For the first time since I started taking an interest in such things, an internal motivational memo has been doing the rounds online not because it is deemed bad, but because it is deemed good.

自从我开始对内部激励备忘录感兴趣以来，这是头一次一份这样的备忘录不是因为被认为槽点太多、而是因为被认为写得很好而在网上走红。

It was written by Joseph Mauro, head of fixed income at Goldman Sachs in London, and sent out to the bank’s demoralised young associates in an attempt to stop them quitting to join internet start-ups. “Every young person in finance should read it,” gushed the headline on Business Insider, which reproduced the email last week.

它是高盛(Goldman Sachs)驻伦敦固定收益主管约瑟夫•莫罗(Joseph Mauro)所写的，发给了士气低落的年轻下属，目的是阻止他们跳槽到互联网初创公司。“金融业所有年轻人都应该读一读，”财经网站Business Insider不久前刊登这封邮件时的标题写道。

I turned to the email and found that superficially, at least, it had a couple of things going for it. “Based on the number of you reaching out to get on my calendar or grab a coffee … there is clearly angst across the floor,” it began.

我阅读了这封邮件，发现至少从表面上看有一些道理。“从你们当中特意跑来和我约谈或者来喝一杯咖啡的人数来看……整层楼明显弥漫着一种焦虑气氛，”邮件开头写道。

Mr Mauro has evidently mastered the first lesson in how to communicate with young reports: when morale is bad, say so. The only shame is how he puts it — the “reaching out” and the “grabbing” a coffee are at odds in their cheesy jauntiness with the reality of a career discussion with a Goldman partner.

莫罗明显已经掌握了与年轻下属交流的第一课：如果士气很低，那就直接说出来。唯一遗憾之处在于他的表达方式——“特意跑来”和“喝一杯咖啡”的感觉轻松愉悦，而实际上他们是要与高盛合伙人严肃地讨论事业，二者格格不入。

Mr Mauro then promises to desist from offering advice: “I know you will discount my opinions as biased and out of touch”. He’s right there — they will. Until he later screws up by offering opinions anyway it seems he has also learnt lesson two: youthful charges tend not to believe or agree with a word you say.

接着，莫罗在邮件中承诺不再提供建议：“我知道你们会觉得我的意见有失公允、不切实际而予以忽视”。他说的没错——他们会的。他似乎学到了第二课：年轻的后生往往不会相信、也不会同意你说的任何一句话——结果他后来还是忍不住给出了建议，把这一课搞砸了。

Instead, he chronicles the wrong turns he took in his own career, and repeats the duff advice he was given along the way. In 2000, he quit Goldman after only a year to join a start-up just as the internet bubble burst. The stupidity of the timing (along with the suggestion that leaving Goldman now for a start-up would be equally dumb) he neatly illustrates with a series of charts.

他开始在邮件中细数自己职业生涯中走的弯路，并且重复着那些他一路来听到的无用建议。2000年，他曾在加入高盛后仅一年就辞职，加入一家初创企业，而那时恰逢互联网泡沫破裂。他用一系列图表巧妙地展示了自己对时机的愚蠢选择（同时建议道，现在离开高盛加入初创公司将同样愚蠢）。

This shows he has learnt lesson number three: young people have had it with words. An email composed largely of Bloomberg screen shots (or pictures or video clips) has a much greater chance of being absorbed than frumpy old paragraphs of text.

这表明他学到了第三课：年轻人受够了枯燥的文字。一封主要由彭博(Bloomberg)系统截屏（或图片和视频片段）构成的邮件，被接纳的可能性比老土的大段文字大得多。

He then repeats the advice given by a trader who said Fulham football club season tickets were a better bet than Chelsea, and Citi a better bet than Goldman. “He is now in sales,” Mr Mauro gleefully reports. Here is lesson four: to get your audience on your side, try laughing at a stupid third party. This is a low trick but always works — I know because I’ve built a career on it.

他之后重复了一名交易员的建议，后者声称富勒姆(Fulham)足球俱乐部的季票比切尔西(Chelsea)更值、花旗(Citi)的前景比高盛更好。“他如今在做销售，”莫罗幸灾乐祸道。这就引出了第四课：为了让你的听众站在你这边，试着嘲笑愚蠢的第三方。这招不太光彩，但是总能奏效——我知道这点是因为我就是用这招建立了自己的职业生涯。

In his life so far, the only advice Mr Mauro has heeded came from the founder of the internet start-up who told him in 2000: “This business is a marathon. You are back at the beginning. Start running.”

莫罗至今唯一接受的建议是那家互联网初创企业的创始人2000年告诉他的话：“这一行就是一场马拉松。你回到了起点。开始跑吧。”

In turn, this is the advice that he is now passing on to his associates: “Keep running”. He ends the email: “This will give you some context … when every so often … you get a one-liner from me that simply asks “What mile are you on?”

他如今也在向他的下属给出这条建议：“继续奔跑。”他在邮件结尾写道：“现在你们应该了解到了一些背景原因……知道为什么时不时地……我会开玩笑地简单问你一句‘你跑到几公里了？’”

Reading this, I asked myself a related question: what planet is he on? The answer must be that he’s on planet Goldman, where all the metaphors are male and sporty and about endurance. And where, despite the assertion that there will be nothing handed down from on high, there is facile advice, offered with the fond expectation that it will be followed.

读了这封邮件，我问了自己一个相关问题：他生活在哪个星球？答案肯定是他生活在高盛星球，那里所有的比喻都和男人、运动以及耐力有关。而且，在那个星球上，尽管某人信誓旦旦绝不会传授什么前辈经验，结果建议还是会脱口而出，而且还自以为会得到采纳。

If I were a young Goldman banker I’d be both unmoved and baffled by the edict to keep running. At what speed ought I to run? In what direction? Is it OK to rest sometimes and have some water? How long must I go on? Why do I need to run a marathon anyway?

如果我是高盛的年轻员工，继续奔跑的大话不但不会打动我，还会让我感到困惑。我应该以什么速度奔跑？朝着什么方向？能偶尔休息喝些水吗？我得跑多久？我到底为什么要跑马拉松？

I dare say what Mr Mauro was trying to say was that it’s a long game. Markets go up — and down. Morale goes up — and down. Bubbles inflate — and burst. Things that affect a decision now don’t endure.

我敢说莫罗试图表达的是这是一场持久战。市场起起伏伏。士气有涨有落。泡沫会膨胀会破裂。影响当前决定的事瞬息万变。

It’s all true. And it is the same thing I sometimes say to my children as they start on their careers — but they don’t take any notice. Not because I’ve failed to pepper the message with Bloomberg screen shots, but because if you are in your 20s there are no obvious benefits of playing a long game, and lots from playing a shorter one. A satisfying career, to extend the tiresome metaphor, is less a marathon than a series of sprints.

这些都没错。这也正是我在我的孩子开始职业生涯时有时会对他们说的话——但是他们不放在心上。不是因为我没有用彭博式的截屏点缀我的忠告，而是因为，如果你二十多岁，玩长线游戏没有明显好处，而玩短线游戏的好处则有很多。扩展一下那个烦人的比喻，与其说一份令人满意的事业是一场马拉松，倒不如说是一连串的冲刺跑。

Yet this isn’t the main reason Mr Mauro’s memo is hopeless. Its biggest problem is that it fails to heed the most important lesson of all. This states that there is an inverse relationship between how many people an email is addressed to and its power to motivate. When aimed at a mass audience, the power of a memo will always be zero.

不过，这并非莫罗的备忘录毫无用处的主要原因。最大的问题是它没有遵守最重要的一课：邮件收件人的数量和它的激励效果呈反相关。当大面积群发时，备忘录的效力总是为零。

My advice to the Goldman boss goes like this. Forget emails. Reach out individually to any associates you want to keep and grab a coffee. Tell them they are brilliant. Offer them more money. Then you will get them to keep running — but only for so long as it suits them to do so.

我给这位高盛老板的意见是这样的。放弃邮件吧。单独找到每位你想留住的下属，一起喝杯咖啡。告诉他们你认为他们有多棒。加薪。然后你就能让他们继续奔跑——不过跑多久要看他们觉得多久合适。