从球童到大亨：高尔夫球场上的成功路

    时光倒流回上世纪五十年代晚期，那时的彼得•林奇还是一个十一岁的懵懂少年，却已经在马萨诸塞州牛顿市的Brae Burn乡村俱乐部（Brae Burn Country Club）当上了小球童。“这份工比送报纸来要好，赚的钱也多得多，”如今已经贵为富达投资集团（Fidelity）副主席的彼得•林奇回忆道。他的这份工作做了差不多十个夏天。“你得把球场的大小道路拎得门儿清，这样就可以给打球的人说明去各个球洞该怎么走了，”他接着说。“这要是放在别处，十五、六岁的孩子哪有机会给权贵们当心腹顾问啊！”

    林奇服务过的大人物里，有一位就是时任富达基金总裁的乔治•沙利文。林奇的机敏给他留下了深刻的印象。因此，早在1966年，沙利文就将林奇招入麾下。“三个岗位，七十五个人申请，”林奇回忆说。“不过我是唯一一个已经为总裁当过十年球童的人。”后来，他再接再厉，把富达麦哲伦基金（FMAGX）的资产从1,800万美元做大到了140亿美元。1977年到1990年间，这支基金的回报率达到了创纪录的29.2%。

    从担任球童到成为资本管理者中间的这段时间里，林奇靠着弗朗西斯•乌伊梅基金（the Francis Ouimet Fund）提供的奖学金在波士顿学院（Boston College）求学。【“我之所以能去沃顿商学院（Wharton）进修，而且没借一分钱，完全多亏了这项奖学金，”林奇表示。】弗朗西斯•乌伊梅基金得名于1913年美国高尔夫球公开赛的胜者。这个基金创立于1949年，为十三位球童、球场管理员、器材商店店员和其他在高尔夫球场工作的孩子们提供约4,600美元的大学奖学金。截至去年，这项奖学金已经为325名学生提供了约150万美元的资助。

    乌伊梅基金只资助马萨诸塞州的孩子，但无论是纽约市郊区还是俄勒冈中部，全美到处都有类似的项目。比起奖励运动健将的传统体育奖学金，这类奖学金就不那么为人熟知了。但是乌伊梅基金的执行官罗伯特多•诺万表示，高尔夫球手与他们最喜欢的球童之间关系融洽，资助孩子们上大学合情合理。“球手和为他们拿球杆的孩子之间存在着一种完整的传帮带关系。对孩子们自己来说，当球童就是近距离观察学习成功的榜样。”

    事实显而易见，从演员比尔•莫瑞，到《纽约时报》（ New York Times）言论专栏作家托马斯•弗里德曼，再到前通用电气（GE）主席兼首席执行官杰克•韦尔奇，各行各业的名人里有很多都是球童出身。与他人合作创立投行艾维克合伙人公司（Evercore Partners）并曾担任财政部副部长的罗杰•阿尔特曼也是乌伊梅基金资助项目的受益者。同样的还有雷•达里奥，他创办了资产管理巨头桥水联合基金（Bridgewater Associates）。

    当然，球童出身的金融界大腕数量如此之多也可能纯属巧合。但是迪克•康诺利并不这么认为。“球童生活能教会人大量商业和生活方面的知识，”他说。“你得学会提前到场，学会握手时直视对方的眼睛，学会阅人——比方说学会判断谁会作假，而谁不会。”康诺利长期担任摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley's）波士顿分部的投资顾问，他曾经是乌伊梅奖学金的资助学生，如今和彼得•林奇、罗杰•阿尔特曼一道，都是这个项目最大的支持者。

    康诺利跟我们分享了他在球场上学到的最重要的一课，他说：“我当球童时服务过的一位球手告诉我，要想在任何领域取得成功——不管是高尔夫球场还是生意场——都必须花费大量的时间独自修炼，要么练习，要么工作，虽然你可能更想花时间和朋友们聚会玩乐。这话说得在理，我一直牢记在心，也从中受益匪浅。”（财富中文网）

    译者：Nasca

    Way back in the late 1950s, at the tender age of 11, Peter Lynch started caddying at Brae Burn Country Club in Newton, Mass. "It was better than a paper route, and much more lucrative," the Fidelity vice chairman recalls. He kept it up during the summers for almost a decade. "You get to know the course and can give the players advice about how to approach various holes," he says. "Where else, at age 15 or 16, can you serve as a trusted adviser to high-powered people?"

    One of those people was George Sullivan, then president of Fidelity's funds, who was so impressed with Lynch's smarts that he hired him in 1966. "There were about 75 applicants for 3 job openings," Lynch says now. "But I was the only one who had caddied for the president for 10 years." He later went on to build Fidelity's Magellan Fund (FMAGX) from $18 million to more than $14 billion in assets, with a record-smashing 29.2% return from 1977 to 1990.

    In between caddying and managing money, Lynch went to Boston College on a scholarship from a program called the Francis Ouimet Fund ("the main reason I could go on to Wharton with no student debt," he says). Named after the 1913 winner of the U.S. Open, the fund launched in 1949, giving out about $4,600 in college scholarships to 13 caddies, greens keepers, pro shop clerks, and other teenaged golf course workers. By last year, that had grown to $1.5 million in financial aid to 325 students.

    The Ouimet Fund is open to Massachusetts kids only, but similar programs are flourishing across the U.S., from the suburbs of New York City to central Oregon. These funds are far less familiar to most people than the traditional athletic scholarships that reward players. But, says Ouimet executive director Robert Donovan, help with college is a logical extension of the rapport between golfers and their favorite caddies: "There is a whole mentoring bond that happens between the players and the kids who carry their clubs. And for the teens, caddying is all about being around successful role models."

    Apparently so. Erstwhile caddies include all kinds of luminaries, from actor Bill Murray, to New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman, to former GE (GE) chairman and CEO Jack Welch. Roger Altman, co-founder of investment bank Evercore Partners (EVR) and a former deputy Treasury secretary, was aOuimet Fund scholar, as was Ray Dalio, founder of money-management powerhouse Bridgewater Associates.

    Of course, the number of financial whizzes who caddied in their youth might be sheer coincidence, but Dick Connolly thinks not. "Caddying teaches you a tremendous amount about business, and about life," he says. "You learn to show up early and look people in the eye when you shake their hand, and you learn how to read people -- including who's inclined to cheat and who isn't." Connolly is a longtime investment advisor at Morgan Stanley's (MS) Boston office, a former Ouimet scholarship student and, along with Peter Lynch and Roger Altman, one of the program's biggest supporters.

    The most important lesson he learned on the links, he says: "One golfer I caddied for told me that if you want to succeed in any field -- golf or business -- you have to spend a lot of lonely hours, either practicing or working, when you'd rather be partying with your friends. That's true, and it stuck with me. It's served me well."