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There's one similarity between Amazon and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, AMD's Lisa Su, General Motors' Mary Barra and NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
亚马逊和蓝色起源的CEO杰夫·贝索斯，苹果的蒂姆·库克、谷歌的桑达尔·皮查伊，AMD的苏姿丰、通用汽车的玛丽·巴拉以及英伟达的黄仁勋都有一个共同点。
These days, the heads of some of the most successful companies in the world have one thing in common.
现在，世界上一些最成功的公司的领导人都有一个共同的特点。
They're engineers.
他们都是工程师。
For those who aspire to be CEO of a company one day, getting an MBA - a Master of Business Administration degree - used to be the way to go.
对于那些梦想将来能成为一名CEO的人来说，过去通常认为获得工商管理硕士（MBA）学位是一条必走的道路。
But that's not so true anymore.
但这一观念已经开始改变。
Harvard Business Review used to publish an annual list of the top 100 best-performing CEOs.
《哈佛商业评论》曾经每年评出表现最佳的100位CEO。
In 2018, they found that for a second year in a row, there were more CEOs with an engineering degree than an MBA. 34 compared to 32.
2018年的调查显示，连续第二年，拥有工程学位的CEO数量已经超过了拥有MBA的CEO，比例为34比32。
Some had both.
其中一些拥有这两种学位。
Getting an MBA can come with a hefty price tag.
读MBA的费用非常高昂。
Top graduate schools such as the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton or Harvard Business School will set you back over $200,000.
就读如宾夕法尼亚大学的沃顿商学院或哈佛商学院等顶尖商学院，可能会花费你超过20万美元。
Now, some CEOs are telling you to save your money.
现在，一些CEO建议你可以省下这笔钱。
Elon Musk went so far as to say, "I think there might be too many MBAs running companies" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
埃隆·马斯克在接受《华尔街日报》的采访时曾说：“我觉得太多的MBA在管理公司，这是一个问题。”
He thinks those with business degrees spend too much time in board meetings pouring over power points and finances when their focus should be on the product.
他认为，这些商业学位的持有者往往在董事会会议里过多时间关注PPT展示和财务分析，而忽视了产品本身。
The thinking being that if the product is good the profits will follow.
马斯克认为，优秀的产品自然能带来盈利。
In the case of Musk that means building great electric cars at Tesla or great reusable rockets at SpaceX.
在马斯克的案例中，这意味着在特斯拉制造出色的电动车，在SpaceX制造可重复使用的火箭。
That's where being an engineer is helpful.
这就是工程师的用处所在。
Engineers can design, build, create, and improve their product because of their background in math, science, and technology.
工程师有能力设计、建造、创新，他们的数学、科学和技术背景使他们能够改进产品。
And they can help solve challenging technical problems that might otherwise scuttle their dreams.
并且还可以解决可能阻碍他们实现梦想的技术难题。
Technically, Musk has a degree in physics and economics not engineering.
严格来说，马斯克虽然拥有物理和经济学位，但并非工程学位。
He's a self-taught engineer who read books to learn about rocket science.
他是个自学成才的工程师，通过读书自学了火箭科学。
When engineering consultant Sandy Munro interviewed him for his YouTube channel Munro Live, he said it's Musk's knowledge that stands out.
当工程顾问桑迪·门罗在他的YouTube频道“门罗直播”采访他的时候，他表示被马斯克的知识深度所震撼。
I was blown away.
我非常惊讶。
I've seen dozens of CEOs.
我见过很多CEO。
I've never seen a CEO ever or a president that knew more about the product.
但我从未见过任何一个CEO比他更了解自己的产品。
That technical know-how that comes with an engineering background goes a long way toward building better products.
拥有工程背景的那种技术知识，对于创造更好的产品至关重要。
Just ask Satya Nadella, the engineer at Microsoft who rose to become CEO.
就拿微软的萨提亚·纳德拉来说，他是一位工程师，后来成为了CEO。
When he took over the top job in 2014, he had to figure out a way to make Microsoft relevant as it faced an onslaught from Apple.
2014年他成为管理层时，他需要找出方法，让微软在与苹果的竞争中继续保持竞争力。
We now need to make Microsoft thrive.
我们现在需要让微软蓬勃发展。
The software company struggled to thrive under the leadership of his predecessor Steve Ballmer.
在他的前任史蒂夫·鲍尔默的领导下，微软努力发展，但成果有限。
Its products were far from revolutionary.
其产品没有颠覆性创新。
The Surface was a response to the iPad, the Windows phone and answer to the iPhone.
Surface是对iPad的回应，Windows手机是对iPhone的回应。
Ballmer has a degree in mathematics and economics from Harvard which helped balance the books but didn't do much when it comes to innovation.
鲍尔默虽然在哈佛大学学过数学和经济学，这帮助他管理财务，但在创新方面并没有太多作为。
When Nadella took over, he transformed Microsoft - moving its software to non-Windows devices.
德拉接手后，他彻底改变了微软，使其软件也能用在非Windows设备上。
For example, bringing Microsoft Word to the iPad and the iPhone.
例如，他把微软Word带到了iPad和iPhone。
He also expanded its cloud business Azure which has become the biggest rival to Amazon's AWS.
他还发展了云服务Azure，现在它已经成为亚马逊AWS的主要竞争对手。
In his first email to employees as CEO, Nadella wrote: "Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects innovation." That innovative spirit of engineering saved Microsoft.
作为CEO，他在给员工的第一封邮件中，写道：“我们的行业没有传统，只有创新。”这种创新精神帮助微软焕发新生。
But it's not easy.
但这并不容易。
It requires risky moves and not accepting failure.
这需要勇敢的尝试，不能害怕失败。
As American inventor Thomas Edison famously said: "I have not failed. I've only found 10,000 ways that won't work." James Dyson, the British engineer, knows a thing or two about not giving up.
正如美国发明家托马斯·爱迪生曾说：“我没有失败，我只是找到了一万种行不通的方法。”詹姆斯·戴森，这位英国工程师也懂得坚持到底的重要性。
He became frustrated when a vacuum he had at home kept losing suction.
他曾因为家里的吸尘器吸力不足而感到沮丧。
So he decided to build a better vacuum himself.
因此他决定自己设计一个更好的吸尘器。
He spent 15 years tinkering with over 5,000 different prototypes to come up with the perfect bagless design.
他花了15年时间，试验了超过5,000种设计，最终发明了一种完美的无袋吸尘器。
I'd like to give you a little demonstration.
我想给你展示一下数据来证实。
The payoff for his perseverance was a multi-billion dollar company that bears his name.
他的坚持最终创造了一个价值数十亿美元、以他名字命名的公司。
In order to be successful, Dyson was invested in the fine details of his company.
成功的关键是，戴森投入到了公司的每一个小细节。
Engineers aren't afraid to get involved in the day-to-day business - especially when it comes to hiring.
工程师们乐于参与日常工作，特别是在招聘方面。
Amazon is notorious for tough interviews.
亚马逊的面试非常严格。
Bezos, who has a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, used to meet every candidate himself during Amazon's early days.
贝索斯有电气工程和计算机科学学位，在亚马逊初期他亲自面试每一位候选人。
He would ask quirky questions like: How many gas stations are there in America?
他会问一些奇怪的问题，比如：“美国有多少个加油站？”
He wasn't after the right answer but wanted to see whether the candidate had an analytical approach in order to come up with an informed response.
他不在乎具体的答案，而是想看候选人是否能用分析的方式来回答。
Bezos once said setting the bar high for hiring was the most important factor for the online retailer's success.
贝索斯曾说，高标准的招聘是这家在线零售商成功的关键。
It's no surprise that engineers make it to the top of the tech industry which has seen explosive growth over the years.
不出所料，多年来科技行业的迅猛发展让许多工程师走到了行业的前列。
But they're also doing well at non-tech companies.
他们在非科技公司也表现出色。
Like Jeffrey Sprecher, the CEO of the holding company that owns the New York Stock Exchange.
例如，杰弗里·斯普雷彻，就是拥有纽约证券交易所的控股公司的CEO。
He has a degree in chemical engineering.
他拥有化学工程的学位。
I've never had a job that had anything to do with chemistry but the discipline that I went through there taught me about problem-solving and business is really just that.
我从未做过任何与化学相关的工作，但我在那里受的训练教会了我如何解决问题，而实际上商业也正是如此。
Engineers are very good at solving problems and that's the key to doing everything from building a bridge across a river to designing a rocket to get to Mars.
工程师们擅长解决问题，这是从建造跨河桥梁到设计前往火星的火箭的关键所在。
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