一名退役奧運選手的精彩后半場 從哈佛到谷歌

Emily Hughes may not have placed first at theOlympics like her big sis Sarah, but she’s quickly onthe rise in Silicon Valley.

艾米麗o休斯也許不能像她姐姐薩拉一樣在奧運會上奪得冠軍，但她在硅谷的事業(yè)正蒸蒸日上。

Nine years ago, Emily Hughes was at the 2006Olympic games in Turin, Italy, skating before millionsof TV viewers. Today, Hughes is in the trenches atGoogle GOOG -0.73% working on Google Fiber, thecompany’s ambitious ultra-high-speed Internetinitiative.

9年前，在意大利都靈的2006年冬奧會上，艾米麗o休斯曾在數(shù)百萬電視觀眾面前表演花樣滑冰。而如今，她已是一位谷歌人，供職于該公司超高速因特網(wǎng)創(chuàng)新項目Google Fiber。

This 25-year-old former Olympian joined Google as a business analyst in November, and it washer love of competition – and an extraordinary tolerance for risk-taking and failure – thathelped her land the job.

這位25歲的前奧運選手在去年11月加入谷歌，成為一位商業(yè)分析師，而她正是憑借自己樂于競爭的個性，以及對冒險和失敗的極強忍受力，獲得了這份工作。

 

 

“I think in sports in general, there’s a lot of transferable skills that you can bring to theworkplace,” says Hughes, who moved from Great Neck, N.Y., to San Francisco to begin her newgig at Google’s Mountain View offices. “In skating, every day, you fall and you have to get up.And falling is a pretty obvious failure. I’ve definitely learned from everything I’ve failed at.”

艾米麗表示：“我認(rèn)為體育項目中學(xué)到的許多技能都能應(yīng)用于工作場合。”她已經(jīng)從紐約州大頸鎮(zhèn)搬到了舊金山，在谷歌總部山景城的辦公室內(nèi)開始了她的新事業(yè)。“在滑冰時，你每天都會摔倒，你必須爬起來。摔倒就是十分明顯的失敗。每次失敗，我都能從中吸取教訓(xùn)。”

As you may recall from the 2002 Winter Olympics, Emily Hughes is the younger sister of SarahHughes, the world champion skater who copped the Gold in 2002.

也許你能回憶起2002年的冬奧會，艾米麗o休斯就是當(dāng)時獲得花樣滑冰金牌的薩拉o休斯的妹妹。

“I remember, I was 12 or 13 when Sarah won,” Emily says. “Every day, I saw her go to the rink,I saw her train and I thought, ‘I think I could do that too.’”

艾米麗說：“我還記得，薩拉奪冠時我才12或13歲。每天我都看她去滑冰場，我看著她訓(xùn)練，然后想：‘我覺得我也能做到她那樣。’”

But the road to fame was a lot harder for Emily than it was for her older sister. In 2001, at age12, she competed in the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, but then a couple of years later,Emily failed to make the U.S. team. In 2006, she was the first alternate to the Winter Olympics,and after Michelle Kwan withdrew due to a groin injury, she was named to the team. But shefinished seventh overall.

不過艾米麗的成名之路要比她姐姐的坎坷得多。2001年，年僅12歲的艾米麗參加了美國花樣滑冰錦標(biāo)賽，但之后幾年她都未能進(jìn)入美國國家隊。2006年，她成為冬奧會花樣滑冰隊的第一替補，在關(guān)穎珊因腹股溝傷勢退出后，她遞補入隊，但最后只取得了第七名的成績。

Amidst injuries and illnesses, her ambition never waned. Hughes went on to Harvard, and inher junior year, she decided to take a semester off to train for the 2010 Olympics. She failed toqualify.

盡管遭遇傷病，但艾米麗的野心從未減弱。她進(jìn)入了哈佛大學(xué)。在大三時，她決定花一個學(xué)期時間來為2010年冬奧會訓(xùn)練，但最終仍未進(jìn)入國家隊。

“When I didn’t make the Olympic team, yes, that was a failure in a sense, but there were somany other things that I’ve accomplished because of it,” she says. For example, she had moretime to join organizations such as Harvard’s “Women in Business” club and take on leadershippositions on campus.

她說：“沒錯，當(dāng)我未能入選奧運國家隊時，有一種挫敗感。但因為它，我又做成了許多其他事情。”比如，她有了更多時間來加入哈佛“商界女性”俱樂部等組織，并在校園中擔(dān)任多個社團的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。

Her setbacks, she admits, also forced her to think to herself: “What is the bigger picture?”

艾米麗承認(rèn)，她遭遇的挫折也迫使她反思：“更大的愿景是什么?”

After Harvard, Hughes worked at Deloitte Consulting and the International Olympic Committee,but she never found her true calling. Then last year, a friend who worked at Google told herabout life at the Internet giant, and Hughes was intrigued. Google Fiber delivers broadbandservice at 100 times what Internet users are accustomed to. The service first launched inKansas City, Mo., in 2012 and now operates in Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, as well.

從哈佛畢業(yè)后，艾米麗先后任職于德勤咨詢公司和國際奧委會，但她始終沒有找到自己真正的職業(yè)興趣。然后在去年，一名在谷歌工作的朋友跟她講述了自己在這家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭的生活，這讓她十分感興趣。Google Fiber提供的寬帶業(yè)務(wù)速度是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶習(xí)慣速度的100倍。這項業(yè)務(wù)首先于2012年在密蘇里州的堪薩斯城試點，如今業(yè)務(wù)范圍還拓展到了德克薩斯州奧斯汀市和猶他州普洛佛市。

“Every time I talked to her, she just raved about Google’s culture and her work,” Emily says,referring to her friend. “Before that, I hadn’t really thought about working at Google. I usedGoogle every day, but it wasn’t something that I ever thought, ‘Oh I could go work there.’”

艾米麗談起這位朋友時說：“我每次和她聊天，她都熱情地描述谷歌的文化和她的工作。而在那之前，我并沒有認(rèn)真考慮過在谷歌工作的情形。我每天都用谷歌，但從來沒有想過‘噢，我或許可以去那里工作。’”

Her friend passed on some information about Google Fiber, and she applied. Clearing a first-round interview, Hughes went through six hours of on-site back-to-back interviews, with onlya lunch break– not unlike the times she used to scramble to find time for lunch in a jam-packedtraining day.

這位朋友給她傳來了Google Fiber的相關(guān)信息，然后她提交了求職申請。在通過第一輪面試后，艾米麗進(jìn)行了連續(xù)六個小時的現(xiàn)場面試，只是在用午餐時休息了一會——這跟她曾經(jīng)在緊鑼密鼓的訓(xùn)練日里擠出午餐時間沒有什么不同。

Certainly, Hughes possesses the most critical quality that Google seeks in its employees. “TheNo. 1 thing that you look for is passion,” says Jonathan Rosenberg, who wrote the best-sellingHow Google Works with Google chairman Eric Schmidt. “You want the kind of person who isconstantly learning.” Google’s career website notes that the company looks for people who canshow they’ve “flexed different muscles in different situations in order to mobilize a team.”

顯然，艾米麗擁有谷歌最看重的員工品質(zhì)。喬納森o羅森伯格曾經(jīng)與谷歌董事長埃里克o施密特合作撰寫了暢銷書《谷歌如何運作》(How Google Works)。他表示：“你首先要尋找的就是激情。你想要那種不斷學(xué)習(xí)的人。”谷歌的招聘網(wǎng)站也提到，公司尋找那些能夠證明自己“在不同情況下能采用不同方式調(diào)動團隊”的人。

Flexing different muscles — well, Hughes is a pro at that. “With skating, constantly beingcorrected and told how to do something differently has helped me take constructive feedbackbetter,” she says.

采用不同方式——好吧，艾米麗是這方面的專家。“在滑冰時，我經(jīng)常被糾正，被告知要用不同方式來完成動作。這使得我能更好地接受建設(shè)性的反饋。”

Hughes is simply the latest in a lineup of former Olympians working at Google. The companyclaims to employ at least 10. Athletes, in general, appeal to the Googlers who do the hiringbecause a sports background teaches you to handle criticism and adapt.

艾米麗只是正在谷歌工作的前奧運選手團隊中的最新成員。谷歌公司已經(jīng)招聘了至少10名有過奧運會經(jīng)歷的員工。運動員通常能引起谷歌招聘者的興趣，因為運動背景能教會人們應(yīng)對批評，提高人們的適應(yīng)力。

Game Theory Group CEO Vincent McCaffrey, who helps companies recruit student-athletes,doesn’t know the Hughes sisters, but he theorizes: “I would imagine Emily and Sarah haveprobably received a ton of feedback in their life — some of it very direct and even harsh.Employers want to hire young people who are able to take constructive criticism well.”

Game Theory Group公司首席執(zhí)行官文森特o麥卡弗里經(jīng)常幫助各家公司招聘學(xué)生運動員。他并不認(rèn)識休斯姐妹，但他從理論上推測道：“我可以想象艾米麗和薩拉在她們的運動生涯中可能已經(jīng)接受過無數(shù)反饋意見——有一些非常直接，甚至很傷人。雇主希望招到那些能夠很好地采納建設(shè)性批評的年輕人。”

Global services firm EY has studied the link between sports and leadership in the C-suite. In a2014 global survey of 400 female executives, EY found that 52% played sports at theuniversity level. Those women, like Emily and Sarah Hughes, honed their time managementskills while juggling schoolwork and training — an excellent path to consistentoverachievement.

全球服務(wù)公司EY對體育運動和高管層領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力的關(guān)系進(jìn)行了研究。2014年，EY對全球400名女性高管進(jìn)行了調(diào)查，發(fā)現(xiàn)52%的人曾經(jīng)參加過大學(xué)級別的體育運動。這些女性與艾米麗和薩拉一樣，在課業(yè)和訓(xùn)練之間掙扎的過程中，鍛煉了她們管理時間的能力——這是不斷取得超預(yù)期成就的絕好途徑。

Indeed, growing up in Great Neck, Emily and her five siblings (Rebecca, David, Matthew, Sarahand the youngest girl, Taylor) were all overachievers. All six participated in figure skating or icehockey.

確實，在大頸鎮(zhèn)長大的艾米麗和她的五個兄弟姐妹(瑞貝卡、大衛(wèi)、馬修、薩拉和最年幼的妹妹泰勒)都取得了超出預(yù)期的成就。而所有六個孩子都參加過花樣滑冰或冰球運動。

Emily and Sarah credit their father for getting them into skating. John Hughes is a Toronto-born lawyer who played hockey for Cornell University and was drafted by the Toronto MapleLeafs.

艾米麗和薩拉認(rèn)為是父親引領(lǐng)她們進(jìn)入滑冰領(lǐng)域。她們的父親約翰o休斯出生于多倫多，是一名律師，他曾經(jīng)是康奈爾大學(xué)冰球隊的隊員，還曾經(jīng)被多倫多楓葉隊選中。

Emily recalls her mom, Amy, lining up all six kids in age order (Emily is second-youngest) andtying their skates at the community ice rink. Emily and Sarah, who started skating when theywere about three years old, are different in personality — Sarah is gregarious with a bigpresence, while Emily is reserved and quietly personable — but as children, they were both“competitive in our own way,” as Emily puts it.

艾米麗還記得，她的母親艾米按照年齡順序(艾米麗是第二小的)，讓所有六個孩子在社區(qū)的滑冰場上站成一排，她給孩子們一個個系滑冰鞋的情景。艾米麗和薩拉在三歲左右時就開始滑冰了，她們性格很不一樣——薩拉很合群，存在感很強，而艾米麗比較內(nèi)向安靜，非常迷人——但如艾米麗所說，作為孩子，她們都“以自己的方式競爭著”。

When 12-year-old Emily stood in the stands and cheered on her big sister for a Gold medal inSalt Lake City, she knew she wanted her own shot to skate on Olympic ice. “After that, I waslike, ‘I want to be an Olympian too,” she recalls, adding, “A little bit easier said than done.”

當(dāng)12歲的艾米麗站在鹽湖城的看臺上，為取得金牌的姐姐歡呼時，她知道自己也想在奧林匹克賽場的冰面上滑行。她回憶道：“在那之后，我表現(xiàn)得就像是‘我也要當(dāng)奧運選手。’”她又補充道：“說起來容易，做起來難。”

Randy Appell, her chemistry and biology teacher at Great Neck High School, recalls teenageEmily dealing with her high-stress position. “The fact that her older sister had already won theOlympic Gold must’ve put an extreme amount of pressure on her. She may have felt it, butshe never let it show.”

艾米麗在大頸高中的化學(xué)和生物老師蘭迪o阿佩爾回憶起青年時期的艾米麗應(yīng)對高壓的辦法：“她的姐姐已經(jīng)贏得冬奧會金牌，這件事想必對她造成了極大的壓力。她也許感覺到了，但她從來不表現(xiàn)出來。”

Sarah’s Olympic stardom landed her on the cover of TIME Magazine, and when Emily washeading to Turin four years later, she was cast as America’s great hope —another Hugheschampion-in-the-making.

薩拉冬奧會冠軍的身份使得她登上了《時代》周刊封面。四年后，前往都靈的艾米麗同樣肩負(fù)著美國的厚望——休斯家的另一位運動員即將奪冠。

Her seventh-place finish at the Olympics that year was disappointing, but it was not the thingthat would define Emily Hughes. She had other assets — her brain and her passion to succeed— to fall back on. She remembers her dad always emphasizing that she is a “student-athlete”and that “student” always comes first. Her parents never gave her or Sarah breaks on studying,even when they were training five hours a day. And given the choice to enroll in the regularchemistry class or an honors course, Appell recalls, Emily insisted she take the advanced class.

那年她以第七名的成績結(jié)束冬奧會之旅，確實令人遺憾，但這個成績并沒有反映出艾米麗o休斯的強項。她擁有其他可以倚仗的資本——她的頭腦和她對成功的激情。她記起父親總強調(diào)她是個“學(xué)生運動員”，“學(xué)生”永遠(yuǎn)是第一位的。在學(xué)業(yè)方面，艾米麗的父母從來不會放松對她或薩拉的要求，即便她們每天要訓(xùn)練五個小時。阿佩爾回憶道，被要求在常規(guī)的化學(xué)課或程度較難的課程之間做出選擇時，艾米麗堅持要選后者。

“I always brought my books everywhere,” she says. “I was going to every competition luggingthis backpack around, or you know, doing homework in the car on the way to the rink. It wasalways important to keep my grades up.”

艾米麗說：“我總是隨身帶著課本。每次參賽時，我都會背著這個雙肩書包，在前往滑冰場的車上寫作業(yè)，你知道的。促使學(xué)業(yè)成績持續(xù)上升，總是非常重要的。”

As for Sarah, who is now 29, she found a new path from the Olympics too. She’s executivevice president of business development at the Kingsbridge Ice Center, a $350 million project tobuild the world’s largest ice skating complex in the Bronx.

如今已經(jīng)29歲的姐姐薩拉，也從奧運會中找到了一條新的道路。她現(xiàn)在是Kingsbridge Ice Center負(fù)責(zé)商業(yè)開發(fā)的執(zhí)行副總裁，這是一個3.5億美元的項目，計劃在紐約布朗克斯區(qū)建立全球最大的綜合滑冰場館。

Both sisters refuse to have one-dimensional careers.“I was always impressed by how toughEmily was when we were younger,” Sarah says. “She would kill herself working, working,working, but somehow, she always found some time to have fun.”

兩姐妹都拒絕接受單向的職業(yè)生涯。薩拉說：“當(dāng)我們小的時候，我總是震驚于艾米麗的堅韌不屈。她不斷工作、工作、工作，簡直要把自己累死，但不知怎么搞的，她總能擠出一點時間來尋找樂趣。”

“To accomplish big meaningful things,” Sarah adds, “you need to be focused but allow enoughdistractions to make it a fun and worthwhile journey.”

薩拉補充道：“為了實現(xiàn)有意義的大事，你得保持專注，但也要分出足夠的精力，讓追逐目標(biāo)的過程充滿樂趣和價值。”(財富中文網(wǎng))