财富精英励志演讲81:在疯狂中我们看到了天才(1)

 　　Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Now I guess I'm going to have to give a speech. I came today to give you a status report on what's going on and to try and fill you in on some of the steps we're taking to get Apple healthy again. As you know, I'm the Chairman and CEO of a company called Pixar. Thank you. And I like a lot of other people here are pulling together, to help Apple get healthy again. And I am extraordinarily¹ confident that that is going to happen. Now, when I started to get involved, a lot of people gave me advice, and some of the most popular advice was, "Apple has become irrelevant²." There was a great one that was, "Apple can't execute anything." And another one was, "The Apple culture is anarchy³. No one could manage it." You've read all these things in the press. After four weeks, here is what I found quite the opposite of these things, actually. Apple's not as relevant as it used to be everywhere, but in some incredibly important market segments it's extraordinarily relevant. I want to share some of that with you today. Apple is executing wonderfully on many of the wrong things. The ability of the organization to execute is really high, though. I've met some extraordinary people at Apple. There's a lot of great people at Apple. They're doing some of the wrong things because the plan has been wrong. And lastly, what I found rather than anarchy, I found people that can't wait to fell into line behind a good strategy. There just hasn't been one.

　　非常感谢你们的热情欢迎。现在我就要开始我的演讲了。我今天来，是为了向大家作苹果的现状报告，讲述我们为恢复苹果往日的辉煌而采取的一些措施。正如你们所知，我是皮克斯公司的董事长兼首席执行官——谢谢。我和在座的其他人一样，也在不遗余力地让苹果重获生机，并且我对此深信不疑。当我刚开始参与这件事的时候，很多人给了我建议，其中最普遍的说法就是“苹果已经过时了”；还有甚者，认为“苹果完全没有执行力”；另外还提到说“苹果的企业文化很混乱，已无可救药”。这些说法你们肯定都在新闻里读到过。然而四个星期之后，我发现事实完全相反。虽然苹果可能已没有先前那种无处不在的影响力，但在一些核心的市场领域，它仍然占据着举足轻重的地位。今天我就想和你们分享一下这些优势。苹果的组织和执行力真的很强，可惜对象有误。苹果公司有很多强人，我也见过不少，可他们都在做徒劳无功的事情，因为方案本身就是错的。最后一点，苹果并不是混乱无章的，如果有英明的决策，那些优秀的人才都会迫不及待地追随。只是这决策还有待出炉。

　　重点讲解：

　　1. fill sb. in

　　告诉…详情；向…详述；

　　eg. I didn't give Reid all the details yet—I'll fill him in.

　　我还没有告诉里德所有详情——我会讲给他听的。

　　eg. He filled her in on Wilbur Kantor's visit.

　　他告诉她威尔伯·坎特此行的详细经过。

　　2. pull together

　　齐心协力；团结起来；通力合作；

　　eg. We must pull together for mutual⁴ interest.

　　我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。

　　eg. I need to have the top people in this company pull together.

　　我需要将公司的最高层团结起来。

　　3. the opposite of

　　对立物；对立面；

　　eg. The argument contained herein takes exactly the opposite point of view.

　　本文所持的论点恰恰是站在相反的立场。

　　eg. But they always get the opposite of what they want.

　　但总是事与愿违。

　　背景资料：

　　1985年，乔布斯在苹果公司高层的权力斗争中离开了公司。接着他成立了NEXT电脑公司，瞄准专业市场。1997年，苹果收购NEXT，乔布斯重新回到了苹果公司。

　　1997年8月6日，Macworld大会在波士顿召开。现场来了5000多位苹果的忠实拥护者，场面极其火爆。他们早到了好几个小时，涌进了公园广场酒店（Park Plaza⁵ Hotel）的城堡会议厢，等待乔布斯的主题演讲。他们要亲眼见证英雄的归来——要看看他是否真的准备好再次成为他们的引路和人。本篇即是乔布斯在这次大会上做的主题演讲。

　　1997年9月16日，乔布斯正式聘任苹果公司首席执行官。他对奄奄一息的苹果公司进行大刀阔斧的公司改组和一连串新产品降价促销的措施。这些措施实施后，苹果公司逐步恢复了生机，在1998年第四个财政季度创造了一亿多美元的利润。

　　名人经典：

　　We too are going to think differently and serve the people that have been buying our products since the beginning. Because a lot of times, people think they're crazy. But in that craziness, we see genius. And those are the people we're making tools for.

　　我们也会有不同的想法，并为那些从一开始就购买我们产品的人提供服务。因为很多时候，人们会觉得他们疯了。但是，从这种疯狂中，我们看到了天才，我们正是在为这群人提供工具。

1 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

2 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

3 anarchy   

n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• There would be anarchy if we had no police.要是没有警察，社会就会无法无天。
• The country was thrown into a state of anarchy.这国家那时一下子陷入无政府状态。

4 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

5 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。