公司连续亏损20年，他靠什么击败比尔●盖茨成为世界新首富？（附视频&演讲稿）
英语演讲君按
福布斯2018年财富排行榜上个月刚刚出炉，最大的热门就是世界首富的名头落在了亚马逊CEO杰夫·贝索斯身上，他首次成为这个星球上最富有的人，同时也是全球第一个个人财富超过1000亿美元的人。其财富达到1120亿美元，比2017年增加392亿美元。
他一手创建的公司亚马逊，一个持续亏损超过20年的公司，却在资本市场很受欢迎，根据今天最新的股价，市值高达7000亿美元，是仅次于苹果的全球市值第二大公司。想知道贝索斯是如何带领这家公司持续创造奇迹的吗？一起来看看他2010年在母校普林斯顿的精彩毕业演讲。
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=u01325gnyli&width=500&height=375&auto=0
善良比聪明更重要，选择比天赋更重要。天赋和选择不同。聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。天赋得来很容易——毕竟它们与生俱来。而选择则颇为不易。如果一不小心，你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。
年少特殊家庭，意志得到磨练
1964年1月生下贝索斯时，他的妈妈杰姬还是名未成年的高中生。贝索斯4岁时，杰姬选择和他的生父离婚，并让后者远离他们的生活。贝索斯的生父曾是马戏团演员。曾有媒体披露，贝索斯生父有些坏习惯：酗酒，回家太晚。作为父亲和丈夫，他对家人缺乏照料和关心。后来，杰姬嫁给了古巴移民迈克·贝索斯。
很小的时候，贝索斯就表现出非凡的天赋。年仅3岁时，他就是用螺丝刀把自己的婴儿床拆卸开，只因想在真正的大床上睡觉。4岁到16岁之间，贝索斯每年夏天都与外祖父母在他们位于得克萨斯州的农场度过，帮着他们做农活。外祖父教会他“善良比聪明更难”。他从小表现出来的就是不相信感觉，只相信算术的天赋。
贝索斯从童年就开始迷恋《星际迷航》，因此他从小就喜欢和小伙伴一起，用纸板制作三录仪和移相器，扮演《星际迷航》里的角色。上学时，贝索斯就曾对老师说：“人类的未来并不在地球上。”从小时候起，贝索斯就想成为一名太空企业家。现在，他已经拥有了属于自己的太空探索公司Blue Origin。
考入名校，年少得志
十几岁时在麦当劳打了一暑假工之后，贝索斯和女友创建了“Dream Institute”——专为孩子们建立的、为期10天的小型夏令营。每个孩子收费600美元，一期最多只招募6个学生。
中学的时候，贝索斯加入了学校的「天才计划」，高中毕业后考入爱因斯坦执教的普林斯顿大学。1986 年，贝索斯于普林斯顿大学毕业，获电气工程与计算机科学学士学位。
毕业后，他拒绝了英特尔和贝尔实验室发来的工作邀请，转而加入了一家名为Fitel的初创公司。 从Fitel辞职后，贝索斯与霍尔西·米诺尔几乎立即就创建了一家通过传真发送新闻的初创公司。
后来，25 岁贝索斯加入纽约一家银行信托公司，成为这家公司史上最年轻的副总裁，掌管价值 2500 亿美元的电脑系统。之后，他转战华尔街，又当上了对冲基金 D. E. Shaw & Co 的副总裁。
当机立断，抓住机遇
当时，使用互联网的人数每年都以 2300%的速度在高速增长。这个数字令贝索斯感到震惊，于是他决定找到能够充分利用这种暴增的方式。他列出表格，包含了20多种可能在网上出售的产品，并决定书籍是最佳选择。
于是，亚马逊诞生了。创建初期，亚马逊办公室中安装了一个铜钟，每当有人要买东西时，所有人都会聚集起来，看是否有人认识客户。然而，短短几周后，钟声频繁响起，亚马逊员工不得不停用它。创建首月，亚马逊便已向全美50个州和45个不同国家出售书籍，并且一直在不断扩张。1997年，亚马逊上市。
互联网泡沫破裂时，分析师们称亚马逊为“亚马逊.炸弹”。然而，这家电商挺过了风暴，成为少数在网络泡沫破裂中存活下来的初创公司之一。
但亚马逊投资的 pets.com、gear.com 等网站失败，损失巨大。这让贝索斯开始反省自己的公司运营过程中犯下的错误，并不再奉行「利益至上」的原则，转向「扩张优先」，不怕打价格战，不断地发掘对客户有价值的产品和服务，才有了之后的秘密实验室 Lab126、Prime 会员业务、AWS 云计算服务、Kindle 电子书阅读器等等行业领先产品或服务。
得益于贝索斯的扩张策略，亚马逊的业绩获得了突飞猛进的增长，如今亚马逊已经是全球第二大的互联网公司，仅次于 Alphabet。在近 20 年的时间里，亚马逊的营利一直接近于零，尽管如此，亚马逊却从一家网上书店发展成为了世界顶尖的技术公司——拥有世界上规模最大的云服务 AWS，机器人、人工智能等技术也处于世界前沿。
由于年少时的太空梦，贝索斯创办了蓝色起源（Blue Origin）私人太空公司，致力于发展太空旅行。
蓝色能源的公司精神恰好可以用来描述他的经历：用令人敬畏的方式循序渐进。
我们也许没有他的智慧和胆识，但是我们可以从他身上学到坚持梦想、抓住机遇以及在困难中前行的精神。
贝索斯2010年普林斯顿大学毕业演讲稿双语版
We Are What We Choose
选择塑造人生——杰夫·贝索斯
As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially "Days of our Lives." My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we'd join the caravan. We'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car, and off we'd go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.
在我还是一个孩子的时候，我的夏天总是在德州祖父母的农场中度过。我帮忙修理风车，为牛接种疫苗，也做其它家务。每天下午，我们都会看肥皂剧，尤其是《我们的岁月》。我的祖父母参加了一个房车俱乐部，那是一群驾驶Airstream拖挂型房车的人们，他们结伴遍游美国和加拿大。每隔几个夏天，我也会加入他们。我们把房车挂在祖父的小汽车后面，然后加入300余名Airstream探险者们组成的浩荡队伍。我爱我的祖父母，我崇敬他们，也真心期盼这些旅程。那是一次我大概十岁时的旅行，我照例坐在后座的长椅上，祖父开着车，祖母坐在他旁边，吸着烟。我讨厌烟味。
At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate our gas mileage -- figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, "At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your life!"
在那样的年纪，我会找任何借口做些估测或者小算术。我会计算油耗还有杂货花销等鸡毛蒜皮的小事。我听过一个有关吸烟的广告。我记不得细节了，但是广告大意是说，每吸一口香烟会减少几分钟的寿命，大概是两分钟。无论如何，我决定为祖母做个算术。我估测了祖母每天要吸几支香烟，每支香烟要吸几口等等，然后心满意足地得出了一个合理的数字。接着，我捅了捅坐在前面的祖母的头，又拍了拍她的肩膀，然后骄傲地宣称，"每天吸两分钟的烟，你就少活九年!"
I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. "Jeff, you're so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division." That's not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, "Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever."
我清晰地记得接下来发生了什么，而那是我意料之外的。我本期待着小聪明和算术技巧能赢得掌声，但那并没有发生。相反，我的祖母哭泣起来。我的祖父之前一直在默默开车，把车停在了路边，走下车来，打开了我的车门，等着我跟他下车。我惹麻烦了吗?我的祖父是一个智慧而安静的人。他从来没有对我说过严厉的话，难道这会是第一次?还是他会让我回到车上跟祖母道歉?我以前从未遇到过这种状况，因而也无从知晓会有什么后果发生。我们在房车旁停下来。祖父注视着我，沉默片刻，然后轻轻地、平静地说："杰夫，有一天你会明白，善良比聪明更难。"
What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy -- they're given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices.
选择比天赋更重要 今天我想对你们说的是，天赋和选择不同。聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。天赋得来很容易——毕竟它们与生俱来。而选择则颇为不易。如果一不小心，你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。
This is a group with many gifts. I'm sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I'm confident that's the case because admission is competitive and if there weren't some signs that you're clever, the dean of admission wouldn't have let you in.
在座各位都拥有许多天赋。我确信你们的天赋之一就是拥有精明能干的头脑。之所以如此确信，是因为入学竞争十分激烈，如果你们不能表现出聪明智慧，便没有资格进入这所学校。
Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans -- plodding as we are -- will astonish ourselves. We'll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we'll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we've synthesized life. In the coming years, we'll not only synthesize it, but we'll engineer it to specifications. I believe you'll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton -- all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.
你们的聪明才智必定会派上用场，因为你们将在一片充满奇迹的土地上行进。我们人类，尽管跬步前行，却终将令自己大吃一惊。我们能够想方设法制造清洁能源，也能够一个原子一个原子地组装微型机械，使之穿过细胞壁，然后修复细胞。这个月，有一个异常而不可避免的事情发生了——人类终于合成了生命。在未来几年，我们不仅会合成生命，还会按说明书驱动它们。我相信你们甚至会看到我们理解人类的大脑，儒勒·凡尔纳，马克·吐温，伽利略，牛顿——所有那些充满好奇之心的人都希望能够活到现在。作为文明人，我们会拥有如此之多的天赋，就像是坐在我面前的你们，每一个生命个体都拥有许多独特的天赋。
How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?
你们要如何运用这些天赋呢?你们会为自己的天赋感到骄傲，还是会为自己的选择感到骄傲?
I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles -- something that simply couldn't exist in the physical world -- was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most startups don't, and I wasn't sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.
追随自己内心的热情 16年前，我萌生了创办亚马逊的想法。彼时我面对的现实是互联网使用量以每年2300%的速度增长，我从未看到或听说过任何增长如此快速的东西。创建涵盖几百万种书籍的网上书店的想法令我兴奋异常，因为这个东西在物理世界里根本无法存在。那时我刚刚30岁，结婚才一年。我告诉妻子MacKenzie想辞去工作，然后去做这件疯狂的事情，很可能会失败，因为大部分创业公司都是如此，而且我不确定那之后会发生什么。MacKenzie告诉我，我应该放手一搏。在我还是一个男孩儿的时候，我是车库发明家。我曾用水泥填充的轮胎、雨伞和锡箔以及报警器制作了一个自动关门器。我一直想做一个发明家，MacKenzie支持我追随内心的热情。
I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, "That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job." That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice.
我当时在纽约一家金融公司工作，同事是一群非常聪明的人，我的老板也很有智慧，我很羡慕他。我告诉我的老板我想开办一家在网上卖书的公司。他带我在中央公园漫步良久，认真地听我讲完，最后说："听起来真是一个很好的主意，但是对那些目前没有谋到一份好工作的人来说，这个主意会更好。"这一逻辑对我而言颇有道理，他说服我在最终作出决定之前再考虑48小时。那样想来，这个决定确实很艰难，但是最终，我决定拼一次。我认为自己不会为尝试过后的失败而遗憾，倒是有所决定但完全不付诸行动会一直煎熬着我。在深思熟虑之后，我选择了那条不安全的道路，去追随我内心的热情。我为那个决定感到骄傲。
Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life -- the life you author from scratch on your own -- begins.
明天，非常现实地说，你们从零塑造自己人生的时代即将开启。
How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
你们会如何运用自己的天赋?你们又会作出怎样的抉择?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
你们是被惯性所引导，还是追随自己内心的热情?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
你们会墨守陈规，还是勇于创新?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
你们会选择安逸的生活，还是选择一个奉献与冒险的人生?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
你们会屈从于批评，还是会坚守信念?
Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?
你们会掩饰错误，还是会坦诚道歉?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
你们会因害怕拒绝而掩饰内心，还是会在面对爱情时勇往直前?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
你们想要波澜不惊，还是想要搏击风浪?
When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
你们会在严峻的现实之下选择放弃，还是会义无反顾地前行?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
你们要做愤世嫉俗者，还是踏实的建设者?
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
你们要不计一切代价地展示聪明，还是选择善良?
I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!
我要做一个预测：在你们80岁时某个追忆往昔的时刻，只有你一个人静静对内心诉说着你的人生故事，其中最为充实、最有意义的那段讲述，会被你们作出的一系列决定所填满。最后，是选择塑造了我们的人生。为你自己塑造一个伟大的人生故事。谢谢，祝你们好运!
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=r0198hliwgf&width=500&height=375&auto=0
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=f0017yusgth&width=500&height=375&auto=0
Jeff Bezos
(Amazon创始人、CEO)
American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com and owner of 'The Washington Post.' His successful business ventures have made him one of the richest people in the world.
QUOTES
“We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about—government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports—and working backwards from there. I'm excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention. [On the future of 'The Washington Post.']”
—Jeff Bezos
Who Is Jeff Bezos?
Entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bezos had an early love of computers and studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton University. After graduation he worked on Wall Street, and in 1990 he became the youngest senior vice president at the investment firm D.E. Shaw. Four years later, he quit his lucrative job to open Amazon.com, a virtual bookstore that became one of the internet's biggest success stories. In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Postin a $250 million deal. His successful business ventures have made him one of the richest people in the world.
Early Life and Career
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, and his biological father, Ted Jorgensen. The Jorgensens were married less than a year, and when Bezos was 4 years old his mother re-married, to Cuban immigrant Mike Bezos.
As a child, Jeff Bezos showed an early interest in how things work, turning his parents' garage into a laboratory and rigging electrical contraptions around his house. He moved to Miami with his family as a teenager, where he developed a love for computers and graduated valedictorian of his high school. It was during high school that he started his first business, the Dream Institute, an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.
Bezos pursued his interest in computers at Princeton University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1986 with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. After graduation, he found work at several firms on Wall Street, including Fitel, Bankers Trust and the investment firm D.E. Shaw. It was there he met his wife, Mackenzie, and became the company's youngest vice president in 1990.
While his career in finance was extremely lucrative, Bezos chose to make a risky move into the nascent world of e-commerce. He quit his job in 1994, moved to Seattle and targeted the untapped potential of the internet market by opening an online bookstore.
Launching Amazon.com
Bezos set up the office for his fledgling company in his garage where, along with a few employees, he began developing software. They expanded operations into a two-bedroom house, equipped with three Sun Microstations, and eventually developed a test site. After inviting 300 friends to beta test the site, Bezos opened Amazon.com, named after the meandering South American River, on July 16, 1995.
The initial success of the company was meteoric. With no press promotion, Amazon.com sold books across the United States and in 45 foreign countries within 30 days. In two months, sales reached $20,000 a week, growing faster than Bezos and his start-up team had envisioned.
Amazon.com went public in 1997, leading many market analysts to question whether the company could hold its own when traditional retailers launched their own e-commerce sites. Two years later, the start-up not only kept up, but also outpaced competitors, becoming an e-commerce leader.
Bezos continued to diversify Amazon’s offerings with the sale of CDs and videos in 1998, and later clothes, electronics, toys and more through major retail partnerships. While many dot.coms of the early '90s went bust, Amazon flourished with yearly sales that jumped from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011.
In 2006, Amazon.com launched its video on demand service; initially known as Amazon Unbox on TiVo, it was eventually rebranded as Amazon Instant Video. In 2007, the company released the Kindle, a handheld digital book reader that allowed users to buy, download, read and store their book selections. That same year, Bezos announced his investment in Blue Origin, a Seattle-based aerospace company that develops technologies to offer space travel to paying customers.
Bezos entered Amazon into the tablet marketplace with the unveiling of the Kindle Fire in 2011. The following September, he announced the new Kindle Fire HD, the company's next generation tablet designed to give Apple's iPad a run for its money. "We haven't built the best tablet at a certain price. We have built the best tablet at any price," Bezos said, according to ABC News.
Buying 'The Washington Post'
Bezos made headlines worldwide on August 5, 2013, when he purchasedThe Washington Post and other publications affiliated with its parent company, The Washington Post Co., for $250 million. The deal marked the end of the four-generation reign over The Post Co. by the Graham family, which included Donald E. Graham, the company's chairman and chief executive, and his niece, Post publisher Katharine Weymouth.
"The Post could have survived under the company's ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future," Graham stated, in an effort to explain the transaction. "But we wanted to do more than survive. I'm not saying this guarantees success, but it gives us a much greater chance of success."
In a statement to Post employees on August 5, Bezos wrote: "The values of The Post do not need changing. ...There will, of course, be change atThe Post over the coming years. That's essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about—government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports—and working backwards from there. I'm excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention."
Amazon Prime & Amazon Studios
In early December 2013, Bezos made headlines when he revealed a new, experimental initiative by Amazon, called "Amazon Prime Air," using drones—remote-controlled machines that can perform an array of human tasks—to provide delivery services to customers. According to Bezos, these drones are able to carry items weighing up to five pounds, and are capable of traveling within a 10-mile distance of the company's distribution center. He also stated that Prime Air could become a reality within as little as four or five years.
Bezos oversaw one of Amazon's few major missteps when the company launched the Fire Phone in 2014; criticized for being too gimmicky, it was discontinued the following year. However, Bezos did score a victory with the development of original content through Amazon Studios. After premiering several new programs in 2013, Amazon hit it big in 2014 with the critically acclaimed Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. In 2015, the company produced and released Spike Lee's Chi-Raq as its first original feature film.
In 2016, Bezos stepped in front of the camera for a cameo appearance playing an alien in Star Trek Beyond. A Star Trek fan since childhood, Bezos is listed as a Starfleet Official in the movie credits on IMDb.
In July 2017, Bezos briefly surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg. Gates, who was the richest person in the world since 2013, made $90.7 billion, shy of Bezos' worth of $90.9 billion, which rose with a surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares. However, by the close of the market, Gates' net worth climbed to $90 billion while Bezos' had a net worth of over $89 billion.
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