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You can learn a lot about an entrepreneur's approach to business by playing them at sport.
在体育运动中运用一名企业家的经营方法，可以让你很好地了解这种方法。
In tennis I adopt the strategy espoused by Simon Ramo. He realised that amateur tennis is lost by the player who makes the most unforced errors –not by their opponent playing winning shots.
打网球时，我采用西蒙•拉莫(Simon Ramo)所推崇的策略。拉莫发现，在业余比赛中，决定输赢的是哪一边自己失误的次数更多，而非哪一边打出好球的次数更多。
Charles Ellis, in his brilliant book Winning The Loser's Game, explains that investing is similar – investors defeat themselves by thinking they understand more than they do, taking overambitious risks.
查尔斯•埃利斯(Charles Ellis)在其精彩著作《赢得输家的游戏》(Winning The Loser's Game)中解释道，投资与此类似：投资者以为自己懂得的比自己实际上懂得的更多，冒过高的风险，从而一手造就自己的失败。
By its nature sport is competitive, and so are entrepreneurs. Tycoons typically choose those sports where their wealth can help them win. The most obvious example is yachting, where only the exceedingly rich can participate in the big contests.
体育的本质是竞争，这也是企业家的天性。商界大亨通常选择那些自己的财富可以帮助他们取胜的运动。最明显的例子是赛艇——只有超级富豪才有能力参与这项运动中的大型赛事。
The America's Cup might be the oldest sporting trophy in the world, but money and technology still make all the difference: perhaps that is why Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, is drawn to it. Indeed, combat between plutocrats does not get much fiercer than the rivalry between Mr Ellison and fellow billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli over the 2010 event. The Oracle boss is known to be litigious in business, and so he proved in sport with his arcane, lengthy lawsuit that enabled him to gain admission to the race. Meanwhile, sponsors pulled out, not wishing to endorse a battle between two strong-willed industrialists.
美洲杯帆船赛(America's Cup)或许是全世界最古老的体育赛事了，但这项比赛的结果至今依然全由金钱和技术决定：这或许正是这项比赛吸引甲骨文(Oracle)创始人拉里•埃里森(Larry Ellison)参加的理由。事实上，在2010年那场比赛中，埃里森与同为亿万富翁的埃内斯托•贝尔塔雷利(Ernesto Bertarelli)之间竞争之激烈，并不比富豪们之间的争斗逊色多少。甲骨文老板以爱打官司而著称，他在体育方面的表现也印证了这一点：为取得参赛权，他打了场晦涩冗长的官司。与此同时，赞助商纷纷退出，因为不愿意支持两位意志坚强的工业家展开大战。
A number of captains of industry enjoy poker or bridge–psychological games that require the player to read players and calculate probabilities. The legendary financier Jim Slater and the television magnate Michael Green both used to belong to the same bridge club, while Warren Buffett enjoys playing with fellow billionaire Bill Gates. As the Sage of Omaha says, "Bridge has got to be the best intellectual exercise out there."
很多行业巨头喜欢打扑克或者桥牌。这两个游戏玩的都是心理——要求玩家能够读懂其他玩家的心理，计算各种情况发生的概率。传奇金融家吉姆•斯莱特(Jim Slater)和电视巨头迈克尔•格林(Michael Green)曾同属同一家桥牌俱乐部，而沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)则喜欢跟同为亿万富翁的比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)做牌搭子。正如这位奥玛哈的圣人(Sage of Omaha)所言："桥牌绝对是迄今为止最好的智力训练。"
The traditional sports for top male executives were golf and shooting game. Both appealed because they tend to be expensive and exclusive, and each permits long conversations about wheeler-dealing, in between bursts of activity. But I suspect their popularity is waning in the era of diverse boardrooms, austerity and the Bribery Act.
顶级男性高管的传统体育项目曾是高尔夫球和射击。这两项运动对这一人群的共同吸引力在于，参与这两项运动的费用和门槛往往较高，运动中有较长的间隔时间，可以谈些"非常规"的生意。但现今董事会构成更加多样化，节俭成风，《反贿赂法案》(Bribery Act)已经颁布，我怀疑这两种运动的流行程度正在下降。
Instead, depressingly, football has come to dominate everything. Of course, almost no bosses actually play the game – they simply watch and talk about it endlessly. To me, sport is about activity and participation – being a sports fan watching professionals play is as frustrating as just discussing deals, rather than actually doing them.
令人沮丧的是，足球已经取代这两项运动，主导了一切。当然，没有哪位老板会真正上场踢球，他们只是没完没了地看足球、谈论足球。在我看来，运动就要动起来，重在参与。一个体育迷只在一旁看那些职业选手玩而不亲自上场，这就跟讨论交易而不实际操作一样不过瘾。
The really big shots own their own clubs, of course. This allows them to control matters without being athletic, thus appealing to their megalomania and vanity. At least 40 members of the Sunday Times Rich List own Premier League or Championship clubs – mostly, one assumes, as toys rather than business undertakings.
当然，真正的大人物拥有自己的俱乐部。这让他们不必成为运动员就能够控制体育事务，愈发觉得自己了不起，虚荣心也得到极大满足。《星期日泰晤士报》富豪榜(Sunday Times Rich List)上榜者中，至少有40人拥有英格兰足球超级联赛(Premier League)或者英格兰冠军联赛(Championship)俱乐部。可想而知，对这些人而言，这些俱乐部基本上是玩物，而非生意。
I've played entrepreneurs at sports and games ranging from table tennis to cricket, snooker to squash. Annoyingly, I've lost rather more often than I care to reveal. Typically, many entrepreneurs are loners and possess an obsessive desire to win. These characteristics militate against their cherishing two vital elements of any worthy sportsman or woman: team spirit and fair play. Thus I've heard anecdotes about the FTSE chief executive who cheats on the cricket pitch, and I've been thrashed by a billionaire retailer at Monopoly, who epitomised the saying "It is not enough that I should win: everybody else must lose".
我在各种体育运动和游戏中跟企业家做过对手，从乒乓球到板球、从斯诺克到壁球。让我恼火的是，我输的次数多得我都不好意思说。很多企业家往往自行其是，对取胜有一种执念。这令他们无法具备任何优秀运动员都必不可少的两项品质：团队精神和公平竞争精神。正因如此，我曾听说有富时指数(FTSE)成分股公司首席执行官在板球场上作弊。我也曾在"地产大亨"游戏(Monopoly)中被一名亿万富翁打得落花流水。此人用实际行动实践了一句话："光是我要赢还不够：其他所有人必须输。"
It is a myth that victory in the sporting arena is a sure indicator of commercial acumen. Running a business requires a different set of qualities – flexibility, patience, numeracy, strategic thinking, sales ability and organisational skills. Most great entrepreneurs are at heart promoters or inventors, while sports stars are athletes. This might account for the fact that very few of the latter have ever founded great companies, despite many trying.
有一种说法：运动场上的胜利者必然具有商业头脑。这是瞎说。企业经营者必须具备另外一些特质——灵活、耐心、善于计算、能够进行战略思考、善于推销和组织。大多数伟大的企业家本质上是创造者或发明家，而体育明星是运动员。或许正因如此，很少体育明星曾创立伟大的企业，尽管他们中许多人还在做这样的尝试。
Entrepreneurs who have made fortunes from sport are an interesting breed. Formula One offers case studies such as Ron Dennis, the principal behind the McLaren Grand Prix team. His obsessive behaviour is as legendary as the performance of his racing cars. About his management style, he states: "There are people in this organisation, and I don't say this with any pride, who are frightened of me."
那些靠体育发了财的企业家是很有意思的一群人。一级方程式(F1)比赛为我们提供了一些例子，比如迈凯轮车队（McLaren，F1大奖赛(Grand Prix)获胜车队）经理罗恩•丹尼斯(Ron Dennis)。丹尼斯的偏执与车队的辉煌赛绩一样富有传奇性。关于自己的管理方式，丹尼斯说："车队里有人怕我，对此我绝不感到自豪。"
I greatly admire his achievements – but I'm not sure I'd like to work for the man.
我非常欣赏丹尼斯的成就，但我不确定自己是否愿意为此人工作。
The writer runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of StartUp Britain
本文作者管理着私人股本公司Risk Capital Partners，并担任StartUp Britain主席
