Kua Fu in the Modern Society

I believe that every Chinese people are familiarwith the story of Kua Fu, it says a braggadocio who miscalculating hisstrength, conceived the vain ambition of overtaking the fleeting rays of thesun, he died in the middle way because of thirst. This story tells us thatpeople should not be ignorant of one’s strength or doing something beyond one’sability. However, there is an alarming amount of Kua Fu in modern society.

我相信每個中國人都熟悉夸父的故事，說的是一個吹牛的人錯誤地估算了自己的實力，野心勃勃地想要追上陽光，他最后渴死在半路。這個故事告訴我們人們不應該無視自己的能力，或者做超出自己能力的事情。然而，現代夸父的數目大得驚人。

Why someone will become Kua Fu? I believethat one of the main reasons for this question is that we had been educated tobe confidence in all kind of circumstance. Remember what our parents and teachersaid to us when we were young? “You can do that!” “You got it!” “You are thebest!” I didn’t mean that praise and encouragement will lead to arrogant, butwhen we judge a kid, a pertinent evaluation is fine, if we praise them blindly,it will make children understand their own ability mistakenly.

為什么有人會變成夸父？我相信這個問題的主要原因是因為我們一直被教育在任何情況下都要充滿自信吧。還記得我們小時候父母和老師跟我們說過什么么？“你做得到的！” “你能行！” “你是最好的！”我不是說贊美和鼓勵會造成自大，但是當我們評判一個孩子的時候，中肯地評價就好了，如果我們盲目地贊美，會讓孩子錯誤地估計自己的能力的。

Another reason is that young people innowadays are eager and willing to undertake anything risky. Unlike the oldstyle, people usually will not do something unless they have more than 80%success rate, but now, less than 50% is acceptable. The hunger for successmakes people wrongly estimate their strength.

另一個原因就是現在的年輕人渴望和愿意冒任何的風險。不像老一派的作風，人們通常在沒超過80%的成功率的時候不會去做某件事，但是現在，50%就能接受了。成功的渴望讓人們錯誤地估算了自己的實力。

In short, people should understand theirability, don’t attempt to do something far more beyond one’s ability. Asuccessful challenge would add luster to life, but it only happen to the personwho are fully prepare and admired power and ambition.

簡言之，人們應該知曉自己的實力，不要企圖去做遠遠超過自己能力的事情。成功的挑戰會給人生增添光彩，但是那只發生在充分準備和有實力有野心的人身上。