做人是需要成本的，有好的人生选择，也有坏的人生选择，却没有不要成本的选择。
什么是机会成本?机会成本是经济学中的一个重要的概念，
经济学家把为了得到某种东西而放弃的其他东西称为得到某种东西的机会成本，一般是指人们在面临多种选择的时候，选择其中的一种而可能造成的损失。
曾经听说过这样一个故事：一位母亲正在厨房里做饭，突然听到三岁的儿子在客厅里号啕大哭。原来儿子把手插进了一个花瓶里拔不出来。母亲赶紧上前去帮忙，使劲浑身解数，儿子的手还是拔不出来。万般无奈之下，母亲只好打碎了这个价值不菲的古董花瓶。儿子的手安然无恙地出来了，却紧紧地握成拳。是不是抽筋了? 母亲心里忐忑不安，于是她掰开儿子的小手，发现儿子手里握着一枚五分钱的硬币。原来儿子的手不是拔不出来，而是他为了抓住这枚五分钱的硬币而不愿松开自己的拳头。多么天真的孩子，因为不肯放弃他手中那区区五分钱的硬币而毁掉了一个昂贵的花瓶，他不明白他放弃那枚硬币的机会成本居然有一个古董花瓶那么大。可以肯定的是，他长大后一定会明白自己当初的选择是错误的。
其实，在现实生活我们又何尝不是经常犯着和故事中那个小孩同样的错误呢? 在这个充满竞争的社会里，我们迷信于执着的追求和坚持，在各种利益诱惑的面前有着董存瑞炸碉堡般视死如归的精神，前赴后继，不甘心后退一步，因为蝇头小利朋友可以背信弃义，因为一言不和夫妻可以分道扬镳，因为鸡毛小事兄弟可以手足相残。
难道我们就不能退一步，选择放弃吗? 人们通常会认为放弃就是承认失败。其实不然，从经济学上来讲，放弃是对各种机会成本进行考量后做出的一种选择，是对有限资源的再分配。通过放弃可以把有限的资源从利用效率较低的领域转移到利用效率更高的领域，从而获得总体的改善。我们耳边经常能听到这样一句谚语：“退一步，海阔天空”。这句谚语可以说是机会成本的精辟体现
。“退一步”的实质是放弃，放弃我们原来所坚持的观点或事物，从而选择另一种立场或处事方式。 比尔·盖茨放弃大学学业创立微软公司，成为了世界上最富有的人。有人说，即使面前有一张百元大钞，比尔·盖茨也不会弯腰捡起，因为捡起这张钞票的同时他将损失上百万美元。或许这种说法未免有点夸张，比尔·盖茨是个绝顶聪明的生意人，他明白，放弃来之不易的学业能够使他拥有开创一个时代的机会，放弃面前的一百美元，能给他带来更为丰厚的收益。
放弃是一种选择，也是我们人生的一笔财富。
译文:
Giving up Is Another Choice
Life does need cost. The life you chosed is either good or bad, but never without cost.
What is Opportunity Cost? It is an important economic concept, which is defined as getting something at the expense of giving up another thing. Generally speaking, it means the choice you made may lead to lost when you confront many choices.
Once I have heard such a story: A mother was cooking in the kitchen. Suddenly, she heard her three-year-old son crying loudly in the living room. In fact, it was that the son put his hand into the vase and could not pull it out. Mother rushed to help him at once. No matter effort she made, she still failed. In this emergency, mother had no choice but to break this unpredictable expensive curio vase. Her son’s hand was pulled out without any hurt, but he clenched his fist tightly. Did his hand twitched, the mother thought. She was so anxious that help open her son’s hand, finding that there was a Wu-Fen coin in the tight fist. The fact was not that the son could not pull out his hand, but that he was not willing to open his hand for the Wu-Fen coin. What a pure child he was. He refused giving up a Wu-Fen coin, while he lost a more expensive curio vase. He did not understand that his opportunity cost for the coin was a precious curio vase. But we can sure that he would consider it as a big mistake when he grown up.
Actually, we do usually make the same mistakes as the boy’s. In the competitive society, we are obsessed with our own pursuit and persistence, have iron-heart determination and refuse receding in front of interest. We betray friends for a little benefit, depart from wife or husband for a tinny disagreement, and attack brothers for a splinter. Why don’t we choose to give in?
People always believe that concession confirms failure. It is absolutely false. In economics, concession is a new choice after reconsideration of many different opportunity cost, is also a new distribution of limited resources. It makes advantage of the limited resources from low-efficient area to higher one through concession, resulting in overall improvement. A common saying goes that:” Draws back a step for boundlessness.” It excellently embodies the concept of Opportunity Cost. The essence of “Draws back a step” is concession, giving up the views or things we used to hold, and choosing another position or work styles.
Bill Gates discontinued his university studying and founded Microsoft and became a most wealthy man in the world. Some people say that Gates will not bent down to pick up a hundred-note on the floor, because it may lead to lost of millions of dollars for this movement. It maybe a little inflated, but Bill absolutely a wise business man, he knows giving up the precious academic study could offer him a choice of creating a new era, and giving up the hundred-note bring him greater benefit.
Giving up is another choice as well as a fortune for our lives.