Sandberg told her bathroom story in a speech at TED1). There she was calling for more sex equality: “The numbers tell the story quite clearly,” she told the audience in Washington, DC. “One hundred and ninety heads of state; nine are women. Of all the people in parliament in the world, 13% are women. In the
corporate sector, women at the top, C-level jobs2), board seats, tops out at 15%~16%.
The numbers have not moved since 2002, and are going in the wrong direction.” The same could not be said of Sandberg. This year Facebook is expected to go public, in an initial public offering3) (IPO) share sale that could value it at $100bn and hand its COO her second huge Silicon Valley payday. Her first came at Facebook’s arch-rival: she had joined Google when the search company was in its profitless infancy, and left after its IPO with a fortune in stock options4). Google made Sandberg a multi-millionaire; Facebook could now make her a billionaire.
Mark Zuckerberg, Mr Social Network himself, poached5) Sandberg in 2008. When she joined Facebook, it had 70 million users worldwide and was losing money. Now it boasts 10 times as many users and makes money. Sam Hamadeh, chief executive of PrivCo6), a private company analyst, reckons Sandberg holds about 3% or 4% of Facebook, almost guaranteeing she will become a billionaire when the company goes public. She’s pretty much in charge of everything at Facebook apart from the product itself, and has proved a smooth and perfect foil7) to the geeky, spiky Zuckerberg.
credentials—that’s got to be very useful.”
Sandberg seems to have been a grownup from a very early age. She was always at the top of her class, her mother Adele told the New Yorker In 2011. It had its consequences. “In public schools, for a girl to be smart was not good for your social life,” Adele said. Her mother could only recall one time when her daughter rebelled. “One day she came home from school and said, ‘Mom, we have a problem. You’re not ready to let me grow up.’ I said, ‘You’re right.’ The minute she said it, I knew she was right.”
Sandberg studied economics at Harvard, where she caught the eye of Lawrence Summers, the former US treasury secretary who, in one of history’s neat coincidences, had been president of the college when Zuckerberg started Facebook. Summers volunteered to be her adviser in her senior year, when Sandberg decided to write her thesis on the role of economics in spousal abuse. He became her mentor and helped launched her stellar8) career.
In 1991, Summers became the chief economist at the World Bank, and recruited Sandberg as a research assistant. She then returned to Harvard, earning her MBA with the highest distinction9), and joined management consultancy McKinsey & Co10) before rejoining Summers, serving as his chief of staff when he became treasury secretary under Bill Clinton.
“Sheryl always believed that if there were 30 things on her to-do list at the beginning of the day, there would be 30 check marks at the end of the day,” Summers recalled. “If I was making a mistake, she told me. She was totally loyal, but totally in my face11).” She repaid that loyalty when Summers got into hot water12) for suggesting innate differences between men and women might be one reason that fewer women succeed in science- and maths-based careers. Sandberg wrote that Summers had been “a true advocate for women throughout his career.”
When the Democrats lost the 2000 presidential election, Sandberg joined Google. She helped broker the firm’s first big deal, providing search tools for then-dominant internet service provider AOL13), and was on her way to becoming one of the most powerful women in business.
It’s clear that Sandberg believes women, in part, have to take some of the blame for their under-representation at the top level. “Until women are as ambitious as men, they’re not going to achieve as much as men,” she told US talkshow host Charlie Rose last year.
“Everyone can come to the table, but it’s also all about who gets invited. Getting the right introductions, currying favour17) with people in power is all far more difficult for women. Sandberg had an incredibly powerful mentor; very few women are given that kind of opportunity.”
For Sucharita Mulpuru, a tech analyst at Forrester Research 18), the problem goes back further than that. “Women don’t pursue maths and sciences. If you don’t have a technology background, you are not going to get
a startup off the ground in Silicon Valley,” she says.
As Mulpuru points out, Sandberg isn’t the founder; she’s the manager. Like Leg Whitman, the former eBay boss to whom she is often compared, Sandberg is the adult supervisor brought in to manage the talented but temperamental19) boys.
Whitman turned eBay from a tech junk shop into a global phenomenon. Then she took her billions and started a second, less successful, career in politics. In 2010 Whitman spent $160m in an unsuccessful attempt to become governor of California, outspending the winner, Jerry Brown, six to one. And she is not the only tech leader to jump into politics— former Hewlett-Packard20) chief Carly Fiorina also made an unsuccessful bid for a California senate seat.
Commission that Hamadeh says was testimony to her political skills. “It should have been much worse for them,” he says.
Reciprocal23) altruism24) is her style. When the Sandbergs hosted Barack Obama for a Silicon Valley fundraiser25) in 2011, they brought in Lady Gaga too,
whose sky-high heels and hair made the event a media sensation.
In interviews Sandberg, inevitably, says she is happy at Facebook, and not thinking about what she wants to do next. But whenever she makes up her mind, she will not be short of the power and influence—or money—to make her goal happen.
注释：
10. McKinsey & Co：麦肯锡公司，全球最著名的管理咨询公司，由James O’McKinsey于1926年创建。
11. in one’s face：当着某人的面直接反对某人
12. get into hot water： (＝get into trouble)陷入麻烦中
14. juggle [ˈdʒʌɡ(ə)l] vt. 力图使平衡； 尽力对付
15. startup [ˈstɑːtˌʌp] n. 新兴公司(尤指新兴网络公司)； 新开张的企业
16. meritocracy [ˌmerɪˈtɒkrəsi] n. 精英管理(制度)； 贤能统治(社会)
17. curry favour：求宠(于人)； 拍(人)马屁
19. temperamental [ˌtemprəˈment(ə)l] adj. 冲动的； 性情暴躁的
20. Hewlett-Packard：惠普公司(简称HP)，美国一家全球性的资讯科技公司，主要专注于打印机、数位影像、软件、计算机与资讯服务等业务。
22. broker [ˈbrəʊkə(r)] vt. 作为中间人来安排、设法
23. reciprocal [rɪˈsɪprək(ə)l] adj. 互惠的
24. altruism [ˈæltruˌɪz(ə)m] n. 利他主义
25. fundraiser [ˈfʌndreizə] n. 筹款活动； 募捐会
但这样的情况并未发生在桑德伯格身上。今年 Facebook 即将上市 ( 编注：英文原文刊发于 2012 年 1 月 24 日，其时 Facebook 尚未上市 )，预计首次公开募股价值一千亿美元，这同时也将是这位首席运营官在硅谷的第二个巨额发薪日。她的第一个巨额发薪日来自 Facebook 的主要对手 Google：早在 Google 还处于毫无盈利的初创时期，她就加入了这家搜索引擎公司，并在 Google 首次公开募股之后离开了 Google，离开时当然带着一大笔价值不菲的优先认股权。 Google 使桑德伯格变成了千万富翁；而 Facebook 则可能使她成为亿万富翁。
人称“社交网络先生”的马克·扎克伯格于 2008 年挖走了桑德伯格。她加入Facebook 时， Facebook 在全球有七千万用户，还在亏损运营。如今， Facebook 拥有的用户数是之前的十倍，并且已开始赢利。据 PrivCo 首席执行官、私营公司分析师山姆·哈迈德估计，桑德伯格持有 Facebook 大约 3% 或 4% 的股份，公司一旦上市，这些股份几乎可以确保她成为亿万富翁。除了产品本身外，桑德伯格几乎管理着 Facebook 的一切事务。事实证明，对于难以应付的“极客一族”扎克伯格来说，温和的桑德伯格是他完美的搭档。
桑德伯格似乎很小的时候就显得很成熟了。 2011 年，她母亲阿黛尔告诉《纽约客》杂志，她上学时成绩一直名列前茅。这对她是有影响的。“在公立学校，一个女孩子太聪明对她的社交生活没什么好处。”阿黛尔说。在她母亲的记忆中，女儿只有一次叛逆的时候。“有一天，她放学回来，对我说：‘妈妈，我们之间有一个问题。你总是不想让我长大。’我说：‘你说的很对。’她刚一说完，我就知道她是对的。”
桑德伯格在哈佛学习经济学时，引起了美国前财政部长劳伦斯 · 萨默斯的注意。纯粹出于历史的巧合，在扎克伯格创办 Facebook 时，萨默斯碰巧是哈佛大学校长。在大四撰写毕业论文时，桑德伯格决定要写关于经济学在虐待配偶中所起的作用，萨默斯主动提出要做她的指导老师。他成了她的良师益友，帮助她开启了卓越的职业生涯。
1991 年，萨默斯成为世界银行首席经济学家，就聘用桑德伯格做他的研究助理。之后，桑德伯格又回到了哈佛，以最优异的成绩获得了工商管理学硕士学位，并加入了管理咨询企业麦肯锡公司。后来她又重新回到萨默斯身边，在他担任克林顿政府财政部长时做他的办公室主任。
“谢丽尔一直坚信，在她一天的工作清单中，如果开始时有 30 项待办事宜，那么在一天结束时，这 30 项前面都应该打上对勾，”萨默斯回忆说，“如果我犯了错，她会告诉我。她绝对忠于职守，但又全然不顾我的面子。”后来，她又一次表现出了对萨默斯的忠诚，那是因为萨默斯说女性在以科学和数学为基础的职业中鲜有成功者，其原因之一大概在于男女与生俱来的差异，这句话使萨默斯成为众矢之的。针对此事，桑德伯格撰文说萨默斯其实“在整个职业生涯中一直是力挺女性的”。
在家里，她有两个孩子—儿子出生于 2005 年，两年后女儿诞生。她的丈夫是戴维·哥德堡，在线数据公司 SurveyMonkey 的首席执行官。他们要经常调整各自的时间安排，以确保总会有一个人在家里照顾孩子。“你要作出的最重要的职业选择是和谁结婚。”她去年在一次演讲中说道。
显然，桑德伯格认为，针对顶级领导层中女性稀少的这一现象，女人本身是要负一部分责任的。“除非女人像男人一样有事业心，否则她们不会取得和男人一样大的成就。”去年她在接受美国脱口秀节目主持人查理·罗斯采访时说道。
但如果你有钱来为自己的事业开路，你的职业生涯会更容易掌控。对于大多数女性来说，要做到这一点并不容易，塞凯·法莱说。法莱是哥伦比亚大学的文化人类学家，一直致力于研究新兴科技公司。“科技界在不断进步，这里的一切都由精英来管理。”她说道。
“人人都有机会来分享盛宴，但关键是谁能够得到邀请。对于女性来说，要得到正确的引荐，赢得当权者的青睐，简直是难上加难。桑德伯格遇到了一个拥有惊人权势的导师，能拥有这种机遇的女性少之又少。”塞凯说。
互惠利他主义是她一贯的行事作风。 2011 年，桑德伯格夫妇在硅谷的一场募捐活动上款待了巴拉克·奥巴马，他们还特意邀请了嘎嘎小姐到场。嘎嘎小姐那空前绝后的高跟鞋和夸张怪异的发型把这一活动变成了轰动一时的新闻事件。
在接受采访时，桑德伯格总是说她在 Facebook 干得很愉快，没有去想下一步该做什么。但一旦她下定决心，不管任何时候，她都不会缺少所需的权力、影响力—甚或是财力—来实现自己的目标。
注：本文选自经典双语美文《让生命绽放美丽：改变世界的50位名人》，恋练有词微店现货热销中，包邮有赠，可点击如下“阅读原文”进入恋练有词微店。
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