Leadership
領導力
Fred Smith was just 27 when he founded FedEx. Thirty-five years later, he's still at the helm. He attributes the success of the company to leadership, pure and simple-something he picked up from his years in the military, and from his family.
弗里德·史密斯在創辦聯邦快遞時只有27歲。如今,35 年過去了,他依舊坐在掌舵人的位置上。史密斯把公司的成功完全歸功于他的領導方法——純粹而簡單——這是軍隊和家庭教給他的。
Frederick Wallace Smith was born into a wealthy family on August 11, 1944 in Mississippi. After his father's death, when he was four years old, his mother, Sally Smith, often talked to the boy about her late husband. "I kept his father alive in his mind all those years," she recalled. "I told him how much big Fred loved him, and how much he wanted him to have the best education possible. And how much he was certain his son would surpass his achievements in business."
弗里德·華萊士·史密斯于 1944年8月11日出生在密西西比州的一個富有家庭。在他只有4歲時,父親去世了。在那之后,母親薩利·史密斯經常給兒子講丈夫生前的故事。她回憶道,“那些年我一直都努力讓他在心中記住他爸爸。我告訴他,爸爸是多么愛他,多么想讓他接受最好的教育,又是多么確信他兒子將大大超過他在商業上的成就。”
As a child, Smith suffered from Legg-Calve-Pthes disease , which is characterized by the interruption in the blood supply to the thighbones and the consequent improper development of one or both legs. Unable to walk normally, Smith was picked on by bullies, and he learned to defend himself by swinging at them with his crutch. Reportedly cured of the disease by the age of 10, he became a star athlete, playing football, basketball, and baseball.
兒時,史密斯曾患股骨病,這種疾病會中斷股骨供血,最終導致一條腿或雙腿發育畸形。因此史密斯無法像健全人那樣行走,為此經常被欺負,后來他學會了揮動拐杖來自衛。據說,10歲那年病愈后,史密斯成了體育明星,足球、籃球和棒球,樣樣精通。
Smith's grandfather had captained a Mississippi River steamboat; his father built the Greyhound Bus Linein the South, expanding his fortune along with the routes. Smith says he was just four when his father died, "so he probably served as a near mythical role model for me."
史密斯的祖父曾是密西西比號汽輪的船長;父親在南部創建了灰狗巴士公司,賺了不少錢。由于父親在他只有四歲時就去世了,“所以對我來說,他就是一個近乎虛構的榜樣。”