TED演讲：任何时候都不算太晚，66岁开始创业的故事

范盒 2023-01-09

种一棵树最好的时间，一个是十年前，另一个就是现在。

想象一下，如果你有40多年的工作经验，却在60多岁的时候被解雇。你是会选择安逸地退休，还是继续自己的事业？你有没有想过在60多岁的年龄开始自己的首次创业？

Paul Tasner是PulpWorks公司的联合创始人兼CEO，这家公司主营生活用品生物可降解包装的设计和制造。他的经历或许会给很多人一些新的想法，只要敢行动，任何时候开始都不算晚。

他对事业的热爱，对未来的激情一点都不输给任何人，最终成为了一名企业家。

中英全文（来自网络）

I'd like to take you back about seven years in my life. Friday afternoon, a few days before Christmas 2009, I was the director of operations at a consumer products company in San Francisco, and I was called into a meeting that was already in progress. That meeting turned out to be my exit interview. I was fired, along with several others. I was 64 years old at the time. It wasn't completely unexpected. I signed a stack of papers, gathered my personal effects, and left to join my wife who was waiting for me at a nearby restaurant, completely unaware. Fast-forward several hours, we both got really silly drunk.

我想带你们回到，我大约7年前的生活。那是2009年圣诞节前几天一个周五的下午，当时的我是旧金山一家消费品公司的运营总监。我被叫进一个正在进行的会议。我发现这场会议是我的离职面谈。和其他的几个人一样，我被解雇了。那时我64岁。这并不完全出乎我的意料。我签了一堆的文件，收拾了一下自己的东西，就去找我的妻子了，她在附近的一个小饭店里等我，但对此毫不知情。几个小时很快过去了，我们都喝得伶仃大醉。

So, 40 plus years of continuous employment for a variety of companies, large and small, was over. I had a good a network, a good reputation -- I thought I'd be just fine. I was an engineer in manufacturing and packaging, I had a good background. Retirement was, like for so many people, simply not an option for me, so I turned to consulting for the next couple of years without any passion whatsoever.

就这样，40多年在各个公司间颠沛流离的职业生涯结束了。我拥有很好的朋友圈，人缘也不错，我以为这没什么大不了的。我曾经是个工作于制造业和包装业的工程师。我有很好的从业背景，跟很多人一样，退休对我来说，也算不上是一种选择。于是在接下来的几年中我一直做着咨询工作，却没有什么激情。

And then an idea began to take root, born from my concern for our environment. I wanted to build my own business, designing and manufacturing biodegradable packaging from waste -- paper, agricultural, even textile waste -- replacing the toxic, disposable plastic packaging to which we've all become addicted. This is called clean technology, and it felt really meaningful to me. A venture that could help to reduce the billions of pounds of single-use plastic packaging dumped each year, and polluting our land, our rivers and our oceans, and left for future generations to resolve -- our grandchildren, my grandchildren.

然而后来因为我对环境的关心，我产生了一个新的想法。我想要建立自己的公司，从废物中设计并生产能进行生物降解的包装，用以废纸、作物甚至是纺织废料为原料所制造的包装，取代那些人类越来越依赖的，有毒的一次性塑料包装。这被称作清洁技术。它对我而言意义非凡。这家公司每年能帮助减少数十亿磅污染我们的土地，河流和海洋的一次性塑料包装，它们也会给我们的子孙后代造成困扰——我们的孙辈，我的孙辈。

And so now at the age of 66, with 40 years of experience, I became an entrepreneur for the very first time. Lots of issues to deal with: manufacturing, outsourcing, job creation, patents, partnerships, funding -- these are all typical issues for a start-up, but hardly typical for me. And a word about funding. I live and work in San Francisco, and if you're looking for funding, you are typically going to compete with some very young people from the high-tech industry, and it can be very discouraging and intimidating. I have shoes older than most of these people. I do.

现在我66岁，有着40年的工作经验，第一次成为了一名企业家。很多事情有待解决：生产、外包、招聘、专利、合伙人、资金——这些都是创业者面临的典型问题，但对我而言并非如此。顺带说下资金。我在旧金山居住和工作。如果你要寻找资金，那你一般要与一些从事着高科技工作的年轻人竞争，这很令人丧气和胆怯。我穿的鞋年头都比这些人年纪还要大。确实如此。

But five years later, I'm thrilled and proud to share with you that our revenues have doubled every year, we have no debt, we have several marquee clients, our patent was issued, I have a wonderful partner who's been with me right from the beginning, and we've won more than 20 awards for the work that we've done. But best of all, we've made a small dent -- a very small dent -- in the worldwide plastic pollution crisis.

但五年过去了，我可以兴奋且自豪的告诉大家，我们的收入每年倍增，没有外债，还有一些重要的客户，专利申请也通过了。我有一个很棒的合伙人，他从最初就和我一起创业，我们的工作已经获得了超过20个奖项。不过最好的是，我们缓解了——微不足道地缓解了——世界塑料污染危机。

And I am doing the most rewarding and meaningful work of my life right now. I can tell you there's lots of resources available to entrepreneurs of all ages, but what I really yearned for five years ago was to find other first-time entrepreneurs who were my age. I wanted to connect with them. I had no role models, absolutely none. That 20-something app developer from Silicon Valley was not my role model.I'm sure he was very clever.

而我现在做着一生中回报最为丰厚、最有意义的工作。我可以告诉大家，对各个年龄阶段的企业家，都有很多可利用的资源。但过去五年我最渴望的事情是找到其他与我同龄的，第一次创业的企业家，我想和他们取得联系。那时我没有可以参考的榜样，完全没有。硅谷那位20多岁的应用程序开发者可不是我的榜样。我确信他很聪明。

I want to do something about that, and I want all of us to do something about that. I want us to start talking more about people who don't become entrepreneurs until they are seniors. Talking about these bold men and women who are checking in when their peers, in essence, are checking out. And then connecting all these people across industries, across regions, across countries -- building a community.

所以，我想改变一下现状，我希望所有人都可以有所行动。我希望我们可以更多的谈论那些直到老年才成为企业家的人。多谈论这些勇敢的人，当他们的同龄人退休时，他们才开始正式入行。然后，将所有这些跨行业、跨地区、跨国家的人联合起来，组成一个社区。

You know, the Small Business Administration tells us that 64 percent of new jobs created in the private sector in the USA are thanks to small businesses like mine. And who's to say that we'll stay forever small? We have an interesting culture that really expects when you reach a certain age, you're going to be golfing, or playing checkers, or babysitting the grandkids all of the time. And I adore my grandchildren. And I'm also passionate about doing something meaningful in the global marketplace.

小企业管理局数据显示在美国，64%的私企提供的新岗位是像我这样的小企业创造的。并且谁敢说，我们会一直维持这个规模？我们有个有趣的文化，当你到了一定的年龄，就得去打高尔夫、下棋、照顾孙子，在这些方面倾注所有。我很爱我的孙辈。可我也充满了热忱，希望为全球市场贡献自己的一份力量。

And I'm going to have lots of company. The Census Bureau says that by 2050, there will be 84 million seniors in this country. That's an amazing number. That's almost twice as many as we have today. Can you imagine how many first-time entrepreneurs there will be among 84 million people? And they'll all have four decades of experience.

我还会开很多公司。美国人口普查局表示，到2050年，美国会有8400万老年人。这个数字非常惊人，几乎是现在的两倍。可以想象，到时候在这8400万人中会有多少首次创业者吗？他们都有40年的工作经验。

So when I say, "Let's start talking more about these wonderful entrepreneurs," I mean, let's talk about their ventures, just as we do the ventures of their much younger counterparts. The older entrepreneurs in this country have a 70 percent success rate starting new ventures. 70 percent success rate. We're like the Golden State Warriors of entrepreneurs.

所以，当我说“让我们更多的谈论这些优秀的企业家，”我的意思是，让我们谈论他们的冒险精神，就像我们谈论那些年轻创业者的冒险精神一样。在美国，年长的创业者有70%的成功机会去建立新的事业。70%的成功机会。我们就像创业者中的金州勇士（美国西部职业篮球队）一样。

And that number plummets to 28 percent for younger entrepreneurs. This is according to a UK-based group called CMI.Aren't the accomplishments of a 70-year-old entrepreneur every bit as meaningful, every bit as newsworthy, as the accomplishments of a 30-year-old entrepreneur? Of course they are. That's why I'd like to make the phrase "70 over 70" just as commonplace as the phrase "30 under 30." Thank you.

而在年轻人中，这个数字只有28%。这是一家英国组织CMI公布的数据。难道一个70岁创业者的成就不同样有意义，同样有新闻价值吗？和一个30岁的创业者没什么不同。当然应该是这样。这也是我为何要用这个词“70大杰出老人”——就像大家通用的“30大杰出青年”一样。

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