Skype创始人的创业经：企业家是一种生活方式

北京时间11月8日消息，连线杂志记者David Rowan近日采访了Skype创办人Niklas Zennstrom，以下是采访录全文：

回想一下改变人们生活的技术公司，很可能是因为它们在美国。Facebook、Google、Twitter、 微软、苹果，都与美国的数字经济密不可分。它比欧洲通过通过银行制造亿万富翁快得多。

而Skype创办人Niklas Zennstrom是个特例，他在大西洋的另一岸，不在美国。他不只创办运营了Skype，2005年时eBay以31亿美元收购它，他后来又创办了改变产业的P2P软件kazaa，推出了视频服务Joost，现在运营着一家投资公司Atomico，融资1.65亿美元。

Niklas Zennstrom现年44岁，他出生在瑞士，拥有3.2亿英磅的财富。

最近，我与詹士庄共度了一个下午，从他那学到一些东西，下面列出来供参考：

1. 很辛苦。当一家企业变得成功，看起来是一夜之间的事，但没有人知道你之前巨大的投入，你之前的所有项目全都失败了。

2. 你不应该害怕失败，而应该思考。“我应该从那经验中学到什么，我下次能做得更好。”然后砍掉那个项目，向下一个进军。不要失望。

3. 许多时候，你是唯一个相信你自己在做什么的人。所有你周围的人会说，“为什么不放弃？难道你没看见它不管用吗？”然后你会去寻找，看看是别人对还是自己对？Skype为了融资花了一年：我去了26个不同的风投，想融资150万欧元，准备放弃公司的三分之一股权，但没有一个人想投资。

4. 聪明专注的人围绕你，建立一个东西不是一个人的自我秀。拥有聪明的人，他们对你做的坚信不疑，这十分重要，它比拥有实际经验但无法与你分享梦想的人更重要。

5. 在你花钱成立一个企业前，努力证明人们的确对你的产品感兴趣。向你的妈妈、你的姐妹、你的朋友们推荐——最初我在他们身上做了测试。

6. 全球化思考。如果你想得不大，极可能你无法变大。从第一天开始，我们就确信Skype会成为一个国际化企业，我们与卢森堡有分公司，我们在爱沙尼亚有开发者，我们移到了伦敦。互联网没有国界。

7. 如果你想成为一名企业家，它不是一个工作，而是一种生活方式。它定义你。忘记度假，忘记下午6点回家——你晚上的最后一件事是发邮件，早上的第一件事是读邮件，你会在半夜醒来。当你凭自己完成一些事时，你会获得巨大的回报。

8. 如果你结婚了，你的另一半应该进入。当我们同时创办Kazaa和Skype时，我妻子的工资可以养活我们。如果有孩子会更难些。

9. 对我来说，钱是动力，它也是改变一些事、制造一些事的动力。向世界证明你能做些真正的事。如果你只是为赚钱而驱动，你很难以创造它。

10. 我家中没有一个企业家，我的父母是老师。在瑞士上学时，那时还很早，有一天我突然想有自己的公司，因为那是真正赚钱的方式。我想向其它人，也向自己证明，我能造些大家伙。

11. 不要因为碰到一些阻力就放弃。我们没必要融资，但我们还是走过金融风暴，融资1.65亿美元。

12. 一旦你成功，人们会听你更多。你获得更多的认真对待。人们预期你的下一件事会立刻成功，这会让一切更困难。仅仅因为你拥有一个成功，不意味着你能有另一个。

13. 我做了很多的慈善。我不觉得有义务这么做，但我对环境和气候改变有兴趣。那很值得。

14. 拥有成功，你有能力激励人们。从一定程度上说我是个社会名人，那是因为工作而来的。我对此很舒服。

15. 在创立公司方面，英国是欧洲最好的国家。但它在吸引企业家移居此地，我想David Cameron（英国保守党领袖）应该重新订下条件，这些是我刚来时发现的：收税不能跟期权一样高，如果把所有救济金用来建东西，那应该减少救济，你没能让税收减少。

16. 当然会有妒忌，但你必须管好它，我不觉得这是什么大问题。

原文链接：http://it.sohu.com/20101108/n277216623.shtml

外文链接：http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/what-ive-learned-by-skypes-niklas-zennstrom/

Think of all the giant technology companies that have changed your life, and the chances are that they’re American. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft — there’s something about the U.S. digital economy (not least piles of Silicon Valley cash) that churns out tech billionaires faster than Europe can generate teetering banks.

That’s why Niklas Zennstrom is such a role model to entrepreneurs this side of the Atlantic. Not only did he co-found and run Skype, the London-based internet-phone start-up which eBay bought in 2005 for $3.1 billion — a venture more than two dozen venture capitalists turned down flat. He also, with business partner Janus Friis, created the game-changing peer-to-peer software Kazaa, launched the online video-sharing service Joost, and now runs a Mayfair-based investment firm called Atomico which recently raised $165 million.

Not bad for a 44-year-old Swedish-born Londoner listed in the latest Sunday Times Rich List as worth a mere £320 million.

What, then, can the rest of us learn from Zennstrom? I recently spent an afternoon with him in search of lessons he’s picked up on the way.

• “It’s hard work. When a business becomes successful seemingly overnight, no one knows about all the months and years you’ve invested, all the projects you’ve tried before that didn’t work.”

• “You shouldn’t be afraid of failure — when something fails, you think, ‘What did I learn from that experience, I can do better next time.’ Then kill that project and move on to the next. Don’t get disappointed.”

• “Often you’re the only one who believes in what you’re doing. Everyone around you will say, ‘Why not give up? Don’t you see it won’t work?’ You then have to find out, are they right or am I right? It took a year to raise money for Skype: we went to 26 different venture capitalists, asking for 1.5 million euros and prepared to give away a third of the company. But no one wanted to invest.”

• “Surround yourself with smart, dedicated people — to build something isn’t a one-man show. It’s more important to have smart people who really believe in what you’re doing than really experienced people who may not share your dream.”

• “Try to prove there are people actually interested in your product before you spend money building a business. Test it on your mother, sister, friends — I tried Skype on them very early on. Though you never know with the ‘mum test’ if they’re saying good things because they just want to be nice.”

• “Think globally. If you don’t think big, it’s unlikely you’ll become big. We made sure from day one that Skype was an international business — we were incorporated in Luxembourg, we had software developers in Estonia, we moved to London. The internet has no country boundaries.”

• “If you want to be an entrepreneur, it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle. It defines you. Forget about vacations, about going home at 6pm — last thing at night you’ll send emails, first thing in the morning you’ll read emails, and you’ll wake up in the middle of the night. But it’s hugely rewarding as you’re fulfilling something for yourself.”

• “If you’re married, your spouse needs to be into it. My wife’s salary could support us while we were founding both Kazaa and Skype. With children it becomes harder.”

• “Money, for me, was one motivation — but so was the drive to change something, to make something happen. And to prove to the world you can do something real. If you’re only driven by making money, you’re not going to be as likely to make it.”

• “None of my family were entrepreneurs — my parents were teachers. But I thought early on, in school in Sweden, that one day I wanted my own company as that was the way to make real money. I wanted to prove to others and myself that I could make it big.”

• “Don’t give up if you meet some resistance. I didn’t need to raise this fund — but we continued right through the [financial] storm and raised $165 million. So don’t run for cover.”

• “Once you’re successful, people listen to you more. You get much taken more seriously. And people expect that the next thing you do will be instantaneously successful — which makes everything much more difficult. Just because you had one success, doesn’t mean you’ll have another.”

• “I’m doing a lot of philanthropy. I don’t feel any obligation to do so, but I’m passionate about the environment and climate change. It’s very rewarding.”

• “With success you have the ability to inspire people. I feel a public figure to some extent, that comes with the job. I’m comfortable with that.”

• “The UK is best country in Europe when it comes to setting up companies. But it’s no no longer as attractive for entrepreneurs to move here, and David Cameron should reset the conditions to those I found when I moved here: tax shouldn’t be as high for stock options, and there should be taper relief so that if you invest all your savings to build something, you don’t get taxed away.”

• “Of course there’s envy, but you have to manage it. I don’t see that as a big problem.”

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