硅谷风投明星：穿过苦难才能看见星空

你有什么爱好？

    我和我的妻子喜欢户外运动。我们远足、跑步、骑登山车和开车。下雪时我们喜欢去滑雪。

如果你可以立即去世界上任何地方，你希望去哪里？

    老实说，我很喜欢呆在湾区。世界上还有什么地方能像这里，这样富有创新精神，而且在距离不远的地方就有这样景色美丽的地方--从旧金山湾到马林县，再到索诺马, 到太浩湖?我想不出哪里还能找到这样的地方。

你最大的失败是什么？

    我失败过，从很多事情中学习。我亲身经历过的最大一次商业失败是苹果公司(Apple)的Newton，它突破了很多科技的边缘，但手写识别不佳。

    但在这次失败中，我有幸从很多出色的人那里学到很多东西。他们包括：Macintosh Finder的共同开发者史蒂夫•凯普斯，他教给我用户界面设计；如今领导苹果公司设计团队的乔尼•伊夫教给我什么成就伟大的工业设计；以及如今管理苹果公司iPad产品营销的迈克•特乔，他教给我什么是创意的战略营销。

    而且，我相信虽然Newton失败了，它的星光在20年后仍引领我们来到当今智能手机和平板电脑的爆炸式增长。

你还崇拜其他哪些公司？为什么？

    我最近有机会见到了詹姆斯•豪尔，Patz & Hall Winery的创始人之一。

    这是一个充满真正创业精神的故事。詹姆斯从父母那里借了一小笔钱，与三个共同创始人凑出了种子资金。怀着一股做出高质量产品(和一些葡萄酒!)的激情，他们慢慢地打造了一家非常成功的由家族持股和经营的美国葡萄酒庄。

所有领导人都应具备的一项品质是什么？

    每位伟大的领导人都有不同的品质促成最终的成功。杰夫•贝佐斯和史蒂夫•乔布斯不同，史蒂夫•乔布斯和约翰•钱伯斯（思科公司总裁兼首席执行官——译注）不同，约翰•钱伯斯又与比尔•盖茨不同。

    但让他们相似的是他们每个人都想出了一种方式，如何吸引和凝聚其他杰出的人才。我相信，促使他们最终成功的一个关键是，他们都善于描绘令人信服的远景，让人们有信心跟随他们走上一条最开始可能有些难以理解、但事后看来真的具有天才洞见的道路。（财富中文网）

    译者：杨智

What do you do for fun?

    My wife and I love the outdoors. We hike, run, and ride our road and mountain bikes. When the snow falls, we love to ski.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?

    Honestly, I love being in the Bay Area. Where else do you have this incredible spirit of innovation, combined with some of the most beautiful places in the world in our backyard -- from the San Francisco Bay, to Marin, to Sonoma, to Lake Tahoe? I can't think of another place like it in the world.

What has been your biggest failure?

    I've failed and learned from lots of things. The biggest commercial failure I've been involved with was Apple's Newton, which was pushing the bounds of many technologies, and one that did not work very well which was handwriting recognition.

    Yet I had the good fortune to learn from amazing people during that failure. They include: Steve Capps, who co-developed the original Macintosh Finder and taught me about user interface design; Jony Ive, who today leads Apple's design team and taught me what makes for great industrial design; and Michael Tchao, who runs Apple's iPad product marketing and taught me creative and strategic marketing.

    And I believe that, despite the failure of Newton, it lit the spark that led us, 20 years later, to the current explosion of smartphones and tablets.

What other companies do you admire? Why?

    I recently had a chance to meet James Hall, one of the cofounders of Patz & Hall Winery.

    It's a story of real entrepreneurship. James borrowed a small amount of money from his parents and pooled it with seed capital from his three co-founders. Fueled by a deep passion for making a high-quality product (and some wine!), they slowly built one of the most successful family-owned and -operated wineries in the United States.

What is one characteristic that every leader should possess?

    Every great leader has different characteristics that lead to their success. Jeff Bezos is different from Steve Jobs, who is different from John Chambers, who is different from Bill Gates.

    What makes them similar, though, is that each of them figured out a way to attract and engage other great people. I believe one of their keys to success comes from communicating a compelling vision and giving people the confidence to follow them on the path to what may seem quite crazy at first, yet in hindsight shows true genius.