英文早讀第128篇，選自巴菲特年度信，友才翻譯。
The final, and most important, consideration concerns personal motivation. When I started the partnership I set the motor that regulated the treadmill at "ten points better than the DOW". I was younger, poorer and probably more competitive. Even without the three previously discussed external factors making for poorer performance, I would still feel that changed personal conditions make it advisable to reduce the speed of the treadmill. I have observed many cases of habit patterns in all activities of life, particularly business, continuing (and becoming accentuated as years pass) long after they ceased making sense. Bertrand Russell has related the story of two Lithuanian girls who lived at his manor subsequent to World War I. Regularly each evening after the house was dark, they would sneak out and steal vegetables from the neighbors for hoarding in their rooms; this despite the fact that food was bountiful at Russell table. Lord Russell explained to the girls that while such behavior may have made a great deal of sense in Lithuania during the war, it was somewhat out of place in the English countryside. He received assenting nods and continued stealing.
最后，但是最重要的考慮關(guān)系到個人動機(jī)。當(dāng)我啟動合伙基金時，我把跑步機(jī)的電機(jī)調(diào)解到“優(yōu)于道瓊斯指數(shù)10個百分點”的速度。那是我更年輕、更窮且或許更有競爭力。即使沒有前面這三個討論的外部原因造成更差的表現(xiàn)，我仍將感到變化的個人條件使減少跑步機(jī)的速度更加明智。我觀察過在生活中的所有行動，尤其是商業(yè)，其中習(xí)慣方式的情況將在他們停止作用后仍持續(xù)很久（一些年過去后變的突出了）。波特蘭羅素聯(lián)想到個故事兩個立陶宛姑娘在一戰(zhàn)后住在他的莊園。通常每個晚上在房間變黑后，她們會溜出去偷鄰居的蔬菜貯藏在她們的房間；盡管事實上在羅素的餐桌上食物是豐盛的。羅德羅素對姑娘們解釋盡管這樣的行為或許戰(zhàn)爭期間在立陶宛很有用，但是在英國鄉(xiāng)村是一無是處的。他收到了贊成的點頭和繼續(xù)的偷竊。
He finally contented himself with the observation that their behavior, strange as it might seem to the neighbors, was really not so different from that of the elder Rockefeller.
他最后讓他滿意于這個觀察的是她們的行為在鄰居看來或許奇怪，卻和老洛克菲勒沒什么區(qū)別。
Elementary self-analysis tells me that I will not be capable of less than all-out effort to achieve a publicly proclaimed goal to people who have entrusted their capital to me. All-out effort makes progressively less sense. I would like to have an economic goal which allows for considerable non-economic activity. This may mean activity outside the field of investments or it simply may mean pursuing lines within the investment field that do not promise the greatest economic reward. An example of the latter might be the continued investment in a satisfactory (but far from spectacular) controlled business where I liked the people and the nature of the business even though alternative investments offered an expectable higher rate of return. More money would be made buying businesses at attractive prices, then reselling them. However, it may be more enjoyable (particularly when the presonal value of incremental capital is less) to continue to own them and hopefully improve their performance, usually in a minor way, through some decisions involving financial strategy.
初步自我分析告訴自己我無法不竭盡全力去實現(xiàn)一個公開預(yù)宣告的目標(biāo)，給那些將他們資金托付給我的人。竭盡全力漸漸地意義變少了。我更想有一個經(jīng)濟(jì)目標(biāo)允許客觀的非經(jīng)濟(jì)活動。這或許意味著在投資領(lǐng)域之外的活動或者他僅僅意味著在投資領(lǐng)域的追求線不承諾最大的經(jīng)濟(jì)收益。后者的一個例子或許是持續(xù)投資在一個令人滿意（但是遠(yuǎn)沒有卓越）的控股業(yè)務(wù)，我喜歡這個團(tuán)隊和業(yè)務(wù)性質(zhì)盡管備選投資提供預(yù)期更高的回報率。更多的錢可以通過以有吸引力的價格購買業(yè)務(wù)，然后賣掉他們賺得。然而，這或許更加令人享受（尤其當(dāng)增加的資本中個人價值更少時）去持續(xù)持有他們并有希望提升他們的表現(xiàn)，通常以微小的方式，，通過一些包括財務(wù)策略的決策。
Thus, I am likely to limit myself to things which are reasonably easy, safe, profitable and pleasant. This will not make our operation more conservative than in the past since I believe, undoutedly with some bias, that we have always operated with considerable conservatism. The long-term downside risk will not be less; the upside potential will merely be less.
因此，我可能會限制我自己在那些相當(dāng)簡單、安全、有盈利能力和令人滿意的事情上。這不會使我們的運作比過去更加保守因為我認(rèn)為，毫無疑問帶著偏見，我們始終都以相當(dāng)保守主義的方式運作。長期下跌的風(fēng)險不會減少；潛在上漲將會相當(dāng)少。
50.regulate：規(guī)定；調(diào)解；控制；約束；管理
51.treadmill：跑步機(jī)；走步機(jī)；（人或畜生踩動踏板使之轉(zhuǎn)動的）踏車
52.advisable：可取的；明智的
53.accentuate：強(qiáng)調(diào)；突出；著重
54.cease：停止；終止；結(jié)束
55.Lithuania：立陶宛
56.manor：莊園；領(lǐng)地
57.sneak：溜；偷走（不重要的或小的東西）
58.hoard：囤積；貯藏；迷藏
59.bountiful：大量的；慷慨的；大方的；巨大的
60.assent：同意；贊成
61.nod：點頭致意；打盹；點頭示意
62.elementary：基本的；基礎(chǔ)的；初級的；簡單的
63.entrust：委托；托付
64.incremental：增加的；遞增的
65.bias：偏見；偏向；偏愛；偏心
