“千里之行,始于足下”,即便是智力超群,思維非凡的人,亦是如此。
Although it may be hard to picture high-flying multi-millionaires toiling away in the kitchens of restaurants or trudging the streets as parking attendants, many top entrepreneurs had to earn their spurs as youngsters.
雖難以想象事業(yè)有成的千萬富翁在餐館后廚辛勤勞碌或作為泊車員在街道上拖著疲憊身軀,但許多頂尖企業(yè)家年少時(shí)都曾不辭辛勞以望功成名就。
From Richard Branson to Jeff Bezos, here are the jobs some of the world's most successful businessmen did before they hit the big time.
從查理德•布蘭森到杰夫•貝佐斯,世上最成功的企業(yè)家們?cè)诠Τ擅椭八鶑氖碌墓ぷ魅缦拢?/p>
Jeff Bezos: McDonald's
杰夫•貝佐斯:麥當(dāng)勞員工
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos may be planning on sending humans into space next year, but he had his feet very much on the ground when he worked at McDonald's as a youngster.
亞馬遜創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官杰夫•貝佐斯可能計(jì)劃于明年將人類送入太空,但他在年輕時(shí)可是腳踏實(shí)地在麥當(dāng)勞工作過。
Speaking to interviewer Cody Teets, he said: "My first week on the job, a five-gallon, wall-mounted ketchup dispenser got stuck open in the kitchen and dumped a prodigious quantity of ketchup into every hard-to-reach kitchen crevice. Since I was the new guy, they handed me the cleaning solution and said, 'Get going!'
他在接受科迪•蒂茨采訪時(shí)曾說過:“我工作的第一周,廚房里一個(gè)五加侖大的掛壁式番茄醬自取機(jī)出現(xiàn)破裂,大量的番茄醬流入廚房那觸手難極的縫隙里。由于我是新人,那些老員工就把清洗任務(wù)交給我,并催促道:‘快去!’。”
"You can learn responsibility in any job, if you take it seriously. You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald's.
“你若盡心盡力,在任何工作崗位都會(huì)學(xué)到責(zé)任。年少時(shí)在麥當(dāng)勞工作會(huì)讓你學(xué)到很多。”
"It's different from what you learn in school. Don't underestimate the value of that!"
“這與你在校園所學(xué)的并不一樣。不要低估了它的價(jià)值。”
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Vacuum cleaner salesman
網(wǎng)飛(Netflix)總裁里德•哈斯廷斯:真空吸塵器銷售員
As CEO and co-founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings has come a long way since he sold vacuum cleaners as a door-to-door salesman before attending Bowdoin College in Maine.
網(wǎng)飛公司總裁兼聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人里德•哈斯廷斯在前往緬因州鮑登學(xué)院就學(xué)前,曾是一名挨家挨戶推銷真空吸塵器的銷售員。自那之后,他的事業(yè)大有進(jìn)展。
"I loved it, strange as that might sound,"he said.
他說:“我喜歡那份工作,這聽上去可能有些怪異。”
"You get to meet a lot of different people."
“你每天要面對(duì)形形色色的人。”
He has gone on to re-shape the way we watch TV, but Netflix may be forced to make more German, French and Estonian shows under new EU quotas.
他將繼續(xù)重塑我們看電視的方式,但網(wǎng)飛公司可能會(huì)因歐盟新配額的要求而被迫上線更多德語、法語和愛沙尼亞語節(jié)目。
Michael Dell: Dishwasher
邁克爾•戴爾:洗碗工
Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell, said he was just 12 when he got his first job as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant.
戴爾公司創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官邁克爾•戴爾說,他的第一份工作是在中餐館里洗碗,當(dāng)時(shí)年僅12歲。
He was soon promoted to the position of water boy and then assistant maître d'.
他很快就被提升為茶水工繼而是領(lǐng)班助理。
"I was moving pretty quickly in the Chinese restaurant business," he said. "And then I got recruited away to a Mexican restaurant. I was still pretty young - 12 or 13 years old."
他說:“我在中餐館晉升很快。隨后被招去了一家墨西哥餐館。當(dāng)時(shí)我還只有十二三歲,甚是年少。”
Duncan Bannatyne: Ice cream man
鄧肯•班納坦:冰激凌小販
Dragons' Den supremo Duncan Bannatyne was working at a bakery when he decided to pack it in and buy an ice cream van for ?450, he told the Telegraph.
《龍穴》(一檔商業(yè)投資真人秀節(jié)目)評(píng)委兼投資人鄧肯•班納坦告訴《每日電訊報(bào)》記者,當(dāng)時(shí)他正在一家面包坊上班,突然就辭職不干了,花了450英鎊買下一輛冰淇淋車。
"Before long I had half-a-dozen vans and a turnover of £350,000 a year. I later sold the business for £28,000 and started building and running residential care homes."
“不久后,我就擁有了六輛冰淇淋車,一年的營(yíng)業(yè)額可達(dá)35萬英鎊。后來,我以2.8萬英鎊賣了這一生意并開始修建、經(jīng)營(yíng)養(yǎng)老院。”
He has gone on to make his fortune in spas and health clubs, and has written seven books.
隨后,他又投身于水療中心和健身俱樂部,并撰寫了7本書。
Vera Wang: Figure skater
王薇薇:花樣滑冰運(yùn)動(dòng)員
Before she became a world-renowned fashion designer, Vera Wang, left, was a talented figure skater.
在成為享譽(yù)全球的時(shí)裝設(shè)計(jì)師前,王薇薇(圖左)曾是一位頗有天賦的花樣滑冰運(yùn)動(dòng)員。
Wang competed in the 1968 US Figure Skating Championships but turned to fashion after she failed to make the cut for the US Olympic team.
1968年,她參加了美國(guó)花樣滑冰錦標(biāo)賽,但未能成功進(jìn)入美國(guó)奧運(yùn)隊(duì),之后便轉(zhuǎn)而進(jìn)軍時(shí)尚圈。
"Skating was a chance for me to express myself in a creative way,"she said.
她說:“滑冰能夠讓我以一種富有創(chuàng)造性的方式實(shí)現(xiàn)自我表達(dá)。”
"It was the blend of all worlds - music, dance, athletics, choreography and, of course, costumes."
“它由各元素融合而成,包括音樂、舞蹈、田徑運(yùn)動(dòng)、編舞藝術(shù),當(dāng)然,還有服裝。”
Michael Bloomberg: Parking attendant
邁克爾•布隆伯格:泊車員
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the Bloomberg financial service, worked as a parking attendant to help pay for his tuition fees while he was a student at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.
前紐約市長(zhǎng)、金融機(jī)構(gòu)彭博社創(chuàng)始人邁克爾•布隆伯格在巴爾的摩約翰霍普金大學(xué)求學(xué)期間,曾為籌集學(xué)費(fèi)而從事停車場(chǎng)泊車員的工作。
According to Forbes, Bloomberg now has a net worth of around £30bn. He spent months considering whether to run for US President, but said in March that he would not stand because of fear that his candidacy could make it easier for Donald Trump to secure the Presidency.
《福布斯》雜志稱布隆伯格目前凈資產(chǎn)高達(dá)300億英鎊,他曾為是否競(jìng)選美國(guó)總統(tǒng)而冥思苦想數(shù)月,但在三月表示,他擔(dān)心自己的參選會(huì)讓唐納德•特朗普輕而易舉地成為總統(tǒng),這令他無法忍受。
Sir Alan Sugar: Selling cigarette lighters and aerials
艾倫•修格爵士:賣打火機(jī)和天線
Lord Sugar was just 21 when he launched Amstrad, his electronics company.
修格勛爵在創(chuàng)辦其電子公司阿姆斯特拉德時(shí)年僅21歲。
Operating out of a van, he sold cigarette lighters, aerials, car radios and hi-fi systems.
他曾經(jīng)營(yíng)一小攤,銷售打火機(jī)、天線、汽車收音機(jī)以及高保真音響。
A couple of decades later, Amstrad was one of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the country.
數(shù)十年后,阿姆斯特拉德已經(jīng)躋身該國(guó)最大消費(fèi)電子公司之列。
Lord Sugar now has an estimated net worth of £1.4bn.
據(jù)估計(jì),修格勛爵目前凈資產(chǎn)高達(dá)14億英鎊。
Marissa Mayer: Supermarket check-out
瑪麗莎•梅耶爾:超市收銀員
Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Mayer was one of Google's earliest employees and has amassed an estimated fortune of $380m (£262m), according to Forbes.
據(jù)《福布斯》雜志,雅虎首席執(zhí)行官瑪麗莎•梅耶爾曾是谷歌公司最早雇員之一,其資產(chǎn)累計(jì)約有3.8億美元(2.62億英鎊)。
But that wealth must have felt a long way away when she was working behind a till at a supermarket during high school.
這樣一筆財(cái)富,對(duì)于當(dāng)時(shí)埋頭于超市收銀臺(tái)工作的高中生而言,真是任重道遠(yuǎn)。
"I learned a lot about work ethic from people who had been there for 20 years," she told the LA Times.
她對(duì)《洛杉磯時(shí)報(bào)》記者說:“在那里,我從那些工作長(zhǎng)達(dá)20年的前輩身上學(xué)到了關(guān)于職業(yè)道德的諸多經(jīng)驗(yàn)。
"They could do 40 items a minute over an eight-hour shift. I was pretty routinely in the 38-to-41 range. I was pretty happy about that. I have a good memory for numbers."
“在當(dāng)班的八小時(shí)中,他們可一分鐘刷完40項(xiàng)商品,我通常處在38至41項(xiàng)之間,對(duì)此我相當(dāng)開心,我對(duì)數(shù)字記憶很敏感。”
Walt Disney: Ambulance driver
華特•迪士尼:救護(hù)車司機(jī)
In 1918, a 16-year-old Walt Disney tried to join the military but was told he was too young.
1918年,16歲的華特•迪士尼想要入伍參軍,卻被告知年紀(jì)太小。
Instead, he signed up to the Red Cross and was sent to France, where he drew cartoons on the sides of the ambulances he drove.
他轉(zhuǎn)而報(bào)名參加紅十字會(huì),并被派送前往法國(guó),在那里,他在自己所駕駛的救護(hù)車兩側(cè)畫漫畫。
Four years later, he was fired from his job as a newspaper cartoonist for a lack of creativity...
四年后,他因漫畫缺乏創(chuàng)造性而被報(bào)社辭退。
Mike Ashley: Squash coach
邁克•阿什利:壁球教練
The controversial Sports Direct founder, who tries to keep a low profile despite his very high-profile ownership of Newcastle United football club, was a squash coach in the 1970s after playing at county level himself.
他是備受爭(zhēng)議的英國(guó)運(yùn)動(dòng)服飾公司Sports Direct創(chuàng)始人,盡管擁有奪人耳目的紐卡斯?fàn)栕闱蚓銟凡?,卻仍試圖保持低調(diào)不露鋒芒。二十世紀(jì)七十年代,他曾在縣級(jí)壁球賽事中表現(xiàn)活躍而后退為一名教練。