双语散文:哈佛不曾教授我的三堂课

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.
和少数几所其他机构一样，哈佛大学非常能够激发人们的想象力。世界上有很多领导人，比如说巴拉克·奥巴马总统和联合国秘书长潘基文都是哈佛大学的毕业生。还有许多商业巨头，比如说摩根大通的CEO Jamie Dimon，宝洁公司的A.G. Lafley，还有高盛银行的Lloyd Blankfein也都是师出哈佛门下。笔者本人也是在哈佛大学的研究生院毕业的，也认为那里接受的学术培训可以说是人生的无价之宝，弥足珍贵。但是，笔者感到课堂下，学到的东西比课堂上更多。下面就是在笔者的职业生涯中非常关键的三堂课，而这些是哈佛的教室中所不曾讲授过的。

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.
第一堂课是我自己的学生身上学到的。我在上研究生的时候，曾经帮助老师教学，教授中国现代历史和政治体系的课程。在上课的时候，我可能从学生身上学到的，要比他们比我学到的要多。

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，学生都会来到我的那个可以俯瞰哈佛大学校园的办公室，我们最后讨论的内容常常会超越中国的问题。我们讨论了学生们的希望，而且更常谈论到的是他们的恐怖。他们常常会恐惧不能赶上同伴们的成就，或是不能达到他们父母的期望。

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.
他们认为这种恐惧应该是每个人都会感受到的。有钱人家的孩子会想他们能够来到哈佛全是因为自己有这样的家庭；少数族裔的学生担心他们是因为肤色才到了哈佛；家庭条件不好的人担心他们不够富有，来到哈佛压力很大。作为他们的老师，我知道他们每一个人来到这里都是实至名归的，虽然其中理由各不一样。但是他们自己想要衡量和他人相比自己做得如何不太容易，而这一点助长了他们的不安全感。

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，他们中最出色的那些人并不能让他们的恐惧阻挡了自己发展的脚步。相反，恐惧促进了自身的发展。他们会有很多恐惧，但是他们并没有让恐惧控制他们，而是把恐惧变成一种动力，想要证明这些恐惧其实都不是真实的。他们更加努力的工作，来更加证明自己。常常我会看到，他们中不安全感最强的人，常常会成长为最优秀的人。

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.
商业人士也需要战胜自己的恐惧感。他们需要知道怎样控制自己的忧虑，在别人忽略之处发现机会。自从雷曼兄弟破产以后，太多的商业人士开始让恐惧，而不是让理性的思考决定他们的决策制定的过程，而也有太多的投资者草率决定，甚至惊慌失措。很多资产投资者出于恐惧抛售了他们所有的持有，而错过了2009年的牛市。很多公司过度裁员，疏远伤害了他们的劳动力。还有人停止了投资，有时甚至是在增长最快的领域。

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.
有两个公司并没有让恐惧软化自己，这两个公司就是百事可乐公司和迪士尼公司。他们非常冷静的审时度势，在其他公司因为恐惧不敢有大动作的时候，发现了机会。在深度经济衰退的时候，他们宣布在中国和其他新兴市场投资数十亿美元。现在他们已经开始了全世界范围的复苏，这些投资让他们走在了前面。

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.
得到的结论就是：控制自己的恐惧，利用这些恐惧产生积极的结果，就像我的一些优秀的学生和最优秀的商业人士所作的那样。如果你头脑清醒，不管时局好坏都是能赚到钱的，很多对冲基金投资者，比如说乔治?索罗斯和约翰?保尔森都知道这一点。

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.
我学到的第二堂课是，要将勤奋作为自己的本分，尽职调查，不盲目的相信所谓的专家。哈佛大学的教授都是在他们的领域被认为是专家式的人物。我发现人们很难不用一种敬畏之心看待他们。但是我记得和一个教授的会谈，这个知名教授提供中国政府内部工作方面的咨询工作。一天他跟我谈到了两位中国的高官，一个是副总理，另一位同样也是高官。这个教授告诉我说，这两个人互相憎恨，而且不顾一切想伤害对方，因为他们都想成为中国下一任领导人。

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.
我问他：“你知道吗？副总理的太太就是你所说的他的敌人的妹妹。”这位教授的脸马上红了，他还想试图掩饰自己说的话。当我把这件事告诉副总理一家的时候，他们笑了，还说让我跟这位哈佛大学的教授说一声，这两个人已经买了毗连的别墅。

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.")
在当今的世界，你很难完全任何所谓的专业人士，即便是你的理财顾问。你必须自己做好调查工作，勤勉不懈。这一点很难，也很昂贵，但是你别无选择。

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.
最后，我学到的是年轻人在开始创业的时候需要采取一种踏脚石的姿态。大约有70%的哈佛毕业生开始的都是做咨询工作，或是在投资银行工作。这不仅是因为收入，而是因为这些职位会提供很好的经验培训。如果你如果太早就将自己专注与某一方面，那么你可能就将自己过早归类了。出于这个原因，我对象金融工程或是电子商务这样的专业有很多不同意见。涉猎更为广泛的专业，为对人更加有益。

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.
年轻人有时候会询问我，大学刚毕业他们最好从事什么工作：哪些工作不会限制你职业的发展的机会。在30岁之前，不要担心钱的问题。在30岁之前，要找到一位伟大的精神导师，还要确定你会涉及不同和行业取得不同的经验——而且，重要的是，还有一点销售的经验。

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.
在我的职业生涯中，我如果没有战胜自己的恐惧，不知晓如何听取专业人士的意见，不知道怎样扩展自己涉猎的方面寻找自己的机会的话，可能也走不到今天。我在哈佛研究生院上学的时候，学会了这几点，但是并不是在课堂学到的。