[财经英语角区] 人才与天才的区别 [推广有奖]

Talent “hits the target others cannot hit; genius hits the target others cannot see”, said Arthur Schopenhauer, the nineteenth century philosopher. Albert Einstein, whose name would in the following century become synonymous with genius, illustrated Schopenhauer’s definition. Other clever physicists derived brilliant solutions to complex problems which had bemused less talented men. But Einstein solved problems that others had not really understood existed.

19世纪的哲学家亚瑟•叔本华(Arthur Schopenhauer)说过，人才“实现的目标其他人无法实现；天才实现的目标其他人连看都看不到”。艾伯特•爱因斯坦(Albert Einstein)就是叔本华对天才定义的例证，他的名字将在随后的一个世纪里成为天才的代名词。其他聪明的物理学家找到了复杂问题的非凡解决方法，这些问题让不那么有才能的人们感到困惑。而爱因斯坦则解决了其他人完全不知道还存在的问题。

Is there such a thing as a business genius? It is a moot question this month, because in modern times Apple’s Steve Jobs, who died last week, was probably the individual with the strongest claim to that title. History gave us figures such as Thomas Edison, who exploited the discovery of electricity to create a string of previously unimagined commercial products. And Walt Disney, who not only created unforgettable characters, but saw how to turn children’s entertainment into a corporate activity. Henry Ford defined the modern automobile industry and demonstrated the potential of mass production. Had these men not existed, the business world – and daily life – might have been forever different from the one we know.

商业天才存在吗？本月这成为一个有争议的问题，因为在现代社会，最近去世的苹果(Apple)首席执行官史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)可能是最有资格获得这一称号的人。历史给我们提供众多卓越人物，例如托马斯•爱迪生(Thomas Edison)，他利用电的发现，制造了一系列人们以前想象不到的商品。沃尔特•迪斯尼(Walt Disney)不仅创造出了令人难忘的角色，还看到了儿童娱乐中的商机，使其变成一种企业活动。亨利•福特(Henry Ford)定义了现代汽车工业，并证明了大规模生产的潜力。如果没有这些人，商界——以及日常生活——可能就会与我们现在所熟知的模样完全不同。

Schopenhauer might have recognised genius in these achievements: but not, for example, in the accomplishments of the several individuals who are hailed in their respective countries as the inventors of television. The box in the living room was an inevitable outcome of the applied science of the 1920s, which is why the problem was solved by different people at about the same time. They hit a demanding target, but one that was very much in sight.

叔本华或许会承认这些成就中有天才的因素存在。但例如在各自国家被视为电视发明者的若干个人的成就在他看来就不存在什么天才的成分。客厅里的这件摆设是上世纪20年代应用科学发展的必然结果，这就是为何这个问题是被不同人同时解决的。他们实现了一个艰难的目标，但这个目标在很大程度上是在视线范围内的。

Alfred Sloan, probably the most talented manager of the twentieth century, did not create General Motors, but he made it possible to run it, something his predecessors had failed to do. Like Bill Gates, who provided IBM with the capabilities required for a personal computer, he solved a problem others had failed to solve, not a problem others had failed to imagine.

艾尔弗雷德•斯隆(Alfred Sloan)或许是20世纪最有才能的管理者，不是他创建了通用汽车(GM)，可是他让经营这家公司成为可能，这是他的前任没有做到的。与比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)一样（盖茨向IBM提供了个人电脑所需的性能），他解决了一个其他人未能解决的问题，而这个问题并非其他人没有想到的。

Business genius, or the ability to see what others do not and turn that insight into a commercial opportunity, is not the same as managerial capability – the capacity to organise large groups of people to accomplish complex tasks. In practice, these attributes are rarely found together. Edison was a hopeless manager; the irascible, autocratic Ford would prove as inept a chief executive in his later years as he had been brilliant in his youth. By the time he died, Ford had all but run his eponymous corporation into the ground.

商业天才，或者说发现他人所未见、并将这种洞见转化为商机的能力，与管理能力不同，管理能力是组织大量人力完成复杂任务的能力。在现实中，这两种特质很少出现在同一个人身上。爱迪生是一个不可救药的管理者；而事实证明，性情暴躁且专横的福特虽然年轻时才华横溢，但到了晚年却变成了一个无能的首席执行官。到他逝世时，福特几乎把这家与自己同名的企业搞的一团糟。

Jobs and Apple’s greatest achievement was to bring to market the graphical user interface – the icons and the mouse and the software that made it possible. Jobs did not invent the personal computer – like the television, this was the simultaneous work of many hands. He did invent that interface, which originated at Xerox Parc. The innovation did not prove a commercial success. The strategy of maintaining a closed proprietary system, which would later succeed with the iPod and iPad, confined Apple’s first generations of computers to a niche populated by enthusiasts. The imitative Windows captured the mass market.

乔布斯和苹果最伟大的成就是将图形用户界面引入市场，图标、鼠标和软件让这成为可能。乔布斯没有发明个人电脑，与电视一样，这是多人同时努力的结果。他确实发明了这种界面，灵感来源于Xerox Parc公司。结果这一发明没有在商业上取得成功。保持封闭专利权体制的战略，导致苹果最初几代电脑仅成为狂热分子们消费的利基产品——尽管这一战略后来将在iPod和iPad身上取得了成功。而模仿者Windows系统却占领了大众市场。

But the idea of a computer that required no understanding of computers by its user was a concept of genius. Perhaps talent is better suited to making money, genius to changing the world. Sloan and Gates would become rich men: but we do not remember Einstein, or Newton or Shakespeare or Mozart, for the fortunes they made, and when Apple did eventually make its shareholders rich it was, as so often, by the way.

但创造一台电脑、让用户不需要懂电脑也能使用的理念，确实属于天才的范畴。或许，人才更适合赚钱，而天才更适合改变世界。斯隆和盖茨后来都变成了富翁：但我们记住爱因斯坦、牛顿(Newton)、莎士比亚(Shakespeare)或莫扎特(Mozart)不是因为他们创造的财富，尽管苹果最终的确让它的股东变富，但就像经常发生的那样，这只是顺带效应。

We still use electric light, drive cars and watch Mickey Mouse; but what of the corporations their creators left behind? Despite the ineptitude of Edison as manager, the General Electric company he established would be the most successful of all businesses in the century that followed. Ford would recover from the dotage of its erratic boss to be a great company once again. And once Walt’s successors stopped asking each other what the founder would have done, they restored the company’s leadership in popular entertainment. The inspiration of the founders lives on in the businesses they fostered. The strength of public response to Jobs’ death suggests this might also be true of Apple.

我们仍在使用电灯、驾驶汽车，看《米老鼠》(Mickey Mouse)；但它们的创造者留下的的企业怎么样了呢？尽管爱迪生管理无方，但他所创建的通用电气(GE)会成为接下来一个世纪里最成功的企业。福特将摆脱它那年老昏聩、反复无常的老板，再次成为一家伟大的企业。而一旦沃尔特的继任者不再互相询问如果换作创始人会怎么做，他们便成功重塑了该公司在大众娱乐领域的领导地位。这些创始人的灵感依托于他们所培育的企业永存于世。公众对乔布斯逝世的强烈反应说明，苹果或许也是如此。

译者/梁艳裳