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(zé)很簡單，就是讓公司在市場中勝出。話是這么說金吗，但我還是想稍微詳細(xì)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(wù)有：1趣竣、為公司找到方向摇庙；2、到處跟人宣傳咱們公司遥缕；3卫袒、招人，并且管理招來的人单匣，尤其是那些分管你不熟悉的領(lǐng)域的人玛臂；4、融資封孙，保證公司賬上有錢花迹冤；5、設(shè)定內(nèi)部工作執(zhí)行的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)虎忌。
In addition to these, find whatever parts of the business you love the most, and stay engaged there.
除此之外泡徙，還要找到這份事業(yè)里你最喜歡的部分，然后一頭扎進(jìn)去膜蠢。
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.
我在開頭就說過堪藐，創(chuàng)業(yè)是一件極其辛苦的事情莉兰。如果你能成功，那你的人生會進(jìn)入到一個你之前無法想象的境界——你所有的時間都會被創(chuàng)業(yè)充斥礁竞。高度的專注和投入注定讓你做不到工作生活兩不誤糖荒。你可以花點(diǎn)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模捂。你必須隨時待命捶朵，去做那些只有你能做的決策，不管你雇了多少人為你分憂狂男。
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(yīng)該力圖做到對團(tuán)隊(duì)以及其他所有事情負(fù)責(zé)综看，做到心里對公司發(fā)展戰(zhàn)略和事項(xiàng)安排永遠(yuǎn)有清晰的視野，做到在重要的事情上身先士卒岖食，并且快速地執(zhí)行正確的方案（尤其是在別人舉棋不定做不了決策的時候）红碑。你應(yīng)該做好“不惜任何代價都要把事情做成”的心理準(zhǔn)備，無論路上要克服多少讓你心累心塞的難關(guān)泡垃。如果你能這么做析珊，那么所謂上行下效，你的團(tuán)隊(duì)也會學(xué)著這么做蔑穴。
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唾琼。雖然有點(diǎn)老生常談，但事實(shí)的確如此——人的感情起伏可以很劇烈澎剥，而如果你沒能找到一個方法保持淡定，那你就注定要煎熬赶舆。CEO是場獨(dú)角戲哑姚。你最好與別的CEO處好關(guān)系，以防你公司天塌下來了都沒人幫你頂一把（說起來芜茵，YC倒是無心插柳柳成蔭地促成了許多創(chuàng)業(yè)者之間的友情）叙量。
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(chuàng)業(yè)成功需要很多時間——肯定比大多數(shù)創(chuàng)業(yè)者起初以為的要長，所以你要做好持久戰(zhàn)的準(zhǔn)備：好好吃飯九串，好好睡覺并且鍛煉身體绞佩，騰出時間來陪陪家人與朋友。你還需要確認(rèn)所從事的事業(yè)是你真正熱愛的猪钮，否則很難堅持十年品山。
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(chuàng)業(yè)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(wù)烤低，就是要么拼了老命把它們填上肘交，要么殫精竭慮想辦法繞過去，而且與此同時面對團(tuán)隊(duì)的時候臉上還必須洋溢著幸福的傻笑扑馁。不過通常事情沒有看起來那么糟涯呻。（有的時候真的有那么糟Ａ棺ぁ）反正不管發(fā)生什么事，聚精會神保持成長保持發(fā)展就對了复罐。
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”兩個字涝登。許多聞所未聞的困境會發(fā)生在你身上。但是絕對不要說（尤其是跟團(tuán)隊(duì)說）“要是咱們有錢就好了”或者“要是再來個工程師就好了”之類的話效诅。如果你沒法找到錢或者另一個工程師胀滚，那就閉嘴，還是想想怎么在沒錢少人的情況下解決問題吧填帽。喜歡找借口的普通人在生活工作中多半是盧瑟蛛淋，而如果一個創(chuàng)業(yè)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篡腌。你可以坐在那里自怨自艾一分鐘褐荷，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(biāo)嘹悼，就是當(dāng)人們談?wù)撈鹉愕臅r候叛甫，總會評價“這家伙就是有辦法搞定所有事情”。初次創(chuàng)業(yè)杨伙，迷茫是正常的其监。盡力去理解，理解不了就求助限匣，逐步提升自己抖苦。如何管理和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)團(tuán)隊(duì)是件值得花時間去學(xué)習(xí)的事——紙上得來終覺淺，你還需要找導(dǎo)師米死。
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”之類的建議锌历。初次創(chuàng)業(yè)的菜鳥們總覺得找大人物幫忙或者開發(fā)什么新項(xiàng)目的背后存在什么神奇秘笈——其實(shí)并沒有。創(chuàng)業(yè)的世界沒有那么多彎彎繞峦筒，有什么事情你就開口直說究西，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物喷，你自己心里一定要知道最真實(shí)的情況卤材。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?shù)牡胤健?/p>
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峦失。大多數(shù)創(chuàng)業(yè)者太快就放棄現(xiàn)有的產(chǎn)品而去嘗試新的想法扇丛。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尉辑，確保你想得很清楚晕拆。“不輕言放棄”是成功創(chuàng)業(yè)CEO的必備特質(zhì)。（當(dāng)然要是堅持做一件錯事，那就完全是南轅北轍了实幕。這是創(chuàng)業(yè)當(dāng)中的一個矛盾點(diǎn)吝镣，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.
要保持樂觀昆庇。我還沒遇到過那個悲觀主義的CEO把事情做成了的末贾。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。這件事說起來容易整吆，但在公司遇到挑戰(zhàn)時做起來難拱撵。不要太短視，要相信現(xiàn)在每天面對的挑戰(zhàn)在數(shù)年以后會變成珍貴的回憶表蝙。
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(wù)還有定義公司的使命和價值觀拴测。這可能會顯得有點(diǎn)裝，但在一開始把這些事情說清楚還是值得的府蛇。你在初期定下來的精神會在幾年里一直發(fā)揮作用集索，每個進(jìn)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汇跨。
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(diǎn)务荆，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(diǎn)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(diǎn)上仙粱，YC畢業(yè)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盅惜。
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(yè)運(yùn)營方面，而不是產(chǎn)品和解決方案上做些創(chuàng)新忌穿。比如許多創(chuàng)業(yè)者經(jīng)呈慵牛花時間去探索人力資源管理、營銷伴网、財務(wù)和公關(guān)上的新方法。這通常不是什么好事妆棒。如果某個領(lǐng)域已經(jīng)有明確的套路澡腾，那你應(yīng)該集中精力去打造產(chǎn)品而不是寄希望在運(yùn)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糕珊，招聘是一切的基礎(chǔ)动分。關(guān)于招聘，我的第一條建議是：不要招聘红选。大多數(shù)YC投的成功公司都等了很長時間才開始招聘員工澜公。招人的經(jīng)濟(jì)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(tuán)隊(duì)里人越多坟乾，公司改方向的難度就越大迹辐。請按耐住你心里想要招兵買馬擴(kuò)大隊(duì)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甚侣。他們希望能加入最具潛力的公司明吩。如果你啥都沒有，那么要招到牛人的可能性也幾乎就沒有殷费。而一旦你的公司成為當(dāng)紅炸子雞印荔，牛人們也會聞風(fēng)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详羡。你需要找到優(yōu)秀的人才來建立一個偉大的公司仍律，所以你應(yīng)該慷慨地給予他們公司期權(quán)、你的信任和工作責(zé)權(quán)实柠。你覺得希望不大的人選也可以去接觸接觸看水泉。記住，你想招的那些人也可以開創(chuàng)屬于他們自己的事業(yè)主到。
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(dāng)你為產(chǎn)品找到市場以后茶行，你就應(yīng)該進(jìn)入并且保持招聘模式，花25%的時間在招人上面登钥。至少一位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人（通常是CEO）需要擅長招人識人畔师，而這也是占據(jù)CEO們最多時間的活動。大家都說CEO應(yīng)該多花時間找人牧牢，但實(shí)際上只有最好的CEO才能做到這點(diǎn)看锉。
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?yàn)檎腥穗y就降低你的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。每個人都知道這句話塔鳍，但每個人都曾在某個絕望的時刻伯铣，在某種程度上做過妥協(xié)。妥協(xié)過后便是后悔——而這樣的事情也許會拖垮整個公司轮纫。近朱者赤腔寡，近墨者黑。你招兩個50分的人掌唾，他們的能力也不會比一個90分的人強(qiáng)放前。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糯彬。如果你有些許猶豫凭语，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(fù)能量的家伙撩扒。他們不適合早期的創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)似扔。全世界所有人都在等著看你們把事情搞砸，所以公司內(nèi)部必須團(tuán)結(jié)一致避免那樣的悲劇發(fā)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(jīng)驗(yàn)炒辉，快速學(xué)習(xí)能力更重要豪墅。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(rèn)識的人辆脸，可以在全職錄用之前讓他們參與一個小項(xiàng)目試試看但校。
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(diǎn)心思去成為一個好的管理者。對于大多數(shù)創(chuàng)業(yè)者來說這都很難啡氢，而且這絕不是一份可以靠直覺混過去的工作状囱。但是做好管理簡直太重要了。找?guī)讉€導(dǎo)師吧倘是。如果你無法學(xué)會管理亭枷，人才會離你而去。而要是公司里留不住人搀崭，那你的招人技術(shù)再高超也是白搭叨粘。管理學(xué)的大多數(shù)原則問題已經(jīng)是路人皆知的事，但我發(fā)現(xiàn)有個話題不怎么有人提瘤睹，那就是“不要逞英雄”升敲。很多初涉管理的創(chuàng)業(yè)者往往陷入這個誤區(qū)，事無巨細(xì)事必躬親轰传，忙得連員工想找他也找不到驴党。而逞英雄的結(jié)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获茬，寧可慢一點(diǎn)港庄，也要磨練出一個成建制的團(tuán)隊(duì)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.
聊起管理恕曲，還有一點(diǎn)鹏氧，那就是盡量讓所有人在同一個地方辦公。不知怎么佩谣，創(chuàng)業(yè)公司通常會在這點(diǎn)上作出妥協(xié)把还。但是幾乎所有最成功的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司起初都是在一起辦公的。我覺得對于大公司而言遠(yuǎn)程協(xié)作也許沒問題茸俭，但初創(chuàng)公司還是算了吧吊履。
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(diǎn)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(diǎn)瓣履，但我覺得還是要提一下率翅。另外练俐，那些與你公司氣場不合的人必須被請走袖迎，無論他們的工作能力有多優(yōu)秀。你招什么樣的人，裁什么樣的人燕锥，提拔什么樣的人——這些事情定義了你的公司文化辜贵。
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(jīng)驗(yàn)的創(chuàng)業(yè)者會覺得來自競爭對手的碾壓是99%創(chuàng)業(yè)公司的死因归形，但其實(shí)并非如此——99%的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司死于自殺而不是謀殺托慨。你還是多操心操心你自己吧，要是你失敗了暇榴，那多半是因?yàn)槟銢]能打造一款卓越的產(chǎn)品或者建立一個偉大的公司厚棵。
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(chuàng)企業(yè)，99%的時間里蔼紧，你完全可以把競爭對手當(dāng)空氣婆硬，尤其是在他們?nèi)诘搅艘淮蠊P錢或者在媒體上造勢的時候。在他們搗鼓出一個對你有實(shí)質(zhì)性威脅的產(chǎn)品之前奸例，你對他們置之不理就好了彬犯，因?yàn)楸绕甬a(chǎn)品開發(fā)來，耍耍嘴皮子簡直是幼兒園水平的事情查吊。福特汽車的創(chuàng)始人亨利·福特說過谐区，“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(shí)事的人逻卖∷瘟校”
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(yīng)付過比你現(xiàn)在殘暴得多的競爭壓力，他們不都挺過來了箭阶？別怕虚茶，辦法總比困難多。
