Relentlessly Resourceful

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</td > March 2009 A couple days ago I finally got being a good startup founder down to two words: relentlessly resourceful.

</td> 2009 年 3 月 几天前，我终于将成为一名优秀的初创公司创始人归结为两个字：足智多谋。

Till then the best I'd managed was to get the opposite quality down to one: hapless.

在那之前，我所能做到的最好的就是将相反的品质归结为一个：倒霉。

Most dictionaries say hapless means unlucky.

大多数词典都说hapless的意思是不走运。

But the dictionaries are not doing a very good job.

但词典的工作却不太好。

A team that outplays

一支表现出色的球队

its opponents but loses because of a bad decision by the referee could be called unlucky, but not hapless.

对手却因为裁判的错误判罚而输掉比赛，可以说是不幸，但也不是倒霉。

Hapless implies passivity.

倒霉意味着被动。

To be hapless is to be battered by circumstances — to let the world have its way with you, instead of having your way with the world.

不幸就是受到环境的打击——让世界按照你的方式行事，而不是按照你的方式对待世界。

<!--Unlucky is a bad synonym, because it emphasizes the role of chance in bad outcomes.

<!--Unlucky 是一个不好的同义词，因为它强调了机会在坏结果中的作用。

Hapless overlaps more with the other component

不幸的是与其他组件有更多重叠

of bad outcomes, the half that makes them deserved.

坏结果中，有一半是应得的。

--> [ 1 ] Unfortunately there's no antonym of hapless, which makes it difficult to tell founders what to aim for.

--> [ 1 ] 不幸的是，没有倒霉的反义词，这使得很难告诉创始人的目标是什么。

"Don't be hapless" is not much of a rallying cry.

“不要倒霉”并不是一个战斗口号。

It's not hard to express the quality we're looking for in metaphors.

用隐喻来表达我们正在寻找的品质并不难。

The best is probably a running back.

最好的可能是跑卫。

A good running back is not merely determined, but flexible as well.

一个好的跑卫不仅要有决心，还要灵活。

They want to get downfield,

他们想要深入前场，

but they adapt their plans on the fly.

但他们会即时调整计划。

Unfortunately this is just a metaphor, and not a useful one to most people outside the US.

不幸的是，这只是一个比喻，对于美国以外的大多数人来说并没有什么用处。

"Be like a running back" is no better than "Don't be hapless." But finally I've figured out how to express this quality directly.

“像跑卫一样”并不比“不要倒霉”更好。但最终我想出了如何直接表达这种品质。

I was writing a talk for investors , and I had to explain what to look for in founders.

我正在为投资者写一篇演讲，我必须解释在创始人身上寻找什么。

What would someone who was the opposite of hapless be like?

与不幸相反的人会是什么样子？

They'd be relentlessly resourceful.

他们会足智多谋。

Not merely

不只是

relentless.

无情的。

That's not enough to make things go your way except in a few mostly uninteresting domains.

除了一些最无趣的领域之外，这还不足以让事情按照你的方式发展。

In any interesting domain, the difficulties will be novel.

在任何有趣的领域，困难都是新奇的。

Which means you can't simply plow through them, because you don't know initially how hard they are; you don't know whether you're about to plow through a block of foam or granite.

这意味着你不能简单地克服它们，因为你一开始并不知道它们有多难；你不知道你是要犁过一块泡沫还是花岗岩。

So you have to be resourceful.

所以你必须足智多谋。

You have to keep trying new things.

你必须不断尝试新事物。

Be relentlessly resourceful.

坚持不懈地足智多谋。

That sounds right, but is it simply a description of how to be successful in general?

这听起来不错，但这只是对如何取得成功的简单描述吗？

I don't think so.

我不这么认为。

This isn't the recipe for success in writing or painting, for example.

例如，这并不是写作或绘画成功的秘诀。

In that kind of work the recipe is more to be actively curious.

在这类工作中，秘诀更多的是保持积极的好奇心。

Resourceful implies the obstacles are external, which they generally are in startups.

足智多谋意味着障碍是外部的，这通常发生在初创企业中。

But in writing and painting they're mostly internal;

但在写作和绘画中，它们大多是内在的；