人一生中會得到許多好的建議。什麼樣的好建議給成功人士的奮鬥注入了強心劑呢?一起來聽聽eBay(易趣)的CEO兼總裁Meg Whitman在20xx年接受《財富》雜誌75周年專題報導"The Best Advice I Ever Got"採訪時是怎么說的吧!
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)"
我在生活中獲得的一些忠告的確產生了十分重大的影響。
"友善待人。"這話聽起來似乎是老生常談,但我永遠都不會忘記父親給我這則忠告的情景。當時我十歲,曾對某人刻薄。於是父親教育我:"不論什麼時候,你都沒必要對任何人刻薄,因為你永遠都不知道自己在以後的生活中將會遇到誰。而且,刻薄待人於事無補,通常只會一無所獲。"
"記住,你能做到自己想做的任何事情。不要讓任何人說:'你不夠聰明……這太難了……這是個笨主意……從來沒有人做過那樣的事……女孩子不該那樣做。'"這是母親在1973年給我的建議。這條忠告讓我從不為別人對我職業方向的看法而煩惱。
"不論分配給你的任務是什麼,你都必須盡全力做到最好,即使你認為那是個無聊的任務。"1979年,我在寶潔公司工作時的老闆、廣告部經理助理傑瑞·帕金森給了我以上這條忠告。那時我剛從哈佛商學院畢業,公司派給我的任務是研究"象牙"洗髮水瓶的瓶口該開多大才最合適:是3/8英寸還是1/8英寸?為此我做了調查,還進行了專題小組討論……可是晚上回到家,我就會疑惑:我堂堂一位哈佛商學院的畢業生,怎么在做這樣的事情?然而,後來我意識到:你接到的任何一項工作其實都是證明你自己的機會。
"不要追名逐利。如果你長期與好事為鄰,那么好事自然會發生在你身上。"這句話是1981年我在貝恩顧問管理公司工作時,我的老闆湯姆·蒂爾尼對我說的。他現在是易趣的股東。這話說得很對--通過讚譽他人,你也會取得成功。
最後一則忠告出現在1998年,當時我在紐約盯著倒計時牌,等待易趣上市時刻的到來。我的丈夫是一個神經外科醫生,當我打電話到他的手術室,告訴他這個好訊息時,他卻答道:"這很不錯。不過,梅格,你要切記,它沒有腦外科手術那么要緊。"