硅谷大佬該如何與特朗普總統(tǒng)共處？
有一天，歷史會告訴我們更多有關(guān)上周唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)和硅谷的大人物們的會面的事情。我們會知道為何這些往常神氣十足的人物如此順從地來到特朗普大廈(Trump Tower)。為何從來不以西服領(lǐng)帶示人的亞馬遜(Amazon)的杰夫•貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)、蘋果(Apple)的蒂姆•庫克(Tim Cook)以及Alphabet的拉里•佩奇(Larry Page)穿了西服打了領(lǐng)帶?為什么彼得•塞爾(Peter Thiel)出現(xiàn)的時(shí)候，衣領(lǐng)不是敞開著的?除了好奇以外，是什么讓他們共聚一堂?
Leading up to the presidential election last month, Silicon Valley was mostly at odds with Mr Trump, both culturally, on account of his illiberal attitudes to immigrants, women and minorities, and economically, because of his condemnation of outsourcing. But the leading technology companies and the men and women who lead them are nothing if not shrewd. They have gulped hard and by showing up to meet a president-elect they might not care for, they are practising the resurgent philosophy of Stoicism — accepting what they cannot change and managing what they can.
在上個月的總統(tǒng)大選前，硅谷與特朗普的分歧很深，無論是在文化上(因?yàn)樘乩势諏σ泼?、女性和少?shù)族裔態(tài)度狹隘)，還是在經(jīng)濟(jì)上(因?yàn)樘乩势兆l責(zé)外包)。但這些頂尖科技公司及其領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者非常精明。他們深吸一口氣，出面與一個他們或許并不喜歡的候任總統(tǒng)會面，踐行了復(fù)活的斯多葛主義哲學(xué)——接受自己無法改變的事情，管理好自己能夠管理的事情。
Stoicism is the new Zen, a rediscovered set of ideas that seem tailor-made for a period of rapid change. The musings of Seneca and Chrysippus are being seized upon by entrepreneurs whipsawed by fate, and corporate leaders battered by disruption. Steve Jobs was fascinated by Zen Buddhism. But had he been starting out today, he might have been quoting Marcus Aurelius.
斯多葛主義是新的“禪”，這套被重新發(fā)現(xiàn)的思想似乎是為一個快速變革的時(shí)代量身定制的。被命運(yùn)重創(chuàng)的創(chuàng)業(yè)家們和被顛覆性變化猛擊的企業(yè)領(lǐng)袖，現(xiàn)在抓住了斯多葛學(xué)派哲人塞內(nèi)加(Seneca)和克律西波斯(Chrysippus)的冥思。史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)為佛教禪宗而著迷。但如果他是在當(dāng)下開始創(chuàng)業(yè)，或許他引用的就會是馬可•奧勒留(Marcus Aurelius)的話了。
This week, the New York Times profiled Ryan Holiday, a 29-year-old former publicist for American Apparel, who makes his living as an evangelist for Stoicism. He has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies of his book The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph, which is inspired by Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. It is a favourite among athletes, Hollywood celebrities and the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley, who find solace in its messages of perseverance in the face of adversity and spray them all over Twitter.
上周，《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》(New York Times)介紹了瑞安•霍利迪(Ryan Holiday)，現(xiàn)年29歲的霍利迪曾經(jīng)是服裝公司American Apparel的公關(guān)人員，現(xiàn)在以傳播斯多葛主義為生。他的著作《障礙就是道路：將嘗試轉(zhuǎn)為成功的永恒藝術(shù)》(The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph)已經(jīng)賣出了近25萬冊，靈感正是來自于馬可•奧勒留的《沉思錄》(Meditations)。這本書是運(yùn)動員、好萊塢名人、硅谷風(fēng)投人士和創(chuàng)業(yè)者的最愛，他們從書中所傳達(dá)的在逆境面前堅(jiān)韌不拔的精神中找到慰藉，并且在Twitter上四處宣傳。
Mr Cook took a Stoic approach in a note he sent out to Apple employees after Mr Trump’s election victory last month. He called on them to unite and move forward at any pace they could, quoting Martin Luther King: “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Not exactly “Think Different”, but times change.
在上月特朗普勝選后，庫克在給蘋果員工的一封信中采取了斯多葛主義的做法。他呼吁他們團(tuán)結(jié)一心，盡其所能地前進(jìn)，并且引用馬丁•路德•金(Martin Luther King)的話：“如果你無法飛翔，那就奔跑吧。如果你無法奔跑，那就行走吧。如果你無法行走，那就爬行吧。但無論如何，你必須不斷前行。”和“非同凡‘想’”(Think Different)”不太一樣，但是時(shí)代變了。
The Stoics were in theory a hair-shirted bunch, indifferent to pleasure and pain, wealth and poverty, fortified by their distance from the emotions that trouble ordinary minds. When they kissed their children goodnight, they imagined them dying, so that if the worst were to happen they would be ready. In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote that when you were presented with a fine meal, you should consider “this is the dead body of a fish and this is the dead body of a bird or a pig”.
理論上，斯多葛學(xué)派是一群苦修者，他們對歡愉和痛苦、財(cái)富和貧窮都漠不關(guān)心，與困擾著一般人的心靈的情感保持距離以讓自己的內(nèi)心強(qiáng)大。當(dāng)他們給自己的孩子一個晚安吻時(shí)，他們會想象他們死去的樣子，這樣如果最糟糕的事情發(fā)生了，他們做好了準(zhǔn)備。在《沉思錄》中，馬可•奧勒留寫道，如果有人給你奉上一頓美餐，你應(yīng)該想“這是一條魚的尸體，這是一只鳥或一頭豬的尸體”。
But such joyless mental disciplines did not prevent worldly success. Seneca became fantastically rich through his roles in Rome’s imperial court. He argued that it was precisely his virtuous indifference that made him so valuable to the powerful. Others have said he was a hypocrite.
但這種毫無快樂的精神自律并不妨礙世俗成功。塞內(nèi)加依靠在羅馬宮廷中的職務(wù)變得極其富有。他聲稱正是因?yàn)樗沸懈邼嵉睦淠攀顾蔀閺?qiáng)權(quán)者眼中有價(jià)值的人。其他人則說他是一個偽君子。
The modern embrace of Stoicism seems vapid if one tries to compare the torments of an entrepreneur in Mountain View with the agonies of Marcus Aurelius facing war and death on the fringes of his empire. But Jim Collins found a solution in his wildly popular book about high-performing businesses, Good to Great.
如果把加州山景城中的一位創(chuàng)業(yè)者遭受的折磨，與身處帝國存亡邊緣、面對戰(zhàn)爭和死亡的馬可•奧勒留的痛苦比較一下，現(xiàn)代人對斯多葛主義的奉行似乎不值一提。但吉姆•柯林斯(Jim Collins)在有關(guān)表現(xiàn)優(yōu)異的企業(yè)的暢銷書《從優(yōu)秀到偉大》(Good to Great)中找到了解決方法。
He interviewed James Stockdale, a former US navy pilot, who spent nearly eight years in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war. Stockdale had discovered Epictetus, a Roman Stoic, while studying at Stanford and drew on what he learnt to survive his imprisonment with his dignity and virtue intact. But Mr Collins noted an apparent contradiction in Stockdale’s philosophy.
他采訪了美國前海軍飛行員詹姆斯•斯托克代爾(James Stockdale)，后者曾作為戰(zhàn)俘在北越待了近8年時(shí)間。斯托克代爾在斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford)求學(xué)期間發(fā)現(xiàn)了羅馬斯多葛派哲人愛比克泰德(Epictetus)，并依靠所學(xué)渡過了那段被俘的時(shí)光，保持自己的尊嚴(yán)和道德不受損害。但柯林斯注意到斯托克代爾的哲學(xué)中存在一個明顯的矛盾。
Stockdale said he never lost faith that he would get out of the camp and that his suffering would shape his life in a positive way. But he also had to “confront the most brutal facts of [his] current reality, whatever they might be”.
斯托克代爾表示，他從未失去信心，相信他最終會離開戰(zhàn)俘營，而且他的遭遇將以一種積極的方式塑造他的人生。但他也不得不“面對眼下的現(xiàn)實(shí)中最殘酷的事實(shí)，無論它們是什么”。
The men who didn’t survive the Vietnamese camps were the optimists. “They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
沒能活著走出越南戰(zhàn)俘營的人是那些樂觀主義者。“他們是那些說著‘等到圣誕節(jié)我們就能出去了’的人。圣誕節(jié)來了又走。那時(shí)他們會說，‘等到復(fù)活節(jié)我們就能出去了’。然而復(fù)活節(jié)來了又走。然后是感恩節(jié)，然后又是圣誕節(jié)。他們因?yàn)樾乃槎馈?rdquo;
Mr Collins named Stockdale’s mix of pragmatism and belief the “Stockdale Paradox”, and argued it was essential to great companies. Stoicism for Stockdale was not a set of cute, consoling aphorisms, but a gruelling practice. He recalled a line from Epictetus: “Men, the lecture-room of the philosopher is a hospital; students ought not to walk out of it in pleasure, but in pain.”
柯林斯將斯托克代爾這種務(wù)實(shí)主義與信念的結(jié)合命名為“斯托克代爾悖論”，并主張這對偉大的企業(yè)至關(guān)重要。對于斯托克代爾而言，斯多葛主義并不是一組機(jī)智、給人慰藉的警句，而是一種令人筋疲力盡的實(shí)踐。他回憶了愛比克泰德的一句話：“人們啊，哲學(xué)家的講堂是一所醫(yī)院;學(xué)生不應(yīng)該帶著快樂地從中走出來，而應(yīng)該帶著痛苦。”
For those who never wanted Mr Trump to win, but must deal with the fact of his presidency, the Stockdale approach seems the least painful way to go.
對于那些從未希望特朗普勝利，但卻必須應(yīng)對他當(dāng)上總統(tǒng)這個事實(shí)的人而言，斯托克代爾的做法似乎是一種最不痛苦的解決方法。
The writer is author of ‘What They Teach You at Harvard Business School’
本文作者著有《哈佛商學(xué)院教你什么?》(What They Teach You at Harvard Business School)
