愛德曼高管：知識與經驗哪個更重要？
Maria Amundson
2018-09-16
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我投街頭智慧一票。雖然我很尊重我的母校，但在本科階段攻讀經濟學時，我并沒有真正學到怎樣才能在職業生涯中獲得成功。雖然我的確通過書本學到了很多商業和媒體經濟學知識，但真正的學習還是從離開校園之后開始的。 大學畢業后第一年，我在加州門洛帕克市參與創辦了一家小型公關公司。當時我還打算再去讀一所商學院，所以我還在準備GMAT考試，忙著填寫各種申請表。就是在那時候，我和朋友麥克進行了一場意外的談話。麥克幾年前從一所頂級商學院畢業，正準備從事投資管理工作。 麥克請我喝了一杯咖啡，然后毫不客氣地建議道：“你瘋了嗎？在這個行業，你每天都能獲得寶貴的經驗，而且科技行業正在高速發展，更何況你經營的這家公司已經有了成功的跡象。你現在竟然打算離開？商學院能教給你的東西，根本比不上你在這里受到的教育。”他的話讓我徹夜難眠，第二天早上我就扔掉了商學院申請表。我原以為幾年后我還會再次申請，沒想到這一拖就是幾十年。15年后，愛德曼公關公司收購了我的公司，這時麥克的話又在我耳邊響起。我成了愛德曼公司硅谷團隊的一員，并且成了公司科技部的全球總裁。我的部門覆蓋全球52個國家，擁有600多名員工。 時至今日，我并不后悔為了獲得街頭經驗而放棄書本智慧。或許將來的某一天，我還會去攻讀一個研究生文憑，但那也是出于個人提高和樂趣的目的，與我的職業無關。人生中有很多時刻，正確的答案并不會在某本書中等著你。如果一筆交易的大門關閉了，你就需要另辟一條出路。比如說，你正在一個現場直播的電視節目中展示你的產品，這時產品卻出了“技術故障”，這時該怎么辦？你正要去接受采訪的時候，正趕上總統出行，交通管制，你的出租車進退不得，這時又該怎么辦？當你不知道是通過收購其他公司還是通過招聘人才來推動公司增長時，這時該怎么辦？總之，大多數致勝之道并不在書本里。就算書本里有，終歸是“紙上得來終覺淺，絕知此事要躬行”。我們還是要更多地依賴我們的經驗和情商。 情商可能是最重要的街頭智慧。智商通常與書本知識相關，它決定了我們學習和吸收學術信息的速度。然而情商卻決定了我們能否較好地領會、理解其他人的意圖，以及能否成功地與其他人進行互動。我們需要知道如何解讀情勢，如何解讀他人，如何迅速地評估局面，如何評估事情的動因和優先性，并且相應地做出反應。隨著科技正在推動全球就業市場轉型，未來的職場也將變得更加社交化和協作化，上述能力對于各種工作來說都將越來越重要。所以你不妨去讀書、拿學位，但同時也要挺進職場、追逐自己的夢想，在追夢的過程中學習。那可能是你能得到的最好的職業培訓。（財富中文網） 譯者：樸成奎 審校：任文科 |
I vote for street smart. With all due respect for my alma mater, I didn’t learn what I needed to know to be successful in my career while an undergraduate studying economics. While I did learn a lot about the economics of business and the media, the real learning began once I left. After graduation, I worked for a year helping to build a boutique PR firm in Menlo Park, Calif. I was getting ready to return to academia for business school — prepping for the GMAT and filling out applications — when I had a surprising conversation with my friend Mike. He graduated from a top business school a few years earlier and was off to start a career in investment management. Mike took me for coffee and not-so-gently advised, “Are you crazy? Walk away from this incredible experience you’re getting in business every day, a tech industry in high gear and young agency poised to take off? Business school pales to the education you’re getting right here.” I thought it over all that night, and the next morning I dropped the application process, for what I thought would be a few years but has turned into decades. Mike’s advice sang to me again more than 15 years later, when Edelman came along and acquired my firm. I became part of the Edelman Silicon Valley team and leader of a global technology sector team ranging 52 countries and including 600 people. I have no regrets choosing the street smarts of hard-won experience over book smarts. I may yet return to academia some day for my graduate degree, but it will likely be for personal fulfilment and enjoyment, not my career. The truth is, there are so many moments when the right answer is not waiting in a book. The door to a deal closes and you need to invent an alternative way in. You’re on stage being televised for your product demo when the dreaded “technical glitch” hits — now what? Whether the presidential motorcade has just blocked your taxi on the way to an interview, or you need to choose whether to acquire or hire to grow your company, most winning answers don’t live in a book. Even if they did, we still wouldn’t absorb these lessons as deeply as when we live them. We need to rely on our experience and our emotional intelligence more often. The emotional intelligence part of street smarts may be the most important of all. While our IQ relates to book knowledge — how quickly do we learn and assimilate academic information — our EQ governs our ability to empathize, understand, and interact successfully with others. For many people, EQ outweighs IQ in career — and life — success. We need to know how to read situations and people, quickly assess what is really going on, consider the motivations and priorities in play, and respond appropriately. It is an increasingly important ability in all kinds of careers as our global job market is transformed by technology and the future of work becomes more social and collaborative. So go ahead, get out and read those books and collect those degrees, but also get out there and follow your dreams, and learn as you go. That may be the best career training you get. |
