筱原欣子6歲喪父，20多歲離了婚，大學(xué)也一直沒畢業(yè)。但《福布斯》雜志報(bào)道，如今她成了日本第一位白手起家的女性億萬富翁。

1973年，筱原在東京一間一居室公寓里建立了勞務(wù)派遣機(jī)構(gòu)天欣福。就像她在2010年接受《金融時(shí)報(bào)》采訪時(shí)所說，在日本歷史的那個(gè)時(shí)期，許多女性就連做兼職也要詢問丈夫的意見。筱原從中看到了機(jī)會(huì)。

她說：“社會(huì)由男性主宰，大多數(shù)女性從事的都是輔助性工作，能主動(dòng)參與的機(jī)會(huì)幾乎沒有。我就是在那個(gè)時(shí)候想到可以拓寬工作環(huán)境，讓女性施展她們的技藝，所以我創(chuàng)建了天欣福?！?/p>

現(xiàn)在，這家公司已經(jīng)成為天欣?？毓?，有313處辦事機(jī)構(gòu)，設(shè)在洛杉磯和臺(tái)灣等地。《福布斯》報(bào)道，去年這家上市公司實(shí)現(xiàn)收入45億美元。筱原在天欣福持股25%，最近公司股價(jià)上漲12%，讓她的身家達(dá)到了九位數(shù)。

她告訴《金融時(shí)報(bào)》：“我覺得我的特性之一就是痛恨失敗。”

筱原的故事是創(chuàng)業(yè)熱忱的一例典型。在她想到要建立天欣福時(shí)，做臨時(shí)工幾乎是非法行為。筱原因此四處游說，讓法律得到了修訂。她也很快意識(shí)到，自己這輩子想做的不光是當(dāng)家庭主婦。

2009年，筱原接受《哈佛商業(yè)評(píng)論》采訪時(shí)說：“舉辦婚禮后我很快就意識(shí)到自己寧愿不結(jié)婚，我并不適合做那樣的人。所以我覺得自己最好盡快離婚，這個(gè)決定讓我的媽媽和兄弟非常生氣。離婚后我說，‘我得自己干點(diǎn)兒什么了’?！?/p>

天欣福成為國際大型企業(yè)有兩個(gè)關(guān)鍵推動(dòng)因素?！豆鹕虡I(yè)評(píng)論》認(rèn)為，第一個(gè)因素是筱原決定開始聘用男性經(jīng)理，這讓天欣福更受主流的歡迎。

“1988年，我問‘我們招幾個(gè)男同事怎么樣？’那些[女]經(jīng)理說，‘不用了，謝謝，我們根本不需要那些生物?！覀兇_實(shí)需要。一家分公司碰巧請(qǐng)了一位男士來做兼職，喔，銷售額那叫一個(gè)增長。”

《金融時(shí)報(bào)》指出，第二個(gè)因素是20世紀(jì)90年代日本“失去的十年”，也就是經(jīng)濟(jì)停滯期。為了設(shè)法避免使用成本較高的正式員工，用人單位找上了天欣福以及它提供的勞動(dòng)力。

這讓筱原把自己的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)風(fēng)格描述為“寄居蟹式管理”。

她說：“寄居蟹出生時(shí)很小，蟹殼的尺寸剛好適合那個(gè)階段的生活。天欣福成長時(shí)，也是這樣出現(xiàn)了組織結(jié)構(gòu)和制度?！?/p>

筱原從未打算成為億萬富翁。相反，她曾說過，她只是想通過一家“世人需要的”公司來留下印記。

“我想通過公司為社會(huì)做貢獻(xiàn)?！保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Charlie

Yoshiko Shinohara lost her father at age six, got divorced in her 20s, and never graduated from college. But today, Forbes is reporting, she is Japan’s first self-made female billionaire.

In 1973, Shinohara founded TempStaff, a staffing agency, from a one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo. As she told the Financial Times in 2010, this was during an era in Japanese history when many female candidates had to check with their husbands before they could even take a temp job. In this, Shinohara saw an opportunity.

“Society was dominated by men with most women working in assistant roles, and there were few opportunities to actively participate,” she said. “It was then I thought I would broaden the workplaces where women could apply their skills, so I launched TempStaff.”

Today, the company that has become Temp Holdings has 313 offices, from Los Angeles to Taiwan. Forbes reports that the publicly traded company had revenues of $4.5 billion last year. With a 25% stake, Forbes says, the recent 12% gain in Temp shares has put Shinohara over the nine-figure mark.

“I say one of my personal traits is that I hate to lose,” she told the FT.

Shinohara’s story is one of textbook entrepreneurial zeal. Temping was mostly illegal when she got the idea for her company, so she lobbied to have the laws changed. She also quickly realized that she wanted to do more with her life than be a housewife.

“Soon after my wedding, I realized that I would rather not be married, that this was not the right person for me.” she told the Harvard Business Review in 2009. “So I decided I had better divorce as soon as possible, a decision that my mother and brother were very angry about. After the divorce, I said, ‘I have to do something with myself.’”

Two key events helped turn Temp into a global juggernaut. The first was Shinohara’s decision to start hiring male managers, which allowed the company to gain more mainstream traction, according to the HBR.

“In 1988, I said, ‘How about if we put some men in here?’ The [female] managers said, ‘No, thank you, we don’t need any of those creatures.’ But we did need them. A branch happened to hire a man as a part-timer, and wow, did sales increase!”

The second, the FT says, was Japan’s “l(fā)ost decade” of economic stagnation in the 1990s. As companies looked to avoid the higher cost of permanent employees, they turned to Temp and its workers.

This has led Shinohara to describe her leadership style as “hermit-crab management”.

“Born small, the scale of the hermit crab’s shell is appropriate to that stage of its life,” she says. “As TempStaff has grown, so have its organizational structures and systems.”

Shinohara never set out to be a billionaire. Instead, she has said, she just wanted to make a mark, through a business that “is needed in the world at large.”

“I want to contribute to society through business.”