The Bad Behavior of Visionary1 Leaders

By Mia Benlim

埃隆·马斯克、史蒂夫·乔布斯和杰夫·贝佐斯这三位商业巨头都可称得上当今世界商业领域最为举足轻重的人物，他们的远见卓识和诸多伟大的产品改变了我们的生活方式，也在间接改变着整个世界。但是另一方面，他们的很多为人处世之道也都颇为世人诟病。难道真像爱因斯坦所说的：还是不要当成功的人吧，不如做个有价值的人。

杰夫·贝佐斯

As I was reading Ashlee Vance’s Elon Musk: Tesla,Space X and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, I was alternately awed and disheartened, almost exactly the same ambivalence I felt after reading Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and Brad Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.2. Elon Musk: 埃隆·马斯克，是贝宝（paypal）、SpaceX太空探索技术公司、环保跑车公司特斯拉（Tesla）以及SolarCity四家公司的CEO；awed: 充满敬畏的；disheartened: 沮丧的，灰心的；ambivalence: 矛盾心理，矛盾情绪；Steve Jobs: 史蒂夫·乔布斯，美国企业家，苹果公司联合创办人；Jeff Bezos:杰夫·贝佐斯，全球最大的网上书店亚马逊（Amazon）的创始人。

The three leaders are arguably3. arguably: 可能，大概。the most extraordinary business visionaries of our times. Each of them has introduced unique products that changed—or in Mr. Musk’s case, have huge potential to change—the way we live.

史蒂夫·乔布斯

埃隆·马斯克

I was awed by the innovative, courageous, persistent and creative ways all three built their businesses.4. innovative: 革新的，创新的；courageous: 有勇气的。I also love their products. I own a Mac Pro and an iPhone, and I have been a loyal customer of Apple for 20 years. I buy many books and other products on Amazon, lured5. lure: 引诱，诱惑。by a blend of low prices, ease of purchase and reliably quick delivery. The Tesla X hands down the best car I have ever driven, and it’s all electric, rechargeable in your garage.6. Tesla X: 特斯拉汽车公司推出的首款电动SUV车型；hand down: 宣布；rechargeable: 可充电的。

What disheartens me is how little care and appreciation any of them give (or in Mr. Jobs’s case, gave) to hard-working and loyal employees, and how unnecessarily cruel and demeaning7. demeaning: 有损人格的，侮辱的。they could be to the people who helped make their dreams come true.

In fairness8. in fairness: 公平地说，平心而论。, the leaders all have loyal defenders. At Apple, for example, Mr. Jobs’s successors9. successor: 继承人，继任人。—including Tim Cook, the chief executive, and Jonathan Ive, the chief design of ficer—have argued that Mr. Jobs matured significantly as a leader in his final years. Mr.Musk and Mr. Bezos have senior leaders who have worked with them for many years. But even an admirer like Mr. Ive remained bewildered10. bewildered: 困惑的。by the way Mr. Jobs treated people.

“He’s a very sensitive guy,” Mr. Ive told Mr. Isaacson shortly before Mr. Jobs died in 2011. “That’s one of the things that makes his antisocial behavior, his rudeness, so unconscionable.11. antisocial: 反社会的；unconscionable:昧着良心的，无道德心的。I can understand why people who are thick-skinned12. thick-skinned: 厚脸皮的，感觉迟钝的。and unfeeling can be rude, but not sensitive people.”

Given the extraordinary success of these men, the obvious question is whether being relentlessly hard on people, and even cruel, may get them to perform better.13. 鉴于这三人所取得的非凡成就，一个显而易见的问题浮出了水面：是否对待员工冷酷无情，甚至残酷，就是他们能够如此出众的原因呢？relentlessly:残酷地，无情地。

Like their biographers14. biographer: 传记作者。, I think the answer is no. Our research at the Energy Project has shown that the more employees feel their needs are being met at work—above all, for respect and appreciation—the better they perform.

As Mr. Isaacson writes of Mr. Jobs: “Nasty15. nasty: 令人不快的事物。was not necessary.It hindered16. hinder: 阻碍，妨碍。him more than it helped him.” Similarly, a person who worked with Mr. Musk told Mr. Vance: “He can be so gentle and loyal, and then hard on people when it isn’t necessary.” At Amazon,Mr. Bezos’s angry outbursts came to be called “nutters.”17. outburst:（情感等）爆发；nutter: 怪人，疯子。“He was capable of hyperbole and cruelty in these moments,” Mr. Stone writes, “and over the years delivered some devastating rebukes to employees.”18. hyperbole: 夸张；devastating: 毁灭性的；rebuke: 指责，非难。

Why would otherwise brilliant men behave in such destructive ways?

The first answer is that they can. Genius covers a lot of sins19. sin: 罪孽，过错。.A great product is a great product, and you don’t have to do everything right to be successful. Most customers don’t care how the sausage gets made, as long as it tastes good.

Employees, in turn, are willing to sacrifice a lot to work for a visionary. Much as Mr. Jobs was, Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos are passionate, inspiring and charismatic20. charismatic: 超凡魅力的。leaders. “Numerous people interviewed for this book decried the work hours, Musk’s blunt style and his sometimes ludicrous expectations,”21. 书（埃隆·马斯克的传记）中很多接受过采访的人都不满他们过长的工作时间，马斯克生硬的态度以及他那些荒唐可笑的期望值。decry: 谴责，反对；blunt: 生硬的；ludicrous: 荒唐可笑的。Mr. Vance wrote.“Yet almost every person even those who had been fired—still worshiped Musk and talked about him in terms usually reserved for superheroes or deities.22. worship: 崇拜，信奉；deity: 神明。

Finally, a certain level of financial success and the resulting power effectively excuse those who achieve it from the ordinary rules of civility and even humanity.23. 最后一点，这些人在金融领域取得了巨大的成功和相应的权力，这使得他们有最好的理由不去顾及一般的礼仪规范甚至人道。civility: 礼貌，礼仪；humanity: 人道，仁慈。

Mr. Jobs drove around without a license on his car, and he regularly parked in spaces reserved for the handicapped24. the handicapped: 残疾人。. As Mr.Ive said of his attitude, “I think he feels he has a liberty25. liberty: 自由。and a license to do that. The normal rules of social engagement, he feels,don’t apply to him.”

Amazon employees collected examples of Mr. Bezos’s most eviscerating put-downs,26. eviscerating: eviscerate指除去……的内脏，重创……的元气，这里用作形容词，意为“伤人的”；putdown: 令人难堪的言行，贬低他人的行为。including, “Are you lazy or just incompetent?” “Why are you wasting my life?” and “I’m sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?”

When Mr. Musk’s loyal executive assistant of 12 years asked for a significant raise, he told her to take a two-week vacation while he thought about it. When she returned, he told her the relationship wasn’t going to work anymore. According to Mr. Vance, they haven’t spoken since.

Abusive as all this sounds, I would argue that most of the bad behavior of these men is fear-based, impulsive and reactive rather than consciously hurtful.27. abusive: 口出恶言的；impulsive: 冲动的，任性的。It grows not out of a sense of superiority28. superiority: 优越。but rather of insecurity.

People like these three visionaries deeply crave29. crave: 渴望。control. Each of them was far more likely to act out suddenly and behave poorly when he wasn’t getting exactly what he wanted—when he felt that others were failing to live up to his standards.30. act out: 把……付诸行动；live up to:达到，符合。

All three invested endless hours and energy in building and running their businesses—and far less in anything else,including taking care of the people who worked for them or even understanding what doing so might look like. To a large extent,people were simply a means to an end.

The more apt question is how much more these men could have enhanced thousands of people’s lives—and perhaps made them even more successful—if they had invested as much in taking care of them as they did in conceiving great products.31. 一个更贴切的问题是：如果这几个成功人士能够像构思那些了不起的产品一样投入精力去关怀他们的员工，那么人们的生活将得到何等的改善（或许也会使他们自己更加成功）。apt: 适当的，贴切的；conceive: 构思，构想。

“Try not to become a man of success,” Albert Einstein once said,“but rather a man of value.”