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（Monday）
各位書友，今天我們一起閱讀《Zero to One》第八章SECRETS的107-113頁。
What do you think: men aren’t angels
你如何看待人類不是天使這個問題？
歡迎大家給後臺留言，文字語音都可以，中文英文均不限。英語共讀編輯團隊在後臺等您來！在後臺等您來！等您來！
01 FOUNDATIONS
As cosmogonic epochs came and went in those first few moments, the very laws of physics were different from those we know today.
在天體演化的新紀元到來的那一瞬間，物理法則與今天我們知道的大相逕庭。
Beginnings are special. They are qualitatively different from all that comes afterward. This was true 13.8 billion years ago, at the founding of our cosmos: in the earliest microseconds of its existence, the universe expanded by a factor of 10^30 —a million trillion trillion.
開頭很特殊，它在本質上有別於之後的階段。138億年前宇宙的形成正是如此：誕生的最初那幾微妙裡，宇宙增大到原來的10的30次方倍。
EVERY GREAT COMPANY is unique, but there are a few things that every business must get right at the beginning. I stress this so often that friends have teasingly nick named it 「Thiel’s law」: a startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed.
每個偉大企業都是獨一無二的，而要做好每個事業，有些事情在起步階段就必須做好。我經常強調這一點，以至於朋友們戲稱它為「蒂爾定律」：基礎沒有打好的初創企業是無法挽救的。
It was also true 227 years ago at the founding of our country: fundamental questions were open for debate by the Framers during the few months they spent together at the Constitutional Convention. Companies are like countries in this way.
227年前，美國的建立也是一樣：幾個月裡，制憲者們在制憲會議上一起公開討論國家的根本問題。在這方面，公司就像國家。
Bad decisions made early on—if you choose the wrong partners or hire the wrong people, for example—are very hard to correct after they are made. It may take a crisis on the order of bankruptcy before anybody will even try to correct them. As a founder, your first job is to get the first things right, because you cannot build a great company on a flawed foundation.
早先的錯誤決定一旦做出（比如選錯合伙人、挑錯員工），之後就很難改正。而要糾正這些錯誤，公司可能面臨幾近破產的危險。作為創始人，你的首要工作就是打好基礎，因為你無法在有缺陷的基礎上創建一個偉大的企業。
02 FOUNDING MATRIMONY
初創時的「聯姻」
When you start something, the first and most crucial decision you make is whom to start it with. Choosing a co-founder is like getting married, and founder conflict is just as ugly as divorce. Optimism abounds at the start of every relationship. It’s unromantic to think soberly about what could go wrong, so people don’t. But if the founders develop irreconcilable differences, the company becomes the victim.
在一開始創業的時候，首先要做的至關重要的決定是——和誰一起做。選擇合伙人就像結婚，而創始人之間鬧矛盾就像離婚一樣令人不快。每段關係開始的時候都很樂觀，而冷靜地思考以後可能會出現的問題就不那麼令人愉悅了，因而人們都不去想。但如果創始人之間有不可調解的矛盾，公司將深受其害。
A good example:
以盧克·諾塞克的投資失敗為例：
In 1999, Luke Nosek was one of my co-founders at PayPal, and I still work with him today at Founders Fund. But a year before PayPal, I invested in a company Luke started with someone else. It was his first startup; it was one of my first investments. Neither of us realized it then, but the venture was doomed to fail from the beginning because Luke and his co-founder were a terrible match. Their company blew up and I lost my money.
1999年，盧克·諾塞克成為我在PayPal公司的一個合伙人，現在我和他仍然在創始人基金共事。但在PayPal創立的前一年，我投資了盧克和別人合夥開辦的公司。那是他的第一個初創公司，也是我首批投資的一個公司。那時我們都滅有意識到，從一開始這個企業就註定會失敗，因為盧克和他的合伙人是糟糕的搭檔。最後，他們的公司倒閉了，我的錢也打了水漂。
Now when I consider investing in a startup, I study the founding teams. Technical abilities and complementary skill sets matter, but how well the founders know each other and how well they work together matter just as much. Founders should share a prehistory before they start a company together—otherwise they’re just rolling dice.
現在我考慮投資一家初創公司時，會考察其創立團隊。技術能力和才華互補固然重要，但創始人之間的了解程度和他們合作的默契程度也同樣重要。創始人在共同創業前應有深厚的交情，否則就是在碰運氣。
03 OWNERSHIP, POSSESSION, AND CONTROL
所有權、經營權和控制權
It’s not just founders who need to get along. Everyone in your company needs to work well together. A Silicon Valley libertarian might say you could solve this problem by restricting yourself to a sole proprietorship. Freud, Jung, and every other psychologist has a theory about how every individual mind is divided against itself, but in business at least, working for yourself guarantees alignment. It’s very hard to go from 0 to 1 without a team.
不僅僅創始人要「琴瑟和鳴」，公司的每個人都需要和諧共處。矽谷的自由派人士可能會說你可以通過獨資的方式解決這個問題。雖然弗洛伊德、榮格和其他心理學家都有一套理論解釋每個人的理智與自我是如何相離相悖的，但至少在商業上，為自己工作能保證團結。因為如果沒有團隊，從0到1是非常困難的。
James Madison saw: men aren’t angels. You need good people who get along, but you also need a structure to help keep everyone aligned for the long term.
詹姆斯.麥迪遜指出：人類不是天使。你需要能與你和睦相處的同事，但也需要規章制度來幫助所有人長期保持團結。
To anticipate likely sources of misalignment in any company, it’s useful to distinguish between three concepts:
要找到公司內部不團結的原因，分清以下三個概念很有用：
• Ownership: who legally owns a company’s equity?
• Possession: who actually runs the company on a day-to-day basis?
• Control: who formally governs the company’s affairs?
所有權：誰在法律上擁有公司的資產？
經營權：誰實際上在管理者公司的日常事務？
控制權：誰在形式上管理公司事務？
A typical startup allocates ownership among founders, employees, and investors. The managers and employees who operate the company enjoy possession. And a board of directors, usually comprising founders and investors, exercises control.
典型的初創公司將所有權分配給創始人、員工和投資者。經營公司的管理人員和員工享有經營權。董事會，通常由創始人和投資者組成，行使控制權。
In theory, this division works smoothly. Financial upside from part ownership attracts and rewards investors and workers. Effective possession motivates and empowers founders and employees—it means they can get stuff done. Oversight from the board places managers』 plans in a broader perspective. In practice, distributing these functions among different people makes sense, but it also multiplies opportunities for misalignment.
理論上，這種分工能夠使公司運營順利。所有權分配的優點在於可以吸引和回饋投資者和員工。有效的經營權可以激勵創始人和員工並賦予他們權力——這意味著他們能完成工作。董事會的監督可以從更廣泛的角度評價管理人員的計劃。實際上，將不同的工作分配給不同的人是有效的，但是也增加了不團結的可能性。
Big corporations are still prone to misalignment, especially between ownership and possession. Unlike corporate giants, early-stage startups are small enough that founders usually have both ownership and possession. Most conflicts in a startup erupt between ownership and control—that is, between founders and investors on the board.
大企業易錯，特別是在所有權和經營權之間會有牴觸。不像企業巨頭，早期的出場公司很小，因而創始人兼具所有權和經營權。初創公司的矛盾大多出現在所有權和控制權之間，即董事會的創始人和投資者之間。
In the boardroom, less is more. The smaller the board, the easier it is for the directors to communicate, to reach consensus, and to exercise effective oversight. However, that very effectiveness means that a small board can forcefully oppose management in any conflict. This is why it’s crucial to choose wisely: every single member of your board matters. Even one problem director will cause you pain, and may even jeopardize your company’s future.
董事會，人越少越好。董事會越小，董事們越容易溝通，達成一致，並進行有效監督。然而，這種有效意味著在任何衝突中，小型董事會都可以趕管理層下臺。這就是慎重選擇董事至關重要的原因：董事會裡的每個成員都是舉足輕重的。一個問題董事就能使你痛苦不堪，甚至可能危及公司的未來發展。
A board of three is ideal. Your board should never exceed five people, unless your company is publicly held. (Government regulations effectively mandate that public companies have larger boards—the average is nine members.) If you want that kind of free rein from your board, blow it up to giant size. If you want an effective board, keep it small.
三人董事會最為理想。除非你的公司已經上市，否則，董事會不要超過5個人。（政府規章明確規定上市公司董事會的規模要大些——平均為9個董事。）如果你希望擺脫董事會的控制，那就儘可能擴大其規模。如果你希望它高效運作，那就縮小其規模。
本月共讀《Zero to One》英文版，長按圖片立即加入！
☞ 領讀達人：劉亞南，英語共讀負責人，85後
☞ 主播：熊叔（公眾號：熊孩子聚集地），別人說我英語講得像母語，是個美國人，我笑~誰說不出國門就學不會地道美語?，別人說我擁有TESOL國際教師資格證~，我笑~自己只是個教書的逗比小光頭罷了。
☞ 設計：劉瑩
☞ 編校：陳珺潔
—共讀書籍簡介—
《Zero to One》涉及哲學、歷史、經濟等多元領域，解讀世界運行的脈絡，分享商業與未來發展的落實。該書將幫助我們思考從0到1的秘密，在意想不到之處發現價值與機會。
值得關注的是，這本《Zero to One》絕非學術討論或者思想大師們的論戰，自問世起，它的影響就迅速超越了投資圈，在美國亞馬遜圖書暢銷總榜上躋身前列。
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