????回顧過去100年最偉大的商業思想家，史蒂夫·喬布斯和山姆·沃頓肯定處于這份榜單最頂部的位置。喬布斯創建了地球上最有價值的公司——盡管蘋果公司（Apple）的股價已經從歷史最高位跌落，但這家公司的價值依然超過5,000億美元；沃頓則是世界最大公司沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）的創始人，該公司過去12個月的營收額高達4,500億美元。但喬布斯和沃爾頓的功績并不止于此。兩人開啟了零售、商業，甚至社會革命。他們改變了我們購物和互動的形式，甚至改變了我們工作和生活的方式和場所。兩人出身的背景迥異。喬布斯是一位來自加州、帶有濃厚商業氣息的反文化偶像。來自加州的沃爾頓則是一位老派的保守主義者。但兩人又非常相似：他們當然都反對偶像崇拜，而且冷酷無情，對其身邊的人往往非常地嚴苛。但這僅僅是表面現象。如果真的深入到他們的生活和事業之中，各種妙不可言的見解就會浮現出來。

????就比較和對比這兩位杰出人物而言，還有誰能比兩人杰出的傳記作家沃爾特·艾薩克森和約翰·休伊做得更好呢？《喬布斯自傳》（Steve Jobs）的作者艾薩克森是阿斯彭研究所（Aspen Institute）CEO，曾任CNN主席、《時代周刊》（Time）編輯，也是基辛格、富蘭克林和愛因斯坦的傳記作者。《富甲美國：零售大王沃爾頓自傳》（Sam Walton: Made in America with Walton）一書的作者休伊則是時代公司（Time Inc.）的總編輯、《財富》雜志（Fortune）前編輯（我的老板）。

????這次交談的靈感源自筆者9月初在寡頭控股公司全球峰會（Global Summit for the Closely Held）上對休伊和艾薩克森進行的一次采訪。峰會主辦者BDT公司（BDT & Co.）是一家面向家族企業的商業銀行。3年前，離開高盛公司（Goldman Sachs）之后，拜倫·特羅特創辦了這家公司。在高盛期間，他有一個著名的身份：為沃倫·巴菲特服務。一提起他們的傳記的主角，休伊和艾薩克森似乎有說不完的話要講（正如你將看到的那樣，我其實沒必要問許多問題！）。以下是這次訪談的摘要：

????蘇安迪：對于商科學生和經商者來說，這兩本傳紀是必讀書——這一點毫無疑問。山姆·沃爾頓和史蒂夫·喬布斯位居史上最偉大的商業領袖之列。所以我首先想問兩位傳記作家的是：你們與他們是如何結識的？

????沃爾特·艾薩克森：1984年1月份，那時我還是《時代周刊》雜志一名剛剛入行的記者時，史蒂夫·喬布斯來到我們雜志社顯擺最初版本的麥金塔電腦（Macintosh）。從那時起，我就認識他了。我發覺他的性格存在兩面性。他讓我們使用一位珠寶商的放大鏡觀察電腦的圖標。爾后，他的臉色突然變得陰沉起來，開始訓斥我們，他說我們永遠都無法體會這玩意的美妙之處。我看到了他個性中極端的一面，開始逐漸喜歡上了這個家伙。

????我先后成為《時代周刊》和CNN的編輯之后，他就成了我的好朋友，只不過這種友情每年僅延續2天——因為他要發布新產品，我們才有了這種關系。

????When you consider the greatest business minds of the past 100 years, certainly Steve Jobs and Sam Walton have to be at the very top of the list. Jobs created?the most valuable company on earth?(though down from an all-time high, Apple (AAPL) is still worth more than $500 billion), while Walton founded and built Wal-Mart (WMT), the biggest company in the world, with more than $450 billion in sales over the past 12 months. But Jobs and Walton did even more than that. Both created retailing, business, and even societal revolutions. They changed the way we buy, shop, and interact, and even how and where we work and live. The two men were vastly different. Jobs was a business version of a California counterculture icon. Walton was an old-school heartland conservative. And yet they were remarkably similar too: iconoclasts, of course, relentless, and often very tough on the people around them. And that's just for starters. If you really drill down into their lives and careers, all kinds of really cool insights emerge.

????Who better to compare and contrast these two remarkable men than their remarkable biographers, Walter Isaacson and John Huey??Isaacson, author?of Steve Jobs, is the CEO of the Aspen Institute, a former head of CNN and editor of?Time, and also the author of biographies of Kissinger, Franklin, and Einstein. Huey, who wrote?Sam Walton: Made in America with Walton, is the editor-in-chief of Time Inc., the former editor of?Fortune, and my boss.

????The inspiration for this conversation came from an interview of Huey and Isaacson that I conducted in early September at the Global Summit for the Closely Held, put on by BDT & Co., a merchant bank for family-controlled companies?headed by Byron Trott, who founded the company three years ago after leaving Goldman Sachs, where he was famously Warren Buffett's banker. Huey and Isaacson had plenty to say about their subjects. (As you can see, I didn't really have to ask many questions!) What follows are the highlights.

????Andy?Serwer: These books are must-reads for students and practitioners of business -- there's no doubt about that. Sam Walton and?Steve Jobs?are two of the greatest business leaders in history. So I want to start by asking our biographers: How did you get to know the subjects of your books?

????Walter?Isaacson: I'd known Steve Jobs since 1984, January, when I was at?Time?magazine, a junior writer, and he came to show off the original Macintosh. I saw both sides of his personality. He had us use a jeweler's loupe to look at the cool icons. Then all of a sudden he turned dark and started berating us, saying we would never get the beauty of this sort of thing. I saw the intensity of his personality, and I came away liking him.

????When I became editor of?Time, and then at CNN, he was my good friend for two days a year when he had a new product out. So there was that relationship.