理查德·布兰森为何不让女儿上太空

The entrepreneur talks to Amy Chozick about airplanes, spaceships, submarines and second chances.

企业家同艾米·柯西克(Amy Chozick)畅谈飞机、太空飞船、潜水艇和第二次机会。

A poll in Britain found that one in four respondents chose you as their “dream boss.” Is that what inspired you to write this book on management, “The Virgin Way”?

问：一项英国的调查表明，1/4的应答者认为你是他们的“理想老板”。这是否启发你写下了这本关于管理的书《维珍之路》(The Virgin Way)?

Well, polls are always flattering when they’re nice. I’ve been an entrepreneur for nearly five decades, so I’ve learned quite a bit over those years. I think, by and large, people who work for Virgin are happy. They enjoy working for Virgin. They don’t like leaving Virgin.

答：好吧，调查结果如果很好，总是让人高兴的。我当企业家已经有快50年了，所以也学到了不少东西。我觉得总体来说，在维珍工作的人都很快乐。他们喜欢为维珍工作，也不想离开维珍。

When I fly, I often get the sense that people are unhappy working in the airline industry.

问：坐飞机的时候，我总觉得航空业的人都不快乐。

It’s not necessarily the staff’s fault they’re disgruntled. They’re not given the tools to do the job properly. For example, if somebody wants a kosher meal and it’s not on the plane, the crew member has to explain that to the passenger, and the passenger takes it out on the crew member. If that happens day after day, you soon turn a friendly person into someone defensive and unfriendly.

答：有情绪不一定是机组人员的错。并没有可以让他们自动完成好工作的工具。比如说，如果有人想要犹太餐，飞机上没有，空服人员就得向乘客解释，乘客就会拿这个空服人员出气。如果这样的事经常发生，你很快就会从一个友善的人变成一个戒心强、不怎么友好的人。

You’ve floated the idea of starting a “Kids’ Cabin.” When can we expect it?

问：你想过设立“儿童舱”的主意，什么时候能实现呢？

We’re still pushing regulators to allow us to do that. They’re nervous that if there’s an incident, you know, parents are going to be running in one direction and kids in another direction. We’ve been flying for 30 years without an incident. And in any event, we’ve got cabin crew to look after them. Have you got children?

答：我们仍在致力于推动监管者，让我们能够实现这个想法。他们对此感到不安，因为如果发生事故，父母们会往一个方向跑，孩子们又往另一个方向跑。但我们飞行了30年都没有事故。如果真有什么事，机组人员会照顾他们的。你有孩子吗？

I don’t. I’m one of those travelers who don’t want to sit next to little kids.

问：没有。我是那种不希望和孩子坐在一起的乘客。

O.K., perfect. We’ll put them in the back of the plane for you.

答：太棒了。为了你这样的人，我们会把孩子放在飞机后部的。

In the book, you tell a story about an employee at Virgin Records who stole from you. You didn’t fire him, and he went on to discover Boy George. Should managers follow your example?

问：在这本书里，你讲了个故事：有个维珍唱片的雇员偷东西，你并没有解雇他，后来他发掘了乔治男孩(Boy George)。管理者们应该学习你的榜样吗？

We hire a lot of ex-convicts, and not one of them has reoffended. They’re just human. I messed up with the tax man when I was a teenager, and I was given a second chance then. If I hadn’t had that second chance, there wouldn’t be 60,000 people working for Virgin today. We wouldn’t be going to space in a few months’ time. Second chances should be allowed. But, I mean, not always.

答：我们雇过不少犯过罪的人，他们后来没有人再犯。他们只是普通人。我十几岁的时候曾经逃税，后来我得到了第二次机会。如果我没有得到这个机会，就不会有如今拥有6万名雇员的维珍公司，我们就不会在几个月之后登上太空。人们应该得到第二次机会。不过，这也不绝对。

You asked Twitter to come up with potential titles for your book. I think my favorite was “I’m Considerably Richer Than You.”

问：你在Twitter上向粉丝征集书名。我最喜欢的是《我可比你有钱多了》。

Wealth is something that Americans dwell on. But most entrepreneurs don’t. They love to create things they’re proud of. And they hope that more money will come in than go out.

答：财富是所有美国人都渴望的东西。但大多数企业家并不是这样。他们热衷于创造能让自己为之自豪的东西。他们只希望赚的钱比花的多。

Was selling your record label to save the airline in 1992 a difficult decision?

问：1992年你卖出唱片厂牌去拯救航空公司，这是一个艰难的选择吗？

People thought we were absolutely mad taking our money out of a really successful industry and putting it into a very perilous industry. But it turned out to be the right decision.

答：人们都觉得我们把资金从一个很成功的行业撤出来，投入一个非常危险的行业，这是发疯。但最后证明这是一个正确的选择。

Is Virgin Galactic’s maiden space voyage really going to happen soon?

问：维珍银河公司的处女太空航行真的就快到来了吗？

It has taken longer than we thought, but we have a date in mind.

答：它花费的时间已经比我们预想的要长了。但我们心里有数。

Do you worry that you’ve turned a trip to space, which costs $250,000, into just another luxury product?

问：你推出的太空游开价25万美元，你会不会担心到头来它只会成为一件奢侈品？

Not at all. If you go back to the 1920s, when aviation started, it cost the equivalent of about $200,000 to cross the Atlantic. Over the years, the price has come down. You’ve got to start somewhere.

答：根本不会。回到20世纪20年代飞行事业刚刚开始的时候，飞跃大西洋需要花费相当于20万美元。这么多年来，价格下降了很多。总得有起步阶段。

The British tabloids have been speculating about whether you would allow your pregnant daughter to travel to space or not. Would you?

问：英国小报都在推测，你会不会让自己怀孕的女儿上太空，你会吗？

My wife definitely would not allow my pregnant daughter to go to space. And in truth her father would not like to see his daughter in space right now. I think the pressure most likely wouldn’t be ideal for twins.

答：我妻子肯定不会让我们怀孕的女儿上太空。说实话，她爸爸也不会让女儿现在就上太空的。我觉得太空的压力对双胞胎来说不是很理想。

You’ve also looked into submarine tourism with Virgin Oceanic. Is that easier than going up into space?

问：你还想过用“维珍海洋”开发潜水艇游？这是不是比太空游容易一点？

It’s difficult. I mean, it’s easy to put — well, not easy — it’s easy-ish to put a lump of metal to the bottom of the ocean, hit the bottom, come back up again. But to get a submarine that you can see out of and can travel at the bottom, to build it strong enough to withstand 1,600 times the pressure of an airplane, that’s hard.

答：这也很难，我是说，把一大堆金属弄到海下，触到海洋最底部，然后再回来，这很容易——好吧 ，也不容易，就是看上去容易一些。难的是怎样建一艘让人能看到外面的潜水艇，可以在海地旅行，让它结实到足以承受海底巨大的压力，这种压力相当于飞机所承受压力的1600倍。

You could incorporate that into your Virgin cruise ships.

问：你可以把它和你的维珍游轮结合起来。

We may launch spaceships from our cruise ship. Who’s to know?

答：我们也可以从游轮上发送太空船，谁知道呢！