一生中最好的忠告

人一生中会得到许多好的建议。什么样的好建议给成功人士的奋斗注入了强心剂呢?一起来听听eBay(易趣)的CEO兼总裁Meg Whitman在2005年接受《财富》杂志75周年专题报道"The Best Advice I Ever Got"采访时是怎么说的吧!

Several pieces of advice I've gotten in my life have really made a difference.

"Be nice to people." This sounds like a platitude1), but I'll never forget my father telling me that. I was 10, and I had been mean to someone. He said, "There is no point in being2) mean to anyone at any time. You never know who you're going to meet later in life. And by the way, you don't change anything by being mean. Usually you don't get anywhere."

"Remember that you can do anything you want to do. Don't let anyone say, 'You're not smart enough... it's too hard... it's a dumb idea... no one has done that before... girls don't do that.'" My mom gave me that advice in 1973. And it allowed me to never worry about what others were saying about my career direction.

"Always do the best job you can do at whatever you're assigned3), even if you think it's boring." Jerry Parkinson, an assistant advertising manager and my boss at P&G4), told me this in 1979. Here I was fresh out of Harvard Business School(HBS), and I was assigned to determine how big the hole in the Ivory shampoo5) bottle should be: 3/8 of an inch or 1/8 of an inch. I did research, focus groups6) ... and I would come home at night wondering how I had gone from HBS to this. But later I realized that any job you're given is an opportunity to prove yourself.

"Don't be a credit7) hog8). If you're constantly in the neighborhood of good things, good things will happen to you." Tom Tierney, who was my boss at Bain9) in 1981 and is now on the eBay board, told me this. It's true - you get ahead10) by crediting other people.

Finally, in 1998, I was in New York watching the ticker11) as eBay went public12). My husband is a neurosurgeon13). I called into his operating room and told him the great news. And he said, "That's nice. But Meg, remember that it's not brain surgery.14)"

我在生活中获得的一些忠告的确产生了十分重大的影响。

"友善待人。"这话听起来似乎是老生常谈,但我永远都不会忘记父亲给我这则忠告的情景。当时我十岁,曾对某人刻薄。于是父亲教育我:"不论什么时候,你都没必要对任何人刻薄,因为你永远都不知道自己在以后的生活中将会遇到谁。而且,刻薄待人于事无补,通常只会一无所获。"

"记住,你能做到自己想做的任何事情。不要让任何人说:'你不够聪明……这太难了……这是个笨主意……从来没有人做过那样的事……女孩子不该那样做。'"这是母亲在1973年给我的建议。这条忠告让我从不为别人对我职业方向的看法而烦恼。

"不论分配给你的任务是什么,你都必须尽全力做到最好,即使你认为那是个无聊的任务。"1979年,我在宝洁公司工作时的老板、广告部经理助理杰瑞·帕金森给了我以上这条忠告。那时我刚从哈佛商学院毕业,公司派给我的任务是研究"象牙"洗发水瓶的瓶口该开多大才最合适:是3/8英寸还是1/8英寸?为此我做了调查,还进行了专题小组讨论……可是晚上回到家,我就会疑惑:我堂堂一位哈佛商学院的毕业生,怎么在做这样的事情?然而,后来我意识到:你接到的任何一项工作其实都是证明你自己的机会。

"不要追名逐利。如果你长期与好事为邻,那么好事自然会发生在你身上。"这句话是1981年我在贝恩顾问管理公司工作时,我的老板汤姆·蒂尔尼对我说的。他现在是易趣的股东。这话说得很对--通过赞誉他人,你也会取得成功。

最后一则忠告出现在1998年,当时我在纽约盯着倒计时牌,等待易趣上市时刻的到来。我的丈夫是一个神经外科医生,当我打电话到他的手术室,告诉他这个好消息时,他却答道:"这很不错。不过,梅格,你要切记,它没有脑外科手术那么要紧。"