降落在阿拉斯加还是斐济。

Likewise, at 21 or 25 or even 29, one good conversation, one good break, one good TED Talk, can have an enormous effect across years and even generations to come. So here's an idea worth spreading to every twentysomething you know.
同理,在你21岁,25岁甚至29岁的时候,一次好的谈话、好的休息、好的TED演讲,能在未来的几年甚至几代人的时间里带来巨大的影响。因此这个想法值得传达给每一个你所认识的20多岁人。

It's as simple as what I learned to say to Alex. It's what I now have the privilege of saying to twentysomethings like Emma every single day: Thirty is not the new 20, so claim your adulthood, get some identity capital, use your weak ties, pick your family. Don't be defined by what you didn't know or didn't do. You're deciding your life right now. Thank you.
这想法就像我后来告诉Alex的话一样简单。我应该每天都对像Emma这样的20多岁的人说:30岁不是一个新的20岁,所以规划好你的成年生活,获得一些身份认同资本,利用你的远关系,选择你的家庭。不要被你所不知道的,从未做过的事所禁锢。你现在的作为决定着你的人生。谢谢。