Your first ‘real’ job should give you the foundation needed for future success. This couldn’t have been more true in my case, but not in the ways you’d expect.

你的第一份“真正”的工作，应该为你未来的成功奠定基础。我的经历充分证明了这一点，只是过程有些出人意料。

After graduating from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, I went to work as an analyst in the technology group of a bulge bracket investment bank. It paid very well and was in the tech field I wanted. This was it. I was on my way.

从加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院(UC Berkeley Haas School of Business)毕业后，我在一家超大型投资银行的技术部门担任分析师。这份工作收入丰厚，也是我所期待的技术领域。这就是我的第一份工作。我从这里开始了自己的职业生涯。

It was 2002, during the depths of the dot-com bust and when the tech sector was a wasteland. I was working with the only active client for the group, a private technology company that engaged our bank to sell itself. As this was the only business for the group at that time, this deal was under tremendous scrutiny on all levels.

时值2002年，正是网络泡沫破灭影响最严重的时期，高科技领域哀鸿遍野。当时我负责部门唯一一位活跃的客户，这是一家私人高科技公司，正在通过我们银行对外出售。由于这是我所在部门当时唯一的业务，它的各个层面都受到了严格审查。

I was working 100-plus hour weeks for three straight months, and I remember vividly one weekend when I had a horrible flu. I was at the office working on a Saturday when the VP managing this deal went out to dinner. As she left, she asked for “another rev” on the presentation. Translation: I had to put in another eight hours that night, with a fever, and the CEO wanted to review the presentation on a 7:00 AM call the next morning (Sunday).

我每周工作100多个小时，连续工作了三个月，我清楚记得有一个周末，我得了严重的流感。周六的时候，我正在办公室加班，负责该交易的副总裁外出用餐。她走的时候要求我对演示稿“再修改一遍”。这意味着：虽然我正在发烧，但那天晚上我还是得再加班八个小时，因为CEO希望在第二天(周日)早上7点通过电话审核演示稿。

I cant remember the exact mixture of caffeine and decongestants I took, but I somehow managed to get the presentation done, nab a couple hours of sleep and arrive back in the office for the call. I was drowsy, achy and coughing miserably during the call. At one point the VP muted the phone, looked at me and said, “I’m going to need you to perk up.

我还记得当时喝了大量咖啡因和减充血剂，不过最终还是努力完场了演示稿。小睡了一两个小时候，我又回到办公室接听电话。在通话过程中，我昏昏欲睡，浑身疼痛不已，还不停咳嗽。一会儿，那位副总裁将电话调为静音，看着我说：“我需要你打起精神来。”

Perk up I did, but not in the way she was thinking. At that precise moment, I knew I was in the wrong job and more importantly, the wrong career path. In one life lesson she had unwittingly (and unrelentingly) taught me three key things:

我确实打起了精神，但并不是按她所想的那样。就在那一刻，我明白这份工作并不适合我，更重要的是，这也不是适合我的职业道路。她在不经意间(并且无情地)给我上了一课，让我认识到了三件重要的事情：

Pursue great people and not the paycheck

• 追随优秀的人，而不是工资

Do work you love

• 做自己喜爱的工作

Create a healthy work-life balance

• 保证健康的工作和生活平衡

Suddenly, the income was not as important as being able to work with great mentors and people I could learn from. I had hoped for this when accepting the investment-banking job and soon realized it didn’t exist. I remained blinded by the pay until that mute button was pressed. I left and ultimately took a job that paid much less but was far more rewarding in terms of the people and the work.

突然之间，收入不再重要，重要的是能够与优秀的导师和了不起的人一起共事。最初接受这份投行工作的时候，我也是抱着这样的希望，可惜，希望很快落空。但我一直被高工资所蒙蔽，直到静音键被按下的那一刻才幡然醒悟。我离开了那家银行，最终找到的工作虽然薪酬没有那么高，但那里的人和工作却给我带来了更多回报。

Having a clear understanding of what was important to me was critical not just when co-founding a company that I wanted to work at – but also to create a place that fosters satisfying careers for all those I work with as well.

不论是共同创建一家自己希望为其奋斗的公司，还是为同事们创造一个平台，让他们获得令人满意的职业发展，对我而言，最为关键的是，清楚什么才是对自己最重要的。