马云：工作是为了快乐

导读

近南非独立传媒的主编香侬•易卜拉欣在约翰内斯堡采访了马云。这次全面而深入的谈话，让她开始理解，到底是什么在驱动马云，他成功的秘诀，还有他所坚信的生命真谛。以下是采访的选段。

本文来源于公众号译世界

 

Sitting in a restaurant in San Francisco, California, Ma was trying to come up with a name for his new business venture, and wanted a name that would be universally recognisable. He had asked the waitress what she knew about Alibaba, and she had said "Open Sesame." That was exactly what Ma was trying to do in his business - open doors to new opportunities, so Alibaba was the perfect fit. Ma liked the name because in the story "Alibaba was a kind, smart business person, and he helped the village." That was Ma's goal, to make a difference to the lives of China's rural poor, and that is exactly what he has done.  

当年，坐在加州旧金山的一个餐厅里，马云琢磨着为自己的新公司取个名字，他想要一个走到全世界哪里都能被记住的名字。他问一个女服务员，听说过“阿里巴巴”吗？服务员回答说：“芝麻开门啊。”这恰恰就是马云希望做的事情：为新机会敞开大门。阿里巴巴这个词和他的设想完美契合。马云说他喜欢这个名字，是因为传说中“阿里巴巴是一个聪明又善良的年轻人，帮助了整个村子”。其实这不仅是他的目标，也正是过去这些年他所做的事情——改变中国消费者的生活。

 

Alibaba offers a model for helping the rural poor as it has changed lives by enabling local producers to put their products on the internet. Farmers or local manufacturers who previously could only sell their goods within their local vicinity, were suddenly able to market their goods to millions of potential Chinese customers. It expanded local businesses beyond what anyone imagined, and later opened them up to the rest of the world. This is a model that Ma is now sharing with African entrepreneurs, who are eager to learn from invaluable experience.

阿里巴巴创造了一种帮助整个村子的模式：用技术让当地生产商把产品放到网络上销售，那些原来只能把产品销售到周边地区的商家还有农民，突然发现全中国人都成了他们的消费者，而这一切几乎是一夜之间发生的。这种模式的魔力超越了所有人的想象，不仅成功发展了地方商业，而且还帮助它们触达世界其他地方的市场。这其实就是马云正在和非洲企业家们分享的模式，他们都无比渴望学习马云的宝贵经验。

 

 

Now at the age of 54, Ma believes that after working night and day for years, it is time to pass the torch to the younger generation, whom he has been grooming to take over the opportunities and challenges of his business. “I have been very lucky, but one may not be lucky all the time. So I am giving the challenge to those who are young and smarter. They may even do a better job than me!” he said.

在连续多年夜以继日的工作之后，今年54岁的马云相信是时候把火炬传递给年轻一代了。过去这些年，他一直在培养接班人，帮助他们直面机遇和挑战。他说，“我很幸运，但人不可能一直都幸运。所以我将挑战交给那些聪明的年轻人。他们也许会比我做得更好！”

 

While 54 seems a very young age to retire, Ma has a panopoly of causes he wants to take on, everything from combating poaching in Africa by capacitating rangers, to building a groundswell of continent wide entrepreneurs across the African continent.

虽然54岁退休看上去有点早，但马云非常清楚他未来要做什么，帮助巡护员打击偷猎，帮助非洲大陆培养企业家都在马云的清单里。

 

But I was more interested in whether Ma was going to afford himself the luxury of relaxing and enjoying the natural things life has to offer. I told him my idea of fun was to go to the African bush and watch elephants drinking and frolicking at a waterhole - a prospect he greeted with great enthusiasm. "The important part of the plan after you retire is to have fun - to go into nature, drink some wine, look up at the sky and enjoy the stars. If you can’t enjoy life, then what example are you setting for other business leaders," Ma told me.  

但我最想看到的是，马云是不是能真正放松下来，享受生活的美好。我告诉他，我理解的快乐，是去非洲草原，看大象在水坑里喝水和嬉戏。他对这个想法充满了兴趣：“在我退休后的计划里，一个很重要的内容就是享受快乐，深入大自然，喝点小酒，仰望星空。如果你不能体会到生活的美好，那么你树立了一个什么榜样呢？”

 

I pushed the boundaries even further by asking him whether he believes in a higher power, to which he promptly replied that he has great respect for, and has read the Bible. He also believes in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and certainly believes there is an after life. For Ma religion is a source of wisdom for human beings, and at the top, they are all the same. "Buddhism teaches there is a next life, and if we do well in this life it will be good for us in the next life."  

我更进一步问他，是否信仰更神圣的力量？他说，他尊重宗教信仰，他读过圣经，也对佛教、道教、儒教深入了解，甚至包括来生背后的智慧。在马云看来，宗教是人类智慧的源泉，不同的宗教在更高的层面殊途同归。“佛教里相信有来生，他们认为如果这辈子多行善，就是在为来生积福。”

 

But beyond his religious convictions, I was particularly eager to know what someone who is considered to be one of the richest men alive believes to be the true meaning of life. To this his answer was quite simple - “We only stay in the world for 80 to 100 years if we are lucky, and it is all about the people we meet and the tough days we have been through. I told the founders of Alibaba that it is more about how life was, not so much about how much we have achieved.”

除了他对宗教的思考外，我也很想知道：世界上最富有的人之一，怎么看待生命的意义？他的回答非常简单：“如果幸运的话，我们也只能活80到100年；对我们来说，这一生真正有意义的，是我们遇到的人和我们经历的艰难岁月。我告诉阿里巴巴的创始人们，人生的意义更多是关于生活本身，而不是我们取得了多少成就。”

 

 

 

The final words of wisdom Ma imparted to me will stay with me always: “It is not money I worked for, or reputation or fame, it is to feel happy, to do what’s right, and have fun.” If that isn’t inspirational then I don’t know what is.

访谈中，马云给了我很多他对生活的见解和智慧。我相信最后一句会一直伴随着我：“我们工作，不是为了钱，也不是为了虚名；我们做的一切，都是因为那是正确的，那是带来快乐的”。这是真正的顿悟。

 

对你来说，工作的意义是什么呢？