Jan Fields, who started at McDonald's 33 years ago cooking fries and is now the fast food chain's U.S. president, was soon to turn 55 when, she says, "I woke up one day and said, "Oh my God, how did I gain this much weight?"
33年前簡•費爾茨加入麥當勞的時候還只是負責炸薯條,當她快要55歲那年,她已成為這個快餐連鎖集團的美國總裁。她說,“有天醒來后我對自己說,‘天啊!我怎么變得這么胖了?’”
Like millions of her customers at the 14,000 restaurants she oversees, Fields added her weight gradually--"10 pounds at a time: 10, 10, 10 and all of a sudden, I looked and I said, 'Oh, my God, I've gained 90 pounds. How did I ever do that?"
與她掌管的14,000家麥當勞連鎖店的上百萬顧客一樣,費爾茨也是在不知不覺間長胖的——“每次10磅:10磅,10磅,10磅,然后突然間,我看了看自己,不禁驚呼,天哪,我重了90磅。我怎么長這么胖了?”
Of course, McDonald's tops critics' hit list for compounding America's obesity epidemic, but Fields insists that her own culprit wasn't food but lack of exercise. "I didn't exercise," she confesses. "I worked all the time, went home and went to bed."
誠然,麥當勞一直是評論家們公認的美國肥胖問題的罪魁禍首,但是費爾茨堅持認為她本人發福的根源不是食物,而是缺乏鍛煉?!拔也辉趺催\動,”她承認,“整天除了上班,就是回家睡覺”。
Fields, No. 25 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, has always been easy to underestimate: The seventh of eight children raised in tiny Vincennes, Indiana, she grew up skinny and dreamed of being a nun, then a lawyer. But she met a guy, married young, had a daughter, and was driving to an interview for a secretarial job at a construction company when, at 23, she stopped at McDonald's for a Coke and spotted a "Now Hiring" sign. It was, in fact, the first time Fields ever ate in a McDonald's. She and her husband, who had enlisted in the Air Force, were so poor that they couldn't afford to eat out.
費爾茨在財富(Fortune)最具影響力女性名單中位列第25名,并不怎么引人注目:她在印第安納州的小城鎮文森尼斯長大,來自于一個有8個孩子的家庭,排行老七。小時候她一直很纖瘦,并夢想著長大了當一名修女,后來又憧憬著當一名律師。但她隨后結識了她丈夫,早早地結了婚,生了個女兒。23歲那年,在開車去參加建筑公司秘書招聘面試的路上,她上麥當勞喝了一杯可樂,碰巧看見了“招聘”的牌子。其實,那是費爾茨第一次在麥當勞用餐。由于囊中羞澀,她和曾是空軍的丈夫從未在餐館吃過飯。
Accepting a job on a whim and starting at $2.65 an hour, she went home that first night and cried -- "a disaster" until they moved her from cooking fries to serving customers at front counter. "Never quit over one thing or one person," she advises. Rising rapidly through the ranks, she was propelled by a remarkable discipline and a down-home, inspirational leadership style.
由于一時心血來潮,她接受了麥當勞的工作,時薪2.65美元。上班第一天晚上回到家,她大哭一場——“糟透了”。后來公司把她從煎炸部調到了前臺做客服?!安灰驗槟臣禄蚰硞€人而放棄,”她說。由于在工作上恪盡職守,在領導風格上平易近人,勵精圖治,她在公司一路平步青云。