????日前，在硅谷一個擁擠的研討會會場中，作家史蒂夫?布蘭克向觀眾們提問說，有誰想創辦自己的公司。幾十個人舉起了手。布蘭克接著說：“好消息是，十年后你們當中會有一個人身家1億美元?！苯衲?月，布蘭克的第二本書《初創企業家手冊》（The Startup Owner's Manual）上架了。壞消息是，剩下的人如果在沃爾瑪（Walmart）工作，也許會過得更好。

????布蘭克從不怯于表達自己的觀點。他的第一本書《四步頓悟》(The Four Steps to the Epiphany）無意中冒犯了風險投資家和商學院學者。（現在人們普遍認為這本書幫助開創了精益創業運動。）自那以來，布蘭克在其他重要的創業領域也頗多建樹，特別是客戶發展方面。他同時還在斯坦福大學（Stanford）、加州大學伯克利分校（U.C. Berkeley）和哥倫比亞大學（Columbia）授課。日前，《財富》雜志（Fortune）采訪了這位曾8次創業的創業家。下面是略經編輯的采訪記錄：

????你說過創業者都是“瘋子”。為什么這么說？

????大多數時候（創始人）實際上是在幻想，偶爾才稱得上是遠見。他們有近乎瘋狂的動力，希望將想法轉化為現實。他們必須如此，因為從無到有需要付出這樣艱辛的努力。創始人在一塊白布上創作；創始人更像是藝術家，而不是工程師，也不是商人。他們要讓事情發生。而且，他們需要這樣的堅持和固執來推動自己跨越這些障礙，因為正常來說，付出勞動就該獲得報酬。

????年輕創業者們犯的最大錯誤是什么？

????僅僅是因為創業很酷就想當一名創業者?！班耍遗笥言谧鲞@個，”或者“看看馬克?扎克伯格”。這就像因為你感覺這很酷，就玩彩票或者寄望自己成為NBA籃球明星一樣。怎么說這都是一件苦差事。創業是體力活，其中的掙扎痛苦、舉步維艱和身心俱疲難以盡述。聽起來光鮮，但年輕創業者犯的最大錯誤是將創業與工作混為一談。創業不是工作。

????頓悟對創業者影響很大。您能講講頓悟與白日夢有何不同嗎？

????In a crowded seminar room in Silicon Valley recently, author Steve Blank asked the audience who among them wished to start their own company. A few dozen hands shot up. "The good news," said Blank, whose second book, The Startup Owner's Manual, hit shelves in March, "is that one of you will be worth $100 million in 10 years. The bad news: the rest of you would have been better off working at Walmart."

????Blank has never been shy about his opinions. His first book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany, unintentionally vilified both venture capitalists and business school scholars. (It is now widely credited for helping to kick off the lean startup movement). Blank has since established credibility in other areas of entrepreneurial importance, most notably his work on customer development, and teaches business classes at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley and Columbia. Fortune caught up with the eight-time serial entrepreneur. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

????You've said that entrepreneurs are "crazy." Why do you think that?

????As it turns out most of the time, (founders) are actually hallucinating, and every once in a while they're actually visionaries. They are insanely driven to bring that thing they see to fruition. And they need to be because of the amount of travails they go through in making something out of nothing. Founders create on a blank canvas; founders are closer to artists than they are to engineers or business people. They make things happen. And they need this perseverance and tenacity and resilience to drive them through those obstacles, because rationally, it would make a lot more sense to just exchange your labor for money.

????What is the biggest mistake that young entrepreneurs make?

????Wanting to become an entrepreneur because it's cool. 'Gee, my friends are doing it,' or 'look at Mark Zuckerberg.' It's like wanting to play the lottery or wanting to become an NBA basketball star because you think it's cool. With all due respect, this is a press problem. Being an entrepreneur is a dirty, finger nail-breaking, hard, backbreaking, exhausting job. It looks good on paper, but the biggest mistake young entrepreneurs make is confusing it with a job. It's not.

????Epiphanies can have a powerful impact on an entrepreneur. How can you tell the difference between an epiphany and a daydream?