巴菲特?cái)y手蓋茨校園行

有“股神”之稱的沃倫·巴菲特和被譽(yù)為“坐在世界巔峰的人”的比爾·蓋茨受邀與來(lái)自美國(guó)內(nèi)布拉斯加大學(xué)工商管理學(xué)院的學(xué)生進(jìn)行對(duì)話。盡管這兩位富豪的經(jīng)歷大不相同，但他們倆卻是莫逆之交，正可謂是英雄相惜;他們的成功之路大相徑庭，然而他們對(duì)許多問(wèn)題的見解卻有著極大的默契。他們的幽默、睿智和正義感為他們贏得了一次又一次的掌聲，也為我們上了一堂免費(fèi)的人生哲理課。

Kim: Hello…my name’s Kim Martin. I’m a senior finance major here at the university. My question is how do you

1)instill 2)ethical leadership throughout your organization? And to begin with， how do you know that the management one level below you is making decisions that would 3)parallel your own?

Buffett: We have all the money we need， you know， we’d like to have more， but we can afford to lose money， but we can’t afford to lose 4)reputation—not a 5)shred of reputation—and therefore I ask the managers， I ask them to judge every action they take not just by legal standards， although obviously that’s the first test， but also by the test—what I call the newspaper test—how would they feel about any given action if they knew it was to be written up the next day in their local paper to be read by their family， by their friends， by their neighbours， written by a smart but kind of unfriendly reporter? And if it passes that test， it’s okay. And I tell them if anything is close to the lines， it’s out. And they can always call me if they wanted to check something， but if they call me there’s something wrong with it probably anyway， so…and that’s about it.

Nicole: Hi， my name is Nicole Baracroft and I am a senior business

6)administration major here at the university， and I was just wondering what is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given and how has it 7)impacted your personal or professional lives?

Buffett: (To Gates) What did I tell you that 8)impressed you the most?

Gates: Actually I can answer that. When first I met Warren we were talking about getting together and doing something again. He pulled out his calendar and the pages were so blank， and I said， “Wow， you know， you’ve managed to avoid getting tied in to a lot of kind of meaningless activity” and， you know， Warren said， “Yeah， you have to be good at saying no and picking the things that really make the difference”. And that’s one of many things I’ve learned from Warren， but that’s one of my favorites， and so I can blame it on him whenever I’m turning

things down.

Buffett: Yeah， well， actually I told him that was...the truth is I don’t get invited any place. I think that， you know， I got an 9)awful lot of good advice from my dad， and he didn’t， he didn’t lay it on me， I mean he just， you know， you picked it up from him but there was never any of this， you know， “do this， do that” type of thing at all. But， but I think he really taught me that it’s more important in terms of what’s on your inner 10)scorecard than your outer scorecard， I mean some people get in a position where they…they’re thinking all of the time of what…what the world’s gonna think of this or that instead of what they themselves think about it. If your inner scorecard， if you’re comfortable with that， I think you’re gonna have…gonna have a pretty happy life. And I think the people that 11)strive too much for the outer scorecard sometimes find that it’s a little 12)hollow when they get all through ’em.

Dan: Hello， I’m Dan O’Deloreno from Reno， Nevada. My question is， our society or our generation， generation Y， we face a lot of issues. What do you think are some of the most important or most challenging societal issues that we face， and what can we do as future leaders to ensure that we create a better society in the future?

Gates: I think the issues of 13)equity that we have， whether it’s between countries or even within our country， are pretty serious issues， and if you get too far 14)out of whack on that， then you get a divide and you don’t get the 15)fluidity and the sense of opportunity that this country has stood for， so I think， you know， we’ve really gotta renew our 16)commitment to the ideals around equality， and I think there are， there’s a lot of actions that suggests we should be taking to invest in the long term that certainly， at this stage， we’re not taking right now.

Paul: Hello， my name is Paul Ternis. I’m a senior business administration and music major， from North Dakota originally. I was wondering what is your 17)definition of success and what has been your largest non-business success in life?

Gates: I’ll tell you my case. My…my goal for success out…outside of work is…is definitely raising a family—just getting started with that—and I think there’s some 18)unique challenges of when a parent is very visible and has money and things like that. It’s not easy in any case to raise kids the right way， but I’d say， you know， I hope， hope to be successful at that. So far I haven’t caused…caused them any damage. They seem to be doing okay.

Buffettt: We get a lot of people that want us to adopt them. I mean…h(huán)e’s working on his children， I’m working on my great grandchildren， but otherwise we got the same 19)approach. I would say this in terms of success—this will surprise you—but I would say I’ve never known anybody， that got to my age or close to my age， that had lots of people that loved them that felt anything other than a success. I mean you have lived a successful life if， as you get older， the people that you hope love you do. And that includes your family， your business associates， all kinds of people. And I…and the 20)converse of that is that I know people， enormously wealthy， you know， they get schools named after them， and they get…they get， you know， they get dinners in their honour， all that sort of thing， and the truth is that nobody thinks a thing of them. And I gotta…I have to believe they know that and that everything gets quite hollow in their life at that point， and they’ve got all these markers—and there’s people on the 21)Forbes 400， you know， that are in that category， and I won’t name names， but it’s… I really…I can’t think of anyone I’ve known， and I’ve known some…， you know， a lot of people by this point in my life， I’ve seen them in very ordinary jobs， all kinds of situations， that the people around them love ’em. They feel very successful.

金:大家好。我叫金·馬丁，是這里金融系四年級(jí)學(xué)生。請(qǐng)問(wèn)你們?nèi)绾卧谀銈兊臋C(jī)構(gòu)中實(shí)行合乎道德標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)模式?首先，你們?cè)趺粗滥銈兿乱患?jí)的管理層作出的決定跟自己的決策不相悖?

巴菲特:我們已經(jīng)有足夠的資金，你知道，當(dāng)然我們還想賺更多，但是金錢上的些許損失我們承受得起，但是我們輸不起聲譽(yù)——一丁點(diǎn)名譽(yù)上的損失都是不允許的。因此，我要求管理人員在權(quán)衡他們所作的每一個(gè)決定時(shí)不僅要檢驗(yàn)其是否合法，盡管合法性很顯然是第一準(zhǔn)則，此外還得遵循一個(gè)我稱之為“報(bào)章測(cè)試”的準(zhǔn)則，就是他們?cè)谧髂稠?xiàng)決策時(shí)，先假設(shè)自己所采取的這些做法將經(jīng)由一名精明但并不友善的記者在翌日的當(dāng)?shù)貓?bào)章報(bào)導(dǎo)，他們的親友鄰居都會(huì)讀到相關(guān)信息，在這種情況下，他們會(huì)作何感想。如果能通過(guò)這一測(cè)驗(yàn)就說(shuō)明沒(méi)問(wèn)題。我告訴他們只要是稍微不通過(guò)的就得放棄。他們隨時(shí)都可以打電話咨詢我的意見。而通常他們打電話給我大多就是某方面出問(wèn)題了，就是這樣。

妮可:大家好。我是工商管理系四年級(jí)生妮可·巴拉可芙特。我想問(wèn)的是你們所得到的最佳忠告是什么?它給你們的生活和事業(yè)帶來(lái)怎樣的影響?

巴菲特:(對(duì)蓋茨說(shuō))我說(shuō)過(guò)的話中哪句最讓你印象深刻?

蓋茨:事實(shí)上這個(gè)問(wèn)題我可以回答。我跟沃倫初次會(huì)面那次，我們打算再找個(gè)時(shí)間聚一聚。他拿出了他的日程表，上面一片空白。我就說(shuō)“哇，你成功地避開了許多毫無(wú)意義的活動(dòng)。”當(dāng)時(shí)沃倫就說(shuō)“沒(méi)錯(cuò)，你得擅長(zhǎng)說(shuō)‘不’和甄別真正有意義的事情。”這是我從沃倫身上學(xué)到的東西之一，也是我最喜歡的，現(xiàn)在當(dāng)我拒絕某事時(shí)，我可以把責(zé)任推到他身上。

巴菲特:沒(méi)錯(cuò)，不過(guò)，我也跟他說(shuō)……這是因?yàn)槲液苌俦谎?qǐng)。我想，你知道，我是從我父親那得到了許多有用的忠告。他沒(méi)有，沒(méi)有對(duì)我進(jìn)行說(shuō)教，我是說(shuō)他只是言傳身教，讓我在潛移默化中學(xué)習(xí)，他不會(huì)強(qiáng)行要求我必須這樣做必須那樣做。但他使我明白內(nèi)在評(píng)價(jià)比外在評(píng)價(jià)更重要。有些人成天就想著外界會(huì)怎么評(píng)價(jià)，而不去考慮自身的想法。如果你對(duì)自己的評(píng)價(jià)，你自己感到滿意，那么我想你會(huì)過(guò)得很愉快。而那些很看重外界評(píng)價(jià)的人在成功獲得外界較高評(píng)價(jià)時(shí)，則不時(shí)會(huì)感到空虛來(lái)襲。

丹:大家好。我叫丹·狄羅內(nèi)圖，四年級(jí)生，來(lái)自內(nèi)華達(dá)州里諾。我的問(wèn)題是，我們的社會(huì)，或者說(shuō)我們這一代，Y一代要面臨很多社會(huì)問(wèn)題，你們認(rèn)為我們所面臨的社會(huì)問(wèn)題中什么是最主要，或是最具挑戰(zhàn)性的?而作為未來(lái)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者的我們?cè)撟鲂┦裁床拍軇?chuàng)造更加美好的未來(lái)?

蓋茨:我認(rèn)為是公平問(wèn)題，不管是在國(guó)際社會(huì)或是在國(guó)內(nèi)，這個(gè)問(wèn)題都頗為嚴(yán)重。如果放任這種情況持續(xù)嚴(yán)重下去，那么社會(huì)將會(huì)出現(xiàn)紊亂，我們將會(huì)失去我們國(guó)家一直所標(biāo)榜著的流動(dòng)性和機(jī)會(huì)均等性。所以我認(rèn)為我們必須重新履行有關(guān)公平理想的承諾，而有許多就長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)來(lái)說(shuō)該采取的行動(dòng)我們目前并沒(méi)有做到。

保羅:大家好。我是保羅·德尼斯，主修工商管理和音樂(lè)，來(lái)自北達(dá)科他州。請(qǐng)問(wèn)你們?cè)趺唇缍ǔ晒Γ銈兯〉玫淖畲蟮姆巧虡I(yè)性成功是什么?

蓋茨:我來(lái)說(shuō)說(shuō)我的情況。在工作以外，我的目標(biāo)當(dāng)然是養(yǎng)家糊口，在這方面我才剛剛開始，而具有名氣和財(cái)富的父母得面臨許多不尋常的挑戰(zhàn)，在任何情況下想要正確教導(dǎo)子女都不是件易事，但我想說(shuō)，你知道，我希望在這方面能成功。到目前為止我還沒(méi)給他們?cè)斐蛇^(guò)傷害，他們都過(guò)得不錯(cuò)。

巴菲特:許多人要求我們收養(yǎng)他們。我的意思是……他把時(shí)間花在子女身上，我則花在我的曾孫們身上，但除此以外，我們的做法是相同的。說(shuō)到怎么界定成功，我的答案會(huì)使你感到意外。在我所認(rèn)識(shí)的活到我這把年紀(jì)的人中還沒(méi)有人認(rèn)為成功莫過(guò)于能感受到有許多人疼愛。我的意思是，當(dāng)你年紀(jì)漸大，如果你希望愛你的人是真的愛你，那么你就是成功的，他可以是你的家人、同事，各式人等。我……相反的，我認(rèn)識(shí)一些非常富有的人，有學(xué)校以他們命名，人們?yōu)槠渑e行晚宴等等，但事實(shí)上沒(méi)有人真的關(guān)心他們，而且我相信他們自己也知道。在那一刻，外在的一切對(duì)于他們來(lái)說(shuō)都是虛無(wú)的，他們有各種各樣的標(biāo)簽，有的還名列福布斯400，我不會(huì)說(shuō)出他們的名字，而且我還真的記不起他們的名字來(lái)。而在我認(rèn)識(shí)的另一些跟我年紀(jì)相仿的人中，雖然他們從事普通的工作，各種處境都有，但得到了他們身邊的人的愛，他們也覺得自己是成功的。