周黎明：砧板上的事业_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

周黎明：砧板上的事业

一般来说，中国的年轻人在择业的时候面对两个方面的压力：一个是实用主义，这意味着父母和媒体喜欢的工作是高薪水体面的工作；另一个是传统心态，这个与第一种情况常常有重叠。当官一直都是首选，而从商则地位就低得多了。相同的两个岗位，私营企业要提供更多的报酬才能和公务员的吸引力相比肩。

About the only progress I have detected in job selection is in show business. Star entertainers of every era are accorded hefty pay packets, but the stigma that used to be associated withthe profession is now largely gone. Even starving artists and artistes would proudly say they are stars in waiting.

我所发现的在工作选择上唯一的进步是在商业选秀活动中。每个时代的明星艺人都有着高额薪酬，早期与这些职业相联系的污名现在大都消失。即使是穷困潦倒的艺术家和艺人也能骄傲的说他们是等待冉冉升起的明星。

China's tradition of channeling the brightest into stable and respectable professions and away from entrepreneurship could be the effect of long-held discrimination against self-made men and women - unless one is big enough to grab headlines and turn into a household name a la Jack Ma. The fear and even stigma of striking out on one's own are not unfounded asentrepreneurship is notoriously risky. The rate of failure is extremely high, especially in the first few years, and you may never run out of challenges even if you are at the top of the game. You may say this is the same everywhere. But even had Bill Gates failed in turning Microsoft into a profitable business, I bet his father would not have nagged him for years about quitting Harvard. Now imagine what Chen Sheng would face if his plunge into private business, to use a Chinese analogy, had run into serious adversity.