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When future historians report human progress during the 21st century, they may conclude that one of the key moments took place a year ago in Elon Musk's bedroom. His eureka! moments happen every few months. Sometimes during his morning shower, sometimes late at night before sleep, sometimes, as on this occasion, waking at 2 a.m.
當(dāng)回顧人類在21世紀(jì)取得的進(jìn)步時(shí)，未來的歷史學(xué)家可能會(huì)下這樣的結(jié)論：其中的一個(gè)重要時(shí)刻是一年前在埃隆·穆斯克的臥室內(nèi)發(fā)生的。他的創(chuàng)造靈感每幾個(gè)月就會(huì)噴發(fā)一次，有時(shí)是在早晨淋浴，有時(shí)是在夜晚睡前，有時(shí)——比如這次——發(fā)生在凌晨2點(diǎn)醒來時(shí)。
This is how he described that moment to me: "I realized that a methane-oxygen rocket engine could achieve a specific impulse greater than 380."
他是這樣對我描述那一時(shí)刻的：“我意識到使用甲烷-氧氣型火箭發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)可以獲得380秒以上的比沖。”（比沖指火箭發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)單位重量推進(jìn)劑產(chǎn)生的沖量，工程中習(xí)慣以“秒”為單位——譯注）
Okay, it doesn't sound particularly historic. Until you realize that a rocket of that spec has adequate range to escape Earth's upper atmosphere and travel to Mars. And that it so happens that Mars has plenty of carbon dioxide (CO2) and permafrost (H2O), which could be neatly converted into the aforementioned methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen (O2). Which means you could create the fuel for the journey home right there on Mars itself. And that transforms the long-term economics of space travel between Earth and Mars because it means that you could send manned spacecraft to Mars without having to carry rocket fuel with you.
好吧，這聽起來沒有特別的歷史意義。但如果你知道如此高比沖的火箭足以突破地球大氣層，前往火星，是不是感覺就不一樣了？而碰巧火星有著大量二氧化碳（CO2）和厚厚的永凍層（H2O），它們可以被巧妙地轉(zhuǎn)化為上文提到的甲烷（CH4）和液態(tài)氧（O2）。這意味著你可以在火星就地制造返回地球的燃料。這會(huì)改變地球和火星之間太空旅行時(shí)需要考慮的長期經(jīng)濟(jì)問題，因?yàn)槟憧梢韵蚧鹦前l(fā)射載人飛船而不需要隨船攜帶火箭燃料。
That's right. Elon Musk genuinely believes that within the next couple of decades, humans will be colonizing Mars. And thanks to his early morning aha! moment, we will even be able to make the return trip. That would certainly be a useful line in the recruiting ads, unless, like him, you're comfortable with the prospect of dying on Mars after helping build humanity's second home.
就是這樣。埃隆·穆斯克堅(jiān)信在接下來的二十年內(nèi)，人類就可以移居火星。得益于他這次凌晨的靈光一閃，我們甚至還能返航。在招募志愿者的廣告中，這一條肯定能夠起到鼓動(dòng)作用。除非你像他一樣，愿意在幫助人類建立第二個(gè)家園后長眠于火星。
This is not your typical CEO.
他不是一個(gè)典型的首席執(zhí)行官。
You'd say Elon Musk was crazy, except that he has an unnerving track record of turning his dreams into reality. His second successful Internet startup, PayPal, which was sold to eBay(EBAY, Fortune 500) in 2002 for $1.5 billion only three years after its founding, was just the warm-up. (Compaq bought his first web software company.) His next act, Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, became the first private company to deliver cargo to the Space Station and has picked up billions of dollars of orders from NASA and others. His electric-vehicle company, Tesla Motors (TSLA), with sales up more than 12-fold for the first three quarters of 2013, is proving that cars can be green and sexy. (Oh, and earlier this year, while running those two companies, he found time to unveil a radical new intercity mass-transport concept called Hyperloop.) For all those reasons and more, Fortune has named Musk its 2013 Businessperson of the Year.
你會(huì)說埃隆·穆斯克很瘋狂，他在將理想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)這一方面，有著驚人的記錄。他的第二家因特網(wǎng)初創(chuàng)公司貝寶（PayPal）大獲成功。在公司成立三年之后的2002年，就被eBay公司以15億美元的價(jià)格收購。而這不過是個(gè)熱身。【康柏電腦公司（Compaq）收購了他的第一家網(wǎng)絡(luò)軟件公司。】他的下一家公司，太空探索科技公司（Space Exploration Technologies），也叫SpaceX，成為了第一家為空間站供貨的私人公司，并從美國國家航空航天局（NASA）和其他相關(guān)機(jī)構(gòu)得到了價(jià)值數(shù)十億的訂單。他的電動(dòng)汽車公司特斯拉（Tesla Motors）在2013年的前三個(gè)季度里銷量增長至原來的12倍，證明了汽車可以既環(huán)保又性感。（噢，他在忙著經(jīng)營這兩家公司的同時(shí)，還在今年早些時(shí)候抽空提出了一項(xiàng)全新的跨城市交通運(yùn)輸概念，叫做“超回路列車”。）基于以上列舉和未列舉的理由，《財(cái)富》將他評為2013年度商業(yè)人物。
When you look at the incredible range of his endeavors and search for recent comparisons in the business world, only one emerges: Steve Jobs. Most business innovations involve only incremental improvement. And of those entrepreneurs lucky enough to succeed with bigger ideas, the large majority then stick to their industry sector for expansion and consolidation. Jobs and Musk are in a category all their own: serial disrupters.
鑒于他在跨度廣大的不同領(lǐng)域中取得了此等成就，如果你想要尋找近期的商界人物進(jìn)行對比，腦海中只會(huì)浮現(xiàn)出一個(gè)人：史蒂夫?喬布斯。大多數(shù)商業(yè)創(chuàng)意都是漸進(jìn)式的改進(jìn)。一些企業(yè)家幸運(yùn)地將宏大創(chuàng)意變?yōu)楝F(xiàn)實(shí)，然后他們中的大多數(shù)都固守在取得成功的行業(yè)領(lǐng)域，擴(kuò)張公司，整合能力。喬布斯和穆斯克則自成一個(gè)類型：跨領(lǐng)域顛覆者。
