那份影響我職業(yè)生涯的學校評價報告

I went to a pretty formal prep school in New Jersey. One of the things my family and I joke about is that the day I got into Stanford, my dream school, I was also in detention. I did well in school but I was outspoken, precocious and I was against anything that was an arbitrary rule. I was a handful.

我在新澤西州上了一所非常正規(guī)的預科學校。家人和我老開玩笑的一件事情是，在被夢想中的學校斯坦福大學(Stanford)錄取的那一天，我也被課后留校了。我在學校表現很好，但我直言不諱、早熟，反對任何武斷的規(guī)則。我是個難對付的人。

They never really knew what to do with me at school. They were pleased to see me leave. My reports were split — if I bought into a subject I was helpful in class. If I didn’t like a subject I would have been my own worst nightmare.

在學校里，他們真的從來都不知道該拿我怎么辦。他們很高興看到我離開。學校給我的評價報告是分裂的——如果我喜歡一門課，我在課堂上就會有積極貢獻。如果我不喜歡一門課，我會成為我自己最大的噩夢。

Some bits of my school report ring true today. I have always been very organised. When I was 12 I had a little filing system where I filed all my schoolbooks for the next day. So when it came to pack my school bag, I just took everything out of that particular binder and had all my homework scheduled on that. What 12 year-old does that?

在我的學校報告中，有一些內容今天聽起來很對。我一直都很有條理。12歲時，我有一個小小的檔案系統，我把第二天需要的所有課本都放在那里。所以，當要裝書包時，我只需要把特定活頁夾里的所有東西都拿出來，并根據這個安排寫家庭作業(yè)。哪個12歲的孩子會這么做?

The general gist of my school reports was “work harder and do more homework”. My teachers felt that I should rely more on hard work than my wits. I did, however, show leadership potential early on as I was the captain of the dance team.

我的學校報告的大意是“更加努力學習，多做作業(yè)”。我的老師感覺到，我應該更多依靠勤奮而不是聰明。然而，在擔任舞蹈隊隊長時，我就顯示出領導潛力。

I had a rebellious streak and would often lead mini revolts. I was involved in a lot of anti-apartheid protests. I always had an instinct for fairness and justice.

我有一種叛逆傾向，經常領導一些小反抗。我參加了很多反種族隔離的抗議活動。我總有一種追求公平和正義的本能。

Disappointingly for fans of the school-failure-makes-good narrative, my school reports confirm that I was considered a model pupil. One of my nicknames was “Swot”.

讓那些相信“讀書失敗反而能成功”的人感到失望的是，我的學校報告證實，我被認為是模范學生。我的綽號之一是“書呆子”。

I generally stuck to the rules. And — this will sicken many — I actually enjoyed exams. That may explain why, as a columnist, I can still handle the journalistic equivalent of a weekly essay crisis. In fact, I started a weekly satirical column in the school newspaper in my teens and the nearest I came to rebellion was when I lampooned the school chaplain and was ordered to go round to his house to apologise.

我通常遵守規(guī)則。而且——這會讓很多人感到不爽——我真的很喜歡參加考試。這也許可以解釋為什么作為一名專欄作家，我在新聞領域仍能夠應對相當于每周寫一篇論文的挑戰(zhàn)。事實上，十幾歲時，我就在校報上開了一個每周一篇的諷刺專欄，我做的最接近反叛的事情是諷刺了學校牧師，然后被命令去他家里道歉。

When it came to report cards, I was always pretty good at maths and science. I started programming computers aged 10. I was less good at English and social sciences. In a twist of irony I have now become a good writer.

在成績報告單方面，我的數學和科學分數總是很高。我10歲時開始電腦編程。我不那么擅長英語和社會科學。具有諷刺意味的是，我現在成為了一名優(yōu)秀的作家。

Straight out of college I started working at Amazon as an engineer, where later I worked in a product management role. I worked with Jeff Bezos on a project and the way they do stuff there is that in meetings you need to bring memos — what they call the one-pager. You would make the case in writing and then Jeff would hammer you with questions.

大學畢業(yè)后，我開始在亞馬遜(Amazon)擔任工程師，后來做產品管理。我曾與杰夫貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)一起做一個項目，他們的做事方法是，在會議中，你需要帶著備忘錄，他們稱之為單頁報告。你要在寫備忘時列出理由，然后杰夫會問你問題。

I left school at 16 with only two O-levels. My reports were along the lines of “Bright boy, but could have done a lot better”. My parents supported me so much, but I was a naughty kid. If you had read the letters from school, you would never have known I would be chief executive of a global property business.

我16歲離開學校，只有兩個中學普通程度證書。我的報告上面寫著“聰明的孩子，但可以做得更好”。我的父母非常支持我，但我是一個淘氣的孩子。如果你讀過學校寫來的信，你絕不會想到我會成為一家全球房地產公司的首席執(zhí)行官。

But I did make up for it later on. I was a paper boy and always had Exchange and Mart magazine in my canvas bag, which I started reading before I delivered it. I then got really interested in travel and current affairs and developed a thirst for knowledge — and a guilt complex for letting my parents down. So I went off to travel, did A-levels at night school, then a diploma and graduate diploma in management and marketing.

但我后來發(fā)奮彌補過去。我當過報童，帆布袋里總是揣著Exchange and Mart雜志，我會在把它遞送出去前開始閱讀。然后我對旅游和時政產生了真正的興趣，并對知識產生了渴望，而且對于讓我的父母失望心懷愧疚。于是，我動身去旅游，在夜校取得了中學高級證書，后來又獲得管理和營銷專業(yè)的文憑和研究生文憑。