商業(yè)往事丨第88話(huà)：延長(zhǎng)職業(yè)生涯的刺猬策略

商業(yè)往事

每月分享幾則有趣的商業(yè)小故事（中英雙語(yǔ)），邀請(qǐng)大家和我們一起透過(guò)歷史故事，看存儲(chǔ)商業(yè)。

?

延長(zhǎng)職業(yè)生涯的刺猬策略

本文總計(jì)1494字

預(yù)計(jì)閱讀5分鐘

（英文文章在中文文章之后）

由于醫(yī)學(xué)的進(jìn)步，我們可以活得比我們年輕時(shí)想象的更長(zhǎng)。我們的工作能力也延長(zhǎng)了幾年。因此，知道如何延長(zhǎng)自己的職業(yè)生涯已經(jīng)成為許多人的重要話(huà)題，因?yàn)槿藗冃枰嗟慕疱X(qián)來(lái)支持他們更長(zhǎng)的壽命，有一些人會(huì)想繼續(xù)體驗(yàn)工作帶來(lái)的滿(mǎn)足感。

古希臘抒情詩(shī)人阿奇洛丘斯（Archilochus）寫(xiě)了一只刺猬知道一件大事（如何保護(hù)自己）和一只狐貍知道很多事情（如何在野外茁壯成長(zhǎng)）。盧西亞諾·帕瓦羅蒂和普拉西多·多明戈是歌劇界的著名人物，帕瓦羅蒂就像一只刺猬，他專(zhuān)注于保護(hù)自己的聲音，而多明戈就像一只狐貍，因?yàn)樗c時(shí)俱進(jìn)，擴(kuò)張自己專(zhuān)長(zhǎng)以延長(zhǎng)自己的職業(yè)生涯

盧西亞諾?帕瓦羅蒂是意大利歌劇男高音，是有史以來(lái)最受贊譽(yù)和喜愛(ài)的男高音之一。為了延長(zhǎng)他的職業(yè)生涯，帕瓦羅蒂在年老時(shí)采取了各種措施來(lái)保護(hù)他的聲音。

首先，帕瓦羅蒂每月只演出四到五次，通常在紐約大都會(huì)歌劇院演出，這減少了旅行需求。帕瓦羅蒂也非常謹(jǐn)慎，他選擇的歌劇。他只表演他非常熟悉的歌劇，如拉波希姆、托斯卡、圖蘭多和蝴蝶夫人。帕瓦羅蒂有信心，他可以很好地確實(shí)無(wú)誤表演這些歌劇，而沒(méi)有任何錯(cuò)誤。

年紀(jì)大后，為了保護(hù)喉嚨，帕瓦羅蒂?gòu)奈窗缪葸^(guò)「需要過(guò)分用力的角色」，就是那些需要費(fèi)力地使用喉嚨的角色，他都拒絕了。

此外，如果他患了感冒，他會(huì)立即取消了演出。他不在乎這些取消是否會(huì)違反合約，或者劇院是否已經(jīng)售出了門(mén)票。他說(shuō)；「如果你的身體不適合演唱，你會(huì)一直用力，這些都會(huì)傷害你的喉嚨，最后就是毀了你的聲音?！?/p>

他通過(guò)取消演出以延長(zhǎng)職業(yè)生涯。但也因?yàn)榻?jīng)常取消演出，他得到了「取消之王」的綽號(hào)。 例如，1989年，芝加哥抒情歌劇院結(jié)束了與帕瓦羅蒂代理公司長(zhǎng)達(dá)15年的合作，因?yàn)榕镣吡_蒂取消了41場(chǎng)原定在歌詞演出中的26場(chǎng)。

在歌劇中，帕瓦羅蒂除了在表演中唱歌外，還應(yīng)該表演一些動(dòng)作，但他在發(fā)胖后，就經(jīng)常拒絕這樣做。例如，杜蘭朵的一個(gè)場(chǎng)景要求表演者打鼓，但帕瓦羅蒂只做了一個(gè)象征擊鼓手勢(shì)，并沒(méi)有真的打鼓。這不是他懶惰，或不尊重他的角色。相反，他需要保護(hù)自己，他知道，他的表演最重要的事情是唱歌。他知道觀眾更關(guān)心他的歌聲，而不是他的動(dòng)作。

2006年2月，帕瓦羅蒂應(yīng)邀在意大利都靈冬奧委會(huì)開(kāi)幕式上表演了《內(nèi)森·多瑪》。這是他一生中的最后一場(chǎng)演出。在這次演出中，他受到了國(guó)際觀眾最長(zhǎng)時(shí)間、最響亮的掌聲。然而，指揮家萊昂?馬吉拉在2008年的回憶錄中透露了整個(gè)故事。馬吉拉說(shuō)，這場(chǎng)演出實(shí)際是幾周前錄制好的。但在現(xiàn)場(chǎng)表演中；「管弦樂(lè)隊(duì)假裝為觀眾演奏，我假裝指揮，盧西亞諾假裝唱歌。效果是美妙極了」。帕瓦羅蒂早些時(shí)候曾多次拒絕這次的邀請(qǐng)，因?yàn)槎路菰诙检`的零度以下條件下，晚上不可能唱歌。所以預(yù)錄是一個(gè)妥協(xié)的作法。

關(guān)于這次預(yù)錄，帕瓦羅蒂說(shuō)：「我是個(gè)完美主義者，即使它已經(jīng)很好了，我還是認(rèn)為我可以做得比我過(guò)去做得更好」。但他不愿意這樣做，如果它要危及他的生財(cái)工具。因此，帕瓦羅蒂盡了一切可能保護(hù)他的喉嚨，以延長(zhǎng)他的職業(yè)生涯。損壞的聲帶只會(huì)傷害他，剝奪他的歌迷聽(tīng)他表演。他的策略奏效了，使他得以一直堅(jiān)持到去世前一年。

我們可以從帕瓦羅蒂身上學(xué)到的教訓(xùn)是；我們需要確定我們的核心能力，并專(zhuān)注于核心能力，以延長(zhǎng)我們的職業(yè)生涯。我們應(yīng)該盡一切可能保護(hù)這個(gè)核心能力免受各種威脅。這可能意味著你將不得不放棄一些你喜歡的責(zé)任，這樣你才能專(zhuān)注于你的核心能力。

你之所以能走到現(xiàn)在這個(gè)地步，主要是因?yàn)槟愕暮诵哪芰?，而不是因?yàn)槟切┢渌臇|西，不管它們是什么。過(guò)去，你也許能夠做到這一切，但隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，你往往不得不將責(zé)任與那些與核心能力直接相關(guān)的責(zé)任配對(duì)。當(dāng)你盡可能最大化你的核心能力時(shí)，你擁有的任何弱點(diǎn)都會(huì)顯得微不足道，這樣，你就能擴(kuò)展你的事業(yè)，同時(shí)增加你的享受。

Focusing on One Professional Skill to Protect One’s Career

Due to medical advancements, we can live longer than we imagined that we could when we were younger. And our capacity to work has also been extended by several years. As a result, knowing how to extend one’s career has become an important topic for many individuals, because people will need more money to support their longer lifespans, and because many people will want to experience the satisfaction that work brings as long as they can.

Archilochus, an ancient Greek lyric poet, wrote about a hedgehog that knew one big thing (how to protect itself) and a fox that knew many things (for thriving in the wild). Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo are famous names in the opera world, wherein Pavarotti was like a hedgehog, in that he focused on protecting his voice, and Domingo is like a fox, in that he uses many ways to survive.

Luciano Pavarotti was an Italian operatic tenor, one of the most acclaimed and loved tenors of all time. In order to extend his career, Pavarotti took various steps to protect his voice when he was getting old.

To begin with, Pavarotti only performed four or five times per month, and usually did so at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, which reduced the need for travel. Pavarotti was also very cautious about the operas that he selected. He only performed operas with which he was very familiar, such as Labohème, Tosca, Turando and Madama Butterfly. Pavarotti had confidence that he could perform those operas very well with no mistakes.

In order to protect his throat when he was older, Pavarotti never performed the “heavy roles,” meaning those roles that required strenuous use of the throat.

Moreover, if he was suffering from a cold, he immediately canceled his performances. He didn’t care about whether these cancellations would violate agreements, or whether the theaters had already sold tickets. He said, “If your body is not in shape to sing [from the diaphragm] you will push and push but keep falling back on your throat to make the sound. This will ruin your voice.”

Such cancellations helped him to extend his career. However, due to frequently backing out of performances, he received the nickname “The King of Cancellations.” For example, in 1989, Lyric Opera of Chicago ended its fifteen-year cooperation with Pavarotti’s agent company because Pavarotti had canceled 26 out of 41 scheduled appearances at the Lyric.

Although Pavarotti was supposed to perform various actions in addition to singing during his performances, he often declined to do so after getting fat. For example, one scene in Turando calls for the performer to play the drums, but Pavarotti only made a drumming gesture. It’s not that he was lazy or didn’t respect his role. Rather, he needed to protect himself and he knew that the most important thing for his performance was to sing. He knew that the audience cared more about his singing than his movements.

In February of 2006, Pavarotti was invited to perform Nessun Dorma at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. This turned out to be the final performance of his life. In this performance, he received the longest and loudest ovation of the night from the international crowd. However, the conductor, Leone Magiera, revealed the whole story in his 2008 memoirs. Magiera said that the performance had been recorded weeks earlier. But in the live performance, “The orchestra pretended to play for the audience, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. The effect was wonderful.” Pavarotti had earlier turned down the invitation several times due to the fact that it would have been impossible to sing at night under the sub-zero conditions of Turin in February. So this was a compromise.

Pavarotti said, “I’m a perfectionist, and I always think that I can do better than what I have done, even if it’s good.” But he wasn’t willing to do so if it was going to jeopardize his instrument (Pavarotti's vocal chords). As such, Pavarotti did everything that he could to protect his throat to extend his career. Damaged vocal cords would only hurt him and deprive his fans from hearing him perform. And his strategy worked and allowed him to keep performing up until the year before his death.

The lesson that we can learn from Pavarotti is that each of us should identify our core competence and focus on that in order to extend our career. We should do everything possible to protect it from various threats. That might mean that you will have to give up some of the responsibilities that you enjoy so that you can focus on your core competence.

The main reason that you are where you are is because of your core competence, not because of those other things, whatever they are. You might have been able to do it all in the past, but as you get older, you often have to pair down your responsibilities to those that are directly related to your core competence. When you maximize your core competence as much as possible, any weaknesses that you have will appear insignificant in comparison. In this way, you should be able to extend your career and also increase your enjoyment along the way.