经济学人:首富们的心之所安 使命超越了财富

 　　Business: Elizabeth Holmes Holmes is where the heart is 商业：伊丽莎白·霍姆斯，心之所安—霍姆斯

　　Theranos's boss says her mission extends beyond making a fortune. Theranos的老板坦言自己的使命超越了财富。

　　TECH entrepreneurs often have their own distinctive¹ uniforms. 科技型企业家通常都有他们自己独特的制服。

　　For Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, it is jeans and a hoodie. Facebook创始人马克·扎克伯格的制服是牛仔裤和连帽衫。

　　For the late Steve Jobs, it was jeans and black turtleneck. 对已故的乔布斯而言则是牛仔裤和黑色高翻领毛衣。

　　Elizabeth Holmes has plumped for something smarter: matching black jacket, trousers and turtleneck. 伊丽莎白·霍姆斯选择了更为整洁干练的装束：黑色的夹克衫、长裤，再配上高翻领毛衣。

　　It saves having to decide what to wear each morning, she says with typical single-mindedness. 她以其独有的专注说道，这让她每天早上无须为决定穿什么而费时。

　　At the age of 19 Ms Holmes had an idea about how to improve the way blood tests are done. 19岁时，霍姆斯对改进现有的血液检验方式有了新想法。

　　So she dropped out of Stanford University, where she was studying chemical engineering,  所以她便从当时就读的斯坦福大学化学工程专业辍学，

　　and with money that had been set aside for her college education she quietly founded Theranos, a diagnostics company. That was in 2003. 并用原本预存下来的大学学费秘密地成立了一家名为Theranos的诊断公司。那是在2003年。

　　She says she spent the next ten years in “stealth mode”, without press releases or even a company website. 她表示在未来十年她将会开启“隐身模式”，不会召开新闻发布会甚至是设立一个公司网站。

　　During that time she perfected a way of doing hundreds of tests cheaply and quickly on a drop of blood, using lab-on-a-chip technology. 那段时间里，她利用晶片技术不断完善血液检验方法——用一滴血即可廉价且快速地进行上百项检测。

　　Today, aged² 31, she is estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $4.7 billion, and thus to be the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. 如今，据福布斯杂志估计，31岁的她资产达47亿美元，因此成为了世界上最年轻的白手起家的女亿万富翁。

　　She is the author, and co-author, of numerous patents and patent applications. 她还是无数专利和专利申请书的作者以及合著者。

　　Yet Ms Holmes seems uninterested in money or kudos³. 然而霍姆斯似乎对钱财和名誉并不感兴趣。

　　She says her mission is to use testing to help people stay healthy. 她说她的责任是通过这些测验让人们保持健康。

　　She wants to detect diseases such as diabetes⁴, cancers and heart disease far earlier, before they produce symptoms, and in doing so save lives. 她希望在糖尿病、癌症和心脏病之类的疾病出现症状之前就尽早地检测出来，以此来挽救患者的生命。

　　Admirers have compared her to technology titans like Jobs. 她的仰慕者们将她比作像乔布斯一样的科技巨人。

　　But her focus on humanity's big problems makes her more like Elon Musk⁵,  但是她对于全人类大问题的专注让她更像伊隆·马斯克。

　　who wants not just to make money building space rockets and electric cars, but to colonise other planets and save this one from climate change. 伊隆·马斯克不只是想赚钱造航天火箭和电动汽车，还想殖民到其他的星球并拯救地球于气候变化的危难。

　　This week Ms Holmes announced that she was taking her mission beyond America's borders,  本周，霍姆斯宣布自己肩负的不单单是美国的使命，

　　by launching a not-for-profit project to bring cheap medical tests to Mexico, with backing from Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms magnate. 通过在墨西哥电信巨头卡洛斯·斯利姆的支持下，启动了一个可以为墨西哥带去廉价医学检测的非营利项目。

　　Theranos is still privately⁶ owned—Ms Holmes says she holds more than 50% of its stock—and remains⁷ secretive about its revenue streams and plans. 目前Theranos仍然是私有的——霍姆斯表示她持有超过50%的股份——并对其收入来源和经营计划保密。

　　Although it is hard to know if the company merits its rich valuation, one encouraging sign for other investors⁸ is the company's stellar board of directors. 虽然我们难以获知这个公司的高估值是否名副其实，但对其他投资者而言仍有一个令之备受鼓舞的信号。那就是公司众星云集的董事会。

　　It includes two former secretaries of state (George Shultz and Henry Kissinger) and a number of high-profile investors including Larry Ellison of Oracle⁹. 董事会中包括了两位前国务卿（乔治·舒尔茨和亨利·基辛格）和包括Oracles的拉里·埃里森在内的许多知名投资者。

　　If an ability to win over luminaries¹⁰ is a diagnostic test for the health of young companies, Theranos passes. 如果说把能否争取到杰出人物视为对年轻公司是否健康的一项诊断测试，Theranos显然通过了这项测试。

1 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 kudos   

n.荣誉，名声

参考例句：

• He received kudos from everyone on his performance.他的表演受到大家的称赞。
• It will acquire no kudos for translating its inner doubts into hesitation.如果由于内心疑虑不安而在行动上举棋不定，是得不到荣誉的。

4 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

5 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

6 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

9 oracle   

n.神谕，神谕处，预言

参考例句：

• In times of difficulty,she pray for an oracle to guide her.在困难的时候，她祈祷神谕来指引她。
• It is a kind of oracle that often foretells things most important.它是一种内生性神谕，常常能预言最重要的事情。

10 luminaries   

n.杰出人物，名人（luminary的复数形式）

参考例句：

• In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 亚14:6那日、必没有光．三光必退缩。 来自互联网
• Includes household filament light bulbs & luminaries. 包括家用的白炙灯泡和光源。 来自互联网