在我們決心創業的時候，最容易犯的一個錯誤，就是輕信了各種有關創業的忽悠，以為創立一家成功的公司是件很容易的事。其實不然，創業是非常具有挑戰性的。

要想摸到創業的竅門，最好的方法莫過于通過親身經驗，另一種方法就是要了解在真實的商業世界中，什么行得通，什么行不通。下面為大家分享的是一些在2015年行不通的例子，以及10位因此而擔責的企業家。從這些例子中，我們可以吸取到很多經驗。

10. Coolest創始人兼CEO萊恩?格萊普

降暑神器Coolest Cooler小冰箱的發明人格萊普此前通過眾籌拉到了1300萬美元資金，這個項目也成為眾籌網站Kickstarter上有史以來第二大的眾籌項目。不過這還是2014年年底的事。現在，Coolest Cooler已經在亞馬遜上發售了。好消息是這個產品的確存在，壞消息是消費者對它的評價很低，28%的消費者只給出了“一星”的評價，這主要是由于產品的質量和支持服務不過關。這下子它可“酷”不起來了。

9.肖恩?拉德，Tinder公司創始人兼CEO

他來了，又走了，他又來了，而他應該很快又要走了。不到一年時間，肖恩?拉德在Tinder首席執行官的位子上已經兩上兩下。拉德步了美國服飾（American Apparel）的多夫?查尼、阿伯克比龍（Abercrombie）的邁克爾?杰弗里斯和露露檸檬（Lululemon）的奇普?威爾森等人的后塵。首先拉德本人的確有一些問題，更不用說如果他繼續干下去，他口無遮攔的毛病還會給Tinder的母公司——IAC旗下的Match集團帶來不少麻煩，尤其是在Match集團已經上市的情況下。

8. 50 Cent，強奸犯兼企業家

被中國歌迷親切稱為“五毛”的柯蒂斯?詹姆斯?杰克遜三世（又名50 Cent）是靠做唱片公司、做個人的服裝品牌和演戲發的財。有報道稱他此前投資的一家維生素飲料公司被可口可樂收購，使他一下大賺了1億美金。但去年，“五毛”卻申請了破產保護。這是怎么回事？因為缺乏財務責任，通俗地說就是花錢花得太多了。要提醒你的是，他并非真正的破產了，不過妄圖通過法律來避免償還2800萬美元的債務，在我看來，這種行為還是挺為人不齒的。

7. Torquing集團聯合創始人兼CEO伊萬?里德曼

不到一年前，Zano迷你無人機項目還曾成功眾籌資金340萬美元，創下了Kickstarter歐洲眾籌項目的記錄。如今它卻申請了“自愿清算”——也就是破產。1.5萬余名眾籌投資人中只有幾百人收到了貨，其他人的投資統統打了水漂。我個人認為，任何人投資像這種高風險的項目，都屬于自找麻煩——當然這只是我個人的觀點。

6. 丹?普萊斯，Gravity Payments公司創始CEO

Gravity Payments是一家擁有120名員工的信用卡交易處理公司，去年普萊斯突然宣布，要將未來三年公司員工的最低年薪上調至7萬美元。這個消息在網上傳得很火，但這不意味著這個決定真的能起什么作用。漲薪削弱了對公司經理層的激勵效用，同時大規模的漲薪也提高了公司的破產風險。雪上加霜的是，普萊斯給員工加薪的動機或許也并非像當時看起來那樣大公無私。

5. Reddit前過渡CEO鮑康如

鮑康如主政熱門社交網站Reddit的時間幸虧不長。在這8個月的任期里，她只做成了一件事，那就是成功地展示了她對這個網站完全缺乏了解，并且幾乎疏遠了Reddit的所有用戶。她在硅谷風投公司Kleiner任職期間也同樣富有爭議，這也說明鮑康如有必要了解這樣一個事實：做生意不能光考慮自己，而是要考慮如何服務利益相關人。

4. 謝家華，Zappos創始人兼CEO

在Zappos成功地增長至10億美元并出售給亞馬遜之后，謝家華開始心血來潮地嘗試一些古怪的管理模式。去年他搞起了一種沒有經理也沒有頭銜的所謂“合弄制”的新型企業組織架構。結果是公司有14%的員工辭職了，剩下的員工還在糾結他們的工作職責究竟是什么，以及自己究竟能拿多少薪水。他這腦洞開得也夠大的了。

3. Gravity4創始人兼CEO古爾巴克斯?查哈爾

在對兩起家庭暴力指控認罪、花樣自毀和被廣告科技公司RadiumOne在公司IPO前夕炒魷魚后，這位自戀的連續創業家又因攻擊他人被捕以及一起性別歧視和性騷擾案重回公眾視野，另外據說他還長期磕藥。還需要我多說什么嗎？

2. Zirtual前任CEO瑪倫?凱特?多諾萬

這家非常有前途的虛擬助手初創公司本來發展得很好，直到后來它試圖把幾百名合同工轉變為全職員工，然后公司就崩潰破產了。真可悲，這個命運本來是可以避免的。有句話我已經說過一千遍了：企業失敗的頭號原因就是現金燒盡了。每名CEO必須真心懂商業和金融。就是這么回事。

1. Theranos公司創始人兼CEO伊麗莎白?霍爾姆斯

伊麗莎白?霍爾姆斯的創業故事已經被不少年輕人奉為另一個經典，她19歲就從斯坦福大學退學，致力于顛覆一個價值760億美元的醫學檢驗行業。在長達十年的默默無聞后，她成功拉到了4億美元的融資，使公司估值達到90億美元，風頭一時無兩。后來《華爾街日報》發表了一篇文章，質疑該技術的有效性和準確性。霍爾姆斯一時成為眾矢之的。這在我看來又是一個捧得太高、給得太少的例子。

以上10個例子展示了創業者最經常會碰到的一些陷阱。我們從中能吸取的最重要的經驗是：這些人幾乎無一不是非常聰明、非常有能力的人，然而要想長遠構建一個成功的增長型企業著實非常不易。永遠不要低估你面臨的挑戰。（財富中文網）

譯者：樸成奎

The biggest risk all of you face as you try to make it in the business world is that you buy into the massive hype of the entrepreneurial craze and think running a successful company is like falling off a log. It’s not. It’s really, really challenging.

While the best way to learn the ropes is through experience, another way is to understand what works and doesn’t work in the real business world. In 2015, this is what didn’t work and the ten entrepreneurs responsible. Pay attention. There are powerful lessons to be learned.

Ryan Grepper, founder and CEO, Coolest.

The Coolest Cooler inventor raised over $13 million to become the second-biggest Kickstarter campaign ever. That was the end of 2014. Today, Coolest is selling coolers on Amazon ahead of fulfilling commitments to its backers in order to “keep the lights on.” The good news is the product exists. The bad news is the reviews are dismal, with 28 percent giving it just “1 star,” mostly due to poor product quality and support. So not cool.

Sean Rad, founder and CEO, Tinder.

He’s in, he’s out, he’s in again, and he should be out again. Following in the footsteps of American Apparel’s Dov Charney, Abercrombie’s Michael Jeffries, and Lululemon’s Chip Wilson, Rad has some real issues, not to mention a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease that will continue to plague parent IAC’s Match Group, especially now that it’s a public company.

50 Cent, rapper and entrepreneur.

Curtis James Jackson III, aka 50 Cent, made a fortune on a record label, on a clothing line, and as an actor. Then he reportedly made $100 million from an investment in a vitamin water company that was acquired by Coca-Cola. Last year, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What went wrong? Lack of fiscal responsibility, i.e., he overspent. He’s not really broke, mind you, but using the courts to stiff creditors for $28 million is pretty low-class, if you ask me.

Ivan Reedman, co-founder and CEO, Torquing Group.

Less than a year after raising more than $3.4 million – a record for a European Kickstarter project – the Zano drone maker filed for “voluntary liquidation,” aka bankruptcy, stranding all but a few hundred of its 15,000 funders without the Zanos they’d purchased. Personally, I think anyone who backs high-risk projects like this is asking for trouble, but that’s just me.

Dan Price, founding CEO, Gravity Payments.

Price suddenly decided to raise the minimum annual salary at his 120-person credit-card-processing company to $70,000 over a three-year period. The story went viral, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work. Leveling the playing field removes incentives for managers and the enormous payroll increase may very well bankrupt the company. To make matters worse, Bloomberg recently revealed that Price’s motivation may not have been as altruistic as he made it out to be.

Ellen Pao, former interim CEO, Reddit.

Pao’s reign as interim chief of the popular social site was mercifully brief. In eight months, she was successful at just one thing: demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the site and alienating just about the entire Reddit community. As with hercontroversial tenure at Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner, Pao needs to learn that business is not about her, but about serving her stakeholders.

Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO, Zappos.

After growing the online retailer to $1 billion and selling it to Amazon, Hsieh has been experimenting with wacky management structures. Last year he transitioned to a controversial new organizational system with no managers or titles known as Holacracy. About 14 percent of the company quit and the rest are still trying to figure out what their pay and jobs are. It’s sort of nuts.

Gurbaksh Chahal, founder and CEO, Gravity4.

After pleading guilty to two domestic-violence charges, self-destructing in spectacular fashion, and getting fired by the board of ad-tech company RadiumOne on the eve of a planned IPO, the narcissistic serial entrepreneur is back in the news with a new assault arrest, a gender discrimination and harassment suit, and allegations of epic pill-popping. Need I say more?

Maren Kate Donovan, former CEO, Zirtual.

This high-flying virtual assistant startup was doing great until it tried to convert hundreds of contract workers to full-time employees. Then it crashed and burned. Sadly, that fate was preventable. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times: the number one reason businesses fail is that they run out of cash. Every CEO must viscerally understand business and finance. Period.

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO, Theranos.

The iconic Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to disrupt the $76 billion laboratory diagnostic industry. She raised $400 million at a whopping $9 billion valuation and made an enormous PR splash after a decade in stealth mode. Then The Wall Street Journal broke a story questioning the efficacy and accuracy of the technology and Holmes has since been under fire. Looks like a major case of overhype and under-deliver to me.

These 10 stories represent some of the most common pitfalls that entrepreneurs face. And if you follow the links, you’ll learn more. I think the most important takeaway is this: with rare exception, these are all very smart and very capable people. That’s just how hard it is to build a successful growing business over the long haul. Never underestimate the challenge.