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I was having coffee this morning with a dear friend who's going through a difficult time at work.
今天早上我和一个在工作中遇到困难的好朋友一起喝咖啡。
In one of those moments that make you wonder who's winding the clock of life, my phone buzzed while we were sitting there.
在你想知道是谁在给生命的时钟上弦的一个时刻，我们坐在那里时，我的电话响了。
It was an e-mail from my old friend Ryan, and all I saw was the subject line: "Success."
那是来自我的老朋友瑞恩的一封邮件，我只看到一个主题：“成功”。
Some 17 years ago, Ryan and I were sportswriters at "competing" small newspapers in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
大约17年前，瑞恩和我是雪兰多的山谷里相竞争的小报的体育专栏作家。
We had about a half dozen high schools, a Division III university, and a summer baseball league in our coverage area.
在我们的报道范围内，我们有大约六所高中，一所三级大学和一个夏季棒球联赛。
In that lava-hot turf war, we somehow became friends. We've kept in touch, but it'd been a few months since we'd talked when this curiously timed e-mail arrived.
在那场激烈的地盘争夺战中，我们不知怎么成了朋友。我们一直保持联系，但这封时间奇怪的电子邮件收到时，我们已经几个月没有联系了。
He said he was preparing a speech for the next week.
他说他正在为下周的演讲做准备。
He's now a project manager for a research firm near Washington, and the speech he was going to give was titled "How Do You Define Success?"
他现在是靠近华盛顿的一家调研公司的一个项目经理，他要发表的演讲名为“你如何定义成功？”
I've contributed to a publication called Success, so he turned the question to me: "How do you define success?" I thought of my coffee conversation and typed this:
我为一本名为《成功》的刊物撰稿，所以他问了我这个问题：“你如何定义成功？”我想起我在喝咖啡时的谈话，写了这样一封信：
Hey, man,Good to hear from you again. And good timing. Your e-mail came in just as I was chatting with another friend, who's going through one of those rough spells at work.
嘿，伙计，很高兴又听到你的消息。时机也很好。你的电子邮件来的时候，我正在和另一个朋友聊天，他正在经历一段艰难的工作时期。
I wish I had better advice. What a broad question! You know, after I left the Shenan-doah Valley, my next job was in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
我希望我有更好的建议。这是个多么宽泛的问题啊！你知道，在我离开谢南多厄山谷之后，我的下一份工作是在北卡罗来纳州的落基山。
I made $22,500 a year—and this was 2005, not a generation ago. The two other sportswriters on staff, Travis and Jeff, were in their mid-20s too.
我一年挣22,500美元，那是在2005年，而不是一代人以前。另外两位体育记者特拉维斯和杰夫也都在25岁左右。
Honestly, we'd come to Rocky Mount to leave Rocky Mount. We spent our time talking about what life must be like at a "real" newspaper.
说实话，我们来洛基山是为了离开洛基山。我们把时间花在谈论“真正的”报纸上的生活应该是什么样的。
We griped about our shop and drooled over the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News&Observer.
我们抱怨着我们的工作，对《夏洛特观察家报》和《罗利新闻与观察家报》垂涎三尺。
What resources they had! Writers who covered only one team and didn't have to lay out pages or proofread box scores.
他们有多么丰富的资源啊！只报道一个球队的作家，不需要布置页面或校对框分数。
Talk about living the dream. If we could just get to one of those places!
谈论生活的梦想。如果我们能去其中一个地方就好了！
Then we could go somewhere else! Travis, Jeff, and I bonded over our desire to part ways.
然后我们可以去别的地方！特拉维斯、杰夫和我因为想要分手而走得很近。
We ate dinner together, went out to cover our games, and came back to help send the final pages to the printer by our 1:30 a.m. deadline.
我们一块吃晚饭，一块去播报我们的比赛，然后回来，在我们凌晨1点半的截止日期前帮忙把终稿送到印刷工那里。
On the best nights, we'd grab the news editors and copy editors and play Wiffle ball in the parking lot until 4 a.m. laughing and joking until almost sunrise.
在最好的夜晚，我们会叫上新闻编辑和文案编辑，在停车场玩威浮球，一直玩到凌晨4点。
