改變我職業生涯的三條建議

Looking back over my career to date, I can identify at least three clear influences that forever altered my career path. In retrospect, it's interesting to see how different the context was for each: parental advice, a passage in a book, and a persistent boss. Despite the contrasts, all three share one thing in common -- reinforcing the importance of knowing what it is you ultimately want to accomplish, and being open to allowing outside forces to help clarify, reinforce and facilitate the path to making it happen.回顧我的職業生涯，我可以總結出至少三種力量永遠的改變了我的生涯道路，它們是父母的建議、書本的啟發和一個堅持的老闆。忽略三者之間的差異，有一點是共同的：它們都認為最重要的是你知道自己最終想要什麼，和擅於利用外界力量幫助你澄清並實現你的生涯夢想。

Here are the three pieces of advice that helped shape my career:以下是改變我職業生涯的三條建議：

1. You can do anything you set your mind to1. 你可以做到一切你一心想做的事

As a child, I can't recall a day that went by without my dad telling me I could do anything I set my mind to. He said it so often, I stopped hearing it. Along with lines like "eat your vegetables," I just assumed it was one of those bromides that parents repeated endlessly to their kids. It wasn't until decades later that I fully appreciated the importance of those words and the impact they had on me.在我還是個孩子的時候，我的父親每天都會告訴我：你可以做到一切你一心想做的事。他常把這句話掛在嘴邊，就像他常説：“吃掉你的青菜”。我以為這句話就像其它父母總是會不停對子女嘮叨的老生常談一樣，直到多年以後我才明白這句話背後的分量和它對我的影響。

Today, the question I'm asked most often by students and interns is how best to achieve their career goals. As simple as it sounds, the short version of my response is that you have to know what it is you ultimately want to accomplish (optimizing for both passion and skill, and not one at the exclusion of the other). As soon as you do, you'll begin manifesting it in both explicit and implicit ways. ithout question, this first principle has been the most consistent driver of my own career path over the last 20 years.今天，我最常被學生和實習生們問到的問題就是什麼是實現他們生涯目標的最佳方式。我會用最簡短的方式來回答，那就是：你必須知道你最終想要的是什麼（在綜合考慮你的能力和興趣之後，兩者是不可割裂的）。一旦你做到了這一點，你就會開始從心理和行為上都向這個目標靠近。毫無疑問的，這條首要原則是我自己過去20年生涯發展不變的動力。

2. Everything that can be converted from an atom to a bit, will be2. 任何把物質數字化的改變都會有價值

In August, 1994, I signed up for an Aol account. I'll never forget my first "a-ha!" moment online which occurred soon thereafter. It came through witnessing the power of collective intelligence on a Motley Fool message board. There, a community of engineers, logistics experts, and individual investors from all over the country had joined together to reverse engineer the cost basis to manufacture what would eventually emerge as a hit computer peripheral product. I remember thinking to myself, "This is going to change everything."1994年8月，我註冊了一個Aol（美國境內提供線上加值網絡服務的公司）賬户，我永遠都不會忘記不久之後互聯網給我的第一個驚喜，那是我在“綵衣傻瓜”網站（美國著名的投資理財網站）的留言板上見證了集體智慧的力量。在這裏，來自全國各地的工程師、物流專家和獨立投資人集合到一起，從設計成本基礎發展成為討論製造出一些最終會風行一時的電腦周邊產品。我記得我對自己説：“這將改變一切。”

About a month later, I was reading "Being Digital" by Nicolas Negroponte after seeing a rave review in Wired Magazine. In the opening chapter of his book, Negroponte posited that by virtue of the ensuing digital revolution, everything that could be converted from an atom to a bit would be. Having just started as an analyst in the Corporate Development group at Warner Bros, it didn't take much to realize this coming transition would have material implications on the studio and the entertainment industry in general.大概一個月之後，我正在讀Nicolas Negroponte的《數字化》（Being Digital），在他這本書的開篇章節中，Negroponte假定接下來要發生的數字革命將使所有能從原子轉化成比特的'東西轉化為比特。那時我剛成為華納兄弟電影公司組織發展部門的分析員，我馬上意識到這即將到來的轉變將引起電影和娛樂行業的總體變化。

In light of those experiences, when the opportunity arose to write the first online business plan for Warner Bros, I quickly volunteered; this despite the fact that at the time, most if not all of the investment focus was on CD-ROM. The first draft of that online plan was completed in December, 1994. It would ultimately be approved several months later and thus began my nearly two-decades-long career in digital media.根據這些經歷，當我面對第一個為華納電影公司寫線上商業發展計劃的機會時，我立馬抓住了它，雖然當時基本所有的投資依然是在CD-ROM領域。這個線上商業發展計劃的初稿完成於1994年12月，幾個月後它得到了批准，我也隨之開始了我二十多年在數字媒體界的生涯之路。

3. Do you want to push paper around or do you want to build products that change people's lives?3.你想在辦公室處理文件還是想開發能夠改變世界的產品？

I started at Yahoo in May, 2001, as co-head of the Corporate Development team. By virtue of the breadth of the role and the company's operations, and Yahoo's influential position within the digital ecosystem, the job provided me a front row seat to a period of extraordinary transformation within the consumer web industry.我2001年5月加入Yahoo公司，成為企業開發團隊的聯席主管。通過這個職位和公司的運作，還有yahoo公司在數字生態系統中的重要作用，這份工作提供給我見證消費者網絡行業這個特殊的轉型時期的最佳機會。

Roughly a year after I started, Dan Rosensweig joined as Yahoo's new COO. In addition to being an experienced web operator, Dan is one of the most effective sales people I know. I learned this firsthand after he tried recruiting me to an operating role on his team literally every time I saw him over the first year of his tenure. Though I'd politely decline each time -- telling him I was happy having the opportunity to work directly with the CEO, founder, and other executives in a strategic capacity -- he never stopped persisting.我加入Yahoo一年以後，Dan Rosensweig成為Yahoo公司的首席運營官。除了是一個經驗老道的網絡運營商，Dan還是我所知道的最優秀的銷售之一。我親身體驗到這一點，因為他任職的第一年內每次見到我都會力勸我加入他的運營團隊。雖然每次我都禮貌的拒絕了他——告訴他我很高興能有跟公司的首席執行官、創始人和其他高管們直接共事的機會——但他一直都沒有放棄説服我。

Then, almost a year to the day he started, Dan said, "Jeff, you've always told me that your lifelong ambition is ultimately to reform the education system in the U.S. Let me ask you something: Do you think you are going to be better prepared to make that a reality by pushing paper around, working on strategy, and doing deals; or by moving in to operations and building teams, inspiring people, and developing great products that change people's lives?"之後，大概距離他第一次力圖拉攏我一年以後，Dan説：“Jeff，你總説你畢生的夢想是促進美國的教育體系改革，讓我問你：你認為為了讓你的夢想成真，最好的方式是在辦公室處理公文、致力於戰略、做交易，還是轉入運營領域，組建團隊，啟發人們，並開發出能夠改變人們生活的好產品？”

Suffice it to say, I accepted on the spot and haven't looked back since.一言以蔽之，我當場接受了他的邀請，並從未後悔過。