另类生意经：祖母的教诲

    有些人说他们把祖母的智慧当作企业在商界生存的行为准则。他们依赖于她的原则和伦理标准。

    对冲基金蓝色羽冠资本管理公司（BlueCrest Capital Management）共同创始人迈克尔•普莱特认为，祖母是他能进入股票交易行业的领路人。去年他在接受彭博新闻社（Bloomberg News）采访时说道，“其实，我的祖母一直都是一位很严肃认真的股票交易商。”

    莱本索尔公司（Lebenthal & Co.）总裁暨首席执行官亚历桑德拉•莱本索尔的办公桌，就是祖母传给她的，老人家当年每天都要伏案工作。她认为祖母的经验对她应对华尔街复杂多变的局面非常有用。她的祖母赛拉•莱本索尔与丈夫路易斯在1925年共同创办了第五大道市政债券交易公司。她说，“祖母总是满怀激情地做事，从不出岔子。我肯定是遗传了她这一点。”

    她祖母常常鼓励客户自学金融知识，研究自己的投资。亚历桑德拉说，“她常常提醒人们生活要量入为出，这对于商业来说也非常重要。”因此，当其他华尔街老板讨论复杂的新产品时，如果亚历桑德拉对产品不看好，“最后我肯定会说不。”她说，最近几年，她借助这个小智慧，已经数次避免了投资问题产品的风险。

    蒂姆•桑德斯由祖母带大，从五岁到高中毕业一直跟着祖母生活。现已96岁高龄的祖母比莉当时借给他100美元去开创自己第一宗生意。他在八年级时开了一个卖烟花的摊位。他雇佣朋友帮忙，但给他们的报酬太多。是祖母让他明白了利润的道理。祖母告诉他，“在雇人干活这方面，你还得下功夫。”

    在一次教堂露营中，别人嘲笑桑德斯的尖嗓音。给他取了个外号“尖叫小猪”。后来比莉向桑德斯传授了吃山核桃的经验，“吃掉果实扔掉壳”。她拿了一个山核桃给他看，问道，“你能吃吗？”他说，“当然不能。”祖母让他把壳砸开。她说，“每个批评都像一个山核桃。你得把它砸开，拿出果肉，扔掉果壳。这不是很好吗？如果你能扔掉坚硬的外壳，那么每次批评都像是一个恩赐，每次失败也是恩赐。”

    桑德斯说，每次宣传自己的著作，阅读别人的评价以及收到演讲活动反馈时，他都会回想起祖母的这句话。他说：“人们的评价非常直接，不论是正面评价还是负面评价。”然而，批评会让人学到更多东西；而每一个小小长进也足以让我们的祖母倍感欣慰。

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    Some say they use their grandmother's wisdom as a firm foundation for how to behave in the business world. They rely on her principles and ethical standards.

    Michael Platt, co-founder of hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management, credits his grandmother with starting him in stock trading. "My grandmother was a serious equity trader," he told Bloomberg News in an interview last year.

    Alexandra Lebenthal, president and CEO of Lebenthal & Co., works at a desk that her grandmother used every day and says that she sees her lessons as useful in navigating Wall Street's unsure waters. "She was very passionate about doing things the right way. I definitely got that from her," she says of Sayra Lebenthal, who co-founded the Fifth Avenue municipal bond trading firm in 1925 with her husband Louis.

    Her grandmother would always encourage clients to educate themselves about finance and their investments. "She would always caution people not to live beyond their means, which is important to business as well," Alexandra says. So while other Wall Street honchos talk up a complex new product, if Lebenthal doesn't see it clearly, "at the end, I say no." This bit of wisdom has saved her from investing in some faulty products in recent years, she says.

    Tim Sanders was raised by his grandmother, from the age of five until he graduated from high school. Grandma Billye, who is now 96 years old, loaned him $100 to start his first business, a fireworks stand he established in the 8th grade. When he hired friends and gave too much to them, she helped him understand profit margins. "You've got to get better at hiring people," she told him.

    Billye showed Sanders the lesson of the pecan -- "eat the nut, dump the shells" -- after he was teased at church camp. They called him squeaker because of his high voice. Billye showed him a pecan and asked him, "Can you eat this thing?" He said, "of course not," and was then told to crack it open. "Every piece of criticism is a pecan," Billye said. "Your job is to crack it open and find the nut and throw away the shell. What can you see that's good? Every piece of criticism is a gift. Every failure is a gift -- if you throw away the shell."

    Sanders says that he returns to this notion all the time, as he's promoting his book and seeing reviews or receiving feedback from a speaking engagement. "People are incredibly direct, both negative and positive," he says. Yet the criticism teaches you something you need to know; a lesson learned that would make any grandma proud.