轻易得来的成功，也容易轻易地离开。而简简单单就得到的成功，它带来的幸福感也会很快流失。
所以每当遇到困难的问题时，应该更乐观地对待，因为别人能解决的问题，为什么轮到你呢？
Easy success leaves easily also. The happiness of easy success will leave soon as well.
So every time difficulty comes, please keep optimistic. If everyone can solve the problem, why it’s your turn?
Keys to Career Success
(From Mitch Barn’s Blog)
Keys to Career SuccessTwo weeks ago, I spoke at the Wharton Asia Business Conference, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School in Philadelphia. One of the other speakers was Donald Tang, Founder & CEO of CITIC Securities International Partners, a prominent financial firm in China. Mr. Tang has had a very successful career including serving as Chairman & CEO of Bear Stearns Asia before joining CITIC.
After each speaker’s talk, there was a Q&A session. At the end of Donald Tang’s talk, a member of the audience asked, “What are the keys to a successful career?” He replied by saying, “Three things:
It was good advice, but I could sense the audience was not impressed. It sounded so simple, so basic. The person who asked the question then said, “That sounds like good advice for someone just recently out of university, but what about someone who is further along is his/her career?”
Mr. Tang then said, “Same advice. In fact, those three things are even more important later on in your career, after you’ve had some success. For example
After you have had some success, sometimes your confidence turns into arrogance. Confidence is positive to success. Arrogance is not.
After you have had some success, you might be less motivated to work as hard as you can. You’re tempted to think that you’ve already proven yourself so maybe you don’t need to work so hard any more. Beware.
After you have had some success, then you have something to lose and so maybe you are not as willing to take more risks. That limits your potential and your impact.
So, do you see? This advice is even more important later on in our careers, once we’ve had some success. It’s then that we are most vulnerable to falling down on these points.”
After initially waving off his advice as “too simple and basic”, now nearly everyone in the audience was nodding in agreement and in a hurry to write his three points down. This was especially true for those of us—myself included!—who were already well along in our careers. We knew he was right.
成功的关键
两星期前，我在宾西法尼亚州费城沃顿商学院赞助的亚洲商业年会上作受邀演讲。其中一个演讲嘉宾是Donald唐，中国一家著名的金融公司——中信证券的创始人和CEO。唐先生有着非常成功的职业生涯，包括在中信之前在贝尔斯登亚洲担任董事长和CEO的时候。
每位演讲人说完后都有Q&A环节。在唐先生讲完之后，有一位观众提问：“职业生涯成功的关键是什么？”他回答道： “三件事情：
这是一些好的建议，但我觉得没给下面的观众留下什么印象。它听起来太简单，太基础。这个提问的观众接着说：“这听起来比较适合刚刚毕业的人，但是对于工作多年的人有没有建议？”
唐先生说：“同样的建议。其实这三件事情在你工作数年后会变得更重要，尤其是你获得一些成功之后。举个例子：
所以，你看到吗？这建议在你工作数年后会更重要，尤其获得一些成功之后。这往往是我们容易掉入上述这些状态的时候。”
刚刚那些说他的建议“太简单太基础”的人，几乎每一个都点头同意并且匆匆记录下他刚才说的三点。这就是我们这些已经在职场上顺利走过数年的人——当然也包括我——身上的特点！我们意识到他说的是对的。
很多人经常会想，我要如何战胜别人。其实，很多时候我们只需要战胜自己。
最好的案例莫过于《中国达人秀》。很多人都会记得第一届达人秀上“表情帝”第一次出场的惊艳，也记得第二届安东“漫步月球”的浪漫。然而在之后的复赛上，尽管场面更宏大、道具更精致，观众却大呼“失望失望”。为什么？因为“表情帝”不再像第一次这么极尽全力地夸张表现，而安东除了一次次升长道具高度，无法再给观众带来惊喜。这样的现象不是一个两个，而是大面积地出现，只有少数人能够幸免，甚至乌达木到了决赛只能把初赛的歌再唱一遍，而菜花甜妈也只能把葱一路在送到决赛。其实到了决赛，很多时候观众不是在评判A是否比B表现好，而是A是否跟第一场一样给我们带来惊喜，还是没有任何创意。如果你还是像第一场一样拼尽全力，如果还能和第一场一样充满创意，那么无关乎别人如何，你就离胜利很近了。
《达人秀》对我们来说只是个娱乐节目，但是这个道理对奋斗在学校、职场、商场中的我们一样适用。很多人会花大把的时间去比较自己是否比别人优秀，其实与其花时间去关心别人别人别人，不如正视眼前最大的挑战——自己。
今天看到《哈佛商业评论》里的一篇文章，说销售总监跟CEO说，今年承诺的9%销售增长完不成了，只能做到3%，于是CEO熟练地聆听销售总监的困难，肯定他过去做出的努力，最后鼓励他想出办法完成指标。乍一听，我觉得这个CEO非常不靠谱，但细想，为什么他要这么做？因为销售总监一定更了解市场、流通环节等等一切的细节，而他现在唯一缺的就是信心，他被自己压垮了。所以，CEO相信只要排除他的顾虑，恢复他的信心，还是同一个销售总监，会帮公司100%地完成任务。
这个场景是不是很熟悉呢？有时候我们面对一份支离破碎的PPT不知道如何继续下去，但转身倒杯茶回到桌前，就发现用不同的角度再审视它，线索和主线就清晰呈现；有时候我们面对客户的连续质疑信心一点点流失，但这时候只要强迫自己微笑一下，就会发现空白的大脑重新充满活跃的思维。是的，往往这时候的挑战不是销售指标、不是PPT，也不是客户，而是我们自己。如果这世上还有一点点解决问题的希望，也不会是销售指标、PPT、或者客户给予的，那只能是自己想出的办法。
Innovation: Top-down or Bottoms-up?
(From Mitch Barn’s Blog)
Curtis Carlson is the CEO of SRI International (SRI stands for “Stanford Research Institute”). Here is what he was quoted as saying recently about the comparison between “bottom up” innovation vs. “top down” innovation:
“Innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but “dumb”. On balance, the sweet spot* for innovation today is moving down, not up.”
His thought seems relevant to Nielsen’s recent “Emerging Product Ideas” contest, which opens up the opportunity for everyone … anyone … in the company to put forward an idea for a new product innovation. More than 100 people in Greater China submitted their ideas, and most of these came from people who are not yet to the “manager” level in our organization. In other words, a lot of “bottoms up” innovation.
If you did not submit an idea to the Emerging Product Ideas contest, that is OK. It is not your only way to get involved in bottoms up innovation. In fact, we don’t want bottoms up innovation to occur only when we have a contest. Instead, we want it to become part of every-day life for Nielsen in Greater China. The opportunity is always out there for you to imagine how something could be made better, to create something new, to propose a change… Don’t rely on the senior managers to have all of the ideas. To be at our best, we need ideas and innovation from all points in our team. And as Curtis Carlson says above, winning organizations are relying on bottoms-up innovation more and more.
What is your next idea?
创新：自下而上还是自上而下？
Curtis Carlson 是 SRI International的 CEO (SRI 表示“斯坦福研究所”)。以下引用了他最近说的关于“自下而上”和“自上而下”的创新方式比较：
“自下而上的创新一般是凌乱但比较灵活的，自上而下的创新是秩序井然的但沉闷的。权衡之下，现如今的最优创新方式是将重心向下移动而不是向上。”
他的想法和Nielsen最近“Emerging Product Ideas”评比不谋而合，给每一个人，任何一个人一个公平的机会来表达自己对于新产品创新的想法。大中华区有超过100位同事提交了自己的想法，并且其中很大一部分是在这个组织中还未达到经理级别的同事。总之，是许多“自下而上”的创新。
如果你还没有提交“Emerging Product Ideas”评比的想法，也没关系。这不是你参与到这个自下而上的创新的唯一途径。相反我们更希望这能成为Nielsen大中华区日常工作的一部分。你始终有这个机会可以去想象如何让一些事情变得更好，或者创造一些新的东西，或者提议做一些改变……不要依赖高层经理来给所有的想法。要做到最好，我们就需要来自团队中所有角落的点子。并且就像Curtis Carlson在上述说得那样，越是成功的组织越是依靠“自下而上”的创新方式。
那么你的下一个点子是什么？