哈佛商学院毕业典礼致辞：布隆伯格的五个人生建议

 

 

5月29日，彭博资讯创始人迈克尔·布隆伯格受邀出席哈佛商学院毕业典礼，并为2019届毕业生发表毕业演讲，美藤国际为您带来演讲中英全文：

 

“Well good afternoon. Thank you, Dan for the introduction – and you really don't have to call me Mayor Bloomberg. Mr. Bloomberg would be just fine, thank you.

 

“Let me also thank Nitin for the honor of addressing you. I didn’t have much choice when he called – he didn’t ask me to come, he told me I was coming.

 

下午好，谢谢你，为我介绍。不必称呼我为市长，叫我布隆伯格先生就好。还要感谢Nitin让我有幸在这里致辞。他给我打电话时可没有留给我什么选择，她并非问我能否过来，而是让我一定要来。

 

“Let me begin with the most important words I can say today: congratulations to the distinguished graduates of the great class of 2019.

 

首先，请允许我以最重要的话作为开场白：祝贺2019届的优秀毕业生们。

 

“It was only 53 years ago that I was in your shoes, so I know you've had an amazing experience here. You have mastered the case method during your time on campus – and the art of asking tough questions, like why don't the printers ever work here? Why on earth do they use the case method to teach accounting? Who thought of that?

 

53年前，我也曾和你们一样，在这里度过了美好的时光，掌握了案例分析方法和提出尖锐问题的技巧，比如，为什么这台打印机从来都不能用？究竟为什么要用案例法教会计学？这是谁的主意？

 

“And the toughest question of all: how many people does it take to finish a Scorpion Bowl at Hong Kong? For the record, the correct answer there is more than one.

 

其中最尖锐的问题是，需要几个人才能在香港楼餐厅喝完一杯“蝎子碗”（Scorpion Bowl）鸡尾酒？要知道，正确答案可不止一个。

 

“HBS really does have a special place in my heart. Not only did I graduate from here, but so did my daughter, Emma.

 

“My foundation teamed up with the B-School and K-School to create a mayoral leadership program run by Professor Abdelal.

 

哈佛商学院在我心目中极为特殊。我不仅毕业于此，我的女儿Emma也是。我的基金会与哈佛商学院和政治学院通力合作，创建了市长领导力项目，由Abdelal教授负责运营。

 

“And my father – who died a year before I was accepted to HBS – has his name on the building that stands behind Baker, an honor that would have thrilled him.

 

我父亲在我被哈佛商学院录取前一年过世，但他的名字却留在了贝克大楼后面的建筑上，这是一项肯定会让他兴奋不已的殊荣。

 

“He and my mother raised my sister and me just five miles from here in Medford, Massachusetts. That was convenient, because I never would have made it through the B-School without my mother nearby – she typed all my papers. Five decades later I still can't type – or spell. But I do have the good sense to have someone proof my tweets.

 

他和我母亲在距离此地仅5英里的麻萨诸塞州梅德福市抚养我和妹妹长大成人。这给我提供了很多方便，因为妈妈如果不是住在附近，我永远都不可能从商学院毕业，她帮我打印了全部论文。五十年过去了，我依然不擅长打字或拼写。不过我知道要在发推文之前找人帮我校对。

 

“As you can imagine, I also had the good sense to keep my Boston connections to myself when I was Mayor of New York City, especially when the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins or Patriots came to town. I will just note that during my time in City Hall, the Giants beat the Patriots in two Super Bowls. I did my job.

 

你们可以想象，我很明智地在出任纽约市长期间，没有公开我与波士顿的渊源，特别是在红袜、凯尔特人、棕熊或是爱国者队（译注：分别指波士顿的职业棒球队、篮球队、冰球队以及麻萨诸塞州福克斯堡的职业橄榄球队）来纽约比赛的时候。我只想说，在我任职期间，纽约巨人队仅有两次在超级碗比赛中战胜了爱国者队。我尽力了。

 

 

“We moved to Medford from Brookline a few miles from here when I was four-years-old. And I can still remember my first day in our new home. A boy from up the street clunked me over the head with a rock and I went in bleeding to my mother, which is to say I learned about Boston hospitality at a young age. I guess I had a hard head even back then.

 

在我四岁那年，我们全家从距离这里几英里外的布鲁克林搬到了梅德福。我至今还记得我们乔迁新居的第一天，街上的一个男孩子用石头砸破我的头，于是我血流满面地跑回家找妈妈。从那时起，我领教了波士顿的殷勤好客，并意识到自己有个坚硬的榆木脑袋。

 

“Even though I grew up just a trolley car ride away, when I first arrived on campus I felt like I'd entered a whole new world. Suddenly, I was in classes with friends whose families had built major companies and had famous last names. That was a pretty radical change from my childhood. My mother once told me: we never knew anybody whose name was in the newspaper, unless it was in the crime or the obit section.

 

尽管乘坐有轨电车，就能从我长大的地方到这里，但当我第一次来到校园，就像进入了一个大观园。突然之间，我和拥有显赫姓氏、或大型家族企业的朋友一起去上课。与我的童年相比，这是个相当大的变化。我母亲曾说，我们从不认识任何名字出现在报纸上的人物，除了在犯罪版或讣告栏。

 

“I can't say I spent a lot of time across this lawn in Baker Library. My transcript is evidence of that. I was always one of those who made the top half of the class possible. I was more likely to be over the bridge at what is now the Russell House Tavern. Back then, it was a German beer hall called The Wursthaus. It's where I first learned that it's better not to watch sausage being made.

 

我得承认自己并非草坪对面贝克图书馆的常客。我的成绩单可以证明这一点，我的成绩一般都在年级前50%。更多的时间，我是在桥那边，现在名叫Russell House Tavern酒馆的那个地方度过的。彼时，那是一家名叫The Wursthaus德国啤酒屋。我在那里第一次知道观看香肠的制作过程无法令人愉悦。

 

 

“Now, I'm sure many of you have already lined up a job. But for those who haven't, don't worry. I was a month away from graduating from the B-School and I still had no idea what I wanted to do. I asked a classmate for advice. He said, ‘Go to Wall Street.’ I said, ‘I don't know anything about finance.’ He said, ‘Just apply for jobs at Salomon Brothers & Hutzler, and a firm named Goldman Sachs.’ And I said, ‘Who are they? What do they do?’

 

我相信你们中的很多人都已经搞定工作。不过，还没有找到工作的人也不要担心。当初，离毕业还有一个月的时候，我仍然不知道自己想要做什么。我向一位同学求助。他说：“去华尔街。”我说：“我对金融一窍不通。”他答道：“就去所罗门兄弟公司，或是一家名叫高盛的公司申请工作。”然后我说：“他们是谁？是做什么的？”

 

“Yes, I was a B-School kid who had never heard of Goldman Sachs. A lot has changed since then.

 

没错，我是一个从没听说过高盛的商学院学生。可从此以后发生了很多变化。

 

“Goldman, I remember, flew me down to New York and offered me a job starting at $14,000 a year – not bad pay for 1966. Salomon Brothers sent me a train ticket and offered me a job for only $9,000. After the interviews, I thought I would fit much better into Salomon. But I told the senior partner, John Gutfreund, I couldn't afford to pay the rent on that salary. Rent in New York was really expensive back then – 120 bucks a month, as I remember.

 

高盛，我记得，当时让我飞到纽约并提供给我一份起步年薪1.4万美元的工作，这在1966年还算不错。而所罗门兄弟寄给我一张火车票，给了我一份只有9,000美元年薪的工作。面试后，我感觉自己更适合所罗门兄弟。于是我对所罗门兄弟的高级合伙人John Gutfreund说，靠这份工资我可付不起房租。那时候，纽约的房租真的非常高，在我己得月租高达120美元。

 

“He said, ‘how much do you need?’ I didn't want to be piggy about it, so I said on the spur of the moment $11,500. He said, ‘OK, $9,000 in salary and a $2,500 loan.’ And he walked out of the room. This is a true story, I didn’t know what to do.

 

他于是问我：“你想要多少？”我不想太贪心，所以我当下回复说1.15万美元。他说：“好，9,000美元薪水，另加2,500美元贷款。”然后他就起身走了。这是真的，我当时都不知道该如何是好。

 

“So I showed up two months later and I just started working. So much for my negotiating skills.

 

于是，两个月后我就去上班了。我的谈判技巧也就是只到这个水平。

 

“For the record, my first year bonus was $500 loan forgiveness, and my second year bonus was forgiveness for the other two grand. Just remember that when you think you are getting stiffed on a bonus negotiation.

 

要知道，我第一年的奖金是减免500美元贷款，第二年的奖金是再多减2,000美元。当你感觉自己在谈判奖金的时候吃亏了，就想想我的经历。

 

“But seriously, when you weigh a job offer my message to you is, even later in life when you’re considering a career change, leave salary out of the equation. Make decisions based on the quality of the opportunity, and where you'll have the most fun and the most room for growth.

 

不过说实话，在权衡一份工作邀请、甚至是今后考虑换工作的时候，我的建议是，不要考虑薪资问题。你们的决定应该基于工作机会的质量，以及哪里能带来最多的乐趣和最大的发展空间。

 

“What's important for your career is not your starting salary. It's your development and happiness. The cash will come later on.

 

对职业生涯而言，起薪并不重要。重要的是发展前景和开心与否。钱以后总能挣到的。

 

“I learned a lot about finance at Salomon, but the most valuable lesson I learned had nothing to do with stocks and bonds. They were lessons on how to apply what I had learned – not only here at HBS, but also from my parents, and from my time as an Eagle Scout.

 

在所罗门，我学到了很多金融方面的东西，不过最有价值的一课却与股票和债券无关，而是关于如何运用所学的知识。这些知识不仅是从哈佛商学院，还包括我从父母那里、从成为鹰级童子军的经历中学到的。

 

“The head of Salomon Brothers, Billy Salomon, never went to college, no less business school. He never took a class in corporate responsibility – and he didn't need to. Being ethical does not require a Masters degree. It requires having a conscience – and following it. It requires being honest and truthful, and never lying or cheating.

 

所罗门兄弟公司的老板Billy Salomon从没有上过大学，更别提商学院了。他从没上过任何有关企业责任的课程，当然也没有这个必要。讲道德不需要硕士学位，需要的是良知，以及听从良知的召唤。需要诚实和守信，永远不说谎、不欺骗。

 

“Let me give you a quick example: there was a rule at Salomon against giving gifts to clients to win more business. When Billy caught someone sending a case of wine to a major client, he fired him on the spot. Period, end of story. It didn't matter that he was perhaps the most productive salesman in the company.

 

我给你们举个简单的例子，在所罗门有一条规则，禁止为得到更多生意而向客户送礼。当Billy发现有人向大客户送了一箱红酒时，他当场解雇了这名员工。到此为止，一切结束。这名员工有可能是公司最能干的销售员，但这不重要。

 

“You can say Billy over-reacted – but I don't think so. The rules he asked us to follow he followed himself – no exceptions. And when it came to ethics, there was no compromising.

 

你们可能会说Billy反应过度，不过我不这么想。他要求我们遵循的规则，他自己也会遵守，没有例外。而且绝不在道德问题上有任何妥协。

 

“Billy treated everyone the same – from senior partners to the custodial staff. No one was better than anyone else. And Billy believed if you were lucky enough to make some money, you had an obligation to give a percentage of it away to help others. In fact, he didn't ask you what the percentage should be, he told you and you did it.

 

从高级合伙人到保管人员，Billy都一视同仁。没有人好于其他人。而且他相信，如果你够幸运能赚到钱，你就有义务将其中一部分捐出去帮助他人。实际上，他不问你认为该捐多少，而是直接告诉你然后你照办。

 

“I've been very lucky in my career. But my luckiest break wasn't getting fired – although that was pretty lucky it turned out. My luckiest break was taking a job where I got to see the ethics I learned growing up put into practice in the workplace. And I'd like to think the principles that I learned at Salomon have guided my life ever since.

 

我的职业生涯一直非常幸运。最幸运的并不是被解雇，虽然结果证明这件事也蛮幸运的。我最幸运的是能够得到一份工作，这份工作让我看到成长过程中所学的道德规范在职场中被实际应用。我想，我在所罗门学到的这些原则，此后一直指引着我的人生。

 

“But when we look at today's world, it’s not clear that everyone with a degree in business has those principles. And that's one reason, I believe, that this great country of ours is suffering from an ethical crisis that is corroding our society.

 

但当我们审视今天的世界时，并不清楚是否每一个拥有工商学位的人都遵循这些原则。我相信这正是我们这个伟大的国家如今正遭受道德危机的一个原因，这场危机正侵蚀着我们的社会。

 

“Today, Americans are questioning whether those in the private sector – and in Washington – can provide the moral leadership our country needs, both economically and politically. They see the rewards of the economy increasingly concentrated at the top. They see wealthy parents scamming the college admissions process. They see families unable to afford health care and housing in the world's richest country. They see decades of discrimination based on race and ethnicity trapping another generation into poverty. And they wonder: is our economic system breaking down?

 

如今，美国人在质疑，非政府领域，以及华盛顿的那些人能否提供国家所需要的道德领袖，包括经济上和政治上的。人们看到，经济回报越来越多地集中于上层阶级；富裕的家长能够在大学录取过程中舞弊；在这个全球最富裕的国家，人们也会看不起病、住不起房。人们还看到，数十年的种族歧视、民族歧视，让又一代人陷入贫困无法自拔。大家想知道：我们的经济体系要崩溃了吗？

 

“At the same time, if they are not blinded by partisanship when they look at Washington, D.C., they see truth and science being trampled with reckless abandon. They see the rule of law being attacked and undermined. They see a chorus of enablers who defend every lie and abuse of power. And they wonder: is our political system breaking down, too?

 

与此同时，如果没有被党派偏见所蒙蔽，在华盛顿哥伦比亚特区，人们看到的是真理与科学被肆意践踏抛弃，看到法律原则被攻击诋毁，看到煽风点火的人在为谎言和权力滥用辩护。人们在问：我们的政治体系也要崩溃了吗？

 

“Now, as you may know, I've never been much for party politics. I've supported Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Hell, I've actually been a Democrat, Republican, and independent.

 

你们可能都知道，我从来都不喜欢党派政治。我支持过民主党、共和党和独立党派。见鬼，实际上我本人就曾是民主党、共和党和独立党派人士。

 

“No party has a monopoly on good ideas or good people. But I believe all of us have an obligation to reject those who traffic in dishonesty and deceit. That is not a partisan position. That is a patriotic position.

 

没有哪一个党派可以垄断所有好的想法或好人。不过我相信，所有人都有义务将那些尔虞我诈和背信弃义的人拒之门外。这不是任何党派立场，这是爱国者的立场。

 

“For full disclosure, back in 2016 at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia when the Republican nominee was promising to run our country like he ran his business, I said, ‘God help us.’ And not just because he went to Wharton. Actually I wish I hadn't been right.

 

坦白地讲，早在2016年民主党全国代表大会在费城举行时，当共和党提名人承诺他将像经营自己的公司那样来经营这个国家的时候，我就说过：“上帝请帮助我们。”这不只是因为这位共和党人士是沃顿商学院毕业的。实际上我很希望我的想法是错的。

 

“But unfortunately, when we elect people to public office who have no interest in ethics, that depravity trickles down and it seeps into our culture.

 

然而不幸的是，当我们选举了对道德毫不关心的人担任公职时，堕落会慢慢渗透到我们的文化中。