30岁前一事无成的卓越企业家

有传言说，世界上最成功的创业孵化器的创始人保罗•格雷厄姆，曾经因为一位创业者长得像马克•扎克伯格而为其投资。“扎克伯格们”年轻有为、有勇有谋，当然值得投资！不过，要创建一家成功的公司，年轻并非先决条件。

不信就看看下面10位企业家，他们在30岁之前都一无所有、甚至无所事事！

There’s a rumor that Paul Graham, the founder of the world’s most successful incubator, once invested in someone because he looked like Mark Zuckerberg. But being young isn’t a prerequisite for starting a successful company.

Don’t believe me? Here are 10 entrepreneurs who had accomplished nothing by 30-years-old.

马云，35岁时创建阿里巴巴

马云根本不懂编程，他第一次使用计算机的时候已经过了30岁。

如今，马云的身价达到225亿美元，但直到30岁时他还认为自己是个失败者。接受查理•罗斯采访时，马云说自己参加过三次高考，申请过超过30份不同的工作，包括肯德基餐厅服务员，但都被拒绝了。

31岁时，马云创建了他的第一家互联网公司：中国黄页。这家公司在存续的3年内共获得大约80万美元的收入。

35岁时，马云创建了阿里巴巴。与亚马逊类似，阿里巴巴在前三年没有任何利润，但后来的故事众所周知。

有趣的是，马云根本不懂编程。或许，他应该在Hustle Con大会上发表演讲？

Jack Ma, Alibaba: 35-years-old

Jack Ma’s never written a line of code, and the first time he used a computer was in his 30s.

Now he’s worth $22.5 billion, but until his 30s he thought himself a failure. In a Charlie Rose interview, Ma revealed he failed his college entrance exam three times. After that, he applied to over 30 different jobs, including KFC, and again, he was rejected.

So, at the age of 31, Ma started his first internet company called “China Yellow Pages.” The company made around $800,000 in the three years it was in business.

At 35, he founded Alibaba. Like Amazon, Alibaba didn’t make any profit in its first three years, but we know how the story ended.

Interestingly, Jack Ma has never written a line of code. Perhaps he should be a speaker at Hustle Con?

杰克•多尔西，30岁时创建Twitter

尽管杰克•多尔西非常希望你相信他是一位高明的创业者，但直到25岁左右时，他还是一位滑板朋克少年。

多尔西创立的首家公司是一个出租车调度项目，当时他还在纽约大学上学。

该项目失败后，多尔西遇到了伊夫•威廉姆斯，后者当时在经营一家播客公司Odeo。多尔西向威廉姆斯极力推销一种即时通信服务。

威廉姆斯很喜欢他的理念，并与多尔西、比兹•斯通和诺亚•格拉斯合作，全身心投入其中。多尔西被任命为CEO。当时他已经30岁。

Jack Dorsey, Twitter: 30-years-old

As much as he’d like you to believe he’s a sophisticated entrepreneur, Jack Dorsey was a punk skater well into his mid-20s.

Dorsey’s first company (started while he was at NYU) was a cab dispatching program.

When this fizzled out, Dorsey approached Ev Williams, who was running Odeo, a podcast company. He pitched him the idea of an instant messaging service.

Williams loved the concept and teamed up with Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass to pursue it full time. Dorsey was appointed CEO. He was 30-years-old at the time.

蒂姆•韦斯特格伦，35岁时创建Pandora公司

蒂姆•韦斯特格伦在35岁时创建了Pandora。但他两年内都发不出工资。

在创建Pandora之前，韦斯特格伦是一位失败的音乐家，兼职作曲家，保姆和嬉皮士。

虽然韦斯特格伦在35岁创建了Pandora（第一次创业尝试），但直到他37岁时，Pandora才成为一个在线广播频道。

Pandora最初只是一家允许商店播放音乐的硬件公司，成立前两年甚至濒临破产，好在韦斯特格伦说服50名员工同意在两年内不领薪酬。

不妨去聆听一下他为说服员工留下而发表的演讲。听到这些话，我恐怕也会留下来。

Tim Westergren, Pandora: 35-years-old

Tim Westergren started Pandora when he was 35. But he couldn’t pay salaries for two years.

Before starting Pandora, Westergren was a failed musician, part-time composer, nanny and hippy.

Although he started Pandora (his first entrepreneurial endeavor) at 35, Pandora didn’t become an online radio channel until Westergren was 37.

Pandora started as a hardware company that allowed stores to play music. Pandora even went bankrupt in their first two years and Westergrensomehow convinced 50 employees to work without pay—for two years.

Here’s the speech he gave employees each week that convinced them to stay. After hearing this words, I’d have stayed too.

简•库姆，33岁时创建WhatsApp

创建WhatsApp之前，简•库姆曾申请过Facebook的一份工作，但被拒之门外。

库姆在33岁生日时成立了WhatsApp。他是圣何塞州立学院的肄业生。

离开学校之后，他在雅虎找到了一份工作，并在那里遇到了联合创始人布莱恩•阿克顿。在雅虎工作9年之后，库姆申请了一份Facebook的工作。结果众所周知：他被拒绝了。我认为这段经历非常有趣。

Jan Koum, WhatsApp: 33-years-old

Before creating WhatsApp, Jan Koum applied to work at Facebook. They rejected him.

Koum incorporated WhatsApp on his 33rd birthday. He’s a San Jose State college dropout.

After leaving school, he landed a gig at Yahoo where he met Brian Acton, his cofounder. After nine years at Yahoo, Koum applied to work at Facebook and was famously rejected, which I find pretty hilarious.

本•霍洛维茨：33岁时创建LoudCloud公司

在33岁创建第一家公司之后，本•霍洛维茨经常生活在破产的边缘。

本•霍洛维茨于1988年从加州大学洛杉矶分校毕业，并在7年内换了多份工作，29岁时，他加入网景，并出任该公司首位产品经理。

1999年，网景被收购之后，霍洛维茨和马克•安德森（网景创始人）联合创建了LoudCloud。当时，霍洛维茨33岁。

霍洛维茨在《创业维艰》一书中讲述了LoudCloud无数次濒临毁灭的经历，比如拖欠工资两周时间。幸运地是，在霍洛维茨41岁时，Loudcloud被收购，净得16亿美元现金。干得漂亮。

Ben Horowitz, LoudCloud: 33-years-old

After starting his first company at 33, Ben Horowitz was often on the brink of bankruptcy.

After graduating from UCLA in 1988 and hopping from job to job for seven years, 29-year-old Ben Horowitz joined Netscape as their first product manager.

After Netscape was acquired in 1999, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen (Netscape’s founder) teamed up to to start LoudCloud. Horowitz was 33-years-old.

In Horowitz’s book, The Hard Things About Hard Things, he talks about the many near death experiences that LoudCloud faced, such as being two weeks away from defaulting on payroll. Thankfully for Horowitz, Loudcloud was acquired for $1.6 billion in cash when he was 41. Beautiful.

奥普拉 • 温弗瑞：30岁创办《欧普拉秀》

33岁那年，奥普拉签署了具有开创性的服务协议，由此开始缔造了自己的商业帝国。

奥普拉此前一直在美国南部当个籍籍无名、收入微薄的新闻主播。1983年，她搬到芝加哥，并主持早间节目《早安芝加哥》（A.M. Chicago）。这档节目起初收视率很低，但后来迅速跃升至第一。此后第三年，这档节目被重新包装命名为《奥普拉 • 温弗瑞秀》，奥普拉由此签下了具有标志意义的服务协议，成为一名亿万富翁。

"我到芝加哥的第一天，当我的双脚踏上这座城市，走在街头，瞬间就有一种找到归宿的感觉，这就像我的故乡。我就知道我属于这里。"奥普拉说。

Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show – 30-years-old

Oprah’s empire started when she signed a groundbreaking syndication deal when she was 33-years-old.

After scraping by as a low paid news anchor in the south, Oprah moved to Chicago in 1983 to host the morning show, A.M. Chicago. It had low ratings, but quickly rose to number one. Three later years later, the show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and Winfrey signed a syndication deal that helped her become a billionaire.

“My first day … I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland. I knew I belonged here,” Winfrey said.

山姆•沃尔顿：44岁创建沃尔玛

山姆•沃尔顿创建沃尔玛之前，与岳父共同经营一家小型折扣店。

创建沃尔玛之前，山姆•沃尔顿在1945年向岳父借了2万美元（相当于今天的25万美元），买下了一家本•富兰克林特许经营杂货店。三年后，沃尔顿收购了220英里之外的另外一家本•富兰克林店铺。然而，尽管沃尔顿经营着两家店铺，但他依旧很难给员工发工资。

1945年，沃尔顿已经44岁，并且有了多年的经商经验，他在这一年创建了第一家沃尔玛超市。

Sam Walton, WalMart: 44-years-old

Before Sam Walton founded WalMart, he owned a small discount store with his father-in-law.

In 1945, before starting WalMart, Sam Walton took out a $20,000 loan (about $250,000 adjusted to today) from his father-in-law and purchased a franchised Ben Franklin variety store. Three years later, Walton bought another Ben Franklin store, 220 miles away. But even though Walton was managing two stores, he still struggled to pay his employees.

In 1945, when Walton was 44-years-old, and had years of business experience, he opened the first WalMart.

彼得•泰尔，30岁时创建PayPal

如今的彼得•泰尔是世界最成功的科技投资者之一，但他最初差点进入法学院任教。

我从未想过会说这句话，但我还是要感谢彼得•泰尔听从了塔克•马克思的建议。

创建PayPal之前，彼得•泰尔只是一位讨厌自己生活的律师。1992年从斯坦福法学院毕业之后，泰尔加入了一家曼哈顿律所，对于这家律所，用泰尔的话说“外面的人想进去，而里面的人想出来”。

7个月后，泰尔离开这家律所，加入瑞士信贷，担任衍生品交易员。3年后，泰尔创建了Paypal。当时他31岁。4年后，eBay以15亿美元的价格收购PayPal，他在这家公司的股份价值达到5,000万美元。

Peter Thiel, PayPal EBAY: 30-years-old

One of the world’s most successful tech investors almost went to law school.

I never thought I’d say this sentence, but I’m thankful Peter Thiel followed Tucker Max’s advice.

Before he was the founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel was just another lawyer who hated his life. After graduating Stanford Law in 1992, Thiel landed a gig at a Manhattan law firm, a place that, in his words, “from the outside everyone wanted to get into,” but, “on the inside … everybody wanted to leave.”

After seven months Thiel left, and joined Credit Suisse as a derivatives trader. Three years later Thiel founded Paypal. He was 31-years-old. Four years later, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion, making his stake in the company worth roughly $50 million.

里德•哈斯廷斯，30岁时创建Pure Software

20多岁时，里德•哈斯廷斯曾是美国和平队的一员。

多数人并未意识到这一点，但实际上里德•哈斯廷斯在创建Netflix之前，便是一位成功的创业者。1991年，31岁的哈斯廷斯创建了Pure Software公司，该公司为软件工程师提供调试工具。作为一名经过专业培训的工程师，哈斯廷斯帮助公司每年实现收入翻番。1997年，瑞理软件公司（Rational Software）以7.5亿美元的价格收购了Pure Software，也让时年37岁的哈斯廷斯有了创建Netflix的资本。

从大学毕业到创建Pure Software这段时间，哈斯廷斯一直在美国和平工作团做事。他还曾在斯威士兰教英语。真是不可思议的家伙。

Reed Hastings, Pure Software: 30-years-old

Reed Hastings was in the Peace Corp in his 20s.

Most people don’t realize this, but Reed Hastings was actually a successful entrepreneur before he started Netflix. In 1991, when he was 31-years-old, Hastings started Pure Software, a debugging tool for software engineers. Hastings, a trained engineer, helped the company double their revenue each year. In 1997, when Hastings was 37, Rational Software acquired Pure Software for $750 million, giving Hastings the means to start Netflix.

In between college and starting Pure Software, Hasting was in the Peace Corps. He taught English in Swaziland. Whatta guy.

亨利•福特，40岁时创建福特汽车公司

亨利•福特在40岁创建了福特，但在那之前，他所追求的完美主义让他遭遇了失败，因为他错过了制造原型的最终期限。

亨利•福特是人类历史上白手起家创造财富最多的人之一（1990亿美元），但在成立福特之前，他的前两家公司均以破产告终。与史蒂夫•乔布斯一样，福特也是一位完美主义者，他非常关心汽车的每一个小细节。由于这种执着，他总是错过最终期限，未能完成第一款车辆原型。

经历过数年失败之后，福特的投资者说服他聘请了詹姆斯•考森斯。考森斯则说服福特出售一款“不完美的”汽车，并在全国各地培训技工，维修出现故障的汽车。

Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company: 40-years-old

Before starting Ford at the age of 40, Henry Ford’s perfectionism led to failure as he missed deadlines on making his prototypes.

Although he created one of the biggest self-made fortunes in mankind history ($199 billion), Henry Ford bankrupted his first two companies before starting Ford. Ford, like Steve Jobs, was a perfectionist who cared deeply about every minor detail of his automobiles. Because of that he continually missed deadlines and failed to complete his first prototypes.

After years of failure, Ford’s investors convinced him to hire James Couzen. Couzen convinced Ford to sell an “imperfect” car and to have mechanics throughout the country that were trained to fix broken automobiles.

马克•库班，32岁时创建MicroSolutions

28岁的马克•库班曾与5个人共用一栋三个卧室的公寓。他的卧室在壁橱里。

24岁的库班从印第安纳大学毕业后，前往达拉斯成为一名酒吧服务生。他毕业之后的第一份工作是卖电脑，年薪1.8万美元，后来因不服从老板而被辞退。25岁时，他创建了软件咨询公司MicroSolutions。7年后，库班将MicroSolutions出售，净得600万美元，他用个这笔钱创建了Broadcast.com，后来以57亿美元的价格将其出售。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

审校：任文科

Mark Cuban, MicroSolutions: 32-years-old

28-year-old Mark Cuban shared a three-bedroom apartment with five people. His bedroom was in the closet.

At 24, Cuban graduated from Indiana University and moved to Dallas to work as a bartender. His first gig out of school was selling computers for $18,000 a year. But he was fired for disobeying his boss. At 25-years-old he started MicroSolutions, a software consultancy company. After seven years, Cuban sold MicroSolutions, netting him $6 million… enough to start Broadcast.com, which he sold for $5.7 billion.