When college graduates go for the 'road less taken', it could be the entrepreneurial spirit or aninvoluntary choice.

當大學畢業生選擇那些更少人走的路時，這可能是由于他們的創業家精神也可能是出于不得已的選擇。

About a dozen years ago, Lu Buxuan shocked the nation when it was discovered he was a graduate of Peking University. He was a butcher. "How can someone with such an enviableeducation end up in such an unenviable position?" people asked.

大約在十二年前，當人們發現北大畢業生陸步軒卻當了個屠夫，整個國家為之震驚。人們不禁疑問道，“是什么原因才可能讓一個擁有如此優良教育背景的人從事如此卑微的工作？”

Lu considers himself a failure. "I have dragged down the image of my alma mater," helaments. "I'm the prime example of what my alums should not be."

在陸步軒自己看來，他是一個失敗者。“我給母校丟臉抹黑了，”他嘆息道。“我的校友們最不應該成為的就是我這樣的。”

A few years later, Chen Sheng, another Peking University graduate, gave up his coveted jobas a public servant and got into butchering. In just two years he had grown to have 200 chainstores with an annual revenue of 200 million yuan ($32.6 million; 26 million euros).

幾年過后，另一位北大畢業生陳生，放棄了體面的公務員工作，開始了賣肉事業。僅僅在兩年之后，他就成為了為擁有200家連鎖店，年收入2億元的公司老板。

Granted, both Lu and Chen are outliers with career trajectories utterly unrepresentative of youngsters out of top schools. They are supposed to climb up the bureaucratic, business,academic or professional ladders. Sure, selling pork and other meat products counts as abusiness, but it ranks very low in the minds of most Chinese.

其實，陸步軒和陳生非同尋常的事業都不是頂尖高校學生中具有代表性的案例。他們本應該成為政治，商業，學術或專業領域的精英。的確，賣豬肉和其他肉類產品也是一門生意，但這個在大多數中國人看來，是很卑微的工作。

In the old days, one would need a little knowledge of arithmetic to operate a butcher shop, and nowadays that little skill has been taken over by the calculator, if not the automaticvending machine. So, you can be virtually illiterate and still be a competent butcher - not theproprietor though. In fact, the occupation of butcher is often used as an illustration in classicnovels of brute force or absence of brainpower.

以前，開肉鋪的人僅需要一點點算術知識就可以，今天，若不是自動販賣機的話，這一點點的算術技能也已經被計算器給取代了。因此，即便你是文盲，當不了老板，也能成為一個優秀的屠夫。事實上，屠夫這個職業在經典小說中通常代表的是那些充滿蠻力，缺乏思考能力的人。

Generally, young Chinese come under the pressure of two forces while making careerchoices: One is pragmatism, meaning whatever job fetches the highest salary and perks istouted by parents and the media alike; and the other is conventional mindset, which oftenoverlaps with the first consideration. Officialdom has always occupied the apex of the pedigree, and business much lower. To be of similar attraction, a position with a private business, for example, has to offer much more in compensation than a public servant's position.

一般來說，中國的年輕人在擇業的時候面對兩個方面的壓力：一個是實用主義，這意味著父母和媒體喜歡的工作是高薪水體面的工作；另一個是傳統心態，這個與第一種情況常常有重疊。當官一直都是首選，而從商則地位就低得多了。相同的兩個崗位，私營企業要提供更多的報酬才能和公務員的吸引力相比肩。

About the only progress I have detected in job selection is in show business. Star entertainers of every era are accorded hefty pay packets, but the stigma that used to be associated withthe profession is now largely gone. Even starving artists and artistes would proudly say they are stars in waiting.

我所發現的在工作選擇上唯一的進步是在商業選秀活動中。每個時代的明星藝人都有著高額薪酬，早期與這些職業相聯系的污名現在大都消失。即使是窮困潦倒的藝術家和藝人也能驕傲的說他們是等待冉冉升起的明星。

China's tradition of channeling the brightest into stable and respectable professions and away from entrepreneurship could be the effect of long-held discrimination against self-made men and women - unless one is big enough to grab headlines and turn into a household name a la Jack Ma. The fear and even stigma of striking out on one's own are not unfounded asentrepreneurship is notoriously risky. The rate of failure is extremely high, especially in the first few years, and you may never run out of challenges even if you are at the top of the game. You may say this is the same everywhere. But even had Bill Gates failed in turning Microsoft into a profitable business, I bet his father would not have nagged him for years about quitting Harvard. Now imagine what Chen Sheng would face if his plunge into private business, to use a Chinese analogy, had run into serious adversity.

傳統中國觀念認為穩定收入，受人尊敬是最好的工作，而企業家精神則不受待見，個中原因可能是長期以來對自力更生創業者的歧視導致——除非這個人的擁有足夠的關注度，成為家喻戶曉的人物，如馬云。走自己的路所背負的恐懼，甚至是羞恥感，并不是毫無理由，因為創業常常伴隨著風險。創業失敗率相當高，特別是剛開始創業的那幾年，并且即時你在所處的領域是最厲害的，也可能有無數挑戰等著你。你可能會說這種事情到哪都一樣。但即便是比爾·蓋茨在將微軟轉變為一家可盈利的公司的過程中，他也遭遇過失敗。我敢說他父親絕不會因他從哈佛輟學而責罵他。現在想象一下如果陳生轉身進入私營企業，用中國的一個說法來說是，陷入極大的困境，那么他將面臨著什么。

The crux of the matter lies in public attitude toward small businesses, which, in turn, is largely determined by government policies and regulations in that area. Most entrepreneurs are not going to end up in the market position or wealth bracket of Ma or Gates. They may not evencome close to owning 200 chain stores. But in a small-business-friendly atmosphere theymight be able to earn a comfortable living for themselves and their families while providinggoods and services unaccounted for by big business. With the average starting salary for acollege graduate at just 3,378 yuan a month last year, that will be the fulcrum for a balance with tradition-ordained professions.

問題的關鍵在于公眾對于小公司的態度，而這在很大程度上又取決于政府在這個方面的政策和規定。絕大多數的創業者都不會取得像馬云或蓋茨那樣的地位和財富。他們甚至沒有能做到擁有兩百家連鎖店這個程度。但在一個對小公司友好的環境中，他們可能會通過給大公司提供產品或各種服務而讓自己和家人過上比較舒適的生活。去年，大學畢業生的平均月薪為3378元人民幣，這個值會成為大學畢業生們是否選擇傳統職業的平衡點。

Reports in recent years highlight graduates from prestigious schools who for one reason oranother have forsaken the preferred career paths and taken adventures left and right. High-tech tends to be held in high regard whereas low-tech or no tech, such as selling groceries, is often sneered at. Sadly, the focus is ultimately results-oriented. "Say, there's this young manfrom Xi'an who craves his hometown snack so much that he gave up his job in the information industry and started his own snack stand. Now he is pulling in more than 10,000 yuan a day."

最近幾年的新聞報道里，名校畢業生出于某一種或多種原因放棄一些好的工作機會而選擇創業的新聞成為了熱點。人們贊賞那些高科技型，而低技術水平或沒有技術含量的，比如銷售員之類，常常就會被嗤之以鼻。可悲的是，公眾的焦點最終是以成敗與否為導向的。“比如這樣一個例子，有個來自西安的年輕人想念家鄉的小吃，于是他放棄了信息行業的工作，轉而開啟了自己的小吃攤，現在他每天的收入達到了1萬元人民幣。”

This kind of story usually ends with a venture capitalist stumbling upon the bright young man with the unusual dream and pouring money into his new venture. It is an ad hoc validation when there is no fortune worth billions to prove the merit of the youngster's initial step. The nostalgia for hometown food is such a literary flourish that it plays right into the feel-good sentiments of the readership, but may be of little relevance to a business equation.

此類故事的結局通常是一名風險資本家發現這個前途無限的年輕人有著不同尋常的夢想，于是注資幫助了他。這樣的情況屬于特例，尤其是投資者并未得到相應投資回報，以此來證明這個年輕人走的第一步是正確的。對家鄉食物的懷念情結正是具有這樣一種文學性的東西，雖然迎合了讀者的閱讀感受，但對于企業經營而言，卻無半點關系。

Still, it is a subtle shift toward personal interests, which used to figure so insignificantly incareer choices. More young people want to turn their passion into vocation and, logically, if it's something they love, they will have a higher chance of succeeding.

即便如此，這種個人興趣的微妙轉變在事業的選擇上，影響甚微。越來越多的年輕人想要將激情投入到自己的事業中，并且按理來說，若他們選擇了自己所愛的事業，則成功的幾率也越大。

When people talk about college graduates opening food stands, the customary lament is they have wasted what they have learned. But that is not necessarily true. A lot of the young get into college almost clueless about what they will like. Only belatedly do they discover their disciplines do not jibe well with the areas of their passion. Some may take years and explore different fields before they determine what they want to devote their life to, and some may never stop exploring. If you judge by how many of China's college graduates have to find jobs totally unrelated to their college majors, the waste is just a foregone conclusion.

當人們談論大學畢業生畢業后去擺攤這類話題時，他們感到痛惜的是這些學生們浪費了在學校所學的東西。但事實卻并非完全如此。絕大部分年輕人茫然地進入到大學，他們并不知道自己的喜好會是什么。當他們發現自己并不喜歡自己所學時，業已太晚。一些人在找到自己一生的事業之前，常常要耗費數年時間在不同的領域探索，而另一些人則一生都處在探索過程中。如果你以從事與所學專業無關的工作的中國大學畢業生數量來看，那么以上所指的浪費現象就是一個必然的結果了。

Lu and Chen are very different cases. Lu wanted the conventional job, but could not get it. He has never been comfortable with the butcher's job. The farthest he has gone is to make do on grounds of legal propriety: "I did not steal or rob. It's an honest living. There's nothing to be ashamed of." But the traces of humiliation are everywhere. Chen, on the other hand, has the adventurous streak in his genes. For him, a job as a clerk, no matter how well it pays, is frustrating. Worldly and restless, he is cut out for the self-made job. He also says he is quite "dictatorial", which probably means he is not comfortable working as an employee. He has to be his own boss. The fact that he sells meat and produce is almost beside the point - a point not raised in the media reports anyway.

陸步軒和陳生是兩個特例。陸步軒曾想要一份傳統的工作，但沒能找到中意的。他從未對屠夫這個工作感到舒心過。他做的做好的就是腳踏實地地做合法生意：“我不偷不搶，我這是靠誠信經營過日子。這沒什么好感到羞恥的。” 但恥笑聲到處都是。而另一個案例的情況卻大不一樣。陳生憑借著自己的聰明才智，在事業上一路高歌。對他而言，文員這種工作，無論薪酬多高，都是無聊至極的。世故且不安分的他辭去了工作，白手起家。他還說過，他很獨斷專行，這很可能意味著他不安于為人打工。他要做自己的老板。他去賣肉和農產品這件事幾乎是次要的——但媒體也未曾報道過重要的那一點。

A dramatic detail surfaced when Chen hired Lu to be his "consultant". Obviously, Chen wanted to use Lu's "credentials" as the Peking University-educated butcher as a marketingtool. But I cannot imagine them as equal partners. They are such polar opposites in disposition and personality. About the only thing in common is their alma mater. With the economy growing at the speed it is, there will be more Chen Shengs who deviate from charted courses and fewer Lu Buxuans who get mired in humbling occupations because they have no choice.

陳生聘請陸步軒作為顧問這件事是個重要的細節。很明顯，陳生想利用北大畢業生當屠夫這個賣點來營銷。但我不認為他們會是平等的伙伴關系。他們的性格和個性天南地北。唯一的共同點是他們都是北大的畢業生。隨著經濟的高速發展，社會上將會涌現更多的陳生們，他們會跳出教材的條條框框，也會有更少的陸步軒們因沒有選擇余地而深陷卑微工作的泥潭。

（譯者：linchln 編輯：丹妮）