2015考研英语阅读离奇的企业家

　　Headbanging

　　离奇的企业家

　　World Changers: 25 Entrepreneurs Who ChangedBusiness As We Knew It. By John Byrne.

　　世界改变者：25位改变传统商业的企业家 作者：约翰拜恩。

　　Hero-worship is out. Most serious writers aremore interested in forces and factors than inheroes and heroines. And even biographers specialise in exposing feet of clay. Lord Acton sdictum that great men are almost always bad men has become a commonplace. Yet onegroup has escaped from this general cynicism: entrepreneurs. Company executives may beboring Gradgrinds, bankers the spawn of the devil and politicians crooks and liars. But allagree that entrepreneurs are a cut above the rest of mankind.

　　英雄崇拜的时代已经不再。大多严肃的作家对影响力和影响因素比对英雄本身更加感兴趣。即使是传记作者，也开始专门曝光英雄的缺陷。艾克顿公爵的格言伟人几乎总是坏人已经成为名句。但是有一类人免受这种普遍的怀疑：企业家。企业的高管们也许像令人厌的葛擂梗，是万恶之源的银行家和瞒天过海的政治家。但是所有人都同意企业家要高出其他人一筹。

　　The obvious reason for this is that entrepreneurs represent the creative side of creativedestruction: it is not hard to see how Richard Branson and Steve Jobs have made the worlda better place, or even Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks. A less obvious reason isthat entrepreneurs appeal to our anti-establishment instincts: some of the very emotionsthat lead us to dislike chief executives and bankers also lead us to admire entrepreneurs.They are impatient with stuffy conventions. They turn the world upside-down. And they getfabulously rewarded for their efforts.

　　一个显而易见的原因是，企业家们代表着创造性破坏中创造性那一面：不难看到理查德布兰森品牌的创始人)和史蒂夫乔布斯，抑或是星巴克的创始人霍华德舒尔茨是如何使世界变得更好。另一个不那么明显的原因是，企业家唤起了我们反体制的本能：某种情绪让我们讨厌高管和银行家，却崇拜企业家。他们无法忍受古板的条条框框。他们将世界反转。他们也因其努力获得了惊人回报。

　　John Byrne s World Changers is a classic exercise in hero-worship. The author providessome interesting insight into what makes entrepreneurs tick. They come in a dizzyingvariety of shapes. John Mackey, the co-founder of Whole Foods, was a hippie. Fred Smith,the founder of Federal Express, served in the marines during the Vietnam war. NarayanaMurthy, the co-founder of Infosys, was a former leftist who found himself on the wrong side ofthe Bulgarian police.

　　约翰拜恩的《改变世界者》是英雄崇拜的经典之作。作者对什么使得企业家发挥作用提供了一些有趣的洞见。他们的出身形形色色。全食食品公司的联合创始人约翰马克是一个嬉皮士。联邦快递的创始人弗里德史密斯曾在越战时期参军。印孚瑟斯的联合创始人纳拉亚纳穆尔萨曾经是站在保加利亚警方反方的左派。

　　But three things seem to unite them. The first is that entrepreneurs routinely seeopportunities where everyone else sees problems. A surprising number of great companieswere born out of fury and frustration. Reed Hastings got the idea for Netflix when a video-rental agency presented him with a $40 late fee for Apollo 13. This opportunism melds withdetermination to produce a powerful cocktail of self-belief. Jeff Bezos continued to workaway at his idea for an online bookshop even after his company, which remained in the redfor its first six years, had been widely dismissed as Amazon.toast.

　　但是三件东西是他们同时具备的。第一，众人眼里的问题，企业家们通常却看到机会。从挫折中诞生的伟大的公司数不胜数。里德哈斯廷斯是在一家影碟租赁公司向他索取《阿波罗 13号》40美元的滞纳金时，冒出了Netflix的灵感。这种机会主义和决心的融合通常炮制出了自我信念。杰夫贝索斯在他的公司前六年持续亏损，被广泛否认为Amazon.toast的时候，仍然坚持他网上书店的想法。

　　The second is an ability to live with risk and failure. Entrepreneurs do not go out of their wayto court risk for its own sake. Many of them are far more conscious of risk than moreconventional business people. Mr Hastings started working on the next iteration of Netflixalmost as soon as he established his company because he knew that the internet woulddestroy his business model. But they accept that risk comes with success. Again and againentrepreneurs have been willing to bet their futures on what sensible people mightdismiss as a crazy idea. The entrepreneur s hall of fame is full of teenage flakes and collegedropouts.

　　第二是在风险和失败中存活的能力。企业家因从未因自身的原因放弃过多风险的追逐。许多企业家远比传统的商人更有风险意识。哈斯廷斯先生在Netflix成立之初就开始着手下一代Netflix的建设，因为他知道互联网将会破坏他的商业模式。但是他接受成功总是伴着风险。企业家总是愿意将他们的未来投在敏感的人看来疯狂的想法上。企业家们的名声里总不乏青年期叛逆和大学辍学等字眼。

　　The third feature uniting them is a determination to run their own lives. Most entrepreneurshave a problem with authority. They would rather fail as their own boss than succeed assecond-in- command. A striking number of them come from difficult backgrounds. TedTurner s father, whom the boy worshipped, sent him to boarding school at the age of four andbeat him with a coat hanger, for example. A disproportionate number suffer from dyslexia.

　　第三个他们共有的特征是按照自己意愿生活的决心。多数企业家都有权利情结。他们宁愿像自己的老板一样失败，也不愿做个成功的二把手。他们中背景曲折的人奇多。比如，泰德 特纳的父亲，深受特纳崇拜，在特纳四岁时就将他送入了寄宿学校，还用衣架打他。还有一部分人受到阅读障碍的困扰就是典型的例子)。

　　Had World Changers continued in this vein it might have been a fascinating book. MrByrne is one of the most knowledgeable business writers arounda long-term writer forBusiness Week and the editor-in-chief of Fast Company. And he has been interviewingentrepreneurs for most of his professional life. But here he soon runs out of steam. Hecontents himself with printing his own interviews with his 25 world changers rather than writing interpretative essays.And he confronts them with soft questions. The likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerbergdeserve to be admired. But 276 pages of hero-worship, particularly when so much of itcomes in the form of the heroes blowing their own trumpets, can wear a little thin.

　　如果《改变世界者》延续这个脉络，可能会是一本非常令人着迷的书。拜恩先生是最见多识广的商业作家之一，担任商业周刊的长期撰稿人和快速公司的主编。在他多数的职业生活中他都是在访问企业家。但是他很快就失去了活力。他满足于书写他和25位改变世界者的访谈，而并不写些有解释力的文章。他也总问他们一些温和的问题。比尔盖茨和马克扎克伯格之辈确实值得被崇拜。但是276页满篇的英雄崇拜，尤其很多都以英雄们自吹自擂的方式呈现，难免乏味。