Humble Exits 谦逊的结束
Jack Welch allegedly passed a note across the table to Jerry Seinfeld. “$5 million per show” it said. Extending Seinfeld for a 10th season would have earned Jerry $110 million.
杰克·韦尔奇据称在桌子上传了一张纸条给杰瑞·塞菲尔德，上面写着“每集 500 万美元”。如果延长《宋飞传》到第十季，杰瑞将赚取 1.1 亿美元。
He declined. He was done with the show.
他拒绝了。他已经不想再参加这个节目了。
That someone could quit when the show was doing so well baffled critics. But to Jerry, it was kind of the point. The book Seinfeldia writes:
评论家对于那个在节目做得很好的时候退出的人感到困惑。但对杰瑞来说，这正是他的初衷。《宋飞传》一书写道：
Seinfeld noted that there was only one way to find out where the show’s true peak was—by hitting the downturn, something that didn’t interest him.
Seinfeld 指出，要找到节目真正的巅峰，唯一的方法就是经历低谷，而这并不吸引他。
Jerry told the New York Times: ‘‘I wanted to end the show on the same kind of peak we’ve been doing it on for years. I wanted the end to be from a point of strength.”
杰瑞告诉《纽约时报》：“我希望以我们多年来一直保持的高峰结束节目。我希望结局是从一个强大的地方开始的。”
It’s hard to overstate how rare this is.
难以言表这种罕见程度。
Leaving on top is, I think, something all of us aspire to, in one form or another. But it’s hard because those who make it to the top tend to be grinders, optimists, relentlessly dedicated to what they do. They made it far because they looked past the challenges competitors didn’t want to face and just kept plowing ahead. So the ability to wake up one day and say, “No more, I’m out,” is polar opposite to their prevailing skillset.
离开顶峰，我认为，所有人都渴望以某种形式或另一种形式。但这很困难，因为那些登上顶峰的人往往是苦干者、乐观主义者，对自己所做的事情始终全力以赴。他们之所以走得很远，是因为他们看透了竞争对手不愿面对的挑战，只是不断地前进。因此，有一天醒来说，“不再，我退出了”，与他们主导的技能截然相反。
It’s not hard to imagine a world where Seinfeld – dewy-eyed from money and fame – kept the show going for years, past the point where the audience lost interest and was forced into a sad, wistful, end. A lot of stuff ends that way.
不难想象一个世界，西尔菲尔德——因为金钱和名望而眼中泛着泪光——让这个节目继续了多年，直到观众失去兴趣，被迫走向一个悲伤、怀旧的结局。很多事情都以这种方式结束。
Companies end that way. Careers end that way. Investment strategies end that way.
公司的终结如此。职业生涯也是如此。投资策略也是如此。
There are skills that help at one stage but backfire at another. Relentless dedication and optimism to something undergoing structural change is one of them.
有些技能在某个阶段会有帮助，但在另一个阶段会适得其反。对于正在经历结构性变化的事物，坚持不懈的奉献和乐观态度就是其中之一。
Why did Seinfeld turn down the money? Well, he was already rich. But part of the reason he quit, he later said, was because the show was based on recreating real events from his and Larry David’s normal life. And they put so much time into the show that they were running out of material, because it had been so long since they’d experienced a normal life. Watching people order at a deli. Or what happens when you board a plane. Building comedy around mundane observations didn’t work when they had no time to observe.
Seinfeld 为什么拒绝了这笔钱？嗯，他已经很富有了。但他后来说，他辞职的部分原因是因为这个节目是基于重现他和 Larry David 正常生活中的真实事件。他们花了很多时间在这个节目上，以至于他们用尽了素材，因为他们已经很久没有体验过正常的生活了。看人们在熟食店点餐。或者登机时会发生什么。在缺乏观察时间时，围绕平凡观察建立喜剧是行不通的。
There are many similar examples in business and investing:
在商业和投资领域中存在许多类似的案例
-
The CEO who became wildly successful building a product, but now spends most of their time managing people and dealing with corporate politics.
一位曾经通过打造产品而取得巨大成功的首席执行官，如今却将大部分时间花在管理团队和应对公司政治上。 -
The investor who became successful doing deep diligence on companies, but now spends most of their time raising money.
这位投资者曾通过对公司进行深入的尽职调查而取得成功，但现在却大部分时间都在筹集资金。 -
The niche investment strategy that has now been crowded out with industrial strength.
现在已经被工业力量挤占的利基投资策略现在已经被工业力量挤占。 -
The successful company that now has to focus on meeting quarterly earnings instead of taking big, long-term fliers like it could as a startup.
这家成功的公司现在必须专注于实现季度收益，而不是像创业公司那样可以进行大规模、长期的尝试。
In each case it’s the actual success – not bad luck, not a mistake, not unfortunate timing – that sets up the potential downfall.
在每种情况下，都是实际的成功，而不是倒霉、错误或不幸的时机，导致潜在的失败。
Quitting – or adjusting, or changing paths – on top is so hard, because no one knows where the top is. But if there’s any reliable way to sense when it’s approaching, it’s when your success pushes you away from doing things that had been fundamental to that success. This is so obvious. But it’s elusive because success has a tendency of blinding you to both what caused it and how those causes have changed over time.
放弃 - 或调整，或改变道路 - 顶部很难，因为没有人知道顶部在哪里。但如果有任何可靠的方法来感知它何时接近，那就是当你的成功让你远离做曾经对成功至关重要的事情时。这是如此明显。但它很难捉摸，因为成功有一种让你盲目于导致成功的因素以及这些因素随时间如何变化的倾向。
One of the neat things about Seinfeld is that it was one of the most successful shows of all time, run by people who understood how fragile success can be. Every season, from the first to the last, brought a conversation of, “Are we sure we can do this again? Do we still have what it takes? Is the recipe for success still valid?” One day they woke up and said, “No.” That humility solidified their legacy.
《宋飞传》的一个很棒之处在于，它是有史以来最成功的节目之一，由懂得成功是多么脆弱的人来运作。从第一季到最后一季，每个季节都带来了这样一个对话：“我们确定我们还能做到吗？我们是否还具备成功所需的条件？成功的秘诀是否仍然有效？”有一天，他们醒悟过来：“不行了。”这种谦卑巩固了他们的传奇。
The point here is the value of embracing humility in the face of success. It is so rare. But it’s when it should be embraced the most. This is something everyone in business, investing, careers, life, etc. can and should learn from, especially as the economy and almost every investment market booms.
成功面前谦卑的态度的价值在于它的稀缺性。但正是在这时候，我们应该最为珍惜。这是每个从事商业、投资、职业生涯、生活等领域的人都可以并且应该学习的东西，尤其是在经济和几乎每个投资市场蓬勃发展的时候。
The topic of getting rich vs. staying rich is undervalued because the former can be driven by luck, but the latter is almost pure strategy and tactics.
富有与保持财富的话题被低估，因为前者可能受运气驱动，而后者几乎完全取决于策略和战术。