????馬宏升在倫敦東南部長大,，是家里六個孩子中最小的,。他15歲就輟學了。但這并不意味著馬宏升是個壞孩子,。馬宏升是反新納粹運動的左翼團體社會黨勞動聯(lián)盟(Socialist Labor League)的一名年輕成員,，他曾多次組織反政府示威，并憑借個人魅力和激情贏得了眾人的擁戴,。馬宏升的父親埃迪可能是唯一一個對兒子的魅力免疫的人,，他后來甚至與這個叛逆的兒子形同陌路。埃迪一輩子都在一家化學染料工廠工作,，最終在工廠車間中毒身亡,。就在埃迪去世前不久，他在路上遇到一個集會,，第一次看到自己的兒子公開演講,?！斑@小子演說很有一套，”埃迪后來跟馬宏升的母親說,，“這點本事將來要么用來做大事,，要么做壞事。但不管怎樣,，他都能鼓舞別人的斗志,。”
????“一旦你能夠證明自己的盈利潛力,，人們就會無限認可你的能力,。”——庫茨對馬洛說，約瑟夫?康拉德《黑暗之心》（Heart of Darkness）,。
????兩年前,，馬宏升的人生光明無比。當時,，他剛剛年滿54歲,，已經(jīng)是硅谷英特爾公司（Intel）的執(zhí)行副總裁。外界一致看好他將成為首席執(zhí)行官歐德寧的頭號接班人,。加盟英特爾之前,，馬宏升從泰晤士理工大學（Thames Polytechnic University）輟學，并曾短暫供職于巴克萊公司（Barclays）,。在英特爾工作期間,，馬宏升獲得時任首席執(zhí)行官安迪?格羅夫的關(guān)注，被提拔擔任技術(shù)助理——類似于研究和助理人員主管,。格羅夫回憶稱,，1994年，公司因數(shù)百萬有瑕疵的奔騰處理器而陷入危機,，馬宏升“表現(xiàn)得就像一臺發(fā)動機”,。這位不屈不撓的問題解決者有一次穿上派克大衣、戴上護目鏡,，全副武裝,，打扮成英國南極探險家歐內(nèi)斯特?沙克爾頓的樣子，向員工發(fā)表演講,。員工們都沸騰了,。“（他是）世界上最擅長交流的人之一,，”歐德寧回憶說,。
????馬宏升有5個孩子。他也是一個工作狂，那些讓人精疲力竭的出差和加班他卻樂此不疲,；同時他還熱衷劇烈的運動——沖浪,、每天早上6點和比他年輕得多的伙伴一起劃船。這些挑戰(zhàn)極限的行為常常使他的同事和家人備感壓力,，但也最終成為他身體和精神得到恢復的關(guān)鍵,。整個康復過程堪稱一段非凡的旅程，對此,，馬宏升和他的家人此前還從未公開討論過,。
????2009年，馬宏升的妻子瑪格利特懷上了一對雙胞胎,。當年10月份進行常規(guī)檢查的時候,，妻子發(fā)現(xiàn)其中一個胎兒已經(jīng)停止了心跳。醫(yī)生建議,，要保住另外一個孩子,，最好的辦法是繼續(xù)懷著這兩個孩子。2010年1月4日,，瑪格麗特提前5個星期分娩,。馬宏升當時正在休寒假,，那天他正和帶著最大的孩子在外滑雪,。得知消息后，他馬上趕回家,。雙胞胎中幸存下來的凱瑟琳當時的體重只有4磅11盎司,，看起來相當健康。不料6周之后,，凱瑟琳突然休克,，隨后馬上被送往斯坦福醫(yī)院（Stanford Hospital）。
????那是一個星期四,，一個改變了馬宏升命運的日子,。當時他正在出差途中，但他馬上趕回家里,，陪在凱瑟琳身邊,。第二天，馬宏升從醫(yī)院的重癥監(jiān)護室看完孩子出來就感到身體不舒服,?！拔议_始想，‘我說不了話了’,，”他回憶說,。他試著寫一句話“敏捷的棕色狐貍從懶惰的狗的身上跳了過去” 【The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.（這句話包含了英語全部26個字母——譯注）】，但是卻不能將詞語和字母按正確的順序?qū)懗鰜怼Ｋ涯菑垇y七八糟的字條拿給當時21歲的兒子喬治和20歲的女兒布里吉特看,，要求他們瞞著瑪格麗特,，因為她當時還要照顧生病的嬰兒和一對5歲大的雙胞胎女兒。打開自己的電腦后,，馬宏升開始用Google搜索“語言”,、“口齒不清”、“頭疼”,，以及其他任何能用來描述自己癥狀的詞語,。幾分鐘后他得出一個結(jié)論：“糟了，我中風了,?！?/p> |
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????Sean Maloney grew up in gritty South East London, last in a line of six kids, and got kicked out of school at age 15. Not that Sean was a bad kid. As a young member of the Socialist Labor League, a left-wing group pitched against a rising neo-Nazi movement, Sean organized antigovernment demonstrations and, with his charisma and passion, recruited followers. Perhaps the only person not charmed by the young man was Sean's father, Eddie, who had become estranged from his rebellious son. Then, just before Eddie Maloney died of poisoning in the chemical dye factory where he worked his whole life, he stopped by a rally and watched his son speak publicly for the first time. "That boy has a skill," Eddie told Sean's mother afterward. "He'll do something great with it or something terrible. Either way, he'll inspire people."
????"You show them you have in you something that is really profitable, and then there will be no limits to the recognition of your ability." -- Kurtz to Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
????Two years ago life could not have looked brighter for Sean Maloney. At 54, he was a Silicon Valley-based executive vice president at Intel (INTC) and widely believed to be No. 1 in line to succeed CEO Paul Otellini. Having joined Intel after dropping out of Thames Polytechnic University and working briefly at Barclays, Maloney caught the eye of former Intel CEO Andy Grove, who made the young man his technical assistant -- sort of a chief of staff cum researcher. Grove remembers that in 1994, when the company was managing a crisis over millions of flawed Pentium chips, Maloney "was a dynamo." An indefatigable problem-solver, Maloney once addressed a group of employees dressed as explorer Ernest Shackleton -- parka, goggles, and all. The crowd went wild. "One of the world's best communicators," Otellini recalls.
????Maloney, who had five children, also was a workaholic who embraced the punishing travel schedule and long hours, all the while taking on heady physical challenges -- tearing down ski runs, racing his scull at 6 a.m. every day with a much younger rowing buddy. This extreme behavior often taxed his co-workers and family, but they would prove to be the keys to the remarkable physical and mental recovery he was about to embark on -- a journey Maloney and his family have not discussed publicly until now.
????In October 2009 during a routine visit to her doctor, Maloney's wife, Margaret, who was expecting twins, learned that one of the fetuses had lost a heartbeat. The best way to keep the other baby alive, her doctor advised, would be to carry both to term. On Jan. 4, 2010, she delivered five weeks early. Sean, who was off skiing during an annual winter vacation with his oldest children, raced back. The surviving twin, Catherine, at 4 pounds 11 ounces, seemed healthy. But six weeks later she stopped breathing and had to be rushed to Stanford Hospital.
????Maloney hurried home again that fateful Thursday, this time from a business trip, to be at Catherine's side, and on Friday, after visiting the baby at the hospital's neonatal intensive-care unit, he felt sure that something was wrong with him too. "I started to think, 'I'm losing words,' " he recalls. He tried to write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," but he couldn't get the words and letters to go in the right order. He showed his jumbled writing to his son George, then 21, and daughter Brigid, 20, making them promise not to tell Margaret, who had a sick baby plus 5-year-old twin girls in her charge. Getting on his computer, Sean Googled "speech," "mixed-up words," "headache" -- anything he could think of to describe his symptoms. It took him no more than a few minutes to reach a conclusion: " 'That's it,' I said to myself, 'I'm having a stroke.'" |
