Be Patient
Be Patient
One thing I figured out later in life is generally (at least in the tech business in Silicon Valley), great people have great outcomes. You just have to be patient. Every person I met at the beginning of my career twenty years ago, where I looked at them and said, “Wow, that guy or gal is super capable—so smart and dedicated”…all of them, almost without exception became extremely successful. You just had to give them a long enough timescale. It never happens in the timescale you want, or they want, but it does happen. [4]
Apply specific knowledge with leverage and eventually, you will get what you deserve.
It takes time—even once you have all of these pieces in place, there is an indeterminate amount of time you have to put in. If you’re counting, you’ll run out of patience before success actually arrives.
Everybody wants to get rich immediately, but the world is an efficient place; immediate doesn’t work. You do have to put in the time. You do have to put in the hours, and so I think you have to put yourself in the position with the specific knowledge, with accountability, with leverage, with the authentic skill set you have, to be the best in the world at what you do.
You have to enjoy it and keep doing it, keep doing it, and keep doing it. Don’t keep track, and don’t keep count because if you do, you will run out of time. [78]
The most common bad advice I hear is: “You’re too young.” Most of history was built by young people. They just got credit when they were older. The only way to truly learn something is by doing it. Yes, listen to guidance. But don’t wait. [3]
People are oddly consistent. Karma is just you, repeating your patterns, virtues, and flaws until you finally get what you deserve.
Always pay it forward. And don’t keep count.
This is not to say it’s easy. It’s not easy. It’s actually really freaking hard. It is the hardest thing you will do. But it’s also rewarding. Look at the kids who are born rich—they have no meaning to their lives.
Your real résumé is just a catalog of all your suffering. If I ask you to describe your real life to yourself, and you look back from your deathbed at the interesting things you’ve done, it’s all going to be around the sacrifices you made, the hard things you did.
However, anything you’re given doesn’t matter. You have your four limbs, your brain, your head, your skin—that’s all for granted. You have to do hard things anyway to create your own meaning in life. Making money is a fine thing to choose. Go struggle. It is hard. I’m not going to say it’s easy. It’s really hard, but the tools are all available. It’s all out there. [77]
Money buys you freedom in the material world. It’s not going to make you happy, it’s not going to solve your health problems, it’s not going to make your family great, it’s not going to make you fit, it’s not going to make you calm. But it will solve a lot of external problems. It’s a reasonable step to go ahead and make money. [10]
What making money will do is solve your money problems. It will remove a set of things that could get in the way of being happy, but it is not going to make you happy. I know many very wealthy people who are unhappy. Most of the time, the person you have to become to make money is a high-anxiety, high-stress, hard-working, competitive person. When you have done that for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, and you suddenly make money, you can’t turn it off. You’ve trained yourself to be a high-anxiety person. Then, you have to learn how to be happy. [11]
Let’s get you rich first. I’m very practical about it because, you know, Buddha was a prince. He started off really rich, then he got to go off in the woods.
In the old days, if you wanted to be peaceful inside, you would become a monk. You would give up everything, renounce sex, children, money, politics, science, technology, everything, and you would go out in the woods by yourself. You had to give everything up to be free inside.
Today, with this wonderful invention called money, you can store it in a bank account. You can you work really hard, do great things for society, and society will give you money for things it wants but doesn’t know how to get. You can save money, you can live a little below your means, and you can find a certain freedom.
That will give you the time and the energy to pursue your own internal peace and happiness. I believe the solution to making everybody happy is to give them what they want.
Let’s get them all rich.
Let’s get them all fit and healthy.
Then, let’s get them all happy. [77]
Amazing how many people confuse wealth and wisdom.
耐心等待
有件事我是后来才明白的，一般来说（至少在硅谷的科技行业），伟大的人最终会有伟大的成就。你只需要有足够的耐心。我在二十年前刚入职场时遇到的每一个人，那些我看着他们说：“哇，这个男孩或女孩真是太能干了——如此聪明、如此投入”的人……几乎无一例外，所有这些人最后都非常成功。你只需要给他们足够长的时间。这从不会在你想要的时间尺度上发生，也不会在他们想要的时间内实现，但它最终一定会发生。[4]
运用特定的知识和杠杆，最终，你会得到你应得的。
这需要时间——即使你已经拥有了所有这些要素，你仍需要投入不确定的时间。如果你去计算，你会在成功真正到来之前失去耐心。
每个人都想立刻变得富有，但这个世界是一个有效率的地方；立刻变得富有行不通。你确实需要投入时间，你确实需要付出努力，所以我认为你必须让自己处在合适的位置，拥有特定的知识、责任感、杠杆以及你独特的技能，成为你所做的事情中世界上最好的那个人。
你必须享受这一过程，继续做下去，继续做下去，继续做下去。不要计数，不要算时间，因为如果你这样做，你就会耗尽时间。[78]
我听到的最常见的糟糕建议是：“你太年轻了。”历史上大多数成就都是年轻人创造的，他们只是到老了才获得认可。真正学会一件事情的唯一方式是去做它。是的，听取指导意见，但不要等待。[3]
人们在某种程度上都是一致的。业力就是你在不断重复自己的模式、美德和缺陷，直到你最终得到你应得的。
永远给予他人，不要计算回报。
这并不是说这很容易。这不容易。这实际上非常难。它是你将要做的最困难的事情。但它也是值得的。看看那些生来富有的孩子——他们的生活没有意义。
你真正的简历只是你所有痛苦的目录。如果我让你向自己描述你真正的人生，而你从临终之时回顾你所做的有趣的事情，这些事情全都围绕你做出的牺牲和你完成的艰难挑战。
然而，任何你被给予的东西都不重要。你有四肢、大脑、头颅、皮肤——这些都是理所当然的。你无论如何都要做艰难的事情来创造你自己生活的意义。赚钱是个不错的选择。去奋斗吧。这很难，我不会说这很容易。真的很难，但工具都在那儿，所有的一切都可以获取。[77]
金钱能为你在物质世界中买来自由。它不会让你快乐，它不会解决你的健康问题，它不会让你的家庭变得和谐美好，它不会让你变得健美，它也不会让你内心平静。但它能解决很多外部问题。赚钱是个合理的选择。[10]
赚钱能做的是解决你的财务问题。它会消除一系列可能妨碍你快乐的因素，但它并不会让你快乐。我认识许多非常富有但不快乐的人。大多数时候，你为了赚钱而成为的那个人，是一个高焦虑、高压力、勤奋且竞争激烈的人。当你这样做了二十、三十、四十、五十年，然后突然赚到钱，你无法一下子停下来。你已经把自己训练成了一个高焦虑的人。然后，你还需要学习如何快乐。[11]
让我们先让你富有。我对此很实在，因为你知道，佛陀曾是个王子。他一开始真的很富有，然后他才得以去森林里寻求解脱。
在过去，如果你想要内心平静，你就得成为一个僧人。你得放弃一切，放弃性、子女、金钱、政治、科学、技术，一切，独自到森林里去。你得放弃一切才能在内心获得自由。
如今，随着金钱这种美妙的发明，你可以把钱存到银行账户里。你可以非常努力地工作，为社会做出伟大的事情，社会会给你金钱去换取它想要但不知道如何获得的东西。你可以存钱，你可以过得稍微低于你的收入水平，你可以找到一定的自由。
这会给你时间和精力去追求内心的平静与幸福。我相信让每个人都快乐的解决方案是给他们他们想要的东西。
让我们让所有人都变得富有。
让我们让所有人都变得健康。
然后，让我们让所有人都幸福。[77]
令人惊讶的是，有多少人把财富和智慧混为一谈。