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布莱恩·斯帕利(Brian Spaly)
Founder and CEO, Trunk Club
Trunk Club创始人兼首席执行长
Head Into the Weird Places
去古怪的地方走走
For entrepreneurs to stretch their brains, they should seek out the unusual.
创业者要想拓展思路，就应该去寻找非同寻常的东西。
Watch and listen to weird stuff. I enjoy watching obscure documentaries and listening to unusual podcasts. It's thrilling to find cool ideas lurking just a few clicks away.
看一看、听一听古怪的东西。我喜欢看晦涩难懂的纪录片，喜欢听不同寻常的播客。点击几下鼠标就能找到很酷的创意让人兴奋不已。
Walk in weird places. I take walks in hidden suburban neighborhoods, department stores, community colleges. When you're walking with no purpose but walking, you see things in fresh ways, because you have the luxury of being in the present.
到古怪的地方走一走。我会在城郊隐秘的街区、百货商场和社区学院里散步。当你漫无目的地散步时，你会以全新的方式看待事物，因为你拥有宝贵的当下。
Talk to weird people. Striking up conversations with people who are different from you can be powerful. I still remember random conversations with strangers from decades ago, and how they shaped me.
与怪人交谈。与和你不同的人攀谈会带来强大的力量。我至今还记得几十年前与陌生人随意交谈的情形，记得他们是如何对我产生影响的。
Victor W. Hwang
维克多·W. 黄(Victor W. Hwang)
Co-founder, CEO and managing director, T2 Venture Capital
T2 Venture Capital联合创始人、首席执行长、董事总经理
Search for a Better Way
寻找更好的方式
As one goes about their daily life, it is useful if they routinely ask themselves, 'Isn't there a better way?' You would be surprised at how frequently the answer is, 'Yes.' Other sources of inspiration for me are existing products. One should never feel that just because there is a product out there similar to yours that you can't execute it and market it better.
在日常生活中，经常问自己“难道没有更好的方式吗”是很有用的。你会为“有”这个答案出现频率之高而惊讶。我的其他灵感来源是现有产品。绝不应该仅仅因为市场上有与你类似的产品就觉得自己不可能在产品制作和营销上比别人更胜一筹。
Liz Lange
利兹·兰格(Liz Lange)
Fashion designer
时装设计师
Think Big
树立远大目标
There are several factors an entrepreneur should consider when choosing a business idea or opportunity.
创业者在选择商业构想或机会时应该考虑几项因素。
Go big or go home: There are opportunities to make money by building businesses that marginally improve on existing products or services, but the real thrill sets in when the decision is made to go after an enormous idea that seems slightly crazy.
要么做大要么不做：我们有机会通过建立对现有产品或服务略加优化的企业来赚钱，但真正令人兴奋的是决定追求略显疯狂的宏大构想的时刻。
Make the world a better place: The best kind of entrepreneur pursues a business that simplifies or improves the lives of many people. He or she repeatedly asks 'what if' when thinking about how the world works and how the status quo could be dramatically improved.
让世界更美好：最伟大的创业者追求的是简化或改善许多人的生活。他/她在思考世界如何运转，如何显著改善现状时会反复问“假如……会如何”。
Fail fast: As overall startup costs decline and markets move much more quickly, it has become easier to test ideas without devastating consequences of failure.
快速失败：由于初创公司总体成本下降，市场运转速度大大加快，在不产生灾难性失败后果的情况下检验创业构想变得更容易了。
Pivot quickly: Many of the most successful companies exist in a form that is entirely different from how they were first envisioned. A successful entrepreneur will realize when a company is moving in the wrong direction or is missing a much larger opportunity.
快速转型：有很多最成功的企业，其运作形式已与最初设想的完全不同。成功的创业者会在公司发展方向错误或错过良机时有所觉察。
Kevin Colleran
凯文·科莱朗(Kevin Colleran)
Venture partner, General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners投资合伙人
Taking It to Market
接受市场的检验
It is important to look at an idea in two ways: first, to consider the initial inspiration for the business, and second, the often very different concept that ends up being executed to create the new company. We typically think of these ideas as the thing that sets these great entrepreneurs on the path of success. However, an idea is only that until you do something with it. Great entrepreneurs also discover the strategies to deliver the new innovative solution to the market.
一个创意应该从两方面来看：一是考虑其对企业的初步启示，二是考虑最终如何通过执行创意来创建新企业，这通常是两个截然不同的概念。我们一般认为伟大的企业家是凭借这些创意走上成功之路的。然而，创意只有付诸实践才有意义。伟大的企业家还会探索能为市场带来新颍解决方案的策略。
Ellen Rudnick
埃伦·鲁德尼克(Ellen Rudnick)
Clinical professor of entrepreneurship and executive director of the Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
芝加哥大学布斯商学院(University of Chicago Booth School of Business)迈克尔·P. 波尔斯基创业和创新中心(Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation)创业临床教授、执行理事
Listen to People Who Know
倾听顾客和一线员工的声音
Entrepreneurs come up with great ideas in a number of ways. Here are some of the best.
创业者的灵感来源有很多。以下是一些最佳来源。
Get customer feedback: Listen to customers and create products and services that give them more of what they like and/or remove what they dislike.
获取顾客反馈：倾听顾客的声音，创造一些产品和服务，为顾客提供更多他们喜欢的东西以及/或者去除他们讨厌的东西。
Listen to front-line employees: The workers who manufacture the widgets, interact with customers and so on see what takes too long to accomplish, what is too expensive, what causes problems. Talk to those workers, or even do those jobs yourself.
倾听一线员工的声音：负责生产的工人以及与顾客沟通的员工了解哪些工作要花太长时间才能完成，哪些产品太贵，哪些东西会产生问题。与这些员工交谈，甚至可以亲手做做这些工作。
Reverse assumptions: Many great entrepreneurs come up with ideas by reversing assumptions. For example, the old assumption was that a bank needed to have tellers and branch locations. The ATM concept asked: How can we offer banking services without having a branch location and tellers?
逆向假设：许多伟大企业家的创意是通过逆向假设产生的。比方说，旧的前提假设是，银行应该有柜员，还应该设立分行。而自动取款机(ATM)概念则提出了这样一个问题：我们怎样才能在没有分行和柜员的情况下提供银行服务呢？
Dave Lavinsky
戴夫·拉温斯基(Dave Lavinsky)
Co-founder and president, Growthink Inc.
Growthink Inc.联合创始人兼总裁
Get Inspired by History
从历史中汲取灵感
You often hear about the pursuit of the new new thing. But I believe entrepreneurs have a lot to gain by looking into history for inspiration.
你常常会听人说要追求新新事物。但我相信，从历史中汲取灵感会让创业者收获多多。
In the mid-'90s, some beer enthusiasts and experts called us heretics for brewing beers with ingredients outside of the 'traditional' water, yeast, hops and barley. So, I started researching ancient brewing cultures and learned that long ago, brewers in every corner of the world made beer with whatever was beautiful and natural and grew beneath the ground they lived on.
在20世纪90年代中期，一些啤酒爱好者和专家把我们称为异端分子，因为我们采用水、酵母、啤酒花和大麦等“传统”原料以外的东西酿造啤酒。于是我开始研究古代酿酒文化，我在研究中发现，很久以前，世界各地的酿酒人是用一切美好、天然、在他们脚下的土壤中生长的东西酿制啤酒的。
We now make a whole series of Ancient Ales inspired by historic and molecular evidence found in tombs and dig sites.
如今，我们的整个古法麦芽酒(Ancient Ales)系列都是在来自墓地和考古挖掘现场的历史和分子证据启发下酿制的。
Sam Calagione
萨姆·卡拉卓尼(Sam Calagione)
Founder and president, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.
狗鲨头工艺酿酒厂(Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.)创始人兼总裁
Be Prepared to Shift Gears
为转向做好准备
Entrepreneurs need to understand two things. For one thing, their first (or second or third) idea is often not the real opportunity. In fact, it might stink. They have to be on the lookout for why it stinks and be willing to shift course.
创业者应该了解两件事。首先，他们的第一个（或者第二个第三个）构想通常不会带来真正的机遇。这些构想甚至可能是馊主意。他们必须寻找这些构想不可行的原因，并且愿意转变路线。
But they also need to understand that even if their idea has problems, there's often a good opportunity buried within it. They need to talk to people and continue tweaking and transforming it. In the process, they encounter setbacks, rethink their approach, try again and redefine what they're doing.
但创业者还应该了解，即便他们的构想存在问题，其背后通常也蕴藏着良机。他们应该与别人讨论，对其不断调整和改造。在这一过程中，他们会遭遇挫折，会反思自己的方法，会再次尝试和重新定义他们所做的事情。
For all that, the idea may fail─it's happened to many successful entrepreneurs. But they weren't deterred by failure. They kept at it and were better positioned to recognize and shape the next idea into something truly great.
即便如此，他们的构想还是有可能失败──这在许多成功的创业者身上都发生过。但他们不会因失败而止步。他们会坚持下去，更好地确证和塑造下一个创意，使其成为真正伟大的东西。
Donna Kelley
唐娜·凯利(Donna Kelley)
Associate professor of entrepreneurship and Frederic C. Hamilton chair of free enterprise, Babson College
巴布森学院(Babson College)创业学助理教授、弗雷德里克·C. 汉密尔顿(Frederic C. Hamilton)自由企业研究项目主席
You Can't Rush the Brain
激发灵感不可操之过急
I don't know where great ideas come from. I am not sure anyone does. I am not even sure how I come up with my ideas. The brain does its thing, and out pops an idea.
我不知道伟大的创意来自哪里。我也不确定有没有人知道。我甚至不确定我的创意是怎样产生的。让大脑做自己的事情，创意自然会迸发出来。
While you are waiting for the brain to get its act together, do what you can do. Do the doable. Meet with people, schmooze, have a laugh or two. Build mock-ups and prototypes. At the very least, collect other people's problems. That's always a guaranteed doable.
在你等待大脑闪现灵光时，做些力所能及的事情。做你能做的事。与人会面、闲聊、笑一笑。创建模型和样本。最后，收集其他人存在的问题。这些都是肯定可以做的事情。
The deep idea here is that action has a creative aspect distinct from thinking. And thinking need not come first. Mostly it doesn't.
这其中一个深刻的道理是，行动中的创造力与思考时的创造力是截然不同的。思考不一定要先于行动。实际情况大都也是如此。
Saras D. Sarasvathy
萨拉斯·D. 萨拉斯瓦西(Saras D. Sarasvathy)
Isidore Horween research associate professor of business administration, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business
弗吉尼亚大学达顿商学院(University of Virginia's Darden School of Business)伊西多尔·霍温(Isidore Horween)工商管理学研究助理教授
What Not to do
有些事情不要做
One thing that isn't a rich vein of entrepreneurship gold: reading a market forecast from a big-name consulting firm and deciding to create a product to serve that need.
下面这件事对创业没什么帮助：读了著名咨询公司发布的市场预测之后，决定创造一种满足相关需求的产品。
