#427 雷蒙德·普兰克如何打造了一家500亿美元的石油公司

人类心智的学习和成长潜力，远远超出了我年轻时认为可能的范围。

The capacity of the human mind for learning and personal growth greatly exceeds that which I would have deemed plausible in my early years.

这本回忆录的目的是打开我生活的窗户，希望读者能从中找到一些有用的部分，更充分地发挥自己的能力，为自己和他人实现有价值的目标，我坚信幸福和理解能提升人的精神，为充实而幸福的生活奠定基础。

The purpose of this memoir is to open the window of my life in the hope that readers may find parts useful in achieving a fuller measure of their own capacities, to attain worthy goals on behalf of self and others, in the certain belief that happiness and understanding uplift the human spirit, contributing to the base for a full and happy life.

如今我已年届九十，回望自己的一生。

I look back to the years of my life from the vantage point of now being in my ninetieth year.

我回首过去，是为了看清未来。

I look back in order to see forward.

后见之明让我领悟到一些个人一生中重要的学习经验，这些经验或许对他人有用，尤其是对那些渴望超越自我、追求更大共同利益、拓展我们被赋予的非凡个人能力的人。

Hindsight informed me of several primary individual lifetime learnings which might be useful to others, especially those who desire to expand the remarkable individual capacities granted us when we seek beyond self the greater common good.

我的价值观受到几个基石的影响。

My values have been influenced by a few cornerstones.

首先，大概在我十岁的时候，有一次和父亲散步，他松开我的手，搂着我的肩膀说：“儿子，我一生中发现，努力为他人带来一点点微小的改变，是非常有用的。”

First, at perhaps the age of 10, when I was on a walk with my dad, he dropped my hand, put his arm around my shoulder and noted, Son, over my life I've found it very useful to try to make a very small difference on behalf of others.

他最后说：“妈妈会叫我们吃晚饭了，该回去了。”

He concluded with, Mother will be calling us to dinner, time to get back.

我们之后再也没聊过这个话题，但直到现在，将近八十年过去了，它依然鲜活地、时不时地浮现在我脑海里。

We never again discussed the topic, still fresh and off recurring in my mind now, nearly eighty years later.

第二个基石，是我母亲在我十五岁、她四十七岁去世前不久写的一张明信片。

The second cornerstone was that of this postcard that my mother had written just prior to her death at age 47 when I was just 15 years old.

她写道：我的儿子，你陪伴我的这十五年，是我生命中最美好的时光。

She wrote: My son, the fifteen years of my life which you have shared have been such glorious ones.

我多么珍惜它们！

How I have loved them!

你如此善良、无私。

You are so fine and unselfish.

你给了我那么多的爱和体贴。

You have given me such love and consideration.

没有什么快乐能比得上和你在一起的时光。

I have known no joy which could equal that of your companionship.

我对你的骄傲会一直延续下去，只要你昂首挺胸，保持勇气和信念。

My pride in you will go on through the years if you keep your head up and your courage and faith high.

母亲是在一次常规的阑尾切除术后，因脑部血栓去世的。就在我准备开车送父亲去医院接她回家的几个小时前，她走了。

Mother died of a blood clot to the brain following a routine appendectomy only hours before I was to drive my father to the hospital and bring her home.

那张明信片是她去世前几天写的。

She wrote that postcard a few days before she died.

现在回想起来，我才明白，这些基石对我后来的职业道路影响很大。

With the clarity of hindsight, I see that these cornerstones had much to do with the career path that I pursued.

我选择了自己创业，而不是去大公司上班。

I chose to be self employed rather than working for a large company.

我想做一个小一点、风险高一点的项目。

I wanted a smaller, riskier initiative.

阿帕奇公司起步时规模很小，1954年创立时只有25万美元。

Apache Corporation had a very modest beginning, founded with just $250,000 in 1954.

到了2008年年中，那25万美元已经变成了500亿美元。

By mid two thousand eight, that $250,000 had become 50,000,000,000.

西奥多·罗斯福曾说过：与其碌碌无为地活一辈子，不如轰轰烈烈地活上一小时。

Teddy Roosevelt once opined, It is better to have lived one hour of glorious strife than never to have lived at all.

你来评判吧。

You be the judge.

故事开始了。

Let the tale begin.

以上是我今天要聊的这本书《一点不同》的引言，作者是雷蒙德·普兰克。

So that was from the introduction from the book I want to talk about today, which is A Small Difference, and it was written by Raymond Plank.

这本书非常特别。

So this is a very unusual book.

首先，它读起来像日记——我马上会讲到，这个人连续六十年每天写日记。

First of all, it reads like a diary, and I'll get to that in one second, the fact that this guy kept a daily diary for sixty years.

我想说的是，最吸引人的地方在于，我原本打算讲阿帕奇公司的故事，但当我翻看过去几天的笔记和重点时，我突然意识到：你知道吗？

What I wanna do, what's so fascinating about this is, originally, I was gonna tell the story of Apache Corporation, but when I was going through all my notes and highlights for the past few days, I was like, know what?

真正有意思的是，他已经90岁了。

What's actually interesting is the fact that he's 90 years old.

这本书里浓缩了他七十年的创业经历。

He has seven decades of entrepreneurial experience in this book.

我觉得最有趣的不是他创办的那家公司的历史，而是他积累了一大堆想法、格言、说法和信念，基本上就是在宣扬他的人生哲学，读这本书就像在读一本日记。

And what I found most interesting is not the company history of the company he founded, but essentially he has like all these ideas and maxims and basically sayings and beliefs that he's accumulated, and essentially just extols his philosophy, almost like you're reading a diary in this book.

所以他讲到了自己从小就有的那种天生的创业倾向。

And so he goes into this natural entrepreneurial bent that he had when he was a child.

他在农场长大。

He's growing up on a farm.

他说农场生活和责任是强烈职业道德的体现。

He says farm life and responsibilities were the outcropping of a strong work ethic.

生活是有条理的，特权是挣来的，而不是理所当然的。

Life was structured and privileges were earned rather than assumed.

他最早做的生意之一就是卖鸡蛋。

And so one of the first businesses he had was selling eggs.

卖鸡蛋让我早期积累了一些营销和销售经验。

Selling eggs gave me some early marketing and sales experience.

我多么幸运能在乡下长大，懂得自给自足和创新是通往独立的基石。

How fortunate I was to grow up in the country and comprehend self sufficiency and innovation as building blocks towards independence.

所以我觉得他大概十岁或十二岁就开始卖鸡蛋了。

So I think he's like 10 or 12 when he starts that egg selling business.

他说，到了高中，我就开始用手锯砍树——那时候还没有电锯——然后堆起来、卖掉、储存木柴。

He says, by high school, I was sawing down trees and with a physical saw, there's no power saws back then, stacking, selling, storing firewood.

然后在他砍树的时候，他发现了另一个相关的机会，他想，哦，有些树会流树汁。

And then as he's sawing down trees, he sees another adjacent opportunity where he's like, oh, some of these trees produce sap.

我们应该把树汁提取出来，煮一煮，浓缩成几加仑的糖浆，然后也拿去卖。

We should actually extract the sap from the trees, boil that boil them down, and then make gallons of syrup, and then sell that as well.

所以等他上高中的时候，他的糖浆生意已经做得风生水起，同时还在养鸡卖鸡蛋。

And so by the time he's in high school, he's got this thriving syrup business, and he's raising chickens and selling eggs.

他把这些产品卖给他家附近的明尼阿波利斯的当地杂货店和肉市场。

And so he's selling this to local grocery stores and to the meat markets around Minneapolis where he lives.

然后他花了很多篇幅讲他和父亲的关系，这个他在指导里也提到过。

Then he talks a lot about the relationship with his father, which he talked about in the instruction.

他说，这种关系建立在父亲的价值观上，也就是正直、强烈的职业道德和追求成功的愿望。

He says, was grounded in dad's values of integrity, a strong work ethic, and the desire to be successful.

我父亲对我的创业尝试非常赞赏，也特别热情。

My father praised and was very enthusiastic over my entrepreneurial endeavors.

整本书里还贯穿着一种财务上的保守态度，这跟他亲眼看到父亲在大萧条中损失了大部分资产有关。

There's also a financial conservatism that runs throughout this entire book, and part of that has to do with the fact that he saw his dad lose most of his net worth in the Great Depression.

我们家也没能躲过大萧条。

My family did not escape the Great Depression.

我记得有天晚上爸爸下班回家，宣布他的资产全没了。

I recall dad coming home from the office one night and announcing that his net worth had been wiped out.

不过我们还有吃的，很多都是自己种的，衣服也有，房子也没有贷款。

Yet we had food, much of that we raised ourselves, clothing, and a mortgage free home.

他幸运地保住了信用和信誉，因为他是个诚实能干的商人，而且他付账单特别认真。

He was fortunate to have credit and credibility as an honest and able businessman, and he was scrupulous about paying his bills.

就在大萧条期间，他母亲去世了。

And so it is during the Great Depression that his mother dies.

失去父母这种事，人一辈子都忘不了。

One never forgets the death of a parent.

母亲是去医院做常规检查的。

Mother had gone to the hospital for a routine procedure.

我本来打算周六早上开车带父亲去医院接她回家。

I was to drive dad to the hospital the Saturday morning when we could pick her up and return home.

凌晨三点，我被电话铃声吵醒了。

At 3AM, I was awakened by the phone.

请问是普朗克先生吗？

May I speak to mister Plank?

这里是西北医院。

This is Northwestern Hospital calling.

我给在楼上主卧睡觉的父亲打了电话。

I called Dad, who was asleep in the master bedroom above me.

他匆忙接起电话，我听到他大喊，哦不，母亲因为血栓去世了，才47岁。

As he hastened to the phone, I heard him scream, Oh no, mother was dead at 47 from a blood clot.

整整六个月，我都没办法写日记。

For six months, I was unable to write in my diary.

我质问上帝为什么要让这种事发生。

I questioned why God would let this happen.

其实这里有一个很有意思的历史对照。

There's actually an interesting historical parallel here.

西奥多·罗斯福的妻子和母亲在同一天去世了。

So Teddy Roosevelt's wife and mother died on the same day.

他也有这个习惯，每天写日记的习惯。

And he also had this habit, this daily habit of writing in a diary.

在他母亲和妻子去世的那个晚上，西奥多·罗斯福在日记里画了一个大大的叉，然后写道：我生命中的光熄灭了。

And the night that his mother and wife die, in his diary, Teddy Roosevelt draws a big x, and he writes, the light has gone out of my life.

在我们继续这个话题之前，我想介绍一下本期播客的赞助商Ramp。

Before we get back into this, I wanna tell you about the presenting sponsor of this podcast, Ramp.

我最近读了很多关于SpaceX的资料。

I have been reading a lot about SpaceX lately.

SpaceX是全世界最有价值的企业之一，而SpaceX发展史中的一个核心主题就是不断挑战和质疑自己的成本。

SpaceX is one of the most valuable businesses in the world, and one of the main themes in the history of SpaceX is constantly attacking and questioning your cost.

Ramp帮助全球许多最具创新力的企业做到这一点，他们通过运用第一性原理思维来实现。

Ramp helps many of the most innovative businesses in the world do exactly that, and they do this by using first principles thinking.

使用Ramp的公司，中位数能削减5%的开支。

The median company running on ramp cuts their expenses by 5%.

SpaceX已经证明，对控制成本近乎宗教般的执着，有助于增加收入，因为你可以去追求原本无法实现的机会，我们在Ramp的数据中也看到了这一点。

And one thing that SpaceX has demonstrated is that a religious dedication to controlling your cost helps increase revenue because you can pursue opportunities you couldn't otherwise, and we see that in the Ramp data too.

使用Ramp的公司，中位数收入也能增长16%。

The median company running on Ramp also grows their revenue by 16%.

所以，当你的企业使用Ramp而竞争对手没有时，你就拥有了一个会随时间不断累积的巨大竞争优势。

So when you're running your business on Ramp and your competitors are not, you have a massive competitive advantage that compounds over time.

Ramp是唯一一个旨在让你的财务团队更高效、更快乐的平台。

Ramp is the only platform designed to make your finance team faster and happier.

我认识的许多顶尖创始人和CEO都在用Ramp管理他们的企业。

Many of the top founders and CEOs that I know run their business on Ramp.

我的企业也在用Ramp，你也应该试试。

I run my business on Ramp, you should too.

今天就去ramp.com看看，了解他们如何帮你的企业节省时间、节省开支并增加收入。

Go to ramp.com today to learn how they can help your business save time, save money, and grow revenue.

网址就是ramp.com。

That is ramp.com.

所以，雷蒙德在二十岁出头的时候，第二次世界大战就开始了。

And so Raymond is in his early twenties when the beginning of World War two starts to happen.

他其实是一名战斗机飞行员，在书里他会详细讲很多这方面的事。

And he's actually a fighter pilot, he's and gonna talk a lot about that in the book.

不过，我想给你读一段，因为我觉得这个人对生活有种近乎过度的热情，部分原因可能在于他二十岁出头时，目睹了很多朋友在战斗中牺牲，再也没能回来。

What there's one paragraph I wanna read to you though, because I think there's something this guy is like an overactive, almost like zest for life, and part of it, I think, has to do with the fact that in his early twenties, he saw a lot of his friends die and not return from combat.

所以他说，22岁时，我驾驶着一架四引擎轰炸机，负责机组十个人的安危，同时还要消灭那些想杀死我们的日本人。

And so he says at age 22, I'd be flying a four engine bomber responsible for the well-being of a crew of 10 and helping kill the Japanese who sought to kill us.

我在书里做了很多笔记，把雷蒙德和洛克菲勒进行比较。读洛克菲勒传记时，你会发现一个反复出现的点：他低调但坚持不懈。

There's a lot of my notes in the book where I'm comparing Raymond to Rockefeller, and there's when you read biographies of Rockefeller, something that appears over and over again is the fact that Rockefeller was low key, but he was relentless.

所以他可能不会告诉你他在想什么，也很少表露情绪，但当他想要达成某件事时，就会持续不断地去攻克那个问题或抓住那个机会，直到成功为止。

So he might not tell you what he's thinking, you should very rarely show any emotion, but when he was when he wanted something to happen, he would just constantly attack that problem or seize that opportunity until it actually happened.

我举个例子，洛克菲勒自传里有一句很精彩的话，他提到早期在克利夫兰为石油公司融资有多难，银行行长们一次次拒绝他。

And the one example I would have here is where there's this great line in Rockefeller's autobiography where he talked about the difficulty of raising money in Cleveland in the early days of his oil company, and he'd just constantly get turned down by all the bank presidents.

他说，银行不肯贷款给我？

And he says, what if the bank refused to make me a loan?

那根本不算什么。

That was nothing.

对我毫无影响。

That made no difference to me.

只不过意味着我得去别处想办法，直到拿到我想要的。

It simply meant that I must look elsewhere until I got what I wanted.

雷蒙德身上也有同样的特质。

Raymond has that same set of attributes.

从他的职业生涯就能看出来。

You see it in his professional life.

这家伙绝对是个硬核人物，可以说，他那种执着劲儿，真是没谁了。

This guy is definitely hardcore, and I would say, you know, relentless.

但有趣的是，你在他的约会生活中也能看到这一点。

But what what was funny is you also see it in his dating life.

他遇到了一位名叫伊丽莎白·麦凯布的女性，当时他们没有交换联系方式，但他心想，我一定要和这个女人约会。

And so he meets this woman named Elizabeth McCabe, and he didn't he they didn't exchange information, but he's like, I need to date this woman.

于是他翻遍了明尼阿波利斯所有姓麦凯布的人，查了电话簿，最后打了二十多个麦凯布家的电话，才找到那个他想约会的女孩。

And so he looks up every single McCabe that lived in the mini in Minneapolis, goes to the phone directory, and winds up having to call two dozen different McCaves before finding the one that the how their house that was the girl that he wanted to date.

他说，我们约会了几次，我对其他女孩的兴趣立刻就消失了。

And he says, we dated a few times, and any interest I had in other girls promptly vanished.

不幸的是，这段关系没能持续太久，因为他被派去打仗了。

And so unfortunately, that relationship doesn't last very long because he is shipped off to fight in the war.

在我执行的40次飞行任务中，我们的中队有19次被击中。

Of the 40 missions I flew, our squadron was shot up on 19 of them.

他写了很多关于勇气重要性的内容，显然勇气不是没有恐惧，而是只有当你真正害怕时，勇气才有意义。

And so he writes a lot about the importance of courage, and obviously the courage is not in the absence of fear, but it only counts if you're actually afraid.

我觉得他二十出头时经历的种种考验和磨难，让他后来在商业上的冒险和风险承担显得微不足道了。

And I think the trials and tribulations that he went through when he was a young man in his early twenties made the business and the risk taking that he was doing later on in life seem inconsequential, like, by comparison.

事实上，他们为阿帕奇公司写了一系列公司历史，第一本涵盖了公司最初几年的历史，他们决定把那本书命名为《走进风险之地》。

In fact, they wrote a series of company histories for the Apache Corporation, and the very first one, which covers the very first few years of the company, they they decided to title that book Journey into Risk Country.

所以，如果你回顾他在书开头说的，他说，你知道，在大公司工作，或者说在任何公司工作，但尤其是大公司，不适合我，我想要更冒险的，我想自己创业。

So if you go back to what he was saying at the beginning of the book where he's like, well, you know, working for a big company or working for any company, really, but definitely a big company is not for me, I wanted a riskier, like, I wanted to be in business for myself.

我想当一名培训师，我想承担风险。

I wanted to be on a trainer, and I wanted to take risk.

我认为这很大程度上与他当时的经历有关，看着所有朋友死去，飞机被击中，你知道，与日本人作战。

And I think a lot of this is tied to what he was experiencing, seeing all his friends die, getting shot up, you know, fighting the Japanese.

所以，他选择在日记里记下了一些话，贯穿了整个20世纪40年代初期。

And so there's just a couple quotes that he has from, that he chose to write down in his diary all through, like, the early 1940s.

比如，他说，‘没有勇气，所有美德都是脆弱的。’

So he says, for example, Without courage, all virtue is fragile.

然后他引用了温斯顿·丘吉尔的话。

And then he quotes Winston Churchill.

他说，勇气就是温斯顿·丘吉尔所说的‘人类品质之首’，因为它保证了其他所有品质。

He says, Courage is what Winston Churchill called the first of human qualities because it guarantees all of the others.

所以当他活到战争结束，从军队退役后，他开始思考：好吧，我是个年轻人，我到底想怎么过这一生？

And so when he survives to the end of the war, he gets discharged from the army, and now he's thinking, he's like, okay, I'm a young man, what do I actually want to do with my life?

他描述这段经历的方式让我觉得特别有意思。

And the way he described this is very fascinating to me.

他说，那是我人生中第一次，我掌握了自己的命运。

He says it was for the first time in my life, I was in charge of my personal destiny.

就在这个时候，他说，我想创办一家企业。

And this is when he says, I want to build a business.

我追求的职业，是能参与到创业中去。

I sought a career in which I would be part of starting a business.

我确信，在大公司工作不是我的菜。

I was confident that working in a large company was not my cup of tea.

而且他知道自己必须抓紧行动。

And he knew he had to act fast.

这是洛克菲勒的另一句名言，他在石油行业早期向合伙人描述他看到的机会时说的，核心意思就是抓住当下的机遇有多重要。

This is another Rockefeller quote, where Rockefeller is describing the opportunity he sees in oil to his partners in early days of the oil industry, and it's really about the importance of seizing opportunity now.

洛克菲勒写道，我们现在有一个扩张的机会，这个机会可能不会持续太久。

Rockefeller wrote, we have an opportunity now to expand which may not last long.

雷蒙德也是这么想的。

Raymond thought the same thing.

他认为美国已经准备好迎接一场巨大的经济繁荣，事后看来，我们当然知道谁是对的，但在当时，其他人持相反的看法。

He thought they that America was primed for this massive economic boom, which in hindsight, we knew we obviously know who was correct, but at the time, other people thought the opposite.

所以他说，我相信技术创新不断扩展的根基，以及商品和服务需求的延迟释放，将推动大量的就业机会。

So he says, I believe immense job creation will be driven from the expanding roots of technological innovations and deferred availability of goods and services.

我认为大萧条和战争都促成了巨大的市场潜力。

I argued that both the Depression and the war had contributed to vast market potential.

而阿帕奇公司的前身，实际上源于一个非常简单的想法。

And the precursor to the Apache Corporation is actually going to come from a very simple idea.

好吧，我相信将会出现大规模的就业扩张。

Well, I believe that there's gonna be a massive expansion of jobs.

将会涌现大量新创立的企业。

There's gonna be a massive expansion of new businesses created.

每一家新公司都需要税务和会计服务。

Every single new business is going to need tax and accounting services.

所以他们创办了一个非常简单的税务和会计服务公司，专门服务小企业，叫做西北商业服务公司。

So they start something, a very simple tax and accounting service to serve small businesses called the Northwest Business Service.

他们最初获得客户的一种方式，就是加入各种专业组织联盟。

And one way they got initial distribution is by joining these, like, leagues of professional these professional organizations.

其中有一个叫一二俱乐部，这个俱乐部的规则非常有意思。

So one of them is called this one two club, and this one two club had a very interesting set of rules.

规则是这样的：一二俱乐部的会议规定，每个行业只能有一名会员。

So it says for the one two club meetings, the rules were that the club had to limit one member from each type of business.

所以你可以有一家银行、一家会计事务所（就是他自己）、一家职业介绍所、一家证券经纪公司、一家建筑承包商、一家保险公司、一家寿险公司、一家抵押贷款公司、一家制造业公司，等等等等。

So you could have one bank, one accounting firm, which was him, one employment agency, one securities broker, one building contractor, one insurance agency, one life insurance, one mortgage company, manufacturing, so on and so forth.

每个会员都承诺并实际提供商业机会。

Each was pledged to and delivered business prospects.

当他接触到这么多不同类型的公司，为它们做税务和记账服务时，他就产生了一个想法：嘿，也许油井是个机会。

And so as he's being exposed to all these different type of businesses, he's doing all these tax and bookkeeping services for these different businesses, this is where he gets this idea that, hey, there might be this opportunity in oil wells.

他非常生动地描述了这次机会是多么出乎意料。

And so he does a great job of describing how unexpected this opportunity was.

他说，我完全没想到，最初只是为明尼阿波利斯的石油投资者做会计和税务工作，最终竟然促成了阿帕奇公司的成立。

He says, little did I know that what had started with accounting and tax work associated with Minneapolis oil investors would lead to the formation of Apache Corporation.

接着他谈到，当时的历史条件如何促成了他后来产生的那个洞察。

And then he talks about the conditions that were present at this time in history, led to this insight he's gonna have.

在第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战期间，美国的钻井活动几乎停滞，国内的资源被迅速消耗。

There had been little drilling in The United States during each of the wars, World War I and World War II, and our American resources were being rapidly depleted.

战后，政府为了鼓励国内勘探，推出了税收优惠政策，所以二战后政府希望增加国内的石油钻井。

Postwar, our government was quick to incentivize the domestic search through tax incentives, so the government wants more domestic oil drilling after World War II.

华盛顿还承诺偿还当时庞大的战争债务，这意味着累进所得税率大幅提高。

Washington had also committed to paying down our then immense war debts, which meant substantial increases in graduated income taxes.

二战后，最高税率超过了总收入的90%。

The top tax rate would exceed 90% of gross income following World War II.

一方面是这么高的税率，另一方面是钻井和生产的税收优惠，这种组合促使高税负的个人纷纷投资于石油和天然气的勘探。

This combination of tax rates on one hand and drilling and production tax incentives on the other encouraged highly taxed individuals to invest in the search for oil and gas.

这是整个部分最关键的一点。

That is the most important part of this entire section.

我们不需要花太多时间或精力，就能通过油气行业的联系人，把会计和税务服务业务扩展出去。

It did not take much time or brainpower to expand our accounting and tax service business through our contacts in oil and gas.

我们为油气投资集团提供会计和税务服务。

We provided oil and gas investor groups accounting and tax services.

我们觉得有责任去理解所服务市场的变化和增长基础。

We saw it as our responsibility to understand the basis for change and growth of our served market.

为此，我做了大量调研和学习，一旦发现投资者在钻井、完井、或获取和持有矿区使用权的费用上出现异常，我就会直接跟油田服务商核实。

To this end, I did a lot of inquiring and learning, and when we recognize charges out of line with cost of drilling, completing wells, or acquiring and holding acreage for investors, I checked directly with oilfield service providers.

所以，他接下来会发现，这些投资者其实被坑了。

And so what he's gonna notice here is that the investors are getting ripped off.

我亲自查出了那些回扣支票，它们让不道德的项目发起人赚得盆满钵满。

I personally uncovered kickback checks that were fattening the purses of unscrupulous promoters.

我把这些发现报告给了一群投资者，他们的反应是即时的，而且意见完全一致。

I reported these findings to a group of investors and their response was instant and unanimous.

你们必须接管并管理我们的资产，而且这些资产规模相当大。

You must take over and manage our assets, and these were substantial assets.

问题在于，我们对找油、完井或采油一窍不通。

The problem was we knew nothing about either finding oil or completing and producing wells.

我们觉得自己不够格。

We did not feel qualified.

我很喜欢他接下来的回应。

And I love his response here.

我们觉得自己不够格。

We did not feel qualified.

但我们还是继续干了。

We proceeded nonetheless.

所以到了1954年，他用25万美元创立了阿帕奇公司，就是我们一开始提到的那件事。

So in 1954, this is when he founds the Apache Corporation with $250,000, which we talked about at the very beginning.

起步非常寒酸。

Very humble beginnings.

他们一开始只有几个员工，雇了地质学家、行政助理，还有一名土地专员。

They start with just a handful of employees, they hire geologists, they hire an executive assistant, and they hire a landman.

所以，他的生意从一开始就有两条原则，贯穿了他整个职业生涯。

And so there's two tenets of his business that are present at the very beginning that stay with him throughout his entire career.

第一条就是，我们能用更少的资源做更多的事，比别人做得更好。所以阿帕奇公司里有一句经常被引用、甚至被抄袭的话：我们最新的发现有多好？比它实际还要好。

One is this idea that we can do more with less than the other guys can, And so there's a this frequently plagiarized phrase and repeated phrase at Apache that says, how good is our latest discovery?

比它实际还要好。

It's better than it is.

这句话能让你看出他们是怎么思考的。

It gives you an insight to how they think about this.

第二条原则就是，他们极其注重成本控制。

And then the second tenet is that they were extremely cost conscious.

他们紧盯并控制每一笔开支。

They watched and controlled their costs.

他说，我们对重复性的成本非常敏感，意思就是确保每一笔支出都压到最低，而且这对公司来说其实是一笔很划算的投资。

He says we were very sensitive to redundancy of costs, and so he's talking about making sure that every single expenditure was the lowest it could be, and it was actually a good, like, investment for the company.

这部分内容有好几页，但我想总结一下他职业生涯这个阶段的意思，就是，我们对重复性成本非常敏感，每一分钱都要盯着。

This this goes on for several pages, but what I would say is, like, the way I would summarize what he's saying at this point in his career is, like, you know, we're very sensitive to duncion costs, we keep an eye on every single dollar.

《吃鲸鱼的鱼》——萨姆·扎穆里，那本传记就叫《吃鲸鱼的鱼》。

Sam Zamuri, the fish that ate the whale, from the biography of his it's called The Fish Ate the Whale.

书里有句话讲到了他创业时看到的机遇，他打算进入水果行业，而当时这个行业里都是全球数一数二的大企业。

He has a line in there that talked about the opening that he saw in the creation of his business, he is, you know, going to get into the fruit business, which at the time were some of the biggest businesses in the world.

而我只是个俄罗斯移民的孩子，却要和全球最大的那些行业巨头竞争。他说，别人动作慢，我可以快。

And I'm, you know, this Russian immigrant kid, and I'm gonna compete with some of the biggest industries in the world, and he says, I can be fast where others have been slow.

别人满足于轻松赚钱，我可以拼。

I can hustle where others have been satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade.

雷蒙德·普兰克看到了自己行业里的大量浪费，就像一百年前的洛克菲勒一样。

He Raymond Plank saw a lot of waste in his industry just like Rockefeller did, you know, a hundred years previously.

所以这个理念就是：别人满足于轻松赚钱，我可以拼。

And so this idea, I can hustle where others have been satisfied with easy pickings of the trade.

所以阿帕奇公司第一个也是最重要的产品，其实是为超级富豪打造的一个节税投资工具。

And so the first and most important product of the Apache Corporation is actually a tax efficient investment vehicle for very rich people.

我突然意识到，阿帕奇公司手头有一个绝佳的投资工具，专门面向那些收入极高、处于最高税率档次的客户。

It says, It occurred to me that Apache had at hand an exceptional investment vehicle for clients with substantial income in the highest income bracket.

这部分内容会持续好几页。

So this is going to go on for multiple pages.

内容非常详细，如果你想买这本书来读的话。

It is very detailed in case you want to buy the book and read it.

我快速给你概述一下，接下来会讲书里的一个实际案例，还带具体数字。

I'm going give you a quick overview, and so this is going to describe an actual example used in the book with the numbers.

所以阿帕奇公司不只是卖石油勘探项目。

So Apache is not just selling oil prospects.

明白吗？

Okay?

这是一种节税型投资。

This is a tax efficient investment.

这才是他们的主打产品。

That is what their main product is.

所以，富有的投资者都在寻找合法的方式来减少他们的税收。

So wealthy investors are looking for legal ways to reduce their taxes.

石油和天然气投资曾经享有异常慷慨的税收优惠，因为政府想鼓励国内能源生产。

Oil and gas investments had unusually generous tax benefits because the government wanted to encourage domestic energy production.

他发现的那些漏洞，最终都会被堵上。

All of the loopholes that that he finds, they will eventually close.

这就是为什么他必须不断地、从根本上重新改造公司，一次又一次。

That's why he's he has to constantly, essentially, reinvent the company over and over again.

但我想描述一下他最初在做什么。

But I wanna describe what he was doing at the very beginning.

所以，阿帕奇的套餐是钻探机会，投资者既能获得发现石油时赚钱的机会，又能立即获得巨额的税收减免。

So Apache package is drilling opportunities, so investors receive both the chance to make money if oil was found and very large tax deductions immediately.

他在书里举的例子是这样的，他说，好。

So the example that he gives in the book, he says, okay.

假设一个投资者参与阿帕奇的一个钻探项目，投资了20万美元。

Suppose an investor buys into one of Apache's drilling programs and they invest $200,000.

那位富有的投资者能立即获得投资额80%的税收减免。

That rich investor would get an immediate tax deduction of 80% of the investment.

也就是说，他们投了20万，就能抵扣16万。

So they invest $200, they deduct a 160,000.

当时他们的投资者都处于很高的税率档位，税率超过90%。

All of their investors are in very high tax brackets at the time, which are above 90%.

所以16万的90%就是14.4万。

So 90% of the one sixty is a 144,000.

因此，虽然他们开出了20万美元的支票，但实际上国税局通过减税承担了大部分成本。

So although he wrote a $200,000 check, the IRS effectively paid much of the cost through reduced taxes.

算上税收因素后，普兰克会计算出这笔投资实际自掏腰包的成本只有大约5.6万美元。

After accounting for taxes, Plank then would calculate that investment really cost them only about $56,000 out of pocket.

接下来就更有意思了。

Now it continues to get even more interesting.

假设阿帕奇公司发现了足够的石油，让这笔投资获得了回报。

Now assume that Apache discovers enough oil that investment doubles.

那位投资者又拿到了20万美元。

That investor receives another $200.

正常情况下，这笔钱是全部要交税的。

Normally, would be all taxable.

但石油开采权使用费还有另一个好处。

But oil royalties had another benefit.

他们享有资源耗竭补贴。

They had a depletions allowance.

国会允许石油生产业主将部分收入视为地下石油资源被开采消耗的补偿。

Congress allowed owners of oil producing properties to treat part of their income as a return of the oil being depleted underground.

所以，当时不是对全部开采权使用费收入征税，而是可以通过百分比耗竭补贴，扣除27.5%的免税额。

So instead of taxing all of the royalty income at the time, could deduct 27.5% could be excluded through the percentage depletions allowance.

我知道这听起来很复杂，但接下来就简单了。

I know this is getting really confusing, but it'll get simple here.

实际上你收到了20万美元，其中5.5万美元是免税的，所以只有剩下的14.5万美元需要交税。

So you really receive $200,000 The tax free portion of that is 55,000, so only the remaining $145,000 is taxed.

所以投资者不仅前期能享受巨额抵扣，未来生产的税也交得更少。

So investors not only received huge deductions up front, they also paid less tax on future production.

这对投资者来说挺有吸引力，但我觉得对普兰克和他的合伙人来说更有意思。

That is interesting for investors, but I would argue more interesting for Plank and his partners.

这解决了一个融资难题。

It solved a financing problem.

阿帕奇当时是一家年轻的公司，资金并不充裕。

Apache was a young company without much capital.

普兰克没有向银行大举借贷，而是通过吸引富有的投资者，实际上是在说：就算油井只是中等成功，光税收优惠就能大幅降低你的风险；要是我们发现了石油，你还能分享收益。

Instead of borrowing huge sums from banks, Plank attracted wealthy investors by saying, in effect, even if the Wells are only moderately successful, the tax benefits alone dramatically reduce your downside, and if we discover oil, you also share in the upside.

这样一来，他筹集数百万美元去获取租约和钻井就容易多了。

That it made it much easier for him to raise millions of dollars to then acquire leases and drill wells.

这就引出了书里一个非常重要的观点。

Now that leads us to one of the most important ideas in the book.

你在哪方面是世界顶尖的？

What are you the best in the world at?

他说，我们创立阿帕奇的时候，我对油气行业的技术方面几乎一窍不通。

So he says, when we founded Apache, my knowledge of the technical aspects of the oil and gas business was virtually nonexistent.

但我的财务和税务知识可能没几个人能比得上，他之所以能看到这个机会，是因为整个油气行业里只有他具备这种财务和税务背景。

While my financial and tax related knowledge may have had few competitive peers, he saw this opportunity because he was the only one in the oil and gas industry with his finance and tax related knowledge.

然后他意识到，嘿，我可以学油气啊。

And then he realized, hey, I can learn oil and gas.

他通过雇佣有专业知识的人，然后整天跟他们待在一起，就这样学会了。

And he does that by hiring people with the domain knowledge they need and then just hanging out with them.

他说，这些人是我实地考察时的伙伴，我们聊的全是地质和工程。

He says, these men were my companions on field visits, while geology and engineering filled our conversations.

我通过耳濡目染和兴趣学到了更多。

I was learning more by osmosis and interest.

所以在他职业生涯的这个阶段，他已经有了一个独到的见解和优势。

So at this point in his career, he has an earned secret and an edge.

问题是他选错了联合创始人。

The problem is he picked the wrong co founder.

所以关于联合创始人之间的冲突，有一些非常离谱的故事。实际上，在接下来的几十年里，他和所有要打交道的人都有过争执。

So there is there's some insane stories about the co founder conflict, and really, he he he has fights with all kinds of people that he's gonna be doing business with over the multiple decades.

我觉得，你知道，这非常非常常见。

I think, you know, it's very very common.

但这个故事特别有意思，讲的是他所说的‘特鲁曼、安德森和我之间的裂痕开始扩大’。

But this one is very fascinating, and it talks about this this what he calls a schism began to widen between Truman, Anderson, and myself.

我们之间的争吵越来越激烈，员工们吓得缩成一团，因为我们不是扔废纸篓就是砸烟灰缸。

The arguments between us became louder and our staff would cower as we threw a wastebasket or smashed an ashtray.

特鲁曼和我之间的分歧很深。

The differences between Truman and me ran deep.

他有一个很好的方式来描述这一点。

And he has a great way to describe this.

他说，价值观并不是生来平等的。

He says values are not created equal.

特鲁曼和我在根本问题上存在分歧。

Truman and I differed on a fundamental basis.

我对阿帕奇的规划是长期的。

My time horizons for Apache were long term.

而杜鲁门呢，他个人急于想成为大人物，没什么耐心。

Truman was impatient in his personal drive to become a high roller.

价值观本来就不平等。

Values are not created equal.

我想的是把公司做起来。

I wanted to build the business.

杜鲁门想的是积累个人财富和名声，所以他们俩实际上在争，看谁能最终控制公司。

Truman wanted to build his personal fortune and fame, and so they're actually in a war to see who's gonna wrestle control of the company.

这简直太疯狂了。

And this is nuts.

他的联合创始人居然还监视他。

His co founder actually spies on him.

这最终会导致他的联合创始人被赶出公司。

This is gonna cause his co founder getting kicked out of the company.

在试图把我赶出Apache的过程中，特鲁门犯了一个水门事件式的错误。

While seeking to rid Apache of me, Truman made a Watergate type blunder.

他在我们的办公室、董事会和会议室里装了窃听器。

He bugged our offices and our board and conference rooms.

所以他把这些错误归咎于特鲁门失控的自我。

And so he attributes these mistakes to Truman's out of control ego.

他在书中多次提到失控的自我带来的危害。

He'll talk about the the detriment to out of control ego multiple times throughout the book.

从早期，到我们现在读到的中间部分，再到书的结尾，他都在讲这个。

He talks about it in the early days, the middle of book where we are now and at the very end.

他说，从和联合创始人打交道的这一切中，学到的教训是什么？

He said the lesson from all this, dealing with his cofounder, he says, what was the lesson?

自我膨胀的速度很容易超过一个人的能力，自大的人最终会碰壁。

Ego can quickly outstrip one's competence and fat heads get flattened.

所以他接管了公司，特鲁门被赶了出去，那是一段非常艰难的时期。

So he is taking control of the company, Truman is kicked out, it's a very rough time.

你知道，公司总是有起有落，Apache 公司也不例外，任何一家能存活五十年的公司都是这样。但他在这个过程中做了一件非常明智的事。

There's all these, you know, ups and downs, and Apache Corporation, as you can imagine, any company that's going to last for fifty years is, but he does something really smart here.

这个主意真的很棒，他在困难时期开始实施，后来即使形势大好也一直坚持了下来。

This is a really great idea that he started during tough times and then kept doing it even when times were great.

他每天都会写一份工作报告，汇报自己正在做的事情，这样董事会就永远不会感到意外。

He would just write these daily reports of what he was up to for so the board was never surprised.

他基本上就是做到了过度沟通。

He essentially just overcommunicated.

在几个月的时间里，我每天都会写一份关于自己活动的报告，这为董事会建立对我的信心和支持奠定了基础，而且这种做法在董事会会议之间也值得一直保持。

For a period of several months, I wrote a daily report on my activities that contributed to the basis for confidence and support from the board and was a practice well worth maintaining between board meetings.

在章节末尾，他举了两个例子，我觉得他算是一个相当硬核的企业家。

And at the end of the chapter, has two examples of I consider him a very hardcore entrepreneur.

他说，至于 Truman Anderson，他开了一家洗车生意，但很快就衰败了。

He says, as for Truman Anderson, he started a car wash business that quickly fell from grace.

他破产了，从当地消失了，卖掉了自己那座堡垒般的庄园，和新妻子搬到了丹佛。

He went broke and disappeared from the area, selling his fortress like estate and moving with his new wife to Denver.

后来他搬到了加州。

Then he moved to California.

他搞了一些石油交易，还让儿子入了行，结果那生意也黄了。

He put together oil deals, bringing a son into the business, and that business sank.

特鲁门心脏病发作去世了，我连他的葬礼都没赶上。

Truman had a heart attack and died, and I missed his funeral.

所以普朗克肯定记着仇呢。书里还有张照片，也能看出他有多拼，照片下面写着：我把竞争对手的年报钉在办公桌后面的墙上。

So Plank definitely holds a grudge, and then there's a great picture in the book that also speaks to how hardcore he is, and the sentence under the picture is, I kept competitors' annual reports on the wall behind my desk.

方便好好研究他们。

The better to study them.

他还真就把那些报告钉在办公桌后面的墙上。

And he literally has them pinned to the wall behind his desk.

在继续聊这个之前，我想跟你讲讲Applovin。

And before we get back into this, I wanna tell you about Applovin.

我最喜欢的一句话出自《从零到一》这本书。

One of my all time favorite quotes is from the book Zero to One.

在那本书里，彼得·蒂尔写道。

In that book, Peter Thiel writes.

他说，我注意到的最强大的一个模式是，成功的人会在意想不到的地方发现价值，他们通过从第一性原理而不是公式来思考商业来实现这一点。

He says, the single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.

而Applovin在他们的广告平台上正是这样做的。

And that is exactly what Applovin has done with their advertising platform.

Applovin能让你接触到移动游戏中超过十亿的潜在新客户。

Applovin connects you with over a billion potential new customers in mobile games.

Applovin让你能够捕捉到用户全神贯注的注意力。

Applovin allows you to capture undivided attention.

Applovin的广告是全屏视频，平均观看时长达到35秒。

Applovin ads are full screen videos that are watched for an average of thirty five seconds.

这种留存率让其他广告平台望尘莫及，而且你可以在几分钟内就在Applovin上启动广告。

That is retention that blows other ad platforms out of the water and you can launch on Applovin in minutes.

你设定目标，Applovin就能帮你实现。

You set the goal and Applovin achieves it.

无需复杂设置，也不需要专业知识，Applovin 能快速扩展。

No complex setup, no expertise needed and Applovin scales quickly.

他们可以把你的广告展示给超过十亿的潜在客户。

They can put your ads in front of over a billion potential customers.

其他企业已经看到立竿见影的效果，日投放额达到数十万美元，收入增加了数百万。

Other businesses have seen immediate results scale to hundreds of thousands of dollars of spend per day and increased their revenue by millions.

所以，趁你的竞争对手还没都上 Applovin，赶紧开始吧。

So you wanna get started quickly before all of your competitors are on Applovin.

你可以访问 applovin.com 来快速上手。

And you can do that by going to applovin.com.

就是 applovin.com。

That's applovin.com.

接下来，我想跟你聊聊 Vanta。

And then I want to tell you about Vanta.

Vanta。

Vanta.

Vanta。

Vanta.

Vanta。

Vanta.

Vanta能帮助你的公司证明自身的安全性，这样更多客户就会愿意使用你的产品或服务。

Vanta helps your company prove your secure so more customers will use your product or service.

Vanta是一个AI驱动的安全专家，能随着你的业务一起扩展。

Vanta is an AI powered security expert that scales with you.

你的业务增长越快，安全需求就越复杂，而这种复杂性往往会演变成混乱。

The more your business grows, the more complex your security needs get, and that complexity turns into chaos.

Vanta能帮你理清这种混乱。

Vanta tames that chaos for you.

Vanta能自动化合规流程，持续监控你的控制措施，并为合规和风险管理提供一个统一的信息源。

Vanta automates compliance, continuously monitors your controls, and gives you a single source of truth for compliance and risk.

无论你是快速成长的初创公司还是大型企业，Vanta都能轻松融入你现有的工作流程。

So whether you're a fast growing startup or an enterprise company, Vanta fits easily into your existing workflows.

很多公司没有认证就不签合同，这让你白白损失了销售机会。

Many companies won't sign contracts unless you're certified, and this is causing you to lose out on sales.

所以，Vanta的客户平均报告说，成为Vanta客户后，投资回报率高达526%。

That is why the average Vanta customer reports a 526% return on investment after becoming a Vanta customer.

用Vanta自动化你的合规、安全和信任管理。

Automate your compliance, security, and trust with Vanta.

Vanta能帮你更快、更省力地赢得信任、达成交易、保持安全。

Vanta will help you win trust, close deals, and stay secure faster and with less effort.

访问vanta.com/founders，就能立减一千美元。

Go to vanta.com/founders, and you'll get a thousand dollars off.

网址是vanta.com/founders。

That is vanta.com/founders.

然后他给了我们一个建议：买架飞机。

And so then he has a piece of advice for us, get the plane.

结果他真的买了一架小飞机。

So he winds up buying a small plane.

他当然会自己开飞机，但书里有很多例子都说明，他能随时飞到任何地方。比如他们正在谈一笔生意或者去开会，对方会说，嘿，你能两小时内赶到吗？

He's obviously can pilot himself, but he has this there's so many examples in the book where the fact that he could just fly himself anywhere, they would be working on a deal or going to a meeting, and like, hey, can you be here in two hours?

他说，没问题，然后就直接开车去机场，跳上飞机，就到了。

He says, yep, you would just drive to the airport, hop in his plane, get there.

他说买飞机这件事改变了他的人生，但这也回到了他非常珍惜公司资产、严格控制成本的态度上。

He says getting the plane was a life changing event, and then it goes back to just being very protective of company assets and watching the cost.

他说，我和阿帕奇的协议是，我向公司收取的费用相当于商业航班的票价。

He says my arrangement with Apache was that I would charge the company the equivalent of commercial airfare.

整本书里，他一直在对抗的一个问题就是石油和天然气行业的周期性。

And one so thing he's constantly fighting against throughout the entire book is the cyclical nature of the oil and gas industry.

所以在19世纪50年代末到60年代初，他基本上把阿帕奇改造成了一个多元化的企业集团，他还解释了原因。

So in the '19 late nineteen fifties to early nineteen sixties, he essentially changes Apache into this, like, diversified conglomerate, and he talks about why.

他说，在20世纪50年代末，当俄克拉荷马州和得克萨斯州的石油配额被削减高达90%时，我们的收入也跟着减少了90%。

He says in the late nineteen fifties, when Oklahoma and Texas oil allowables were cut by up to 90%, so were our revenues.

我们的进攻策略是用公司股票来收购，因为他们当时已经是上市公司了，收购那些成功且有创业精神的企业，我们可以把它们做大。

Our offensive strategy was to acquire in exchange for shares of our stock, because they were already a public company at this time, successful entrepreneurial driven businesses which we could grow.

这样一来，我们就能找到收入来源，弥补缺口，应对油气行业的周期性低迷。

This would allow us to find revenues that would bridge the gap and fix the cyclical downturn in the oil and gas business.

所以在接下来的十年左右，他们最终收购了58家不同的公司。

So they wind up over the next ten years or so, they wind up eventually acquiring 58 different businesses.

而且这很疯狂，他们并不是只在一个特定领域收购，他们涉足了农业、塑料、电话、钢铁、汽车零部件、牧场、公用事业、木材等业务，简直数不胜数。

And it's wild, it wasn't like they were just, they were acquiring in like one specific area, they wind up owning businesses in agriculture, plastics, telephone, steel, auto parts, ranching, utilities, lumber, it just goes on and on.

他们完全是跟着机会走，然后他谈到自己如何管理这些分散的业务，在这个集团里先整合再拆分，最后卖掉这些业务，之后又完全回归到一家普通的油气公司。

They were definitely individual opportunity driven, and then he talks about how he would manage all of these separate businesses in this conglomerate that he's going to wind up and then unwind and wind up selling his businesses, and then going full fledged into just a normal oil and gas company later on.

在Apache后来的多元化过程中，我们做对的事情比做错的多。

In Apache's subsequent diversification, we did more things right than wrong.

在我们收购的企业中，我们避免了那个时代集团企业常犯的重大错误。

In the businesses we acquired, we avoided the major error of the era's conglomerates.

顺便说一句，在20世纪60年代，建立集团企业是非常普遍的做法。

Very common to build conglomerates in the 1960s, by way.

很多集团在收购小企业后，常常把大公司的做法和总部开销强加给那些原本成功经营自己业务的沮丧的前老板们。

Many of those, upon acquiring smaller businesses, too frequently superimposed large company practices and corporate overheads on frustrated former owners accustomed to successfully running their own operations.

所以他们收购公司后，会进行集中管理，给予指导，在一定金额以上集中资本分配决策权，然后基本上放手让这些公司自己运营。

So they would buy the company, they would centralize, they would give them direction, centralize capital allocation decisions over a certain amount, and then basically leave them to run their own companies.

书里还有一些特别疯狂的故事。

And so then there's just some crazy stories in the book.

那时候，他们正在扩张。

So at the time, they're building up.

他们收购了一堆电话公司，书中提到，电话特许经营权的整合一直在进行，到1966年，阿帕奇电话控股公司已经拥有12家电话公司。

They're buying a bunch of these telephone companies, so it says the consolidation of the telephone franchise has continued, and by 1966, Apache Telephone Holdings had grown to 12 telephone companies.

他的想法是，收购所有这些小型电话公司，把它们整合成一个集团，然后卖给一家更大的电话公司。

His idea is buy all these small telephone companies, put them into one group, and then sell them to a larger telephone company.

于是，他正在向这家公司的CEO推销这个方案。

And so he is pitching this company's CEO.

这家公司叫大陆电话公司，他和CEO——一个叫菲尔·卢西尔的家伙——已经谈好了条件。

The company's called Continental Telephone, and he has a deal on the table with the CEO, this guy named Phil Luceier.

他说，菲尔和我已经就价格和条款达成了一致。

And so he says, Phil and I agree on price and terms.