奧巴馬說的對

I was sitting in Heathrow Terminal 2 last Wednesday, having arrived a couple of hours early for a short flight to Dublin. I had installed myself in Eat, where I was enjoying a bowl of porridge and doing my emails, when I came upon a link to the latest ad for the Clinton campaign.

上個月，我坐在希思羅機場(Heathrow) 2號航站樓，早到了兩小時，準備搭乘短途航班到都柏林。我走進Eat餐廳，點了一碗粥，順便收發(fā)郵件，這時我看到有一個鏈接指向希拉里競選活動的最新廣告。

Normally I would have ignored it: the US election has become so ugly that the only rational response is to pretend it isn’t happening. But as I had time to kill I clicked on the link and there was Barack Obama, his handsome face alert and amused, speaking to camera. “My greatest strength? Probably that I’m always early.”

我通常不會去理睬這種東西：今年的美國大選變得非常丑陋，唯一理性的回應是假裝它沒發(fā)生。但由于我在消磨時間，我點開了那個鏈接，出現(xiàn)的是巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)那張英俊的臉，機智且有趣，他對著鏡頭說：“我的最大優(yōu)點?或許是我總是早到。”

The president went on to explain that he likes to turn up early for every meeting, speech and press conference. “My commitment to being early isn’t just good for me. It’s good for the nation. It’s good for the world.” At this I started nodding so violently that the man next to me looked up to see what was going on.

奧巴馬繼續(xù)解釋道，他喜歡提前到達所有的會議、演講和記者會現(xiàn)場。“我事事提前的做法不僅對我有好處，對國家也有好處。對世界也是有利的。”看到這兒，我開始狂點頭，以至于坐在我身邊的男子不禁抬頭看我出了什么事。

Earliness has almost everything going for it. Being early makes you feel in control — or makes others think you are in control, which is the next best thing. It gives you the moral high ground. If you arrive first at a meeting, not only do you choose where to sit, you are also in a position to lord it over those arriving later.

提前的好處太多了。它讓你感覺自己掌控局面，或者讓其他人認為你在掌控局面，這是第二好的事情。它讓你占據(jù)道德高地。如果你第一個到達會場，你不僅可以選擇坐在哪里，還處于一種凌駕于晚到者的地位。

The only time when it is not entirely good to be super-punctual is when arriving for a meal at a private house. But in that case, all you need do is walk round the block a few times, by which time you will have built up an appetite for the meal ahead.

超級準時并不完全是好事的唯一場合是去私人家中吃飯。但在那種情況下，你所需要的是在大樓外面多轉悠幾圈，把它當作餐前開胃。

Earliness is the defining characteristic of my entire family. Both my parents were wildly early for everything. All three of their children and all 10 grandchildren — even when in the throes of assorted teenage phases — could always be relied upon to pitch up with bags of time to spare for any given occasion.

提前是我們家的鮮明特點。我的父母總是什么事都提前。他們的3個孩子以及所有10個孫輩(甚至包括幾個不同年齡的青少年)無論參加什么場合的活動都會留出大把時間。

To my knowledge, none of my blood relations has ever missed a plane. This means, according to George Stigler, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, we are managing our time poorly and spend far too much time in airports. I have seen the maths that supposedly proves this, but I am unmoved.

就我所知，我們家的人甚至從未錯過航班。按照諾貝爾獎(Nobel Prize)得主、經(jīng)濟學家喬治•斯蒂格勒(George Stigler)的理論，這意味著我們的時間管理很糟糕，在機場停留了太長時間。我看到過據(jù)稱證明這一點的計算，但我一點也不在乎。

Time spent waiting is not wasted. It is time that you have chosen to set aside and is a peaceful period that can be used for reading, making phone calls and emailing. Moreover, the stress saved by knowing that you will never have to run down a moving conveyor belt with heavy bags just as flights close has too great a value to be captured by any equation.

等待的時間并沒有浪費。這是你選擇留出的時間，是一段安靜的時光，可以用來讀書、打電話和收發(fā)電郵。另外，如果你知道自己不必在登機門即將關閉時拖著沉重的箱子在傳送帶上狂奔，那么這為你省去的壓力價值之大，不是任何方程式可以捕捉到的。

To see how the famous and successful feel about turning up before the appointed time, I have been leafing through the archives of Lunch with the FT. My impression was that our most self-important guests were routinely late — their time, after all, being more important than the time of journalists.

為了考察知名和成功人士對于比預定時間早到的看法，我翻閱了《與FT共進午餐》剪報。之前我的印象是，我們邀請的最高傲的嘉賓經(jīng)常遲到，畢竟他們的時間要比記者更重要。

I was wrong. Most of our interviewees arrive on the dot — or are neither early nor late enough to warrant the recording of it. Among the rest, the early outstrip the late by about five to one. The only two examples of lateness in recent interviews were Edward Snowden and Russell Brand — both of whom have upset so many people in the course of what they do, it makes no odds if they upset them a bit more by virtue of showing up late.

我錯了。我們的多數(shù)被采訪者都是準點到達(或者說沒有早到或姍姍來遲到值得記錄的程度)。在其他被采訪者中，早到的人數(shù)與晚到的人數(shù)之比大約是5：1。在近期的采訪中，僅有的兩個晚到者是愛德華•斯諾登(Edward Snowden)和羅素•布朗德(Russell Brand)，這二人所做的事情讓很多人失望，因此他們晚到讓人們更失望一點并不奇怪。

The early crowd were more of a mixed bunch. Adair Turner, former head of the Financial Services Authority, was predictably early. So was Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini and, more surprisingly, Sean Penn, the former Hollywood hell raiser turned political activist. People on the back foot seem to make a point of arriving super-promptly, possibly in the hope of reclaiming a few brownie points. Sepp Blatter got there early for his lunch. So did Jeremy Clarkson.

早到的人士形形色色。英國金融服務管理局(Financial Services Authority)前局長阿代爾•特納(Adair Turner)不出所料地早到。保羅•克魯格曼(Paul Krugman)和魯里埃爾•魯比尼(Nouriel Roubini)以及(這比較讓人意外)由好萊塢硬漢變成政治活動人士的西恩•潘(Sean Penn)也都提前到達。處于較不利境地的人似乎刻意超級準時，可能是希望贏得幾個印象分。塞普•布拉特(Sepp Blatter)提前到達了午餐地點。杰里米•克拉克森(Jeremy Clarkson)也是。

But my favourite lesson from Lunch with the FT cuttings comes from Stephen Green, then head of HSBC. He turned up three minutes early for the meeting and apologised for being late.

但我最喜歡的是與FT共進午餐系列中的匯豐(HSBC)董事長葛霖(Stephen Green)。他早到了3分鐘，但道歉說自己遲到了。

This is a stroke of genius. It forces the other person, who had been occupying the moral high ground by dint of getting there even earlier, to pull out his watch and protest that, on the contrary, the new arrival is early too.

這一招真了不起。它迫使本來因為更早到而占據(jù)道德高地的對方拿出手表辯駁說，葛霖也早到了。

Thank you, Mr Green. I will remember this trick if I ever find myself in the unusual position of arriving at anything after anyone else.

謝謝你，葛霖。如果我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己處于比別人晚到的不同尋常的處境時，我會記得這種做法。