Regret can be a terrible addiction. Those who suffer from it so often become bitter and full of self-pity.

后悔是一件很可怕的东西, 它会让人上瘾. 那些经常感到后悔的人会变得更加悲天悯人, 自顾自怜.

It is an emotion that serious entrepreneurs cannot afford: they must keep pressing onwards and should not look back with remorse, dwelling on errors of long ago.

而对于企业家来说, 他们绝对不可以对 “后悔” 这种情绪上瘾. 他们必须时刻坚持前进, 不能总是回望很久以前犯下的错误而懊悔自责.

As Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, said: “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Entrepreneurs must learn to manage the conflict between constant experimentation – which means lots of painful mistakes – and a fear of failure, which can lead to paralysis.

正如电话机的发明者亚历山大?格拉汉姆?贝尔所言, “当人生的一扇门关闭了, 总会有另一扇门为你打开; 然而, 我们却经常久久地回顾那扇关闭了的门, 懊悔不已, 却没有看到那扇为我们打开的门.” 企业家必须学会如何平衡各种不断的尝试和害怕失败的心理之间的矛盾. 这些尝试可能意味着许多痛苦的失误, 而害怕失败的心理则可能导致你停滞不前.

Likewise, past glory can be a killer. For example, Greg Dyke, who is a clever fellow, still harks back too much to his resignation as director-general of the BBC. He should move on and stop moaning about the injustice of it all.

同样的, 过去的荣耀也可能是毁灭你的杀手. 比如说, 格里格?戴克, 一个头脑聪明的人, 至今仍然对他当初辞去BBC总裁一职耿耿于怀. 他应该立即停止抱怨所有的不公, 继续前进.

And Tim Waterstone should give up trying to buy back his bookshop chain, which he finally left more than 10 years ago (after selling it once and then getting involved again). He has tried to repurchase it at least five times, if rumour is to be believed. Possibly the root of the problem is that he exaggerates the chain’s importance, once saying: “Waterstone’s does more for the day-to-day cultural life of the nation than perhaps anything or anyone else.”

而蒂姆?沃特斯通, 既然十年前已经决定离开他的连锁书店了, 现在就应该放弃试图回购连锁书店的计划(他曾经将书店出售, 后来又买回来). 如果传言属实的话, 他曾经至少五次试图将它买回来. 问题的根源可能是, 他过于高估书店的价值. 他曾说, “Waterstone’s 在本国日常文化生活层面上所做的贡献是任何东西和任何人都不能比拟的.”

No doubt I suffered from a similar delusion in taking over Borders bookshops. But such thoughts were never true, and are even less so now, in the age of e-books and Amazon. Admittedly, I did try to buy back PizzaExpress once, but that was different – it would have been a sound financial deal.

同样并不稀奇的是, 在接管Borders书店时, 我也有类似的错觉. 然而, 这样的感觉从来都是错误的, 而在当今的电子书和亚马逊普及的时代, 这种感觉就更加错误了. 无可置否, 我也曾经试图回购 PizzaExpress, 然而那时的情况不同, 那次的回购可能是一次明智的金融交易.

And who doesn’t have a tale of the one that got away? I remember David Dein, my predecessor as chairman of the charity Stage One, telling a wonderfully self-deprecating anecdote of his initial activities as a theatrical angel. Mr Dein, who has made a fortune investing in Arsenal football club, backed some early shows from a promising young producer called Cameron Mackintosh, and they unfortunately lost money. Finally, the apprentice impresario approached him about supporting an idea to put some of T.S.?Eliot’s poems to music, on stage. Not unreasonably, Mr Dein turned it down. It became, of course, Cats, one of the most successful productions of all time, and helped make Mr Mackintosh a very rich man indeed.

然而, 谁不曾中此类的招数呢? 我记得在我之前担任慈善机构Stage One董事长的大卫?德恩曾经自嘲般地讲过他的一件轶事, 这件事与他刚开始担任戏剧赞助人的经历有关. 德恩先生曾经投资阿森纳足球俱乐部并获得可观的利润. 后来他赞助一位颇有潜力的年轻制片人卡梅伦?麦金托什的一些早期剧目, 然而不幸的是, 这是一笔亏本买卖. 最后, 那位学徒式的剧场经理希望德恩可以支持他将T?S?艾略特的部分诗歌改编成音乐剧搬上舞台. 而德恩拒绝了他的请求, 这一切看起来也确实合情合理. 这时你应该猜到, 这后来成为了史上最成功的音乐剧之一, <<猫>>. 它成功地让麦金托什变成一个非常富有的人.

One of my experiences in that vein was Transform, a leading cosmetic surgery company. It was a highly profitable undertaking, serving a booming market, and I believed the acquisition would be a real winner. I spent many weeks negotiating a deal, but then got slightly cold feet at the last minute, and fell out with the vendor over a relatively trivial sum. He immediately turned round and sold it to those astute fellows at Phoenix private equity. Inevitably, they proceeded to make a rapid fortune.

我也有类似的经历, 那是在一家叫Transform的领先美容整形公司里. 这家公司营利情况非常好, 市场需求大, 因此我相信收购这家公司是一个明智的选择. 我花了好多周的时间谈判这笔交易, 但是在最后一刻却有点动摇了, 最后因为一笔非常小的金额上与出售方发生分歧而使交易告吹. 出售方立即把公司转卖给私人股本公司Phoenix的那帮精明的家伙. 结局不用说, 这些人迅速地赚取了可观的利润.

At least my mistake wasn’t as expensive as George Bell’s. He was the former documentary film-maker hired in 1996 to run Excite, the dotcom darling, which achieved a market capitalisation of $35bn at its peak. Three years later, the founders of Google decided that their search business was interfering with their studies and tried to sell it to a number of buyers, including Mr Bell, for just $750,000. He turned it down flat. Excite subsequently went bankrupt, while Google is now worth $170bn.

然而, 至少, 我的失误不及乔治?贝尔的失误付出的代价高. 他曾经是纪录片制片人, 1996年被Excite雇用. 该公司最高实现了350亿美元的市值. 三年后, 谷歌的创使人认为, 他们的搜索业务干扰到了他们的研究, 试图用区区75万美元向众多的买家出售, 包括贝尔. 然而贝尔直接拒绝了. Excite后来破产了, 而谷歌现在的市值高达1700亿美元.

And it would be hard not to feel some sympathy for James Monaghan. In 1960, he teamed up with his brother Tom in the purchase of a single pizza restaurant in Michigan for $500. But later that year, he decided to go travelling, and so sold his 50 per cent share in the business to his brother in exchange for a used Volkswagen Beetle. A few years later, the company changed its name to Domino’s Pizza, and in 1998 was sold for about $1bn.

同样的, 我们也难免会为詹姆斯?莫纳汗感到可惜. 1960年, 他和他的兄弟汤姆合作, 用500美元在密歇根买下了一间比萨餐厅. 后来, 也就在那一年, 他决定去旅行, 于是将自己百分之五十的股份卖给了他的兄弟, 换取一辆二手的大众甲壳虫汽车. 几年以后, 那家比萨餐厅改名为达美乐比萨餐厅. 1998年, 达美乐比萨餐厅以约10亿美元的价格出售.

By all means treasure experience, and learn from your blunders. But don’t wallow in nostalgia, pining for what might have been. Rather, go ahead and seize the day no matter what. I have little time for those who say: I wish I had started my own business. My only response is: so do it now.

前车可鉴, 我们一定要从经验和失误中吸取教训. 但是切不可以过分沉浸在过去的伤怀中而于可能的结果念念不忘. 相反, 你应该勇往直前, 抓住一切可能的机会. 我没有空去理会那些只会说 “我要早点创业就好了”. 如果有人对我说这句话, 我会对他说: 现在就去做吧!

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