Elon Musk's 2003 Stanford University Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture

If you like space, you'll like this talk.

如果你喜歡太空，那你一定會喜歡這場演講。

So, uh, my background—uh, in brief—I'll talk a little bit about Zip 2.

那麼，呃，簡單介紹一下我的背景——我會稍微講講Zip 2這家公司。

And uh and PayPal.

還有PayPal。

Uh, and then uh mostly about space and what we're doing in space.

然後，呃，主要講講太空以及我們目前在太空領域所做的工作。

Um, so I originally came out of California to do energy physics at Stanford.

嗯，我最初是從加州出來，去斯坦福大學攻讀能源物理學的。

Actually, um, and ended up putting this on hold in '95 to start Zip 2.

實際上，我在1995年決定暫停學業，轉而創辦了Zip 2。

Um, and Zip 2—I'll tell you a little bit about the thought process of exactly what happened there.

關於Zip 2，我會稍微講講當時具體的思考過程和發生的情況。

Um, in '95, it wasn't at all clear清除 that the internet was going to be a big commercial thing.

在1995年，網際網路是否會成為一項巨大的商業事業，完全還看不清。

In fact, most of the venture capitalists that I talked to hadn't even heard of the internet—which sounds bizarre奇異的—on Sand Hill Road.

事實上，我接觸過的絕大多數風險投資家甚至都沒聽說過網際網路——這在桑迪爾路（矽谷著名的風投聚集地）聽起來很荒謬。

Um, so uh—but I wanted to do something, and I thought it would be a pretty huge thing.

嗯，所以我還是想做點什麼，我覺得這會是一件非常了不起的大事。

And um, I thought it was one of those things that only came along once in a very long while.

我認為這是那種很久才出現一次的機遇。

So I got a deferment延期 at Stanford, and I thought I'd give it a couple quarters.

於是我從斯坦福獲得了延期入學許可，打算先嚐試幾個學期。

And if it didn't work out— which I thought it probably wouldn't—then I'd come back to school.

如果行不通——我當時覺得很可能行不通——那我就回學校繼續讀書。

Um, and actually, when I talked to my professor and told him this, he said, 'Well,

嗯，其實當我跟教授談了這個想法並告訴他時，他說：‘好吧，'

I don't think you'll be coming back,' and that was the last conversation I had with him.

‘我不認為你會回來’，那也是我最後一次跟他交談。

So um, but there weren't a lot of ways to get involved—

所以嗯，但當時參與其中的途徑並不多——

the only way to get involved with the internet in '95 that I could think of was to start a company,

1995年我能想到的唯一能涉足網際網路的方式就是創辦一家公司。

because there weren't a lot of companies to go and work for—apart from Netscape, maybe one or two others.

因為當時可供加入的公司寥寥無幾——除了網景（Netscape），可能也就一兩家其他公司。

So um, and then I didn't have any money, so I thought, 'Well, we've got to make something that's going to return money very, very quickly.'

所以嗯，而且我身無分文，我想：‘好吧，我們必須做出某種能迅速帶來回報的東西。’

So we thought, 'Well, the media industry would need help converting its content from print to electronic, and they clearly had money.'

所以我們想：‘媒體行業需要幫助，將其內容從印刷版轉換為電子版，而且他們顯然很有錢。’

So if we could find a way to help them move their media to the internet, that would be an obvious way of generating revenue.

如果我們能找到一種方法幫助他們將媒體內容搬上網際網路，那顯然是創收的一條明路。

There was no advertising revenue on the internet at the time.

當時網際網路上還沒有廣告收入。

So uh, and that was really the basis基礎 of Zip 2, and we ended up building quite a bit of software for the media industry—primarily the print media industry.

這就是Zip 2的基石，我們最終為媒體行業——主要是印刷媒體行業——開發了不少軟體。

Uh, so we had as investors and customers Hachette Corporation, Knight-Ridder, um, most of the major US print publishers.

我們的投資者和客戶包括哈切特公司、奈特-裡德公司，以及美國大多數主要的印刷出版商。

We built that up, and then we had the opportunity to sell to Compaq in early '99

我們逐步將其做大，隨後在 99 年初獲得了被康柏收購的機會。

and basically took that offer—it was for a little over $300 million in cash—and that's a currency I highly recommend.

我們基本上接受了這個報價——現金超過 3 億美元——我強烈推薦這種支付方式。

Um, so we had that, and um—but I wanted to do something more after Zip 2.

嗯，所以我們有這筆錢，但我想在 Zip2 之後做點更特別的事。

So uh, post the sale—in fact, immediately post the sale—I didn't really take any time off.

所以，呃，交易完成後——事實上是緊接著——我並沒有休息片刻。

Um, I was trying to think of where the opportunities were.

我在思考機會究竟在哪裡。