I cant remember the exact mixture of caffeine and decongestants I took, but I somehow managed to get the presentation done, nab a couple hours of sleep and arrive back in the office for the call. I was drowsy, achy and coughing miserably during the call. At one point the VP muted the phone, looked at me and said, “I’m going to need you to perk up.

　　Perk up I did, but not in the way she was thinking. At that precise moment, I knew I was in the wrong job and more importantly, the wrong career path. In one life lesson she had unwittingly (and unrelentingly) taught me three key things:

　　我還記得當時喝了大量咖啡因和減充血劑，不過最終還是努力完場了演示稿。小睡了一兩個小時候，我又回到辦公室接聽電話。在通話過程中，我昏昏欲睡，渾身疼痛不已，還不停咳嗽。一會兒，那位副總裁將電話調為靜音，看著我說：“我需要你打起精神來。”

　　我確實打起了精神，但并不是按她所想的那樣。就在那一刻，我明白這份工作并不適合我，更重要的是，這也不是適合我的職業(yè)道路。她在不經(jīng)意間(并且無情地)給我上了一課，讓我認識到了三件重要的事情：

　　Pursue great people and not the paycheck

　　Do work you love

　　Create a healthy work-life balance

　　• 追隨優(yōu)秀的人，而不是工資

　　• 做自己喜愛的工作

　　• 保證健康的工作和生活平衡

　　Suddenly, the income was not as important as being able to work with great mentors and people I could learn from. I had hoped for this when accepting the investment-banking job and soon realized it didn’t exist. I remained blinded by the pay until that mute button was pressed. I left and ultimately took a job that paid much less but was far more rewarding in terms of the people and the work.

　　Having a clear understanding of what was important to me was critical not just when co-founding a company that I wanted to work at – but also to create a place that fosters satisfying careers for all those I work with as well.

　　突然之間，收入不再重要，重要的是能夠與優(yōu)秀的導師和了不起的人一起共事。最初接受這份投行工作的時候，我也是抱著這樣的希望，可惜，希望很快落空。但我一直被高工資所蒙蔽，直到靜音鍵被按下的那一刻才幡然醒悟。我離開了那家銀行，最終找到的工作雖然薪酬沒有那么高，但那里的人和工作卻給我?guī)砹烁嗷貓蟆?/p>

　　不論是共同創(chuàng)建一家自己希望為其奮斗的公司，還是為同事們創(chuàng)造一個平臺，讓他們獲得令人滿意的職業(yè)發(fā)展，對我而言，最為關鍵的是，清楚什么才是對自己最重要的。