双语散文:哈佛未曾教我的三堂课

I asked him, "Did you know that the vice premier is married to the sister of the man you say is his enemy?" The professor's face turned red, and he tried to backtrack. When I told the vice premier's family, they laughed and told me to tell that Harvard professor that the two men had just bought adjoining villas.
我问他：“你知道吗？副总理的太太就是你所说的他的敌人的妹妹。”这位教授的脸马上红了，他还想试图掩饰自己说的话。当我把这件事告诉副总理一家的时候，他们笑了，还说让我跟这位哈佛大学的教授说一声，这两个人已经买了毗连的别墅。

In today's world it is difficult to know when to trust even your financial advisers. You have to do your own due diligence, even with experts. Due diligence is hard work and costly, but you have no choice. (See my article "Warren Buffett Is All Wrong About Goldman.")
在当今的世界，你很难完全任何所谓的专业人士，即便是你的理财顾问。你必须自己做好调查工作，勤勉不懈。这一点很难，也很昂贵，但是你别无选择。

Finally, I learned that young people need to take stepping-stone positions when they start their careers. Something like 70% of Harvard graduates start out in consulting or investment banking, not just for the money but because those jobs provide good training. If you narrow your focus too early, you risk being pigeonholed. For that reason I am critical of specialized programs in subjects like financial engineering or e-commerce. You're better off getting a more well-rounded degree.
最后，我学到的是年轻人在开始创业的时候需要采取一种踏脚石的姿态。大约有70%的哈佛毕业生开始的都是做咨询工作，或是在投资银行工作。这不仅是因为收入，而是因为这些职位会提供很好的经验培训。如果你如果太早就将自己专注与某一方面，那么你可能就将自己过早归类了。出于这个原因，我对象金融工程或是电子商务这样的专业有很多不同意见。涉猎更为广泛的专业，为对人更加有益。

Young people sometimes ask me what kinds of jobs they should take right out of college. My advice: Do something that won't limit your opportunities as your career progresses. Don't worry about money until you're 30. Until then, find great mentors and make sure you do things that give you exposure to different industries--and, importantly, a little sales experience.
年轻人有时候会询问我，大学刚毕业他们最好从事什么工作：哪些工作不会限制你职业的发展的机会。在30岁之前，不要担心钱的问题。在30岁之前，要找到一位伟大的精神导师，还要确定你会涉及不同和行业取得不同的经验——而且，重要的是，还有一点销售的经验。

In my own career I would have been stopped from advancing had I not learned how to overcome my own fears--I had a lot of them, believe me--and how to take expert opinions with a grain of salt and how to look for opportunities that provided great training and broad exposure. I learned all those things while I was at Harvard, but I didn't learn them in the classroom.
在我的职业生涯中，我如果没有战胜自己的恐惧，不知晓如何听取专业人士的意见，不知道怎样扩展自己涉猎的方面寻找自己的机会的话，可能也走不到今天。我在哈佛研究生院上学的时候，学会了这几点，但是并不是在课堂学到的。