财富精英励志演讲100:艰难的抉择(1)

 　　Thank you very much. It's great to be back and I just want to stay for the record, the class of 88-89 was by far the best class.

　　十分感谢，我很高兴回来。我在这里郑重声明，88-89届学生是迄今为止最棒的。

　　The decision to write a book called Tough Choices and to write it myself, I did, in fact, write it myself every word, no collaborator¹, no ghost writer, for better for worse.

　　我决定要亲自写: 《勇敢抉择》这本书，无论如何是我亲自动笔，是我一个字一个字写的，没有合作者或者找人代笔。

　　That decision first occurred to me about five years ago. I was sitting on the witness stand being cross examined by a team of attorneys², because having just received enough shareholder³ votes to complete the acquisition⁴ of Compaq computer. We were sued⁵ one last time to try stop it. And as I said on that witness stand being questioned by these attorneys that occurred to me that most people don't actually understand how a business operates. Because all of the questions that I was being asked really had to do with how you set goals and how you motivate people to achieve those goals. And the fact is that if you want to change products and profits, you have to change what people do everyday. And so I decided⁶ five years ago that I would write a book about business from the point of view of what I find most fascinating most challenging and most fun about business. And that is that's all about people, it's all about the people.

　　第一次有决定写书的想法大约是5年前，我当时在证人席上被一组律师盘问，缘于已经有了足够的股东投票数来完成与康柏的合并，但是有人最后控告我们，试图阻止合并。我在证人席上接受律师询问时才明白，实际上大多数人不懂如何做生意。因为，盘问我的问题应当是和如何定出目标和如何激励人们达成目标有关。而事实上，如果你想改变产品和提高利润，先要改变人们每天所做的事情，因此五年前我决定要写一本关于做生意的书，从我认为最引人入胜、最具挑战、最有趣味的观点着手。那就是人，人就是一切。

1 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

2 attorneys   

代理人，律师( attorney的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The judge granted the condemned man a respite to enable his attorneys to file an appeal. 法官同意缓期执行，以便这个犯人的律师提出上诉。
• At five the attorneys would have gone home. ５点钟律师们就会回家了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

3 shareholder   

n.股东，股票持有人

参考例句：

• The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
• A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。

4 acquisition   

n.取得，学到，养成（习惯），获得的东西

参考例句：

• The children progressed in the acquisition of basic skills.孩子们在掌握基本技术方面取得了进步。
• He devotes his time to the acquisition of knowledge.他把时间都花在求知上。

5 sued   

v.（为要求赔偿损失而）起诉( sue的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；请求；要求（尤用于法庭）

参考例句：

• The company sued for defamation. 这个公司因受到诽谤而提起诉讼。
• He sued the newspaper for libel. 他起诉那家报社犯有诽谤罪。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。