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发表于 2016-7-12 23:05:32
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The second P is passion.
There are a lot of things each of us is interested in, but few things that we are really passionate about.
I’d urge you to focus on the things that you are passionate about – that you get excited thinking about and talking about – as those are the opportunities you should organize your life around.
Frankly, I got lucky. I became passionate about the Internet more than 30 years ago, when i was a senior at Williams college in Massachusetts. I read a book by a futurist, Alvin Toffler, called the third wave, that talked about the idea of the Internet.
At the time, nobody was online – indeed, the personal computer had not yet been popularized, and the World Wide Web was more than a decade away from being created.
But there was something in the idea of a digital revolution that really captivated me.
After graduating from college, I ended up in entry level jobs at a couple of companies. I even had a stint getting paid to invent new pizzas for pizza hut.
But all the while I was obsessing about what Alvin Toffler had called the electronic cottage, trying to figure out when and how I could make a move to be part of what i saw as a coming revolution.
That search led me to move to Virginia in 1983. I joined a small startup company about to release a product called Gameline.
Gameline was a game cartridge that included a telecommunications modem, and when you plugged it in, you could download games and other services.
When Gameline was announced, everybody thought it would be a huge success. But it failed.
Shortly after I arrived, one of the board members looked at the terrible sales figures and said: geez, you would have thought they would have shoplifted more than that!
The failure of Gameline taught me the importance of the third P, perseverance.
As Gameline struggled, most people – including my parents – suggested I put aside my entrepreneurial impulses and passion and get back onto a more normal career path.
But I stuck with it, as I believed that someday, somehow, the internet would change the world.
I decided to start the company that became AOL in 1985, when I was 26 years old. At the time, only 3% of people were online, and they were only online an hour a week.
AOL had lots of ups and downs in our first few years. It was slow going, and as a result we went through several painful layoffs in those early days.
When we went public in 1992 – we were actually the first Internet company to ever go public – we had less than 200,000 customers, after nearly a decade of being in business.
But we kept at it, interest in the Internet exploded, and by the year 2000 we were the leading internet company -- and one of the most valuable businesses in the world, with nearly 10,000 employees.
As I look back on AOL’s rise, I attribute much of its success to the 3 P’s: People, Passion, and Perseverance.
The people at AOL in those early days were phenomenal – excited to be pioneering a new medium, eager to come to work and work endless hours, and delighted to be part of a team that was hell-bent on changing the world.
The passion we all brought to bear was incredible, and infectious. Even though most people thought we were crazy and believed consumers would never use the Internet, we plowed ahead, constantly evangelizing the endless possibilities of email, ecommerce, instant messaging, and other services.
And it was perseverance that saw us through those difficult days – the times when our hopes were dimmed by external events – when the naysayers around us – including often our friends and families – were urging us to give it up, and pursue a safer career path.
But our band of brothers and sisters believed – in each other, in the possibilities of the Internet, and in our ability to break through any impediment that stood in our way.
Since leaving AOL more than a decade ago, I’ve had the opportunity to invest in and help build more than a dozen new companies.
The same 3 P's have helped guide our efforts with a diverse mix of startups ranging from Zipcar to Living Social.
And the principles have also applied to our non-profit work through the Case Foundation, where we also invest in people and ideas that can change the world.
As I see it, the last 25 years witnessed the completion of the first Internet revolution – which was about getting people and businesses online.
Now we’re about to usher in the second Internet revolution.
Before, we were focused on the basics: evangelizing the benefits of the Internet, and getting people connected.
Now that we’re all connected, almost all the time, our focus can shift.
And the second Internet revolution is going to be about using the Internet to improve the way we deliver education, provide health care, manage energy, transform transportation, improve government services, and reinvent manufacturing.
This second Internet revolution will be even more important than the first, as it will improve our lives, and power our economy.
But there’s one thing I know for sure: the leaders in each of these sectors will be focused on protecting the status quo.
I’ve learned over the years that the world is divided into attackers, and defenders.
The attackers are the people with bold, innovative ideas, who are trying to disrupt the status quo, and usher in a better way.
The defenders are the incumbents that try to defend what they have, and maintain the status quo.
We need to bring an attacker mindset to whatever we choose to do. We need to think out of the box, and be curious, be innovative and be willing to take risks.
It won’t be easy. As Thomas Edison once said, “vision without execution is hallucination.” The vision – the idea – is one thing. What really matters is how we rally together to bring the idea to life. Inspiration matters, but execution matters more.
So to help you as you aim to execute on your ideas, I hope you’ll remember those key attributes – the 3 P’s – and constantly reassess your own lives – and your own choices – to be sure you’re working with and for the best possible team of people, you’re rabidly passionate about whatever path you choose, and you have the perseverance to stick with it through the tough times, so you can be there when things finally break through.
And to be clear, as graduates of one of the nation’s finest schools, you have the chance to make an impact that extends beyond just succeeding in your own careers.
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