本号每天从所浏览的英文媒体上挑选具有一定知识和趣味性的英文原文供大家学习地道英语，并附中文译文作为参考。感谢条友评论、纠错、转发、收藏和关注。
Warren Buffett's life lessons to his children. By Daniella Genovese FOXBusiness, January 12, 2024
巴菲特与其子霍华德
Howard Buffett said it's important to surround yourself with good people
Howard Buffett explains how his childhood experiences influenced him to become a philanthropist.
Despite growing up with more privilege than most, Warren Buffett's children were expected to address injustice in society and to try and support those who did not have the same opportunities they had.
It was just one of the many lessons the Berkshire Hathaway CEO instilled in his three children – and it stuck.
Howard Buffett has carried out a mission to do just that throughout his life, not only as a sheriff in Macon County, Illinois, but heading the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the U.S. that has been dedicated to improving the quality of life for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations since the late 1990s.
" My brother and sister and I grew up in a home where we were aware of a lot of things, our parents talked about those things," Howard Buffett told FOX Business. "As a result, we were expected to do everything we could to address anything that we saw in our lifetime that we thought was unfair, unjust…. try to level the playing field and support people who did not have the same opportunities that we had."
During his stint as a sheriff, Buffett recalled walking into homes with "horrendous living conditions," including instances in which children were neglected and had not eaten in days. With his foundation, Buffett comes face to face with "such injustice in some countries," severe starvation and the displacement of thousands of refugees because of conflict.
霍华德·巴菲特参加基金会会员在为难民制作食物的活动
He has been on the ground in several war-torn communities, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the Sudan, to help them improve food security, conflict mitigation as well as combat human trafficking and public safety for decades.
Many of these goals are daunting, and Buffett admitted that it will be impossible to achieve some of them, such as global hunger.
"This is where my pessimism and optimism kind of collide. We'll never solve global hunger. It isn't going to happen. That's a fact," he said. "Then you have to be optimistic enough to think that, OK, but I can have an impact on it. And I can certainly have an impact in certain areas."
Buffett said one of the things his dad told him and his siblings was to "stay within your circle of competence, but always challenge yourself," he said.
He was also reminded that failure was an important part of success.
"That's also something that my dad taught me is you can't be scared to fail," he said. "The way you're going to get the really good things done is because you have failed and you've learned what not to do, and you've learned what to do, and you've learned how to do it better."
One of the lessons Buffett is now instilling in others is to treat others the way you want to be treated and to surround yourself with good people.
"My dad always said, you can't do a good deal with a bad guy," Buffett recalled.
If you have "people around you that aren't working, that don't have the same goals and don't have the same agenda, they don't have the same values or principles, you have to get rid of them," he added.
Buffett made it clear that the foundation's team is dedicated to the work it does.
"I tell our staff all the time, think of the opportunity you have. We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars and trying to actually change some things in the world. Not everybody gets to do that."
参考译文：
丹尼拉吉诺维斯【沃伦·巴菲特给他的孩子们上的人生课】，2024年1月12日【福克斯商业新闻】。
尽管沃伦·巴菲特的孩子们比大多数人都更有特权，但他们被期待帮助解决社会上的不公正问题，并努力支持那些没有同样机会的人。
霍华德·巴菲特强调，他父亲教给他们的一个重要教训是：与好人为伍很重要。他向媒体解释了他的童年经历是如何影响他成为一名慈善家的。这只是伯克希尔哈撒韦公司首席执行官沃伦·巴菲特灌输给他的三个孩子的众多教训之一，且须坚持不懈。
霍华德·巴菲特一生都在执行父亲交给他的帮助解决社会不公问题的使命，他不仅担任过伊利诺斯州梅肯县的治安官员，目前还领导着美国最大的私人慈善基金会之一霍华德·G·巴菲特基金会。自20世纪90年代末以来，该基金会一直致力于改善世界上最贫困和边缘化人口的生活质量。
霍华德·巴菲特在接受福克斯商业频道采访时表示：「我和我的兄妹一起长大，我们学到很多事情，我们的父母都在谈论这些事情。因此，我们被期望尽我们所能来解决我们一生中看到的不公平、不公正问题……努力营造公平的竞争环境，支持那些没有我们所拥有的机会的人。"
霍华德回忆说，在担任治安官员期间，他曾走进过孩子们被忽视、几天没吃东西吃的「生活条件恶劣」的家庭。在为基金会工作时，霍华德曾面对「一些国家的不公正」，严重的饥饿和数千名难民因冲突而流离失所等悲惨状况。
几十年来，他一直在几个饱受战争蹂躏的国家，如刚果民主共和国或苏丹工作，帮助他们改善粮食安全，缓解冲突，以及打击人口贩运和改进公共安全。
霍华德承认，这些目标中的许多令人怯步，其中一些是不可能实现的，比如全球饥饿。他说：「这就是我的悲观主义和乐观主义发生碰撞的地方。我们永远无法解决全球饥饿问题。这是不可能的事实。但你又必须足够乐观地认为，好吧，我可以在某些领域对此产生影响。"
霍华德说，他父亲告诉他和他的兄弟姐妹们的一件事是「要在自己的能力范围内，持续挑战自己」。他还被提醒说，失败是成功的重要组成部分。他说：「我爸爸告诉我 不能害怕失败。你从失败中得到的真正的好的教益是，你能从失败中学会不该做什么，该做什么和如何做得更好。」
巴菲特一直向别人灌输的教训之一是，以你想被对待的方式对待别人，并与好人为伍。
霍华德回忆说：「我爸爸总是说，不要与坏人为伍。」他补充说，如果「你身边的人不好，与你没有相同的目标，也没有相同的议程，没有相同的价值观或原则，你就必须摆脱他们。」
霍华德明确表示，该基金会的团队将致力于其工作。他强调说：「我一直告诉我们的员工，想想你所拥有的机会。我们花费数亿美元，试图真正改变世界上的一些东西，并不是每个人都会有这样的机会。"
