The Soul of Steve Jobs中英短篇（四）

31. As often happens, the people at Apple mostly adjusted to Steve Jobs’s way because, in spite of his volatile personality, he caused highly talented and motivated people to achieve things beyond their own wildest expectations. If one was tough enough to accept the abuse involved in working for and with Steve Jobs, the success in terms of wealth, fame, and professional satisfaction was enormous.

就像经常发生的那样，苹果公司的人大多适应了史蒂夫乔布斯的方式，因为尽管他的性格反复无常，但他还是让才华横溢、积极进取的人们实现了超出他们自己最疯狂期望的事情。 如果一个人足够坚强，能够接受为史蒂夫·乔布斯工作和与史蒂夫·乔布斯一起工作所涉及的虐待，那么在财富、名声和职业满意度方面的成功是巨大的。

32. But one day the board of Apple reached a point of intolerable frustration with Jobs. At the age of 30, Steve Jobs found himself out of a job. He once again experienced the echoes of rejection, abandonment --- but this time at the age of 30. The man who’d often abandoned others was himself abandoned.

但有一天，苹果董事会对乔布斯感到无法忍受的挫败感。 30 岁时，史蒂夫乔布斯发现自己失业了。 他又一次经历了拒绝、被抛弃的回声——但这一次，已经三十岁了。这个经常抛弃别人的男人，却被自己抛弃了。

33. Those had to be moments of massive humiliation and self-searching. Was anything to be learned? While Jobs may have been able to identify his failures in executive leadership, I doubt if he ever looked inside himself to seek the root of the many faults and flaws that often made working with him an intolerable experience.

那些必须是巨大的屈辱和自我反省的时刻。 有什么要学的吗？ 虽然乔布斯可能已经能够识别出他在执行领导方面的失败，但我怀疑他是否曾经审视过自己，寻找许多错误和缺陷的根源，这些错误和缺陷常常使与他一起工作成为一种无法忍受的经历。

34. “The one question I’d truly love Steve to answer is ‘Why are you sometimes so mean?’ ” one colleague told Isaacson. When Isaacson posed the question to Jobs, he said, “This is who I am, and you can’t expect me to be someone I’m not.” That was it. Case closed.

“我真正希望史蒂夫回答的一个问题是‘你为什么有时如此刻薄？’”一位同事告诉艾萨克森。 当艾萨克森向乔布斯提出这个问题时，他说：“这就是我，你不能指望我成为我不是的人。” 就是这样。 结案。

35. When Steve founded a second company (NeXT), the products it introduced to the market, while innovative, were not entirely profitable. Jobs’s place in business might have been scuttled. He was just inches from spending the rest of his life as a nobody. But this period of failure in Steve Jobs’s life counted for something. “The best thing ever to happen to Steve is when we fired him, told him to get lost,” an Apple board member said.

当史蒂夫创立第二家公司 (NeXT) 时，它向市场推出的产品虽然具有创新性，但并未完全盈利。 乔布斯的商业地位可能已经被破坏了。 他距离作为无名小卒度过余生只有几英寸的距离。 但史蒂夫乔布斯生命中的这段失败时期是有一定意义的。 “发生在史蒂夫身上的最好的事情就是我们解雇了他，告诉他滚开，”一位苹果董事会成员说。

36. Isaacson comments: “The theory, shared by many, is that the tough love made him wiser and more mature. But it’s not that simple. At the company he founded after being ousted from Apple, Jobs was able to indulge all of his instincts, both good and bad. He was unbounded. The result was a series of spectacular products that were dazzling market flops. This was the true learning experience.”

艾萨克森评论道：“许多人都认同的理论是，严厉的爱让他变得更聪明、更成熟。 但这并不是那么简单。 在他被苹果公司赶下台后创立的公司里，乔布斯能够放纵他所有的直觉，无论好坏。 他是无限的。 结果是一系列令人眼花缭乱的市场失败的壮观产品。 这是真正的学习经历。”

37. Sometime later the board of Apple, also facing great stress, invited Jobs back into the company. It’s a convoluted, rather strange story, but the reinstatement turned out to be a new day for him and for Apple.

过了一段时间，同样面临巨大压力的苹果董事会邀请乔布斯重返公司。 这是一个令人费解、相当奇怪的故事，但事实证明，复职对他和苹果来说都是新的一天。

38. When appropriate, I like to ask leaders if there was ever a time when they felt truly broken, stripped of self-confidence, and finally willing to seriously listen to someone other than themselves? Often, they nod their heads. Yes, there was such a time, most say. And yes, they finally learned to listen.

在适当的时候，我想问领导者是否曾经有过真正感到破碎、失去自信、最终愿意认真倾听自己以外的人的时候？ 他们经常点头。 是的，大多数人说，曾经有过这样的时期。 是的，他们终于学会了倾听。

39. One thinks of Joseph’s days as a slave, Moses’s years in the desert, Peter’s hours weeping in a dark valley. Defining moments, those.

人们会想到约瑟夫作为奴隶的日子，摩西在沙漠中的岁月，彼得在黑暗的山谷中哭泣的时光。 那些决定性的时刻。

40. Did Steve Jobs have such a defining moment? Was he ever truly humbled? The jury, Isaacson might say, is hung on that one.

史蒂夫乔布斯是否有过这样一个决定性的时刻？ 他真的谦虚过吗？ 艾萨克森可能会说，陪审团就在那个人身上。