我从世界上最成功的人身上学到的10件事

    最好的职业建议具有普适性。它不仅适用于一家《财富》500强公司(Fortune 500)的CEO，还适用于一位渴望考上好大学的孩子。

    上周，当我在艾伦敦中央天主教高中(CCHS)发表演讲时，我尝试着达到这一标准。1978年，我就是从这所学校走出宾夕法尼亚州，开启了一段激动人心，让我非常满意的生活和职业旅程。我对聚集在罗克尼厅参加新一届学生会和班级干部就职仪式的学生说，在《财富》杂志(Fortune)工作的30年，我一直在“上成功课”。换言之，我的工作就是学习并解释，究竟是什么让世界上最成功的一些人适应各种各样的挑战，最终成为人生赢家——从奥普拉•温弗瑞到雅虎公司(Yahoo)CEO玛丽莎•梅耶，再到鲁珀特•默多克和梅琳达•盖茨，我采访并撰写过许多杰出人物。我把我打算传递的讯息浓缩为十条建议，其中包括一些显而易见的道理。但愿这些建议具有普适性，能够给不同读者以启迪。

    1.不要规划你的职业生涯。根据我过去30年来在《财富》杂志的采访经历，在高中甚至大学阶段，那些最终获得巨大成功的人基本上都不知道他们究竟想做什么。他们以灵活且开放的心态面对种种可能性。

    The best career advice is universal. It applies to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and to a kid aspiring to make it through college.

    I tried to keep this in mind last week when I spoke at Allentown Central Catholic High School, which in 1978 sent me on my way from Pennsylvania to what has turned out to be a thrilling and very satisfying life and career. I told the CCHS students, who packed Rockne Hall for inductions of their new Student Council and class officers, that I've spent the past 30 years at Fortune "going to school on success." That is, my job profiling some of the world's most successful people--fromOprah Winfrey to Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer to Rupert Murdoch (NWS) to Melinda Gates--is to learn and explain what makes these extraordinary people win and adapt to all sorts of challenges. I pared my message to 10 pieces of advice, which include a few obvious truths and, I hope, some enlightening points that are universal.

    1. Don't plan your career.Most of the really successful people I've met and interviewed these past 30 years at Fortune had no clue what they wanted to do when they were in high school or even in college. They stayed flexible and open to possibilities.

    2.忘记职业阶梯；勇敢地爬上攀登架。在这样一个不可预测，瞬息万变的世界中，又有谁知道明天的理想职业是什么？把你的职业生涯视为一个攀登架。让你的周边视觉(peripheral vision)变得更加敏锐，寻找周围的机会，并转身去追逐这些机会。Facebook首席运营官谢丽尔•桑德伯格在她的畅销书《向前一步》(Lean In)第三章中，诚挚地赞扬我提出了“攀登架”这一概念。

    3.同事比薪酬更重要。最好跟那些比你更聪明的英才一起工作，这样你就能够始终保持进取之志，日日有所获。

    4.把每份工作视为你将在后半生从事的事业。如果你整天思考下一步该怎么走，你就无法全身心地投入到你眼前的工作中去。除非你保持专注，你根本竞争不过那些“全身心投入”的人。

    5.做你应该做的工作，但要想一想：还有什么没有完成？总是思考你怎样才能为更大的整体做贡献，不要害怕跌倒。我在1995年撰写过一篇名为《你失败了，那又怎样！》的封面报道。走出失败的经历，现在已经成为老板在招聘员工时非常看重的一枚荣誉徽章。

    6.保持好奇心。你碰到的每一个人都有值得你学习的地方。一些研究表明，当人们停止学习时，他们的职业生涯就会脱轨。是的，不断学习比你毕业于哪所大学，积攒了多少学位更重要。

    7.善待每一个人。当你变老时，你就会跟越来越多的人拥有更少的分离度(degrees of separation)。谁知道哪一位今天对你不重要的人明天可能会变得极其重要？不要过河拆桥。现在就为你建造能够永存下去的桥梁。

    8.聆听。多听少说。我上高中时很害羞。直到现在，我的性格依然比较内向，但我是一位很好的交谈者，因为我对人非常感兴趣，喜欢询问（有时提的问题太多），然后仔细聆听。仔细聆听其他人就是你能够馈赠给他们的最好礼物。

    9.为人表率，追随者必多。如果追随者无法变得跟你一样强大，领导力就没有长期的价值。用宽宏的胸怀吸引人们与你合作，因为他们知道你会让他们变得更好。

    10.永葆真诚之心。如果人们跟你掩藏在一个散兵坑里，他们是否相信你能够保护并帮助他们？通过自始至终言行一致的表现，确保他们完全信任你。

    最后，我想跟大家分享一下沃伦•巴菲特的非凡智慧。去年接受我采访时，巴菲特阐述了一番他自己的成功观。这位伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(The Berkshire Hathaway)的掌门人实际上下了两个成功定义：1. 成功就是拥有你想要的东西，想要你拥有的东西。2. 成功就是让你爱的人爱你。是的，全球数一数二的超级富豪并没有把成功等同于金钱，这难道不足以打消你心中的疑虑吗？（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    2. Forget the career ladder; climb the jungle gym.In a world that's unpredictable and changing faster than ever, who knows what tomorrow's ideal jobs will be? Think of your career as a jungle gym. Sharpen your peripheral vision and look for opportunities over here or over there, and swing to them. Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg kindly credits me in Chapter 3 of her best-seller, Lean In, for introducing the concept of the jungle gym.

    3. Pick people over pay.Work with good people who are smarter than you are, so you can stay stimulated and learn everyday.

    4. Do every job as if you were going to be doing it for the rest of your life.If you spend your time thinking about what you want to do next, you're not fully focused on your current assignment. And unless you focus, you won't compete successfully with people who are "all in."

    5. Do the job that you're supposed to do, but think: What's not getting done?Always consider how you can contribute to the bigger whole -- and don't be afraid to stumble. I wrote a 1995 cover story called "So you fail, so what!" Today, recovering from failure is a badge of honor that bosses want to see in people they hire.

    6. Be curious.Everyone you meet is worth learning from. People derail in their careers, studies show, when they stop learning. Yes, continual learning matters more than where you go to school or how many degrees you rack up.

    7. Be nice to everyone.As you get older, you'll have fewer degrees of separation with more and more people. Who knows how someone who doesn't matter to you today might matter critically tomorrow? Don't burn any bridges. Build your bridges now to last forever.

    8. Listen.Listen more than you talk. I was shy in high school. I'm still a closet introvert, but I'm a good conversationalist because I'm extraordinarily interested in people, I ask questions (sometimes too many) and I listen carefully. Listening to someone carefully is giving them a gift.

    9. To lead, line up your followers.Leadership has no long-term value without followers on track to become as strong as you are. Show a generosity of spirit that makes people want to work with you, because they know you'll make them better.

    10. Be honest and true.If people are in a foxhole with you, do they trust you to protect and help them? Make sure they do completely, by doing what you say you're going to do, always.

    I closed my talk with wisdom from Warren Buffett, who told me during an interview last year how he defines success. The Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) chief actually has two definitions: 1. Success is having what you want and wanting what you have. 2. Success is having the people whom you love love you. Isn't it reassuring that one of the wealthiest men in the universe doesn't equate success with money?