“教你致富网”创始人谈成功秘诀

自从2004年他的网站“教你致富网”（I will Teach You to Be Rich，以下简称IWT）上线以来，米特·塞西在“千禧一代”中已经建立起了一个忠实的粉丝群。在这12年间，塞西还写了一本风靡一时的畅销书。现在，他的网站已经做到了上百万美元，付费用户超过3万人。塞西还创办了一家叫做GrowthLab.com的网站，让广大创业者可以利用这一资源建立和培养线上业务。塞西称该网站“没有提供任何废话、花而不实的宣传和瞎碰乱撞的策略。”

不久前，塞西参加了Product Hunt网站举办的一场线上直播访谈，其间谈到了企业的增长战略、时间管理和瑜珈等方面的话题。

企业增长背后的心理学

“起初我有很多战术上的问题，比如使用哪个电子邮件服务供应商，什么时候应该组织一次线上研讨会，电子邮件的转化漏斗应该是多长等等。现在看来，我认为搞清楚这些问题是很重要的。

但真正的增长取决于你能否把这些事情全部做好，然后继续去解决其他高价值的问题。但你能否真正取得惊人的成功，要看以下问题有多少戳中了你的内心：

• 你打算打动的是谁？是像Techcrunch这样的科技媒体，还是你的用户？

• 你说你要考虑长远发展。那么到了产品该发布的时候，如果你的产品还没有完全准备好，你是否愿意取消耗资几百万美元准备的产品发布会？

• 你说你想要一支‘小而精干的团队’，但你又说你想要造成很大的影响力。那么你是否准备改变其中的某个理念？（我以前也跟自己说过‘小而精干的团队’这种话——我也不知道为什么。这种话只是老调重弹而已，我说的时候也并没有深入思考过。改变了这一理念后，IWT团队才得到了发展壮大。）

• 如果人们来退货了，你在心理上能应付得来吗？

• 随着业务的增长，你是否还能不忘初心？”

20多岁时没必要做的事情

“我以前曾经低估过一些象征性事物的价值，比如带着一瓶酒到朋友家里聚会（‘反正他家里不缺酒’——但酒不是重点），或是装修自己的房子（‘不装也挺好的，反正过一两年我还得把它卸了’），或是穿得再讲究些（‘反正她爱的是我的人’）。

现在我认为，这些事情都非常重要，即便这些都是很微妙的事。你可能说不出一些高端商店高端在哪里（有可能是烛台、地板或是服务员的服饰），但你就是知道它跟沃尔玛不一样。所以这些微妙的事也是很重要的。

我还想提一件事——大学教育。很多人喜欢说：“别浪费时间上大学了，直接接受社会大学的教育吧。”我很喜欢大学，我觉得上大学是我做过的最有价值的事之一。你在大学里不仅可以选择自己喜欢的课程，你还学到了纪律，学到了人际关系，学到了怎样应对体制。我早已不记得我在2003年的统计学课上回答过什么题目了，但我直到现在每天还在应用我那时学到的技能。”

时间对企业家的价值

“我认为聪明人经常掉入一个陷阱——盲目追求摆在他们面前的一些目标。我在之前的一家公司工作时，有一次我曾经在会议室里与5个人围绕着一个很小众的功能激辩了30分钟。突然我们都住了口，意识到我们在争论的东西其实并没有什么意义。很多年后我还记得这个时刻。在那30分钟里，我们围绕自己的观点激烈论战。但对于大局来说……它其实并没有什么意义。

这是一个聪明人经常会面对的风险。随便把一个难题放到他们面前，他们都要挑战一下。所以你应该考虑的是：‘它值得我付出时间吗？它对我真的有价值吗？’我经常会思考这个问题。其实你可以跳出圈子来看问题——比如休个假，或是像我一样搞一个每周一次的‘战略日’，这些都有助于你看清事物的本质。”

瑜珈和冥想的好处

“我认为瑜珈和冥想是很好的锻炼，很多人通过它找到了价值，但其中不包括我。去尝试一些新方法总是很好的。但你并非非得通过瑜伽、冥想、愿景板或是绿色果汁什么的才能取得成功。你可以看看哪种方法最适合你，然后每天坚持下去。”（财富中文网）

作者：Polina Marinova

译者：朴成奎

Since launching his website, I Will Teach You to Be Rich (IWT) in 2004, Sethi has built a loyal following of millennial readers—and we mean loyal. Twelve years and one bestselling book later, he has built the site into a multi-million dollar online business with more than 30,000 paying customers. Sethi also founded GrowthLab.com, a resource for entrepreneurs looking to launch and grow an online business. When describing the site's mission, Sethi promises “No sugar-coating, BS, or random tactics.”

On Thursday, the entrepreneur participated in a live chat on the site Product Hunt where he discussed business growth strategies, time management, and yoga.

On the psychology behind growing a business:

“At the beginning, I had a million questions about tactics, like which email service provider to use, what time to host a webinar, how long email funnels should be. Looking back, I think it was critical to master those questions.

But the real growth came from getting good at those, checking the box, and moving on to higher-value questions. The biggest surprise was how many of those questions deal with inner psychology:

• Who are you trying to impress? Techcrunch or your customers?

• You say you're willing to think long-term. Are you willing to cancel a multi-million-dollar launch because the product isn't ready?

• You claim you just want a "small, intimate team" but you also say you want to have a big impact. Are you prepared to change one of those beliefs? (I used to tell myself the small/intimate thing—I don't know why. It was just a stock phrase I said without thinking about it. Changing this belief led to growing the IWT team.)

• Are you able to mentally handle people refunding products?

• Can you keep the mind of a child even while your business has grown?”

On things he thought were pointless his 20s:

“I used to undervalue the importance of symbolic things. Like taking a bottle of wine to a friend's place for a party ("He already has enough alcohol"—that's not the point). Or decorating my apartment ("It's fine, I'm just going to take it down in a couple years anyway") or dressing better ("she should like me for who I am").

Now I think those are incredibly important, even though they're subtle. You may not recognize the reason you know you're in a high-end store now (it's the subtle candles, the floor, the clothes that the employees are wearing), but you know you're not in Wal-Mart. And it matters.

One other thing I want to mention: COLLEGE. It's really popular for people to say, "Don't bother with college, get a real-world education." I loved college and think it was one of the most valuable things I ever did. Not only can you choose your own curriculum, you learn the skills of discipline, building relationships, navigating bureaucracy. No, I don't remember the quiz I took in 2003 on statistics, but I still use the skills I learned in college every day.”

On the value of your time as a business owner:

“I think one of the seductive traps that smart people fall into is chasing arbitrary goals that are put in front of them. At a prior company I worked at, I remember being in the conference room, debating some esoteric feature with 5 other people for 30 minutes. Suddenly we stopped and realized we were arguing about something meaningless. It was a pretty amazing moment that I still remember years later. For those 30 minutes, we were ferociously battling over our views. But in the grand scheme...it was pointless.

This is a risk smart people have. Put a challenge in front of them and they'll attack it. But the larger question is, ‘Is this worth my time? Is this something I genuinely value?’ I think about this a lot. Getting away—whether a vacation, or even the once-a-week Strategy Day that I do—is helpful in getting perspective.”

On the benefits of yoga and meditation:

“I think yoga and meditation are great for people who find value from them. But I don't. It's great to test and try new approaches. But you don't need yoga, meditation, a vision board, or green-juice smoothies to be successful. Find what works for you and do it every single day."