????“我父親開辦、經(jīng)營過一家景觀美化公司，他常讓我?guī)湍棠虧不?，裝飾我們家的院子。他常掛在嘴邊的一句話是：“如果你不澆水，花草就會(huì)枯死。”我非常討厭這份差事：給這些討厭的花朵澆水。可我母親和奶奶的花園是鎮(zhèn)上最漂亮的。

????“當(dāng)我走出去闖世界之后，父親的建議可以理解為：全情投入事業(yè)，它才會(huì)發(fā)展。1998年，杜邦（Dupont）高層要求我在公司內(nèi)創(chuàng)設(shè)安全業(yè)務(wù)。我得到的指點(diǎn)很少，只好從公司里挑了四個(gè)背景各不相同的員工加入我的團(tuán)隊(duì)。每逢周五下午，我們感到疲憊不堪、靈感枯竭時(shí)，我就把團(tuán)隊(duì)聚在一起‘澆水’。我們一起探討我們做的事，哪些是對的，那些是錯(cuò)的，，哪些有效、哪些不管用。我們開創(chuàng)的安全咨詢業(yè)務(wù)的營收數(shù)年內(nèi)就增長到了數(shù)億美元，日后更演變?yōu)槎虐畎踩c保護(hù)平臺，后者的規(guī)模如今已達(dá)50億美元左右。看看杜邦現(xiàn)在所從事的業(yè)務(wù)，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)初那個(gè)小團(tuán)隊(duì)其實(shí)就是如今我們一個(gè)重頭業(yè)務(wù)的前身。”

柯愛倫

年齡：56

工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)：通用電氣（General Electric）商業(yè)發(fā)展經(jīng)理；通用汽車（General Motors）前董事；聯(lián)合技術(shù)公司（United Technologies）現(xiàn)任董事；奧巴馬總統(tǒng)設(shè)立的就業(yè)與競爭力委員會(huì)（Council on Jobs and Competitiveness）成員

職業(yè)成就：首位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)杜邦這家已有210年歷史的化工巨頭的女性；從她三年前接任算起，杜邦股價(jià)累計(jì)上漲了141%，遠(yuǎn)高于同期標(biāo)普500指數(shù)的67%漲幅；她還是美國國家工程學(xué)院（the National Academy of Engineering）“改變對話主題：從研究到行動(dòng)”委員會(huì)的聯(lián)席主席；她在財(cái)富最有權(quán)勢女性排行榜上高居第4位。

譯者：小宇

????"My dad started and ran a landscaping business. He put me to work watering plants for my grandmother and for our house. His mantra was, 'If you don't water it, it's going to die.' That was the job I hated most: pouring water on those darn flowers. But my mother and my grandmother had the most beautiful gardens in town.

????"When I got out in the world, my father's advice translated into investing yourself in what you're building in order for it to grow. In 1998, I was asked to start a safety business at DuPont. I wasn't given a lot of direction. I picked four other people in the company with different backgrounds to join me. On Friday afternoons, when we were dead tired and out of ideas, I used to bring the team together and 'water plants.' We'd talk about what was wrong, what was right, what was working, and what wasn't. We created a safety-consulting business that grew to a couple hundred million dollars in revenue in a few years and became the genesis of our safety and protection platform, which grew to about $5 billion. If you think about the things DuPont does today, that small group was the genesis of what is now a large focus of what we do."

Ellen Kullman

Age: 56

Job Experience: Business development manager at General Electric (GE, Fortune 500); former board member of General Motors (GM, Fortune 500); current board member of United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500); member of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

Claim to Fame: First woman to lead the 210-year-old DuPont (DD, Fortune 500); since she took the helm three years ago, DuPont has returned 141% compared with 67% for the S&P 500; co-chair of the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Changing the Conversation: From Research to Action; ranks fourth on Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women.