贏之道 高爾夫球比賽帶給創業者的五點啓示

According to professional golfer Phil Mickelson, choosing the right club for the situation is the first step if you’re going to be successful at any point. If you choose the wrong club you will miss your mark, no matter how well you swing. Also, the club that is right for a particular shot will change depending on the player’s ability.

職業高爾夫球手菲爾o米克爾森認爲，根據不同的情況選擇合適的球杆，是比賽成功的第一步。選錯球杆就可能丟分，不論你的揮杆多麼完美。但適合特殊擊球點的球杆的使用效果，也會因球手的能力不同而有所變化。

The same is true in business. To succeed, you need to choose the right tool for the situation. That tool may be a particular hire that you make or what software you use. The tool that is right for your business in a particular situation can be different from what is right for another business in a similar situation. If you look at the game of golf long enough, you start seeing ways it can inform your entrepreneurial career. Here are five of those lessons.

創業同樣如此。要取得成功，你需要根據具體情況選擇合適的工具。這些工具可能是你聘用的某位員工或者你使用的某款軟件。處在類似情況下的兩家公司，適合它們的工具也會有所不同。如果你經常觀看高爾夫球比賽，你可以從中找到許多可以指導創業的信息。以下是高爾夫球比賽帶給我們的五點教益：

1. It’s harder than you thought, and that’s OK.

1. 創業要比你想象的更難，但這沒什麼大不了的。

Entrepreneurs often begin their businesses with a fair degree of inexperience, not realizing that running your own business is hard. We often look at the pros (in golf and in business), and most of the time they make it look easy. It’s not. It just takes time, patience, and practice. All you have to do is spend five minutes at a driving range to find that out. It is exceedingly rare to find the athlete or business leader who reached great success without years of painstaking, often repetitive, honing of skills. Much of this hard work is done without glory or praise. The entrepreneur goes through it all for the long-term goals he or she envisioned at the beginning and along the way.

一開始，創業者往往經驗不足，並不知道經營一家公司是多麼困難。我們常常以職業選手（高爾夫球賽和商界）爲榜樣，在大多數時間內，他們似乎總能遊刃有餘地完成手頭的工作。但事實並非如此。創業需要時間、耐心和練習。你只要在練習場呆上五分鐘就會明白。幾乎所有高爾夫球手或商界領袖在取得非凡成功之前，都經歷過數年的艱辛，日復一日地磨練自己的技能。你在付出這些努力的時候，沒有人給你榮耀或讚揚。爲了實現在創業之初和創業過程中設想的長期目標，創業者必須經歷這一切。

2. Have a strategy.

2. 制定一項策略。

If you watch a professional golf tournament, you’ll hear commentary about the players or their caddies walking the course before they play a round. Many of history’s greatest players, like Jack Nicklaus, did this to get the layout of the course, know the hole positions and discover any potential problems. After doing this, top players will go back and develop a strategy for how they will attack the course. Often times, players will have a strategy for how they play each and every hole. The same is true when running your own business. You should strongly consider building strategies for individual projects, your first year, three years, five years, and beyond.

如果你看過職業高爾夫球賽，你肯定聽解說員講過球員或他們的球童在開始一局比賽之前，總會沿着球場走一遍。許多歷史上最偉大的高爾夫球手，比如傑克o尼克勞斯，都是通過這種方式來了解球場的佈局，確定球洞的位置，發現潛在的問題。之後，優秀的球手會回到起點制定比賽策略。高爾夫球手通常會制定每一個球洞的擊球策略。運營公司同樣如此。你應該認真考慮制定具體項目的策略、一年、三年、五年甚至更長時間的策略。

Consider Apple’s iPad Air strategy. The iPad Air sells for $499 and costs $274 to make. Some competing tablets sell for close to $200 less. Still, Apple is able to sell its tablet for these premiums because of the multiple ways company marketing has differentiated this product from competitors. These selling points are almost universally famous now. They include design, software and usability, among others. The point is, company strategists created plans for different stages of products and executed them, obviously highly effectively in this case.

以蘋果公司爲iPad Air制定的策略爲例。iPad Air的售價爲499美元，生產成本爲274美元。其他競爭對手的平板設備基本上都低於200美元。但由於蘋果通過多種營銷途徑，將其產品與競爭對手區分開來，因此其平板電腦依舊可以賣出高價。這些賣點現在已經家喻戶曉，比如設計、軟件和易用性等。重點在於，蘋果公司的戰略家們制定了產品不同階段的計劃，並極其高效地執行了這些策略。

3. Do the job you’re meant to do.

3. 做自己應該做的事情。

Do you ever see Tiger Woods or Rory McDonald carry their golf bag? You won’t, at least not during a professional tournament. Why not? It’s not the job they’re suppose to be doing. They need to focus on finishing the course in fewer strokes than anyone else. Many caddies are also very accomplished golfers, but their best contribution to the duo is carrying the bag and helping the professionals talk through difficult shots. For every business owner, you need to have people surrounding you that help you function at your highest level. Even solo-preneurs can outsource tasks that would free up their time to do more productive things for their business. If you’re CEO of a startup, you shouldn’t be tasked with organizing when and how the food delivery service brings meals for employees during the week. Delegate, and trust the employees you’ve hired to deliver in the areas they’ve been hired for.

你見過老虎伍茲或者羅伊o麥克唐納自己拿高爾夫球袋嗎？肯定沒有，至少不會在職業比賽期間。爲什麼？因爲這不是他們應該做的工作。他們需要專注於自己的目標：以更少的杆數完成比賽。許多球童也是非常熟練的高爾夫球手，但在兩個人的關係當中，他最大的貢獻便是拿着高爾夫球袋，幫助職業選手做出高難度擊球的決策。對於創業者來說，你應該在身邊招募一批能讓你以最高水平履行自己職責的人。單槍匹馬的創業者也可以將工作外包，讓自己有時間做一些對公司利害攸關的工作。如果你是一家初創公司的CEO，你不應該再爲外賣什麼時候給員工送餐這種事費心。委派和信任你聘用的員工，讓他們各司其職，做好自己應該做的工作。

4. Count on adversity.

4. 直面逆境。

I doubt any golfer would tell you that they’ve ever played a perfect round. Time and time again, I hear golfers say that the best you can hope for is a round with the “fewest mistakes.” Even the best rounds usually have one or two shots that put players in a difficult spot. The key is to stay focused and not let one or two bad shots color the ones that come after. If you are running your own business, there will be some surprises that take you off guard and have a negative impact on you. The important thing to remember is that you must stay focused on where you need to go (the goal/the hole), and don’t let a bad break here or there take you mentally out of the game.

我想沒有幾位高爾夫球手會告訴你，他們打出過完美的比賽。我經常聽到高爾夫球手們說，你只能期待“錯誤最少”的一局比賽。即便最出色的比賽，通常也會有一兩次擊球讓球手陷於困難的境地。關鍵是要保持專注，不要讓一兩次壞的擊球毀掉後面的比賽。如果你是創業者，你會遇到許多意外，這些意外會對你產生負面影響。重要的是要記住，你必須專注於自己的方向（目標/球洞），不要因爲一次失誤便失魂落魄，無心比賽。

Consider the example of Jennifer Scully, owner of Discount Designer Furnishings. She went from being broke and homeless to owning a business that makes over $300,000 a year. Like her, you may need to adapt, or even stretch your abilities, but you have to keep your eye on the goal and avoid letting emotion negatively affect you.

傢俱零售商Discount Designer Furnishings的老闆珍妮弗o史考利，曾經淪落到破產和無家可歸的境地，但後來卻擁有了一家年收入30萬美元的公司。與她一樣，你可能需要改造或者拓展自己的能力，但你必須始終專注於目標，避免讓負面情緒影響你。

5. Even if you start slow, finish strong.

5. 開局慢熱沒關係，強勢收尾才重要。

Many business owners, especially entrepreneurs, get down on themselves if they don’t start out “on fire.” Doubts fill their minds and they may question themselves and their decisions. In golf, you have the front nine and back nine — 18 holes. Avid golf fans and the pros themselves will tell you that championships are often decided on the back nine. Many players start off shaky, but they find their rhythm after a few holes. Then they continue to build that momentum all the way through the end.

許多公司所有人，尤其是創業者，一旦一開始沒有“火起來”便會自暴自棄。他們腦海裏充滿了質疑的聲音，他們可能會懷疑自己和他們的決定。高爾夫比賽共有18洞——分爲前九洞和後九洞。熱心的球迷和職業選手會告訴你，冠軍通常在後九洞決出的。許多球手開局並不順利，但經過幾杆之後，他們慢慢找到了比賽節奏。之後他們會保持這種勢頭，直到比賽結束。

Being a business owner is tough, but just because the beginning may not go smoothly, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have a strong run ahead of you. Don’t truly start to question yourself until you’ve had many weeks or months of refining business operations. If your daily work just isn’t resulting in the success or profit you’d hoped for, make changes to your productor to how you do things. Stay in the game and find a way to finish strong.

創業難，但一開始的不順暢並不意味着未來不會持續走強。在堅持數週或數月完善公司運營之前，不要質疑自己。如果你每天的工作沒有帶來你所希望的成功或利潤，可以對你的產品或經營方式做一些改變。生存下去，尋找正確的發展途徑，並取得最終勝利。