乔布斯传(MP3+中英字幕) 第149期:蜜月(4)
日期:2016-03-28 15:12

(单词翻译:单击)

Sculley began to believe that Jobs's mercurial personality and erratic treatment of people were rooted deep in his psychological makeup,
斯卡利开始相信,乔布斯善变的个性和对人飘忽不定的态度深深根植于他的心理构成中,
perhaps the reflection of a mild bipolarity.
或许这反映出他性格里有轻微的两极化。
There were big mood swings; sometimes he would be ecstatic, at other times he was depressed.
乔布斯的情绪波动很大。他有时候欣喜若狂,有时候又低沉沮丧。
At times he would launch into brutal tirades without warning, and Sculley would have to calm him down.
有时候他会没有任何征兆地开始严厉斥责别人,斯卡利就得让他平静下来。
"Twenty minutes later, I would get another call and be told to come over because Steve is losing it again," he said.
“20分钟以后,我会接到另一个电话让我过去,因为史蒂夫又在发脾气了。”他说道。
Their first substantive disagreement was over how to price the Macintosh.
他们第一次产生重大分歧是在给麦金塔电脑定价时。

双语有声读物 乔布斯传

It had been conceived as a $1,000 machine,
按照最初的设想,麦金塔的售价将是1000美元,
but Jobs's design changes had pushed up the cost so that the plan was to sell it at $1,995.
但是乔布斯对设计进行了更改,成本提髙了,于是又将计划售价调整为1995美元。
However, when Jobs and Sculley began making plans for a huge launch and marketing push,
然而,当乔布斯和斯卡利开始为盛大的发布和营销工作制订计划时,
Sculley decided that they needed to charge $500 more.
斯卡利认为他们需要将售价再提髙500美元。
To him, the marketing costs were like any other production cost and needed to be factored into the price.
对于他来说,营销成本就像其他任何生产成本一样需要计入售价。
Jobs resisted, furiously. "It will destroy everything we stand for," he said.
乔布斯愤怒地拒绝了。“这会破坏我们所有的理念,”他说道,
"I want to make this a revolution, not an effort to squeeze out profits."
“我想让它成为一次革命,而不是努力榨取利润。”
Sculley said it was a simple choice:
斯卡利说这是个很简单的选择:
He could have the $1,995 price or he could have the marketing budget for a big launch, but not both.
他可以保持1995美元的售价,或者可以拿营销预算去举办一场盛大的产品发布会,二者只能选其一。
"You're not going to like this," Jobs told Hertzfeld and the other engineers,
“有个坏消息,”乔布斯告诉赫茨菲尔德和其他工程师们,
"but Sculley is insisting that we charge $2,495 for the Mac instead of $1,995."
“斯卡利坚持要求我们将定价从1995美元上调至2495美元。”
Indeed the engineers were horrified.
工程师们当然非常震惊。
Hertzfeld pointed out that they were designing the Mac for people like themselves,
赫茨菲尔德指出Mac是为像他们自己这样的人设计的,
and overpricing it would be a "betrayal" of what they stood for.
定价过高将会“违背”他们的立场。
So Jobs promised them, "Don't worry, I'm not going to let him get away with it!"
于是乔布斯向他们承诺;“不用担心,我不会让他得逞的!”
But in the end, Sculley prevailed.
但最后还是斯卡利获胜了。
Even twenty-five years later Jobs seethed when recalling the decision:
虽然这件事已经过去了25年,但当乔布斯回忆起当时的决定时,他依然非常气愤。
"It's the main reason the Macintosh sales slowed and Microsoft got to dominate the market."
“这是麦金塔销量下滑的主要原因,然后微软才得以占领市场。”他说道。
The decision made him feel that he was losing control of his product and company,
这个决定让他感觉到他正在失去对自己的产品和公司的控制,
and this was as dangerous as making a tiger feel cornered.
而这就跟把老虎逼入绝境一样危险。

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重点单词
  • depressedadj. 沮丧的,降低的,不景气的,萧条的,凹陷的,扁平
  • disagreementn. 不合,争论,不一致
  • dominatev. 支配,占优势,俯视
  • erraticadj. 无确定路线,不稳定的,奇怪的,游走的,移动的;
  • brutaladj. 野蛮的,残暴的
  • betrayaln. 背叛,暴露
  • decisionn. 决定,决策
  • budgetn. 预算 vt. 编预算,为 ... 做预算 vi.
  • psychologicaladj. 心理(学)的
  • substantiveadj. 独立的,真实的,持久的,本质的,名词性的,大量