OpenAI CEO 创业访谈

Open AI 创始人 Sam Altman 关于创业的一次访谈。时代在变，新一代创业者的分享会让我们得到什么启发呢？

访谈总结：（总结来自ChatGPT）

在职业生涯初期努力工作并不断提高自己可以让你受益于复利效应。寻找你擅长、喜欢的事物和能为世界创造价值的领域是关键。努力帮助别人并建立联系，可以给你带来意想不到的好处。要相信自己的判断，勇于承担风险，关注目标并努力实现它们。善于处理危机并从中汲取经验，为你所关心的事业做出贡献。

访谈原文及中文对照：（翻译由ChatGPT完成）

If you work really hard at the beginning of your career and you get a little bit better what you do every day every week every year there's a compound effect and it's far better to put that time in at the beginning of your career than at the end because if you do the beginning you get to benefit from it for the rest of the time you work. Working hard early in your career to get the leverage and the compounding effects is underrated and one of the most valuable pieces of advice that I never got.

如果你在职业生涯初期努力工作，每天、每周、每年都在所从事的领域有所进步，那么这种积累的效应将会非常明显。在职业生涯的初期投入时间和精力，远比在职业生涯的尾声投入更有价值，因为这样你可以在剩下的工作时间里受益于这种积累。早期努力工作以获得杠杆作用和复利效应是被低估的，也是我从未得到的最有价值的建议之一。

You know the beginning of your career, I think in terms of setting the trajectory that the rest of your career follows, is the most valuable time and so obviously you don't want to work all the time but I do think you want to look for the intersection of what you're good at, what you enjoy, and what where you can create value for the world. In my experience, if you don't find somebody the intersection of those three, it's hard to really have an impact.

在职业生涯的开始阶段，我认为这是设定你职业生涯轨迹的最宝贵时光。显然，你不想一直工作，但我认为你需要寻找自己擅长的、热爱的和能为世界创造价值的领域的交叉点。根据我的经验，如果你找不到这三者的交汇点，那么你很难产生真正的影响力。

So I think it's really good when people think about what they're good at, what they like, and kind of how they can create value for the world. Sometimes you actually have to just try stuff to figure out what you like, but I really do think it is worth upfront thought about what you're going to spend most of your waking time doing.

所以，我认为人们在思考自己擅长什么、喜欢什么以及如何为世界创造价值时，是非常有益的。有时候，你必须尝试不同的事物来找到自己喜欢的东西，但我真的认为在决定如何度过你的大部分时间之前，考虑这些问题是非常有价值的。

Well, I don't think I work as hard as a lot of people, I think I do work pretty hard. But I'd say it's really, I think it's compound interest is a good metaphor here. If you work really hard at the beginning of your career and you get a little bit better what you do every day every week every year, and you learn more and you meet more people and you just get more done, there's a compound effect. It's far better to put that time in at the beginning of your career than at the end because if you do at the beginning, you get to benefit from it for the rest of the time you work.

虽然我不认为自己比别人努力得多，但我认为自己确实很努力。我想说的是，复利效应在这里是一个很好的比喻。如果你在职业生涯初期努力工作，每天、每周、每年都在所从事的领域有所进步，学到更多的知识，认识更多的人，完成更多的工作，那么这种积累的效应将会非常明显。在职业生涯的初期投入时间和精力，比在职业生涯的尾声投入要好得多，因为这样你可以在剩下的工作时间里受益于这种积累。

So another thing that I have learned is that whenever I've helped people for no immediate benefit and with no intention of ever getting any benefit at all, time and again in my career, it has really later benefited me a lot. So I think, you at some point often get to a point in your career where you're limited by how many good people you know and how many of those you can work with or get to do things that together. Just helping a lot of people and spending a lot of time with a lot of people has benefited me.

另外，我在职业生涯中学到的一个重要经验就是，无私地帮助别人，即使没有立即的回报，也不期望得到任何好处，但这种帮助往往最终给我带来了巨大的收益。在你的职业生涯中，很多时候你的发展可能会受到认识的优秀人才数量以及能与之合作的人数的限制。只要乐于助人，花时间与更多的人交流，这样做会给你带来很多好处。

You know, years after I really helped someone for no reason, I get to invest in their startup, then it goes on to be a huge success, or we're able to work on OpenAI together, any number of things. I think just trying to help a lot of people and out of that scene who is really impressive and who gets things done is helpful. But one thing I always try to do is like meet every person I had time for, go to everything I could, and just spend a little bit more time trying to learn and get better at what I did, what I do.

我曾真心无私的帮助了某些人。多年后，当他们中的一些创立公司时，他们给了我投资的机会，这些公司后来取得了巨大的成功，还有一些人一起参与到了OpenAI的工作中或者很多其它事中。

And I think so obviously you don't want to work all the time, but I do think you want to work harder than most people think you should. And I think that if you do that, you tend to benefit from it later. Life is super unfair, sometimes you also just get unlucky, and so all you can do is kind of maximize chances there. But I do think that the beginning of your career, in terms of setting the trajectory that the rest of your career follows, is the most valuable time.

显然，你不想总是在工作，但我认为你应该比大多数人认为你应该努力的程度更努力。而且，我认为如果你这样做，你往往会在以后受益。生活是非常不公平的，有时你也会遇到倒霉的事情，所以你能做的只是尽量提高成功的机会。但我确实认为，在职业生涯的开始阶段，是设定你职业生涯轨迹的最宝贵时光。

The way things get done in the world are through a combination of focus and personal connection, and the additional point I would make, after having thought about it for a while, is that the third factor is self-belief. You really have to have a deep-seated personal conviction that this thing you're going to do, that a lot of people say is really stupid, is going to work and going to be important. But I think those three things – focus, personal connections, and self-belief – in my experience, are how things get done in the world.

要在世界上完成事情，需要集中精力、建立人际关系，并具有自信。你必须深信自己所做的事情，即使很多人认为它很愚蠢，也会成功并且具有重要意义。在我的经验中，这三个因素 - 专注、人际关系和自信 - 是实现目标的关键。

That is really valuable. Knowing when to quit and knowing when to give up on something is challenging; there's no perfect answer to that. But it's really important to get it approximately correct. I think most people give up on things way too early. So the mistake that most people make is they try something, it does not immediately work, and after a short period, they say, "You know what, I tried this thing, it's just not meant to be," and they immediately give up.

这是非常有价值的。知道何时放弃，何时继续努力是具有挑战性的；对此并无完美的答案。但能大致做对这一点非常重要。我认为大多数人过早放弃了。所以大多数人犯的错误是，他们尝试了某样东西，一开始并没有成功，然后在很短的时间内，他们就说：“你知道吗，我尝试过这个东西，这不是我的命中注定，”然后立刻放弃。

You know, the satirical version of this is people that are 23 and have started 14 startups because they give up on everyone before it could ever possibly be successful. These things are really hard; they take a very long time, there are a lot of critics, there are a lot of people who say this thing sucks, it's going to fail, it's really stupid. Most of the founders that I have spent a lot of time with, who have gone on to be super successful, spent a very long time on their idea when a lot of other people would have given up, and either people said it sucks or people said nothing at all.

讽刺的是，23岁的人已经尝试了14个创业公司，因为他们在每个公司都放弃了，不可能成功。这些事情真的很困难，需要很长时间，会有很多失败和挫折。但是，这种不断尝试和适应的过程中，你可能会找到真正适合你的东西，对你来说具有巨大价值。因此，在坚持和放弃之间找到平衡非常关键。

A framework that I have for when to give up and when to keep working is: it should be an internal, not an external decision. If people aren't using it or if people are saying it's bad, that alone is not a reason to give up. You want to pay some attention to that; they might be right. But I think the best entrepreneurs I know make an internal decision about when to give up or when to keep working on something. It's basically when you have run out of ideas and something that's not working; then it's a good time to stop.

我有一个关于何时放弃和何时坚持工作的框架：这应该是一个内部决策，而不是外部决策。如果人们不使用它，或者人们说它很糟糕，仅凭这一点并不足以放弃。你需要关注这些意见，他们可能是对的。但我认为，我所认识的最优秀的创业者会做出内部决策，来决定何时放弃或何时继续努力。基本上，当你已经没有新的想法，而且某件事情并没有取得成果时，那么就是一个好的时机去停止。

Yeah, I think if you don't actually believe what you're doing is really important, if you don't derive satisfaction from what you're doing, then you will not be able to sustain all of the bad things that happen in the incredibly long period of time. The only motivation that I have seen work for people over a long period of time is enjoyment in what they're doing, an intense belief that it matters, and ideally liking the people that they go to work with every day.

是的，我认为如果你不真正相信你正在做的事情非常重要，如果你不能从你所做的事情中获得满足感，那么你将无法在漫长的时间里承受所有不好的事情。我看到的唯一能让人长时间保持动力的因素是，对所做事情的享受，对事情的重要性有强烈的信念，最理想的是喜欢与每天一起工作的人。

And so, when you look at really successful people and say, "How do they get all those things done?" it's that they have the benefit of momentum, and momentum is energizing, while lack of momentum is really not energizing. So if you really believe in something, there's an idea that you're super passionate about, you know, and you take a calculated risk to start a company, realizing you may forego a couple of years of steady income, that's a great risk to take. And if you don't take that risk, I think you have a very high chance that you end up regretting that.

所以，当你看到非常成功的人，并问：“他们是如何完成所有这些事情的？”问题的答案是他们具有很强的动力，而动力是激励人心的，缺乏动力则不能激发活力。因此，如果你真的相信某件事，对一个想法充满激情，你敢于冒险去创立一家公司，意识到你可能要放弃几年稳定的收入，那么这是值得承担的风险。而如果你不去冒这个险，我认为你很可能会因为没有去尝试而后悔。

I think people have terrible risk calculus in general. Even people who try to be really good about this are bad at it. The answer, I think, is almost always: a) you're wrong about what is risky and what is not risky, and b) most people don't take enough risk, especially early in your career. Being young, unknown, and poor – that is actually a great gift in terms of the amount of risk you can take, and I think people don't capitalize on that enough.

我认为人们总体上对风险的判断很糟糕。即使是那些试图在这方面做得很好的人，也很难做到。我认为答案几乎总是：a) 你对什么是有风险的，什么是没有风险的判断错误；b) 大多数人，尤其是在职业生涯初期，没有承担足够的风险。年轻、不知名、贫穷——这实际上是一份能让你承担更多风险的礼物，我认为人们没有充分利用这一点。

I think what risk actually looks like is not doing something that you will then spend the rest of your life regretting. There's a quote, "People regret way more the things they didn't do than the things that they did do." The wrong kind of risk to take is where people don't actually do things or don't commit to something because they don't want to fail, and they overrate the risk of failure, reputation damage, or embarrassment.

我认为真正的风险是，你不去做那些你可能会在余生中后悔的事情。有句话说：“人们对没有做过的事情后悔得比做过的事情要多。”错误的风险在于，人们不去实际行动或不投入到某件事情上，因为他们害怕失败，过分担心失败、名誉损失或尴尬。

I think one really important thing to strive for in your career is to be a doer, not a talker. The reason that people don't do stuff is that it's hard, and it's risky. It's this combination of work and risk, and I think that's really bad. I think history belongs to the doers, and I think you should take a risk, actually do something, don't just sit around and talk, organize, and go to thought leadership conferences and whatever it is these people spend their time on other than actually building something.

我认为在职业生涯中努力追求的一个非常重要的品质是成为一个实干家，而不是空谈家。人们之所以不去行动，是因为行动是困难的，而且充满风险。这种工作和风险的结合很糟糕。我认为历史属于那些实干家，你应该冒险去真正做点什么，而不是只是坐在那里谈论、组织，参加所谓的思想领导力会议，或者在除了真正建设某件事之外的其他事情上浪费时间。

One of the other things I learned that I wish I had gotten advice on early in my career is to ask for what you want. You will get told no a lot, but sometimes it will work. People don't want to fail, they don't want to be told no, they don't want to end up in some crisis, and they're just not aggressive enough. I think being willing to ask for what you want and being somewhat aggressive are really important characteristics of being an entrepreneur.

在职业生涯中，努力成为一个实干家而非空谈者。人们之所以不去行动，是因为害怕困难和风险。要想在历史长河中留名，你需要勇敢地去实践，不仅仅是参加思想领袖会议或者从事其他无关紧要的活动。在职业生涯初期，敢于追求你想要的，积极主动地表现自己，都是成为一名优秀企业家的重要品质。

There are a lot of things that really go wrong, and they feel like company-killing events, and they feel like there's no way you're going to survive because the crises are really bad. The thing you learn is that you generally do survive these, and the world doesn't usually end. Even if, in the moment, something happens and you have no idea how you're going to get around it, you eventually figure out a way. I won't even say I wish someone told me this one because I don't think it's a lesson anyone can teach you. You have to just live through it.

有很多事情可能会出错，这些问题看起来像是会导致公司破产的事件，让你觉得没有办法度过这些危机。但你会逐渐明白，你通常能够度过这些困难，世界并不会因此而结束。即使在某个时刻，事情发生了，你不知道如何解决，但最终你会找到办法。我甚至不会说我希望有人告诉我这一点，因为我不认为这是一个可以教给你的经验。你必须亲身经历才能领悟到这一点。

Each crisis gets less scary than the one before it, and because of that, on the 19th major crisis, you're like, "Well, I survived the first 18, I'll probably get through this one," and you kind of just do. I think the whole idea is that people need to figure out for themselves what they believe in, what they think, and what they believe is high impact to work on for the future.

每一次危机相较于之前的都变得不那么可怕，因为这样，在经历了18次重大危机之后，你会想：“既然我都挺过了前18次，这次也能挺过去。”你会变得越来越坚定。我认为整个观念是，人们需要为自己弄清楚他们相信什么、他们的想法是什么，以及他们认为对未来产生高影响力的工作是什么。

So what I will say instead is it's really important to actually think hard about where you think you can make the biggest contribution, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you enjoy. Then go meet people to work with, learn as much about that field as you can, and have the courage of your convictions to actually take a risk, focus on it, and do something there. It's okay if you fail, and if you do fail, you'll not be in a much different place than you are today, and you can go try the next thing. But I think it's really important to be willing to take a risk and make some sacrifice to be able to try to impact the world in some way that you really care about. I think the sooner you get to work on that, the better you'll be.

所以，关键是要找到你真正热爱的事业，相信自己，勇敢地去实现梦想。在寻找最佳事业道路时，考虑你的优势、兴趣和能为世界创造价值的方式。结识志同道合的人，学习相关领域的知识，坚定信念，敢于冒险，全力以赴地投入其中。即使失败了，你也不会比现在更糟，你还可以尝试其他选择。但关键是要勇敢地去冒险，为自己关心的事情付出努力。越早投入这个过程，你的事业将会越成功。