精英逆袭,达人战胜专家的年代

The resurgence in U.S. energy came from a group of brash wildcatters who discovered techniques to hydraulically fracture -- or frack -- and horizontally drill shale and other rock. Many of these men operated on the fringes of the oil industry, some without college degrees or much background in drilling, geology or engineering.
美国能源行业的复苏要归功于一批自负的投机勘探者，是他们首创了水力压裂以及页岩和其他岩石的横向 探技术。这其中许多人从事的是石油行业的边缘领域，一些人并没有大学学位，也没有什么 探、地质学或工程背景。

In the late 1990s, George Mitchell, the son of a Greek goatherder, ran a midsize Houston-based company with shrinking natural-gas production. His stock price was falling, the industry was on its back, the 79-year-old had been diagnosed with cancer and his wife was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. In almost two decades of trying, his men had not been able to coax enough natural gas from Mitchell Energy's Texas shale fields. But in 1998, one of Mr. Mitchell's engineers finally figured out how to properly fracture shale, stunning colleagues and larger competitors while launching the American energy revolution.
20世纪90年代末，希腊牧羊人的儿子乔治?米切尔(George Mitchell)在休斯敦经营一家名为米切尔能源（Mitchell Energy）的中型公司，当时这家公司面临天然气产量不断减少的局面。公司股价在下跌，整个行业都在走下坡路，79岁的米切尔被诊断出癌症，他的妻子则患有早期阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer's disease)。经过近20年的尝试，米切尔手下员工仍未能从该公司位于德克萨斯州的页岩田中开采出充足的天然气。但到了1998年，米切尔手下一名工程师最终找到了压裂页岩的适当方法，这件事为美国能源革命拉开了序幕，震惊了同行及更大的竞争对手。

Harold Hamm grew up dirt-poor in a tiny town in Oklahoma. He began school around Christmas-time each year, once it became too cold to pick cotton, and he started his career raking out oil tanks. Over the past six years, Mr. Hamm and his company have discovered so much oil in North Dakota that he is now worth $14 billion. Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward of Oklahoma were land-leasing specialists; they managed to build the nation's second-largest gas producer by leading the charge into shale fields. Charif Souki, a Lebanese immigrant and former restaurateur who knew more about fajitas than fracking, today runs Cheniere Energy, a Houston-based company that is on track to become the first to export gas from the contiguous U.S.
哈罗德?哈姆(Harold Hamm)成长于俄克拉荷马州(一个小镇，家里穷得叮当响。他每年从 诞节前后开始上学，因为这时候天冷得不能摘棉花了。哈姆最初做的是清理油罐的工作。在过去六年里，哈姆和他的公司在北达科他州发现了非常多的石油，现在他的身价高达140亿美元。俄克拉荷马州的奥布雷?麦克伦登(Aubrey McClendon)和汤姆?沃德(Tom Ward)是从事土地租赁的专业人士；作为页岩气领域的先行者，他们成功地建起了美国第二大天然气生产商。相比水力压裂，黎巴嫩移民、曾为餐馆老板的谢里夫?苏基(Charif Souki)更熟悉墨西哥烤肉，但如今他经营总部位于休斯敦的公司Cheniere Energy，该公司有望成为第一家从美国本土出口天然气的公司。

Bucking conventional wisdom is always risky, and many would-be mavericks in finance and the energy industry have failed. But corporate caution and complacency have their costs too, and today's emphasis on short-term performance means that executives are even less likely to take long-term risks, to anticipate the unexpected. For the next great business revolution, it would be smart to bet once again on stubborn, flamboyant dreamers.
挑战传统智慧总是充满风险的，在金融和能源行业，许多想要特立独行的人都失败了。但一些企业的谨慎和自大也是有代价的，如今，对短期业绩的强调导致企业高管越发不愿承担长期风险和面对意外情况。在下一场商业大革命中，明智的做法是再度押注执着、自负的梦想家。