Live in the present.

Author Yang Birch

In the afternoon I met my old friend at Yahoo and he shared an article with me from Google's chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette. In Wednesday, Patrick, the 52-Year-old, announced his resignation, which sparked a big rethink in the middle-and-high circles of Silicon Valley's technology companies. The following translation from Kai-fu Lee Teacher, he translated the article in the first time.

After nearly seven years of working for the CFO, I will retire from Google and spend more time with my family. Yes, I know you've all heard this before. We have paid too much for our work, and I am, no doubt, an example. Although I do not expect sympathy, I want to share my spiritual journey, for there are still many people struggling and weighing between work and personal life.

It's about last fall.

One morning last September, after a whole night's climb, I watched the sunrise on top of the African summit of Kilimanjaro Mt.. My wife Tamarindo and I enjoyed the summit, and the day was clear, and we were able to look at the vast plains beneath the Serengeti and feel the call--all possible adventures of African travel.

Tamarindo didn't know why he said to me suddenly, "Hey, why don't we just go on like this?" Let us explore Africa, then turn east and embark on the journey to India, right next to us, where we are. Then we go on, go to Himalaya Mountain, Mount Everest, go to Bali, go to the Great Barrier Reef ... Antarctica, how about we go to see Antarctica? ”

She did not know that it was an adventure.

I remember doing a typical cautious CFO response to Tamarindo: I'm willing to go on, but we have to go back. Now is not the time, there is still a lot of work to do in Google, my career is also, many people will expect me/US-board, non-profit organizations and so on.

But then she said the final question: When is the time? Our, when? What time is mine? The problem was hanging there, in the cold morning of Africa.

A few weeks later, I was happy to be back at work, but the question was lingering in my mind: When was the time to continue our adventure? I began to reflect on myself/our life. Last fall, (in the depths of my inner happiness) after a long period of deliberation, I came to some simple and superficial conclusions:

Children are no longer around.

Two are in college, one has graduated, and is working for a start-up company in Africa. They are excellent young people who make us proud. Most of this credit goes to Tamarindo. She is an incredible mother. It's unbelievable. But now, for Tamarindo and me, the van-packaged wheat circle, the whole night care for children's ear infections, and the six-point ice hockey training in the morning, these are past events. No one is waiting for us to take care of them, the children don't need us anymore.

Second, I will finish my 25-30 years (depending on how you divide the data) this summer.

It is indeed a great experience as fwio--, a member of the world-famous Brotherhood organization composed of insecure, overly successful people. But as far as my calculations go, this experience is now the crazy pace of a total of about 1500 weeks of continuous work. I'm always busy--even when it's not meant to be, especially when I feel guilty--I love my work (still), my colleagues, my friends, and the opportunities to change the world.

Three, this summer, Tamarindo and I celebrate the 25 anniversary of the wedding.

Our children were asked by their friends about the success of their parents ' long marriage, and they just joked that Tamarindo and I had little time to spend together, so it's really too early to say whether our marriage was successful. If only we could have a lot of good memories together. How much can you say? And how long? Anyway, one thing is for sure, I want more. My wife deserves more, more.

Let me share with you the rest of my conclusions. The answer is simple, I can't find a good retort to tell Tamarindo, we should wait a little longer to carry the backpack and embark on the journey-to lift this page, to enjoy a blessed and wonderful middle age, to celebrate our 25 together, to open the door for the emergence of our next generation of leaders.

It's a privilege to work at Google and nothing to ask for. Working with the best people, I know that Google will develop better in their efforts. I have so many friends at Google. Larry Sergei, Eric, thank you for your friendship. I am eternally grateful to Google for letting me be myself, for your trust, for your warmth, for your support, and for your laughter in times of adversity.

To be clear, I'm still in Google. I hope to finish the handover in the next few months, but it will take some time before we can find a new and appropriate Google CFO and help him or her to complete an orderly transition.

The last thing to say is that life is good, but it's a series of trade-offs, especially between business/professional effort and family/community life. Thankfully, I feel like I have a stage in my life: I don't need to make that choice anymore. I'm really thankful for that. Live in the present (Carpe Diem).