謊報學歷的億萬富翁

It was 1964 and a degree was one of the conditions of employment so Mr Geffen told his bosses he had studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. When a letter from UCLA arrived casting doubt on his claim, he intercepted it in the mailroom, steaming it open and substituting its contents with a forgery. It was a daring act and had he been caught he would have been fired. Yet the extent of his later achievements suggest that not even rejection from William Morris would have derailed his path to success。
　當時是1964年，有學位是其被僱傭的條件之一，於是，格芬就跟他的老闆說，他曾在加州大學洛杉磯分校(University of California, Los Angeles，簡稱UCLA)就讀。當一封來自該學校的信對他的說法提出質疑時，他在郵件室內截住了這封信，用蒸汽將其拆開，然後用一封假信掉了包。此舉十分大膽，如果他被抓住，他將會被解僱。不過，他後來的成就表明，即使威廉•莫里斯拒絕了他，也不會阻止他走向成功。

A billionaire many times over, the 66-year-old was this week linked with a bid for The New York Times. This adds an interest in newspapers to a career in which he has dominated the music industry, produced a string of Broadway shows, launched DreamWorks SKG – the first truly independent film studio in decades – and accumulated one of the world's most impressive collections of modern art。
　最近，這位66歲的億萬富翁被傳有意收購《紐約時報》(The New York Times)。這將使他的事業範圍擴展至報業。在其事業生涯裏，他已經主宰了音樂界，製作了一系列百老匯歌舞劇，創建了夢工廠(Dreamworks SKG)——數十年來第一家真正獨立的電影製片廠——還收集了世界上最令人驚歎的一部分現代藝術品。

His upbringing was a far cry from his billionaire lifestyle. He was born in Brooklyn, the son of a Polish father and Russian mother. His mother, Batya, owned a corset store; his father, Abraham, was a pattern maker in the garment trade. The family was not well off but his mother gave him a work ethic and was prone to sayings such as: “If something looks too good to be true, it probably is。” Mr Geffen is also fond of the maxim, says Jeffrey Katzenberg, a friend for 35 years and his partner, along with Steven Spielberg, in the creation of DreamWorks SKG. “He was influenced tremendously by his mother and will often quote her,” says Mr Katzenberg。
　他的童年與現在億萬富翁的生活方式大相徑庭。格芬出生於紐約的布魯克林，父母分別來自波蘭和俄羅斯。母親巴蒂亞(Batya)擁有一家胸衣商店，而父親亞伯拉罕(Abraham)是服裝業的一名製版師。他的家庭並不富裕，但母親向他灌輸了工作觀念，並總喜歡引用諺語，例如：“如果什麼事看上去好的令人難以置信，那麼你最好別信。”格芬也喜歡說格言，他35年的老友兼合夥人傑弗裏•卡岑貝格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)如是說。他們二人連同斯蒂芬•斯皮爾伯格(Steven Spielberg)一起創建了夢工廠。“他受媽媽的影響極深，常常引用她的話，”卡岑貝格說道。

Mr Geffen scraped through high school and tried a term at the University of Texas before Hollywood beckoned. At 19, he got a job as an usher at CBS Television City where, on his first day, he was assigned to The Judy Garland Show. From there, he went back to New York and William Morris, where his contemporaries included Larry Gagosian, the renowned art dealer, and Barry Diller, who would become a friend and go on to run Rupert Murdoch's Fox。
　格芬勉強讀完了高中，在德克薩斯大學(University of Texas)嘗試唸了一個學期，就投奔了好萊塢。19歲時，他成爲哥倫比亞電視城的一名引座員，第一天上班，他就被派到《茱蒂•嘉蘭秀》(The Judy Garland Show)。他從電影城回到紐約，進入威廉•莫里斯，他的同齡人包括知名藝術經紀商拉里•加高西安(Larry Gagosian)，以及後來成爲朋友的巴里•迪勒(Barry Diller)，迪勒後來執掌魯珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)的福克斯(Fox)。

　　Work in the mailroom

was tough and Mr Geffen later recalled having to fill the soapdispensers and change the toilet paper. But the agency taught him somevital lessons, such as how to form relationships and win trust. InDavid Rensin's 2003 book about the agency, The Mailroom, Mr Geffenrecalls learning how to “read the room ... I took mental notes oneverything”。
　　郵件室的工作非常艱苦，格芬後來回憶道，他還要添加液體肥皂，更換廁所手紙。但這家公司教給了他一些至關重要的經驗，例如如何建立人際關係並贏得信任。在大衛•蘭森(David Rensin) 2003年出版的有關這家公司的書《郵件室》(TheMailroom)中，格芬回憶自己學着如何去“讀懂辦公室……我在心中對每件事都做了筆記”。

Mr Katzenberg, who was Mr Diller's assistant when he first met Mr Geffen, says his friend has an uncanny ability to absorb large amounts of information, quickly retaining what isimportant. But success has come on his own terms. “One of the things that is so fascinating about him is that he isn't a type-A personality who has to get up very early every day and have a very full agenda,”says Mr Katzen berg. “It's not the way to get the greatest value out ofhim – and he knows that。”
　　卡岑貝格與格芬初次相遇時是迪勒的助手，他稱他的朋友擁有一種不可思議的能力，能吸收大量信息，並迅速保留那些重要信息。但他取得成功並非靠墨守成規。“他的一個奇妙特點是，他並非那種A型性格——每天早早起牀，日程排得滿滿的，”卡岑貝格說道。“這不是從他身上挖掘最大價值的方式，他也知道這一點。

By his mid-20s Mr Geffen was a millionaire thanks to the sale of a music publishing company he half-owned. He made a bigger impact in 1970 with the launch of Asylum Records, which nurtured actsincluding The Eagles and Joni Mitchell. The end of the 1970s washarder: he was misdiagnosed with cancer and did not work for severalyears. But he came back in 1980 with the launch of Geffen Records,which launched the careers of Guns N'Roses and Nirvana。
　　到25歲左右時，通過出售擁有一半所有權的音樂出版公司，格芬已成爲了一名百萬富翁。1970年，他創建了孕育出老鷹樂隊(The Eagles)和約尼•米切爾(JoniMitchell)等藝人的AsylumRecords唱片公司，進一步增強了影響力。70年代末對他要艱難一些：他被誤診爲癌症，停止工作數年之久。但1980年他又東山再起，創建了Geffen Records唱片公司，開創了“槍與玫瑰”(Guns N'Roses)和“涅磐”(Nirvana)樂隊的事業。

Geffen Records propelled him into the realms of the super rich. A decade after its launch,he sold the label to Lew Wasserman's MCA Hollywood studio, receiving shares that would eventually net him $700m when MCA was acquired by Matsushita of Japan。
　　GeffenRecords唱片公司將格芬推入了超級富豪行列。該公司創建10年後，他將商標權出售給了盧•沃瑟曼(LewWasserman)旗下的MCA好萊塢唱片公司，當日本松下集團(Matsushita)收購MCA時，格芬所持股份爲其最終賺得了7億美元的利潤。