有傳言說，世界上最成功的創業孵化器的創始人保羅?格雷厄姆，曾經因為一位創業者長得像馬克?扎克伯格而為其投資?！霸瞬駛儭蹦贻p有為、有勇有謀，當然值得投資！不過，要創建一家成功的公司，年輕并非先決條件。

不信就看看下面10位企業家，他們在30歲之前都一無所有、甚至無所事事！

There’s a rumor that Paul Graham, the founder of the world’s most successful incubator, once invested in someone because he looked like Mark Zuckerberg. But being young isn’t a prerequisite for starting a successful company.

Don’t believe me? Here are 10 entrepreneurs who had accomplished nothing by 30-years-old.

馬云，35歲時創建阿里巴巴

馬云根本不懂編程，他第一次使用計算機的時候已經過了30歲。

如今，馬云的身價達到225億美元，但直到30歲時他還認為自己是個失敗者。接受查理?羅斯采訪時，馬云說自己參加過三次高考，申請過超過30份不同的工作，包括肯德基餐廳服務員，但都被拒絕了。

31歲時，馬云創建了他的第一家互聯網公司：中國黃頁。這家公司在存續的3年內共獲得大約80萬美元的收入。

35歲時，馬云創建了阿里巴巴。與亞馬遜類似，阿里巴巴在前三年沒有任何利潤，但后來的故事眾所周知。

有趣的是，馬云根本不懂編程。或許，他應該在Hustle Con大會上發表演講？

Jack Ma, Alibaba: 35-years-old

Jack Ma’s never written a line of code, and the first time he used a computer was in his 30s.

Now he’s worth $22.5 billion, but until his 30s he thought himself a failure. In a Charlie Rose interview, Ma revealed he failed his college entrance exam three times. After that, he applied to over 30 different jobs, including KFC, and again, he was rejected.

So, at the age of 31, Ma started his first internet company called “China Yellow Pages.” The company made around $800,000 in the three years it was in business.

At 35, he founded Alibaba. Like Amazon, Alibaba didn’t make any profit in its first three years, but we know how the story ended.

Interestingly, Jack Ma has never written a line of code. Perhaps he should be a speaker at Hustle Con?

杰克?多爾西，30歲時創建Twitter

盡管杰克?多爾西非常希望你相信他是一位高明的創業者，但直到25歲左右時，他還是一位滑板朋克少年。

多爾西創立的首家公司是一個出租車調度項目，當時他還在紐約大學上學。

該項目失敗后，多爾西遇到了伊夫?威廉姆斯，后者當時在經營一家播客公司Odeo。多爾西向威廉姆斯極力推銷一種即時通信服務。

威廉姆斯很喜歡他的理念，并與多爾西、比茲?斯通和諾亞?格拉斯合作，全身心投入其中。多爾西被任命為CEO。當時他已經30歲。

Jack Dorsey, Twitter: 30-years-old

As much as he’d like you to believe he’s a sophisticated entrepreneur, Jack Dorsey was a punk skater well into his mid-20s.

Dorsey’s first company (started while he was at NYU) was a cab dispatching program.

When this fizzled out, Dorsey approached Ev Williams, who was running Odeo, a podcast company. He pitched him the idea of an instant messaging service.

Williams loved the concept and teamed up with Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass to pursue it full time. Dorsey was appointed CEO. He was 30-years-old at the time.

蒂姆?韋斯特格倫，35歲時創建Pandora公司

蒂姆?韋斯特格倫在35歲時創建了Pandora。但他兩年內都發不出工資。

在創建Pandora之前，韋斯特格倫是一位失敗的音樂家，兼職作曲家，保姆和嬉皮士。

雖然韋斯特格倫在35歲創建了Pandora（第一次創業嘗試），但直到他37歲時，Pandora才成為一個在線廣播頻道。

Pandora最初只是一家允許商店播放音樂的硬件公司，成立前兩年甚至瀕臨破產，好在韋斯特格倫說服50名員工同意在兩年內不領薪酬。

不妨去聆聽一下他為說服員工留下而發表的演講。聽到這些話，我恐怕也會留下來。

Tim Westergren, Pandora: 35-years-old

Tim Westergren started Pandora when he was 35. But he couldn’t pay salaries for two years.

Before starting Pandora, Westergren was a failed musician, part-time composer, nanny and hippy.

Although he started Pandora (his first entrepreneurial endeavor) at 35, Pandora didn’t become an online radio channel until Westergren was 37.

Pandora started as a hardware company that allowed stores to play music. Pandora even went bankrupt in their first two years and Westergrensomehow convinced 50 employees to work without pay—for two years.

Here’s the speech he gave employees each week that convinced them to stay. After hearing this words, I’d have stayed too.

簡?庫姆，33歲時創建WhatsApp

創建WhatsApp之前，簡?庫姆曾申請過Facebook的一份工作，但被拒之門外。

庫姆在33歲生日時成立了WhatsApp。他是圣何塞州立學院的肄業生。

離開學校之后，他在雅虎找到了一份工作，并在那里遇到了聯合創始人布萊恩?阿克頓。在雅虎工作9年之后，庫姆申請了一份Facebook的工作。結果眾所周知：他被拒絕了。我認為這段經歷非常有趣。

Jan Koum, WhatsApp: 33-years-old

Before creating WhatsApp, Jan Koum applied to work at Facebook. They rejected him.

Koum incorporated WhatsApp on his 33rd birthday. He’s a San Jose State college dropout.

After leaving school, he landed a gig at Yahoo where he met Brian Acton, his cofounder. After nine years at Yahoo, Koum applied to work at Facebook and was famously rejected, which I find pretty hilarious.

本?霍洛維茨：33歲時創建LoudCloud公司

在33歲創建第一家公司之后，本?霍洛維茨經常生活在破產的邊緣。

本?霍洛維茨于1988年從加州大學洛杉磯分校畢業，并在7年內換了多份工作，29歲時，他加入網景，并出任該公司首位產品經理。

1999年，網景被收購之后，霍洛維茨和馬克?安德森（網景創始人）聯合創建了LoudCloud。當時，霍洛維茨33歲。

霍洛維茨在《創業維艱》一書中講述了LoudCloud無數次瀕臨毀滅的經歷，比如拖欠工資兩周時間。幸運地是，在霍洛維茨41歲時，Loudcloud被收購，凈得16億美元現金。干得漂亮。

Ben Horowitz, LoudCloud: 33-years-old

After starting his first company at 33, Ben Horowitz was often on the brink of bankruptcy.

After graduating from UCLA in 1988 and hopping from job to job for seven years, 29-year-old Ben Horowitz joined Netscape as their first product manager.

After Netscape was acquired in 1999, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen (Netscape’s founder) teamed up to to start LoudCloud. Horowitz was 33-years-old.

In Horowitz’s book, The Hard Things About Hard Things, he talks about the many near death experiences that LoudCloud faced, such as being two weeks away from defaulting on payroll. Thankfully for Horowitz, Loudcloud was acquired for $1.6 billion in cash when he was 41. Beautiful.

奧普拉 ? 溫弗瑞：30歲創辦《歐普拉秀》

33歲那年，奧普拉簽署了具有開創性的服務協議，由此開始締造了自己的商業帝國。

奧普拉此前一直在美國南部當個籍籍無名、收入微薄的新聞主播。1983年，她搬到芝加哥，并主持早間節目《早安芝加哥》（A.M. Chicago）。這檔節目起初收視率很低，但后來迅速躍升至第一。此后第三年，這檔節目被重新包裝命名為《奧普拉 ? 溫弗瑞秀》，奧普拉由此簽下了具有標志意義的服務協議，成為一名億萬富翁。

"我到芝加哥的第一天，當我的雙腳踏上這座城市，走在街頭，瞬間就有一種找到歸宿的感覺，這就像我的故鄉。我就知道我屬于這里。"奧普拉說。

Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show – 30-years-old

Oprah’s empire started when she signed a groundbreaking syndication deal when she was 33-years-old.

After scraping by as a low paid news anchor in the south, Oprah moved to Chicago in 1983 to host the morning show, A.M. Chicago. It had low ratings, but quickly rose to number one. Three later years later, the show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and Winfrey signed a syndication deal that helped her become a billionaire.

“My first day … I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland. I knew I belonged here,” Winfrey said.

山姆?沃爾頓：44歲創建沃爾瑪

山姆?沃爾頓創建沃爾瑪之前，與岳父共同經營一家小型折扣店。

創建沃爾瑪之前，山姆?沃爾頓在1945年向岳父借了2萬美元（相當于今天的25萬美元），買下了一家本?富蘭克林特許經營雜貨店。三年后，沃爾頓收購了220英里之外的另外一家本?富蘭克林店鋪。然而，盡管沃爾頓經營著兩家店鋪，但他依舊很難給員工發工資。

1945年，沃爾頓已經44歲，并且有了多年的經商經驗，他在這一年創建了第一家沃爾瑪超市。

Sam Walton, WalMart: 44-years-old

Before Sam Walton founded WalMart, he owned a small discount store with his father-in-law.

In 1945, before starting WalMart, Sam Walton took out a $20,000 loan (about $250,000 adjusted to today) from his father-in-law and purchased a franchised Ben Franklin variety store. Three years later, Walton bought another Ben Franklin store, 220 miles away. But even though Walton was managing two stores, he still struggled to pay his employees.

In 1945, when Walton was 44-years-old, and had years of business experience, he opened the first WalMart.

彼得?泰爾，30歲時創建PayPal

如今的彼得?泰爾是世界最成功的科技投資者之一，但他最初差點進入法學院任教。

我從未想過會說這句話，但我還是要感謝彼得?泰爾聽從了塔克?馬克思的建議。

創建PayPal之前，彼得?泰爾只是一位討厭自己生活的律師。1992年從斯坦福法學院畢業之后，泰爾加入了一家曼哈頓律所，對于這家律所，用泰爾的話說“外面的人想進去，而里面的人想出來”。

7個月后，泰爾離開這家律所，加入瑞士信貸，擔任衍生品交易員。3年后，泰爾創建了Paypal。當時他31歲。4年后，eBay以15億美元的價格收購PayPal，他在這家公司的股份價值達到5,000萬美元。

Peter Thiel, PayPal EBAY: 30-years-old

One of the world’s most successful tech investors almost went to law school.

I never thought I’d say this sentence, but I’m thankful Peter Thiel followed Tucker Max’s advice.

Before he was the founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel was just another lawyer who hated his life. After graduating Stanford Law in 1992, Thiel landed a gig at a Manhattan law firm, a place that, in his words, “from the outside everyone wanted to get into,” but, “on the inside … everybody wanted to leave.”

After seven months Thiel left, and joined Credit Suisse as a derivatives trader. Three years later Thiel founded Paypal. He was 31-years-old. Four years later, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion, making his stake in the company worth roughly $50 million.

里德?哈斯廷斯，30歲時創建Pure Software

20多歲時，里德?哈斯廷斯曾是美國和平隊的一員。

多數人并未意識到這一點，但實際上里德?哈斯廷斯在創建Netflix之前，便是一位成功的創業者。1991年，31歲的哈斯廷斯創建了Pure Software公司，該公司為軟件工程師提供調試工具。作為一名經過專業培訓的工程師，哈斯廷斯幫助公司每年實現收入翻番。1997年，瑞理軟件公司（Rational Software）以7.5億美元的價格收購了Pure Software，也讓時年37歲的哈斯廷斯有了創建Netflix的資本。

從大學畢業到創建Pure Software這段時間，哈斯廷斯一直在美國和平工作團做事。他還曾在斯威士蘭教英語。真是不可思議的家伙。

Reed Hastings, Pure Software: 30-years-old

Reed Hastings was in the Peace Corp in his 20s.

Most people don’t realize this, but Reed Hastings was actually a successful entrepreneur before he started Netflix. In 1991, when he was 31-years-old, Hastings started Pure Software, a debugging tool for software engineers. Hastings, a trained engineer, helped the company double their revenue each year. In 1997, when Hastings was 37, Rational Software acquired Pure Software for $750 million, giving Hastings the means to start Netflix.

In between college and starting Pure Software, Hasting was in the Peace Corps. He taught English in Swaziland. Whatta guy.

亨利?福特，40歲時創建福特汽車公司

亨利?福特在40歲創建了福特，但在那之前，他所追求的完美主義讓他遭遇了失敗，因為他錯過了制造原型的最終期限。

亨利?福特是人類歷史上白手起家創造財富最多的人之一（1990億美元），但在成立福特之前，他的前兩家公司均以破產告終。與史蒂夫?喬布斯一樣，福特也是一位完美主義者，他非常關心汽車的每一個小細節。由于這種執著，他總是錯過最終期限，未能完成第一款車輛原型。

經歷過數年失敗之后，福特的投資者說服他聘請了詹姆斯?考森斯?？忌箘t說服福特出售一款“不完美的”汽車，并在全國各地培訓技工，維修出現故障的汽車。

Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company: 40-years-old

Before starting Ford at the age of 40, Henry Ford’s perfectionism led to failure as he missed deadlines on making his prototypes.

Although he created one of the biggest self-made fortunes in mankind history ($199 billion), Henry Ford bankrupted his first two companies before starting Ford. Ford, like Steve Jobs, was a perfectionist who cared deeply about every minor detail of his automobiles. Because of that he continually missed deadlines and failed to complete his first prototypes.

After years of failure, Ford’s investors convinced him to hire James Couzen. Couzen convinced Ford to sell an “imperfect” car and to have mechanics throughout the country that were trained to fix broken automobiles.

馬克?庫班，32歲時創建MicroSolutions

28歲的馬克?庫班曾與5個人共用一棟三個臥室的公寓。他的臥室在壁櫥里。

24歲的庫班從印第安納大學畢業后，前往達拉斯成為一名酒吧服務生。他畢業之后的第一份工作是賣電腦，年薪1.8萬美元，后來因不服從老板而被辭退。25歲時，他創建了軟件咨詢公司MicroSolutions。7年后，庫班將MicroSolutions出售，凈得600萬美元，他用個這筆錢創建了Broadcast.com，后來以57億美元的價格將其出售。（財富中文網）

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

審校：任文科

Mark Cuban, MicroSolutions: 32-years-old

28-year-old Mark Cuban shared a three-bedroom apartment with five people. His bedroom was in the closet.

At 24, Cuban graduated from Indiana University and moved to Dallas to work as a bartender. His first gig out of school was selling computers for $18,000 a year. But he was fired for disobeying his boss. At 25-years-old he started MicroSolutions, a software consultancy company. After seven years, Cuban sold MicroSolutions, netting him $6 million… enough to start Broadcast.com, which he sold for $5.7 billion.