作者：Alvaro Montoya
翻譯：潘澤彬
校對(duì)：Luz、Joanne、James
My name is Alvaro Montoya, and I am known by Chinese friends as 夢(mèng)龍. I was born in Lima, Peru, but I grew up in Barcelona. During my time in university, while studying my telecom engineering degree, I was always curious about the corporate world. How is it to work in a multinational telecom company? Who are the CEOs and executives from these tech companies? Do they have interesting lives? In order to learn more about the corporate world, I started to work as a chauffeur for one of the most important telecom events in Barcelona, where many CEOs, vice presidents, and relevant entrepreneurs from all over the world gather together to do presentations about their latest products and company developments. My goal was to find an opportunity to meet some of these people and learn from them. I drove all sorts of telecom executives, like the CEO of Nokia, the CEO of Etisalat, and others around Barcelona, showing them the hidden and charming spots of the city, and even asking them to hang out with me after their meetings. Honestly, I seized every opportunity to learn from them! And it was worth it. I learnt a lot about their lives, how much passion they had for what they do, and how hard you have to work to become a CEO or executive in a multinational telecom company.
我叫 Alvaro Montoya，中國(guó)朋友都叫我“夢(mèng)龍”。我在秘魯利馬出生，在西班牙巴塞羅那長(zhǎng)大。我學(xué)的是電信工程專業(yè)，一直對(duì)電信企業(yè)充滿好奇。在一家跨國(guó)電信公司工作是怎樣的體驗(yàn)？這些科技公司的總裁和高管是誰(shuí)？他們的生活有趣嗎？為了更了解電信企業(yè)，我參加了在巴塞羅那舉辦的一場(chǎng)電信盛會(huì)，擔(dān)任司機(jī)。來(lái)自世界各地的電信企業(yè)總裁、副總裁等企業(yè)家歡聚一堂，介紹他們公司的最新產(chǎn)品和未來(lái)發(fā)展。我的目標(biāo)是找機(jī)會(huì)認(rèn)識(shí)他們，向他們學(xué)習(xí)。我載著各位電信企業(yè)高管，包括諾基亞、阿聯(lián)酋電信的總裁，在巴塞羅那四處轉(zhuǎn)悠，向他們展示這座城市的隱藏景點(diǎn)，甚至邀請(qǐng)他們會(huì)議結(jié)束后一起游玩。講真，我抓住了每一個(gè)向他們?nèi)〗?jīng)的機(jī)會(huì)！這一切都是值得的，我受益匪淺。我了解了他們的日常生活，體會(huì)到了他們對(duì)工作抱有多大的熱情，知道了要成為一家跨國(guó)電信公司的總裁或高管必須付出多大的努力。
One of the executives I drove around Barcelona was very impressed with my service, and talked highly of me to his company. The next thing I knew, I was in charge of driving the CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei himself, with some other vice presidents of Huawei around the city. The conversations with them were very inspiring, to the point that their advice changed my life direction. They told me how China was the place for telecommunications?engineers like me. “You already know Spanish and English; learn Chinese and come to China. We need people like you, with good communication skills and a technological background.” And since I am a person who loves challenges (challenge accepted!), the very next week I started my Chinese lessons, and over the next 2 years, I balanced my university studies, Chinese classes, and my work as a chauffeur.
一位高管對(duì)我的服務(wù)印象深刻，在他的公司表?yè)P(yáng)了我。我還開(kāi)車(chē)帶著華為的總裁任正非和幾位華為的副總裁在巴塞羅那轉(zhuǎn)悠。與他們交談，我備受鼓舞，他們的建議改變了我的人生方向。他們告訴我，像我這樣的電信工程師，可以到中國(guó)大展宏圖?！澳銜?huì)講西班牙語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)，快去學(xué)習(xí)漢語(yǔ)，來(lái)中國(guó)吧。我們需要像你這樣的人才，懂得如何溝通，有一定的技術(shù)背景?！蔽蚁矚g挑戰(zhàn)，所以我接受了挑戰(zhàn)！第二周我就開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)中文，之后的兩年，我一邊完成大學(xué)學(xué)業(yè)，一邊學(xué)習(xí)中文，還兼職做司機(jī)。
From that day, my new goal was clear. I wanted to go to China to develop my professional career in the telecom industry. And that’s what I did. In 2011, I went to Beijing to study for the last year of my engineering degree. Since I really wanted to learn Chinese, I opted for the Beijing Institute of Technology, where there weren’t many foreigners, and some of them, like the Koreans, didn’t speak English well, so we all had to communicate in Chinese. This helped me improve my Chinese a lot, which was my obsession during my first year in China. You won’t believe me, but during the first year, I went to very few parties and traveled very little. All I did was study Chinese.
那天起，我確立了新目標(biāo)。我想去中國(guó)，進(jìn)入電信產(chǎn)業(yè)謀求職業(yè)發(fā)展。這正是我一以貫之的。2011 年我來(lái)到北京，那年是我攻讀工程學(xué)位的最后一年。我真的想學(xué)會(huì)中文，我選擇了北京理工大學(xué)，因?yàn)槟抢锏耐鈬?guó)人不多，比如韓國(guó)人，英語(yǔ)說(shuō)得不好，所以我們都不得不用中文交流。我的中文水平得到很大提高，這是我第一年執(zhí)著努力的結(jié)果。你相信嗎？第一年，我很少參加聚會(huì)，很少出門(mén)旅行。學(xué)習(xí)中文就是我的一切。
After finishing my studies, when my Chinese was good enough, I took a leap of faith. I reached out to one of Huawei’s vice presidents who gave me his contact information back in Barcelona when I was his driver, and kindly asked him for a position at the company. After one year of preparation, I really wanted to join Huawei. The HR manager reached out to me saying that since I was from Spain and had Peruvian roots, a position in South America or Europe would fit best for me. I refused. I really wanted to work in China, especially after learning the language for one year! “Let’s see what I can do,” said the HR manager…?
畢業(yè)后，我的中文已經(jīng)足夠好了，我決定向自己的理想信念飛躍。我聯(lián)系了華為的一位副總裁，在巴塞羅那的時(shí)候我是他的司機(jī)，所以我得到了他的聯(lián)系方式，希望他能接納我到華為工作。經(jīng)過(guò)一年的準(zhǔn)備，我真的有意愿加入華為。人力資源經(jīng)理聯(lián)系我說(shuō)，因?yàn)槲襾?lái)自西班牙，有秘魯血統(tǒng)，去南美洲或歐洲工作最適合我。我拒絕了，因?yàn)槲覍W(xué)了一年的中文，真心想在中國(guó)工作！“我們得考慮一下再做安排。”人力資源經(jīng)理說(shuō)道……
A few days later, he contacted me and offered an interview for a position in Shenzhen! Unfortunately, the interview did not go well. It was a remote interview with 3 huge screens, 1 interviewer on each, and all of the questions were in Chinese… In the end, 2 people voted no, and I didn’t get the job.
幾天后，他聯(lián)系我，給了我一個(gè)面試深圳崗位的機(jī)會(huì)！但是，面試并不順利。這是一場(chǎng)遠(yuǎn)程面試，三位面試官通過(guò)三塊大屏幕進(jìn)行面試，全是用中文提問(wèn)的……最終，兩位面試官投了反對(duì)票，我沒(méi)有得到這份工作。
I kept on looking for jobs. At that time, the economic crisis had hit Spain very hard. My dad lost his job and said he could only support me for another two or three months at most. My race began. Applying for jobs became my full-time job. I would send over 200 CVs a day. I remember taking the bus every morning to downtown Beijing, applying to international telecom companies. But 2 months passed and I had no luck, so I started applying for Chinese companies as well. Over the phone I started to sound like a local Chinese person and they were stunned when they saw a foreigner show up for the interview. Finally, one of them hired me!
我繼續(xù)求職。那時(shí)候，經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)對(duì)西班牙的打擊非常大。我父親失業(yè)了，他說(shuō)最多只能再支持我兩三個(gè)月。求職競(jìng)賽開(kāi)始了，求職成為我的全職工作。我一天要投 200?多份簡(jiǎn)歷。我記得每天早上都要坐車(chē)到北京市區(qū)，向跨國(guó)電信公司提交求職申請(qǐng)。兩個(gè)月過(guò)去了，幸運(yùn)女神并沒(méi)有眷顧我，我開(kāi)始申請(qǐng)中國(guó)公司。電話交流時(shí)，我的口音聽(tīng)起來(lái)像中國(guó)人，但他們卻看到一個(gè)外國(guó)人出現(xiàn)在面試現(xiàn)場(chǎng)，目瞪口呆。最后，一家中國(guó)公司錄用了我！
I started working for a local company in the automobile industry. I worked there for 2 years and absolutely everything was in Chinese: calls, meetings, emails. It was so stressful but I learned so much! 2 years later, I quit, and was totally lost about my next step. At one point,?I attended a birthday party where I happened to meet someone who worked at Microsoft. I gathered my courage and told him working for Microsoft would be my dream! Surprisingly, he told me he knew someone who was hiring and put me in touch with that department. I ended up working there for 1.5 years.
我開(kāi)始在一家汽車(chē)公司工作，工作了兩年，每天都用中文交流：電話、會(huì)議、電子郵件。雖然壓力很大，但我學(xué)到了很多東西。兩年后，我辭職了，下一步要做什么，我感到非常迷茫。有一次，我參加了一個(gè)生日聚會(huì)，遇到一個(gè)在微軟員工。我鼓起勇氣，告訴他在微軟工作是我的夢(mèng)想！令我意外的是，他剛好認(rèn)識(shí)微軟人資部門(mén)的員工，讓我聯(lián)系他。最后我在微軟工作了一年半。
I felt fulfilled working for Microsoft in China. I managed a team of 6 people and we worked a lot, way more than I did at the Chinese company, until one day, when everything changed. Sadly, my mom passed away from cancer. This made me reconsider my whole career. Why was I working so much? Was I really doing what made me happy??I was angry at the world, and my desires had changed. I wanted to do something I loved and stop working so much for other people’s goals.?I decided to do an MBA program at Tsinghua University.
在中國(guó)微軟工作，我感到很充實(shí)。我管理著一個(gè) 6 人的團(tuán)隊(duì)，每天都很忙，比我在之前的公司忙得多。直到有一天，生活發(fā)生了變故，我媽媽因癌癥去世了。母親的離世讓我重新考慮我的職業(yè)生涯。我為什么要這么努力工作？我做的事情真的能讓我快樂(lè)嗎？我開(kāi)始憤世，未來(lái)的向往也發(fā)生改變。我想做自己喜歡的事情，不再為完成別人的目標(biāo)而努力工作。我決定來(lái)清華大學(xué)攻讀 MBA（工商管理碩士）。
During my MBA, I joined every startup competition I could. Since I like coding, I created prototypes and showed them in the competitions. One of my prototypes got second prize, so Tsinghua’s startup incubator encouraged me to use the prize money to start my own business. And so I did! After my MBA, I joined the startup world, and I have been with my own company, Akkadu.com, for 4 years.
就讀 MBA 期間，我盡己所能參加創(chuàng)業(yè)比賽。我喜歡編程，所以我設(shè)計(jì)了許多原型參加比賽。一個(gè)原型獲得了二等獎(jiǎng)，所以清華的創(chuàng)業(yè)孵化基地鼓勵(lì)我拿這筆獎(jiǎng)金來(lái)創(chuàng)業(yè)。說(shuō)做就做！讀完 MBA 后，我加入了創(chuàng)業(yè)大軍，開(kāi)創(chuàng)了自己的公司 Akkadu.com，奮斗了 4 年。
The startup world is mad. There are so many ups and downs. Teams change, ideas evolve, the market changes, and sometimes I feel lonely. But I have never given up on my vision: to help people understand each other, regardless of language.
創(chuàng)業(yè)之旅坎坷瘋狂，一路上起起伏伏。團(tuán)隊(duì)組成在改變，想法在改進(jìn)，市場(chǎng)也變化莫測(cè)，有時(shí)我感到很孤獨(dú)。但我從未放棄過(guò)我的愿望：消除語(yǔ)言屏障，促進(jìn)人們相互理解。
My vision started back in Spain. I realized how biased I was about other countries. Usually, news about other countries is negative, and so we develop unfair stereotypes. So, I was surprised to meet so many Arab or Asian clients as a chauffeur who were so smart, so kind. I realized if there were no language barriers, we could learn from other cultures and countries by ourselves without having to rely only on the “news,” and this would definitely make this world a better place.
早在西班牙，我就開(kāi)始追尋愿望了。當(dāng)時(shí)我對(duì)其他國(guó)家抱有許多偏見(jiàn)，有關(guān)其他國(guó)家的新聞通常是負(fù)面的，自然而然就產(chǎn)生了偏見(jiàn)。所以，我做司機(jī)的時(shí)候，遇到了許多來(lái)自阿拉伯或亞洲的客戶，他們是非常聰明而且善良，這令我震驚。如果沒(méi)有語(yǔ)言障礙，我們自己就能了解其他國(guó)家和文化，而不必僅僅依靠“新聞”，這個(gè)世界一定會(huì)變得更好。
I am very stubborn and not afraid. I do not give up and challenges make me feel alive, and that, combined with all the opportunities that China has given me, has made me who I am today.
我很倔強(qiáng)，但我不害怕。永不放棄，一項(xiàng)項(xiàng)挑戰(zhàn)讓我看到活著的意義。中國(guó)賦予我許多機(jī)會(huì)，成就今天的我。
This?is my story. Thanks for reading!
這就是我的故事。感謝閱讀！
?“Don’t wait for things to happen, make them happen!”?
“別守株待兔，主動(dòng)！”
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