Bill Gates 比尔盖茨

"When I was 19, I caught sight of the future and based my career on what I saw. I turned out to have been right."—Bill Gates
“我19岁看到了未来，并将我的所见当作我事业的基点，结果证明我是对的。”──比尔·盖茨

He's the most famous businessman and the richest man in the world—worth an estimated $40 billion in 1997. Without a doubt, Bill Gates belongs in the same class as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and other great minds who changed the world. The self-described "hacker" has dominated the personal computing revolution and modernized the whole world in the process. Indeed, his classification into any other rank than this would seriously understate his impact on the world.
他是当今世上最著名的商人、最有钱的富豪──1997年他的资产预计为400亿美元。毫无疑问，他与托马斯·爱迪生、亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔以及其他改变世界的伟人属于同一行列。这个自称为“黑客”的人主导着个人计算机革命，并在这一过程中使整个世界现代化。的确，将他划入任何其他行列，都可能大大淡化他对世界的影响。

Gates' success stems from his personality: an unbelievable and at times frightening blend of high-voltage brilliance, drive and competitiveness. When the chairman and CEO walks through the corridors of Microsoft, it is like a switch being turned on; everything and everyone around him is charged with 10,000 volts of electricity. Gates sets the example and Microsoft employees follow. The schedule he keeps is one hint as to what he expects from his employees. It's not unusual for the "dean" of the "Microsoft campus" to put in 16-hour days.
盖茨的成功源自他的人格：他才华横溢、冲劲十足、争强好胜，这些加在一起令人难以置信，有时甚至令人畏惧。当这位董事长兼首席执行官走过微软大楼的走廊时，他身边的人和物就像被打开了电源，充了一万伏电。盖茨树立了榜样，微软的员工紧随其后。他的工作安排暗示着他对员工的期待。这位“微软校园”的“校长”经常每天工作16小时。

Indeed, if there's one thing that distinguishes the Gates style, it is his time management skills. Conservation of time, energy, and focus are his hallmarks.
He moves between playing the role of international spokesman for the age of technology and planning business strategy back at headquarters, getting the maximum amount of work possible out of every minute. Always punctual and always in high gear, he typically leaves only the tiniest cracks in the day for eating, talking to friends or recreation. The joke around Microsoft is that his receptionist is the hardest working person in the world. In fact, he has several receptionists. He probably needs one just to arrange his travel plans and visas to foreign countries.
的确，如果说盖茨的风格与他人有别的话，那就是他把握时间的技能。节约时间、精力充沛和专心致志是他的突出特点。他一会儿充当技术时代的国际代言人，一会儿在微软总部谋划经营策略，充分利用每一分钟，最大限度的开展工作。他总是准时，总是处于高速运转状态，他习惯利用白天的点滴空闲进餐、与朋友交谈或娱乐。微软人笑话他的接待员是天底下最勤奋的人。事实上，他有几个接待员。他或许需要有人专门安排他的旅行计划和去国外的签证。

On the subject of travel, he has become known for saving money and time as well. On business trips, he flies commercial whenever possible and in the interest of time, he never checks his baggage. His hosts also find they save money when he is in town. There is no time in his schedule for tourism of any kind, no excursions or sightseeing trips are on his agenda. It's just work, work, work.
说到旅行，他节约钱和时间也是出了名的。出差时，他尽可能坐普通民航飞机；为了节省时间，他从不托运行李。接待他的东道主也发现，他住在城里时他们很省钱。他的时间表上没有计划旅游的时间，日程表上也没有游览或观光计划。有的只是工作，工作，工作。

Another trait that makes him so unusual is his incredible "multitasking" ability. At his desk, he works on two computers, one with multiple frames that sequence data streaming in from the Internet, and the other handling the hundreds of e-mail messages and letters he receives. He may even review data while conducting a meeting using a videophone.
另一个使他与众不同的特质是他令人难以置信的“多任务操作”能力。他办公时使用两台电脑，一台开有多重窗口以编排从英特网上不断接收的数据，另一台处理他接收的数以百计的电子邮件。甚至他在用可视电话主持会议时，还能审核数据

Gates runs his company mainly through three methods: He bats out a hundred or more e-mail messages a day (and night); he meets every month or so with his top management panel of experts and advisers; and most importantly, he holds two or three small review meetings a day with a procession of teams working on the company's various products. He doesn't address anyone by name or hand out too much praise, but he does go round the table clockwise and listens carefully to everyone who has an idea. When he is unclear about something, he quizzes and challenges his staff. "Educate me on that," he might say, looking to make clear a vague statement. Every decision he makes is based on his knowledge of its merits. He doesn't need to rely on personal politics.
盖茨主要通过以下三种方法来经营他的公司：他每天（和每晚）发出100封或更多电子邮件；他大约每月与由专家和顾问组成的高层管理委员会会晤一次；更重要的是，他每天召开两三个小型碰头会，接连与会的是研发公司各种产品的团队。他不作指名道姓的个别谈话，也不作太多的表扬，只作顺时针方向的圆桌会谈，仔细听取每个人的意见。遇到不太明白的说法，他就询问甚至质疑他的手下。“请就此明示，”他会这么说，希望把不清楚的地方弄明白。他作出的每个决定，都是基于对其价值的了解。他不需要依赖个人权术。

When Bill Gates was in the sixth grade, his parents sent him to see a psychologist. After a year of sessions and tests, the psychologist reached his conclusion. "You're going to lose," he told Gates' mother Mary. "You had better just adjust to it because there's no use trying to beat him." In the 22 years since he dropped out of Harvard to conquer the world of computer operating systems and application software, he has been deadly for competitors trying to claw their way into the market.
比尔·盖茨读六年级时，他父母送他去看心理医生。一年后，经过多次看医生和检查，医生有了结论。“您管不了他的，”他对盖茨的母亲玛丽说。“最好接受现实，打他是不管用的。”自从盖茨从哈佛退学转去攻克计算机操作系统和应用软件，22年来他一直是那些企图挤进这个市场的竞争对手的死敌。

In early 1975, at the age of 19, while at Harvard University, he and Paul Allen wrote an interpreter for the programming language used by MITS Altair, the first commercially available personal computer. It was their intense relationship — Gates the workaholic code writer and competitor, Allen the dreamy visionary — that laid the first brick in the foundation of Microsoft.
1975年初，他19岁，还在哈佛大学读书，他和保罗·艾伦写了一份程序设计语言的编译程序，供MITS （微仪表和自动系统公司）的Altair电脑用，这是第一台商业个人电脑。盖茨是个勤奋的编码者和竞争对手，而艾伦却是个充满幻想的梦想家，正是他们的这种密切关系给微软垫定了第一块砖。

In 1976, Gates began licensing Microsoft's software products directly to computer manufacturers, which dramatically increased Microsoft's profits.Although MITS soon folded, Microsoft had already attracted new customers including, at the time, small hardware firms like Apple, Commodore and Tandy.
1976年，盖茨开始许可计算机生产商直接配销微软软件产品，这大大增加了微软的利润。尽管MITS很快就关闭了，微软却已吸引住了新的顾客，还包括当时一些小硬件公司，如苹果公司，柯摩多尔公司和坦迪公司。

In 1980, IBM invited Microsoft to write a series of programming languages for its new personal computer, the IBM PC. Gates offered that Microsoft could also produce the operating systems (MS-DOS). The IBM PC and MSDOS were bundled together and announced to the public in August 1981.Throughout the 1980s Microsoft moved steadily upward and by the 1990s MS-DOS had been exported around the world and had become the dominant software platform. By 1995, roughly 85 percent of the world's personal computers were using a Microsoft operating system.
1980年，IBM（美国国际商用机器公司）邀请微软为其新产品即IBM个人电脑（IBM PC）编写一整套程序设计语言。盖茨提议微软也可以生产操作系统（即微软磁盘操作系统，MS-DOS）。于是IMB PC和MS-DOS便捆绑在一起，并于1981年8月面世。整个20世纪80年代，微软稳定发展。到了90年代，MS-DOS已出口到世界各地，成了独霸全球的软件平台。到1995年，全世界大约85%的个人电脑使用微软操作系统。

Today the Microsoft campus is a "home" for new ideas and products that currently number over 200. It has mushroomed to nearly 18,000 employees and $6 billion in profits. By 1992, at least 3,400 of Microsoft's employees had become millionaires from their stocks.
如今，“微软校园”成了新思想和新产品的“家园”，产品数量目前超过200种。其雇员迅速增加到将近18,000人，利润达到60亿美元。到1992年，至少有3,400名微软雇员因持有微软股份而成为百万富翁。

Gates hopes to still be running Microsoft for another 10 years, he says, and then promises to focus intensely on his family and giving his money away, but that won't be the last you hear of him. Almost everyone in the developed world has used or is using a product that he owns a piece of, from surfing websites on Microsoft Explorer to watching movies brought to us by the distributor DreamWorks SKG. One can only wonder what he will do in the near future.
盖茨说，他希望再经营微软十年，并许诺之后会将主要精力放在家庭和捐赠自己的钱财上。但是这不会是你听到他的最后的故事。在发达国家，几乎人人都已使用或正在使用含有他的部件的产品。人们借用微软浏览器上网，观看梦工厂带来的影片。人们唯独不知道的是，不久的将来他还会干什么。
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