敢于夢想

We’re having an indoor picnic，” says Sue Biggs excitedly as we sit in her office in 1）Wisley， Surrey. The sun is shining and the beautifully 2）manicured gardens that surround us are bursting with flowers， insects and children from the local school. “I hope you like sandwiches” she says， unpacking a brown paper bag crammed with food from the 3）garden shop. Biggs is the first female director of the 4）Royal Horticultural Society and took up her position in 2010 having spent 25 years in the travel industry， working for 5）Kuoni and then 6）Thomas Cook. She admits the switch was totally unplanned. “I wasn’t looking at the time， and my husband saw the advert. I said ‘oh， someone lucky is going to get a fantastic job’ and he said why not you？”

Despite her many years experience， which saw Biggs appointed the first woman and the youngest on the board at Kuoni， she admits she hesitated， concerned that she lacked the horticultural experience required. “It’s a confidence issue sometimes， it’s about actually daring to dream and until you try you never know. I think men perhaps are better at fear of failure， but I’ve always tended to follow what I’m passionate about， so the practicalities of being the right person didn’t get in the way in the end.” Her RHS membership of 18 years probably helped too. “I think I did put that on my 7）CV，” she explains with a wry smile.

But it’s very clear that horticulture is her passion， as she talks at length about 8）ash dieback， the declining bee population and the peat problem—all issues which the RHS is attempting to find answers for.

She very nearly set herself on the path to her current position while she was at school， although her plans were thwarted by what she describes as a typically English attitude towards anything out of the ordinary. “I wanted to do estate management at Reading University. I’d applied for it all and I remember being called into the headmistress’s study and she said： ‘You can’t do this， this isn’t something for somebody like you.’ She called my parents in the end and persuaded them， and sort of me. I had to agree to go and do English instead.”

That experience shaped her attitude towards ambition and achievement and still informs her views on the barriers women face in the workplace. “There are some genuine barriers，” she concedes， going on to explain that there are others that aren’t really there at all. “Have I seen situations where it’s more difficult to be a woman？ Yes，” she says， admitting that the amount of times she has suffered sexism throughout her career is laughable. “If you get huffy about it then it becomes a problem”， she adds.

One example stands out. “I was invited over to 9）Geneva to celebrate joining the Kuoni board and when I arrived they presented me with a card and a bouquet of flowers. The card—so politically incorrect now—was a picture of a woman holding a glass of champagne and inside it read： ‘At long last we’ll have somebody to iron our shirts’.” She kept the card， explaining with a chuckle that she recently sent a photocopy back to the chairman of the board， who is now in his 80s， writing that she wished he’d sent it now so she could sue him for millions. “They did it because they knew me，” she explains. “They knew I would laugh it off.”

“An ambitious man is talented but an ambitious women is a career-bitch，” she says. “I have been labelled and it does bother me. You’d have to be fairly hard hearted not to think ‘honest， I’m not like that’.”

“It’s important to be respected，” she explains. “It’s icing on top of the cake if people also like you， but respect has to be there or you can’t be a successful leader.”

“There is a great thing about Americans， they dare to dream. We can all take the mickey out of Americans， but actually they celebrate aspiration. It’s quite sad in this country that we don’t readily do that， we’re much more likely to knock people down.”

當(dāng)我們坐在蘇·比格斯位于薩里郡威斯利花園的辦公室里時，她興沖沖地說道：“我們來一場室內(nèi)野炊吧。”陽光普照，圍繞在我們周圍，修剪得整齊漂亮的花園里到處都是花、昆蟲和當(dāng)?shù)貙W(xué)校的孩子。“希望你們喜歡三明治”她邊說邊從園藝店里取出一個塞滿了食物的牛皮紙袋。比格斯是皇家園藝協(xié)會的首位女性會長，于2010年任職，她曾在旅游業(yè)磨礪25年，相繼為瑞士旅業(yè)及托馬斯·庫克工作。她承認(rèn)自己轉(zhuǎn)行完全是個意外。“我那時并沒在找工作，而我的丈夫看到了那則廣告。我說‘哦，某個幸運(yùn)的人要得到一份絕妙的工作了’然后他說，你怎么不去試一試？”

盡管比格斯有著多年經(jīng)驗，從她被任命為瑞士旅業(yè)董事會上的首位女將，也是其中最年輕的一員便可看出，但她承認(rèn)她猶豫了，她擔(dān)心自己缺乏所必需的園藝經(jīng)驗?！坝袝r候這是一個自信心的問題，它實際上是關(guān)于敢不敢去做夢，而且你不試你永遠(yuǎn)都不知道。我覺得男人也許更容易應(yīng)對失敗的恐懼，但我卻時常傾向于追隨自己所熱衷的東西，所以能否成為合適人選的憂慮最終沒有成為我的阻礙?！北雀袼?8年的皇家園藝協(xié)會會員身份或許也幫上了忙。“我想我的確把那個寫在簡歷里了，”她苦笑著解釋道。

然而，很明顯，園藝是比格斯所熱愛的，因為她一講起白蠟樹梢枯病、蜜蜂數(shù)量持續(xù)減少還有泥炭問題來就滔滔不絕——所有這些問題皇家園藝協(xié)會都在嘗試尋找解決之道。

當(dāng)比格斯還在求學(xué)時，就幾乎找準(zhǔn)目標(biāo)往現(xiàn)在的位置進(jìn)發(fā)，但她的計劃曾被她所描述的典型英國態(tài)度所阻礙——就是那種對待任何不尋常之事的態(tài)度?！?br>