Where do great ideas come from?
灵感源自何处？
At the heart of any successful business is a great idea. Some seem so simple we wonder why nobody thought of them before. Others are so revolutionary we wonder how anybody couldn't thought of them at all.
任何成功的企业都是以伟大创意为核心的。有些创意似乎很简单，我们不禁想问为何之前没人想到过。有些创意又太具突破性，我们会为创业者竟能有这等奇思妙想而啧啧称奇。
But those great ideas don't come on command. And that leaves lots of would-be entrepreneurs asking the same question: How did everybody else get inspiration to strike─and how can we work the same magic?
但这些伟大的创意并非召之即来。因此，许多想要创业的人都在问同样的问题：其他创业者是怎样让灵感迸发出来的──我们怎样才能创造同样的奇迹呢？
To find out, we turned to the experts─the start-up mentors who discuss launching businesses at our Accelerators blog, as well as other investors, advisers and professors who have seen and heard countless success stories, and entrepreneurs who have written success stories of their own. They saw inspiration coming from all sorts of sources─everyday puzzles, driving passions and the subconscious mind.
为了找到答案，我们征询了专家们的意见──这其中有在我们的博客Accelerators上讨论如何创建企业的创业导师，有其他见过、听过无数成功故事的投资者、顾问和教授，还有亲手书写成功故事的企业家。他们谈到各种各样的灵感源泉──日常生活中的难题、强烈的激情，还有潜意识。
Here's what they had to say.
以下是他们的心得体会。
Look at What's Bugging You
设法解决纠缠你的问题
Ideas for startups often begin with a problem that needs to be solved. And they don't usually come while you're sitting around sipping coffee and contemplating life. They tend to reveal themselves while you're hard at work on something else.
创业灵感的产生没有什么神奇秘诀，也并非无章可循。本图简述了九位著名企业家各自的创业灵感是如何得来的。初创公司的创意通常始于一个需要解决的问题。这些创意一般不是在你坐在那儿啜饮咖啡和思考生命时迸发出来的。它们往往会在你努力解决其他问题的时候浮现出来。
For instance, one company of mine, earFeeder, came about because I wanted news on music I loved and found it hard to get. So I created a service that checks your computer for the music you have stored there, then feeds you news from the Internet about those bands, along with ticket deals and other things.
比方说，当初建立earFeeder这家公司是因为我想了解与我喜爱的音乐相关的消息，却发现这类消息很难找。于是我创立了一项服务，它能在你的电脑里查找你存的音乐，然后向你提供来自互联网的消息，有与乐队相关的消息，还有折扣票和其他信息。
You're Never Too Old
创业永远都不晚
Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, Paul Allen and Bill Gates with Microsoft, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with Apple AAPL +1.42%─those success stories lead some people to think that coming up with big ideas is a young person's game. But the tech entrepreneurs who rose to early fame and fortune are just the outliers. The typical entrepreneur is a middle-aged professional who learns about a market need and starts a company with his own savings.
Facebook的马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)，微软(Microsoft)的保罗•艾伦(Paul Allen)和比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)，还有苹果公司(Apple)的史蒂夫•沃兹尼亚克(Steve Wozniak)和史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)──这些成功故事让一些人认为伟大的创意是年轻人的专利。但科技行业年纪轻轻便功成名就的创业者仅仅是少数。典型的创业者是中年专业人士，他们会了解市场需求，并用自己的积蓄创办公司。
Research that my team completed in 2009 determined that the average age of a successful entrepreneur in high-growth industries such as computers, health care and aerospace is 40. Twice as many successful entrepreneurs are aged over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.
我的团队2009年完成的研究发现，在电脑、医疗和航天等高成长行业，成功的创业者平均年龄为40岁。50岁以上的创业成功者人数为25岁以下创业成功者的两倍，60岁以上创业成功者的人数为20岁以下者的两倍。
Vivek Wadhwa
维韦克•瓦德瓦(Vivek Wadhwa)
Vice president of academics and innovation, Singularity University
奇点大学(Singularity University)学术和创新副校长
Be Present in Life
专注于当下
Start your brainstorming with problems that you are personally invested in. Building a business is hard as hell and takes the kind of relentless dedication that comes from personal passion.
从你个人关注的问题入手，展开头脑风暴。创业是极为艰辛的，需要在个人激情的推动下不懈努力。
The next big question is 'How?' Great ideas and innovations come from executing on your idea in a different way than everybody else is attacking it, if they're attacking it at all. A great way to do this is to look outside of your industry to see how others are solving problems. Approaches that they think are routine might be out of the ordinary for you─and inspire great ideas.
接下来的一大问题是“该怎样做”。要实现伟大的创意和创新，就要用与众不同的方式执行你的构想（假设别人也在执行他们的构想）。有一种很棒的方法是观察你所在行业之外的情况，看看其他人是怎样解决问题的。别人认为老套的方法对你来说也许不同寻常──而且能激发伟大的创意。
Also, most business people tend to ignore our creative side until we really need it. Making sure that your life has a balance of the arts is a great way to stay engaged creatively.
此外，大多数创业者往往会忽视自身创造性的那一面，直到真正需要时才会重视起来。要想富有创造力地进行创业，确保多方面均衡涉猎是个好办法。
This last tip will seem insanely obvious. However, in the world we live in, it's easier said than done: Simply be present in life.
最后这一点小建议似乎毫无新意，但在我们生活的这个世界可谓是说起来容易做起来难：活在当下。
I'm sure you can relate to how over-connected we all are. Something as simple as having a cup of coffee becomes a juggling act of replying to emails and managing schedules. It's easy to miss a potential piece to your innovation puzzle when it's right under your nose if you aren't there.
我敢肯定，你对当今世界的过度互联也深有体会。喝杯咖啡这么简单的事情也变得像玩抛球杂耍一样复杂，你会一边喝咖啡，一边回电子邮件和管理日程表。如果你不专注于当下，有助于解决创新难题的潜在线索就会很容易从你的鼻尖底下溜走。
Angela Benton
安吉拉•本顿(Angela Benton)
Founder and CEO, NewME Accelerator
NewME Accelerator创始人兼首席执行长
Ideas Are Abundant; Drive Isn't
动力比创意更重要
Perhaps the greatest factor that determines whether or not an entrepreneur will be successful isn't the business idea itself, but rather the entrepreneur's willingness to try (and keep trying) to turn the idea into reality. Great ideas are abundant, but it's what we decide to do with them that counts.
决定一名创业者能否成功的最重要因素也许并不是商业创意本身，而是创业者通过努力（以及不懈努力）将创意变为现实的意愿。好的创意很多，但关键在于我们决定如何将这些创意付诸实践。
Samer Kurdi
萨默尔•库尔迪(Samer Kurdi)
Chairman of the global board, Entrepreneurs' Organization
创业者组织(Entrepreneurs' Organization)全球理事会主席
Let Your Subconscious Do the Work
发挥潜意识的作用
When the mind is occupied with a monotonous task, it can stimulate the subconscious into a eureka moment. That's what happened to me. The business model for my company, ClearFit, which provides an easy way for companies to find employees and predict job fit, hatched in the back of my mind while I was driving 80 miles an hour, not thinking about work at all.
当思维被单一的任务占据时，你的潜意识会受到刺激，使灵感迸发出来。我的情况就是这样。我的公司ClearFit（为企业提供招聘员工及预测职位吻合程度的简单途径）的商业模式就是在我以80英里时速开车、完全不考虑工作时从潜意识里破壳而出的。
The subconscious mind runs in the background, silently affecting the outcome of many thoughts. So, take a break and smell the flowers, because while you're out doing that, your mind may very well solve the problem that you are trying to solve or spark a solution to a problem you hadn't considered before.
潜意识是在后台运行的，悄然影响着我们对许多问题的思考结果。因此，不妨让自己停下来，放松一下，因为在你这么做的时候，你的头脑很可能会解决掉你正在尝试解决的问题，或者让你想出一个之前从未考虑过的解决方案。
Ben Baldwin
本•鲍德温(Ben Baldwin)
Co-founder and CEO, ClearFit
ClearFit联合创始人兼首席执行长
Attack Practical Problems
积极解决实际问题
Make a note whenever you encounter a service or a customer experience that frustrates you, or wish you had a product that met your needs that you can't find anywhere. Then ask yourself, is this a problem I could solve? And how much time and money would it take to test my idea?
当你碰到让你失望的服务或顾客体验，或者在哪里也找不到满足你需求的产品时，请把它们记下来。然后问自己，这个问题我能不能解决？检验我的设想要花费多少时间和金钱？
That last point is crucial. As my sage Stanford professor Andy Rachleff encouraged me, 'Make sure you can fail fast and cheaply.' In business school, I had a couple of big ideas. One was improving domestic airline service─which would have cost millions and taken years. I decided to pursue another opportunity that was a lot cheaper and would show results faster─a clothing line called Bonobos.
这最后一点很关键。我尊崇的智者──斯坦福大学(Stanford)教授安迪•拉切列夫(Andy Rachleff)曾鼓励我说：“要确保你能快速失败，失败的代价要小。”在商学院时，我有几个大的创业构想。其中一个是改进国内航班的服务──这要耗资数以百万计的金钱，要花很多年时间。于是我决定寻求另一个成本低得多、见效也更快的机会──我创立了一个名为Bonobos的服装品牌。
In the end, it took me just nine months and $15,000 of startup funds to get a little traction and market feedback.
最终，我只用了九个月的时间和15,000美元的创业基金就取得了一些成绩，并获得了一定的市场反响。
Brian Spaly
布莱恩•斯帕利(Brian Spaly)
Founder and CEO, Trunk Club
Trunk Club创始人兼首席执行长
Head Into the Weird Places
去古怪的地方走走
For entrepreneurs to stretch their brains, they should seek out the unusual.
创业者要想拓展思路，就应该去寻找非同寻常的东西。
Watch and listen to weird stuff. I enjoy watching obscure documentaries and listening to unusual podcasts. It's thrilling to find cool ideas lurking just a few clicks away.
看一看、听一听古怪的东西。我喜欢看晦涩难懂的纪录片，喜欢听不同寻常的播客。点击几下鼠标就能找到很酷的创意让人兴奋不已。
Walk in weird places. I take walks in hidden suburban neighborhoods, department stores, community colleges. When you're walking with no purpose but walking, you see things in fresh ways, because you have the luxury of being in the present.
到古怪的地方走一走。我会在城郊隐秘的街区、百货商场和社区学院里散步。当你漫无目的地散步时，你会以全新的方式看待事物，因为你拥有宝贵的当下。
Talk to weird people. Striking up conversations with people who are different from you can be powerful. I still remember random conversations with strangers from decades ago, and how they shaped me.
与怪人交谈。与和你不同的人攀谈会带来强大的力量。我至今还记得几十年前与陌生人随意交谈的情形，记得他们是如何对我产生影响的。
Victor W. Hwang
维克多•W. 黄(Victor W. Hwang)
Co-founder, CEO and managing director, T2 Venture Capital
T2 Venture Capital联合创始人、首席执行长、董事总经理
Search for a Better Way
寻找更好的方式
As one goes about their daily life, it is useful if they routinely ask themselves, 'Isn't there a better way?' You would be surprised at how frequently the answer is, 'Yes.' Other sources of inspiration for me are existing products. One should never feel that just because there is a product out there similar to yours that you can't execute it and market it better.
在日常生活中，经常问自己“难道没有更好的方式吗”是很有用的。你会为“有”这个答案出现频率之高而惊讶。我的其他灵感来源是现有产品。绝不应该仅仅因为市场上有与你类似的产品就觉得自己不可能在产品制作和营销上比别人更胜一筹。
Liz Lange
利兹•兰格(Liz Lange)
Fashion designer
时装设计师
Think Big
树立远大目标
There are several factors an entrepreneur should consider when choosing a business idea or opportunity.
创业者在选择商业构想或机会时应该考虑几项因素。
Go big or go home: There are opportunities to make money by building businesses that marginally improve on existing products or services, but the real thrill sets in when the decision is made to go after an enormous idea that seems slightly crazy.
要么做大要么不做：我们有机会通过建立对现有产品或服务略加优化的企业来赚钱，但真正令人兴奋的是决定追求略显疯狂的宏大构想的时刻。
Make the world a better place: The best kind of entrepreneur pursues a business that simplifies or improves the lives of many people. He or she repeatedly asks 'what if' when thinking about how the world works and how the status quo could be dramatically improved.
让世界更美好：最伟大的创业者追求的是简化或改善许多人的生活。他/她在思考世界如何运转，如何显著改善现状时会反复问“假如……会如何”。
Fail fast: As overall startup costs decline and markets move much more quickly, it has become easier to test ideas without devastating consequences of failure.
快速失败：由于初创公司总体成本下降，市场运转速度大大加快，在不产生灾难性失败后果的情况下检验创业构想变得更容易了。
Pivot quickly: Many of the most successful companies exist in a form that is entirely different from how they were first envisioned. A successful entrepreneur will realize when a company is moving in the wrong direction or is missing a much larger opportunity.
快速转型：有很多最成功的企业，其运作形式已与最初设想的完全不同。成功的创业者会在公司发展方向错误或错过良机时有所觉察。
Kevin Colleran
凯文•科莱朗(Kevin Colleran)
Venture partner, General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners投资合伙人
Taking It to Market
接受市场的检验
It is important to look at an idea in two ways: first, to consider the initial inspiration for the business, and second, the often very different concept that ends up being executed to create the new company. We typically think of these ideas as the thing that sets these great entrepreneurs on the path of success. However, an idea is only that until you do something with it. Great entrepreneurs also discover the strategies to deliver the new innovative solution to the market.
一个创意应该从两方面来看：一是考虑其对企业的初步启示，二是考虑最终如何通过执行创意来创建新企业，这通常是两个截然不同的概念。我们一般认为伟大的企业家是凭借这些创意走上成功之路的。然而，创意只有付诸实践才有意义。伟大的企业家还会探索能为市场带来新颍解决方案的策略。
Ellen Rudnick
埃伦•鲁德尼克(Ellen Rudnick)
Clinical professor of entrepreneurship and executive director of the Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
芝加哥大学布斯商学院(University of Chicago Booth School of Business)迈克尔•P. 波尔斯基创业和创新中心(Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation)创业临床教授、执行理事
Listen to People Who Know
倾听顾客和一线员工的声音
Entrepreneurs come up with great ideas in a number of ways. Here are some of the best.
创业者的灵感来源有很多。以下是一些最佳来源。
Get customer feedback: Listen to customers and create products and services that give them more of what they like and/or remove what they dislike.
获取顾客反馈：倾听顾客的声音，创造一些产品和服务，为顾客提供更多他们喜欢的东西以及/或者去除他们讨厌的东西。
Listen to front-line employees: The workers who manufacture the widgets, interact with customers and so on see what takes too long to accomplish, what is too expensive, what causes problems. Talk to those workers, or even do those jobs yourself.
倾听一线员工的声音：负责生产的工人以及与顾客沟通的员工了解哪些工作要花太长时间才能完成，哪些产品太贵，哪些东西会产生问题。与这些员工交谈，甚至可以亲手做做这些工作。
Reverse assumptions: Many great entrepreneurs come up with ideas by reversing assumptions. For example, the old assumption was that a bank needed to have tellers and branch locations. The ATM concept asked: How can we offer banking services without having a branch location and tellers?
逆向假设：许多伟大企业家的创意是通过逆向假设产生的。比方说，旧的前提假设是，银行应该有柜员，还应该设立分行。而自动取款机(ATM)概念则提出了这样一个问题：我们怎样才能在没有分行和柜员的情况下提供银行服务呢？
Dave Lavinsky
戴夫•拉温斯基(Dave Lavinsky)
Co-founder and president, Growthink Inc.
Growthink Inc.联合创始人兼总裁
Get Inspired by History
从历史中汲取灵感
You often hear about the pursuit of the new new thing. But I believe entrepreneurs have a lot to gain by looking into history for inspiration.
你常常会听人说要追求新新事物。但我相信，从历史中汲取灵感会让创业者收获多多。
In the mid-'90s, some beer enthusiasts and experts called us heretics for brewing beers with ingredients outside of the 'traditional' water, yeast, hops and barley. So, I started researching ancient brewing cultures and learned that long ago, brewers in every corner of the world made beer with whatever was beautiful and natural and grew beneath the ground they lived on.
在20世纪90年代中期，一些啤酒爱好者和专家把我们称为异端分子，因为我们采用水、酵母、啤酒花和大麦等“传统”原料以外的东西酿造啤酒。于是我开始研究古代酿酒文化，我在研究中发现，很久以前，世界各地的酿酒人是用一切美好、天然、在他们脚下的土壤中生长的东西酿制啤酒的。
We now make a whole series of Ancient Ales inspired by historic and molecular evidence found in tombs and dig sites.
如今，我们的整个古法麦芽酒(Ancient Ales)系列都是在来自墓地和考古挖掘现场的历史和分子证据启发下酿制的。
Sam Calagione
萨姆•卡拉卓尼(Sam Calagione)
Founder and president, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.
狗鲨头工艺酿酒厂(Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.)创始人兼总裁
Be Prepared to Shift Gears
为转向做好准备
Entrepreneurs need to understand two things. For one thing, their first (or second or third) idea is often not the real opportunity. In fact, it might stink. They have to be on the lookout for why it stinks and be willing to shift course.
创业者应该了解两件事。首先，他们的第一个（或者第二个第三个）构想通常不会带来真正的机遇。这些构想甚至可能是馊主意。他们必须寻找这些构想不可行的原因，并且愿意转变路线。
But they also need to understand that even if their idea has problems, there's often a good opportunity buried within it. They need to talk to people and continue tweaking and transforming it. In the process, they encounter setbacks, rethink their approach, try again and redefine what they're doing.
但创业者还应该了解，即便他们的构想存在问题，其背后通常也蕴藏着良机。他们应该与别人讨论，对其不断调整和改造。在这一过程中，他们会遭遇挫折，会反思自己的方法，会再次尝试和重新定义他们所做的事情。
For all that, the idea may fail─it's happened to many successful entrepreneurs. But they weren't deterred by failure. They kept at it and were better positioned to recognize and shape the next idea into something truly great.
即便如此，他们的构想还是有可能失败──这在许多成功的创业者身上都发生过。但他们不会因失败而止步。他们会坚持下去，更好地确证和塑造下一个创意，使其成为真正伟大的东西。
Donna Kelley
唐娜•凯利(Donna Kelley)
Associate professor of entrepreneurship and Frederic C. Hamilton chair of free enterprise, Babson College
巴布森学院(Babson College)创业学助理教授、弗雷德里克•C. 汉密尔顿(Frederic C. Hamilton)自由企业研究项目主席
You Can't Rush the Brain
激发灵感不可操之过急
I don't know where great ideas come from. I am not sure anyone does. I am not even sure how I come up with my ideas. The brain does its thing, and out pops an idea.
我不知道伟大的创意来自哪里。我也不确定有没有人知道。我甚至不确定我的创意是怎样产生的。让大脑做自己的事情，创意自然会迸发出来。
While you are waiting for the brain to get its act together, do what you can do. Do the doable. Meet with people, schmooze, have a laugh or two. Build mock-ups and prototypes. At the very least, collect other people's problems. That's always a guaranteed doable.
在你等待大脑闪现灵光时，做些力所能及的事情。做你能做的事。与人会面、闲聊、笑一笑。创建模型和样本。最后，收集其他人存在的问题。这些都是肯定可以做的事情。
The deep idea here is that action has a creative aspect distinct from thinking. And thinking need not come first. Mostly it doesn't.
这其中一个深刻的道理是，行动中的创造力与思考时的创造力是截然不同的。思考不一定要先于行动。实际情况大都也是如此。
Saras D. Sarasvathy
萨拉斯•D. 萨拉斯瓦西(Saras D. Sarasvathy)
Isidore Horween research associate professor of business administration, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business
弗吉尼亚大学达顿商学院(University of Virginia's Darden School of Business)伊西多尔•霍温(Isidore Horween)工商管理学研究助理教授
What Not to do
有些事情不要做
One thing that isn't a rich vein of entrepreneurship gold: reading a market forecast from a big-name consulting firm and deciding to create a product to serve that need.
下面这件事对创业没什么帮助：读了著名咨询公司发布的市场预测之后，决定创造一种满足相关需求的产品。
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