I’ll start with one of my favorite thoughts, by Alex Haley in his essay “The Shadowland of Dreams”:我想要用我最喜欢的一个人的点子作为结尾，这段话来自亚历克斯o哈里的文章《梦想的阴郁之面》（Shadowland of Dreams）：Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there’s a big difference between “being a writer” and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. “You’ve got to want to write,” I say to them, “not want to be a writer.”“许多年轻人对我说道他们想要当一名作家。我常常给与他们希望，同时也规劝他们‘当一名作家’与文学创作几乎是两码事。大多数深爱作家梦的年轻人只不过只为追名逐利，殊不知那打字机前的文学创作过程是如此漫长而寂寞。‘你要有文学创作的性欲。

’我告诉他他们，‘而不是只就让当一名作家。’”The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.“只不过，文学创作是一项必须孤军奋战，报酬不大的工作。

受到幸运之神敬畏、一举成名的作家仅有是少数，更好的人壮志难酬。即便最顺利的作家也不会经历一段默默无闻和生活窘困的时期。我乃是其中一位。”When the startup economy booms, like it did in 1999 and like it is again in 2014, many people suddenly discover they want to “be an entrepreneur.” Newly-minted MBAs who otherwise would have joined Goldman Sachs or McKinsey instead head west to San Francisco. Big company lifers from Oracle or HP abruptly jump ship, not wanting to “miss out” on the next gold rush.1999年和2014年，我们经历过两次创业潮，许多人忽然找到他们“想要做到一名创业者”。

刚刚毕业的MBA学生本可以重新加入高盛或麦肯锡，但他们却自由选择前往旧金山。甲骨文或惠普等大公司里的元老忽然跳槽，原因是他们不期望与下一次淘金热“失之交臂”。Too often, these folks quickly find a like-minded co-founder who also wants to join the “startup scene”, brainstorm a few ideas, pick one that seems plausible, hack up a product, then buy a wheelbarrow they can use to take their money to the bank when the acquisition offers start to roll in.这些人往往迅速就能寻找志同道合的人，他们都怀揣创业梦想，一番头脑风暴之后产生一些点子，借此投票决定看上去合理的创新，据此设计一款产品，然后卖一辆手推车，凝等着并购契约蜂拥而至的时候，将大把的钱运往银行。

They almost never need that wheelbarrow. Starting a company is as Alex Haley described writing: the best companies are usually not started by people who want to “be an entrepreneur.” They are started by people who are knowledgable and passionate about a specific problem, are driven to solve it, and then get busy building a company to bring it to life. They rarely go to tech conferences, can’t be found at launch parties, and they certainly don’t have a quick acquisition as their primary goal.但许多人的期望都会落空。创业就像亚历克斯o哈里叙述的文学创作一样：由一心想“沦为创业者”的人创办的公司往往做到将近最差。最差的创业者一般来说对某个明确问题有见地并充满著激情，有解决问题这个问题的动力，他们不会全身心投放到公司建设，只就让让其发展壮大。

他们很少不会参与技术会议，公司正式成立舞会上也看到他们的身影，很快被并购也不是他们的主要目标。In contrast, those who want to get rich by “being an entrepreneur” often come up with ideas that don’t really reflect any proprietary insight or interest. They’ll launch an undifferentiated e-commerce site with few barriers to entry, or they’ll read a Gartner report about a new enterprise market predicted to be worth billions, and they’ll jump into it with a me-too product. When they hit the inevitable bumps in the road, they may not have the drive to power over them, or they may not have the proprietary insight to outsmart competitors.恰恰相反，那些期望“沦为创业者”而一夜暴富的人，所明确提出的点子没确实体现出有独特的洞察力或兴趣。他们正式成立的电子商务网站大同小异，完全没管理制度门槛，或者他们在低德纳公司的报告中写，一个新的市场预计不会超过数十亿的规模，然后之后拿一款山寨产品一头恰进来。

他们一定会遭遇无力跨过的障碍，或者没精辟的洞察力去击败竞争对手。The best entrepreneurs work on ideas that grow out of their personal experiences and aptitudes. Their ideas often are counter-intuitive and don’t seem likely to work at first. I highly recommend this essay by Paul Graham: How to Get Startup Ideas. One of Paul’s best thoughts is:最杰出的创业者，其创业启发都源于个人的经历和天资。他们的点子往往违背直觉，最初显然或许不有可能构建。

建议大家一定要读读保罗o格雷厄姆的经典之作——《如何取得创业启发》。他最差的一个观点就是：The verb you want to be using with respect to startup ideas is not “think up” but “notice.” At YC we call ideas that grow naturally out of the founders’ own experiences “organic” startup ideas. The most successful startups almost all begin this way.”“创业的点子是被‘找到’的，而不是被‘发明者’的。在 YC创业营，我们不会把从创始人自身经历当中大自然产生的启发叫作‘内生的’创业启发。

最顺利的创业公司完全都是这样发展一起的。”Now, many of these “organic” founders also want to get rich, as do their investors and the employees who join them, but they also expect to spend years toiling away with lots of setbacks and trial and error. They know that if they get rich it will be because they are working on an idea where they have an edge in terms of knowledge and enthusiasm, not because they have joined a lucrative profession called “being an entrepreneur.”现在，许多内生型创始人也期望取得财富，他们的投资者和员工某种程度想要取得报酬，但他们也不会用数年时间应付有可能遇上的挫折，展开重复尝试。

他们告诉自己需要取得财富，这是因为他们在科学知识与热情方面具备优势，而不是因为专门从事了一种有利可图的职业——“创业者”。All that being said, I would never discourage someone who truly is interested in startups from pursuing one – I’d certainly rather have them here in Silicon Valley rather than send them back to Wall Street. Startup life can provide a career full of accelerated learning, great camaraderie and teamwork, and it will at least leave you with some great stories. If you really want to enter the startup world, and not only for a quick acquisition, you could try:尽管如此，对于确实有兴趣创业的人，我从不不会泼冷水——而且我宁愿他们回到硅谷，而不是返回华尔街。在创业过程中，你不会加快自学，进账很深的友谊和团队精神，你最少能累积一些真是的经历。如果你知道期望创业，而不是全然为了很快被并购，你可以做到以下尝试：o Get awesome at something. Become a great engineer. Designer. Product manager. Marketer. Sales rep. Growth hacker. It is hard to start or join a great company if you aren’t great at a job that most startups need done.o 在某件事上做极佳。

沦为一名最出色的工程师、设计师、产品经理、营销专家、销售代表或所谓的快速增长黑客(Growth hacker)。如果大多数初创公司都必须的工作，你做到将近出类拔萃的话，不论是创业还是重新加入一家出众的公司都很难。

o Go deep in an industry. Many of the best companies are started by founds with proprietary knowledge in a specific field, like ad technology, insurance, supply chain management, information security, or many others.o 深入研究一个行业。许多最差的公司最初都掌控了某个特定领域的专有科学知识，如广告技术、保险、供应链管理、信息安全等。o Join a great startup. If you don’t have an idea where you have proprietary knowledge or passion, follow founders who do. Join the team early, contribute however you can, learn as much as you can, and it may lead to your founding your own company in the future as you get exposed to more people and ideas.o 重新加入一家出众的初创公司。如果你还不告诉自己在哪方面享有专项科学知识或激情，那就跟随一位早已奠定自身专长的公司创始人。

尽快重新加入团队，作出尽量多的贡献，大大自学，等你认识到更加多的人和点子的时候，你未来也许之后能创办自己的公司。Good luck!祝你好运！。

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