JOBS of the CEO角色定位
Earlier I mentioned that the only universal job description of the CEO is to make sure the company wins. Although that’s true, I wanted to talk a little more specifically about how a CEO should spend his or her time.
之前我提到CEO的職責很簡單，就是讓公司在市場中勝出。話是這么說，但我還是想稍微詳細聊聊CEO的時間分配問題。
A CEO has to 1) set the vision and strategy for the company, 2) evangelize the company to everyone, 3) hire and manage the team, especially in areas where you yourself have gaps 4) raise money and make sure the company does not run out of money, and 5) set the execution quality bar.
CEO的任務有：1、為公司找到方向；2、到處跟人宣傳咱們公司；3、招人，并且管理招來的人，尤其是那些分管你不熟悉的領域的人；4、融資，保證公司賬上有錢花；5、設定內部工作執行的標準。
In addition to these, find whatever parts of the business you love the most, and stay engaged there.
除此之外，還要找到這份事業里你最喜歡的部分，然后一頭扎進去。
As I mentioned at the beginning, it’s an intense job. If you are successful, it will take over your life to a degree you cannot imagine—the company will be on your mind all the time. Extreme focus and extreme intensity means it’s not the best choice for work-life balance. You can have one other big thing—your family, doing lots of triathlons, whatever—but probably not much more than that. You have to always be on, and there are a lot of decisions only you can make, no matter how good you get at delegation.
我在開頭就說過，創業是一件極其辛苦的事情。如果你能成功，那你的人生會進入到一個你之前無法想象的境界——你所有的時間都會被創業充斥。高度的專注和投入注定讓你做不到工作生活兩不誤。你可以花點時間陪陪家人或者跑個馬拉松什么的，但也差不多就只能這樣了。你必須隨時待命，去做那些只有你能做的決策，不管你雇了多少人為你分憂。
You should aim to be super responsive to your team and the outside world, always be clear on the strategy and priorities, show up to everything important, and execute quickly (especially when it comes to making decisions others are blocked on.) You should also adopt a “do whatever it takes” attitude—there will be plenty of unpleasant schleps. If the team sees you doing these things, they will do them too.
你應該力圖做到對團隊以及其他所有事情負責，做到心里對公司發展戰略和事項安排永遠有清晰的視野，做到在重要的事情上身先士卒，并且快速地執行正確的方案（尤其是在別人舉棋不定做不了決策的時候）。你應該做好“不惜任何代價都要把事情做成”的心理準備，無論路上要克服多少讓你心累心塞的難關。如果你能這么做，那么所謂上行下效，你的團隊也會學著這么做。
Managing your own psychology is both really hard and really important. It’s become cliché at this point, but it’s really true—the emotional highs and lows are very intense, and if you don’t figure out how to stay somewhat level through them, you’re going to struggle. Being a CEO is lonely. It’s important to have relationships with other CEOs you can call when everything is melting down (one of the important accidental discoveries of YC was a way for founders to have peers.)
做好你的心智管理非常重要并且會很困難。雖然有點老生常談，但事實的確如此——人的感情起伏可以很劇烈，而如果你沒能找到一個方法保持淡定，那你就注定要煎熬。CEO是場獨角戲。你最好與別的CEO處好關系，以防你公司天塌下來了都沒人幫你頂一把（說起來，YC倒是無心插柳柳成蔭地促成了許多創業者之間的友情）。
A successful startup takes a very long time—certainly much longer than most founders think at the outset. You cannot treat it as an all-nighter. You havde to eat well, sleep well, and exercise. You have to spend time with your family and friends. You also need to work in an area you’re actually passionate about—nothing else will sustain you for ten years.
創業成功需要很多時間——肯定比大多數創業者起初以為的要長，所以你要做好持久戰的準備：好好吃飯，好好睡覺并且鍛煉身體，騰出時間來陪陪家人與朋友。你還需要確認所從事的事業是你真正熱愛的，否則很難堅持十年。
Everything will feel broken all the time—the diversity and magnitude of the disasters will surprise you. Your job is to fix them with a smile on your face and reassure your team that it’ll all be ok. Usually things aren’t as bad as they seem, but sometimes they are in fact really bad. In any case, just keep going. Keep growing.
你會一直覺得什么東西都是百廢待興——創業路上各種稀奇古怪的超級大坑會讓你大開眼界。你作為CEO的任務，就是要么拼了老命把它們填上，要么殫精竭慮想辦法繞過去，而且與此同時面對團隊的時候臉上還必須洋溢著幸福的傻笑。不過通常事情沒有看起來那么糟。（有的時候真的有那么糟！）反正不管發生什么事，聚精會神保持成長保持發展就對了。
The CEO doesn’t get to make excuses. Lots of bad and unfair things are going to happen. But don’t let yourself say, and certainly not to the team, “if only we had more money” or “if only we had another engineer”. Either figure out a way to make that happen, or figure out what to do without it. People who let themselves make a lot of excuses usually fail in general, and startup CEOs who do it almost always fail. Let yourself feel upset at the injustice for 1 minute, and then realize that it’s up to you to figure out a solution. Strive for people to say “X just somehow always gets things done” when talking about you.No first-time founder knows what he or she is doing. To the degree you understand that, and ask for help, you’ll be better off. It’s worth the time investment to learn to become a good leader and manager. The best way to do this is to find a mentor—reading books doesn’t seem to work as well.
CEO的詞典里沒有“借口”兩個字。許多聞所未聞的困境會發生在你身上。但是絕對不要說（尤其是跟團隊說）“要是咱們有錢就好了”或者“要是再來個工程師就好了”之類的話。如果你沒法找到錢或者另一個工程師，那就閉嘴，還是想想怎么在沒錢少人的情況下解決問題吧。喜歡找借口的普通人在生活工作中多半是盧瑟，而如果一個創業公司的CEO喜歡找借口，那這個公司基本上屬于黃土埋到脖子上了。你可以坐在那里自怨自艾一分鐘，但是在這一分鐘之后要馬上起來尋找解決問題的路子。你需要努力做到的目標，就是當人們談論起你的時候，總會評價“這家伙就是有辦法搞定所有事情”。初次創業，迷茫是正常的。盡力去理解，理解不了就求助，逐步提升自己。如何管理和領導團隊是件值得花時間去學習的事——紙上得來終覺淺，你還需要找導師。
A surprising amount of our advice at YC is of the form “just ask them” or “just do it”. First-time founders think there must be some secret for when you need something from someone or you want to do some new thing. But again, startups are where tricks stop working. Just be direct, be willing to ask for what you want, and don’t be a jerk.
我們在YC給出了很多“直接去問他們”或者“放手去做吧”之類的建議。初次創業的菜鳥們總覺得找大人物幫忙或者開發什么新項目的背后存在什么神奇秘笈——其實并沒有。創業的世界沒有那么多彎彎繞，有什么事情你就開口直說，保持禮貌就好。
It’s important that you distort reality for others but not yourself. You have to convince other people that your company is primed to be the most important startup of the decade, but you yourself should be paranoid about everything that could go wrong.
無論為了各種目的而信口開河，你自己心里一定要知道最真實的情況。在別人面前你可以自信地把自己公司捧到天上去，但是你胸中必須明鏡一樣清楚地知道那些會讓你一招不慎全盤皆輸的地方。
Be persistent. Most founders give up too quickly or move on to the next product too quickly. If things generally aren’t going well, figure out what the root cause of the problem is and make sure you address that. A huge part of being a successful startup CEO is not giving up (although you don’t want to be obstinate beyond all reason either—this is another apparent contradiction, and a hard judgment call to make.)
要有咬牙堅持的精神。大多數創業者太快就放棄現有的產品而去嘗試新的想法。如果事情不太順利，那么就從深層次地思考一下問題的來源，確保你想得很清楚。“不輕言放棄”是成功創業CEO的必備特質。（當然要是堅持做一件錯事，那就完全是南轅北轍了。這是創業當中的一個矛盾點，也是很難做出的決策。）
Be optimistic. Although it’s possible that there is a great pessimistic CEO somewhere out in the world, I haven’t met him or her yet. A belief that the future will be better, and that the company will play an important role in making the future better, is important for the CEO to have and to infect the rest of the company with. This is easy in theory and hard in the practical reality of short-term challenges. Don’t lose sight of the long-term vision, and trust that the day-to-day challenges will someday be forgotten and replaced by memories of the year-to-year progress.
要保持樂觀。我還沒遇到過那個悲觀主義的CEO把事情做成了的。你要堅信“未來會更好”并且把這樣的理念在全公司散布開來。這件事說起來容易，但在公司遇到挑戰時做起來難。不要太短視，要相信現在每天面對的挑戰在數年以后會變成珍貴的回憶。
Among your most important jobs are defining the mission and defining the values. This can feel a little hokey, but it’s worth doing early on. Whatever you set at the beginning will usually still be in force years later, and as you grow, each new person needs to first buy in and then sell others on the mission and values of the company. So write your cultural values and mission down early.
你最重要的任務還有定義公司的使命和價值觀。這可能會顯得有點裝，但在一開始把這些事情說清楚還是值得的。你在初期定下來的精神會在幾年里一直發揮作用，每個進公司的新人都會受到潛移默化的影響并且把這些使命和價值觀傳承下去。所以早早地想好你的情懷是什么吧。
Another cliché that I think is worth repeating: Building a company is somewhat like building a religion. If people don’t connect what they’re doing day-to-day with a higher purpose they care about, they will not do a great job. I think Airbnb has done the best job at this in the YC network, and I highly recommend taking a look at their cultural values.
有一點，雖然被很多人說過但是我還是想啰嗦一句：打造一個公司和建立一個宗教有點像。如果人們不是帶著一個崇高的使命感在做事，他們通常不會干得太好。在這點上，YC畢業的公司里Airbnb是做得最棒的。你可以研究一下他們是怎么做到的。
One mistake that CEOs often make is to innovate in well-trodden areas of business instead of innovating in new products and solutions. For example, many founders think that they should spend their time discovering new ways to do HR, marketing, sales, financing, PR, etc. This is nearly always bad. Do what works in the well-established areas, and focus your creative energies on the product or service you’re building.
CEO們常犯的一種錯誤是想要在商業運營方面，而不是產品和解決方案上做些創新。比如許多創業者經常花時間去探索人力資源管理、營銷、財務和公關上的新方法。這通常不是什么好事。如果某個領域已經有明確的套路，那你應該集中精力去打造產品而不是寄希望在運營上顛覆些什么。
HIRING & MANAGING招聘與管理
Hiring is one of your most important jobs and the key to building a great company (as opposed to a great product.)My first piece of advice about hiring is don’t do it. The most successful companies we’ve worked with at YC have waited a relatively long time to start hiring employees. Employees are expensive. Employees add organizational complexity and communication overhead. There are things you can say to your cofounders that you cannot say with employees in the room. Employees also add inertia—it gets exponentially harder to change direction with more people on the team. Resist the urge to derive your self-worth from your number of employees.
要建立一個偉大的公司，招聘是一切的基礎。關于招聘，我的第一條建議是：不要招聘。大多數YC投的成功公司都等了很長時間才開始招聘員工。招人的經濟成本很高，而且招來人以后管理與溝通成本也會直線上升（總有些話是你只能對合伙人說而不想讓員工知道的）。員工還會帶來更多惰性——團隊里人越多，公司改方向的難度就越大。請按耐住你心里想要招兵買馬擴大隊伍的沖動。
The best people have a lot of opportunities. They want to join rocketships. If you have nothing, it’s hard to hire them. Once you’re obviously winning, they’ll want to come join you.
牛人們總是會很搶手。他們希望能加入最具潛力的公司。如果你啥都沒有，那么要招到牛人的可能性也幾乎就沒有。而一旦你的公司成為當紅炸子雞，牛人們也會聞風而至。
It’s worth repeating that great people have a lot of options, and you need great people to build a great company. Be generous with equity, trust, and responsibility. Be willing to go after people you don’t think you’ll be able to get. Remember that the kind of people you want to hire can start their own companies if they want.
我再說一遍：牛人們手頭總會有不少選擇。你需要找到優秀的人才來建立一個偉大的公司，所以你應該慷慨地給予他們公司期權、你的信任和工作責權。你覺得希望不大的人選也可以去接觸接觸看。記住，你想招的那些人也可以開創屬于他們自己的事業。
When you are in recruiting mode (i.e., from when you get product-market fit to T-infinity), you should spend about 25% of your time on it. At least one founder, usually the CEO, needs to get great at recruiting. It’s most CEOs’ number one activity by time. Everyone says that CEOs should spend a lot of their time recruiting, but in practice, none but the best do. There’s probably something to that.
當你為產品找到市場以后，你就應該進入并且保持招聘模式，花25%的時間在招人上面。至少一位聯合創始人（通常是CEO）需要擅長招人識人，而這也是占據CEO們最多時間的活動。大家都說CEO應該多花時間找人，但實際上只有最好的CEO才能做到這點。
Don’t compromise on the quality of people you hire. Everyone knows this, and yet everyone compromises on this at some point during a desperate need. Everyone goes on to regret it, and it sometimes almost kills the company. Good and bad people are both infectious, and if you start with mediocre people, the average does not usually trend up. Companies that start off with mediocre early employees almost never recover. Trust your gut on people. If you have doubt, then the answer is no.
不要因為招人難就降低你的標準。每個人都知道這句話，但每個人都曾在某個絕望的時刻，在某種程度上做過妥協。妥協過后便是后悔——而這樣的事情也許會拖垮整個公司。近朱者赤，近墨者黑。你招兩個50分的人，他們的能力也不會比一個90分的人強。一開始就招平庸之輩的公司基本上很難有什么大起色。在招人時要相信你的直覺。如果你有些許猶豫，那么就對眼前之人說不吧。
Do not hire chronically negative people. They do not fit what an early-stage startup needs—the rest of the world will be predicting your demise every day, and the company needs to be united internally in its belief to the contrary.
小心不要招充滿負能量的家伙。他們不適合早期的創業企業。全世界所有人都在等著看你們把事情搞砸，所以公司內部必須團結一致避免那樣的悲劇發生。
Value aptitude over experience for almost all roles. Look for raw intelligence and a track record of getting things done. Look for people you like—you’ll be spending a lot of time together and often in tense situations. For people you don’t already know, try to work on a project together before they join full-time.
比起經驗，快速學習能力更重要。努力尋找那些嘴上無毛但是腦中有貨的年輕人。努力尋找你喜歡的人——你要跟他們長相廝守很久呢……對于那些你不認識的人，可以在全職錄用之前讓他們參與一個小項目試試看。
Invest in becoming a good manager. This is hard for most founders, and it’s definitely counterintuitive. But it’s important to get good at this. Find mentors that can help you here. If you do not get good at this, you will lose employees quickly, and if you don’t retain employees, you can be the best recruiter in the world and it still won’t matter. Most of the principles on being a good manager are well-covered, but the one that I never see discussed is “don’t go into hero mode”. Most first-time managers fall victim to this at some point and try to do everything themselves, and become unavailable to their staff. It usually ends in a meltdown. Resist all temptation to switch into this mode, and be willing to be late on projects to have a well-functioning team.
多花點心思去成為一個好的管理者。對于大多數創業者來說這都很難，而且這絕不是一份可以靠直覺混過去的工作。但是做好管理簡直太重要了。找幾個導師吧。如果你無法學會管理，人才會離你而去。而要是公司里留不住人，那你的招人技術再高超也是白搭。管理學的大多數原則問題已經是路人皆知的事，但我發現有個話題不怎么有人提，那就是“不要逞英雄”。很多初涉管理的創業者往往陷入這個誤區，事無巨細事必躬親，忙得連員工想找他也找不到。而逞英雄的結果基本上是毀滅性的。壓制住員工不給力的時候你心里親力親為的欲望，寧可慢一點，也要磨練出一個成建制的團隊來。
Speaking of managing, try hard to have everyone in the same office. For some reason, startups always compromise on this. But nearly all of the most successful startups started off all together. I think remote work can work well for larger companies but it has not been a recipe for massive success for startups.
聊起管理，還有一點，那就是盡量讓所有人在同一個地方辦公。不知怎么，創業公司通常會在這點上作出妥協。但是幾乎所有最成功的創業公司起初都是在一起辦公的。我覺得對于大公司而言遠程協作也許沒問題，但初創公司還是算了吧。
Finally, fire quickly. Everyone knows this in principle and no one does it. But I feel I should say it anyway. Also, fire people who are toxic to the culture no matter how good they are at what they do. Culture is defined by who you hire, fire, and promote.
最后我想提的一點是：辭退的時候一定要快刀斬亂麻。雖然這又是大家都知道可都不去遵守的一點，但我覺得還是要提一下。另外，那些與你公司氣場不合的人必須被請走，無論他們的工作能力有多優秀。你招什么樣的人，裁什么樣的人，提拔什么樣的人——這些事情定義了你的公司文化。
COMPETITORS競爭對手
A quick word about competitors: competitors are a startup ghost story. First-time founders think they are what kill 99% of startups. But 99% of startups die from suicide, not murder. Worry instead about all of your internal problems. If you fail, it will very likely be because you failed to make a great product and/or failed to make a great company.
一言以概之：競爭對手是一種像鬼一樣嚇人但并不存在的東西。沒有經驗的創業者會覺得來自競爭對手的碾壓是99%創業公司的死因，但其實并非如此——99%的創業公司死于自殺而不是謀殺。你還是多操心操心你自己吧，要是你失敗了，那多半是因為你沒能打造一款卓越的產品或者建立一個偉大的公司。
99% of the time, you should ignore competitors. Especially ignore them when they raise a lot of money or make a lot of noise in the press. Do not worry about a competitor until they are beating you with a real, shipped product. Press releases are easier to write than code, which is easier still than making a great product. In the words of Henry Ford: "The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time."
所以作為一個初創企業，99%的時間里，你完全可以把競爭對手當空氣，尤其是在他們融到了一大筆錢或者在媒體上造勢的時候。在他們搗鼓出一個對你有實質性威脅的產品之前，你對他們置之不理就好了，因為比起產品開發來，耍耍嘴皮子簡直是幼兒園水平的事情。福特汽車的創始人亨利·福特說過，“你真正需要畏懼的競爭對手是那種不聲不響，但堅持不懈地埋頭干實事的人。”
Every giant company has faced worse competitive threats than what you are facing now when they were small, and they all came out ok. There is always a counter-move.
每個大公司在初期都應付過比你現在殘暴得多的競爭壓力，他們不都挺過來了？別怕，辦法總比困難多。
