成事的误区（节选）

Chapter 2: Do nice guys finish last?

What you can learn about trust, cooperation and kindness… from gang members, pirates and serial killers.

第二章：良善之人往往会吃亏？

关于信任、合作和善良，你能从帮派成员、海盗和连环杀手那里学到些什么？

It's not uncommon for people to die while under a doctor's care. What is quite uncommon is when the doctor is deliberately killing his patients.

Michael Swango was not a very successful doctor. But as James B. Stewart explains in his book, “Blind Eye”, Swango was one of the most successful serial killers ever.

人们在医生的看护下死亡并不罕见，但医生蓄意杀害他的病人就很少见了。

迈克尔·斯旺戈（Michael Swango）并不是一位非常成功的医生。但正如詹姆斯·B·斯图尔特（James B. Stewart）在他的著作《盲眼》中所写的那样，斯旺戈是有史以来最成功的连环杀手之一。

By his third year in medical school, hospital patients he interacted with were dying at such a rate that his fellow students took notice. They joked that the best way to get rid of a patient was to assign them to Swango. In fact, they gave him a tongue-in-cheek nickname: “Double-O Swango.” Like James Bond, he seemed to have a license to kill.

在就读医学院的第三年，经斯旺戈治疗的住院病人死亡率之高，引起了同窗们的注意。他们曾开玩笑称，想要“解决”一个病人，最好的办法就是让斯旺戈接手治疗。不仅如此，他们还给斯旺戈取了一个极具讽刺意味的绰号：“零零斯旺戈（Double-O Swango，类似零零七）”。他就像詹姆斯·邦德一样，仿佛拥有杀人执照。

But it’s a hospital, after all. People die there. It happens. So it’s easy to brush off deaths as accidental. However, the disproportionate number of fatalities continued when Swango began his neurosurgery internship at Ohio State. After Swango began his rotation on the ninth floor there had been more patients requiring resuscitation than in the past year.

不过，毕竟这是一家医院。人们在这里去世，确实时有发生，这很正常。因此，人们很容易将病患死亡归于意外。然而，当斯旺戈开始在俄亥俄州立医院神经外科实习时，死亡率异常的情况仍然持续出现。自斯旺戈开始在九楼轮岗后，需要抢救的病人数量比去年一年还要多。

How did he get away with this? Was he a genius mastermind like Hannibal Lecter? Hardly. While Swango was definitely very intelligent (he was a national merit finalist and graduated summa cum laude from college) it’s a huge understatement to say he didn’t make much effort to reduce suspicion.

他是如何摆脱罪名的？难道他像汉尼拔·莱克特（Hannibal Lecter）那般，是个犯罪天才？不，他远非如此。斯旺戈的确很聪明（他曾是全国优秀学生奖学金计划的决赛候选人，并以优异的成绩从学校毕业），但他并未采取任何行动来降低他人对他的怀疑，甚至可能有意让人产生怀疑。

When a mass murder at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, California, was all over the news he told a colleague, “Every time I think of a good idea, somebody beats me to it.” He religiously kept a scrapbook of newspaper articles about violent incidents. When asked why, he said, “If I’m ever accused of murder (these will) prove I’m not mentally competent. This will be my defense.”

当新闻中铺天盖地地报道加利福尼亚州圣伊西德罗的麦当劳发生大规模谋杀时，他对一位同事说：“每当我想到一个好主意时，总会有人捷足先登。“他一直保留着一本剪贴簿，里面收集了大量有关暴力事件的报纸文章。有人问他为何如此时，他回答道：“如果有一天我被指控谋杀，（这些剪报将）证明我精神不正常。这将会是我的辩护证据。”

But finally it reached a point no one could ignore. A nurse witnessed him inject something into the IV line of a patient, Rena Cooper. And Swango was not Cooper’s doctor. She nearly died, but doctors managed to save her life. Once stable she confirmed Swango’s involvement. And an investigation into the incident quickly followed.

不过，纸终究是保不住火的。一名护士亲眼目睹他向病人雷娜·库珀（Rena Cooper）的静脉输液管中注射了某种药物。而且，斯旺戈甚至不是库珀的主治医师。库珀几乎丧命，幸而医生们成功挽救了她的生命。生命体征稳定下来后，她证实了斯旺戈的罪行。随后，针对这一事件，有关部门迅速展开了调查。

This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you that they caught him. That everyone did the right thing. That the system worked. That good triumphed over evil. 

But that’s not what happened…

按理说，我应该这样告诉你们：有关部门逮捕了斯旺戈。每个人都做了对的事。司法系统运作良好。邪不胜正。

然而，事实并非如此……

Senior management at the hospital closed ranks, more concerned about the hospital’s reputation than stopping a murderer. What if the public found out they had a killer working there? What about their jobs? What if Swango filed a lawsuit? What if patients or their families sued them? They obstructed the police investigation. And, meanwhile, Swango was allowed to keep working. In one form or another his reign of terror continued… For 15 years.

医院的高层管理人员选择了一致对外，因为相较于制止杀人犯，他们更在意医院的声誉。如果公众得知有个杀人犯曾在自家医院工作会怎样？他们的工作怎么办？万一斯旺戈提起诉讼怎么办？如果病人或病人家属起诉医院怎么办？为此，他们干扰了警方的调查。与此同时，斯旺戈得以继续留院工作。尽管形式可能有所变化，但是斯旺戈的犯罪活动还是持续了长达15年。