Seven years ago, a student came to me and asked me to invest in his company. He said, "I'm working with three friends, and we're going to try to disrupt an industry by selling stuff online." And I said, "OK, you guys spent the whole summer on this, right?" "No, we all took internships just in case it doesn't work out." "All right, but you're going to go in full time once you graduate." "Not exactly. We've all lined up backup jobs." Six months go by, it's the day before the company launches, and there is still not a functioning website. "You guys realize, the entire company is a website. That's literally all it is." So I obviously declined to invest.
And they ended up naming the company Warby Parker.
(Laughter) They sell glasses online. They were recently recognized as the world's most innovative company and valued at over a billion dollars. And now? My wife handles our investments. Why was I so wrong?
七年前，有一個學生來找我， 想要我投資他的公司。 他說，「我正在和三個朋友合作， 我們打算透過網路銷售， 來顛覆一個產業。」 然後我說，「 好啊，你們一整個夏天 都在搞這件事？，對吧？」 「 不，我們也在實習， 預防失敗後也有個後路」 「 好吧，但是你們畢業之後， 要全身心地投入到這個工作之中」。 「 也不全是，我們都安排好了備份的工作」。 六個月過去了， 已經到了公司開業的前一天， 但他們仍沒有一個可以用的網站。 「 你們要知道，整個公司就是一個網站。 實際上，這就是它的全部」。 所以，我直接拒絕投資。 他們最終給公司取了個名字， 叫 Warby Parke （眼鏡電商）。 （笑聲） 他們在線上賣眼鏡。 最近，他們被認為是世界上 最有創新力的公司， 且市值已超過了十億美元。 然後現在呢？換我的老婆在管錢了。 為什麼我錯的這麼離譜？
To find out, I've been studying people that I come to call "originals." Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the people you want to bet on. And they look nothing like I expected. I want to show you today three things I've learned about recognizing originals and becoming a little bit more like them.
為了找出答案，我一直在研究一群人， 我稱他們為「原創者」。 原創者是那些不按常理行事的人， 那些人不僅有新穎的點子， 並且付出行動去挑戰它們。 這些人敢於站出表達自己的想法。 原創者駕馭著世上的創造力和改變。 這是一群你想要為之下注的人。但是他們看上去並不是你期望的人。 我今天想要告訴各位， 我學到的三件事， 有關於如何辯識原創者， 以及如何變得更像他們。
So the first reason that I passed on Warby Parker was they were really slow getting off the ground. Now, you are all intimately familiar with the mind of a procrastinator. Well, I have a confession for you. I'm the opposite. I'm a precrastinator. Yes, that's an actual term. You know that panic you feel a few hours before a big deadline when you haven't done anything yet. I just feel that a few months ahead of time.
所以我拒絕 Warby Parker 的第一個原因， 是他們的行動真的很慢。 各位應該都知道「拖延者」心理的想法。 有件事我必須向你們承認，我剛好相反， 我是個「提前症患者」。 是的，真有這個字。 各位應該了解， 離截止日期只剩幾個小時 而你卻還沒做任何事情的恐慌。 而我卻是覺得我提前了幾個月。
(Laughter)
So this started early: when I was a kid, I took Nintendo games very seriously. I would wake up at 5am, start playing and not stop until I had mastered them. Eventually it got so out of hand that a local newspaper came and did a story on the dark side of Nintendo, starring me.
很早前我就是這樣：我小時候， 非常癡迷於任天堂的遊戲。 我會五點鐘起床， 一直玩到我完全掌握這個遊戲為止。 最後我玩到一個無法控制的地步， 讓當地報紙找到我， 做了一篇任天堂黑暗面 的故事，我主演的。
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Since then, I have traded hair for teeth.
(掌聲) 從此之後，我就開始 用我的頭髮去換牙齒了。
(Laughter)
But this served me well in college, because I finished my senior thesis four months before the deadline. And I was proud of that, until a few years ago. I had a student named Jihae, who came to me and said, "I have my most creative ideas when I'm procrastinating." And I was like, "That's cute, where are the four papers you owe me?"
但這讓我在大學時從中受益， 因為我在截止期前四個月 就完成了我的畢業論文。 我非常的驕傲，直到幾年前， 我有一個叫做 Jihae 的學生， 找到我對我說： 「在我拖延的時候， 我的創造力總是噴湧而出」 然後我說：「你真可愛， 那你欠我的四篇論文呢？」
(Laughter)
No, she was one of our most creative students, and as an organizational psychologist, this is the kind of idea that I test. So I challenged her to get some data. She goes into a bunch of companies. She has people fill out surveys about how often they procrastinate. Then she gets their bosses to rate how creative and innovative they are. And sure enough, the precrastinators like me, who rush in and do everything early are rated as less creative than people who procrastinate moderately. So I want to know what happens to the chronic procrastinators. She was like, "I don't know. They didn't fill out my survey."
不，她是我們最有創造力的學生之一， 身為一位組織心理學家， 這是我要測試的一種想法。 所以，我質問她，請她拿數據出來。 她去了很多家公司。 她讓人們填寫了關於 他們拖延頻率的調查問卷。 她找到他們的上司， 去給他們的創新力和創造力評分， 然後當然了, 像我這樣喜歡提前的， 每天早早的衝著做事的人， 評分往往低於 那些適當拖延的人。 所以我想知道那些慢性拖延症患者 的身上到底發生了什麼。 她說「我不知道，他們沒有填寫調查。」
(Laughter)
No, here are our results. You actually do see that the people who wait until the last minute are so busy goofing off that they don't have any new ideas. And on the flip side, the people who race in are in such a frenzy of anxiety that they don't have original thoughts either. There's a sweet spot where originals seem to live. Why is this? Maybe original people just have bad work habits. Maybe procrastinating does not cause creativity.
開個玩笑，這是我們的結果。 實際上，你確實看到這些 總是等到最後一分鐘的人。 總在忙於消磨時間， 以至於他們沒有仍何新的點子。 而另一面，一直在趕工的人， 總是沉浸在緊張與恐慌中， 也沒有任何原創的想法。 看起來似乎有一個 原創力的最佳甜蜜點。 為什麼會這樣？ 也許原創性格的人， 只是有不好的工作習慣。 也許拖延並不會引發創造力。
To find out, we designed some experiments. We asked people to generate new business ideas, and then we get independent readers to evaluate how creative and useful they are. And some of them are asked to do the task right away. Others we randomly assign to procrastinate by dangling Minesweeper in front of them for either five or 10 minutes. And sure enough, the moderate procrastinators are 16 percent more creative than the other two groups. Now, Minesweeper is awesome, but it's not the driver of the effect, because if you play the game first before you learn about the task, there's no creativity boost. It's only when you're told that you're going to be working on this problem, and then you start procrastinating, but the task is still active in the back of your mind, that you start to incubate. Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.
為了找到答案，我們設計了一些實驗。我要求他們創造出新的商業想法， 接著我們找到了一些獨立的讀者， 去評價這個想法的創新性和實用性。 然後，有些人會立即 被要求開始做那項任務。 另一群人則被指定拖延。 讓他們先玩玩掃雷， 可能十分鐘，可能十五分鐘。 肯定的，那些適當拖延的人， 創造力比其他兩組高出了百分之十六。 掃雷十分有趣，但卻不是 這種現象的主因， 因為，如果你在知道這個任務之前 就先玩遊戲， 創造力並不會提高。 只有當你在被告知， 你要去解決這個問題的時候， 然後你開始拖延， 但這個任務會在你的腦中運轉著。 然後你開始醞釀， 拖延給了你時間，去發散你的思維， 用一種非線性的方式去思考， 來達到意想不到的成效。
So just as we were finishing these experiments, I was starting to write a book about originals, and I thought, "This is the perfect time to teach myself to procrastinate, while writing a chapter on procrastination." So I metaprocrastinated, and like any self-respecting precrastinator, I woke up early the next morning and I made a to-do list with steps on how to procrastinate.
所以，在我們結束這些實驗的時候， 我開始著手寫一本 有關原創者的書， 然後我在想：「當我在寫『拖延』這個章節的時候， 就是我教我自己學會拖延的最佳時機了」。 所以我要跟拖延見面， 就像每一個自尊心很強的 提前症患者一樣， 第二天我就起了個大早， 做了一個如何拖延 的執行清單。
(Laughter)
And then I worked diligently toward my goal of not making progress toward my goal. I started writing the procrastination chapter, and one day -- I was halfway through -- I literally put it away in mid-sentence for months. It was agony. But when I came back to it, I had all sorts of new ideas. As Aaron Sorkin put it, "You call it procrastinating. I call it thinking." And along the way I discovered that a lot of great originals in history were procrastinators. Take Leonardo da Vinci. He toiled on and off for 16 years on the Mona Lisa. He felt like a failure. He wrote as much in his journal. But some of the diversions he took in optics transformed the way that he modeled light and made him into a much better painter. What about Martin Luther King, Jr.? The night before the biggest speech of his life, the March on Washington, he was up past 3am, rewriting it. He's sitting in the audience waiting for his turn to go onstage, and he is still scribbling notes and crossing out lines. When he gets onstage, 11 minutes in, he leaves his prepared remarks to utter four words that changed the course of history: "I have a dream." That was not in the script. By delaying the task of finalizing the speech until the very last minute, he left himself open to the widest range of possible ideas. And because the text wasn't set in stone, he had freedom to improvise.
然後我開始認真的去執行 「不做任何進展」的目標。 我開始寫拖延這個章節， 然後有一天，我寫到一半的時候， 我硬是把寫到一半的句子放了下來， 放了一個月。 真是痛苦啊。 但是當我回到創作中的時候， 腦子裡已經充滿各樣新的想法。 就像Aaron Sorkin所說， 「你說這是拖延，我認為這是思考」。 在創作途中我認識到， 歷史上有許多原創的人， 他們都是拖延的人， 例如萊昂納多．達．芬奇。 他在蒙娜麗莎畫像上， 辛苦創作了十六年。 他在自己的日記上常常提到， 他覺得自己是個失敗者。 但是他分散在光學上的精力， 改變了他形塑光的方式， 這使他變成了一個更傑出的畫家。 馬丁．路德．金呢？ 在他生命中規模最大演講的前一夜， 三月的華盛頓， 他凌晨三點鐘起床， 重寫了他的演講稿。 他坐在觀眾席中， 等後輪到他上台的演講， 他仍在記著筆記，畫著線。 當他上台後十一分鐘， 他放下了他的筆記， 說出了改變歷史的四個字： 「我有一個夢想」（I have a dream） 這不在稿子中。 藉由拖延總結演講任務 的最後幾分鐘， 他讓自己置身於最大範圍的想法當中。 正因為他的稿子十分靈活， 他可以自由的發揮。
Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity. What you see with a lot of great originals is that they are quick to start but they're slow to finish. And this is what I missed with Warby Parker. When they were dragging their heels for six months, I looked at them and said, "You know, a lot of other companies are starting to sell glasses online." They missed the first-mover advantage. But what I didn't realize was they were spending all that time trying to figure out how to get people to be comfortable ordering glasses online. And it turns out the first-mover advantage is mostly a myth. Look at a classic study of over 50 product categories, comparing the first movers who created the market with the improvers who introduced something different and better. What you see is that the first movers had a failure rate of 47 percent, compared with only 8 percent for the improvers. Look at Facebook, waiting to build a social network until after Myspace and Friendster. Look at Google, waiting for years after Altavista and Yahoo. It's much easier to improve on somebody else's idea than it is to create something new from scratch. So the lesson I learned is that to be original you don't have to be first. You just have to be different and better.
當談及生產的時候，拖延是一種惡習， 但對於創造力來說，拖延卻是一種優點。 你所看到的許多偉大的原創者， 他們都是迅速的開始，卻緩慢的結束。 這就是為什麼我錯失掉 Warby Parker的原因。 在他們拖沓的六個月中， 我看著他們然後說， 「你們應該知道，許多其他公司已經 開始在網路上銷售眼鏡了」 他們錯過了搶占先機的優勢。 但我沒意識到的是，他們花了很多時間， 試圖找出讓顧客， 可以舒適的在網上訂購眼鏡的方法。 事實證明，搶占先機的 優勢其實是虛的。 看這個對五十多種產品的經典研究。 將搶先機創造市場的人 與那些做出更好改變的改進者相比。 你可以看到率先行動者的 失敗率高達百分之四十七。 相比而言，改進者失敗率只有百分之八。 看一看Facebook， 他們一直等到的Myspace和Friendster之後， 才開始建立社交網絡。 再看谷歌，他們是在 Altavista 和 Yahoo 發展幾年之後才創立的。 相比創新的難度， 改進他人的觀點會更加的簡單。 因此我學到的是，要成為一個原創的人， 並不意味著你要成為第一個創新的人。 你只需要變得不同，變得更好。
But that wasn't the only reason I passed on Warby Parker. They were also full of doubts. They had backup plans lined up, and that made me doubt that they had the courage to be original, because I expected that originals would look something like this.
但這不是我拒絕 Warby Parker的唯一原因， 他們滿身都是謎團。 他們已經有後備的計劃， 而這又讓我懷疑，他們有勇氣要原創， 因為這才是我所期望的原創者的樣子。
(Laughter)
Now, on the surface, a lot of original people look confident, but behind the scenes, they feel the same fear and doubt that the rest of us do. They just manage it differently. Let me show you: this is a depiction of how the creative process works for most of us.
現在，從表面上來講， 許多原創的人都非常自信， 但是在看不到的地方， 他們也感到恐懼和困惑， 就像其他的人一樣。 只是他們處理的方式不同， 讓我告訴你， 這是一個對我們大多數人 創作過程的描述。
(Laughter)
Now, in my research, I discovered there are two different kinds of doubt. There's self-doubt and idea doubt. Self-doubt is paralyzing. It leads you to freeze. But idea doubt is energizing. It motivates you to test, to experiment, to refine, just like MLK did. And so the key to being original is just a simple thing of avoiding the leap from step three to step four. Instead of saying, "I'm crap," you say, "The first few drafts are always crap, and I'm just not there yet." So how do you get there? Well, there's a clue, it turns out, in the Internet browser that you use. We can predict your job performance and your commitment just by knowing what web browser you use. Now, some of you are not going to like the results of this study --
在我研究裡，我發現了 兩種不同類型的懷疑。 對自我的懷疑和對想法的懷疑。 對自我的懷疑會讓你麻痺， 它會讓你動彈不得。 但對想法的懷疑會讓你充滿動力， 它驅使著你去測試，去實驗，去改善。 就像馬丁路德金所做的一樣， 所以要成為原創的關鍵， 只要簡單的避開掉 階段三到階段四。 比起說「我是個廢物」 不如說「一開始的草稿都是廢物， 我只是還沒有達到那個程度罷了。」 所以如何變得具有原創性？ 好，這裡有一個提示，就是， 在你使用的網路瀏覽器中， 我們只要知道你用哪一種網路瀏覽器， 我們就可以預測你的工作表現和你的投入。 你們有些人可能不會喜歡 這個研究的結果。
(Laughter)
But there is good evidence that Firefox and Chrome users significantly outperform Internet Explorer and Safari users. Yes.
但有聽說，火狐和 谷歌瀏覽器的用戶， 明顯勝過了IE瀏覽器和Safiri瀏覽器。 是的！
(Applause)
They also stay in their jobs 15 percent longer, by the way. Why? It's not a technical advantage. The four browser groups on average have similar typing speed and they also have similar levels of computer knowledge. It's about how you got the browser. Because if you use Internet Explorer or Safari, those came preinstalled on your computer, and you accepted the default option that was handed to you. If you wanted Firefox or Chrome, you had to doubt the default and ask, is there a different option out there, and then be a little resourceful and download a new browser. So people hear about this study and they're like, "Great, if I want to get better at my job, I just need to upgrade my browser?"
另外，他們工作的時間 也多出了百分之十五。 為什麼？這不是因為技術上的優勢。 四個瀏覽器用戶的平均 打字速度都近乎相同， 他們的電腦知識水平也是相同。 這和你如何得到你的瀏覽器有關。 因為如果你用IE或Safari瀏覽器， 它們可能提前就安裝在你的電腦裡了， 然後你接受了初始設定， 如果你想用火狐或谷歌瀏覽器， 你不得不對初始設定產生懷疑。 然後問，有其他的選項嗎。 然後你會變得有點鬼靈精怪， 接著又下載了一個新的瀏覽器。 所以，當人們聽到這個研究後，他們說： 「太好了，如果我想在工作中做的更好 我只需要升級我的瀏覽器就好了？」
(Laughter)
No, it's about being the kind of person who takes the initiative to doubt the default and look for a better option. And if you do that well, you will open yourself up to the opposite of déjà vu. There's a name for it. It's called vuja de.
不，這跟你是不是一種 一開始就懷疑初始設定， 並尋找更好選擇的人有關。 如果你能做好這件事。 你將會把自己置於 「似曾相似」的對立面。 它有一個名字 叫做vuja de（原詞déjà vu）
(Laughter)
Vuja de is when you look at something you've seen many times before and all of a sudden see it with fresh eyes. It's a screenwriter who looks at a movie script that can't get the green light for more than half a century. In every past version, the main character has been an evil queen. But Jennifer Lee starts to question whether that makes sense. She rewrites the first act, reinvents the villain as a tortured hero and Frozen becomes the most successful animated movie ever. So there's a simple message from this story. When you feel doubt, don't let it go.
Vuja de是指，當你在看一個 你之前看過很多次東西的時候， 突然對它產生全新體悟。 有一個編劇， 看著半個多世紀都沒被 審核通過的電影劇本。 在過去的所有版本中， 主角都是一位邪惡的女王。 但 Jennifer Lee開始質疑 這是否合理。 她重寫了第一幕， 將一個壞蛋重塑成了 受盡折磨的英雄， 然後「冰雪奇緣」變成了 史上最成功的動畫電影。 這個故事中有一個簡單的信息： 當你感到困惑的時候，不能就這樣算了。
(Laughter)
What about fear? Originals feel fear, too. They're afraid of failing, but what sets them apart from the rest of us is that they're even more afraid of failing to try. They know you can fail by starting a business that goes bankrupt or by failing to start a business at all. They know that in the long run, our biggest regrets are not our actions but our inactions. The things we wish we could redo, if you look at the science, are the chances not taken.
恐懼又怎麼處理呢？ 原創者也會感到恐懼， 他們害怕失敗。 但是把他們與我們 其他人不同的地方是， 他們更加害怕沒有嘗試過。 他們知道，你做事業 可能會因為破產而失敗， 或是打從一開始就失敗。 他們知道，長遠來看， 我們最大的遺憾往往不是因為我們行動了， 而是因為我們沒有行動。 那些我們渴望重新去做的事， 如果你看一下科學界， 有那些是沒有把握機會的。
Elon Musk told me recently, he didn't expect Tesla to succeed. He was sure the first few SpaceX launches would fail to make it to orbit, let alone get back, but it was too important not to try. And for so many of us, when we have an important idea, we don't bother to try. But I have some good news for you. You are not going to get judged on your bad ideas. A lot of people think they will. If you look across industries and ask people about their biggest idea, their most important suggestion, 85 percent of them stayed silent instead of speaking up. They were afraid of embarrassing themselves, of looking stupid. But guess what? Originals have lots and lots of bad ideas, tons of them, in fact. Take the guy who invented this. Do you care that he came up with a talking doll so creepy that it scared not only kids but adults, too? No. You celebrate Thomas Edison for pioneering the light bulb.
伊隆．馬斯克最近告訴我， 他沒想到特斯拉會成功， 他確認一開始的幾個SpaceX發射計劃， 不會進入正確的軌道，更不用說回收。 但是這個計劃太重要了，不嘗試不行。 對於我們絕大多數人來說， 當我們有了一個重要的想法，我們會不厭其煩的嘗試它。 但我要告訴各位一些好消息， 你將不會再去審視你的糟糕想法。 但大多數的人以為他們會這樣做。 如果你跑遍產業界， 去詢問他們最偉大的想法 和他們最重要的建議。 百分之八十五的人都會選擇沉默， 而非滔滔不絕。 他們害怕使自己陷入 看上去很蠢的尷尬。 但是你猜怎麼著？ 原創者有著大量的糟糕想法。 實際上一大堆啊！ 就拿發明這個東西的傢伙舉例。 你會去在意，他發明了一個不僅嚇到小孩， 連大人也都被嚇到的驚悚說話娃娃嗎？ 不！你會為愛迪生發明了燈泡而歡呼。
(Laughter)
If you look across fields, the greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most. Take classical composers, the best of the best. Why do some of them get more pages in encyclopedias than others and also have their compositions rerecorded more times? One of the best predictors is the sheer volume of compositions that they generate. The more output you churn out, the more variety you get and the better your chances of stumbling on something truly original. Even the three icons of classical music -- Bach, Beethoven, Mozart -- had to generate hundreds and hundreds of compositions to come up with a much smaller number of masterpieces. Now, you may be wondering, how did this guy become great without doing a whole lot? I don't know how Wagner pulled that off. But for most of us, if we want to be more original, we have to generate more ideas.
如果你去看不同的領域， 最偉大的原創者， 往往是那些失敗最多的人。 因為他們是嘗試最多的人。 就拿古典作曲家來說， 他們是精英中的精英。 為什麼他們中有一些人， 能在百科全書中，占到比別人更多的頁面， 他們的歌曲為什麼能 多次的被錄製出來呢？ 其中一個最好的猜測是， 他們創作出很多首曲子。 你越積極的去創作， 你得到的變化也就越多， 也更有機會找出一個真正好聽的原創歌曲。 就算是古典樂界的泰斗 「巴赫貝多芬，莫扎特」 為了創作出幾部音樂傑作， 也得寫出成百上千的曲子才行。 現在，你可能想知道， 為何這些人幾乎不做任何努力， 就變得如此優秀呢? 我不知道 Wanger 是怎麼做到的。 對於我們絕大多數人來說， 如果想要變得更加原創。 我們必須想出更多的點子。
The Warby Parker founders, when they were trying to name their company, they needed something sophisticated, unique, with no negative associations to build a retail brand, and they tested over 2,000 possibilities before they finally put together Warby and Parker. So if you put all this together, what you see is that originals are not that different from the rest of us. They feel fear and doubt. They procrastinate. They have bad ideas. And sometimes, it's not in spite of those qualities but because of them that they succeed.
Warby Parker的創立者, 在給他們公司命名的時候， 他們需要一個精緻、獨特 又沒有負面含義的零售品牌。 在他們嘗試了兩千多種可能後， 最後他們把 Warby 和 Parker兩個結合起來， 成為了他們的品牌。 如果你把這些事放在一起看， 你會看到原創者和我們其他人 其實沒什麼兩樣。 他們也會恐懼和疑惑。 他們會拖延。 他們有糟糕的主意。 有時候並不是因為 他們沒有這些缺點， 而是因為他們本身 使得他們成功。
So when you see those things, don't make the same mistake I did. Don't write them off. And when that's you, don't count yourself out either. Know that being quick to start but slow to finish can boost your creativity, that you can motivate yourself by doubting your ideas and embracing the fear of failing to try, and that you need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.
所以當你看到這樣的人的時候， 不要和我犯同一個錯誤。 不要放棄他們。 如果這個人是你， 你也不要一開始就認輸， 你要知道，快速開始，慢慢結束， 可以增進你的創造力， 你也可以用自疑的方式去激勵自己， 並擁抱嘗試失敗的恐懼。 然後，你需要很多爛點子 去激發出一些好點子出來。
Look, being original is not easy, but I have no doubt about this: it's the best way to improve the world around us.
你看，要有原創性並不簡單， 但我對此深信不疑： 這是我們改變世界最好的方法。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)