(精彩街访在后面 PLUS 'Scene & Heard' interviews below!)





15年前的马云，在一个小公寓里集齐一帮兄弟讨论如何利用网络将国内的商机与国外的市场联合起来，今天，他是线上最大零售商阿里巴巴的主席，中国资产最庞大的人，价值达219亿美元。在这个星期，曾经做过英语老师的他将在纽约证劵交易所，为阿里巴巴开启中国有史以来最庞大的IPO，而他的资产也将翻一番。

15 years ago Jack Ma gathered a group of friends in his small apartment to talk about an idea to use the internet to help businesses connect with markets abroad. Today he’s China’s richest man – worth an estimated US$21.9 billion - and chairman of mammoth online retailer Alibaba. This week the former English teacher’s fortune is set to take another leap, as Alibaba prepares for biggest initial public offering (IPO) in China’s history, beginning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.





马云的默默无闻到首富给无数中国企业家打了一支强针剂，促使他们寻找自我创业的机会，而一部分需要鼓起勇气辞去舒适安逸的工作。像阿里巴巴、腾讯和百度这样的公司，可能是目前业界的巨头，但中国拥有全球最大的网络线上消费群体，还有很多可分割的市场空间。

Jack Ma’s rags to riches rise has inspired countless Chinese entrepreneurs to take their chances beginning their own tech companies - some leaving safe and secure corporate careers to do so. Companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu may be the biggest kids on the block – but China is the biggest online consumer market in the world, and there’s still plenty to go around.

由创业空间科技寺和中国加油举办的“8x8"活动上，同样希望能分得市场一杯羹的创业者们分享了他们的心得。这个下午，8个创业成就者每人用8分钟诉说了企业家精神。

Hoping to make the most of this boom were the crowd at ‘8X8.’ Held at Beijing’s start-up working space Tech Temple, and organised by entrepreneur mentorship organisation China Accelerator, the afternoon of talks featured eight start-up pioneers speaking about entrepreneurship for eight minutes each.

“你有进取心吗？”演讲者QuestVC求索创投的创始人James Tan问，他的PPT上正好显示了马云握拳出击的照片。“你想征服你的业界吗？你的反应和回击够快吗？”他不断在强调一个成功企业家应该拥有的特征：坚韧和决心。

A powerpoint slide is projected featuring a photo of an enlivened Jack Ma punching the air. “Are you aggressive?” asks the presenter JamesTan, founder of seed to angel fund QuestVC. “Do you want to conquer your industry? Are you fast and willing to do what it takes to survive?” he continued, describing essential traits of successful entrepreneurs: tenacity and determination.

创业者吴东林同样面对这样的问题，这位伦敦经济学院和哈佛商学院毕业的高材生，回到北京创业之前在纽约银行界工作了四年，当问到他是如何可以离开这样高回报的职位而做出这样的决定时，他说“看着我的老板，我能看到30年后我也会像他一样，但那不是我想要的，作为一名做并购的银行业者，我一直在卖别人公司的故事，所以我想，为什么不开始推销我自己的故事呢？”

Entrepreneur Donglin Wu once faced these questions himself. The London School of Economics and Harvard Business graduate worked in New York’s banking industry for four years before returning to Beijing to start his own business. Speaking about the decision leave his lucrative career track Donglin says “I looked at my boss and could see that in 30 years I could be like him, but that’s not what I wanted. As a mergers and acquisitions banker I was selling other company’s stories, so I thought – why not start selling my own?”

就在这一年里，他开始了一家为微信用户提供电子商务的公司“艺生活”，东林认为北京就是“太平洋另一端的硅谷”，这也解释了为什么那么多人利用中国涌起的科技浪潮来开创自己的天地。“有位导师告诉我在河里船快速的滑行要比慢慢的滑容易很多......北京就像纽约、香港和新加坡的合体，这里好像拥有三合一，你不会缺少消费者。”

Just over a year later he heads Yishenghuo, a company which provides e-commerce solutions for public Wechat accounts. Donglin considers Beijing “the Silicon Valley on the other side of the Pacific” and isn’t surprised so many are taking advantage of China’s tech boom. “I had a mentor who told me it’s much easier to row a boat in a river that’s going very fast then to row a boat in a river that’s going very slow… Beijing is equal to New York, Hong Kong and Singapore all together. So you have three cities in one. You won’t lack customers.”

今天东林带领一个拥有14人的团队，他说即使在第一年里有不少挑战让他觉得就快无法继续下去了，但他还是满意现在的进程。“我喜欢冒险，最糟糕的就是再找一份工作，不是吗？所以起码我要试试。”

Today Donglin leads a team of 14 people and says he’s content with progress made in his first year despite early challenges where he felt he wouldn’t survive. “I’m someone is a little risk-loving. The worse is I find another job right? So I must at least try.”





前公司律师林甦苗说加入创业公司确实存在风险，这也让她当初犹豫再三，“我从没想过自己会成为一名创业者，其实我有些担心，作为一名专业人士，我已经在如此稳定的岗位上工作了3年。”但是她的朋友兼现在的合伙人说服了这个27岁的女孩跳出来，而自从她离开了律师事务所，她再也没有回过头。“这个很适合我，我想去冒险，想去挑战，就像抚养‘自己的孩子’，而且在30岁前，我想做些疯狂的事情。”

Former corporate lawyer Tess Lin says it was the risk involved in joining a start-up which made her initially hesitate. “I never imagined myself as an entrepreneur and I was afraid. As a professional I had been in the safe-zone for three years.” But her friend and now business partner helped convince the 27 year-old to take the plunge. Since leaving her law firm this month Tess says she hasn’t looked back. “It just clicked with me. I wanted something more adventurous, more challenging - something that would be ‘my own baby.’ I also wanted to do something crazy before I turned 30!”





现在她作为手机客户端专业分享平台“计兮”合作伙伴，利用曾经的法律经验分担私募股权和风险投资这一部分。而她的家人和朋友很意外的都很支持她的决定，但是她说对于女人这并不容易。“我以为他们会认为我疯了，作为中国的女孩，大多期望有稳定的生活，但稳定这个词并不属于创业者。

She now uses her law experience in dealing with private equity investment and venture capital in her role as co-founder for GC Technology, a start-up running a mobile knowledge-sharing app for professionals. Tess’ family and friends were surprisingly supportive of her decision, but she says it isn’t easy for women. “I thought they would think I was crazy. As a Chinese girl there’s a lot of expectation about leading a stable life. Being an entrepreneur isn’t considered ideal.”

同样的压力Lucy Liu也感同身受，这位新西兰华裔，曾经的IPO律师，现在同时拥有手机app“MyPlanit China Travel Guide”和教育机构“捷思国际”，“我现在还很害怕告诉我那非常传统的爷爷，他觉得女孩最好就在国企这样的稳定机构工作。”

This pressure is something Lucy Liu understands. The Chinese New Zealander and former IPO lawyer now manages the team behind mobile app ‘MyPlanit China Travel Guide,’ and heads her own education company Genius Education Group. “I'm still too scared to tell my very traditional Chinese grandfather, who thinks state-owned enterprises are the best and most stable places to work, especially for a girl.”

Lucy说最好的平衡工作生活就是为自己工作，在她曾经每天20个小时的工作日程里，她的健康在被侵蚀。“我记得主持了一个10个小时的会议...一面微笑的面对客户一面在大把的吃止痛药来对付我的偏头痛。”现在她有更多时间与家人在一起，她说“我终于可以提早离开办公室，有足够的时间见朋友了。”

Lucy says better work-life balance was a major draw card in choosing to work for herself. At her old law firm 20-hour working days took their toll on her health. “I recall holding 10-hour meetings… having to smile and talk logically on one hand, and swallowing a handful of pills to suppress my migraine on the other.” Now she spends more time with family and says “I'm finally out of the office early enough to make some friends!”

但是Lucy也说创业者的自由也分两面，“最好的一部分是你是你自己的老板，最艰难的也是你是你自己的老板，你为每个决定负责，承担每个后果，你的员工依赖你发工资，有时想到这个也挺可怕的。”

But Lucy says an entrepreneur’s freedom is two-sided. “The best thing is that you are your own boss; the hardest thing is that you are your own boss. You’re responsible for the decisions you make and all the consequences that follow. You have employees whose livelihoods might depend on you - and that's a scary thought.”

虽然东林、Lucy和林甦苗的创业之路都不同，但他们都不后悔离开那曾经安稳而有前瞻性的工作，现在他们每个人都很享受在创业之路上的飞奔，他们相信坚韧和决心会让他们度过低谷。

Although the paths Donglin, Lucy and Tess have taken are different, they all don’t regret walking away from their more secure and predictable corporate life. Today they each enjoy the highs of running their own business, and believe that tenacity and determination will keep them going through the lows – not to mention a healthy sense of adventure.

回到“8x8"的会场，James Tan对中国热情的创业群体强调“网络还很年轻，这里还有很大的成长空间。”

Back at Tech Temple’s ‘8X8’ event, James Tan reminds the enthusiastic entrepreneurial crowd of the Chinese market’s potential. “The internet is really young and there’s still much room to grow," he says.

但是当活动结束，参会者开始离开时，他那最后一句让人热血沸腾的问话还萦绕在会场上“你会是下一个马云吗？”

But it’s perhaps his most thrilling question that hangs in the air as he finishes his speech, and the audience begin to leave: “Are you the next Jack Ma?”





创业者印象

SCENE & HEARD：Thoughts about entrepreneurship from the Tech Temple '8X8' crowd...





“我和我的同事在共同创业，因为我们相信通过网络，可以拥有自己的声音，不同程度上可以代表这个国家的未来。”

“My colleague and I have our own business because we believe that through the internet and having our own voice we can somehow represent the future of this country.”





“我很多商业伙伴都不同意他们的父母对于是否应该拥有稳定工作的观点，但是他们都很坚定的在执行自己的计划，如果你有很强的动力，没有什么可以阻止你。”

“Many of my business partners disagree with their parents about whether or not they should have more stable careers. But they’re determined to execute their plan, and if you are very motivated nothing can stop you.”





“现如今很容易你就可以开始做些什么，但对创业者而言最困难的是找到一个从来没有人用过的好点子。”

“It’s much easier today to start something on you own compared with five or ten years ao, but the hardest thing for a start-up is find a really great idea that hasn’t already been taken.”

“在一家创业公司工作，你有更多的自由、创意和灵活的时间，同时你还能影响到其它人。”

“Working in a start-up you have more freedom and creativity, flexible hours. You also have more influence.”





“在我们的学校，人们变得更geeky，他们不想走传统路线，比如去电信公司或石油公司，在这个产业里，你可以看到世界的走向，而不是追随他们。”

“In our school people are becoming more geeky. They don’t want to take the traditional route of going to work for telephone or oil companies. In this industry you can see what’s going on in the world, not just following others.”









“作为一个外国人，我觉得中国的创业者都很有才华，非常聪明，跟他们竞争很困难，你必须找到一些非常独特的来抗衡。”

“As a foreigner I find Chinese-based start-ups are full of talented and super smart people and it’s really hard to compete with them and find a niche. You have to find something super unique.”









“如果你是创业者，但却在一家大公司工作，你很有机会迷失自己，为自己做事，则会保持自我。”

“If you are entrepreneurial but go and work for a big company anyway, there’s a chance you could lose that aspect of yourself. Doing something yourself is a way to conserve it.”





“人们肯定会被像马云这样的人所激励，在创业领域里，你总会面对困境，仰视那些成功人士可以为你保持动力。”

“People are definitely inspired by people like Jack Ma. In entrepreneurship you’re always facing struggles and looking up to these successful people keeps you going.”





京搅扮 涵盖京城最好的文化与对话。Beijing Blend covers the capital's best culture and conversation.





For previous articles:

“传统”你跑到哪里去了？012

'No culture in the capital?' reply012

"爱分几多层？” 输入 011

‘LIKE LOVE OBSESSION’ reply 011

“神秘的北京之声”输入010



'Beijing's secret sounds' reply 010

"男人也需正能量"输入006

'Manly Man Matters' reply006

“剩女的独白”输入001

'Leftover Monologues' reply 001

阅读”话点：怀念罗宾” 输入008

'Talking Point: Remembering Robin' reply '008'

“中国咖啡展：这杯有点儿甜”输入002

'China coffee culture' reply 002





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