看看你的周围：
你身边只有2%不到的人可以用受欢迎的方式当众讲话；
只有2%不到的人可以写出公认漂亮的文章；
只有2%不到的人拥有某项出色的技能；
只有2%不到的人能够赚取超常的收入；
只有2%不到的人会被公认为人格高尚……
换句话讲，只有2%不到的人处于金字塔尖顶端。
有的时候，进入2%其实并不像想象得那么困难。举个例子，如果从今天开始你能够做到每周至少四天坚持慢跑大约一小时，那么，三年之后，不出什么大的意外的话，你跟你身边的人相比，身体机能大抵上应该处于前2%的水平。可是，这也不是很容易，因为绝大多数人做不到的事情只有一个——“坚持”。
很多人怕累。怕到什么地步呢？日常生活中的例子有时令人忍俊不禁。时下京城里流行针灸减肥（减肥从技术解决了食品稀缺之后就成了几乎永恒的话题）。有机会去看看能乐死你。小小的“诊所”里面并排几张床，每张床上都躺着一个胖子（通常是女人），肚皮以及很多其它的部位上插满了银针，那个疼啊——你听到的是此起彼伏的呻吟。针灸是不可能减肥的，因为消耗脂肪只有一种方式有效——运动。但是，正如你能看到的那样，很多人宁愿疼也不愿累，一厢情愿地希望能有不累的减肥方法。这样的“诊所”没办法不生意兴隆，因为他们赚的不是针灸的钱，他们的真正市场受人类固有的弱点支撑——懒惰。人人天生懒惰——最终只有2%的人能够摆脱这种天性的束缚。
人们是不喜欢锻炼的。因为绝大多数人从来不曾真正体会过锻炼实际上并不累的。慢跑一小时，也许看起来不轻松，要流很多汗，可是，这一小时的过程之后，身体机能会迅速恢复，而后远比不锻炼更加精力充沛。那些不锻炼的人好像相信这样一个基本的算法：一个人一天的精力假设有十分，早上要是锻炼了的话就用去一分，只剩下九分的精力处理其它事情了。可是事实与他们的想象恰恰不同，更可能应该是这样的：一个人一天的精力假设有十分，早上锻炼就算用去其中的二分，也会因为早上锻炼而再生的精力多达四分而使得全天还有十二分的精力去做其它事情。
所以，动动自己的脑子，尝试着或者挣扎着去想明白，根本就不累的，那只不过是一种思维上的锻炼。正如2%坚持锻炼的人并没有想在某项体育竞技比赛中获得世界冠军一样，绝大多数平时勤于思考的人没多大欲望去打败所有人。遇到事情多动动脑子，偶尔必要地挣扎着去想明白，其实某种意义上只不过是日常锻炼而已，只不过是为了让自己的大脑更发达（年轻人）、更健康（成年人）、更有活力或者衰老得更缓慢一些（老年人）。正如慢跑会使一个人心肺功能增强，进而使人精力充沛一样，勤于思考只能是思考能力进一步增强，进而使进一步的思考更加容易。
人们很难摆脱自己的感受，而人们理解自身之外的事物往往依赖将其与自身感受进行对比，于是，同样的事物在不同的人那里有着不同的解释，因为他们的自身感受不同。这就是为什么经常会有人问另外一些人说“你想那么多不累么？”这太自然了：一个思考有障碍有困难的人当然会觉得“想那么多多累啊？”而那些已经开始越来越轻松地思考、能够越来越清楚地思考的人来说，回答说“怎么会累呢？”是在正常自然不过的事情。当然，如果有人问你“想那么多多累啊？”你最好笑而不答，因为你的答案对方不仅会完全不理解，并且通常会被进一步“理解”为“你丫就是爱装蛋！”
还是那句话，想明白是自己的事儿。
译文:
2%, An Interesting Proportion
Look around you:
Only less than 2% can address the public in a popular way;
Only less than 2% can write articles generally acknowledged to be finest;
Only less than 2% can be equipped with a wonderful skill;
Only less than 2% can earn extraordinary money;
In other words, only less than 2% can stand at the very top of the Pyramid.
Sometimes, it is not so difficult as you imagine to be one of the 2%. Say, if you can keep on jogging for about an hour in four days a week from now on, three years later, barring any unforeseen circumstance, your somatic function will probably be among the top 2% compared with those around you. However, it is not so easy anyway because most people cannot acquire but one thing---persistence.
Many people are afraid of being tired to the extent that you will cannot help laughing at some scenes in life. Acupuncture weight-reducing has become epidemic in the capital.(Weight-reducing has become an enternal topic after it technically solved food shortage.) You may get pleased providing you get a chance to have a look. Several beds are set side by side in a small clinic, on which lies a fat figure(often lies a women), and on the belly as well as other parts stick some silver needles. What a pain---all you hear are moans after moans. Acupuncture cannot reduce weight for there is only one effective way to burn the fat---doing exercise. The fact is, just as you have seen, a lot of them would rather bear pain than exhaustion, wishfully expecting a way free from feeling tired. Such clinics boom easily because they earn profits not from acupunture but the innate weakness of human beings---laziness. Everyone is born lazy, and only 2% can escape from the shackle of this nature.
No one is fond of doing exercise for the fact that most people have never known that workout is not tiresome actually. Jogging for an hour makes one sweat heavily and seemingly is not so relaxed. As a matter of fact, the somanic function will recover soon after the course of one-hour workout, and you will feel more energetic than those who don't exercise. People who don't exercise seem to believe such an algorithm: supposing one has 100 percent energy a day, he spends 10 percent doing morning exercise so that only 90 percent can be used to deal with the routine work. The fact is quite different. It should be possibly like this: suppose one has 100 percent energy a day, then given that one spends 20 percent doing morning exercise, he will own 120 percent energy to do his work because he can gain as much as 40 percent energy from morning exercise.
Well, wise up and try or stuggle to make it clear that exercise won't be that tiresome. It's only but a mental exercise. Just as those 2% who exercise don't expect a world champinship in a specific sport, most people who use their brains often don't mean to defeat all. Think twice and once in a while struggle to make it clear. In a sense it is just an everyday exercise which can merely make your mind quicker(as with the young), body healthier(as with adults), more energetic and aging slower(as with the old). Jogging strengthens the function of heart and lung and then makes one feel energetic. The same goes with the fact that a tendency to speculation improves the ability of thinking, hence makes further thinking more easily.
People find it difficult to get rid of their own feelings, and people are apt to make comparasion with their own feelings to understand things out of themselves. So,towards the same thing People often hold different explanations since they have their own different feelings. That's why occasionaly someone may ask others,"don't you feel tired of thinking about so much?" That goes naturally: one who has trouble in thinking naturally feel it tiresome to think about too much, while to those begin to learn to think in an easier and clearer way, replying with "how it can be tiresome?" is natural enough. Well, if someone asks "don't you feel tired of thinking about so much?" You'd better smile but make no reply for not only can you make yourself understood, but your reply would be seen as "you are just bullshitting" instead!
Anyway, as a saying goes, thinking clearly is your own business.