Were you surprised by your early career successes?
你對你職業生涯早期的成功感到驚訝嗎？

Was I surprised? No, it wasn't like I opened the door and there was Ed McMahon. The day Rick Wagoner parted with $2.25 billion, I was blown away. But no, I was never surprised by the success. I just became more and more convinced of the process and realized what a competitive advantage it was. This management-driven philosophy allowed me to follow the most intelligent, successful and capable people in the world. It allowed me to be contrarian. It made me excited to work harder and expand the team.
我驚訝嗎？不。這并不像是我一打開門，發現門口站著艾德•麥克馬洪（著名脫口秀主持人——譯注）。通用汽車前首席執行官開出22.5億美金與菲亞特“分手”那天，我確實很吃驚。但我從未因為個人的成功感到驚訝，我只是在做事情的過程中越來越有信心，逐漸明白自己的競爭優勢。我的這種管理導向型的投資哲學，使我能夠跟隨世界上最聰明、最成功和最有能力的人一同進步。它使我敢于進行逆向投資，使我一直具有努力工作、擴展團隊的激情。

Tell me what differentiates Permian from other hedge funds.
Permian與其他對沖基金有何不同？

Most of our investments are a product of what we've learned from working with and investing behind really great management teams. We're very isolated. We'd rather spend our time learning from successful operators and investors. CEO's making strategic decisions every day -- they are essentially investors themselves -- allocating capital in the most shareholder-friendly way. This approach keeps us independent and it keeps our portfolio unique.
我們與許多非常出色的管理團隊進行了合作，并且對他們進行了投資，我們在這個過程中學到了很多東西，并且Permian的大部分投資都是以此為基礎的。我們非常獨立，寧愿花時間向成功的經營者和投資人學習。企業的首席執行官們每天都要進行戰略決策，從本質上講，他們自己也是投資人，在以對股東最有利的方式進行資本的分配。這種方法使我們保持獨立，并且使我們的投資組合始終保持了自己的特色。

We have a network and investor base that is totally different from most hedge funds. Our reference list is our management teams. People say, "can you give me your list of references?' And we send a list of CEO's. And they say, "No, we'd like to speak with your investors." We say, "Those are our investors."
我們的關系網和投資人群體與大多數對沖基金完全不同。我們的推薦人名單上列的就是公司的管理團隊。有人會問：“你能給我一份你們的推薦人名單嗎？”我們就會發給他們一份名單，上面列的都是首席執行官的名字。他們說：“這不是我要的，我們是想和你們的投資人談談。”我們就會說：“他們就是我們的投資人。”

What would you say is your competitive advantage?
你認為你的競爭優勢是什么？

I can get a management team to articulate an idea that will cement an opportunity that other colleagues perhaps can't get. It's communication, but it's stylistic. I think it stems from meeting with hundreds of CEO's year after year and really listening to, and learning from them. And asking the right questions.
我可以讓管理團隊明確地表達出他們的想法，從而使我們抓住機會，而其他人可能無法做到這一點。這就是溝通的藝術，但我在溝通上有我自己的風格。我想這是因為我每年都和數百位首席執行官會面，并且認真傾聽，認真向他們學習，并且提出正確的問題。

We recently met a Finnish guy who spent 18 years at P&G (PG, Fortune 500) selling laundry detergent and Sunny Delight. He's now running a sporting goods conglomerate in Finland -- with totally different products and different distribution challenges.
我們最近與一個芬蘭人進行了會面，他為寶潔公司（P&G）效力了18年，主要負責銷售洗衣粉和Sunny Delight牌的飲料。現在他正在芬蘭運營一家大型的體育用品企業，這與他從前銷售的產品完全不同，分銷渠道也截然不同。

Instead of saying, "What the hell do you know about a sporting goods company?" We looked at it the other way. We asked, what did it take for him to step out of eighteen years at P&G, where he had $25 billion of revenue. What did he see?
我們并沒有問他“你對體育用品公司到底知道多少？”而是從另一個角度來看這個問題。我們問的是，他為什么要離開效力18年的寶潔公司，要知道，他為寶潔帶來的營業收入高達250億美元。他是怎么考慮的？

I asked him, "How many opportunities did you turn down before you took this one?" The answer was over 20. But when I asked, "Why did you take this one?" It was totally obvious.
我問他：“你在接手這份工作前拒絕了多少家公司的邀請？”他說20多家。然后我問道：“你為什么要從事這份工作？”聽了他的回答，道理就很明白了。

There were brands in this portfolio. Wilson for instance, with 2% market share. Not 20% like you might think. Wilson had tremendous market power that hadn't yet been realized. There's enormous brand equity there.
因為這個行業蘊藏著巨大的品牌價值潛力。以威爾遜（Wilson）為例，威爾遜的市場占有率只有2%，而不是許多人認為的20%。威爾遜有極大的市場潛力還沒有被挖掘。因此這個行業的品牌價值潛力極大。

Our investment had nothing to do with the business, per se. We didn't even identify a market opportunity. We just knew enough to talk to a guy who left P&G after 18 years.
我們的投資在本質上與業務本身無關，我們甚至沒有去尋找市場機會。與這位曾經為寶潔效力了18年的高管一番暢談后，我們已經知道了這項業務是否值得投資。

譯者：樸成奎