Once, while taking my boat down the inland waterway to Florida, I decided to tie up at Georgetown, South Carolina, for the night and visit with an old friend. As we approached the Esso dock, I saw him through my binoculars standing there awaiting us. Tall and straight as an arrow he stood, facing a cold, penetrating wind - truly a picture of a sturdy man, even though in his eighties. Yes, the man was our elder statesman, Bernard Baruch.

He loaded us into his station wagon and we were off to his famous Hobcaw Barony for dinner. We sat and talked in the great living room where many notables and statesmen, including Roosevelt and Churchill, have sat and taken their cues. In his eighty-second year, still a human dynamo, Mr. Baruch talked not of the past but of present problems and the future, deploring our ignorance of history, economics and psychology. His only reference to the past was to tell me, with the wonderful sparkle in his eyes, that he was only able to get eight quail out of the ten shots the day before. What is the secret of this great man's value to the world? The answer is his insatiable desire to keep being productive.

Another friend of mine, the head of one of our largest corporations, a great steel company, is approaching his middle seventies, and he is still a great leader. He, too, never talks of the past. Instead, he tackles the problems of each day in his stride, brims with plans for the future and, incidentally, shoots in the low seventies on any golf course. He is a happy man because he is productive.

有一次，我沿着内河独自驾船前往佛罗里达州。到达南卡洛来纳的乔治敦时，我决定靠岸过夜，顺便去拜访一位老朋友。船一进埃松港，我就从望远镜中看到他站在那里等我们。朋友高而挺拔的身影像一支箭一样，站立在刺骨的寒风中，简直一幅健壮男子汉的画面，虽然画面中人已年过八旬。没错，他就是我们的老一辈政治家，伯纳德.巴鲁克。

伯纳德.巴鲁克的旅行轿车载着我们，径直驶向他那著名的霍布考大庄园用餐。我们就座谈话的大客厅，曾有包括罗斯福和丘吉尔在内的许多贵客与政治家光临，与他交谈，倾听他的意见。如今，巴鲁克先生虽已82岁，却依然活力充沛。他对过去缄口不提，只谈论现在与将来的问题，并为我们对历史学、经济学和心理学知识的匮乏而深表遗憾。他告诉我，昨天他只用10发子弹就射中了8只鹌鹑，这也是他提到的唯一一件“往事”。说话时，他的双眼闪烁着令人愉快的光芒。这位伟大的人物对世界充满价值的奥秘何在?答案就是他对成就一如既往的追求。

我的另一位朋友领导着一家最大的公司——一个大钢铁公司。年近75岁的他，依然是位优秀的领导者。他也从不谈及往昔，而是游刃有余地处理着每天的问题，头脑中想的满是对未来的计划。并且值得一提的是，70多岁的他，还会不时打打高尔夫球。他是个幸福的人，因为他有所成就。