About ten senior staffers were sitting at the table when we entered.
我们走进会议室时，已经有十几位高级职员坐在桌前了。
Since I knew nothing about the topic, I took a seat in the back corner of the room (yup, not even close to the table).
我对会议议题一无所知，所以就在会议室的角落里坐下来（对，离桌子远着呢）。
Toward the end of the meeting, Secretary Rubin suddenly turned and asked, "Sheryl, what do you think?"
会议快结束时，鲁宾部长突然回头问我：“谢丽尔，你怎么看？”
I was stunned silent — my mouth opened but nothing came out.
我目瞪口呆，张着嘴却什么也说不出来。
When he saw how shocked I was, Secretary Rubin explained why he had put me on the spot:
他看我这么惊讶，便解释说：
"Because you're new and not fully up to speed on how we do things, I thought you might see something we were missing."
“你是新来的，还不能完全跟上我们做事的快节奏。我在想也许正因为如此，你才有可能看到我们看不到的东西。”
Apparently not in my case.
对我来说，这显然是另外一回事。
But Secretary Rubin sent a powerful message to all of us about the value of soliciting ideas from every corner (literally).
但鲁宾部长让所有的人都明白了从各个“角落”（一点儿都不夸张）征求意见的重要性。
Secretary Rubin was also aware of the dangers of blindly following leaders, or in his case, being blindly followed.
鲁宾部长也意识到员工盲从领导者（从他的角度看，是指被盲目跟从）是很危险的。
Before becoming Treasury secretary, Rubin served as co-chairman of the board of Goldman Sachs.
在成为财政部部长之前，鲁宾是高盛集团董事会联合主席。
At the end of his first week as co-chairman, he noticed that Goldman was heavily invested in gold.
在就任联合主席的第一周即将结束时，他注意到高盛集团准备大量投资黄金。
He asked someone why the firm had taken such a big position.
他问下属为什么公司会有这么大的举措。
The startled employee answered, "That was you, sir." "Me?" Rubin replied.
被问者很吃惊地回答道：“是因为您啊，先生。”“我？”鲁宾反问道。
Apparently, the day before he had been taking his initial tour of the trading floor and commented, "Gold looks interesting."
原来，头一天他去交易员办公室转了转，随口说了句：“黄金看上去有点儿意思。”