简单是天赋之礼

2000 · 演讲 · 原文约 665 词

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“简单是天赋”

约翰·C·博格尔（John C. Bogle），先锋集团创始人兼前董事长

荣获 2000 年度“年度商业领袖奖”时的演讲

宾夕法尼亚州商业与工业协会

赫尔希，宾夕法尼亚州

2000 年 9 月 18 日

里奇州长、宾州杰出的代表们、商界的同仁们，以及先锋号战舰的全体船员们。我对这份完全出乎意料的荣誉深感欣喜，并非常感谢商会主席华纳先生慷慨的介绍。

“Tis The Gift To Be Simple” Remarks by John C. Bogle, Founder and Former Chairman The Vanguard Group On Receiving The 2000 Business Leader of the Year Award Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry Hershey, Pennsylvania September 18, 2000 Governor Ridge, distinguished representatives of the Commonwealth, fellow members of the business community, and fellow crewmembers of HMS Vanguard. I am profoundly delighted with this wholly unexpected honor, and most appreciative of the generous introduction by Chamber President Warner.

尽管今晚我无比愉悦，但我承认，看到刚才那段视频对我人生和事业的溢美之词，我有些不安。虽然我的成就看似近乎辉煌，但我向你们保证，实际上它们远逊于此。更何况，这些成就并非我一人之功。

While my pleasure tonight is unalloyed, I confess to some apprehension about the glowing description of my life and career as presented in the video film you have just seen. While my accomplishments may seem to verge on the monumental, I assure you that they are in truth far more modest. What is more, they are not mine alone.

在我漫长的一生中，我有幸拥有了充满爱与支持的家庭，在布莱尔学院和普林斯顿大学遇到了给予我大量投入的杰出老师，得到了悉心栽培的导师——尤其是惠灵顿基金的创始人沃尔特·L·摩根，他给了我人生第一次机会，还有史上最敬业的一群同舟共济者——这艘现代“先锋号”的全体船员，以及难以置信的好运——一种难以估量的幸运。

For in the course of my long life, I have been blessed with a loving and supportive family; with marvelous teachers at Blair Academy and Princeton University who invested so much of themselves in me; with nurturing mentors—notably Wellington Fund founder, Walter L. Morgan, who gave me my first break; and with the most dedicated group of fellow sailors in history, the crew of this modern-day HMS Vanguard; and with incredible good fortune—luck beyond measure.

当一切尘埃落定，先锋领航所取得的所有成就，归根结底都源于一个理念：简约的力量。贵格会会歌中唱得恰如其分：“简约是恩赐，自由是恩赐。简约让我们安于本分。” 我们的核心经营哲学正是简约的极致体现：拥有一支覆盖整个股票市场或整个债券市场的基金，并永久持有——这恰好是通往长期投资成功最可靠的路径。然而，若要行之有效，这种简约必须与节俭相伴。因为在金融市场中，投资成功的最终决定因素，在于市场回报中有多少分配给了投资者，又有多少被服务于他们的金融机构所消耗。

When all is said and done, virtually everything Vanguard has achieved has come down to a single idea: The power of simplicity. The Quaker hymn got it just right: “Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free. Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.” Our central business philosophy is the essence of simplicity: Owning a share in the entire stock market, or the entire bond market—and then holding it forever—happens to be the surest route to long-term investment success. If it is to work effectively, however, this simplicity must be accompanied by frugality. For in the financial markets, investment success, finally, depends upon how much of the market’s return is allocated to investors and how much is consumed by the financial institutions that serve them.

如何确保投资者获得应得的那一份？威廉·佩恩说得比我要好：“节俭是好的，但要与慷慨相伴。前者是削减不必要的开支；后者是把这些开支惠及有需要的他人。”简而言之，削减管理者的不必要开支，将这些利益让给股东。先锋集团正是这样做的，而且行之有效。

How can we assure that investors get their fair share? William Penn said it better than I can: “Frugality is good, if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last bestowing them to the benefit of others that need.” In short, slash the superfluous expenses of the managers; bestow those benefits on the shareholders. That’s what Vanguard does. And it works.

与我们的商业理念一样，我们的人本价值观也很简单。我们相信，对待客户的方式，应当像我们希望资产管理人怎样对待我们那样；对待员工的方式，应当像我们希望自己被对待的那样。不是把他们当成无差别的“雇员”和一大群“客户”，而是当成独立的个人，每个人都值得尊重、同情、体谅和荣誉，无论他们在社会那套武断的尺子上处于什么位置。为了表达这条我努力在先锋集团灌输的“黄金法则”，我再次发现没有比威廉·佩恩更优美的话了：“我料想此生只有一次。任何我能向我的同类展现的善行……善意或能力，让我现在就去做吧……因为我不会再次经过此路。”

Like our business philosophy, our human values are also simple. We believe in treating our clients as we would like the stewards of our assets to treat us, and treating our crewmembers as we would like to be treated. Not as undifferentiated “employees” and masses of “customers,” but as individual human beings, each one deserving respect, compassion, consideration, and honor, no matter where they stand on the arbitrary scales of society. To express this Golden Rule philosophy that I’ve tried to inculcate at Vanguard, once again I can find no finer words than those of William Penn: “I expect to pass this way but once. Any good . . . any kindness or abilities I can show to my fellow creature, let me do it now . . . for I shall not pass this way again.”

我几乎不需要提醒在座各位，宾夕法尼亚州是威廉·佩恩的“神圣实验”。而我称之为“先锋实验”的共同基金治理理念，以及我们简单的商业理念和简单的人类价值观，无疑不仅呼应了佩恩的话语，也呼应了他的价值观。所以，半个世纪前我们定居宾夕法尼亚州，并于 1974 年在这里创立我的公司，我们确实“来到了我们该在的地方”。我们属于这里。从我的心底——我这颗奇迹般的新心脏——衷心感谢你们今晚授予我的这份殊荣。

I hardly need remind this audience that Pennsylvania was William Penn’s “Holy Experiment.” What I have called “the Vanguard Experiment” in mutual fund governance and our simple business concepts and simple human values surely echo not only Penn’s words but his values. So by settling in Pennsylvania a half-century ago and founding my firm here in 1974, we have indeed “come down where we ought to be.” We belong here. From the bottom of my heart—my miraculous new heart—I thank you for the signal honor that you have bestowed on me tonight.