很难高估诺基亚(Nokia)在iPhone问世之前占据过多么主导的地位。

　　The company gave Finland its first global brand beyond the Moomins and Marimekko.

　　该公司让芬兰拥有了除姆明一族(Moomins)和Marimekko（芬兰家居用品企业——译者注）以外的首个全球品牌。

　　Jorma Ollila was the unlikely hero of Nokia’s rise from a failing conglomerate making everything from toilet paper and rubber boots to cables for the Soviet Union.

　　约玛?奥利拉(Jorma Ollila)是诺基亚崛起过程中一位不可思议的英雄，当初诺基亚是一家濒临倒闭的综合企业，生产多种日用品，包括卫生纸、胶鞋，以及出口到苏联的电缆。

　　前CEO讲述诺基亚的盛衰往事

　　He spent 25 years at the helm of one of the most curious success stories in the history of the technology sector.

　　他用25年时间谱写出了科技行业史上最不寻常的成功故事之一。

　　Yet Against All Odds proves to be a more cautionary tale than one that revels in how the Finns beat the world.

　　然而，《排除万难》(Against All Odds)更像是一个警示故事，而非陶醉于芬兰人如何傲居世界首位。

　　The book begins with the phrase no one was happy, which sets the tone for the rest of his story detailing the pitfalls and financial crises that almost subsumed the business.

　　该书开头写道：那时没有人高兴，这为整个故事奠定了基调，书中详细描述了几乎葬送了这家企业的失误和财务危机。

　　He rarely dwells on its periods of rampant success.

　　他很少把笔触放在诺基亚大获成功的时期。

　　I was captain of a vessel where only the bridge remained above the waterline: the hull was already submerged and the water was coming in the engine room, he says of his first days as chief executive.

　　他在说到他担任首席执行官最初的日子时写道：我是一艘大船的船长，该船只有驾驶室在吃水线上方：船体已没入水中，水正流入发动机舱。

　　References to the company haemorrhaging cash and being ripe for plucking by larger rivals become so numerous, it is almost easy to forget he is detailing one of the biggest success stories of the 1990s.

　　他多次提到该公司资金严重流失以及被较大规模竞争对手收入囊中的时机成熟，以至于读者几乎很容易忘记他在叙述上世纪90年代最成功的故事之一。

　　When Nokia’s workforce doubled, its revenue grew tenfold and its profit rose a hundredfold.

　　当时诺基亚的员工数量翻了一番，收入增长了10倍，利润扩大了100倍。

　　This is an unlikely tale of how a group of provincial Finns changed communications and the world.

　　这是一个不可思议的故事，讲述的是一群土生土长的芬兰人如何改变电信行业乃至世界。

　　Ollila is from Ostrobothnia which is so rural that studying in the Welsh town of Bridgend as a youth makes him feel worldly.

　　奥利拉来自奥斯托波斯尼亚(Ostrobothnia)，那里的乡村气息如此浓厚，以至于他年轻时在威尔士布里真德镇(Bridgend)学习时，竟有见了大世面的感觉。

　　The Nokia 101, the Ford Model T of mobile phones, was developed by Pertti Korhonen who hailed from Meltaus within the Arctic Circle, about as far away from Silicon Valley as you can imagine.

　　诺基亚101被称为手机中的福特T型车(Ford Model T)，其开发者佩尔蒂?科尔霍宁(Pertti Korhonen)来自北极圈以内的Meltaus，那里距离硅谷远的不能再远了。

　　Ollila spends much of the book describing how he unpicked the old Nokia by selling off the sacred paper division as well as the large television division that had become a millstone.

　　奥利拉用了很多的笔墨描写他是如何通过出售神圣的造纸业务和已成为沉重负担的大规模电视业务来告别旧诺基亚的。

　　Apart from a few crayfish parties, there is no wild excess on show.

　　除了一些小龙虾聚会，书中没有展示过度的铺张。

　　That may reflect his early days working under the Nokia chairman Kari Kairamo, who would hang out of helicopters and was obsessed with his public image.

　　这可能反映出他早年在诺基亚董事长卡瑞?凯雷莫(Kari Kairamo)手下工作的经历，凯雷莫常常在直升机上探身出来炫耀，念念不忘自己的公共形象。

　　Kairamo committed suicide in the role and his eventual successor describes feeling powerless and a little betrayed as he poses for a photo shoot with a French magazine in the hours after the news was broken to him.

　　凯雷莫在任上自杀，他最终的继任者在他去世消息传来几小时后接受一家法国杂志的拍照时感到无能为力和些许的背叛。

　　A Finnish sense of humour is apparent in his writing.

　　文中明显流露出芬兰式幽默感。

　　Ollila describes skiing in the Alps to get away from Nokia when his phone starts ringing, which is a problem he helped to impart to the world.

　　奥利拉写道，为了清静，他跑到阿尔卑斯山上滑雪，结果他的手机响起，而这个问题正是他参与带给世界的。

　　An anecdote about receiving a phone call in his car from Bill Gates that was so furious he had to pull over — only to discover later that the billionaire had meant to call his counterpart at Ericsson — is hilarious.

　　有一件轶事很好笑，他在车中接到比尔?盖茨(Bill Gates)的电话，对方非常生气，以至于他不得不在路边停车，结果发现这位亿万富翁打电话找的是爱立信(Ericsson)的掌门人的。

　　The revelation that the word geek translates to n?rtti in Finnish is also a lovely fact.

　　极客这个词在芬兰语中被翻译为n?rtti，这也是一个有趣的事实。

　　Ollila’s turn of phrase chimes with Finnish director Aki Kaurism?ki’s deadpan school of humour.

　　奥利拉的措辞与芬兰导演阿基?郭利马斯基(Aki Kaurism?ki)的冷幽默不谋而合。

　　He describes delivering a rather long and gloomy monologue, straight from my heart in one board meeting.

　　他曾在一次董事会会议上说出一段长长的忧郁的独白，发自我的内心。

　　The view of a church out of the window at another crucial meeting is described thus: The tombstones of the old plague victims buried there appeared as dark shadows against the ground, while the trees seemed even darker and more threatening.

　　在另一次重要会议上，他这样描写窗外的一座教堂：当年瘟疫受害者的墓碑好像是投在地面上的阴影，而树木似乎更阴暗更吓人。

　　The impression was radiant in a way only a deep Finnish winter could be.

　　这幅景象给人以光芒四射的印象，只有芬兰的严冬才会这样。

　　Ollila pulls no punches on how and why Nokia fell from grace although he keeps his powder dry on Stephen Elop, whom he hired, and the eventual sale to Microsoft of its famed handset business.

　　奥利拉毫不留情地讲述了诺基亚是如何以及为何跌落神坛的，不过他没有评论他聘用的史蒂芬?埃洛普(Stephen Elop)以及最终将诺基亚著名的手机业务出售给微软(Microsoft)的交易。

　　Against All Odds is a unique tale and Ollila’s way of telling it is equally left field.

　　《Against All Odds》是一个独特的故事，奥利拉的叙事方法也同样别具一格。