西部落：花旗CFO:从犯错中学习

Please join me in welcoming Jeff Colvin and Sallie Krawcheck.

I wanna ask you a little about your own career starting with the fact that Wall Street is not just a mainly male environment; it is an aggressively male, an aggressively macho environment. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to be a woman in that world?

There's something about having gone, gone to an all-girl school in Charleston South Carolina. It was tougher than Wall Street. (Yeah.) You don't know what it was like. I had the glasses, literally¹, the glasses, braces², corrective shoes, right, half Jewish half sort of a waspy. I, I couldn't have been a further outcast. I have all the stories, and they mocked. It was, it was not pretty, it was not good...(Girl, girls are tougher than boys),(right?), girls are tough. (yah, I've heard this, that..) Girls are tough. There was nothing they could do to me at Salomon Brothers ( the company she used to work in Wall Street) in the 80's that was as tough as what happened at Ashley Hall (the school she went to)in seventh grade. Awful.

You have said that everybody makes one false step coming out of biz schools. (Sure) what was it in your case?

My, my false step coming out of business school was I couldn't, I actually couldn't find a job coming out of business school. My mistake was as a young investment banker er, I became very happily and joyfully³ pregnant. But rather than doing what I would advise any young lady to do, it's ok you know. Work out the hours, work out you know, maybe you could go, not work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and try to figure out can you go to another department, if it's not working. I quit, full-out, quit. Right, no plans and it took me about two weeks to realize that I had, I didn't mean to quit. I further compounded my error by trying to interview to go back to work on Wall Street while very pregnant. (Tough) It didn't work. (It didn't work) It didn't work, I've been rejected by every firm, every firm on Wall Street. The great news about it is, is that I spent the time sort of stewing⁴, right, and it was during that year that I had off that it hit me. I want to be a research analyst⁵. I'm not sure if I hadn't taken the time and thought, really thought about what I liked and didn't like, I would have found the right path. And the other lesson is you can try to kill a career, but if you are persistent⁶ to get back in, there,there may not be anything as career suicide.

Now, you were a research analyst. That is largely a solitary⁷ job. You went from that to becoming the CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein. Suddenly you were leading 400 people. What was the most important element in making that change successful?

To be an analyst, to be a successful analyst, to your point, solitary, fine. But you actually have to, you have that healthy ego⁸, right? You have to want to be ... want to embrace the spotlight⁹, say it's ok for people to look at me, it's ok for me to be out there, make mistakes. The job of running the business was very different, it had to then be completely turned to other people and I think a lot of folks stumble on the transition because they move from "It's all about me" to "No, it's all about you". And now what I'll be very excited about is that Jeff is successful, not that Sallie is successful.

You seem to have a particularly easy, erh, particular ability to be blunt, to be frank. Do you have any insight into why it's easy for you, or why it's hard for so many other people?

You know what? What's the worst thing that's gonna happen? Right? If, if you don't tell the truth and you don't act ethically¹⁰, you don't deliver the bad news. There's a lot of downside there. Right? And, and careers are ruined, and reputations are ruined. The worst thing that can happen is if I tell you something you don't want to hear, is you don't like me. Right? Or, I get maybe, you know, my job, maybe I'll get fired. That's not so bad.

1 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

2 braces   

n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来

参考例句：

• The table is shaky because the braces are loose. 这张桌子摇摇晃晃，因为支架全松了。
• You don't need braces if you're wearing a belt! 要系腰带，就用不着吊带了。

3 joyfully   

adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地

参考例句：

• She tripped along joyfully as if treading on air. 她高兴地走着，脚底下轻飘飘的。
• During these first weeks she slaved joyfully. 在最初的几周里，她干得很高兴。

4 stewing   

炖

参考例句：

• The meat was stewing in the pan. 肉正炖在锅里。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The cashier was stewing herself over the sum of 1, 000 which was missing. 钱短了一千美元，出纳员着急得要命。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

7 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

8 ego   

n.自我，自己，自尊

参考例句：

• He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
• She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。

9 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

10 ethically   

adv.在伦理上，道德上

参考例句：

• Ethically , we have nothing to be ashamed about . 从伦理上说，我们没有什么好羞愧的。
• Describe the appropriate action to take in an ethically ambiguous situation. 描述适当行为采取在一个道德地模棱两可的情况。