迪士尼总裁Bob Iger分享获得成功的诀窍

迪士尼总裁 Bob Iger 写了一本名叫《一生的旅程》的回忆录，《纽约时报》的记者采访他梳理了回忆录的主要内容：这不是一个穷小子变富翁的故事，却展示了一个普通人通过清楚的认识自己，用努力、勤奋、保持热情获得同事和伙伴的信任和新机会的人生。推荐给大家。这篇文章的作者是 Maureen Dowd，图文版权来自《纽约时报》。

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Bob Iger looks down at his phone and frowns.

加利福尼亚州，阿纳海姆市—罗伯特·艾格盯着自己的手机，眉头紧锁。

“Why is the stock market dropping?” he murmurs to himself, sitting in the back of a BMW ferrying him around Disneyland during last month’s convention of superfans, where he is showing off the new Disney+ streaming service.

他坐在宝马车后座上喃喃自语：“股市为什么下跌呢？”车子正在迪士尼乐园内缓慢前行，上个月，他刚在这里向一群忠实粉丝展示公司新推出的流媒体服务“迪士尼+”。

I know I have to give him the bad news.

我得告诉他这个坏消息。

“You are hereby ordered,” I tell him, “to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies home and making your products in the USA.”

我对他说：“你被要求立刻寻找一个能替代中国的新基地，包括将你的公司迁回美国，在美国境内生产商品。”

He looks puzzled. I am here, after all, to interview him about his new memoir, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” in which he proudly writes about the 40 trips he took to Shanghai in 18 years to complete the labyrinthine negotiations to open the $6 billion Shanghai Disneyland, 11 times the size of this park.

他一脸茫然。我这次采访明明是为了他的回忆录而来。在这本名为《一生的旅程》的新书中，他自豪地写下自己的“光荣史”：18 年间 40 次前往上海，历经多轮艰难谈判，最终建成耗资 60 亿美元、规模为 11 个加州迪士尼的上海迪士尼乐园。

We are about to go to the Star Wars attraction in Disneyland and take the wheel of the Millennium Falcon ride, which was made partly in China. And many of the costumes being sold in the gift shops at the park are sewn in China.

我们准备去《星球大战》主题公园，亲身体验有中国参与制造的“千年隼号”飞船。园区内礼品店售卖的多款服装都是在中国缝制完成。

“President Trump just tweeted that ‘our great American companies are hereby ordered’ out of China,” I explain, reading from my phone. The Disney chief’s face darkens in the Happiest Place on Earth, and I see the thought bubble about what he wants to say about the president sending the stock market tumbling with his volatile trade war with China and ordering CEOs about.

我读着手机里的内容解释说：“特朗普总统刚发推说『我在此郑重命令我们伟大的美国企业撤出中国』”。这位迪士尼总裁的脸色瞬间晴转阴，尽管他此刻置身于全世界最快乐的地方。我看得出，他想要抱怨正是特朗普发动的中美贸易战，以及他对企业高管下的所谓命令将股市送入下跌深渊。

But he refrains. The man who guided the Mouse to gobble up so much of Hollywood is nothing if not smooth, sitting in his navy Tom Ford suit, white Tom Ford shirt, black John Lobb shoes and Rolex Daytona.

但是他克制住了。藏青色 Tom Ford 西装、白色 Tom Ford 衬衫、黑色 John Lobb 皮鞋、劳力士迪通拿腕表，这个穿着体面的精明商人懂得如何不露声色。他曾带领迪士尼兼并好莱坞多家影视公司。

As one top Hollywood player told me, the most important thing to know is this: “Nobody expected Bob Iger to be Bob Iger.”

一位好莱坞巨星曾对我说过，最重要的是要记住：“没人想到罗伯特·艾格能走到今天。”

It was a long, nasty climb from being a little boy on Long Island watching “The Mickey Mouse Club,” having a crush on Annette Funicello, to working in a building with Snow White’s dwarves on top, shattering a Hollywood record this year when Disney released five $1 billion movies.

曾经那个爱看《米老鼠俱乐部》、迷恋安妮特·弗奈斯洛的长岛男孩，如今在一栋屋顶立有七个小矮人雕像的办公楼里上班，由其掌管的迪士尼刚以一年内 5 部票房破 10 亿影片再创好莱坞新记录。但是，这条成功之路，漫长又艰辛。

“Look, where else does a lower-middle-class kid with a modest education and not superhuman skills grow up to be me?” Iger asks, sounding a little surprised himself.

连艾格自己都觉得不可思议：“想想看，一个没进过名校、没有过人才能的下层阶级穷孩子走到这一步，除了我还有谁？”

After recognizing the tech threat early and making three acquisitions that revolutionized the media landscape (Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm) Iger rolled the dice at age 68, on the cusp of retirement, and beat out Comcast with a $71.3 billion bid for a chunk of 21st Century Fox. And now he is, as one top producer at Disney dryly calls him, “the God King.”

艾格很早就意识到科技带来的威胁。他主动出击，主导了三次重塑影视娱乐业格局的并购。如今，68 岁高龄、即将卸任的艾格又赌了一把，这次他带领迪士尼击败对手康卡斯特，以 713 亿美元高价购得 21 世纪福克斯大部分资产。

In a town where everyone is always filleting everyone else, Iger floats above it all, cosseted in what some call a “a cult of nice.” He may own most of the box office, but he is shielded from schadenfreude because the people who would ordinarily begrudge him are happy that someone was able to assail the unassailable Netflix, and rescue the spirit of Old Hollywood from the takeover of the deep-pocketed tech giants.

在一个弱肉强食、你争我斗的世界里，艾格却能突出重围，被一些“崇拜善良”的人尊为偶像。他的公司虽然将在票房上占据主导地位，但他同时也躲过了幸灾乐祸（接手 21 世纪福克斯 137 亿美元债务），因为即使嫉妒他的人，也很高兴看到终于有人能撼动 Netflix 的霸主地位，而通过反击这个资金雄厚的科技巨头，旧好莱坞精神也得以延续和发扬。

“Literally, I have never heard one person say a bad thing about him and I have never seen him be mean,” David Geffen marveled. “To be honorable, decent, smart, successful and a terrific guy is unusual anywhere. But it is most unusual in the entertainment business. He’s in a category of one.”

大卫·格芬赞叹说：“我真没听过谁说他不好，也没看过他对谁刻薄。一个高尚、正派、聪明、出色的人在哪都不常见。娱乐行业更是少有。他确实是独一无二的。”

Barry Diller agrees: “Of all the characters here, he’s the one with the most courage and the most certainty. He has put as many cards in his hand as he could gather and he’s absolutely determined not to turn the world over to Netflix and Amazon. He is in every sense the real deal. And he’s grown into it, which is even more impressive.”

巴里·迪勒表示同意：“在这些人中，他最有勇气、最坚定。他尽可能多的收集筹码，下定决心不让 Netflix 和亚马逊垄断这个行业。不管从哪方面看，他都是在来真的。而且他做到了，这更让人钦佩。”

Iger comes across as effortlessly elegant. He is the sort of person who takes the time to talk to hoi polloi’s parents at parties and poses graciously for photos with fans at the park. He seems relaxed with the staff when we stop for cocktails with names like the Jedi Mind Trick at the Star Wars bar.

艾格浑身上下都散发着一种自然的优雅。他既可以在派对上和普通家长聊上几句，也会在迪斯尼乐园里和粉丝大方合影。当我们在星球大战酒吧休息，喝“心灵幻想”鸡尾酒时，他和遇到的员工亲切交谈，没有一丝架子。

But his book makes clear how much effort went into his effortless demeanor. By eighth grade, he was working as a stock boy in a hardware store. At 15, he toiled as a janitor for his school district. “Cleaning gum from the bottoms of a thousand desks can build character, or at least a tolerance for monotony,” he writes.

但是他的新书却道出了为达到这种毫不费力的“优雅”，他付出过多少努力。八年级时，他在一家五金店当理货员。15 岁时，他在自己学校干过门房这个苦差事。他写道：“清理一千张桌子底下的口香糖能磨练性格，或者至少能让我适应单调。”

At Ithaca College, he earned spending money making pizza every night at Pizza Hut. After he graduated, he became a weatherman in Ithaca and delivered a lot of bad news about the gloomy weather there.

在大学期间，他通过每晚在必胜客制作披萨赚取零花钱。毕业后，他进入当地电视台，担任气象报告员，播报过多则关于当地坏天气的气象新闻。

He gave up a dream of being Walter Cronkite and moved to New York City and started at the bottom rung at ABC: $150 a week for menial labor on game shows, soap operas and newscasts. His friends say he was long underestimated and treated as a glorified errand boy, even when he worked under Michael Eisner at Disney.

后来，他放弃了成为另一个华特·克朗凯特的梦想，来到纽约，加入美国广播公司 ABC，成为一名基层员工：做着游戏节目、肥皂剧、新闻广播方面的枯燥工作，拿着每周 150 美元的薪水。即便之后在迪士尼公司迈克尔·艾斯纳手下工作，他的朋友仍然说他一直没得到重用，就像一个高级勤杂工。

In “The Ride of a Lifetime” Iger recounts how when he started at ABC, in 1974, anchor Harry Reasoner sent him on an errand to check with the producers of the evening news to see if Reasoner needed to make any updates or if he could enjoy a second double extra-dry Beefeaters martini on the rocks with a twist at Hotel des Artistes.

在生命的旅程，艾格讲述了 1974 年他刚进入 ABC 时，主持人哈利·里森纳派给他一个差事：去跟晚间新闻制片人联系，以确定 Reasoner 是要进行节目更新，还是继续在 Hotel des Artistes 酒店享用第二杯加冰、加果皮的双倍 Beefeaters 特干马天尼鸡尾酒。

“I ventured into the control room and said, ‘Harry sent me to find out how it looks,’ ” Iger writes. “The producer looked at me with complete disdain. Then he unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis, and replied, ‘I don’t know. You tell me how it looks.’ Forty-five years later, I still get angry when I recall that scene.”

艾格写道：“我壮着胆子走进控制室说，『哈利让我来看下怎么样了』，那个制片人不屑地看着我，解开裤子拉链，露出阴茎，回答道，『我不知道。你告诉我它怎么样。』55 年过去了，每当回想起这一幕，我还是会愤怒不已。”

Iger simply kept moving, as he did after so many slights and wounds, including Eisner’s disastrous decision to bring in superagent Michael Ovitz as his No. 2. Even once Ovitz was dispatched with a $140 million golden parachute for failing, it was an uphill battle for Iger to persuade the board that he should succeed Eisner.

艾格没有停止前进的脚步，尽管他多次被冷落、被伤害，这其中就包括艾森纳当时错误地聘用超级经纪人迈克尔·奥维茨担任迪士尼总裁。尽管奥维茨最终因无法履职遭到解雇，并因此获得 1.4 亿美元的“金色降落伞”，但为了让董事会相信自己才是接替艾森纳的正确人选，艾格付出了巨大努力。

“Part of it was the association with him, I was just tarred by the same brush,” Iger says. “And part of it was that, at least to the board — talk about having to subjugate my own ego — it was his company and I was like a second-class citizen.”

艾格说：“一方面，因为和艾森纳的关系，我被认为和他是一路货色。另一方面，我必须要放下自尊，至少在董事会看来，这是他的公司，我就是一个二等公民。”

I remind Iger that I covered the 1997 Disney shareholder meeting where Ovitz got his obscene severance package, and noted in the column that among other failings, Eisner’s socks were too short.

我提醒艾格，我曾专门报道过 1997 年迪士尼的那次股东大会。就在那次会议上，董事会决定支付奥维茨一笔数额不菲的遣散费，我在那篇文章中还提到，除了其他缺点，艾森纳的袜子也有点太短了。

“Michael did not care about clothes,” Iger says with a smile. “He had good taste in other things, but not clothes or food or wine.”

艾格微笑着说：“迈克尔不太注重衣着。他的品味一直不错，但在衣服、美食、葡萄酒方面不太行。”

Leggo That Ego

放下自我

In his book Iger tells the story of meeting Jeffrey Katzenberg for breakfast near the Disney lot in Burbank, California, when he was facing headlines like this one in the Orlando Sentinel: “Eisner’s Heir Far From Apparent.”

艾格在书中还讲述了与杰弗瑞·卡森伯格在加州伯班克的迪斯尼电影工作室附近共进早餐的故事。当时外界对他质疑声一片，其中《奥兰多哨报》一篇报道就以“冷门的艾森纳接班人”为标题。

“You need to leave,” Katzenberg told him. “You’re not going to get this job. Your reputation has been tarnished.” He was, Katzenberg said, too tied to Eisner messes, including a titanic battle with Roy E. Disney, Walt’s nephew. “You should go do some pro bono work to rehabilitate your image.”

卡森伯格对他说：“你得离开。你不会得到这份工作。你的名誉已经受损。”卡森伯格还警告说，他已经深陷于艾森纳制造出的一堆麻烦中，其中包括后者与华特侄子罗伊·爱德华·迪士尼之间的那场激烈权力争斗。“你得去做一些公益活动，重塑自己的形象。”

It turned out, though, that Iger had a fierce will under that gentlemanly exterior. Early on, he began getting up at 4 a.m. to outwork everyone else and he still does. He sets out his exercise clothes the night before, so he doesn’t have to turn on the lights in his closet and thus wake up his wife, Willow Bay, a former Estee Lauder model and broadcaster who is now dean of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. He leaves out a coffee mug for Bay and warms up some milk for her coffee before he tackles the VersaClimber.

事实上，隐藏在他绅士外表下的，是一股强烈的意志。他很早就开始在凌晨四点起床，这个习惯一直保持到现在。头天晚上他就准备好健身服，第二天起床时他就不会因为要打开衣柜的灯而吵醒妻子维洛·贝尔。这位前雅诗兰黛模特和前节目主持人，如今担任南加州大学安纳伯格传播与新闻学院院长。他为贝尔准备一个空咖啡杯，热上一些牛奶，方便她冲泡咖啡。做完这些，他会登上那台 VersaClimber 极限攀爬机进行训练。

“I never viewed myself as exceptional,” Iger says over salmon and a glass of red wine at the Napa Rose restaurant in Disneyland. “And so whenever I got a job, I was relying on hard work more than anything and a level of enthusiasm and optimism. When I went to ABC Sports, everybody there went to Stanford or Dartmouth or Columbia.

在迪士尼乐园的 Napa Rose restaurant 餐厅里，艾格说：“我从来不觉得自己优秀。”他面前的餐桌上摆着三文鱼和一杯红酒。“无论做什么工作，努力勤奋、保持乐观和热情比什么都重要。我加入 ABC 体育部时，那儿的同事上的可都是斯坦福、达特茅斯、哥伦比亚这些名校。”

“Ithaca College, OK? I didn’t have an inferiority complex but I knew I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t wear Gucci shoes. I didn’t wear Brooks Brothers clothes. I couldn’t afford any of that stuff, but I knew I had a work ethic that was prodigious. And what happened early on is people started relying on me because they knew if they asked me to get something done, including Roone Arledge” — the ABC executive — “I would get it done.”

“我上的是伊萨卡学院。我没有觉得自卑，但我知道自己跟他们不一样，我不穿 Gucci 鞋，不穿 Brooks Brothers 衣服。我也买不起，但是我有一种强烈的职业道德。很早之前，大家就开始信任我，因为包括 ABC 执行主管鲁伊·阿利奇在内，他们都知道，如果把事情交给我，我一定会办好。”

“So suddenly I realized, well, wait a minute. I may not be special in certain ways. But when it came to getting things done, I was special. And that’s actually driven me throughout, you know?”

“我突然意识到，嗯，可能我在其他方面没有什么过人之处。但是在办事能力上，我绝对有优势。这才是贯穿我职业生涯的制胜武器。”

In the book, Iger writes that his sang-froid when things go wrong may have developed as “a defense mechanism” to the chaos in his house growing up.

艾格在书中写道，他在面对问题时的冷静沉着已经演变为一种“防御机制”，能应对迪士尼公司在发展过程中出现的混乱场面。

His father was a Navy veteran and graduate of Wharton, a trumpet player who worked with some “lesser” big bands before he got into the advertising. But he had dark moods, and Iger later learned his father had been diagnosed with manic depression and had gone through electroshock therapy.

他的父亲是一位退伍海军，毕业于沃顿商学院。在从事广告工作前，他曾在一些“非知名”大型乐团担任小号手。但是他性格阴郁，艾格也是在之后才了解到他得的是躁郁症，接受过电击治疗。

It was a time when mental health issues had more of a stigma and when a neighbor’s child told young Bob that his father was going to a shrink, “I had no idea what that was,” Iger recalls.

那个年代，精神有问题不仅仅是一种耻辱。当邻居家孩子对年幼的罗伯特说，他父亲要变成一个精神科医生了。艾格回忆说：“我都不知道那是什么意思。”

“We never knew which Dad was coming home at night,” Iger writes, “and I can distinctly recall sitting in my room on the second floor of our house, knowing by the sound of the way he opened and shut the door and walked up the steps whether it was happy or sad Dad.”

艾格说：“我们不知道每天晚上回家的是哪个爸爸。我还清楚记得我坐在二楼的房间里，通过他开门关门、还有上楼的方式判断回来的是高兴的爸爸还是悲伤的爸爸。”

Money was tight and torn pants were patched, not immediately replaced. His role, as the oldest son, was to be “a calming influence in the house.” His mother and younger sister counted on him for consistency and an even temperament, he says.

当时家里经济不宽裕，裤子破了不会马上扔掉，缝缝补补再穿。作为家中长子，他也成为了全家人的精神支柱，是“房间里一股舒缓人心的力量”。他说，他的沉稳、平和带给她的母亲和妹妹安全感。

His father instilled a love of books and The New York Times and a mania for using his time constructively. Iger is always early for meetings. On a scale of 1 to 10 of obsessiveness, he says, laughing, “I’m a 15.”

他的父亲培养了他对书和《纽约时报》的热爱，以及对合理利用时间的狂热追求。艾格开会总会早到。按照 1 到 10 的分数衡量偏执程度，他笑着说：“我给自己打 15 分。”

Iger says that he cried when he gathered up his late father’s belongings and realized that they could fit in a little Tupperware box and inside there were mementos of his son’s illustrious career, including a gold lighter that Frank Sinatra gave the young Iger in 1974 after ABC televised his live concert at Madison Square Garden.

艾格说在整理父亲遗物才发现他的东西少的可怜，一个小小的特百惠盒子就能装下。那全是父亲对自己儿子光辉职业生涯的纪念。其中有一个金色打火机，那是在麦迪森广场公园举办、由 ABC 现场直播的弗兰克·西纳特拉音乐会结束后，弗兰克本人送给少年艾格的礼物。

Iger is self-conscious about his memoir, confiding that “it feels to me a bit like a big ego trip.” When he started it, he thought his reign at Disney might be over by the time it came out. But then Rupert Murdoch called, and all that went out the window.

艾格对自己的回忆录充满自信，他透露说，“对我来说，这就是一次探寻自我的旅程。”在动笔前，他认为自己的任期会在新书出版时结束，但是鲁伯特·默多克的一通电话改变了一切。

Actually, Iger’s book is a primer on how much you can achieve if you keep your ego in check. In an era of brutish and ego-driven leadership in the White House, Silicon Valley and in many other countries around the world, Iger doesn’t lead with his ego or try to drive the other alphas out of the herd.

实际上，艾格的书可以作为一本成功学入门书籍，告诉你假如能时刻检视自我，你将取得不凡成就。当今社会，白宫、硅谷还有世界上许多国家都实行的是一种野蛮而自我的管理方式，但是艾格不会用强烈的自我意识来领导团队，也不会试图把其他领头羊赶出自己的领地。

“You have to have an ability to subjugate your own ego,” he says. “It serves you well when you’re rising and then even when you have risen, there are going to be times when you just have to put that away.”

“你必须学会放下自我。在事业上升期，自我意识非常有用。但当你到达一个高度，某些时候你必须要放下自我。”

He tells the stories of his four megadeals: how he charmed Steve Jobs, after Jobs had an acrimonious split from Disney in the Eisner era, and bought Pixar to save Disney animation; how he (sometimes with Bay) wooed a wary, reclusive Ike Perlmutter to get Marvel and how he persuaded George Lucas to sell him the Star Wars universe at a lower price than he paid for Pixar.

他讲述了自己主导的四笔大交易：史蒂夫·乔布斯曾在艾森纳掌权时代，与迪士尼彻底决裂，之后，他和乔布斯结下深厚友谊，从而成功收购皮克斯，拯救了江河日下的迪士尼动画产业；他（还有妻子贝尔）极力劝说谨慎又孤僻的艾克·佩尔穆特，最终将漫威纳入迪士尼麾下；他说服乔治·卢卡斯，以低于之前皮克斯收购价的价格将卢卡斯影业和星球大战 IP 出售给迪士尼。

“Rupert was crazed that we bought Lucas,” Iger says, with shy pride. “They were the distributor of all of George’s movies, and he was very disappointed in his people. ‘Why didn’t you think of this?’ ”

艾格略带点自豪地说:“我们买下卢卡斯时，鲁伯特发飙了。毕竟是他们公司发行了星战系列电影。他对手下非常不满，『你们为什么就想不到要这么做？』”

All these deals were propelled by Iger’s personal touch. (Tech journalist Kara Swisher christened him the Cashmere Prince.) He often showed up to court these men by himself and tried to be sensitive about what it would mean to have the companies they’d built from nothing swallowed by the Mouse.

艾格的个人特质成就了这些交易。科技记者卡拉·斯维什尔称他为“开司米王子”。他经常单枪匹马去游说这些电影公司高管，在迪士尼吞并他们白手起家、辛苦建立起来的公司带来的影响及后果这一敏感话题上，他会小心翼翼，谨慎措辞。

He says that when Murdoch called to ask him for a drink at his Bel Air estate overlooking his winery, Moraga Vineyards, he figured that the Fox mogul just wanted to find out if he was running for president, maybe to pass the information to Trump.

他说默多克当时打电话邀请他去自己位于贝尔艾尔的家里小酌一杯，从那栋豪宅能俯瞰默多克的 Moraga Vineyards 私人葡萄酒庄。他怀疑这位电影大佬只是想试探自己是不是要竞选总统，这样他就可以传信给特朗普。

“He barely has poured his glass of sauvignon blanc and he asks me the question,” Iger recalls. “At that point, I was thinking about it. I didn’t really want to tell him. So I was dismissive. I said, ‘You know, a lot of people have said I should look at it. My wife hates the idea. Next.’ ”

艾格回忆说：“他刚往自己杯里倒了一点白葡萄酒，就问了我这个问题。当时我正在考虑这件事。但我真的不想告诉他。所以我不置可否。我说，『你也知道，很多人都说过我应该考虑一下。但我妻子很讨厌这个想法。』”

Aside from Bay’s reluctance, Iger doubted that the Democrats would support a successful business person. “I think the Democratic Party would brand me as just another rich guy who’s out of touch with America,” he tells me, “who doesn’t have any sense for what’s good for the plight of the people.”

除了妻子的反对，艾格也怀疑民主党人并不会支持一个成功的商人。“我觉得民主党会把我打造成另一个与美国民众脱节的富人，一个根本不懂如何改善人民困境的人。”

The Nastiest Place on Earth

地球上最恶心的地方

I ask how the Murdoch sons, Lachlan and James, affected the Fox deal. Was it like an episode of “Succession”? As Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler reported in The New York Times Magazine, Lachlan was furious about it, seeing his future shrinking, and James pushed for it, possibly believing he could snag a top job at Disney.

我想知道，默多克的两个儿子拉克伦和詹姆斯对收购福克斯起了什么作用，是不是像美剧《继承之战》里一样充满了明争暗斗？吉姆·鲁滕贝格和乔纳森·马勒曾在《纽约时报杂志》上联合撰文称，拉克伦当时眼看着自己前景日渐渺茫，一度愤怒不已；詹姆斯则努力推动收购进程，他可能以为自己能在迪士尼谋得高位。

Iger says he doesn’t want to “get into the Shakespearean drama” of it all, but adds carefully: “If you’re asking me whether the relationship with the sons and the relationship the sons have with one another and their potential future in the company was ever on the table in negotiation, the answer is yes. But never to a point where it got in the way of us doing what we wanted to do and Rupert doing what he wanted to do.”

伊格回答说他不想卷进这些“莎士比亚式的戏剧里”，但他又小心地补充说：“如果你想问，谈判有没有涉及（我们）和两个儿子的关系、两人之间的关系，还有他们在公司里的前景，那么答案是肯定的。但这从来没有妨碍到我们做想做的事，也没妨碍到鲁珀特做他想做的事。”

He says that he got on well with James, even if he was not a fit for Disney, and that James was helpful during the transition.

他说虽然詹姆斯不太适合迪士尼，但他俩关系不错，詹姆斯在收购过渡阶段也很帮忙。

When Iger did his slap-down of Fox assets for Wall Street, noting that Fox was in worse shape than he had thought, was he implying that Rupert Murdoch had taken advantage of him?

那么日前，伊格斥责福克斯资产拖累了迪士尼的上市业绩，并指出福克斯的情况比他想像的更差，他是否在暗示默多克欺骗了他？

“It wasn’t a slap-down,” Iger says. “It was an admission that the movies that they had made failed. And I actually gave then a tremendous amount of cover by saying that when companies are bought, processes and decision making can come to a halt.

伊格回答说：“我没在斥责他们，只是承认他们拍的电影失败了而已。我还帮他们找了很多理由，解释说通常公司被收购时，内部运作和决策制定都可能受到影响。

“There were problems at that studio well before the deal was announced. But the reason I did not believe that it was something we should be concerned about is because it’s a short-term problem. And with the talent that we have at our studio, that are now supervising with some of their executives all the movies that they decide to make and how they are made, I’m convinced that the turnaround can happen. It’s not a snap your fingers, but it’s not 10 years of lost value. It’s a year and a half.”

“收购交易公布之前，这家公司就存在不少问题。但我当时觉得问题不大，因为这只是暂时的。我们公司里有许多人才，他们正和一些高管一起监督公司决定拍摄的电影以及拍摄的方式。公司业绩肯定会好转的，虽说不是打个响指就能解决的问题，但也不至于未来 10 年都一蹶不振。我们用一年半就能走出困境。”

He says his tough assessment was not designed to lay the groundwork to write off the purchase price of Fox.

他说他做出严格评估，并不是为了冲销福克斯的收购价而做准备。

“It’s way too early, really, to have to do that,” he says. “We don’t know anything that would cause us to do that.”

“现在做这一步实在太早了，”他表示。“我们完全没理由这么做。”

His candid critique did not hurt his relationship with the Murdoch patriarch; he says he still goes to the Bel Air winery, and has “a nice relationship” with Murdoch.

伊格坦率的批评并没有损害到他与默多克家族的关系。他说自己仍然会去贝莱尔酒庄做客，而且他和默多克保持着“良好的关系”。

The deal has already profoundly affected the way Hollywood works, with filmmakers shaping their pitches to suit the new reality.

迪士尼收购福克斯对好莱坞的运作产生了深远影响，许多电影人都开始调整自己的游说策略，以适应新的行业格局。

A column in Variety suggested that “the unprecedented colossus” is giving people the shakes because Disney doesn’t just own all the properties, it owns all the mythologies.

Variety 上的一篇专栏文章指出，“史无前例的巨头”让人震惊不已，因为迪士尼不仅有了一切资产，而且拥有了一切神话。

“Look, no one will ever have a monopoly on mythology or storytelling — not us, not anybody,” Iger says.

对此伊格回应道：“这么说吧，谁也不可能垄断神话或者叙事。我们做不到，不管谁都做不到。”

The angst was summed up when James Brooks, a creator of “The Simpsons,” a Fox show, posted on Twitter an image of Homer Simpson strangling Mickey Mouse.

最能反映民众焦虑情绪的是福克斯动画剧集《辛普森一家》的编剧詹姆斯·布鲁克斯。他在 Twitter 上发了一张荷马·辛普森勒住米老鼠脖子的图片，很好总结了一部分人的态度。

“I love it when we make fun of ourselves,” Iger says. “A little self-inflicted irreverence goes a long way.”

伊格则表示：“我挺喜欢自嘲的，偶尔自我贬低一下大有好处。”

Some have wondered if Disney has already strip-mined the foundation of its new empire, stretching its famous franchises too thin.

有人质疑迪士尼是否对新的帝国开发过度，把几个著名 IP 压榨得太狠了？

He agrees that with “Star Wars,” “I just think that we might’ve put a little bit too much in the marketplace too fast.” But, he adds, “I think the storytelling capabilities of the company are endless because of the talent we have at the company, and the talent we have at the company is better than it’s ever been, in part because of the influx of people from Fox.”

他同意说《星球大战》系列确实存在这样的情况：“可能市场投入有点儿猛，节奏也稍微快了点。”但他也表示：“我们公司在叙事方面的潜力是无穷的，因为我们有许多人才，他们比以往任何时候都要优秀，因为很多人是从福克斯兼并过来的员工。”

How can he match the billions that tech companies are pouring into content?

科技巨头投入了数十亿资金生产内容，他怎样才能与之抗衡呢？

“What Netflix is doing is making content to support a platform," Iger says. “We’re making content to tell great stories. It’s very different.”

伊格回答说：“Netflix 制作内容是为了支撑起一个平台，而我们制作内容是为了讲好故事。两者完全不一样。”

Iger believes that, if Jobs had lived, Disney and Apple might have merged.

伊格认为如果乔布斯还活着的话，迪士尼和苹果公司可能会合并。

But it worked out quite differently. After Iger proudly revealed his $6.99-a-month price point for Disney+, telling me that it would be hard for anyone to compete, Apple announced a streaming service for $4.99 a month, underpricing Iger, who was on the Apple board. Iger resigned from the board the day of the announcement, acknowledging the conflict of interest.

然而事与愿违。日前伊格自豪地宣布 Disney+ 流媒体服务月租费只要 6.99 美元，并告诉我说，别的公司很难再把价格压得更低了。结果苹果不久就推出了月租费 4.99 美元的流媒体服务，比迪士尼更低，而伊格还是苹果公司的董事会成员。苹果的消息一出，伊格就承认他们存在利益冲突，当天就离开了董事会。

He thinks that Jobs also could have helped steer Silicon Valley in a better direction. “Steve had quite a conscience,” Iger says. “It didn’t always manifest itself in his interpersonal relationships, but he had quite a conscience. Silicon Valley needs leaders.” The two men became so close that Jobs pulled Iger aside right before the announcement of the $7 billion Disney-Pixar deal to confide that his pancreatic cancer had come back and was now in his liver. Only his wife, Laurene, knew. Iger had to think fast; he rejected Jobs’ offer to back out of the deal.

他还认为，乔布斯或许能带领硅谷朝着更好的方向前进：“史蒂夫很有良知。他的人际关系不是很好，但他很有良知。硅谷需要有人领导。”乔布斯生前两人关系非常亲密。在迪士尼宣布以近 70 亿美元收购皮克斯前，乔布斯特意把伊格拉到一旁，透露说他的胰腺癌复发，而且已经转移到了肝脏。这件事当时只有乔布斯妻子劳琳一个人知道。伊格不得不当机立断，但他拒绝了乔布斯让迪士尼退出这笔交易的提议。

And what about the moment when the Happiest Place on Earth thought about annexing the Nastiest Place on Earth? Iger writes in the book about how he pulled the plug at the last minute on a deal to buy Twitter, thinking it could help Disney modernize its distribution. But he had a feel in his gut it wasn’t right, and called a stunned Jack Dorsey to tell him.

那么当“地球上最快乐的地方”有意收购“地球上最恶心的地方”时，都发生了些什么呢？伊格在回忆录中说，自己原本以为 Twitter 能让迪士尼影片发行流程更加现代化，但他在最后一刻取消了收购计划。不过在那之前，直觉就告诉他收购 Twitter 不是个好主意。他给杰克·多尔西（Twitter 联合创始人）打电话取消时，多尔西都惊呆了。

“The troubles were greater than I wanted to take on, greater than I thought it was responsible for us to take on,” he tells me. “There were Disney brand issues, the whole impact of technology on society. The nastiness is extraordinary. I like looking at my Twitter newsfeed because I want to follow 15, 20 different subjects. Then you turn and look at your notifications and you’re immediately saying, why am I doing this? Why do I endure this pain? Like a lot of these platforms, they have the ability to do a lot of good in our world. They also have an ability to do a lot of bad. I didn’t want to take that on.”

“我们要对付的麻烦比我想的更大，要承担的责任也更大。会涉及到迪士尼的品牌形象，还有科技对整个社会的影响。（Twitter 的）恶心程度不是一丁点儿。平时我喜欢刷刷推，因为我想关注 15 到 20 个话题。可是你一打开通知页面就会想，为什么要上 Twitter 呢？为什么要忍受这种痛苦？和许多类似的平台一样，他们有能力为世界做许多好事，但也有能力做许多坏事。我不想去承担这样的责任。”

I note that even though Disney has broken gender and race ground with movies like “Captain Marvel” and “Black Panther,” the top executives at the four quadrants of the company (TV, film, parks and consumer products, and streaming and international) are all white men.

我向他指出，尽管迪士尼推出了《惊奇队长》、《黑豹》等电影，打破了性别和种族的界限，但公司四大业务部门（电视与电影、主题乐园与消费品、流媒体业务、国际业务）的高管都是白人男性。

“You have to look one level down, because we’ve done a lot,” Iger says. He concedes that it’s a disappointment that those who directly report to him “are lacking” in diversity and vows, “I’ll change that before I leave.”

伊格回答道：“你得看看低一个级别的高管，我们已经做了很多努力。”他也承认，直接向他汇报的人里“缺乏”多样性确实让人失望，但他承诺说：“我会在离开公司前改变这一点。”

I wonder if there will ever be a female director for “Star Wars.” He says that Kathleen Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm, is “trying really hard’’ to make that happen.

我问他《星球大战》会不会让女导演来执导。他说卢卡斯影业的负责人凯瑟琳·肯尼迪“正在非常努力地”朝这个目标迈进。

Watching Jobs, who was famously mercurial with employees, and getting older has taught him to be careful how hard he comes down on people who work for him. “I get angry,” he says. “I’ve also tried as I’ve matured to learn a lot about what matters in the world, you know? Unfortunately, as you age, you lose people, and you think, why did I ever get mad at them for something so small?

他知道乔布斯生前对待员工喜怒无常，加上如今自身阅历增长，他懂得了批评下属时应该保持分寸。伊格表示：“有时候我很生气。慢慢成熟后，我也成长了许多，知道什么才是最重要的。但不幸的是，随着年龄增长你会失去一些人。然后你就会想，以前我怎么会为了这种小事冲他们发火？

“You know, I’m very organized and neat. If I got into the kitchen and Willow’s been in, and she leaves a cabinet open, there was a time when I would actually get mad at that. You’ve got to be kidding. Why would I get mad at something like that? It’s pausing for a moment and thinking, does this really matter?”

“我做事很有条理，喜欢什么都整整齐齐的。要是我进厨房看到薇洛忘了关橱门，有一段时间我真的会很生气。想不到吧，我怎么会为了这种事情生气呢？我得静下来想一想，真的有这个必要吗？”

His equanimity was surely roiled by the crusade of Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, Walt’s brother. She has been a frequent critic, calling out the Disney culture and his compensation in interviews and Twitter threads, using her exalted last name, though she is not connected to the company.

阿比盖尔·迪士尼对伊格的抨击无疑扰乱了他内心的平静，前者是沃尔特·迪士尼哥哥罗伊·迪士尼的孙女。她与迪士尼公司并无联系，但经常会对公司提出批评，在接受采访时和 Twitter 上质疑迪士尼的文化和伊格的工资。

“I like Bob Iger,’’ she wrote on Twitter, and he has led the company “brilliantly.” But she contended that his salary, $65.6 million, was “insane,” and that Disney workers should get a higher wage.

她有一次在 Twitter 上说：“我喜欢鲍勃·伊格”，他领导公司“十分出色”，但是他 6560 万美元的年薪太“疯狂”了，反而是迪士尼的员工应该拿到更高的工资。

“We’re trying really hard to find solutions to the challenges and the problems that our employees are facing today," he says. “We’re going to come up with dozens of more solutions that we’re going to try to help improve their lives, and if they don’t work, we’re going to find dozens more. We have to be better.”

伊格表示：“我们正努力为员工面临的挑战和问题寻找解决办法。我们会想更多的办法来改善他们的生活，如果不行，那就再试试别的。我们必须做得更好。”

As obsessive as Iger is about work, he schedules in some fun. He has a sailboat and he has his TGIF movies.

尽管伊格工作非常勤奋，他也会给自己安排娱乐时间。他有一艘帆船，还会在每周五看电影。

“I try every Friday afternoon to leave work at lunchtime and go to my home and screen a movie,” he says. The ceiling of his screening room is a programmable planetarium based on the one at Pixar. Its default setting is modeled on a photograph from NASA of the night sky in New York on the day Iger was born, a special touch from its designers.

“我试着在每周五中午下班，然后回家看一部电影。”他家放映室的天花板以皮克斯公司一间屋子为模型，它设计成了天文馆的样子，可以由计算机程序操控。设计师贴心地为他挑选了天花板图案，在默认状态下它显示的是伊格出生当天，由美国国家航空航天局拍摄的纽约夜空。

One recent night, when he found himself on his own, he rewatched “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Funnily enough, that is the movie Barbara Walters advised him to watch back when he was single, so that he would be sure to always follow his heart.

最近一个晚上，他发现自己独自一人在家，于是又看了一遍《四个婚礼和一个葬礼》。有意思的是，这部电影是他在单身时芭芭拉·沃尔特斯（美国广播记者、作家兼电视人物）推荐的，为的是让他记得听从自己的内心。

He says he has made “zero plans” for what happens in 2021, his new retirement date.

2021 年是他最新的退休年份，但他表示自己为退休生活做了“零计划”。

Asked about whether he’d run for president in 2024, when he will be 73, he says, “I don’t know that I have it in me.”

当问及他是否会在 2024 年竞选美国总统时，伊格说那时他已经 73 岁了：“可能我没有这个勇气吧。”

He has one outstanding offer that intrigues him, though.

不过有一个提议倒是很合他的心意。

“I have relationships with weathermen throughout the company,” he says, laughing. “So the promise they’ve all made me is they’re going to give me a weekend at some point in my last year.”

“我和公司里的气象播报员都很熟悉，”他笑道。“他们都向我保证，我退休前的最后一年里，他们会找个周末让我来当播报员。”

Sometimes he’ll get in the car with his family and show off his meteorological chops. “I can do the whole weather report for Los Angeles County, Orange County, the Inland Empire, the beaches and the mountains, I can do the whole thing. You know, it’s sunny and 63 degrees. Seasonal temperatures here in Los Angeles expected through the rest of the weekend. Winds are mild today out of the northeast at 5 to 10 miles an hour. The barometer is steady at 29, 28, and we’re looking at a great — and I mean a great — Memorial Day weekend. All you out there who are going camping or barbecuing or going to the beach, I promise you this is going to be a weekend you’re really going to enjoy.”

有时他会和家人同坐一辆车，炫耀他播报天气的功底。“我可以播报整个洛杉矶县、奥兰治县、内陆帝国、海滩还有山区的天气，这些地方我全都能报。今天阳光明媚，气温 63 华氏度。洛杉矶季节性温度变化预计将会持续到周末。东北风偏弱，风速每小时 5 到 10 英里，气压稳定在 28、29 英寸汞柱。预计阵亡将士纪念日周末的天气会非常、非常舒适。如果选择去露营、烧烤，或者去海滩游玩，这个周末一定能让你玩得尽兴。”

—

Don’t leave your seats just yet! Just like at the movies, the outtakes at the end can be the best part.

先别走开！就像电影彩蛋一样，后面说不定还有惊喜哦。

Confirm or Deny

一句话是非题问答

Maureen Dowd: You have thoughts on Sean Spicer being on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

莫琳·多德：你对肖恩·斯派塞（白宫前新闻秘书）参加 ABC 电台《与星共舞》节目有想法。

Robert Iger: No. Let’s move on.

罗伯特·伊格：没有。下一个问题。

Steve Jobs used to call you on Saturday mornings when he thought a Disney film was a dud.

史蒂夫·乔布斯过去经常在周六早上给你打电话，和你说某一部迪士尼电影是烂片。

Oh, that’s true.

哦，这个是真的。

You avoid carbs, except pizza, which you try to get anywhere in the world.

你会尽量避免摄入碳水化合物，但是披萨除外，不论在世界哪个角落你都会找披萨吃。

Correct.

对。

You love David Portnoy’s pizza reviews.

你喜欢看大卫·波特努瓦的披萨点评节目。

Yes.

对。

Jack Dorsey tried to convince you to get into intermittent fasting during the Disney board meeting.

杰克·多尔西曾经劝你在迪士尼开董事会议期间间歇性禁食。

False.

错。

You miss being Bill Simmons’ boss.

你怀念当比尔·西蒙斯（美国前体育专栏作家）上司时的日子。

False.

错。

Licensing content to Netflix was a mistake.

授予 Netflix 内容版权是个错误。

False.

错。

Your biggest position in your personal stock portfolio is a Netflix short.

你个人股票投资组合里最大的仓位是看空 Netflix。

Very false.

错错错。

When you met in Rupert Murdoch’s vineyard, you were drinking a great Yellow Tail vintage.

你和鲁珀特·默多克在他的酒庄会面时，你们喝的是上好的黄尾葡萄酒。

I was drinking a decent sauvignon blanc.

我喝的是一杯还不错的索维农白葡萄酒。

Allen & Co. Sun Valley vests are not as cool as they used to be.

Allen & Company Sun Valley 的背心没有以前那么酷了。

I never wear Allen & Co. Sun Valley vests because I don’t wear vests.

我从来不穿 Allen & Company Sun Valley 的背心，因为我从来不穿背心。

You realized you never want to retire when you saw a picture of Lloyd Blankfein wearing dad jeans.

你看到了一张劳尔德·贝兰克梵（美国投资银行家）穿老爹牛仔裤的照片，然后意识到自己一点儿也不想退休。

I don’t wear dad jeans.

我不穿老爹牛仔裤。

Your first read in the morning is David Geffen’s Instagram.

你每天早上首先会读的是大卫·格芬（美国商业巨头兼电影制片人）的 Instagram。

No. Well, I follow him. I will say, in my reading session before I go to work, Instagram is part of it.

错。不过我确实关注了他。可以这么说，上班前我读的东西包括 Instagram 上的消息。

You never read “DisneyWar.”

你从来没读过《迪士尼战争》这本书。

Correct.

对。

Euro Disney really took off once you realized that French parents wanted fine wine at the restaurants to get them through the day.

法国父母去餐厅时都有喝葡萄酒的习惯，好让他们顺利度过一整天。当你意识到这点之后，欧洲迪士尼乐园就真的开始走上正轨了。

I know it was an issue.

我知道卖不卖酒是个问题。

You witnessed the moment Queen Bey met Duchess Meghan.

碧昂丝与梅根王妃见面时你也在场。

True.

对。

原文标题：The Slow-Burning Success of Disney’s Bob Iger

原文作者：Maureen Dowd

翻译：熊猫译社 朱路 智竑

© 2019 The New York Times Company

Bob Iger与苹果公司现任CEO库克先生