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Five myths
五个误解

Innovative entrepreneurs are not only more interesting than the replicative sort, they also carry more economic weight because they generate many more jobs. A small number of innovative start-ups account for a disproportionately large number of new jobs. But entrepreneurs can be found anywhere, not just in small businesses. There are plenty of misconceptions about entrepreneurship, five of which are particularly persistent. The first is that entrepreneurs are “orphans and outcasts”, to borrow the phrase of George Gilder, an American intellectual: lonely Atlases battling a hostile world or anti-social geeks inventing world-changing gizmos in their garrets. In fact, entrepreneurship, like all business, is a social activity. Entrepreneurs may be more independent than the usual suits who merely follow the rules, but they almost always need business partners and social networks to succeed.

创新型企业不仅仅比重复型企业更具吸引力，而且还更具经济分量，因为它们可以创造出更多的工作岗位。一小簇的小型创业公司创造出与其不相称的工作岗位。但是创业企业可以在任何地方找到，不仅局限于小型公司。对于创业精神有许多的误解，其中五个流传特别广。第一个：创业者都是“孤儿或被社会遗弃者”。这正是美国一位知识分子George Gilder的话，他表示这些人是：孤独的，对抗整个世界的人们；在阁楼上研究改变世界小发明的反社会技术极客。确实，创业与其他商业行为一样，都是一种社会活动。创业者可能比循规蹈矩的人更为独立，但是他们同样也需要商业伙伴和社会网络来使其成功。

The history of high-tech start-ups reads like a roll-call of business partnerships: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple), Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google), Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes (Facebook). Ben and Jerry’s was formed when two childhood friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, got together to start an ice-cream business (they wanted to go into the bagel business but could not raise the cash). Richard Branson (Virgin) relied heavily on his cousin, Simon Draper, as well as other partners. Ramana Nanda, of Harvard Business School (HBS), and Jesper Sorensen, of Stanford Business School, have demonstrated that rates of entrepreneurship are significantly higher in organisations where a large number of employees are former entrepreneurs.

高科技创业公司的历史中，商业伙伴的例子数不胜数：Steve Jobs 和Steve Wozniak (苹果)， Bill Gates and Paul Allen (微软)，Sergey Brin 和Larry Page (谷歌)，Mark Zuckerberg，Dustin Moskovitz 和 Chris Hughes (Facebook)。Ben Cohen 和Jerry Greenfield是幼时好友，他们一起开办一家冰淇淋公司（想要打入面包圈领域却没有筹得足够资金）。Richard Branson (Virgin)非常依靠他的老表Simon Draper以及其它商业伙伴。哈佛商学院的Ramana Nanda和斯坦福商学院的Jesper Sorensen已经证明：在有许多前创业者的机构组织中，创业精神会非常高。

Entrepreneurship also flourishes in clusters. A third of American venture capital flows into two places, Silicon Valley and Boston, and two-thirds into just six places, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and Austin as well as the Valley and Boston. This is partly because entrepreneurship in such places is a way of life—coffee houses in Silicon Valley are full of young people loudly talking about their business plans—and partly because the infrastructure is already in place, which radically reduces the cost of starting a business.

创业精神也有聚集效应。三分之一的美国风险资本都流向两个地方：硅谷和波士顿；三分之二的风险资本也仅仅流向六个地方：纽约、洛杉矶、圣迭戈、奥斯汀以及硅谷和波士顿。部分原因是由于在那些地方创业精神已经成为生活的一部分：在硅谷的咖啡厅里全是一些大声谈论其商业计划的年轻人。还有就这些地方基础设施非常完善，可以大大减少开办一家新企业的成本。


The second myth is that most entrepreneurs are just out of short trousers. Some of today’s most celebrated figures were indeed astonishingly young when they got going: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell all dropped out of college to start their businesses, and the founders of Google and Facebook were still students when they launched theirs. Ben Casnocha started his first company when he was 12, was named entrepreneur of the year by Inc magazine at 17 and published a guide to running start-ups at 19.

第二个误解是绝大多数创业者都是年轻人。现在许多创业成功者给年轻人震撼印象都是如此：Bill Gates，Steve Jobs 和Michael Dell都是从大学退学开始创业，谷歌和Facebook的创始人都是在在其学生时期开始了自己的创业。Ben Casnocha在十二岁的时候开办自己第一家公司，在17岁的时候被《公司》杂志评为年度创业人物，在19岁的时候就出版了一本有关创业指导的书。

But not all successful entrepreneurs are kids. Harland Sanders started franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65. Gary Burrell was 52 when he left Allied Signal to help start Garmin, a GPS giant. Herb Kelleher was 40 when he founded Southwest Airlines, a business that pioneered no-frills discount flying in America. The Kauffman Foundation examined 652 American-born bosses of technology companies set up in 1995-2005 and found that the average boss was 39 when he or she started. The number of founders over 50 was twice as large as that under 25.

但并不是所有的创业者都是小孩子。Harland Sanders开办其第一家肯德基时候已经65岁了。当Gary Burrell离开Allied Signal去创办Garmin公司（GPS巨头）的时候，已经52岁了。Herb Kelleher在其40岁的时候才开办西南航空公司，这家公司开创了美国经济型航班的先河。Kauffman Foundation研究了1995年到2005年之间创办的高科技公司中，美国本土出生的老板创业时的平均年龄是39岁。而且超过50岁的人是低于25岁人的两倍。

The third myth is that entrepreneurship is driven mainly by venture capital. This certainly matters in capital-intensive industries such as high-tech and biotechnology; it can also help start-ups to grow very rapidly. And venture capitalists provide entrepreneurs with advice, contacts and management skills as well as money.

第三个误解是创业主要靠风险资本支持，驱动。在资本密集型的行业例如高科技和生物技术领域资本确实很重要；而且风险资本有助于新成立的公司快速发展。风险资本家给创业者建议，联络网络，管理技巧还有资本。

But most venture capital goes into just a narrow sliver of business: computer hardware and software, semiconductors, telecommunications and biotechnology. Venture capitalists fund only a small fraction of start-ups. The money for the vast majority comes from personal debt or from the “three fs”—friends, fools and families. Google is often quoted as a triumph of the venture-capital industry, but Messrs Brin and Page founded the company without any money at all and launched it with about $1m raised from friends and connections.

但是绝大多数风险资本仅仅进入极小的一些领域：计算机硬件、软件，半导体，通讯技术和生物技术。风险投资家仅仅资助极小的一部分创业公司。而创业公司的绝大部分资金来自个人借贷和“3F”：朋友、傻瓜、家庭成员。谷歌常常被认为是获风险资本投资成功的一个典型例子。但是Brin 和 Page先生没有用任何钱来创办这家公司，发布谷歌时候也仅仅从朋友或客户那里借来了大约100万美元。

Monitor, a management consultancy that has recently conducted an extensive survey of entrepreneurs, emphasises the importance of “angel” investors, who operate somewhere in the middle ground between venture capitalists and family and friends. They usually have some personal connection with their chosen entrepreneur and are more likely than venture capitalists to invest in a business when it is little more than a budding idea.

管理咨询公司Monitor最近组织了对于创业公司的大规模的调查，认为“天使”投资者非常重要，他们是介于风险资本家和朋友家庭之间的投资者。他们通常与那些他们选中的企业有些个人关系而且比风险资本家更倾向于对这些处于萌芽阶段的企业进行投资。

The fourth myth is that to succeed, entrepreneurs must produce some world-changing new product. Sir Ronald Cohen, the founder of Apax Partners, one of Europe’s most successful venture-capital companies, points out that some of the most successful entrepreneurs concentrate on processes rather than products. Richard Branson made flying less tedious by providing his customers with entertainment. Fred Smith built a billion-dollar business by improving the delivery of packages. Oprah Winfrey has become America’s richest self-made woman through successful brand management.

第四个误解是，创业者要取得成功必须创造出改变世界的产品。欧洲最成功的风险资本公司之一Apax Partners的创始人Ronald Cohen指出：一些最成功的创业者是专注于制作方法流程而不是产品。Richard Branson为其客户提供娱乐为使飞行不过于乏味。通过改善投递包裹的质量，Fred Smith建立了一家资产达十亿美元的公司。Oprah Winfrey依靠商标管理公司的成功成为全美最富有的白手起家的女人。

The fifth myth is that entrepreneurship cannot flourish in big companies. Many entrepreneurs are sworn enemies of large corporations, and many policymakers measure entrepreneurship by the number of small-business start-ups. This makes some sense. Start-ups are often more innovative than established companies because their incentives are sharper: they need to break into the market, and owner-entrepreneurs can do much better than even the most innovative company man.

第五个误解是创业精神在大公司里不会繁荣。许多创业者是大公司的死敌，许多政策制定者都是从小规模创业公司的数量来衡量创业的繁荣程度。这也许有点道理。刚起步的小规模创业公司可能会比已经建立的大公司更有创业精神，因为他们所受的激励更为严厉：他们必须切入市场，所以自我创业者会比最具创新能力的大公司职员做的更好。

Big can be beautiful too
大同样可以美

But many big companies work hard to keep their people on their entrepreneurial toes. Johnson & Johnson operates like a holding company that provides financial muscle and marketing skills to internal entrepreneurs. Jack Welch tried to transform General Electric from a Goliath into a collection of entrepreneurial Davids. Jorma Ollila transformed Nokia, a long-established Finnish firm, from a maker of rubber boots and cables into a mobile-phone giant; his successor as boss of the company, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, is now talking about turning it into an internet company. Such men belong firmly in the pantheon of entrepreneurs.

但是许多大公司也会努力使其雇员保持创业创新精神。Johnson & Johnson像一个控股公司一样运作，为其内部的创业者提供金融支持和营销技巧。Jack Welch努力使通用电气从一个哥利亚巨人转变成为一群具备创业精神的大卫的组合。Jorma Ollila将一个生产胶靴和电缆的老公司诺基亚转变为一个移动手机的巨头；他继任者Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo现在正在考虑将诺基亚转变为一家互联网公司。这些人显然绝对有资格进入创业者的圣殿。

Just as importantly, big firms often provide start-ups with their bread and butter. In many industries, especially pharmaceuticals and telecoms, the giants contract out innovation to smaller companies. Procter & Gamble tries to get half of its innovations from outside its own labs. Microsoft works closely with a network of 750,000 small companies around the world. Some 3,500 companies have grown up in Nokia’s shadow.

同样重要的是，大公司通常给小型初创公司提供最基本的资金和其它支持。在许多领域，特别是在制药和电信业的巨头通常将一些创新研究外包给一些小公司。宝洁公司就努力使其一半的发明创造来自于自己的实验室以外。微软与全球范围内750，000家小型公司合作紧密。在诺基亚的支持下，3500家公司成长起来。

But how is the new enthusiasm for entrepreneurship standing up to the worldwide economic downturn? Entrepreneurs are being presented with huge practical problems. Customers are harder to find. Suppliers are becoming less accommodating. Capital is harder to raise. In America venture-capital investment in the fourth quarter of 2008 was down to $5.4 billion, 33% lower than a year earlier. Risk, the lifeblood of the entrepreneurial economy, is becoming something to be avoided.

但是怎样的创业新激情才能够挡得全球经济下滑呢？创业者面临许多巨大的实际难题。客户很难找到。供应商也不那么随和了。资金更难筹集。2008年第四季度美国风险资本投资降至54亿美元，比一年前低了33％。创新性企业的命脉——风险，正在变成要避免的事情。

Misfortune and fortune
不幸与大幸

The downturn is also confronting supporters of entrepreneurial capitalism with some awkward questions. Why have so many once-celebrated entrepreneurs turned out to be crooks? And why has the free-wheeling culture of Wall Street produced such disastrous results?

经济下滑会使得创新资本的支持者面对一些棘手问题。为何曾经名气很大的创业者会变成骗子？为何华尔街的自由文化会造就如此巨大的灾难。

For many the change in public mood is equally worrying. Back in 2002, in the wake of the scandal over Enron, a dubious energy-trading company, Congress made life more difficult for start-ups with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation on corporate governance. Now it is busy propping up failed companies such as General Motors and throwing huge sums of money at the public sector. Newt Gingrich, a Republican former speaker of America’s House of Representatives, worries that potential entrepreneurs may now be asking themselves: “Why not get a nice, safe government job instead?”

对许多人来说，公众态度的转变确实值得担忧。2002年时，为了防止安然丑闻再次发生，美国国会制定的萨班斯—奥克斯利公司治理法案使得许多初创公司面临诸多困难。现在美国国会正在忙于支持诸如通用汽车之类陷入困境的公司，并将大量的资本注入公有机构。共和党众议院前任发言人Newt Gingrich担心潜在的创业这会问他们自己：“为何不去找一份不错的、稳定的政府工作呢？”

Yet the threat to entrepreneurship, both practical and ideological, can be exaggerated. The downturn has advantages as well as drawbacks. Talented staff are easier to find and office space is cheaper to rent. Harder times will eliminate the also-rans and, in the long run, could make it easier for the survivors to grow. As Schumpeter pointed out, downturns can act as a “good cold shower for the economic system”, releasing capital and labour from dying sectors and allowing newcomers to recombine in imaginative new ways.

然而对创业精神的威胁，不论是现实上的还是意识形态上的，都可能被夸大。经济下滑有坏处也有好处。优秀的员工更容易找到，写字楼的租金更便宜。艰难时期会剔除一些不合格者，从长远来看，幸存者更容易生存。如同Schumpeter指出那样，经济下滑可以起到“对经济系统有很好作用的冷水澡”的功能，将资本和人力资源从那些走向死亡的行业释放出来，使新进入者能够以创造性的形式重塑新的经济。

Schumpeter also said that all established businesses are “standing on ground that is crumbling beneath their feet”. Today the ground is far less solid than it was in his day, so the opportunities for entrepreneurs are correspondingly more numerous. The information age is making it ever easier for ordinary people to start businesses and harder for incumbents to defend their territory. Back in 1960 the composition of the Fortune 500 was so stable that it took 20 years for a third of the constitutent companies to change. Now it takes only four years.

Schumpeter还表示，所有那些已建立的大企业“脚下的基石正在崩溃”。今天那些基石远没有之前牢固，所以对于创业者来说机会相对增加很多。信息时代使得每个普通人都可以很容易建立自己企业，而对于之前的大企业却很难圈定自己的领地。而在1960年，财富500强的名单非常稳定，得要20年才能改变其中三分之一。而现在仅需4年。

There are many reasons for this. First, the information revolution has helped to unbundle existing companies. In 1937 Ronald Coase argued, in his path-breaking article on “The Nature of the Firm”, that companies make economic sense when the bureaucratic cost of performing transactions under one roof is less than the cost of doing the same thing through the market. Second, economic growth is being driven by industries such as computing and telecommunications where innovation is particularly important. Third, advanced economies are characterised by a shift from manufacturing to services. Service firms are usually smaller than manufacturing firms and there are fewer barriers to entry.

这其中有许多原因。第一，信息革命促使已有的公司瓦解。1937年，Ronald Coase在他里程碑的文章“公司的本质”中认为：当在公司里执行交易的官僚成本低于在市场中做同样一件事情的成本时，公司（译者注：这里是成立一家公司，company有合伙，联合伙伴的意思）就有经济意义了。第二，经济增长靠一些电脑和电信行业拉动，这些行业中创新尤为重要。第三，先进的的一个特征就是从制造业转变到服务业。服务公司通常比制造公司要小，进入门槛也比较低。

Microsoft, Genentech, Gap and The Limited were all founded during recessions. Hewlett-Packard, Geophysical Service (now Texas Instruments), United Technologies, Polaroid and Revlon started in the Depression. Opinion polls suggest that entrepreneurs see a good as well as a bad side to the recession. In a survey carried out in eight emerging markets last November for Endeavor, a pressure group, 85% of the entrepreneurs questioned said they had already felt the impact of the crisis and 88% thought that worse was yet to come. But they also predicted, on average, that their businesses would grow by 31% and their workforces by 12% this year. Half of them thought they would be able to hire better people and 39% said there would be less competition.

微软公司，基因技术公司，盖普有限公司都是在经济衰退时期建立的。惠普，Geophysical Service（现在的德州仪器），联合技术，宝丽莱和露华浓则是起步于大萧条时期。意见调查显示，创业者认为经济衰退的作用好坏参半。压力集团Endeavor在去年十一月对于八个新兴国家的一项调查中发现，85％被问到的创业者表示他们已经感到危机的影响，88％的被调查者认为更糟的情况还未到来。但是他们预计今年其生意会增长31％（平均数），雇工数会增长12％。一半的受访者认为他们能雇到更好的员工，39％的人认为将会面临更少的竞争。