和谐英语

您现在的位置是:首页 > 英语阅读 > 英语阅读|英语阅读理解

正文

资本家如何让后人怀念?

2012-08-16来源:FT中文网
Other rich entrepreneurs sell up and simply use their wealth for dedicated good causes. Andrew Carnegie built the world's most profitable corporation in the steel trade in the late 19th century. He sold it for cash to JPMorgan, and proceeded to give almost the entire amount away, the equivalent today of billions of dollars, constructing thousands of libraries and endowing educational establishments. He wrote: "A man who dies thus rich dies disgraced." In a similar vein, I suspect one day Bill Gates will be better known for his charitable activities than for co-founding Microsoft.
还有一些富有企业家出售企业并将自己的财富投入崇高事业。19世纪末,安德鲁•卡内基(Andrew Carnegie)创建了全球钢铁行业中最具盈利能力的公司。他将该公司出售给摩根大通(JPMorgan)变现,并将几乎全部收益用于捐赠,金额相当于现在的数十亿美元,他用这些钱创办了数千家图书馆,并为教育机构提供捐赠。他写道:"死得富有则死得耻辱。"类似地,我猜,比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)将更多因为慈善活动被铭记,而非作为微软(Microsoft)的联合创始人。

I've no doubt that great composers, artists, writers and performers are more likely to be celebrated after their deaths than any business leader. But by building companies that furnish jobs, that generate riches for stockholders and sell products that improve people's lives, capitalists can establish memorials to their efforts that are much more than tombstones. Prosperous family businesses passed down the generations are living epitaphs to the talents of their founders.
与商业领袖相比,伟大的作曲家、艺术家、作家和演员更有可能在死后被人们纪念,我对此毫不质疑。但通过创建企业提供就业、为股东创造财富以及销售改善人们生活的产品,资本家也可以为自己的努力建造一座意义远远大于墓碑的纪念碑。流传数代仍然繁荣的家族企业是创始人才华的活生生的墓志铭。

By their nature entrepreneurs upset the status quo, introducing change to the existing order. Such non-Establishment figures are often more renowned posthumously than those who meekly conform all their lives. As General MacArthur put it: "You are remembered for the rules you break."
依照本性,企业家会打破现状,改变现有的秩序。与那些唯唯诺诺、随波逐流的人相比,这些打破常规的人物往往在死后更为出名。正如麦克阿瑟将军(General MacArthur)所言:"你会因你打破的规则而被人铭记。"

Posterity judges risk takers more kindly than their contemporaries do.
与同时代的人相比,后人对冒险者的评判更为友好。

The writer runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of StartUp Britain
本文作者管理着私人股本公司Risk Capital Partners,并担任StartUp Britain主席