-
女士先生們、2015年畢業生、家長、朋友們、這所傑出學府的全體教職員,十分榮幸來到這裡參與這個你們生命中的重要時刻。幾個月前當我收到Healey校長的演講邀請時,我不知道該說什麼。我有點擔心讓你們這些聽眾失望,我在email中告訴Healey校長我沒什麼精彩的故事可講,她說:「別擔心,總會有可說的事。」她幫不上什麼忙。幾星期後,她料不到的事確實發生了。2月27日,我穿過波士頓Tremont街打算買早餐三明治,90分鐘後,我身處麻省總醫院手術室動腦部手術,原因是硬膜上血腫。我過馬路時被公車撞上,我爬起來後以為沒事,很快就證明我錯了。因此那天我在病床上寄email給Healey校長,寫著:「我有故事可說了。」故事長度肯定不會讓你們失望。我在加護病房待了四天,回想發生的一切,感覺相當痛苦,我的頭皮上現在還有22個釘書針,那時我才意識到我確實有一些重要的領悟與你們分享。因此2015年畢業生,我今天要告訴你們:過馬路時請注意雙向來車,我真的受到教訓了。說真的,我確實有幾個故事與你們分享,這裡是巴布森學院,因此我們來談談創業。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of 2015. Parents. Friends. Faculty and staff of this great college. I’m honored to be here for this incredible moment in your lives.A few months ago, when I received an invitation from President Healey to speak here today, I didn’t know what to say. I was so honored to be asked, but I was worried for you, as an audience. My concern, as I told President Healey at the time, was that I wasn’t sure I had a good enough story for you. Or the right advice to share. She said, wisely, “Think about it, something will come up.”A few weeks later something she never could have predicted did happen.On February 27th, I walked across Tremont Street to pick up breakfast at a nearby deli. And ninety minutes later, I was in the Operating Room at Mass General Hospital, having brain surgery for an epidural hematoma.I had been hit by a bus while crossing the street. And after initially picking myself up and thinking I was ok, it quickly became clear that I was not. So later that day, I sent an email from my bed in the Neuro ICU. It said, “President Healey, I think I finally have a story for you.” The lengths I will go to make sure you all get a good speech!I had four days in the ICU to reflect on everything that had happened. I was in excruciating pain, with a newly shaven head and 22 staples curving across my scalp. That’s when I realized I had an important lesson to tell you all ... What is that lesson?Ladies and Gentleman of the class of 2015 ... I am here to tell you, look both ways before you cross the street!In all seriousness, I do have a few stories to tell you today. And this is Babson College, so lets talk about entrepreneurship.
-
如你們所知,12年前,2003年5月,我坐在你們現在所坐的位置,拿到你們今天即將拿到的同樣文憑,那時我確信自己能成功,只是不知道該怎麼做,這令我非常惶恐。但我做到了,有趣的是,你們甚至可以說,我站在你們面前,以傑出校友的身分,甚至現在成了博士,最重要的是擔任世上最佳創業學校的畢業演講嘉賓,你們可以說這一切都因為我並非創業家。這是什麼意思?我的職業生涯確實相當幸運也相當成功,但在很大程度上這種成功來自於替另一家公司工作,而非創立自己的公司。很多人或許也有類似情況:擁有成為創業家的雄心與積極精神,必定有一天能擁有屬於自己的事業,但也可能是在波士頓或其他地方的大公司找到固定工作。因此當我思考該與你們分享什麼時,我逐漸意識到我能提供你們最有價值的訊息或許不太尋常,但就是這個:想成為創業家,你不需要成為自己的老闆、開創屬於自己的事業。或許聽起來很瘋狂,但請耐心聽我說明。
展開英文
收合英文
-
As you may know, 12 years ago, in May 2003, I sat where you are now and received the same diploma that you will today. Back then, I was certain I could be successful, I just had no idea how ... and that scared the crap out of me.But I did it, and the funny thing is you might even say that I am standing here before you—as a proud alumnus and even now as a DOCTOR, and, most importantly, as commencement speaker at the best entrepreneurial college in the world—you might say all of this is precisely because I was NOT an entrepreneur.What do I mean by that?Well, it’s true I’ve been fortunate and successful in my career. But in large part, that success came from working FOR another company, instead of starting one myself. Many of you may be in a similar situation: entrepreneurial at heart, motivated self-starters, certain to work for yourself one day. But also, maybe about to start a regular job with any one of the great companies here in Boston, or around the world.So, while thinking about what I wanted to share with you, it became clear that the most valuable message I could bring to you might be an unpopular one. But it’s this. You do NOT need to work for YOURSELF and start YOUR OWN business to be an ENTREPRENUER!If this sounds crazy, hear me out.
-
我的職業生涯始於在他人的組織中創業,早在進入巴布森之前我就開創了第一份事業:檸檬水攤子。跟在座許多人一樣,有點老套。國中到高中期間,我開創了許多事業,進入這所學校後,我開創了更多事業。事實上,我下定決心在巴布森開創自己的事業。我向一些非營利組織募集了一萬美元的資金,以獲得足夠的資金在校園裡設立第一間屬於自己的辦公室,這幫助我說服當時巴布森的校長讓我使用Coleman大樓的地下室-很美的地方-作為巴布森第一個創業服務中心,知道這個創業服務中心依然存在令我受寵若驚。因此當我坐在你們現在所坐的位置,準備從世上最優秀的創業學院畢業,帶著巴布森提供的教育和十幾項創業紀錄,我已準備好向自己和全世界證明我能成為一位成功的創業家,因此-以下進入有趣的部分。
展開英文
收合英文
-
I’ll start with a story about my own journey to being an entrepreneur INSIDE of SOMEONE ELSE’s organization. My first business, long before Babson, was pretty cliché: a lemonade stand. I started multiple businesses, if you can even call them that, from middle through high school, and even more once I arrived on this campus.In fact, I was so determined to start my own businesses at Babson that I even raised $10,000 of non-profit funding from several entrepreneurship organizations so that I could build my own office on campus. That helped me convince the President of Babson at the time to let me use the basement space in Coleman Hall to create Babson’s first undergraduate business hatchery ... which I am humbled to learn still exists today.So by the time I was sitting exactly where you are, graduating from one of the best entrepreneurial colleges in the world, armed with the ideals of a Babson education, and, having already started some 10 ‘businesses’ ... I was ready to prove to myself, and to the world, that I could be a successful entrepreneur.
-
2004年我接到西恩.帕克的電話,他想知道我是否願意加入一間名為「The Facebook」的小公司,他詢問我是否想成為該公司的頭10名員工,獲得大量股權,為一位默默無聞、名叫馬克.祖克柏的天才工作。我做了顯而易見的選擇,我說:「不」。我為何要接受?我是創業家,這意味著做自己的老闆。創業家只能做自己的老闆,這是我深信不疑的事。透露一下:我錯了。我跟西恩還價說,他該僱用的不是我-凱文.科樂藍,而是我的公司-凱文.科樂藍企業。我的公司將以Facebook的名義賣廣告、賺取佣金,不拿薪水、不拿股票,這比接受一份「正常工作」更有「創業」的感覺、更符合巴布森的價值觀。我向西恩提出這個想法,他也做了顯而易見的選擇:他拒絕了。他解釋說,最終這家叫Facebook的小公司將成長到需要建立自己的銷售團隊,像我提議的這種第三方經銷商發展得越迅速、淘汰得越快,這意味著我的新「公司」很快就會面臨淘汰的命運。我很矛盾,一方面,我想當自己的老闆;但另一方面,我想參與擁有明確目標的企業和組織,感覺Facebook似乎就是這樣的機會。我該怎麼做?好,經過一番思考,我暫時放下了我的創業夢想,我接受了這份工作,開始上工。我的第一間辦公室是紐約分租公寓中的戴爾筆電,我前往附近的學校,拿起學校的報紙,打電話給在報紙上登廣告的公司。我花了很多時間解釋社群網路與Facebook是什麼,七年後,我成為除了馬克.祖克伯以外最資深的Facebook員工。
展開英文
收合英文
-
So in 2004, I got a call from Sean Parker asking me if I wanted to join a tiny little company called “The Facebook.” He asked if I wanted be one of its first ten employees, if I wanted to receive a substantial share of equity, and to work for a then-unknown genius named Mark Zuckerberg, and to help build the advertising sales team for a company with huge potential. I made the very obvious choice.I said, “no.”Why WOULD I say yes? I was an entrepreneur! That meant being my own boss. There was no way an entrepreneur could be anything other than his or her own boss, and I was convinced of it.(Spoiler alert, I was wrong.)My counter offer to Sean was that instead of hiring me, Kevin Colleran, he should instead hire my “company” Kevin Colleran INCORPORTED, which would be a team of one (me) selling ads on Facebook’s behalf in exchange for commission. No salary, and no equity. This felt much more ‘entrepreneurial’ and Babson-worthy than accepting a “normal job.” I laid this out to Sean, and he made the very obvious choice.He said, “no.” He explained that eventually, this small company, called Facebook, would grow large enough to where it would need to build its own sales team internally. And as a third-party reseller like I had proposed, the better I did the sooner I would be obsolete—which means my new “company” would quickly grow itself out of business.I was conflicted. On the one hand, I wanted to be my own boss. But on the other hand, I wanted to build and scale an organization with real business purpose ... and it felt like Facebook was going to be that opportunity. What to do? Well, thinking at the time I was putting my entrepreneurial dreams on hold for a while, I said YES to the job and got to work.My first office was a Dell laptop by my bed in my shared New York City apartment. I went to nearby colleges, picked up school newspapers, and called the businesses that had purchased ads. I spent a lot of my time having to explain what ‘social networking’ even meant, let alone what Facebook was. Seven years later, I had become the most tenured employee at Facebook other than Mark Zuckerberg.
-
這正是面對新挑戰的好時機,當時我帶領Facebook與一些全球最大的廣告商建立合作關係,協助達成將近1億美元的交易。我得到一些領悟:儘管我為別人工作,但其實我一直是創業家。事實上我並未因為接受一份「真正的工作」而如我原本認為的「擱置了夢想」,我也不曾背叛或浪費在巴布森接受的教育。事實上我掌控自己的時間表,擁有屬於自己的客戶關係。我建立了屬於自己的銷售資料,我努力的程度直接影響了獲得的佣金,我確實是自己的老闆。更重要的是,我學會了「全力投入」。我認為這相當重要,我不再像以前一樣試圖利用晚上時間開創另一項事業,我也不再等待更好的機會到來。相反地,我與許多積極進取的人共同打造一間公司,我獨特的角色就是協助賺取公司生存所需的廣告收入,如今這家公司讓超過14億人彼此聯繫,市值超過2000億美元。
展開英文
收合英文
-
I was ready for a new challenge. By that time, I was leading the partnerships between Facebook and some of the largest advertisers in the world, helping to build deals worth nearly a hundred million dollars.And I realized something: Without knowing it, even though I was working for somebody else’s company, I had in fact been an entrepreneur the whole time.I had NOT actually put those dreams on hold like I originally thought. By taking a “real job” I had not betrayed myself or wasted that Babson education. In fact, I controlled my own schedule, I owned my client relationships, I built my own sales materials, and my level of effort directly impacted the amount of commission I received. I was my own boss. More importantly, I had learned total commitment. I think that’s important. I wasn’t trying to start another business during the evenings like I had always done previously. Nor was I waiting for a better opportunity to come my way. Instead, along with many other highly motivated people, I was building a company—and my unique role was to help generate the advertising revenue we needed to do that.Today that business connects more than 1.4 billion people and is valued at over 200 billion dollars.
-
因此當你們思考未來時,為「創業定義」的改變做好準備,為「目標」的改變做好準備,為「自我」的改變做好準備,因為如果你無法想像一個與你今天所見不同的世界,你將永遠無法建立一個更好的世界。我藉由為另一家公司工作瞭解這一點,也在身為風險投資家的工作中看到這一點。無論你選擇何種職業生涯,即使你選擇一份「常規工作」,記住:建立一項符合真正創業精神所需的技能。這引出我最後一項建議:做好準備勝於做好規劃。別試著規劃獲得大機會,而是確保機會來臨時做好準備。在我終於被說服加入Facebook之前,我的創業計劃是成為一位熱情洋溢、積極主動的企業執行長,同時擁有幾家不同類型的企業,這就是我的計劃,全力發展單一事業和為別人工作對我來說幾乎是一種褻瀆。
展開英文
收合英文
-
So, as many of you think about the future, remember it’s okay to have your definition of entrepreneurship change. In fact, PREPARE to have your definition of your goals and desires changed. Prepare for yourself to change.Because, if you can’t imagine a world different from the one you see today, you will never be able to build a better one.I learned that while working for another company, and I see it today in my current work as a venture capitalist. No matter what path your career takes, even if you are taking a “regular job” at a large company, remember you are building the SKILLS necessary for real entrepreneurship. Which brings me to my final point: it is better to prepare than to plan. Don’t try to plan for your own big opportunity, but instead make sure you are prepared and ready for when it comes. There is no way to make your dream job, or your dream business opportunity, materialize precisely when you’d like it to. But it IS possible to spend your time ensuring you’ll be able to make the very most of that opportunity when it does come your way. Before I was finally convinced to join Facebook, my entrepreneurial plan for my life was to be a passionate self-starter CEO with several businesses of different types, all overlapping at the same time. To have a breadth of interests and enterprises which, together, made up a rewarding and constantly interesting life. That was the plan. Committing 100% to a single company was nearly as blasphemous to me as working for someone other than myself.
-
快轉到現在。一個月前,我和兩位Facebook前同事共同宣布推出一家叫Slow創投的風險投資公司,一百多位企業執行長、創始人及科技界領導者,以及十幾家其他風險投資公司決定投資Slow創投,他們的投資總額超過8000萬美元。如果不是因為我在Facebook「為別人工作」期間學習許多創業經驗、在矽谷建立人脈,我不可能為這個新機會做好準備。因此,畢業於巴布森12年後,我終於開創了屬於自己的公司。如今我與數十位年輕創始人一起工作,協助領導他們的企業邁向成功,我終於開始從事12年前我坐在你們現在所坐的位置時計劃做的事。我不曾計劃以這種方式展開我的創業生涯,更重要的是,我不可能以這種方式達成目標。如果2005年時我不曾質疑自己對「創業」的定義、接受那份工作,如果我不曾全力投入別人的公司,如果我不曾藉由那個組織建立屬於自己的創業生涯,就不會有今天的我。如果我不曾在Facebook的工作生涯中建立自己的人脈,就不會有今天的我。這就是我之前所說的-我今天來到這裡的原因,以創業家的身份與現場所有人分享人生經驗,正因為巴布森教導我從事我認為非創業家應從事之事,因此我接受了Facebook的「常規工作」。我希望大家都能遇上這種「塞翁失馬,焉知非福」的事。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Fast forward to today. One month ago, with two former colleagues, we announced the launch of our own venture capital firm called Slow Ventures. More than a hundred CEO’s, founders, and leaders in the tech world, and more than a dozen other venture capital firms, have decided to invest in Slow Ventures. They have entrusted us with more than $80 million of investment capital. If it were not for my time at Facebook, “working for somebody else”, learning thousands of entrepreneurial lessons in the process, and building a personal network of technology leaders throughout Silicon Valley, I would have never been able to prepare for this new responsibility.So, finally, 12 years after graduating Babson, I am starting my own company!Now, I get to work every day with dozens of young founders, sharing years of lessons from my Facebook tenure to help guide all of their companies to success!! And learning more every day. I am finally doing what I’d “planned” to do 12 years ago, when I sat in the very chairs you’re seated in now. I never planned for my entrepreneurial career to play out this way. And, more importantly, I could NOT do what I do today if I hadn’t challenged my own notions of entrepreneurship back in 2005. If I hadn’t committed myself 100% to somebody else’s company, and then built my own entrepreneurial career inside that organization, I wouldn’t be here today. If I hadn’t grown my personal network in genuine, meaningful ways throughout my career at Facebook in order to launch my own venture capital firm, I wouldn’t be here today.Which is why I said earlier—the reason I’m here today, as an entrepreneur, speaking to all of you, graduates of Babson College, is precisely because I’d been prepared by Babson to do what I thought was NOT entrepreneurial by taking that “regular job” at Facebook. I hope all of you will also experience this very “good” kind of being WRONG.
-
最後,我想以一個嚴肅的提醒做結束。我以一個關於車禍的玩笑開場,你可以想像,當我從腦部手術醒來,發現自己與死亡的距離僅僅一兩個小時,我花了一點時間進行反思。我詢問自己所有常見的問題:我是否過著自己一直想要的生活?我是否做過令自己後悔的決定?我是否感到快樂和滿足?我會因為這場車禍的結果改變什麼?我真誠的答案是-什麼都不會改變,事實上其中的意義比車禍本身更加深遠。手術醒來後,我看見妻子和家人,我拍了自拍照,立刻上傳Facebook,你可以查閱《波士頓環球報》。因為如我所想的,我什麼都不需改變。如果說我必須賦予幸福人生真正的定義,那就是這個!我並非希望任何人發生車禍,但我確實希望你們過著沒有遺憾的生活,建立職業生涯、發展友誼。當你確實有理由回顧一切時,希望你什麼都不需改變。你們今天獲得的學位絕對是最好的起點,因此,無論你將前往何方,無論你選擇何種無法預知的道路,我敢肯定你們將成就偉大的事業,我等不及為你們喝采!謝謝。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Finally, I’d like to end on a serious note. I opened by joking lightly about how I got hit by a truck. Well, you can imagine that when I woke up from brain surgery and found out I had been only an hour or two away from death, I took some time for reflection. I asked myself all of the usual questions ... Am I living the life I always wanted? Have I made any decisions I regret? Am I happy and fulfilled?A lot of people ask me what I would CHANGE as a result of my reflecting on the accident—And my honest answer is ... nothing.Which is actually far more PROFOUND than the accident itself.I woke up from surgery and saw my wife and family by my side. Immediately, I took a selfie (and put it on Facebook, of course), happy to be alive and happier to share my story with all of my friends. Because, as I think about it, there is NOTHING I would change.And if there is any real definition of success in your life, IT IS THAT!Now, I would not wish any of you to EVER get hit by a bus. But I do hope that you live your life in a way that leaves you without regrets. Build your career and develop friendships and relationships in a way that—when you DO have a reason to look back on it all—there’s nothing you would change.Graduating Class of 2015. You are graduates of Babson and entrepreneurs in life. Remember these lessons:It’s okay to think differently about entrepreneurship.Being an entrepreneur in somebody else’s company IS JUST as important as starting your own business.Commit 100% to something, and don’t try to plan for a specific opportunity, but instead always be preparing so that you are ready for the right opportunity when it comes.And the degree you have earned today is absolutely the best place to start. Wherever YOU are going ... and whatever unpredictable path you take along the way ... I’m certain you will do great things. And I, for one, simply can’t wait to cheer YOU on from the sidelines! Thank you.