资本家如何让后人怀念?

We may not all yearn to be immortal but I don't believe anyone wants to be forgotten after they die. This isn't simply vanity but a deep, instinctive urge. For most of us, this longing is satisfied by having children and seeing our genes passed on through the ages.
我们可能并非所有人都希望流芳百世，但我相信，任何一个人都不希望自己死后被人遗忘。这并非仅仅是虚荣，而是一种深沉、本能的愿望。对于我们多数人而言，这种渴望因为生育子女、并看着我们的基因越过不同的时代传递下去而得到满足。

But others, especially ambitious men, seek to leave a material mark on the world. No doubt this is because they cannot give birth; so they seek to create something else as a substitute. I suspect entrepreneurs fall into this category – as a breed, they possess a powerful desire that their accomplishments outlive them. They agree with Pope John XXIII's advice: "Do not walk through time without leaving worthy evidence of your passage."
但还有一些人，尤其是雄心勃勃的男人，希望在世界上留下重要记号。无疑，这是因为他们无法生育；因此，他们希望创造一些其他的事物来代替。我猜，企业家就属于这一类，他们强烈希望他们的成就超越自己的生命。他们认同教皇约翰二十三世(Pope John XXIII)的箴言："不要度过人生长河而不留下值得追忆的证据。"

Yet most tycoons fail in this aspiration, because their business empires tend not to survive for long after their demise. And often they are more famous for amassing a fortune rather than making the world a better place.
然而，多数大亨未能实现这一愿望，因为他们的企业帝国往往不会在他们死后长久地存活下去。他们出名通常更多是因为所聚集的财富，而不是让这个世界变得更美好。

One industrialist who avoided that fate was Alfred Nobel, the Swedish explosives magnate. In 1888, he was mistakenly reported dead and a French newspaper published a damning obituary, dismissing him as a "merchant of death". Nobel read this indictment, and decided to dedicate the bulk of his estate to the funding of the Nobel Prizes to escape such a fate. Even though he made money inventing dynamite and gelignite, he is today remembered for honouring great scientists not as a munitions and arms maker.
一位避免了这一命运的实业家是瑞典炸药巨擘阿尔弗雷德•诺贝尔(Alfred Nobel)。1888年，他被人误报去世，一家法国报纸发布了一篇谴责性讣告，称他为"死亡贩子"。诺贝尔读到了这一指责，并决定将他的大部分遗产用于为诺贝尔奖(Nobel Prizes)提供资金，以摆脱这一命运。尽管他通过发明炸药和爆炸胶赚取了大量财富，但他如今因为向伟大的科学家授予荣耀而被世人所铭记，而非作为一个军火和武器制造商。

Inventors in general have a far better chance of being commemorated than those who are simply good at business. Quite a few of the greatest technical geniuses died penniless but are still honoured. Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanised rubber process yet never profited from his innovation; Nikola Tesla saw the advantages of AC electricity before others but was a ruined man on his death; and Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press but died bankrupt. Others benefited financially from the insights of Goodyear, Teslaand Gutenberg, but those exploiters have been consigned to oblivion by history, while the real pioneers are recalled.
总体而言，与仅仅擅长经商的人相比，发明家被人们铭记的可能性要大得多。很多最伟大的技术天才在去世时一文不名，但现在仍受人尊重。查尔斯•固特异(Charles Goodyear)申请了硫化橡胶工艺专利，但从未从这一创新中获利；尼古拉•特斯拉(Nikola Tesla)先于其他人发现了交流电的好处，但去世时却倾家荡产；约翰内斯•谷登堡(Johannes Gutenberg)发明了印刷机，但死时惨遭破产。其他人从经济上受益于固特异、特斯拉和谷登堡的发明，但这些利益剥削者却被历史遗忘，而那些真正的先驱则被世人铭记。

Certain entrepreneurs are imaginative enough to forge their commercial empires into institutions that can outlive them and prosper long into the future. Perhaps this deprives their descendants of inherited wealth, but it means their life's work is more likely to endure.
一些企业家具备足够丰富的想象力，他们把自己的商业帝国打造为寿命超过他们自己、而且可以在未来很长时间内蓬勃发展的企业。或许，这剥夺了他们后裔的财富继承，但这意味着，他们一生的事业更有可能长久。

John Spedan Lewis is a classic example: he founded the John Lewis Partnership because he believed in employee ownership, transferring control of the retailer to its staff. Similarly, Henry Wellcome's will vested the entire share capital of his huge pharmaceutical concern in the Wellcome Trust, now perhaps the world's largest biomedical charity – thanks to his generosity and foresight. In the cases of Lewis and Wellcome, their philanthropy succeeded because their businesses grew enormously after their deaths.
约翰•史派登•路易斯(John Spedan Lewis)就是一个经典的例子：他创建John Lewis Partnership的原因是他信奉员工持股，于是他把这家零售企业的控股权转让给了员工。类似地，亨利•维康(Henry Wellcome)在遗嘱中将其庞大制药康采恩的全部股本投入维康信托(Wellcome Trust)，该信托现在大概是全球最大生物医学慈善组织，这源于他的慷慨和远见。在路易斯和维康的例子里，他们的慈善事业之所以成功，是因为他们的企业在他们死后大规模壮大。