Bill Gates has revealed how he used to keep tabs on his employees by memorising all of their number plates to see when they were arriving and leaving the office.
比尔·盖茨近日自曝曾把所有员工的车牌号都熟记下来，以此来监视员工的上下班时间。
The Microsoft co-founder has given an insight into his early years as a boss back when the technology company was in its infancy during the late 70s, employing only handful of people compared to thousands today.
这位微软创始人之一向我们吐露了他早年当老板的一些内幕，那是在上世纪70年代末，相比于今天拥有数千人的公司，当时他的科技公司尚处于起步阶段，只有为数不多的几个员工。
The billionaire, known today for his mild manner and philanthropy, was a much harder figure in the early years of his career, where he was regarded as a hard negotiator and demanding boss.
如今，这位亿万富翁温文尔雅和乐善好施的形象已广为人知，但在创业早期，他给人留下的印象要强硬得多。人们认为他是一个难对付的谈判者和苛刻的老板。
In an interview for the BBC's Desert Island Discs broadcast on the other day, Gates admitted being 'fanatical about work' in Microsoft's early days, sometimes to the misfortune of co-workers.
日前在BBC“荒岛唱片”节目的访谈中，他承认在微软创立初期自己“对待工作很狂热”，这有时对同事来说是一种不幸。
'I had to be a little careful not to try and apply my standards to how hard they worked,' he said.
他说：“我必须要提醒自己不能再用我的标准来要求员工努力工作了。”
'You know, I knew everyone's licence plates so I could look out in the parking lot and see when people coming in, when people were leaving.
“我知道每个人的车牌，所以只要看一看停车场，就可以得知员工的上下班时间。”
'Eventually I had to loosen up as the company got to a reasonable size.'
“但最后因为公司发展到了一定的规模，我不得不放松这种标准。”
Gates also spoke of his relationship with Apple founder Steve Jobs.
盖茨也谈到了他和苹果创始人史蒂夫·乔布斯的关系。
He said: 'For some periods we were complete allies working together - I wrote the original software on Apple 2.
他说：“有一段时间，我们在一起工作，是彼此最坚实的盟友。那时我正在为苹果2编写原始程序。”
'Sometimes he would be tough on you, sometimes he would be very encouraging. And he got really great work out of people.'
“他有时对你要求严苛，有时又会给人鼓励。他可以把人的潜能极大地激发出来。”
Talking about when he saw Jobs a few months before he died in 2011, Gates said: 'In the early years the intensity had always been about the project, and so when Steve got sick it was far more mellow in terms of talking about our lives and our kids.
盖茨谈到与乔布斯最后一次会面是在2011年他去世前几个月，盖茨说：“早些年，我们的谈话内容主要是关于产品项目，但当乔布斯生病后，我们的谈话内容就轻松很多，更多是在谈论生活和孩子。
'He and I gave a joint interview together and I talked about how I envied his incredible design skills. Steve was an incredible genius and I was more of an engineer than he was.
“有一次我们一起参加了一个访谈节目，我谈到我十分羡慕他惊人的设计能力。史蒂夫是一个绝妙的天才，和他相比，我只能算是一个工程师。
'It was fun that it was more of a friendship that reflective, although tragically then he couldn't overcome the cancer and died.'
“很有趣，我们的关系更像朋友，但悲剧的是，乔布斯没能战胜癌症，最后离开人世。”
The 60-year-old also revealed how he was 'disruptive' as a teenager, forcing his parents to send him to a psychologist.
60岁的盖茨还自曝青少年时喜欢搞破坏，迫使父母带他去看心理医生。
Gates said his parents taught him the value of 'giving back' to society, a lesson developed into a philanthropic philosophy culminating in he and his wife Melinda setting aside much of their vast fortune to help the world's poor.
盖茨谈到父母曾教给他“回报”社会的价值观，后来盖茨将其发展成了一种慈善哲学，他和妻子梅琳达对此作了最好的阐述，他们捐献巨额财富来帮助世界上的穷人。
Talking about his relationship with his parents - his father was a successful lawyer, his mother a teacher who sat on a number of corporate boards - he said: 'They set a very good example of being engaged in giving back.'
盖茨的父亲是一名成功的律师，母亲是一名教师，主持过多次公司董事会。在谈到与父母的关系时，他说：“他们为我树立了回报社会的一个好榜样。”
As a child he devoured books, especially biographies, and considered a future as a lawyer or scientist so he could 'work on hard problems'.
孩童时期，盖茨就对书籍如饥似渴，尤其是传记作品。他立志要成为律师或科学家，去“解决一些难题”。
Computing became an obsession and he would spend five hours a day learning programming, skipping gym classes to further his knowledge.
计算机技术出现后，他便痴迷其中。他每天用5个小时学习编程，为了更深入的学习，他还逃掉体育课。
Gates met Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen at school - the pair managed to rig the school's schedule so Gates could sit near the 'nice girls' in class - and he eventually dropped out of Harvard to set up the company when he was just 19.
盖茨在学校遇见了保罗·艾伦——微软的另一位创始人。他俩成功修改了学校的课程表，这样盖茨便可以和“可爱女生”同班上课。最后他从哈佛大学辍学，年仅19岁就创立了自己的公司。
By 1979, at 23, Microsoft was grossing 2.5 million dollars a year.
1979年，盖茨23岁，但他创立的微软一年的总收入已达250万美元。
For his Desert Island Discs, Gates picked Under Pressure, by Queen and David Bowie, Willie Nelson's Blue Skies, and The Two Of Us by The Beatles, among others.
在这次荒岛唱片节目中，盖茨挑选了皇后乐队和大卫·鲍伊的《承受压力》，威利·尼尔森的《蓝色天空》和披头士的《我们两个》。
He also selected copies of the world's great lectures on DVD as his luxury item, and chose to take Steven Pinker's The Better Angels Of Our Nature as his book.
他还选择了世界最棒演讲的DVD和史蒂芬•平克的《人性中的善良天使》一书作为自己的珍藏。
Vocabulary
keep tabs on: 监视，密切注意
rig: 操纵
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