伟大的领导者是如何诞生的？

    《互联网是我的信仰》（The Internet Is My Religion）一书的作者是社区管理平台NationBuilder的创始人兼CEO吉姆·吉列姆。第一次读到这本书的草稿时，我便被它的诚实及其揭示的信息所深深吸引。我与吉姆相识已有一段时间，但对他其实不是特别了解。这本书（7月22日出版）透过吉姆的视角讲述了他的故事，首先他告诉读者，他从小被培养成一位基督教原教旨主义者。之后，他讲述了自己与癌症的艰苦斗争，以及信仰体系的彻底崩塌。吉姆分享了其斗争史中最隐秘的时刻，正是这些斗争将他磨练成一项新运动的重要领导者。

    在阅读这本书的过程中，我们将发现与我们自身有关的新秘密。对我而言，我找到了一个古老且重要的问题的答案——伟大的领导者是天生的，还是后天发展出来的？由于我会在CEO身上进行投资，并为他们提供咨询，所以我非常关心这个问题。优秀的领导者是否天生便拥有驱动其他人做大事的魅力、决心和勇气？抑或，这些素质源自丰富的经历和大量培训？有许多人看起来“天生”便是领导者，但没有人承认自己天生如此。但如果领导者是后天培养的，为什么真正的领导力几乎无法言传？

    对于这个问题的答案，我一直不太满意，直到我完全理解了吉姆的故事。我们第一次见面的时候，他正在努力说服我的风险投资公司投资他的公司。吉姆解释说，NationBuilder出售的软件旨在帮助领导者与他们的支持者们沟通，组织粉丝社区。这是一种突破性的概念，包括互联网和社交网络在内的一系列技术突破使其变成可能。

    这款软件会帮助领导者建立一个支持者数据库，然后通过各种技巧培养和鼓励他们。它能够连接到所有现代社交网络和电子邮件，使领导者可以随时随地与支持者交流。此外，这款软件提供的许多工具可以用来培养下级领导者，激励支持者，帮助领导者实现自身目标。

    与NationBuilder同样有趣的是，它在技术方面依旧存在一个问题，我们亲切地称之为“自展问题（bootstrapping problem）”。“自展”源自19世纪的一个短语，是指启动一个自我维持程序。例如，在将操作系统安装到存储器之前，你如何启动计算机？你需要一个在启动程序之前的程序。领导力软件非常了不起，但领导者又从何而来？

    为了解NationBuilder对自展问题的解决方案，首先我需要了解吉姆。

    吉姆身材瘦长，脸色苍白，看起来不像是那种传奇式的领导者。他腼腆的个性和局促不安的样子，更是增强了这种感觉。除此之外，吉姆在职业生涯当中也没有为伟大的领导者工作过，而且缺乏正规的管理培训。

    但吉姆确实是一位真正的领导者。他有清晰的、吸引人的愿景。他能激励人们取得伟大成就。他对工作非常专注，如果你妨碍了他，他会用目光在你身上烧出洞来。他取得了许多了不起的成就，如将晦涩的纪录片电影变成大片，此外他创建的一个社区，在他的肺被化疗烧坏之后，帮助他找到了一对新肺。现在，在没有背景和人脉的情况下，他创建了这家非常有前景的新公司——需要说明的是，我的公司投资了这家公司，我也在其董事会任职。

    如果吉姆的领导能力既非天生也不是后天得来的，那它到底从何而来？这个身材瘦长、有些笨拙的人如何学会领导？秘诀是什么？

    在读完《互联网是我的信仰》一书后，我找到了这个问题的答案，也解答了一个更大的问题。领导者既非天生也非后天得来；领导力是被发现的。书中讲述了吉姆如何发现自己内心的领导者。所有领导者都要经历这样一个发现之旅，只是几乎没有人讲述这个过程。你要学会独立思考，用最有效的、最有影响力的方式分享你所知道的。我希望你在读这本书的过程中，能够找到内心的领导者，为这个世界带来更多奇迹。（财富中文网）

    本文作者本·霍洛维茨是风险投资公司安德森霍洛维茨的联合创始人兼普通合伙人，该公司位于加利福尼亚州门洛帕克。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    审校：任文科

    When I read the first draft of The Internet Is My Religion, the new book by NationBuilder founder and CEO Jim Gilliam, I was blown away by its honesty and what it revealed. I had known Jim for quite some time—but I did not really know him. The book (July 22) tells Jim’s story through his eyes, beginning with his upbringing as a Christian Fundamentalist. It takes us through his harrowing battle with cancer and the comprehensive collapse of his belief system. Jim shares the most intimate moments of his personal struggle, which lead to his emergence as an important leader of a new movement.

    Through this journey, we learn new secrets about ourselves. For me, I found the answer to an old and important question: Are great leaders born or made? Because I invest in and advise CEOs, it’s a question which I care deeply about. Do great leaders come out of the womb with the charisma, grit, and courage to move men and women to do great things? Or are they forged from intense experience and great training? There are many seemingly “natural” leaders, but almost none of those would say that they were born that way. But if leaders are made, then why is true leadership nearly impossible to teach?

    I never really became comfortable with my answer to this question until I fully understood Jim’s story. I first met Jim when he came to pitch my venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, to invest in his company. NationBuilder, Jim explained, sold software meant to help leaders communicate with and organize their followers. It was a breakthrough concept, made possible by a series of technological breakthroughs including the Internet and social networking.

    Essentially the software helps a leader build a database of his or her followers, then grow and encourage that base through a variety of techniques. It connects with all of the modern social networks as well as email to enable the leader to communicate with his or her followers where they are. It then provides tools for building sub-leaders, incentivizing followers and generally helping a leader accomplish his or her goals.

    As interesting as NationBuilder was, it still had what we affectionately refer to in technology as “a bootstrapping problem.” Bootstrapping, a term derived from a 19th century phrase, refers to starting a self-sustaining process. For example, how do you start a computer before loading the operating system into memory? You need a process before the process. Leadership software was great, but where would the leaders come from?

    To understand the solution to NationBuilder’s bootstrapping problem, I first had to understand Jim.

    Exceptionally tall, impossibly thin and white as ghost, Jim does not look like a storybook leader. His shy personality and awkward manner reinforce this perception. On top of that, Jim has not worked for great leaders in his career and lacks formal management training.

    But Jim is a real leader. He has a clear, compelling vision. He inspires people to greatness. He leads with a focus so intense that if you get in his way, he’ll burn a hole in you with his eyes. He has accomplished amazing things in life, from turning obscure documentary films into blockbusters to rallying a community that he created to help get a new pair of lungs after chemotherapy burned out his original pair. Now, with no background and no connections, he has built this very promising new company—one, I should note, in which my firm invests and on whose board of directors I sit.

    If Jim the leader was neither born nor made, where did this come from? How did this gangly, awkward man learn to lead? What was the source?

    After reading The Internet Is My Religion, I learned the answer this question and to my larger question as well. Leaders are neither born nor made; they are found. This book is about Jim’s journey to find his inner leader. It’s a journey that all leaders must go through, but one that almost nobody ever talks about. It’s about learning to think for yourself and sharing what you know in the best and most impactful way possible. I hope that as you read this book, you will find your inner leader and lead the world to great things.

    Ben Horowitz is co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, Calif.