乔布斯传 第71期:被上帝咬过的苹果(1)

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里吉斯·麦肯纳

The first step in this process was convincing the Valley's premier¹ publicist, Regis McKenna, to take on Apple as a client.

新公司成立后的第一件事，就是要将硅谷杰出的公关人员里吉斯·麦肯纳招至麾下。

McKenna was from a large working-class Pittsburgh family, and bred into his bones was a steeliness that he cloaked with charm.

麦肯纳来自匹兹堡的一个工人阶级大家庭，外表的魅力掩盖了他骨子里的冷酷坚韧。

A college dropout², he had worked for Fairchild and National Semiconductor³ before starting his own PR and advertising⁴ firm.

大学綴学的他曾先后供职于仙童公司和国家半导体公司，后来创办了自己的公关和广告公司。

His two specialties⁵ were doling⁶ out exclusive interviews with his clients to journalists he had cultivated

他有两项专长，一是把对他的客户进行独家专访的机会留给自己熟识的记者，

and coming up with memorable⁷ ad campaigns that created brand awareness⁸ for products such as microchips.

二是策划令人难忘的广告方案，为诸如微芯片这样的产品提升品牌知名度。

One of these was a series of colorful magazine ads for Intel that featured racing⁹ cars and poker¹⁰ chips rather than the usual dull performance charts.

其中有为英特尔打造的一系列色彩绚烂的杂志广告，以疾驰 的赛车和扑克筹码为主要元素，取代了以往枯燥的性能图表。

These caught Jobs's eye. He called Intel and asked who created them.

这些引起了乔布斯的注意。他致电英特尔公司询问广告的设计方。

"Regis McKenna," he was told.

他被告知了这样一个名字：里吉斯·麦肯纳。

"I asked them what Regis McKenna was," Jobs recalled, "and they told me he was a person."

"我问他们里吉斯·麦肯纳是什么，"乔布斯回忆说，“他们告诉我是一个人的名字。

When Jobs phoned, he couldn' t get through to McKenna.

"乔布斯打去了电话，却未能直接与麦肯纳通话。

Instead he was transferred to Frank Burge, an account executive, who tried to put him off.

他的电话被转给了一个叫做弗兰克·伯奇的业务经理，此人只想把乔布斯打发走。

Jobs called back almost every day.

之后，乔布斯几乎每天都会打来电话。

Burge finally agreed to drive out to the Jobs garage.

最终伯奇同意了，驱车前往乔布斯的车库与之会面，

"Holy Christ, this guy is going to be something else," he recalled thinking.

他回忆起自己当时的想法："天哪，这个人肯定是个怪胎。

"What's the least amount of time I can spend with this clown without being rude."

我跟这个小丑待在一起的时间越短越好，但是又不能显得无礼。"

Then, when he was confronted with the unwashed and shaggy Jobs, two things hit him:

之后，当他见到邋里邋遢、不修边幅的乔布斯时，有两件事触动了他。

"First, he was an incredibly smart young man.

"第一，他是个异常聪明的年轻人；

Second, I didn't understand a fiftieth of what he was talking about."

第二，他侃侃而谈的东西我一句都听不懂。"

重点讲解：

1.take on 雇佣

例句：We decided¹¹ to take on a new clerk.

我们决定雇用一个新职员。

2.cloaked with 用...盖住

例句：The soldiers cloaked their fear with joking and bravado¹².

士兵们藉开玩笑和夸口来掩饰其恐惧。

3.doling out 布施

例句：So some companies are rewriting the rules for doling out financial incentives¹³.

因此，部分公司开始改写提供经济奖励的规则。

4.get through 打通电话

例句：Fortunately, he eventually did not let me down, half an hour later, he offered to get through the phone.

还好，最终他没有让我失望，半小时后，他主动打通了电话。

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