“我得到过的最好建议”精选集

    上世纪70年代时，我在雅高集团（Accor Hotels）工作，那时这家集团的规模还相对较小。当时，我很年轻，渴望与更大规模的美国酒店进行竞争。我的步子迈得太快了，几个月后我所做的一切都开始崩塌。就在这时，当时的首席执行官杰拉德·贝里松把我叫进了他的办公室。我知道我做的不好，因此我非常紧张。他让我坐下来，没有说什么要开除我或警告我做得多么糟糕，他说：“要长寿，首先不能夭折了，”而且“好死不如赖活着。”这个建议至今我依然记得。我原本以为会遭到批评和指责，但相反，他告诉我什么是长远的目标，永远不要失去对短期的关注。如今每个周日，我都会坐下来，思考一下我的长期目标和短期目标。他在那次会面时告诉我，在某些目标上达到98%的完美，比迟到的100%完美要好。

Philippe Bourguignon

CEO of Exclusive Resorts

    In the mid-'70s, I was working at Accor Hotels, which at the time was a relatively small company. I was young and eager to compete against the larger American hotels, so I ran so fast that after a few months, everything I did started to fall apart. As I saw everything collapsing before my eyes, the CEO, Gérard Pélisson, called me into his office. I knew I wasn't doing well, so I was very anxious. He sat me down, and instead of firing me or reminding me how poorly I was doing, he said, "To live old you first need to live young." And, "It is better to be alive [and a] little weak than be dead in good health." This piece of advice has stuck with me ever since. I was expecting to be criticized and challenged, but instead he educated me around this idea of having a vision for the long term, but never losing sight of the short term. Every Sunday I sit down and think about what my goals are for the long term as well as what my goals are for the next day. He taught me in that meeting that it's better to be 98% perfect on a certain goal than 100% too late.