翻译：给19岁有志青年的建议 Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

“I’m an ambitious 19 year old, what should I do?”

我今年19岁，有上进心，我应该怎么做？

I get asked this question fairly often, and I now have a lot of data on what works, so I thought I’d share my response.

我以前经常被问到这个问题，现在我对这个问题有了一些数据，所以我觉得我应该分享我的回答。

Usually, people are deciding between going to college (and usually working on side projects while they do so), joining a company, or starting their own startup. [1] [2]

通常，人们会在去上大学（并且通常做一些不重要的工程），到公司，或者自己开创自己的事业。

The secret is that any of these can be right answer, and you should make your decision based on the specific circumstances of each option.  The critical point is that you want to do the thing that is most likely to get you on a path to do something great.

每一个选择都是正确的，并且你应该基于每个选项的环境来做出自己的选择。重要的一点是你应该去做一件你最有可能做好的事情。

No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.  “Stuff” can be a lot of different things—open source projects outside of class, a startup, a new sales process at a company you work at—but, obviously, sitting around talking with your friends about how you guys really should build a website together does not count.

不管你选择的是什么，做一些实事并且与聪明人为伍。“Stuff”可以使很多不同的事-课外的开源项目，开公司，你所在的公司的营销过程-但是很显然的，坐下来聊天，和朋友谈怎么一起做一个网页这类事是不作数的。

 

The best people always seem to be building stuff and hanging around smart people, so if you have to decide between several options, this may be a good filter.

最好的人似乎在做一些实在的东西并且总和聪明人待在一起，所以如果你必须在几个选项中做选择，可以参考这几个标准。

Working on something good will pull you along a path where good things keep happening to you.  (In fact, this effect is so strong that there’s a danger of getting sucked into too many interesting things and getting distracted from what you really want to do.)

着手做一些好的事情将会让你好事不断。（事实上，有可能你在过多有趣的事情上停留，而对你真正想要做的事情分心）

In making this decision, you want to take the right kind of risk.  Most people think about risk the wrong way—for example, staying in college seems like a non-risky path.  However, getting nothing done for four of your most productive years is actually pretty risky.  Starting a company that you’re in love with is the right kind of risk.  Becoming employee number 50 at a company that still has a good chance of failure is the wrong kind of risk.

在做决定的适合，你想要正确的冒险。大部分人觉得冒险是错误的方式-比如，呆在大学里看上去好像是没有问题的，然而在你人生中最精力充沛的四年里无所作为是非常危险的一件事。开一家你热爱的公司是正确的冒险。成为一个50人公司的雇员是一个错误的冒险。

If you stay in college, make sure you learn something worthwhile and work on interesting projects—college is probably the best place to meet people to work with.  If you’re really worried you’ll miss some critical social experience by dropping out of college, you should probably stay.

如果你呆在大学，保证你能学到有价值的东西并且做一些有趣的项目-大学可能是遇到工作伙伴的最好的场所。如果你担心辍学后会失去重要的社交经验的话，你应该呆在大学里。

If you join a company, my general advice is to join a company on a breakout trajectory.  There are a usually a handful of these at a time, and they are usually identifiable to a smart young person.  They are a very good risk/reward tradeoff.  Such a company is almost certainly going to be successful, but the rest of the world isn’t quite as convinced of it as they should be.  Fortunately, these companies love ambitious young people.  In addition to the equity being a great deal (you might get 1/10th of the equity you’d get if you join a tiny new startup, but at 1/100th or 1/1000th of the risk), you will work with very good people, learn what success looks like, and get a W on your record (which turns out to be quite valuable).  Spending a few years at a company that fails has path consequences, and working at an already-massively-successful company means you will learn much less, and probably work with less impressive people.

如果你加入了一家公司，我通常建议加入一家有突破性的公司。这样的公司会比较少，并且聪明的年轻人是可以辨认出的。他们在风险与利益中很好的折中。这样的公司大部分是会成功的，但是其他人不相信他们会成功。幸运的是，这些公司喜欢有上进心的年轻人。你会与非常好的人一起工作，学习成功是什么样子的，在你的档案中得到一个W（事实证明这非常有价值）。选择错了会让你花上几年在一家失败的公司，在一家已经非常成功的公司意味着你会学到非常少，有可能与一群不让让人印象深刻的人为伍。

Incidentally, don’t let salary be a factor.  I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision.  He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people.  In a few years, when it’s time for something new, the options in front of him will be much worse than they could have been.

顺便提一句，不要让薪水成为一个因素。我见过有的人放弃那些有潜力的公司而选择微软只因为微软给他每年三万美元的薪水-那真是个糟糕的选择。他不会做出有趣的东西并且可能不会与聪明人一起工作。再过几年，当新的事物来临的时候，他们的选择会比他们现在面临的选择要糟糕的多。

If you start a company, only do so if you have an idea you’re in love with.  If you’re hanging out with your friends trying to come up with an idea, I don’t think you should start that company (although there are many who disagree with me).  Starting a failed startup is less bad than joining a failed company as an employee (and you’ll certainly learn much more in the former case).  If you fail at an idea that you really loved and could have been great, you’re unlikely to regret it, and people will not hold it against you. Failing at a me-too copycat startup is worse.  Remember that there will be lots of other opportunities to start companies, and that startups are a 6-10 year commitment—wait for the right one

如果你自己开了公司，如果你有一个你热爱的点子要实现那么你就应该做。如果你还在和朋友闲逛试着找出点新点子，我不认为你该开公司（虽然有很多人不同意我）。开一家失败的公司好过成为一个失败的公司的雇员（并且你会在前者学到更多）。如果你非常热爱你的点子，但是公司失败了，本来可以做的更好，你也不应该后悔，而且人们也不会针对你。开一家山寨公司失败是一件更加糟糕的事情。记住还有很多别的开公司的机会，而且开公司是一个6-10年的承诺-耐心等待那个对的

One big pro for starting a company is that it’s usually the way to learn the most in the shortest amount of time.  One big con is that it’s easy to start a company for the wrong reasons—usually so that you can say you’re starting a company—and this makes it easy to cloud your judgment.

开公司的最大好处在于，这通常是在最短时间内学习的方式。很容易为了错误的原因开公司-通常以便你能说你在开公司-很容易干扰到你的思想。

No matter what you choose, keep your personal burn rate low and minimize your commitments.  I have seen a lot of people miss great opportunities because they couldn’t afford a reduction in salary or because they couldn’t move or didn’t have the time.

不管你选择什么，尽量降低个人的开支并少许承诺。我曾经见过很多人因为不能承受降薪或者没有行动或者没有时间而导致失败。

Think about risk the right way.  Drew Houston gave a great commencement speech where he said you only have to be right once.  That’s true.  The risk is not getting on the path where you get to be right that one critical time.

思考一下如何正确的冒险。Drew Houston发表过一个学位演讲，他说你只需要做对一次。那是对的。再那个关键的时候，风险不会阻挡你做正确的事。