It was 1964 and a degree was one of the conditions of employment so Mr Geffen told his bosses he had studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. When a letter from UCLA arrived casting doubt on his claim, he intercepted it in the mailroom, steaming it open and substituting its contents with a forgery. It was a daring act and had he been caught he would have been fired. Yet the extent of his later achievements suggest that not even rejection from William Morris would have derailed his path to success。

　　当时是1964年，有学位是其被雇佣的条件之一，于是，格芬就跟他的老板说，他曾在加州大学洛杉矶分校(University of California, Los Angeles，简称UCLA)就读。当一封来自该学校的信对他的说法提出质疑时，他在邮件室内截住了这封信，用蒸汽将其拆开，然后用一封假信掉了包。此举十分大胆，如果他被抓住，他将会被解雇。不过，他后来的成就表明，即使威廉•莫里斯拒绝了他，也不会阻止他走向成功。

　　A billionaire many times over, the 66-year-old was this week linked with a bid for The New York Times. This adds an interest in newspapers to a career in which he has dominated the music industry, produced a string of Broadway shows, launched DreamWorks SKG – the first truly independent film studio in decades – and accumulated one of the world's most impressive collections of modern art。

　　最近，这位66岁的亿万富翁被传有意收购《纽约时报》(The New York Times)。这将使他的事业范围扩展至报业。在其事业生涯里，他已经主宰了音乐界，制作了一系列百老汇歌舞剧，创建了梦工厂(Dreamworks SKG)——数十年来第一家真正独立的电影制片厂——还收集了世界上最令人惊叹的一部分现代艺术品。

　　His upbringing was a far cry from his billionaire lifestyle. He was born in Brooklyn, the son of a Polish father and Russian mother. His mother, Batya, owned a corset store; his father, Abraham, was a pattern maker in the garment trade. The family was not well off but his mother gave him a work ethic and was prone to sayings such as: “If something looks too good to be true, it probably is。” Mr Geffen is also fond of the maxim, says Jeffrey Katzenberg, a friend for 35 years and his partner, along with Steven Spielberg, in the creation of DreamWorks SKG. “He was influenced tremendously by his mother and will often quote her,” says Mr Katzenberg。

　　他的童年与现在亿万富翁的生活方式大相径庭。格芬出生于纽约的布鲁克林，父母分别来自波兰和俄罗斯。母亲巴蒂亚(Batya)拥有一家胸衣商店，而父亲亚伯拉罕(Abraham)是服装业的一名制版师。他的家庭并不富裕，但母亲向他灌输了工作观念，并总喜欢引用谚语，例如：“如果什么事看上去好的令人难以置信，那么你最好别信。”格芬也喜欢说格言，他35年的老友兼合伙人杰弗里•卡岑贝格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)如是说。他们二人连同斯蒂芬•斯皮尔伯格(Steven Spielberg)一起创建了梦工厂。“他受妈妈的影响极深，常常引用她的话，”卡岑贝格说道。

　　Mr Geffen scraped through high school and tried a term at the University of Texas before Hollywood beckoned. At 19, he got a job as an usher at CBS Television City where, on his first day, he was assigned to The Judy Garland Show. From there, he went back to New York and William Morris, where his contemporaries included Larry Gagosian, the renowned art dealer, and Barry Diller, who would become a friend and go on to run Rupert Murdoch's Fox。

　　格芬勉强读完了高中，在德克萨斯大学(University of Texas)尝试念了一个学期，就投奔了好莱坞。19岁时，他成为哥伦比亚电视城的一名引座员，第一天上班，他就被派到《茱蒂•嘉兰秀》(The Judy Garland Show)。他从电影城回到纽约，进入威廉•莫里斯，他的同龄人包括知名艺术经纪商拉里•加高西安(Larry Gagosian)，以及后来成为朋友的巴里•迪勒(Barry Diller)，迪勒后来执掌鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)的福克斯(Fox)。

　　Work in the mailroom

　　was tough and Mr Geffen later recalled having to fill the soapdispensers and change the toilet paper. But the agency taught him somevital lessons, such as how to form relationships and win trust. InDavid Rensin's 2003 book about the agency, The Mailroom, Mr Geffenrecalls learning how to “read the room ... I took mental notes oneverything”。

　　邮件室的工作非常艰苦，格芬后来回忆道，他还要添加液体肥皂，更换厕所手纸。但这家公司教给了他一些至关重要的经验，例如如何建立人际关系并赢得信任。在大卫•兰森(David Rensin) 2003年出版的有关这家公司的书《邮件室》(TheMailroom)中，格芬回忆自己学着如何去“读懂办公室……我在心中对每件事都做了笔记”。

　　Mr Katzenberg, who was Mr Diller's assistant when he first met Mr Geffen, says his friend has an uncanny ability to absorb large amounts of information, quickly retaining what isimportant. But success has come on his own terms. “One of the things that is so fascinating about him is that he isn't a type-A personality who has to get up very early every day and have a very full agenda,”says Mr Katzen berg. “It's not the way to get the greatest value out ofhim – and he knows that。”

　　卡岑贝格与格芬初次相遇时是迪勒的助手，他称他的朋友拥有一种不可思议的能力，能吸收大量信息，并迅速保留那些重要信息。但他取得成功并非靠墨守成规。“他的一个奇妙特点是，他并非那种A型性格——每天早早起床，日程排得满满的，”卡岑贝格说道。“这不是从他身上挖掘最大价值的方式，他也知道这一点。

　　By his mid-20s Mr Geffen was a millionaire thanks to the sale of a music publishing company he half-owned. He made a bigger impact in 1970 with the launch of Asylum Records, which nurtured actsincluding The Eagles and Joni Mitchell. The end of the 1970s washarder: he was misdiagnosed with cancer and did not work for severalyears. But he came back in 1980 with the launch of Geffen Records,which launched the careers of Guns N'Roses and Nirvana。

　　到25岁左右时，通过出售拥有一半所有权的音乐出版公司，格芬已成为了一名百万富翁。1970年，他创建了孕育出老鹰乐队(The Eagles)和约尼•米切尔(JoniMitchell)等艺人的AsylumRecords唱片公司，进一步增强了影响力。70年代末对他要艰难一些：他被误诊为癌症，停止工作数年之久。但1980年他又东山再起，创建了Geffen Records唱片公司，开创了“枪与玫瑰”(Guns N'Roses)和“涅磐”(Nirvana)乐队的事业。

　　Geffen Records propelled him into the realms of the super rich. A decade after its launch,he sold the label to Lew Wasserman's MCA Hollywood studio, receiving shares that would eventually net him $700m when MCA was acquired by Matsushita of Japan。

　　GeffenRecords唱片公司将格芬推入了超级富豪行列。该公司创建10年后，他将商标权出售给了卢•沃瑟曼(LewWasserman)旗下的MCA好莱坞唱片公司，当日本松下集团(Matsushita)收购MCA时，格芬所持股份为其最终赚得了7亿美元的利润。