高盛CEO讲述穷困经历：要与野心人为伍

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein gave the keynote address at LaGuardia Community College’s 41st commencement today at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

高盛集团首席执行官劳尔德-贝兰克梵在曼哈顿贾维茨中心参加了拉瓜迪亚社区大学的第41届毕业典礼并发表演讲。

He delivered his address to an audience of around 1,000 graduates from the college.

劳尔德-贝兰克梵在有约1000名毕业生参加的这次活动中发表了演讲。

In his commencement remarks, he talked about his life growing up in the projects in Brooklyn and working his way to becoming the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

他在发言中谈及了自己在布鲁克林街区长大，并最终成为高盛集团首席执行官的经历。

He also gave some advice for the graduating class telling them to be confident, find a job they like, be a “well-rounded, complete person”， give back to the community, keep an open mind, surround themselves with ambitious people and put themselves in situations with the opportunity for growth.

他同时向毕业生们提出了一些建议，包括要自信，要找到自己喜欢的工作，做一个“全面、完整的人”，要回报社会，保持开放的心态，要与有野心的人为伍，要积极投身到有利成长的机会中。

Here’s his full speech:

以下是劳尔德-贝兰克梵演讲的全文：

President Mellow, distinguished faculty, friends, family, and the Graduating Class of 2021.

麦罗校长，各位尊敬的老师，朋友，家人以及2021年的毕业生们：

It is a great honor for me to share in your accomplishment and pride today. But I must admit that I approached this address with some trepidation. I suppose that more commencement speeches have been delivered more seriously, listened to more attentively, and forgotten more promptly than any other form of human communication.

我很荣幸能在今天分享你们的成就和荣耀。但是我必须承认，我是带着一些不安来参加这次活动的。我想，曾经有更多更认真的毕业典礼发言，收到更加用心地倾听，但是相比其他任何沟通形式，也更加迅速地被遗忘。

So I will try to be brief and practical. My advice is grounded in my own experience. And my own experience, in many respects, is not that different from many of yours.

所以，我会尽量简短而实用。我的全部建议都是来自我自己的经历。而我的经历，从很多方面来看，和你们当中的很多并没有什么不同。

I grew up with the idea that college was more an aspiration than an expectation. I saw my parents struggle most of their lives and the daily battle to keep afloat sometimes even drained what hopes and dreams they had for me. They didn’t go to college and neither did my only, older sibling.

在我成长的环境中，大学更多是一个美好愿望而不是理所当然的事情。我见证我父母大半生的奋斗，每天仅为了维持生计而努力工作，有时甚至会打消任何他们对我的期望和梦想。他们都没有上过大学，我唯一的兄长也没有读过大学。

My father sorted mail for the post office. He worked nights because it paid 10% more than a day shift. My mother was a receptionist at a burglar alarm company — one of the few growth industries in our neighborhood. I grew up in the Linden Houses, which, as some of you know, is a housing project in East New York.

我的父亲在邮局整理邮件。他选择夜班工作只是因为报酬比白班多了10%，我的母亲是一个防盗警报公司的接待员——这也是我所在社区为数不多的增长行业之一。我在林登小区长大，你们当中的很多都知道，这是纽约东区的一个住宅项目。

It was and is a tough neighborhood, though it produced some accomplished people who, despite or because of their background, did well. I attended Thomas Jefferson high school, which has since shut down as a high school and operates different training programs for various skills. Up until high school, I shared a small apartment with my extended family, which included my grandmother, my sister and my nephew.

它一直都是一个贫穷的社区，但是也产生了一些有成就的人，有些是因为这一背景而成功，有些是因为克服了这一背景而做出了成绩。我在托马斯-杰斐逊高中毕业，学校在之后关闭了高中部，仅仅提供多种技能培训项目。直到高中毕业，我一直和我庞大的家庭分享一间小小的公寓，包括了我的奶奶，我的妹妹和我的侄儿。

But looking back, I grew up in a world of unlimited opportunity. Each night I would read, and reading opened up the world to me. I love reading history and especially biography. In biographies, you are almost always reading about people who started out unimportant but ended up having a significant life.

但是回过头看看，我是在一个有着无限机遇的世界长大的。我每天晚上都会读书，阅读向我展开了整个世界。我喜欢读历史，尤其是传记。在传记里面，你总是能看到一个似乎是无足轻重的人，最终如何拥有与众不同的人生。

What I liked most about biographies then and now is that the person you are reading about is in his or her early life on page 50, doesn’t know about the success he or she will achieve on page 300. They couldn’t see the greatness that lay ahead.

不管是过去还是现在，传记最吸引我的一点是，书中的人物在自己生命的初期，也就是前五十页当中，是不会知道他或者是她会在第三百页的时候取得的成功。他们并不知道将会出现在自己面前的伟大。

If you think about it, that’s a great justification for the optimism that you should have for the life ahead of you. All of you are only on about page 50 of your biography, with hundreds of pages to go.

仔细想想这点吧，这是对你们自己未来的生活保持乐观的一个极好理由。你们所有人都仅仅在自己那本传记的前五十页，还有几百页的路要走。

Growing up, my biggest goal was just to get out of East New York. I took the college entrance exam and committed myself to getting into college. I did. The day I left for college was one of the first trips I made out of New York City.

在漫长的成长中，我最大的目标就是走出纽约东区。我参加了大学入学试，发誓一定要进大学。我成功了。我去读大学的时候也是我第一次离开纽约市。

College was an intimidating place for me. The other students seemed naturally confident; many had traveled and seemed to understand the world. To this day, I can’t forget how insecure I felt, but it made me work harder.

大学是一个令我心生敬畏的地方。其他学生似乎很自然的充满信心，很多人都曾到处旅行，看起来对这个世界十分了解。直到今天，我还是没有办法忘记我当时的不安全感，但是这种感觉让我更加努力地工作。

Once I realized I belonged, I became more ambitious. Ambition is your inner voice that tells you you can and should strive to go beyond your circumstances or station in life. You have overcome obstacles, pressures and self-doubt and you have done it because you have ambition.

当我认识到自己的定位时，我变得更有野心了。野心是你内心的声音，告诉你可以而且应该努力去超越人生的处境或者是限制。你必须克服障碍，扛住压力，打消自我怀疑，你能做到这些都是因为你有足够的野心。

You want to succeed for your families and yourselves. And there is no more powerful force through which to do that than through education and know how.

你想要为了你的家人以及你自己而成功，除了通过教育和学习，没有什么更强大的力量能做到这一点。

I’m proud that LaGuardia and Goldman Sachs have teamed up to support small businesses. Through this partnership, I’ve seen how many LaGuardia students are juggling school, job and family. And, I’ve seen how these students and all of you push yourselves and persevere.

我很自豪的是，拉瓜迪亚社区大学和高盛集团联手提出了对小企业的支持。通过这个合作，我也看到了多少拉瓜迪亚社区大学的学生在学校，工作和家庭中游刃有余。我也看到了这些同学，还有在座的所有人如何不断勉励自己，而且持之以恒下去。

By virtue of being here today, you have proven to yourself that you belong. And now that you belong, feed off your ambition. That means being focused, disciplined, demanding, self critical and open minded. Your challenges won’t fall away. In fact, they may get steeper.

仅仅是今天能够出现在这里，你们已经证明了自己的定位。现在你们已经有了定位，接下来就去壮大自己的野心。这意味着专注，自律，严格，自我批判和开放的心态。事实上，你们要面对的挑战不会消失，而会更加严峻。

That, my friends, is life. But just as the struggles are great, so are the rewards. There’s another way to look at it: ask yourself if you really have a choice. You already knew the answer to that question the first day you walked into LaGuardia. We owe it to our families and to ourselves to keep striving.

我的朋友们，这就是生活。但是奋斗越是艰辛，回报也会更加丰厚。用另一个方式看问题：问问你自己，你是不是真的有选择。当你们走进拉瓜迪亚社区大学的第一天，你们已经知道了这个问题的答案。我们必须为了自己的家庭和自己而不断努力。

This is certainly not the easiest of economic times, but there’s always an economic cycle. In the course of the next 50 years of your life, you’ll see alot of cycles, and like this one, you’ll get through it. Don’t get caught up in unrealistic optimism or detached pessimism.

现在显然不是最好的经济时期，但是经济总是有一个周期的。在你们人生的下一个五十年，你们会经历很多周期，和这次一样，你们能够顺利渡过。不要有任何不切实际的乐观或者是过分的悲观。

Still, a lot can change rapidly and with a lot of force. Your security rests in knowing how to do a variety of things — and being able to do them better than others.

尽管如此，世上还会发生许多不测，带来巨大影响。你们的安全感来自于知道如何做各种各样的事情——而且比其他人做得都要好。

And that knowledge and ability can be obtained only through a willingness to strike out for something better. That could mean changing careers or pushing for a new idea or strategy in your current one. In either case, push yourself to try something new and to grow with each move.

而只有不断追求卓越，才能获得这些知识和能力。这意味着改变职业道路或者追求目前职业新的想法、新策略。不管是哪种情况，你都应该逼迫自己尝试新的事物，在每一步中成长。

After college, I went to law school for three years, and then into my dream job at a big NY law firm. But even though it had been my dream, I didn’t like it once I got there.

读完大学，我在法学院度过了三年，之后在一间大的纽约律师事务所得到了自己梦想中的工作。虽然这曾一直是我的梦想，但是当我得到时，我发现我并不喜欢它。

For the first time, I was feeling financially secure, but I knew I wasn’t passionate enough about what I was doing. And because I didn’t love it, I would never be fulfilled from it, or be really good at it. Someone who loved it more would have greater enthusiasm and focus. For some it was fun; for me it was always going to be a chore.

虽然在我人生中，我第一次在财务上获得了保障，但是我知道我对我自己做的那些事情并没有足够激情。而且，因为我并不爱的工作，我将永不可能从中得到满足，或者是真的擅长这份工作。更爱这种工作的人会更积极地专注于它。对有些人来说，这是乐趣，对我来说，这永远是一份苦差。

After five years at a law firm, I decided I wanted to try something different. I came home and told my wife I was quitting, and she cried. And not out of happiness. Anyway, it worked out. I got a new job at a small Wall Street firm, we got bought out by a larger firm, and I ended up remaining at a large firm… Goldman Sachs.

在五年的律师事务所工作之后，我决定要尝试一些不同的东西。我回家告诉我的妻子我要辞职，她哭了，而且不是因为高兴。不管怎么说，事情还算顺利，我在一间华尔街的小企业中找到了新的工作，之后被更大的企业收购，我也得以进入这个更大的机构，高盛集团。

In my career, I’ve been fortunate to know and work with many of this country’s top CEOs and business leaders. I’m always struck by a certain passion that defines them. While they may be wealthy and powerful, their passion goes beyond money and power.

在我的职业生涯中，我很幸运能够认识，并且与很多全国顶级的首席执行官以及商界领袖们共同工作。我总是能够被造就他们成功的那种激情所打动。他们也许非常有钱，权势惊人，但是他们的激情远远超越了金钱和权力。

I won’t stand here and tell you those are bad things. They can be pretty good, but only if you have a larger purpose in mind. If you don’t have passion for your work or the drive to make a better life for your kids than your own, then you won’t have what it takes to keep you going.

今天我在这里不是要告诉你们金钱和权力的坏处。只要你的头脑中有一个更大目标，钱与权相当有益。如果你对自己的工作没有激情，或者是没有动力为你的孩子打造比你自己更好人生，那么你就不会有那些让你持续前进的东西。

So, I’d like to leave you with some specific advice that will hopefully keep you going:

所以，我想给你们一些更加具体的建议，希望能够保持你们继续前进。

First, confidence really matters.

首先，信心真的很重要。

Recognize you have earned the right to be confident. Most of you have made great sacrifices and overcome great obstacles to get where you are today. You built up muscles that others who’ve had an easier time don’t have. Those muscles will serve you for the rest of your life.

要认识到你已经赢得了自信的权力。你们中的绝大多数都是付出了巨大的牺牲，克服了巨大的障碍才有了现在的成就。你们有了其他起步更早的人所没有的能力，这些能力将会在你们的余生为你们效力。

My struggle to get to and through college turned out to be an advantage for me. The disadvantages you have had become part of your personal history and track record, all advantages in your later life. So confidence is justified.

我进入大学并读完它的努力最终成为我的一个优势。你曾有的不足已成为你个人经历和职业纪录的历史，它们都会在之后的人生中变成你的优势。所以，你们有理由充满信心。

Second, find a job that you like.

第二点，找到一个你喜欢的工作。

You’ll be better at it and you’ll last longer in it. Having said that, in a tough economy, or because of family pressures, you may not aways be able take a risk with a job choice. And, no doubt, we’ve all settled at various times.

你会做得更好，而且做得更长。虽然是这样说，在一个艰难的经济形势中，需要因为家庭压力做出一些让步，你并不是总能够在职业选择上承担风险。而且，毫无疑问的是，我们将会很多次的妥协。

But, don’t let necessity in a given moment become the excuse for a lifetime of inertia. Keep trying to get yourself to the right place. If I’d stayed a lawyer, I could have made it work for a while, but I would have fizzled out and eventually because I didn’t love it.

但是，不要让一时的必要选择成为一生惯性的借口。要不断试图让自己走到正确的地方。如果我继续做一名律师，我可能会干得还不错，但是我不会辉煌，因为我并不爱这个工作。

Third, be a well rounded, complete person.

第三，做一个全面、完整的人。

many of you will go for further education or career training. Of course, it’s important to learn the things that you need to make a living. But, don’t forget to read, and to learn history, literature and about current events.

你们中的很多人会继续接受教育或者是职业培训。学习维持生计必须的东西当然是很重要的。但是不要忘了阅读，学习历史，文化以及时事。

You’ll be more interesting to others, more interesting to yourself and you’ll be more successful in your job. Most of the books I’ve read didn’t apply directly to my job or industry, but I’ve applied their lessons in unexpected ways.

你会变得更吸引人，对你自己也更加有趣，会在你的工作上更加成功。我读过的绝大部分书对我的工作甚至这个行业都没有直接的用处，但是书中的经验教训总会以意想不到的方式发挥作用。

Fourth, be involved in the community.

第四点，参与社区活动。

Find ways to contribute to make yourself proud and set an example to your kids. making a living is not life. It is a means to an end, not the end. You have to feel proud of yourself. There are always going to be people who struggle and for whom community work is not a realistic option, but try.

找到可以让你感到自豪的贡献方式，为你的孩子们树立榜样。谋生并不是生活，只是达到目的的一个手段，而不是目的本身。你需要为自己感到自豪。总会有人需要为生计努力，对他们来说社区工作并不是一个现实的选择，但是请努力尝试。

I’ve done plenty to advance myself over the years. But, the older I get, the more satisfaction I get from serving and advancing others. In fact that’s how I first got involved with President Mellow and LaGuardia — through the 10,000 Small Businesses program we initiated at your school.

在过去的岁月里我做了很多事情来让自己进步。但是年纪越大，我越来越能够从服务和帮助他人进步中得到满足。事实上，我最初结识麦罗校长和拉瓜迪亚社区大学就是因为我们共同发起的这个10000家小企业项目。

Finally, appreciate that life is unpredictable, so don’t close your mind to possibilities.

最后，要明白人生是不可预测的，所以不要自我设限。

Try to surround yourself with people who are equally ambitious. Put yourself in situation where you can grow — where you’ll not only push yourself but others will push you.

试试和那些一样具有野心的人为伍，让你置身于可以成长的环境中——在那种你不仅仅可以让自己进步，其他人也会推动你前进的环境。

What were the chances that a kid from the poverty would run one of the great financial institutions in the world? You just never know. That unpredictability is the great thing about life. You change. The world changes.

一个从贫困小区长大的孩子掌管世界上最大金融机构的机会有多大？你永远也不会知道。不可预测性是生活最伟大的一点。你改变，这个世界也在改变。

You live in a country where we are still blessed with enormous opportunity. Leave yourself open to the world of possibility. You have the ambition, you have the smarts and you have the toughness. So, turn the page on your biography — you have just started a new chapter in your lives.

你们生活在一个仍然拥有得天独厚机会的国家。让你自己对无限可能的世界敞开胸怀。你们有野心，你们有智慧和坚韧，所以，请翻开自己的传记——你们已经打开了人生的新一个篇章。

Good luck and congratulations to you and your families.

祝你们和你们的家人好运，也祝贺你们和你们的家人。

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