[This talk contains mature language Viewer discretion is advised]
【本演讲含有成人词汇, 请观众酌情观看】
If we traveled back to the year 800 BC, in Greece, we would see that merchants whose businesses failed were forced to sit in the marketplace with a basket over their heads. In premodern Italy, failed business owners, who had outstanding debts, were taken totally naked to the public square where they had to bang their butts against a special stone while a crowd jeered at them. In the 17th century in France, failed business owners were taken to the center of the market, where the beginning of their bankruptcy was publicly announced. And in order to avoid immediate imprisonment, they had to wear a green bonnet so that everyone knew they were a failure. Of course, these are extreme examples. But it is important to remember that when we excessively punish those who fail, we stifle innovation and business creation, the engines of economic growth in any country.
如果我们穿越到公元前800年的希腊, 我们会看到经营生意失败的商人 被迫坐在市场上,用篮子扣住头。 在前现代意大利, 破产企业主,若有未偿还的债务, 会被赤条条地带到公共广场, 用一块特殊的石头打自己的屁股, 同时还有一群嘲笑他们的围观群众。 在17世纪的法国, 失败的企业主被带到市场的中央, 在那里,他们破产的消息被公之于众。 为了避免立即入狱, 他们必须带一顶绿色的帽子, 这样每个人就会知道他们是失败者。 当然,这些都是极端的例子。 但请记住, 当我们过度惩罚那些失败的人时, 我们是在扼杀创新和商业创造的能力, 而这些能力是每个国家经济成长的引擎。
Time has passed, and today we don't publicly humiliate failed entrepreneurs. And they don't broadcast their failures on social media. In fact, I think that all of us can relate with the pain of failure. But we don't share the details of those experiences. And I totally get it, my friends, I have also been there.
时间飞逝,今天我们已经不会 公开羞辱失败的企业家了。 他们也不会在社交媒体上 宣扬他们的失败。 事实上,我认为我们所有人 都体会过失败的痛苦。 但我们并不分享那些体验的细节。 我完全明白,朋友们, 我也陷入过那样的境地。
I had a business that failed and sharing that story was incredibly hard. In fact, it required seven years, a good dose of vulnerability and the company of my friends. This is my failure story.
我有过生意失败的经验, 而且分享这个失败真的很难。 事实上,它花费了我长达 7年的时间,适度的脆弱感, 还有我朋友们的陪伴。 我的失败故事是这样的。
When I was in college, studying business, I met a group of indigenous women. They lived in a poor rural community in the state of Puebla, in central Mexico. They made beautiful handmade products. And when I met them and I saw their work, I decided I wanted to help.
当我还在大学的商学院学习时, 我遇到一群原住民妇女。 她们住在墨西哥中部普埃布拉州 一个贫穷的农村社区。 她们会制作漂亮的手工产品。 当我遇到她们,看到她们的作品时, 我决定要帮助她们。
With some friends, I cofounded a social enterprise with the mission to help the women create an income stream and improve their quality of life. We did everything by the book, as we had learned in business school. We got investors, we spent a lot of time building the business and training the women. But soon we realized we were novices. The handmade products were not selling, and the financial plan we had made was totally unrealistic. In fact, we worked for years without a salary, hoping that a miracle would happen, that magically a great buyer would arrive and she would make the business profitable. But that miracle never happened.
怀揣着帮助这些女性获取稳定的收入, 以及提升她们生活质量的使命, 我与几位朋友共同创立了一个社会企业。 我们一直在照本宣科, 正如我们在商学院学到的那样。 我们有了投资者, 我们花了很多时间建立企业 和培训这些女性。 但很快我们意识到,我们只是菜鸟。 手工艺品根本卖不动, 我们做的财务计划也完全不现实。 事实上,我们赔本赚吆喝地经营了几年, 希望奇迹会发生, 有个大买家会奇迹般地出现, 让整个生意变得有利可图。 但那个奇迹从未发生。
In the end, we had to close the business, and that broke my heart. I started everything to create a positive impact on the life of the artisans. And I felt that I have done the opposite. I felt so guilty that I decided to hide this failure from my conversations and my resume for years. I didn't know other failed entrepreneurs, and I thought I was the only loser in the world.
最终,我们不得不关闭公司, 这让我十分痛心。 我开始这一切是为了给艺术家的生活 创造积极的影响。 但我感到,整个事情的发展却事与愿违。 我感到内疚, 于是决定在接下来几年的 交谈和简历中隐藏这个失败。 我不认识其他失败的企业家, 当时只觉得我是世界上唯一的失败者。
One night, seven years later, I was out with some friends and we were talking about the life of the entrepreneur. And of course, the issue of failure came out. I decided to confess to my friends the story of my failed business. And they shared similar stories. In that moment, a thought became really clear in my mind: all of my friends were failures.
7年之后的一个晚上, 我跟朋友一起出去, 我们谈到了企业家的生活。 自然而然地,我们聊到了失败的话题。 我决定向朋友坦白 曾经创业失败的经历。 而她们则分享了类似的故事。 在那一刻,我的脑海中清晰地 出现了这样一个念头: 我所有的朋友都是失败者。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Being more serious, that night I realized that A: I wasn't the only loser in the world, and B: we all have hidden failures. Please tell me if that is not true. That night was like an exorcism for me. I realized that sharing your failures makes you stronger, not weaker. And being open to my vulnerability helped me connect with others in a deeper and more meaningful way and embrace life lessons I wouldn't have learned previously. As a consequence of this experience of sharing stories of businesses that didn't work, we decided to create a platform of events to help others share their failure stories. And we called it Fuckup Nights.
严肃地说,那晚我意识到: 首先,我不是世界上唯一的失败者, 第二,我们全都在隐藏自己的失败。 如果有谁没这么做过, 请一定要告诉我。 那个晚上对我来说, 就如同一场驱魔活动。 我意识到分享你的失败 可以让你更强,而不是更弱。 坦然面对自己的脆弱, 帮助我与其他人建立了 更深和更有意义的连接, 并拥抱过去无法学到的生活教训。 作为分享我们不成功的 商业故事的结果, 我们打算创建一个活动平台, 来帮助别人分享她们的失败故事。 我们称之为“搞砸之夜”。
Years later, we also created a research center devoted to the story of failure and its implications on business, people and society and as we love cool names, we called it the Failure Institute. It has been surprising to see that when an entrepreneur stands on a stage and shares a story of failure, she can actually enjoy that experience. It doesn't have to be a moment of shame and embarrassment, as it used to be in the past. It is an opportunity to share lessons learned and build empathy. We have also discovered that when the members of a team share their failures, magic happens. Bonds grow stronger and collaboration becomes easier.
几年后,我们也创建了以个研究中心, 致力于失败故事, 以及它对商业,人类和社会的启示, 由于我们喜欢比较酷的名字, 于是称之为“搞砸研究所”。 令人惊讶的是, 当企业家站在舞台上 分享他们失败的故事时, 她能够享受那种体验。 这不一定像过去一样,是象征着 羞耻和尴尬的时刻。 这是一个分享经验教训 和构建同理心的机会。 我们也发现, 当团队成员分享 她们的失败时,奇迹发生了。 纽带增强,协作变得更容易了。
Through our events and research projects, we have found some interesting facts. For instance, that men and women react in a different way after the failure of a business. The most common reaction among men is to start a new business within one year of failure, but in a different sector, while women decide to look for a job and postpone the creation of a new business. Our hypothesis is that this happens because women tend to suffer more from the impostor syndrome. We feel that we need something else to be a good entrepreneur. But I have seen that in many, many cases women have everything that's needed. We just need to take the step. And in the case of men, it is more common to see that they feel they have enough knowledge and just need to put it in practice in another place with better luck.
通过我们的活动和研究项目, 我们发现了一些有趣的事实。 比如,男人和女人在生意失败之后, 反应是不一样的。 男性最常见的反应是 在失败后的一年内再次开始新的业务, 但是在不同的行业, 而女性则决定找份工作, 并推迟创造新事业。 我们对此的猜测是, 女性更容易受到“冒牌者症候群”的折磨。 我们觉得我们还需要其他东西, 才能成为好的企业家。 但我在很多案例中见到,女性其实 已经具备了所需要的一切品质。 我们只是需要多迈出一步。 而在男性的例子中, 更普遍的情况是,他们觉得 自己已经拥有了足够的知识, 只是在等待一个更好的机会。
Another interesting finding has been that there are regional differences on how entrepreneurs cope with failure. For instance, the most common reaction after the failure of a business in the American continent is to go back to school. While in Europe, the most common reaction is to look for a therapist.
另一个有趣的发现是, 企业家如何应对失败, 表现出了地域上的差别。 比如,在美洲大陆, 生意失败后人们最常见反应是 回归学校。 而在欧洲,人们更愿意去找个治疗师。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
We're not sure which is a better reaction after the failure of a business, but this is something we will study in the future. Another interesting finding has been the profound impact that public policy has on failed entrepreneurs. For instance, in my country, in Mexico, the regulatory environment is so hard, that closing a business can take you a lot of time and a lot of money.
我们不确定面对生意失败, 究竟哪种反应更好, 但以后会仔细研究一下。 另一个有趣发现是, 针对失败企业家的公共政策 所带来的深远影响。 例如,在我的国家,墨西哥, 监管环境苛刻, 关闭一家公司需要花费 大量的时间和金钱。
Let's begin with the money. In the best possible scenario, meaning you don't have problems with partners, providers, clients, employees, in the best possible scenario, officially closing a business will cost you 2,000 dollars. Which is a lot of money in Mexico. Someone who earns the minimum wage would have to work for 15 months to save this amount. Now, let's talk about the time. As you may know, in most of the developing world, the average life expectancy of a business is two years. In Mexico, the process of officially closing a business takes two years. What happens when the average life expectancy of a business is so similar to the time it will take you to close it if it doesn't work? Of course, this discourages business creation and promotes informal economy.
我们先说说金钱。 在最好的情况下, 意味着你跟伙伴, 供应商,客户,员工没有纠纷, 在最好的情况下, 正式关闭一家公司需要花费2千美元。 在墨西哥,这个数目可不算小。 一个赚最低工资的人, 需要工作15个月才能存够这笔钱。 现在,我们再来说说时间。 你可能知道在多数发展中国家, 企业的平均预期寿命是2年。 在墨西哥,正式关闭一家企业 也需要两年的时间。 当企业的平均预期寿命跟 关掉它的时间一样长时,会发生什么? 显然,这无法鼓励企业创新, 反而会促进非正规生意。
In fact, econometric research has proved that if the process of declaring bankruptcy takes less time and less money, more new firms will enter the market. For this reason, in 2017, we proposed a series of public policy recommendations for the procedure of officially closing businesses in Mexico. For a whole year, we worked with entrepreneurs from all over the country and with Congress. And the good news is that we managed to help change the law. Yay!
事实上,经济研究证明, 如果宣布破产的流程越短,花钱越少, 更多新的企业就会进入市场。 正因为如此,在2017年, 我们提出了一系列在墨西哥 关闭企业的流程的公共政策建议。 在整整一年中, 我们与全国的企业家 和国会一道工作。 好消息是,我们成功地协助修改了法律。 吔!
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
The idea is that when the new regulation comes into force, entrepreneurs will be able to close their businesses in an online procedure that is faster and inexpensive.
其背后的想法是,当新规生效时, 企业家将可以通过快速且 廉价的线上流程 关闭他们的公司。
(Sighs)
(松一口气)
On the night we invented Fuckup Nights, we never imagined that the movement would grow this big. We are in 80 countries now. In that moment, our only intention was to put the topic of failure on the table. To help our friends see that failure is something we must talk about. It is not a cause of humiliation, as it used to be in the past, or a cause of celebration, as some people say. In fact, I want to confess something. Every time I listen to Silicon Valley types or students bragging about failing fast and often like it's no big deal, I cringe. Because I think that there is a dark side on the mantra "fail fast."
在我们创建"搞砸之夜"时, 我们从来没想到这场运动 会发展到如此大的规模。 我们的业务已经开展到80个国家了。 在创立那刻,我们唯一的意图 是把失败的话题放到桌面, 去帮助我的朋友认识到, 失败是我们不应该回避的话题。 它不再像过去那样,只代表着羞耻, 或是庆祝的理由,也有人这样形容。 事实上,我需要坦言一件事情。 每次我听到硅谷范的论调,或者有学生 吹嘘自己如何迅速失败,而且常常觉得 这没什么大不了的,我就会感到不寒而栗。 因为我觉得“迅速失败”的 言论有着很大的弊端。
Of course, failing fast is a great way to accelerate learning and avoid wasting time. But I fear that when we present rapid failure to entrepreneurs as their one and only option, we might be promoting laziness. We might be promoting that entrepreneurs give up too easily. I also fear that the culture of rapid failure could be minimizing the devastating consequences of the failure of a business. For instance, when my social enterprise died, the worst part was that I had to go back to the indigenous community and tell the women that the business had failed and it was my fault. For some people this could be seen like a great learning opportunity for me, but the truth is that the closure of this business represented much more than that. It meant that the women would stop receiving an income that they really needed.
当然,迅速失败是加速学习, 避免浪费时间的 好办法。 但我害怕的是,当我们把迅速失败 当成企业家们的一个或唯一选项时, 我们可能在鼓励浅尝辄止。 我们可能在鼓励企业家轻易放弃。 我同时也害怕这种草率失败的文化 对企业失败所带来的恶劣影响 过于轻描淡写了。 例如,当我的社会企业倒闭时, 最糟糕的环节是,我需要回到原住民社区 告诉那些女性,生意失败了, 这是我的错。 在有些人看来,这是我 得到的最好的教训, 但真相是,关闭这个生意, 其背后的意义要深远得多。 它意味着这些女性将没法获得 她们迫切需要的收入。
For this reason, I want to propose something. I want to propose that just as we put aside the idea of publicly humiliating failed entrepreneurs, we must put aside the idea that failing fast is always the best. And I want to propose a new mantra: fail mindfully. We must remember that businesses are made of people, businesses are not entities that appear and disappear magically without consequences. When a firm dies, some people will lose their jobs. And others will lose their money. And in the case of social and green enterprises, the death of this business can have a negative impact on the ecosystems or communities they were trying to serve.
针对这一点,我有个提议。 我想要提议,就像我们摒弃了公开羞辱 失败企业家这种想法一样, 我们也必须把“迅速失败总是 最佳选择”的想法抛诸脑后。 我想要提出一个新的箴言: 谨慎地失败。 我们必须记住公司由人组成, 公司不是创立和失败都没有 任何后果的神奇实体。 当公司关闭时,有些人会失去工作。 有些人会失去收入。 在社会和绿色企业中, 这些企业的死亡会对它们服务的 生态或社区产生负面的影响。
But what does it mean to fail mindfully? It means being aware of the impact, of the consequences of the failure of that business. Being aware of the lessons learned. And being aware of the responsibility to share those learnings with the world.
那么谨慎地失败是什么意思呢? 意思是注意企业失败的 影响和后果。 注意学到的教训。 意识到与世界分享 这些教训的责任。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)