A Student's Guide to Startups
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want to start a startup?
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要创业吗？
Get funded by Y Combinator .
获得 Y Combinator 的资助。
</td > October 2006 (This essay is derived from a talk at MIT.) Till recently graduating seniors had two choices: get a job or go to grad school.
</td> 2006 年 10 月（本文摘自麻省理工学院的一次演讲。）直到最近，即将毕业的高年级学生有两种选择：找工作或读研究生。
I think there will increasingly be a third option: to start your own startup.
我认为越来越多的人会出现第三种选择：自己创业。
But how common will that be?
但这种情况有多常见呢？
I'm sure the default will always be to get a job, but starting a
我确信默认的做法永远是找一份工作，但是开始
startup could well become as popular as grad school.
创业公司很可能会像研究生院一样受欢迎。
In the late 90s my professor friends used to complain that they couldn't get grad students, because all the undergrads were going to work for startups.
在 90 年代末，我的教授朋友们常常抱怨他们招不到研究生，因为所有的本科生都会去初创公司工作。
I wouldn't be surprised if that situation returns, but with one difference: this time they'll be starting their own instead of going to work for other people's.
如果这种情况再次出现，我不会感到惊讶，但有一点不同：这一次他们将开始自己的工作，而不是为其他人工作。
The most ambitious students will at this point be asking: Why wait
最雄心勃勃的学生此时会问：为什么要等待
till you graduate?
直到你毕业？
Why not start a startup while you're in college?
为什么不在大学期间就开始创业呢？
In fact, why go to college at all?
事实上，为什么要上大学呢？
Why not start a startup instead?
为什么不开始创业呢？
A year and a half ago I gave a talk where I said that the average age of the founders of Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft was 24, and that if grad students could start startups, why not undergrads?
一年半前，我在一次演讲中说，雅虎、谷歌和微软创始人的平均年龄是 24 岁，如果研究生可以创业，为什么本科生不能呢？
I'm glad I phrased that as a question, because now I can pretend it wasn't merely a rhetorical
我很高兴我把这个作为一个问题来表达，因为现在我可以假装这不仅仅是一个修辞
one.
一。
At the time I couldn't imagine why there should be any lower limit for the age of startup founders.
当时我无法想象为什么创业公司创始人的年龄应该有下限。
Graduation is a bureaucratic change, not a biological one.
毕业是一种官僚变革，而不是生物学上的变革。
And certainly there are undergrads as competent technically as most grad students.
当然，有些本科生在技术上与大多数研究生一样有能力。
So why shouldn't undergrads be able to start startups as well as grad students?
那么，为什么本科生不能像研究生一样创业呢？
I now realize that something does change at graduation: you lose a huge excuse for failing.
我现在意识到毕业时确实发生了一些变化：你失去了失败的一个巨大借口。
Regardless of how complex your life is,
无论你的生活多么复杂，
you'll find that everyone else, including your family and friends, will discard all the low bits and regard you as having a single occupation at any given time.
你会发现其他人，包括你的家人和朋友，都会抛弃所有低级的东西，并认为你在任何特定时间都有单一的职业。
If you're in college and have a summer job writing software, you still read as a student.
如果您在读大学并且暑期工作是编写软件，那么您仍然可以作为学生阅读。
Whereas if you graduate and get a job programming, you'll be instantly regarded by everyone as a programmer.
然而，如果你毕业并找到一份编程工作，你会立即被每个人视为程序员。
The problem with starting a startup while you're still in school
当你还在上学时就开始创业的问题
is that there's a built-in escape hatch.
是有一个内置的逃生舱口。
If you start a startup in the summer between your junior and senior year, it reads to everyone as a summer job.
如果你在大三和大四之间的夏天创办一家初创公司，那么它对每个人来说都是一份暑期工作。
So if it goes nowhere, big deal; you return to school in the fall with all the other seniors; no one regards you as a failure, because your occupation is student, and you didn't fail at that.
所以，如果它毫无进展，那就没什么大不了的了；秋季，您与所有其他高年级学生一起返回学校；没有人认为你是失败者，因为你的职业是学生，而你并没有失败。
Whereas if you start a startup just one year later, after you
然而，如果你在一年后开始创业，在你
graduate, as long as you're not accepted to grad school in the fall the startup reads to everyone as your occupation.
毕业生，只要你在秋季没有被研究生院录取，初创公司就会向每个人宣读你的职业。
You're now a startup founder, so you have to do well at that.
你现在是一家初创公司的创始人，所以你必须在这方面做得很好。
For nearly everyone, the opinion of one's peers is the most powerful motivator of all—more powerful even than the nominal goal of most startup founders, getting rich.
对于几乎每个人来说，同龄人的意见是最强大的动力，甚至比大多数初创公司创始人的名义目标“致富”还要强大。
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