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Great entrepreneurs don’t write great books. In fact, they don’t write many books at all.
偉大的企業家并未寫出偉大的著作。事實上，他們根本沒有寫過很多書。
Neither fact is surprising. Successful entrepreneurs are typically too busy innovating to write down much of anything. And on those rare occasions when they attempt to create a book, it’s filled with what they did, and not what led to their idea in the first place. As a rule, they are not particularly introspective.
無論哪種事實都不會令人感到驚訝。成功的企業家通常太過忙于創新，沒時間寫下很多東西。當他們難得試圖去創作一本書時，書中滿是他們做過些什么，壓根不是起初給予他們靈感的東西。
So if we want to know what makes them successful—in order to improve our own companies
因此，如果我們想要了解是什么促使他們成功——以便提高我們自己的公司，無論我們是服務于一家大型公司還是我們自己的初創企業——我們有必要對他們進行研究。而這正是我過去三十年來所一直從事的。
whether we work for a huge one or our own start up—we need to study them. And that is exactly what I have been doing professionally for the last 30 years.
以下便是我的研究結果。
1. Look at How They Think, Not at What They Do. If you just observed the actions entrepreneurs take, you would conclude there isn’t that much to be gained from studying them. Each entrepreneur’s behavior is as idiosyncratic as they are. You would have to be Larry Page and Sergey Brin to start Google; Oprah Winfrey to found Harpo Productions.
1.著眼于他們是如何想的，而非其所作所為。 如果你只是觀察企業家們所采取的行動，你會得出這樣的結論：研究他們沒有多少收獲。每個企業家的行為和他們自身一樣獨具特色。創立谷歌（Google）的必須是拉里?佩奇（Larry Page）和謝爾蓋?布林（Sergey Brin）；成立哈普娛樂集團（Harpo Productions）一定要是奧普拉?溫弗里(Oprah Winfrey)。
But—and it is a huge but—if you look at how they reason, you see remarkable similarities. The process just about all of them follows in creating their companies looks like this. They:
但是如果關注他們是如何思考的（這是一項龐大的工程），你就會看到明顯的相似之處。他們在創立自己公司時所遵循的思考過程就像下面所示：
A. Figure out what they really want to do.
A． 弄清楚他們真正想做什么。
B. Take a small step toward that goal.
B． 向那個目標邁出一小步
C. Pause after taking that small step to see what they have learned.
C． 邁出一小步之后稍停片刻看看學到了什么
D. Build off that learning and take another small step.
D． 積累經驗，再前進一小步
E. Pause after taking that step.
E． 之后再停下來
F. Build off what they learned in step two. And then take another small step…
F． 積累第二步中的經驗。然后繼續前進……
If we were to reduce it to a formula, it would be Act. Learn. Build Repeat.
如果我們要把它提煉一下的話，那就是行動、學習、積累重復。
Put simply, in the face of an unknown future, entrepreneurs act. They deal with uncertainty not by trying to analyze it, or planning for every contingency, or predicting what the outcomes will be. Instead, they act, learn from what they find, and act again.
簡言之，在面對一個未知數時，企業家們采取了行動。他們應對不確定性時，沒有試著去分析它、為每一個偶然性制定規劃，或者預測結果。相反，他們采取了行動，從他們的發現中吸取教訓，然后再采取行動。
2. They Start with a Market Need. Ideas are easy—I bet you can come up with 10 new product or service ideas within five minutes right now, if you had to. And because new ideas are plentiful, they are not worth very much. As with anything else, if there is a glut—of ideas, in this case—the value goes down.
2.他們從市場需求入手。 想法唾手可得——我敢打賭，如果趕鴨子上架的話，你能夠在五分鐘內提出關于產品或者服務的十個新點子。而且因為從來不缺，這些新想法沒什么價值。和任何其他東西一樣，如果供過于求，其價值會下降，在這里指的是點子。
Besides, there is no guarantee anyone will buy the great idea you have come up with. If you start with the idea, you need to go in search of customers. If you begin with the need, you already have a market—the people who need what you have.
另外，未必會有人買你想出來的這個好主意。如果你從創意著手，就必須去尋找顧客。而如果你從需求入手，你已經擁有了一個市場——那些人需要你的想法。
If you can discover a market need you can make a fortune. But intriguingly, that is not the primary motivation of the most successful entrepreneurs, and that brings us to the next point.
如果你能發現市場需求，你就能賺得大錢。但有趣的是，那并非最成功的企業家們的主要動力，于是我們就研究出了下一點。
3. Don’t Set Out to Be Rich. The best entrepreneurs don’t have making a fortune as their goal, as they start off. Wealth is just (an extremely pleasant) byproduct.
3.別一開始就想著賺錢。 創業初期，最優秀的企業家沒有將財富作為他們的目標。財富只是這個過程中一種令人非常愉快的副產品。
Why not focus on gaining wealth? Well, if your primary objective is to get rich quick, you are bound to cut corners, short-change your customers, and fail to take the time to truly understand what the market needs. And that is true whether you are trying to get your company off the ground, or are introducing a new product or service in order to make this quarter’s numbers.
為什么不專注于獲取財富？好吧，如果你的主要目標是快速致富，你勢必會偷工減料，欺騙你的顧客，而不會花時間去真正了解這個市場的需求。的確如此，無論你是在努力推動公司起步，還是推出一款全新產品或者服務來完成這個季度的業績。
Instead, they identify the market need we talked about in point 2, and get to work.
相反，他們能夠識別我們在上述談到的市場需求，開始工作。
4. Marketing. (Psst. Compete Differently) The conventional wisdom—find a niche; zig when others zag—is right, but not particularly helpful. It lacks, to be kind, specificity. Far better is to describe what the best entrepreneurs do and that is “compete differently.”
4.營銷。 （嘿!以不同的方式競爭）像找到一個利基和隨大流等傳統經驗固然沒錯，但并不特別有用。至少可以說，它缺少針對性。不如說，最優秀的企業家們所做的是“以不同的方式競爭。”
How do they do it? Here are some examples:
他們是如何做到的？以下有幾個例子：
–Make small bets. Your resources are limited and starting anything new is risky. You don’t want to compound those risks by betting everything on one role of the dice.
——小試一把。你的資源有限，任何新嘗試都要冒風險。你不希望孤注一擲而讓風險大增。
–Make those small bets quickly. No, you don’t want to lose money. But, since you are not risking much, you can afford to fail. Get out in the marketplace fast and let potential customers tell you if you are onto something. Action trumps everything—especially planning.
——迅速押注。不，你不想賠錢。但既然押上的不多，你經受得起失敗。迅速進出市場，讓潛在的客戶告訴你是否該做下去。行動勝過一切——尤其是規劃。
–Where do you place those small bets? (I) Obviously, in areas where competitors don’t exist, or are weak. Not so obviously, in places where you feel strong. That confidence will help you overcome the inevitable hurdles you will face.
——押注哪個領域？(I)顯然是那些沒有競爭者，或者競爭力較弱的領域。此外，還應押注你感覺自己實力強大的領域，這也許沒那么明顯。這種自信會幫助你克服你將面對的不可避免的障礙。
–Where do you place those small bets? (II) No customer wants to be entirely dependent on just one supplier, no matter who it is. Ask yourself, what your competitor’s customers want. Better yet, ask those customers yourself.
——押注哪個領域？(II)沒有哪一位顧客會完全依賴于一家供應商，無論是哪家供應商。問問自己，你的競爭對手的客戶想要什么。然而更好的是，親自去問問那些客戶。
–Let the market define you. People will tell you what they like, and what they don’t, about your product. Incorporate their ideas with yours. Making the world’s best videocassette recorder does you no good, if what people really want are DVRs.
——讓市場來定義你。人們會對你的產品給出反饋意見，告訴你他們喜歡什么和不喜歡什么。把他們的想法和你的結合起來。如果消費者其實需要DVR，那么生產世界上最棒的錄影機對你毫無益處。
