【中文版06】里德·霍夫曼：如何成为人脉之王

【Background】

【背景介绍】

Reid Hoffman may just be the guru of professional netwong. Reid is the co-founder of LinkedIn, the web’s largest business-oriented social netwong service. LinkedIn serves more than 259 million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

大家好。欢迎来到《全球精英的5分钟成长学院》。今天，我们邀请到了领英联合创始人兼执行董事长里德·霍夫曼。在职场社交领域，里德·霍夫曼是当仁不让的专家，他所创办的领英已成为最大的互联网职场社交平台，覆盖全球200多个国家和地区，2.59亿用户。在今天的课程中，霍夫曼将与我们讨论职业社交的价值，以及他在这方面的经历和体会。让我们跟随他的脚步，开启自己强大的职业生涯吧。

【Course】

【课程】

How did your childhood shape you?

童年经历对您的影响？

My greatest influences are actually probably a set of different teachers. And these teachers, most prominently at my high school, but also a few others, helped kind of instill in me, thinking thoughts about how life is meaningful in terms of how we all kind of live in a network of people and how you interact with those people is part of what makes life essentially meaningful and then kind of concepts to think about, how do you add value to other people’s lives? How do they add value to yours? And how do you kind of form a community together in the network?

实际上，对我影响最大的，是我在不同年纪遇到的几位老师，尤其是高中时期。除了这些老师外，还有其他一些人，他们会培养我思考一些想法，比如说形形色色的人如何在人际关系网中共处，就这方面而言什么才是有意义的生活，再比如说，我们与他人打交道的方式，其实会在一定程度上对生活的意义造成本质影响。此外，他们还引导我去思考一些概念，比如你如何为他人的生活创造价值？别人又如何为你的生活创造价值？如何在社交网络中创造一个相互交流的社区？

What was the moment you felt most successful?

您感到最成功的时刻？

I don’t normally think of like most successful moments, because like most entrepreneurs, I tend to think that however how high of a mountain I’ve climbed, I’m always looking at the next mountain to climb. But probably the most recent kind of highlight was in April 2006 when LinkedIn turned profitable. Because when you turn a company profitable you’ve gone from a company whose days are numbered to a company whose days can be infinite. And giving birth to something that could possibly change the lives of millions of people for possibly decades, hundreds of years, whatever the length of time the run is, is a great feeling.

我通常不会去想自己最成功的时刻，因为同大多数企业家一样，我倾向于认为，无论我已经攀上了多高的山峰，我总在寻找下一座高峰。不过，最近一次高光时刻应该是在2006年4月，当时领英开始实现盈利。因为一旦开始盈利，企业的生命便不再屈指可数，而是变得无穷无尽。而且，不论企业会运营多久，能够孕育出一家或许会在未来数十年、数百年间改变数百万人生活的企业，这种感觉非常棒。

What is an ethical dilemma you’ve faced?

您曾面临过何种道德难题？

Most of the ethical dilemmas that I have faced have all been in the category of, you know, I know something and what’s my obligation to disclose it? So, for example, you see people make a mistake in the contract that you’re making between the businesses and do you disclose it or do you reveal it? And generally speaking, the way that I solve these is I kind of go through a list of, you know, what’s the most, what are the obligations and constituencies and in what order?

我遇到的道德难题大多属于这种情况：知道一些事情后，我是否有告知的义务？比如说，在同其他公司签订的合同中，你发现有人犯了个错误，会不会告知说明？通常来说，在解决这些问题之前，我会仔细考虑一系列问题，比如我有哪些义务、会牵涉到哪些人员，应该按照什么顺序告知等。

So in a BD deal between two companies, where my principal responsibility is to my shareholders and if the other side makes a mistake, you know, that’s their own fault, even if I see it. But, for example, when you’re like hiring an employee, someone that you’re bringing into your family, as a way of doing stuff, like, for example, there’s a mistake in the offer letter or something else, you actually point it out to change them, because it’s part of a long relationship that you’re maintaining into the future.

如果我们正与另一家企业签订大额交易合同，而我的主要责任是对股东负责，那么如果对方犯了错误，即便我看到了，也只能说是对方的疏忽。但到了另一种场景，比如要雇用新员工，公司大家庭会有新成员加入，那么如果协议出现了错误或其它问题，你指出错误是为了改变错误，因为这份协议事关一段你需要长期维持的关系。

I find that the interesting challenges, because there’s obvious things where, you know, don’t be unethical, don’t be evil, you know, don’t break the law, don’t do immoral things, those are all straightforward and don’t create ethical dilemmas. The thing that’s interesting is when you actually have multiple interests at stake and you have to kind of navigate your way through it.

我发现这其实是很有趣的挑战。因为像“不要违背伦理道德”，“不要触犯法律”，“不要做邪恶的事”这些道理，都不言自明、直截了当，面对这些情况，我们是不会陷入道德困境的。但有趣的是，当实际涉及诸多利益攸关方时，情况便会复杂，需要你找到应对之策。

What is a mistake you’ve made during your career?

您曾在职业生涯中犯过什么错误？

Probably the biggest mistake that I made personally is I knew early on that I wanted to go into start-ups and creating kind of software that could help change the lives of millions of people. And basically what I did is I kind of went, okay, well, I need a set of titles and I need a checklist of skills, and I ran through all that, and that wasn’t a useless thing, but what I didn’t realize, and, you know, and no one gave me the right advice for doing this, is that actually your network, is essentially, is your career. And the actual, the forming of ties with a group of people around you where they help you grow as a professional, solve problems, get opportunities, and you help them, is actually the constitutive base of the foundation of a strong, modern career. And so as opposed to focusing on titles and kind of a skill list check off, which is still very useful, focus much more on the network. 

我自己犯过的最大错误大概是，我在很早就知道自己想去创业，并且想设计出一种可以改变数百万人生活的软件，但当时我认为，自己所需要的是一系列头衔、一份技能清单——这些我都做了，它们并非毫无用处，但是当时我并没有意识到、没人告诉过我，但却非常重要的一点是：交际圈其实就是职业圈。实际上，与身边的人建立联系，让他们帮助你成长为专业人士，帮你解决问题，为你带来机遇，与此同时，你也为他们提供帮助，这实际上是当代社会开启强大职业生涯的基础。所以，头衔和技能虽然仍然非常有用，但与其过于关注这些，不如多关注你的人际网络。

And so my mistake was, you know, if I had had that realization, I probably would have gone and begged my way into a job at Netscape. Which was at kind of the beginning of my career, was kind of the central energy locus in the valley and that would’ve been a netwong decision to go there as opposed to getting a title at a different company.

这便是我犯过的错误。如果我当时有那种意识，可能就会申请到著名的浏览器公司Netscape工作。我会在硅谷最有活力的地方开启自己的职业生涯，从而拓展自己的人际关系，而不是仅仅为了一个头衔，选择到另一家公司去。

What’s the worst career advice you’ve ever received?

您听到过最糟糕的职业建议是什么？

The worst career advice, and again, I mean, there’s kind of absurdities, right, because there’s a little bit like The Graduate, you know, plastics as career advice. But the more subtle advice was, you know, a focus on, you know, titles and, you know, kind of prominence in association with brands as opposed to building strong ties with a network of people around you. Because the thing that changes your professional life, your capabilities, your learning, your understanding, your opportunity flow, your ability to make things happen, is the center relationships you have with powerful and effective people around you in the industry, in the activity that you want to be doing.

最糟糕的职业建议方面，想来有些滑稽可笑，因为有点像美国电影《毕业生》，有些职业建议就像这部电影，塑料感满满。我听过比较狡猾的建议是，关注头衔、重视品牌加持，而不是与周遭的人建立稳固的关系。但其实，恰恰是你在业界、或者在自己想发展的领域里，与身边优秀、高效的人所建立的核心关系，才会改变你的职业生涯，提高你的能力、学识、理解力，改变你获得机会的方式，提高你的做事能力。

And so very rarely, and I was never given this advice, people aren’t given this advice, focus on growing and maintaining relationships for your network, and that’s key. And most of the advice tends to be, you know, discover your strengths, build up your resume, get a title, all of that stuff pales in comparison.

所以说，要重视发展和维护自己的人际关系，这才是关键所在。但是人们很少会给出这种建议，我也从来没有听到过这种建议。大多数建议往往会是，发现优势、丰富简历、获得头衔，但与发展维护人际关系相比，所有这些都会相形见绌。

【Summary】

【总结】

Hoffman argues that your network is your career. Instead of focusing on a checklist of titles and skills that will get you your next job, he says you should invest your time in building relationships.

The key is to think about how you can collaborate with and help other people rather than thinking about what you can get from them. By forming authentic, quality ties with others, you grow as a professional, solve problems and find opportunities.

In this module, Hoffman discusses the value of professional netwong and how he learned to do it. Follow his lead to build a “strong, modern career.”

在这节课中，霍夫曼向我们介绍了职业社交的价值，以及他在这方面的经历和体会。

在里德·霍夫曼看来，社交圈即职业圈。若想找一份新工作，与其冥思苦想出一系列所需头衔和技能，不妨多花些时间建立人际关系。

所以说，若想让自己的职业生涯更加广阔，关键在于思考如何与他人合作、帮助他人，而不是可以从他人那里获得什么。通过与他人建立真诚、优质的联系，你也可以成长为专业人士，解决问题，获得机遇。

本节目英文版音频和视频均由美国Big Think Edge独家授权。以上就是这节课的全部内容，感谢收听，我们下集节目见！