雙語散文:哈佛未曾教我的三堂課

Harvard captures the imagination like few other institutions. World leaders from President Barack Obama to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon are Harvard graduates. Business titans like Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, A.G. Lafley of Procter & Gamble and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs are too. I've found the academic training I received at graduate school there invaluable--but I learned even more outside the classroom than in it. Here are three key lessons that helped my career that Harvard didn't teach me in the classroom.
和少數幾所其他機構一樣，哈佛大學非常能夠激發人們的想象力。世界上有很多領導人，比如說巴拉克·奧巴馬總統和聯合國祕書長潘基文都是哈佛大學的畢業生。還有許多商業巨頭，比如說摩根大通的CEO Jamie Dimon，寶潔公司的A.G. Lafley，還有高盛銀行的Lloyd Blankfein也都是師出哈佛門下。筆者本人也是在哈佛大學的研究生院畢業的，也認爲那裏接受的學術培訓可以說是人生的無價之寶，彌足珍貴。但是，筆者感到課堂下，學到的東西比課堂上更多。下面就是在筆者的職業生涯中非常關鍵的三堂課，而這些是哈佛的教室中所不曾講授過的。

I learned the first lesson from my own students. I was a teaching fellow at the time, educating them on China's modern history and political system. I probably learned more from them than they from me.
第一堂課是我自己的學生身上學到的。我在上研究生的時候，曾經幫助老師教學，教授中國現代歷史和政治體系的課程。在上課的時候，我可能從學生身上學到的，要比他們比我學到的要多。

Every day students would come to my office overlooking Harvard Yard, and we'd usually end up talking about more than just China. We'd discuss their hopes and, more often than not, their fears. They were afraid of not keeping up with their peers and not living up to their parents' expectations.
每天，學生都會來到我的那個可以俯瞰哈佛大學校園的辦公室，我們最後討論的內容常常會超越中國的問題。我們討論了學生們的希望，而且更常談論到的是他們的恐怖。他們常常會恐懼不能趕上同伴們的成就，或是不能達到他們父母的期望。

They felt this way pretty much across the board. Rich kids and legacies thought they'd gotten there because of their families; minority students worried they were there because of their skin color; brains from humble backgrounds worried they weren't rich enough to be there. As their teacher I could see that they all deserved to be there for different reasons. But they themselves couldn't easily gauge how their work measured up against others', and this fed their insecurities.
他們認爲這種恐懼應該是每個人都會感受到的。有錢人家的孩子會想他們能夠來到哈佛全是因爲自己有這樣的家庭；少數族裔的學生擔心他們是因爲膚色纔到了哈佛；家庭條件不好的人擔心他們不夠富有，來到哈佛壓力很大。作爲他們的老師，我知道他們每一個人來到這裏都是實至名歸的，雖然其中理由各不一樣。但是他們自己想要衡量和他人相比自己做得如何不太容易，而這一點助長了他們的不安全感。

The most brilliant of them, though, didn't let their fears stop them from thriving. They did the opposite. They had plenty of fear in them, but rather than let it dominate them they used it to motivate them to prove those fears wrong. They worked harder to confirm for themselves that they really did belong. Often the most insecure of them were also the most brilliant.
但是，他們中最出色的那些人並不能讓他們的恐懼阻擋了自己發展的腳步。相反，恐懼促進了自身的發展。他們會有很多恐懼，但是他們並沒有讓恐懼控制他們，而是把恐懼變成一種動力，想要證明這些恐懼其實都不是真實的。他們更加努力的工作，來更加證明自己。常常我會看到，他們中不安全感最強的人，常常會成長爲最優秀的人。

Businessmen need to conquer their fears too. They need to know how to control their worries and see opportunity where others don’t. Too many businessmen have been letting fear rather than rational thinking determine their decision-making ever since Lehman Brothers collapsed, and too many investors have been making hasty, panicky decisions. Many equity investors sold all their holdings out of fear and missed the bull market of 2009. Many companies alienated and hurt their workforces by cutting too much.
商業人士也需要戰勝自己的恐懼感。他們需要知道怎樣控制自己的憂慮，在別人忽略之處發現機會。自從雷曼兄弟破產以後，太多的商業人士開始讓恐懼，而不是讓理性的思考決定他們的決策制定的過程，而也有太多的投資者草率決定，甚至驚慌失措。很多資產投資者出於恐懼拋售了他們所有的持有，而錯過了2009年的牛市。很多公司過度裁員，疏遠傷害了他們的勞動力。還有人停止了投資，有時甚至是在增長最快的領域。

PepsiCo and Disney are two companies that didn’t let fear paralyze them. They looked coolly around and found opportunities while others were too terrified to make big moves. They announced multibillion-dollar investments in China and other emerging markets in the depths of the financial crisis. Now that we are in the beginnings of a worldwide recovery, those investments are putting them ahead.
有兩個公司並沒有讓恐懼軟化自己，這兩個公司就是百事可樂公司和迪士尼公司。他們非常冷靜的審時度勢，在其他公司因爲恐懼不敢有大動作的時候，發現了機會。在深度經濟衰退的時候，他們宣佈在中國和其他新興市場投資數十億美元。現在他們已經開始了全世界範圍的復甦，這些投資讓他們走在了前面。

The takeaway: Harness fear and use it for positive results, as my most brilliant students did and as the best businessmen do. You can make money in good and bad times if you keep your head on straight, as hedge fund investors like George Soros and John Paulson know.
得到的結論就是：控制自己的恐懼，利用這些恐懼產生積極的結果，就像我的一些優秀的學生和最優秀的商業人士所作的那樣。如果你頭腦清醒，不管時局好壞都是能賺到錢的，很多對衝基金投資者，比如說喬治?索羅斯和約翰?保爾森都知道這一點。

The second thing I learned was to do my own due diligence and not blindly trust so-called experts. Harvard professors are impressive people who are generally thought of as experts in their fields. I found it hard not to regard them with awe. But I remember a meeting with one professor who was famous for advising governments about the inner workings of the Chinese government. One day he told me about two senior Chinese leaders, one a vice premier and the other of a similarly high rank. The professor told me that the two hated each other so much they would do anything to hurt each other as they competed to become the next president.
我學到的第二堂課是，要將勤奮作爲自己的本分，盡職調查，不盲目的相信所謂的專家。哈佛大學的教授都是在他們的領域被認爲是專家式的人物。我發現人們很難不用一種敬畏之心看待他們。但是我記得和一個教授的會談，這個知名教授提供中國政府內部工作方面的諮詢工作。一天他跟我談到了兩位中國的高官，一個是副總理，另一位同樣也是高官。這個教授告訴我說，這兩個人互相憎恨，而且不顧一切想傷害對方，因爲他們都想成爲中國下一任領導人。

I asked him, "Did you know that the vice premier is married to the sister of the man you say is his enemy?" The professor's face turned red, and he tried to backtrack. When I told the vice premier's family, they laughed and told me to tell that Harvard professor that the two men had just bought adjoining villas.
我問他：“你知道嗎？副總理的太太就是你所說的他的敵人的妹妹。”這位教授的臉馬上紅了，他還想試圖掩飾自己說的話。當我把這件事告訴副總理一家的時候，他們笑了，還說讓我跟這位哈佛大學的教授說一聲，這兩個人已經買了毗連的別墅。

In today's world it is difficult to know when to trust even your financial advisers. You have to do your own due diligence, even with experts. Due diligence is hard work and costly, but you have no choice. (See my article "Warren Buffett Is All Wrong About Goldman.")
在當今的世界，你很難完全任何所謂的專業人士，即便是你的理財顧問。你必須自己做好調查工作，勤勉不懈。這一點很難，也很昂貴，但是你別無選擇。

Finally, I learned that young people need to take stepping-stone positions when they start their careers. Something like 70% of Harvard graduates start out in consulting or investment banking, not just for the money but because those jobs provide good training. If you narrow your focus too early, you risk being pigeonholed. For that reason I am critical of specialized programs in subjects like financial engineering or e-commerce. You're better off getting a more well-rounded degree.
最後，我學到的是年輕人在開始創業的時候需要採取一種踏腳石的姿態。大約有70%的哈佛畢業生開始的都是做諮詢工作，或是在投資銀行工作。這不僅是因爲收入，而是因爲這些職位會提供很好的經驗培訓。如果你如果太早就將自己專注與某一方面，那麼你可能就將自己過早歸類了。出於這個原因，我對象金融工程或是電子商務這樣的專業有很多不同意見。涉獵更爲廣泛的專業，爲對人更加有益。

Young people sometimes ask me what kinds of jobs they should take right out of college. My advice: Do something that won't limit your opportunities as your career progresses. Don't worry about money until you're 30. Until then, find great mentors and make sure you do things that give you exposure to different industries--and, importantly, a little sales experience.
年輕人有時候會詢問我，大學剛畢業他們最好從事什麼工作：哪些工作不會限制你職業的發展的機會。在30歲之前，不要擔心錢的問題。在30歲之前，要找到一位偉大的精神導師，還要確定你會涉及不同和行業取得不同的經驗——而且，重要的是，還有一點銷售的經驗。

In my own career I would have been stopped from advancing had I not learned how to overcome my own fears--I had a lot of them, believe me--and how to take expert opinions with a grain of salt and how to look for opportunities that provided great training and broad exposure. I learned all those things while I was at Harvard, but I didn't learn them in the classroom.
在我的職業生涯中，我如果沒有戰勝自己的恐懼，不知曉如何聽取專業人士的意見，不知道怎樣擴展自己涉獵的方面尋找自己的機會的話，可能也走不到今天。我在哈佛研究生院上學的時候，學會了這幾點，但是並不是在課堂學到的。