创业成功人士访谈录 第16期:乔布斯(10)

 　　How Do We Deal with Roadblocks

　　我们如何排除万难

　　How do you deal with roadblocks?

　　你们是如何排除万难的？

　　At Pixar when we were making Toy Story,

　　当我们在皮克斯公司制作《玩具总动员》的时候，

　　there came a time when we were forced to admit that the story wasn’t great.

　　曾经有一次，我们不得不承认剧本实在不行。

　　It just wasn't great.

　　它就是不过关。

　　We stopped production for five months...

　　我们一度暂停了5个月……

　　We paid them all to twiddle their thumbs

　　当团队着手完善剧本时，

　　while the team perfected the story into what became Toy Story.

　　我们让每个人都拿着工资放大假去了。后来才做出你所看到 的《玩具总动员》。

　　And if they hadn’t had the courage to stop,

　　假如当时他们没有停下来的勇气，

　　there would have never been a Toy Story the way it is，

　　那也不会有最终的《玩具总动员》，

　　and there probably would have never been a Pixar.

　　甚至也不会有皮克斯的今天。

　　We called that the“story crisis"，and we never expected to have another one.

　　我们曾称之为“危机总动员”，谁也不希望这种事情再发生。

　　But you know what?

　　可你知道吗？

　　There’s been one on every film.

　　每部电影都是这样。

　　We don’t stop production for five months.

　　不再停工5个月。

　　We’ve gotten a little smarter about it.

　　但我们找到了更聪明的解决办法，

　　But there always seems to come a moment where it’s just not working,

　　总会有些山穷水尽的时刻，

　　and it’s so easy to fool yourself to convince yourself that it is

　　要蒙骗自己其实并不难——说服自己：

　　when you know in your heart that it isn’t.

　　其实你心里清楚，事情并不是这样的。

　　Well，you know what?

　　好，你知道吗？

　　It’s been that way with almost every major project at Apple, too...

　　在苹果，几乎每个大项目也都会遇到这种情况……

　　Take the iPhone.

　　拿iPhone举例。

　　We had a different enclosure¹ design for this iPhone

　　我们曾经有过一个迥异的iPhone封装设计，

　　until way too close to the introduction to ever change it.

　　那时候离面世已经为时不远，甚至没有时间再做改动了。

　　And I came in one Monday morning, I said, “I just don’t love this.

　　在某个周一的早晨，我走进公司说：“我真没法儿爱上这个玩意儿。

　　I can’t convince myself to fall in love with this.

　　我说服不了自己。

　　And this is the most important product we’ve ever done.”

　　而这是我们做过的最重要的产品。”

　　And we pushed the reset² button.

　　然后我们就按下了重启键。

　　We went through all of the zillions of models we'd made and ideas we’d had.

　　我们重新回顾了曾经做出来的无数款模型机以及曾经有过的想法。

　　And we ended up creating what you see here as the iPhone,

　　最终，我们做出来了今天你看到的iPhone，

　　which is dramatically better.

　　好得出人意料。

　　It was hell because we had to go to the team and say,

　　那个过程简直如同去地狱里走了一圈，

　　“All this work you've done for the last year, we’re going to have to throw it away and start over,

　　因为你不得不当着整个团队的面说：“你们在过去一年里做出来的所有东西，我们都要全盘否定并且重头再来。

　　and we，re going to have to work twice as hard now because we don’t have enough time.”

　　而且我们必须加倍努力，因为我们已经没时间了。”

　　And you know what everybody said? “Sign us up.”

　　而你知道他们说了什么吗？“算我一个。”

　　That happens more than you think,

　　这种情况发生得比你想的频繁得多，

　　because this is not just engineering and science.

　　因为这不仅仅是工程学和科学。

　　There is art, too.

　　这也是艺术。

　　Sometimes when you’re in the middle of one of these crises³,

　　有些时候，当你置身于危机时，

　　you’re not sure you’re going to make it to the other end.

　　你并不能保证你能走到终点。

　　But we’ve always made it,

　　但我们总能挺过来，

　　and so we have a certain degree of confidence, although sometimes you wonder.

　　我想我们有着一定程度的自信，尽管有些时候你会质疑。

　　I think the key thing is that we’re not all terrified at the same time.

　　我认为关键在于，我们在这种时候不会被完全吓倒。

　　I mean, we do put our heart and soul into these things.

　　我指的是，我们全身心地投入到了这些事情之中。

　　What’s the iPod’s tipping point?

　　iPod的引爆点是什么？

　　It was difficult for a while

　　有段时间我们很艰难。

　　because for various reasons the Mac had not been accepted by a lot of people, who went with Windows.

　　Mac因为各种各样的原因不被接受，这些人选择了Windows。

　　And we were just working really hard, and our market share wasn’t going up.

　　即便我们全力以赴，市场份额仍没有增长。

　　It makes you wonder sometimes whether you’re wrong.

　　有时你会想是不是你真的做错了。

　　Maybe our stuff isn’t better, although we thought it was.

　　或许尽管我们认为自己做得很好，但我们的产品仍不够好。

　　Or maybe people don’t care, which is even more depressing.

　　或者人们根本对此漠不关心，那就更令人难过了。

　　It turns out with the iPod we kind of got out from that operating-system glass ceiling

　　iPod的出现让我们突破了操作系统的瓶颈。

　　and it was great because it showed that Apple innovation⁴,

　　事情的美妙之处在于，它证明了苹果式的创新，

　　Apple engineering, Apple design did matter.

　　苹果式的工程学以及苹果式的设计都是至关重要的。

　　The iPod captured 70% market share.

　　iPod占据了70%的市场份额。

　　I cannot tell you how important that was after so many years of laboring⁵ and seeing a 4% to 5% market share on the Mac.

　　在打拼多年并见证了Mac电脑4%至5%的市场份额之后，我简直无法告诉你这是多么的重要。

　　To see something like that happen with the iPod was a great shot in the arm for everybody.

　　看到iPod惊人的表现，这仿佛给我们每个人打了一针药效惊人的强心针。

1 enclosure   

n.围绕，圈地，围场，围墙，附件，封入物

参考例句：

• We were led to a fenced enclosure.我们被带到一处用篱笆围住的场地。
• I received your enclosure with gratitude.附件收到，十分感谢。

2 reset   

v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物

参考例句：

• As soon as you arrive at your destination,step out of the aircraft and reset your wristwatch.你一到达目的地，就走出飞机并重新设置手表时间。
• He is recovering from an operation to reset his arm.他做了一个手臂复位手术，正在恢复。

3 crises   

n. 危机；危险期

参考例句：

• Economic crises recur periodically. 经济危机周期性地发生。
• Great crises often call forth gifted leaders. 危急存亡之际常能产生天才的领袖。

4 innovation   

n.改革，革新，新观念，新方法，新发明

参考例句：

• There are all sorts of possibilities for technical innovation.技术革新的门道很多。
• An enterprise should encourage innovation.企业应鼓励创新。

5 laboring   

n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转

参考例句：

• The young man who said laboring was beneath his dignity finally put his pride in his pocket and got a job as a kitchen porter. 那个说过干活儿有失其身份的年轻人最终只能忍辱，做了厨房搬运工的工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• But this knowledge did not keep them from laboring to save him. 然而，这并不妨碍她们尽力挽救他。 来自飘（部分）