and what do you recommend to people who want to do these things and also want to, you know, experience their twenties?

對於那些想做這些事情並且也想體驗二十幾歲的人，你有什麼建議？

Well, I don't think I work as hard as a lot of people.

我覺得我不像很多人那樣努力工作。

I think I do work pretty hard, but I think it's compound interest is a good metaphor here.

我想我確實很努力，但我認為複利是一個很好的比喻。

If you work really hard at the beginning of your career and you get a little bit better at what you do every day, every week, every year and you learn more and you meet more people and you just get more done.

如果你在職業生涯之初就非常努力地工作，每天、每週、每年都能在自己的工作中取得一點點進步，你就能學到更多的東西，認識更多的人，完成更多的工作。

There's a compound effect and it's far better to put that time in at the beginning of your career than at the end.

這是一種複合效應，在職業生涯開始時投入時間比在職業生涯結束時投入時間要好得多。

Because if you do it at the beginning, you get to benefit from it, you know, for the rest of the time you work.

因為如果你一開始就這樣做，在你剩下的工作時間裡你都會從中受益。

So, you know, one thing I always try to do is like, meet every person I had time for, go to everything I could and just like, spend a little bit more time trying to learn and get better at what I did, what I do.

所以，你知道，我總是嘗試與我有時間見面的每個人見面，參加我能參加的每件事，並且只是多花一點點時間嘗試學習和提升我所做的事情，我所從事的事情。

And I think that is really valuable.

我認為這非常有價值。

The, you know, the beginning of your career, I think in terms of setting the trajectory of the rest of your career follows is the most valuable time.

在職涯的開始階段，我認為就設定職涯其餘部分的軌跡而言，這是最有價值的時間。

And so obviously, you don't want to work all the time because your twenties or your twenties.

很明顯，你不想因為二十多歲就一直工作。

But I do think you want to work harder than most people think you should.

但我認為，你要比大多數人認為你應該付出的努力更多。

And I think that if you do that, you tend to benefit from it later. Life is super unfair.

我認為如果你這樣做，你以後往往會從中受益。人生是非常不公平的。

Sometimes you also just get unlucky and, and so all you can do is kind of maximize chances there.

有時你也會運氣不佳，所以你所能做的就是儘量增加機會。

But I do think that working hard early in your career to get the leverage in the compounding effects is underrated and one of the most valuable pieces of advice that I never got.

但我確實認為，在職業生涯初期努力工作以獲得槓桿效應是被低估的，也是我從未得到的最有價值的建議之一。

And so going into that idea of these early years being particularly valuable and working very hard on thing,

因此，談到這個早期的歲月特別有價值，努力地做某事，

how do you decide when you've worked on something long enough and it's time to call it quits, or when you've worked on it for four years and you're just about to have that breakthrough?

當你覺得你已經付出足夠長時間，是時候放棄了，還是當你已經投入四年的努力並且即將取得突破時，你如何做出決定？

How do you make that distinction?

你是如何區分的？

Yeah, this is really hard. Knowing when to quit and knowing when to give up on something, there's no perfect answer to that.

是啊，要知道什麼時候該退出，什麼時候該放棄，這真的很難，沒有完美的答案。

But it's really challenging to even get that approximately correct.

但是，要做到這一點真的很有挑戰性。

I think most people give up on things way too early.

我認為大多數人放棄得太早了。

So the mistake that most people make is they try something, it does not immediately work.

大多數人犯的錯誤是，他們嘗試了一些東西，但並沒有立即奏效。

You see this particularly in young entrepreneurs.

在年輕創業者身上，你尤其能看到這樣的情況。

It does not immediately work. After seven weeks, they say, "You know what, I tried this thing, it's just not meant to be and I have too many other projects," and so they immediately give up.

有時候，人們嘗試了七周之後，他們會說：「你知道嗎，我嘗試了這個東西，它只是不合適，而且我還有太多其他的項目」所以，他們立刻放棄。

And you kind of, you know, the satirical version of this is people that are 23 and have started 14 startups because they give up on everyone before it could ever possibly be successful.

有一種諷刺的情況，就是一些23歲的人已經創辦了14家新創公司，因為他們在每個項目可能成功之前都放棄了。

These things are really hard.

這些事情真的很難。

They take a very long time.

這些事情需要很長時間。

There are a lot of critics, there are a lot of people who say this thing sucks, it's going to fail, it's really stupid.

有很多批評的人，有很多人說這東西很爛，會失敗，真的很愚蠢。

And then also there's like, what at YC we called the trough of Sorrow where no one even bothers to say it sucks because no one cares at all.

然後還有一個我們在 YC 稱之為“低谷的悲嘆”的時期，沒有人甚至願意說它糟糕，因為根本沒有人在乎。

And that is at least it's demotivating.

這至少是令人失去動力的。

Most of the founders that I have spent a lot of time with that have gone on to be super successful, spent a very long time on their idea when a lot of other people would have given up,

大多數我花了很多時間與之相處的創辦人，那些後來取得了巨大成功的人，在他們的想法上投入了很長時間，而其他很多人可能已經放棄了，

and either people said it sucks or people said nothing at all.

而且，要嘛是別人說他們的想法很糟糕，要嘛根本沒有人發表意見。

And a framework that I have for when to give up and when to keep working is it should be an internal and an external decision.

我對何時放棄和何時繼續努力的一個框架是這應該是一個內部和外部的決定。

If people aren't using it or if people are saying it's bad, that alone is not a reason to give up.

如果人們不使用它，或者人們說它不好，單單這樣還不足以放棄。

You want to pay some attention to that, they might be right.

你應該對此給予一些注意，他們可能是對的。

But I think the best entrepreneurs I know, they make an internal decision about when to give up or when to keep working on something.

但我認為，我認識的最好的創業家，他們會在內心決定何時放棄或何時繼續努力。

It's basically when you have run out of ideas and something is not working, then it's a good time to stop.

基本上，當你的想法枯竭，某件事情行不通的時候，就是停下來的好時機。

And so into this idea that you need a long time to do anything important, what's the source of motivation for people?

在這個你需要花很長時間做任何重要事情的觀點中，人們的動力來源是什麼？

Like what should people be looking to find to be inspired or to keep going on these ideas for a long period of time?

比如，人們應該尋找什麼來獲得靈感，或者長期堅持這些想法？

Yeah, I think if you don't actually believe what you're doing is really important, if you don't derive satisfaction from what you're doing,

是的，我認為如果你實際上不認為你所做的事情是非常重要的，如果你不從你所做的事情中獲得滿足感，

then you will not be able to sustain all of the bad things that happen in the incredibly long period of time that the bad things happen over.

那麼你將無法在壞事發生的非常長的時間內持久。

And so the only motivation that I have seen work for people over a long period of time is enjoyment in what they're doing and an intense belief that it matters,

是以，我所見過的唯一能讓人長期工作的動力，就是享受和他們正在做的事情，以及強烈的信念，認為這很重要，

and ideally liking the people that they go to work with every day.

最好是喜歡每天和他們一起工作的人。

And by the way, it's totally cool when people start off saying, "Well, I want to make money," or "I wanna be famous."

順便說一下，當人們在初期說「我想賺錢」或「我想出名」，這完全沒問題。

I think a lot of people start that way and they don't like to admit it.

我想很多人一開始都是這樣的，他們不願意承認。

But pretty quickly, or at least in the first few years, I think a lot of people find a deeper mission for why they do what they do and that drives them then for the rest of the time they work.

但很快，或者至少在最初的幾年裡，我想很多人都找到了更深層次的使命，為什麼他們要做他們所做的事情，這就是他們工作的動力。