#3 - 靠电子邮件通讯赚数百万美元？The Hustle 的 Sam Parr 全盘托出

我上金融课的时候，PayPal 一直响。

I would be in finance class, and I had PayPal on...

我都不确定我当时有没有 iPhone，但就是一直叮咚叮咚地响。

I don't even know if I had an iPhone, but it'd go ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

然后我跟金融课的老师说，我说：“我刚才坐在教室里就赚了 1000 美元。”

And I said to my finance teacher, I'm like, "I just made $1,000 while I was sitting here in class.

“我该怎么办？”

What do I do?"

所以那感觉挺好的。

And so it was good.

当时赚得——

It was making-

他们怎么说？

What did they say?

他们就说，嗯，他说：“你得去找个律师，因为我不确定你干的事合不合法。”

They were like, well, he was like, "You need to talk to a lawyer because I don't know if what you're doing is legal."

所以我去找了律师，他们说：‘是的，你确实有点违法了。’

So I talked to a lawyer, and they're like, "Yeah, you're kind of breaking some laws here."

所以，Moonshine Online没撑多久。

So, the Moonshine Online didn't last long.

好的。

Okay.

所以，装了PayPal的黑莓手机得安静一阵子了。

So the Blackberry with PayPal installed had to go quiet for a bit.

然后他说：‘是的，你得走各种流程。’

And so he was like, "Yeah, you got to jump through all these hoops."

我就说：‘好吧，

And I was like, "Okay.

嗯，我不知道我是不是想那么做。’

Well, I don't know if I want to do that."

但我上网搜了一下，这个国家哪里互联网公司多，网上说是旧金山。

But I googled where in the country do internet companies live, and online it said San Francisco.

所以我给爱彼迎的创始人发了邮件。

So I emailed the founders of Airbnb.

我向他们求职。

I asked for a job.

他们说：“你下周能来我们办公室吗？”

They said, "Can you come to our office next week?"

我说：“可以啊，我已经在这儿了。”

I was like, "Yeah, I'm here already."

于是我就买了张机票飞过来了。

And so I bought a ticket and flew out here.

我在那儿参加了面试。

I interviewed there.

但在我待在这儿的时候，我遇到了一个很酷的人，叫约翰·哈维尔，他创业了，因为我住的是他的爱彼迎房源。

But while I was here, I met a really cool guy named John Havel, and he had started a business because I stayed on his Airbnb.

我就是这样认识他的。

That's how I met him.

明白了。

Got you.

我当时就想，这太酷了。

And I was like, "This is so cool.

有和我同龄的人在干很酷的事情。

There's people my age doing cool stuff.

我要来这里。

I'm coming out here."

所以几天后我回到家，卖掉了仅有的那点东西，退了学，搬到了这里，然后我们创办了Bonk，一个室友匹配应用，十个月后以很少的钱卖掉了。

And so I went back home a few days later, sold the limited possessions that I had, left school, and I moved out here, and we started Bonk, a roommate matching app that was sold after 10 months for a tiny amount of money.

然后我创办了现在的公司。

And then I started my current company.

搬到这里有多重要？

And how important was it to get out here?

如果不搬会怎么样？

What happens if you don't move?

就是——

It-

因为现在有很多人——

Because there's a lot of people right now-

什么都不会发生。

Nothing would've happened

是不会有任何不同，还是根本什么都不会发生？

Nothing would've happened differently, or nothing would've happened at all?

我不会是现在这个样子。

I would not be where I am.

那你会做什么呢？

What would you be doing?

在热狗摊打工，或者……开个草坪公司，或者——

Working at hotdog stands or- ... started a lawn company, or-

当时你和别人是不是都很清楚，比如你说“我要去旧金山”的时候，感觉那里就是互联网的未来所在？

And was it obvious to you and others at the time, like when you were saying, "Hey, I'm going to go out to San Francisco," it seems like that's where the internet was going to be

当时并不是。

It was not.

我跟我妈说了Airbnb的事，那时候公司大概有两三百人，规模不算小，但没什么名气，她就问：“这不会是骗人的吧？”

I told my mom about Airbnb, and at the time, 300 people or 200 people worked there, so it wasn't small, but it wasn't well-known, and she was like, "Is this a scam?"

“Airbnb是什么东西？”

"What is this Airbnb thing?

“你要住在别人家里？”

You stay at other people's homes?"

我说：“对，还有一家公司叫Uber Cab，跟这个差不多，不过是做车的。”

I was like, "Yeah, there's another company called Uber Cab, and it's kind of like that, but with cars."

她又说：“你在说什么呢？”

And she's like, "What are you talking about?

“他们提供医疗保险吗？”

Do they offer health insurance?

“我只关心这个。”

That's all I care about."

然后我就说，'我就是要干这个，各位。'

And I was like, "I'm doing this, guys.

'我就是要干这个。'

I'm doing this."

我把车卖了。

I sold my car.

卖了五千美元，然后他们又给了我一千美元，算是给我的毕业礼物，虽然我当时还没大学毕业。

That gave me $5,000, and then they gave me $1,000 as like my, I hadn't graduated college yet, but as like my graduation gift.

然后他们说，'好吧。'

And they go, "All right.

'我们会帮你的。'

We'll help you do it."

他们给了我一笔钱，我就搬过来了。

And they gave me a grand, and I moved out here.

所以他们支持了我，但他们并不知道我到底在做什么。

And so they supported me, but they didn't know what I was getting into.

你根本不知道这个。

You don't even know this.

我们的故事很不一样，但却是平行的轨迹。

Our stories are so, they're very different, but they're parallel tracks.

你说的每件事，我生活中都经历过类似的时刻，不过那是另一个话题，因为这是你的故事，但是——

Everything you're saying, I literally had a moment like that in my life, which it's for another day because this is your story, but-

有支持你的——

Having supportive-

我们以后会聊这个的。

We're going to talk about this later

父母的支持真的是一个不公平的优势。

... parents is like a really unfair advantage.

绝对是的。

Absolutely.

而且还需要一点豁出去的劲儿，你当时有足够的豁出去的劲儿说：“好吧。”

And also having a level of like, you got to have a little fuck it in your system, and you had enough fuck it to say, "All right.

我就打算直接去那儿。

I'm just going to go out there.

我也不知道。

I don't know.

我还没把所有事情都想清楚。

I don't have the whole thing figured out.

我就先去，然后边走边想办法。

I'm going to go, and I'm going to figure it out.

我清楚那是我该去的地方。

I know enough that that's where I need to be."

托尼·罗宾斯有句话我很喜欢，他说：“靠近就是力量。”

Tony Robbins has this really good phrase I like, which he says, "Proximity is power."

意思就是说，就算你什么都不知道，先靠近再说——

Which is just like, if you know nothing else, just get close-

这个说法挺酷的。

That's cool

……靠近你喜欢的东西。

... to the stuff you like.

靠近你喜欢的人。

Get close to the people you like.

多和他们待在一起。

Just hang with them more.

靠近本身就有力量。

The proximity has its own power.

去你想去的地方。

Go to the place you want.

就在那里待着。

Just be near it.

靠近就是力量，我自己也多次体会到这一点。

Proximity is power, and I've seen that play out many times for myself.

你的故事让我想起了这个道理。

Your story reminds me of that.

其实，你和我都有很多特别有钱的朋友。

Well, the thing is that you and I both have a lot of buddies that are really wealthy.

他们的孩子可能不太愿意冒大风险，因为从小在富裕环境长大，你知道自己有什么可失去的，诸如此类。

Their children probably aren't going to be willing to take a lot of risks because when you grow up wealthy, you kind of know what there is to lose and all this stuff.

但我小时候有点野，有时候会被赶出家门，真的就睡在外面。

But the way I grew up, I was a little bit of a wild man, and sometimes I would get kicked out of my house, and I would literally sleep outside.

所以最坏的情况也就是睡外面。

So it's like the worst-case scenario is I just sleep outside.

这没什么大不了的。

It's like, this is no big deal.

或者最坏的情况就是去街角卖瓶装水。

Or the worst-case scenario is I go and sell bottled water on the corner.

我也能搞定。

I can make it work.

最坏的结果真的非常低。

The downside is really, really low.

或者最坏的情况是我给我妈打电话说：'嘿，我不想让你养我，但你能给我300美元吗？这样我就能——'

Or the worst case is I call my mom and be like, "Hey, I don't ever want you to support me, but can you give me $300 so I can get-

……

...

我就能回我房间住吗？

I can just come stay in my room?"

这就像有一张免死金牌。

There's a get out of jail free card.

我记得我刚开始创业的时候，住在科罗拉多州，情况也差不多。

I remember when I was doing my very first startup, I was living in Colorado, kind of a similar situation.

我就不讲完整的故事了，但当时我赢了三万美元的奖金，因为我经常去参加商业计划比赛，上台演讲。

I won't do the whole backstory, but I got into a spot where we had won 30 grand of just prize money because I would just go pitch in these business plan competitions.

那太厉害了。

That's amazing.

我擅长演讲，所以总能赢下商业计划比赛。

And I was good at pitching, and so I would just win the business plan competition.

所以我们一个月就攒了三万块的奖金。

So we rolled up 30 grand in a month of prize money.

然后我爸也说，"好吧，如果你真要干这个，不去读医学院的话……"

And then my dad was also like, "Okay, if you're going to do this, not going to go to med school..."

我考过医学院入学考试。

I took the MCATs.

他说，"你要是不去读，那学费就拿来用吧。"然后他给了我，我记不清了，大概两万块吧。

He's like, "If you're not going to go, let's take some of that tuition," and he gave me, I don't remember, it was 20 grand or something like that.

他说——

He's like-

哇。

Wow

……"这些够你撑一年了。"

... "That's going to last you the year."

所以我这边拿了三万，那边拿了两万，再加上我和两个联合创始人。

So I got 30 grand from this, 20 grand from this, and there's me and two co-founders.

这爸爸真是太好了。

That's such a good dad.

哦，是的。

Oh, yeah.

那真是帮了大忙。

It was huge.

而且他当时根本没想着要帮我。

And he was not even trying to be helpful.

他说：“你一辈子都懒懒散散的，我终于看到你认真起来了。

He was like, "You've been so lazy your whole life that I finally see you switched on.

我觉得这主意糟透了。

I think this is a terrible idea.

你要开寿司店？

You're doing a sushi restaurant?

这主意太糟糕了。”

That's a terrible idea."

但那是你的学费啊。

But it's your tuition.

对，他说：“但你确实每天没人催就自己起来做事了。”

Yeah, "But you're actually waking up and doing something every day without anyone telling you to do it."

然后他跟我说了一句很有道理的话：人生中，行动比方向更重要。

And he gave me this line that's, in life, it's a lot more about motion than it is direction.

想象一下，你在沙滩上，想去一个岛。

So imagine you're on a beach and you want to get to this island.

那个岛就是所有梦想成真的地方。

The island is where all the fantasies come true.

如果你能看到那个岛，你肯定会说：“那就是我要去的方向。”

And if you could see the island, you would say, "That's the direction I need to go."

问题是，站在你现在的位置，你看不到岛在哪里。

Problem is, from where you're standing, you can't see where the island is.

你只是觉得岛在这个方向。

You just think this island is here.

所以你就得动起来。

So you've just got to move.

所以你得先上船，开始划桨，然后一边划一边你就会发现，"嘿，其实我看到了。"

So you got to get in the boat and start paddling, and then as you go, you'll realize, "Hey, actually, I see it.

它就在那边。

It's over there."

然后他说，"当你有了动力，划船就容易多了。"

And he's like, "It's much easier to move a boat when you actually have some momentum.

你只要把桨放进水里，就能转向，然后朝着新方向前进。"

You can just put your paddle in the water, and you'll actually turn, and you'll start going in the new direction."

这真的就是我生活中的写照。

And that's literally what happened in my life.

所以这点我得感谢他。

So I give him credit for that.

但我记得我们当时过得挺节俭的。

But I remember we were living pretty frugally.

节俭。

Frugal.

你当时很节俭。

You were frugal.

我们确实很节俭。

We were frugal.

而你是个节俭先生。

And you're Mr. Frugal.

是的，我是。

I am.

所以我想聊聊这个。

And so I want to get into that.

我记得有一次，我们当时的生活方式有点尴尬。

I remember one time, the way we were living, it was kind of embarrassing.

在科罗拉多，我们三个人挤在一间一居室的公寓里，需要什么就买什么，用完再退掉。

It was three of us in a one-bedroom apartment in Colorado, and everything we would need, we would buy and return.

所以就像，"嘿，我们需要一台相机来拍这些照片——"

So it's like, "Hey, we need a camera for this photo shoot-

就在那儿呢。

It's in there

……来拍我们的菜单照片。"

... to take our menu pictures."

这方面Costco最合适。

Costco's the best for that.

我还能告诉你，对，就像百思买14天退货政策，但你不需要这个。

I can still tell you, yeah, it's like Best Buy 14-day policy, but you don't need this.

所以我们就去买那台单反相机，14天后再退掉——

And so we would go buy this DSLR camera and return it 14 days later-

……重复了10次。

... 10 times.

我记得我们睡在充气床垫上，而且我们知道塔吉特对充气床垫有90天退货政策。

And I remember we would sleep on air mattresses, and we knew that Target had a 90-day return policy on air mattresses.

我记得我去退那个充气床垫的时候，特别尴尬，心想：“天哪，我穷成这样，居然……”

So I remember going and returning my air mattress, so embarrassing, of like, "Damn, I'm this poor that I'm just like-"

但你父母是真的穷，还是只是节俭？

But were your parents poor, or were they frugal?

我们是中产阶级。

We were middle class.

就是普通家庭。

Just normal.

只是我不能开口向他们要钱，因为一旦你开口要，你就得有点……

It was just that I couldn't go to them with an ask because when you go with an ask, you got to have a little...

就像去银行贷款一样。

It's like going to a bank.

你得拿出点成绩或者进展作为首付。

It's like you got to have a down payment of some kind of success or momentum.

不，我懂你。

No, I feel you.

那时候，我觉得自己还没有那种底气，能说“我知道自己在做什么”。

At this point, I didn't feel like I had my down payment of, "I know what I'm doing.

你看，这挺顺利的。

Look, it's working.

就给我一点钱吧。”

Just give me a little money."

这就像是在说，“嘿，我要赌一把。

This was like, "Hey, I'm taking a leap of faith.

你已经给过我一点钱了。

You already gave me a little money.

我得省着点花，因为我不知道这之后还有没有下一笔钱。”

I need to stretch that dollar because I don't know if there is another dollar after this."

你以前过得节俭的时候，有没有遇到过类似的情况，就是那种……

When you were living frugal, did you have any moments like that, that were the sort of...

没有。我小时候家里挺穷的。

No. I grew up kind of poor.

后来我爸妈开始做点生意，赚得还不错，他们帮我付了高中学费，还给我买了一辆五千美元的F-150皮卡。

Then my parents started a thing that made a pretty good living for them, and they paid my high school tuition, and I got a car that was $5,000, an F-150 truck.

但我也不是从零开始白手起家的。

But it's not like I was pulled up from my bootstraps from nothing.

我大学毕业时收到的那一千美元红包，是他们给过我的最大一笔钱——

The $1,000 gift that I got from graduating college was the most money that they've ever-

——给过你的。

Ever given you.

我当时就想：“一千美元？”

And that to me was like, "$1,000?"

不会吧。然后他们又给了我一张额度五百美元的信用卡。

No. And then they gave me a credit card that had a $500 limit on it.

他们说：“这个留着应急用。”

They're like, "Here's this for emergencies."

我记得我一到这儿就把卡剪了。

And I remember I cut it up right when I got here.

我当时就想，'我要干这个。'

I was like, "I'm doing this."

我当时就想，'我宁愿去流浪，也绝不会开口求人。'

I was like, "I'm going on the sh-" I was like, "I'm literally going to be homeless before I ever ask for help."

所以你在创办 The Hustle 的时候，过了一段挺清苦的日子吧。

And so you lived pretty like a spartan lifestyle for a while when you were starting up The Hustle.

我特别喜欢那段日子。

I loved it.

跟我们讲讲那段经历吧，我觉得有时候大家需要知道成功背后要付出什么。

Tell us about that because I think people got to know sometimes what it takes.

有时候你不需要牺牲，但确实有些时候，在事情做大之前，你得先过那种苦日子。

Sometimes you don't have to sacrifice, but there are sometimes situations where before it builds up and gets big, you got to live that spartan lifestyle.

跟我们聊聊那段经历吧。

Tell us about that.

我现在过得不错，但大家会说，'我们公司前几天刚满三周年。

So I do well now, but people are like, "Our company just turned three years old the other day.

公司才成立三年，你就做得这么好了。

It's only been three years, and you're doing good."

我就说，其实我从十六七岁、十八岁开始就一直在打拼，一直在冒险。

And I was like, "Well, I've been grinding since, taking risks since 16, 17, 18."

直到几年前，我都没什么钱。

And up until a few years ago, I didn't have any money.

所以在旧金山那段时间，我房租大概只有600美元，因为我能靠卖点东西攒点钱，然后租了个四居室的房子。

And so for the longest time in San Francisco, I had a $600 rent maybe, and I did that because I was able to scrape together some money after selling something, and I rented a four-bedroom house.

整个房子都是用Craigslist上的二手家具或者免费家具布置的，然后把另外三间房租给别人，这样我的房租就有着落了。

I furnished the whole place with used or free furniture on Craigslist, and then I rented it out to people, the other three bedrooms, and that ultimately paid for my rent.

也就是说，我每个月的生活开销大概只要一千美元左右。

Which means that on just living expenses, I was able to only spend about a grand a month.

所以头几年，我的W-2收入只有大概一万五千美元。

And so because of that, the first couple of years, my W-2 income was only about $15,000.

那就是The Hustle最初几年的情况。

And so that was the first couple of years of The Hustle.

那接下来，我们给大家讲讲现在的数字吧。

And then let's give people a sense of the numbers today.

你不需要说具体数字，但我们应该怎么理解The Hustle现在的情况呢？

You don't have to say the specifics, but what should we be thinking about when we think, how's The Hustle doing?

你做得怎么样？

How are you doing?

我们的业务非常赚钱。

Our business is very profitable.

收入达到八位数，利润率非常高。

It makes eight figures in revenue, really fat margins.

我的目标是到2025年收入达到一亿美元，我觉得我们能实现。

My goal is to get it to 100 million in revenue by 2025, and I think we'll get there.

所以它可能不会像Uber那么大，但也会是个规模不小的企业。

So it potentially may not be Uber, but it'll be a nice sized business.

会是一个一亿美元的企业。

It'll be a $100 million business.

像我们这样的公司，大概能卖个两千万到六千万美元，而且我们没拿过任何风险投资。

Companies like ours could probably sell for any in the huge number, the huge range of $20 to $60 million, and we haven't taken any venture capital.

所以——

So-

你确实筹过钱，但某种程度上是从你的人脉圈里筹的。

And you raised money, but you raised it sort of from the Rolodex in a way.

对，但当时他们还不算我的人脉圈里的人。

Yeah, but they weren't in the Rolodex at the time.

蒂姆·费里斯当时住我隔壁，我们就这样成了朋友，所以他后来投了钱。

Tim Ferriss lived down the block from me, and I became friends with him that way, so he ended up investing.

还有Bleacher Report的创始人、NerdWallet的创始人，以及很多类似的人，一共36个人。

The founders of Bleacher Report, the founders of NerdWallet, and loads of other people just like that, 36 people.

斯科特·贝尔斯基，Uber早期的员工之一，还有很多类似的人，他们每个人投了两万到十万美元给Meet Sethi，总共我们筹了大约一百万美元。

Scott Belsky, one of the early Uber guys, loads of people like that all collectively put in some sum between 20 and $100,000 for Meet Sethi, and collectively, we raised about a million dollars.

然后你还从社区里筹了钱。

And then you also raised from the community.

所以我们做的事情是，The Hustle 最初是一个会议。

So what we did, The Hustle started as a conference.

一个附带新闻通讯的会议。

A conference with a newsletter.

然后我意识到，新闻通讯可能是一个更大的生意，但后来我又意识到，新闻通讯实际上可以带来更大的生意。

And- I realized the newsletter could be a way bigger business, but then I realized the newsletter could actually lead to an even bigger business.

但与此同时，让我们利用这份新闻通讯来盈利。

But in the meantime, let's use this newsletter to make profits.

当我们达到20万用户时，我们总是收到人们想要投资的邮件，我们就说，'那就让任何人都可以投资吧。'

And once we hit 200,000 users, we said, we always got emails of people wanting to invest, and we go, "Let's just let anyone invest."

所以我以为我们会在90天内筹到15万美元。

And so I thought that we would get $150,000 in 90 days.

结果我们在48小时内就筹到了将近35万美元。

We ended up getting close to $350,000 in 48 hours.

哇。

Wow.

好了，各位先生女士，如果你想赚到第一个一百万，你必须要有条理。

All right, ladies and gents, if you want to make that first million, you have got to be organized.

我们的赞助商monday.com又回来了，每周给你带来monday.com的激励，帮你实现这个目标。

Our sponsor, monday.com, is back to get you there with a weekly dose of the monday.com motivation.

保持桌面整洁、列待办清单、用日历，这些不只是成年人才做的事。

Keeping a clean desk, making to-do lists, and using a calendar, those aren't just things that adults do.

这些是超级成功的团队用来达成目标的方法。

They're things that wildly successful teams do to hit their goals.

换句话说，有条理能让你离在钱堆里游泳的梦想更近一步。

In other words, being organized makes achieving your dream of swimming in that money vault that much closer.

访问monday.com/pod/million。

Visit monday.com/pod/million.

没错，是两个斜杠。

That's right, two backslashes.

monday.com/pod/million，可以享受monday.com九折优惠，你还可以使用他们的可定制模板，帮你整理工作、提升流程、管理任务，让你离目标更近一步。

monday.com/pod/million to get 10% off of monday.com, and you can use their customizable templates that will help you get organized, it'll increase your workflow, it'll manage your workload, and get you one step closer to hitting your goals.

所以我们也从用户那里筹了一点钱。

And so we raised a little bit of money from our users as well.

现在回头看，从运营角度来说，我其实根本不需要那笔钱。

Looking back, logistically speaking, I didn't need any of that money.

我们一直都是盈利的。

We've always been profitable.

现金流非常充足。

It's huge cash flows.

但蒂姆·费里斯给了我钱。

But Tim Ferriss gave me money.

现在他成了我的朋友，我可以给他发短信请教建议，这算是一种很酷的交换。

Now he's my friend, and I could text him and ask for advice, and that's kind of like a cool trade-off.

那社区筹来的钱，值得吗？

And with the community money, was that worth it?

因为大多数人不会这么做——

Because most people don't do that-

……因为有一些——

... because there's some-

回头看，不值得。

Looking back, no

……问题。

... issues.

确实不值得。

It was not worth it.

为什么这么说？

Why do you say that?

我变得比以前更注重隐私了，我不喜欢别人知道我的事情。

I have grown to be much more private than I was in the past, and I hate having people that know my business.

明白了。

Got you.

再简单说一下The Hustle和Hustle Con的起源，其实它一开始是个会议。

And just a second on the origin of The Hustle and the Hustle Con, the conference really, because it started as a conference.

在它成为通讯之前。

Before it was a newsletter.

而且它是在你之前开始的。

And it started before you.

是别人先创办了Hustle Con。

Somebody else started Hustle Con.

所以，我偶然遇到了Eric Bahn和Elizabeth Yin，这些人都是成功的企业家。

So, I randomly met Eric Bahn and Elizabeth Yin, and these folks are successful entrepreneurs.

Eric有个生意叫Beat the GMAT，他把它卖了，我不知道卖了多少钱，但要是让我猜的话，得有八位数。

Eric had a business called Beat the GMAT that he sold for, I don't know how much, but if I had to guess, eight figures.

Elizabeth Yin也有个生意叫LaunchBit，后来也顺利退出了。

Elizabeth Yin had another business called LaunchBit that had a nice exit.

然后我通过一个朋友认识了他们，我们就成了朋友。

And so I met a guy who introduced me to them, and we just became friends.

我在2012年或2013年有过一次很小的退出，然后我给Eric发了封邮件。

And I had a really small exit in 2012 or '13, and I emailed Eric.

我就说，"我现在该怎么办？"

I go, "What do I do now?"

他说，"我搞了个东西，

And he said, "I got this thing I put on.

搞了个叫Hustle Con的活动。

I put on this thing called Hustle Con.

有点像会议，但其实更像聚会，来了一百来号人。

It was kind of like a conference, but in reality it was like a meetup and a hundred people came.

赚了大概四千美元吧，"或者我忘了。

It made like $4,000," or I forget.

差不多这个数。

Some number like that.

"基本上就是个网站，加一个两三百人的邮件列表。

"It's just basically a website and an email list of 2 or 300 people.

你想要吗？

Do you want it?

你随便做点什么，给我10%的利润就行。

Just do something with it and give me 10% of the profit."

我说：“成交。”

I said, "In."

所以我在2014年6月1日重新启动了Hustle Con，六周后举办了那次会议，赚了大概6万。

So I relaunched Hustle Con on June 1st of 2014, hosted that conference six weeks later, and it made like 60Gs.

这背后的想法是，我不是为了赚钱，只是想认识有趣的人。

And the whole idea behind it was, I'm not trying to make money, I'm just trying to meet interesting people.

所以我会给所有演讲者发冷邮件，说：“嘿，你想来演讲吗？

And so I would cold email all of these speakers and I would say like, "Hey, do you want to speak?

其他15位演讲者都会来。”

These other 15 speakers are coming."

当然，他们其实没来。

And of course, they hadn't.

他们根本没来。

They weren't coming.

他们就会答应，然后我再去找其他15个人，用同样的招数——

And they would say yes, and then I would go to the other 15 and be like, "Hey," I would do the same-

……对他们也来这一套，结果他们都来了，后来我们就成了朋友。

... shtick with them, and they all started coming, and then I became friends with them.

他们会教我东西，我跟他们混在一起也能学到不少。

And they would teach me stuff, and I would learn stuff just hanging out with them.

我就会说：“哦，对，我得去你办公室一趟，咱们聊聊演讲的事。”

I'd be like, "Oh, yeah, I need to come by your office so we could talk about the talk."

但演讲的事我只聊十分钟，剩下的五十分钟，我就一直问他们问题。

But I'd talk about the talk for 10 minutes, and the next 50 minutes, I just would ask them questions.

然后我办了这场活动，让它火起来的方式就是做邮件营销。

And so I hosted this event, and the way in which I made it popular was by doing email marketing.

我知道邮件营销有效，是因为我研究过，还自学了文案写作。

And I knew that email marketing was effective because of just studying it and teaching myself how to be a copywriter.

所以那第一场活动六周就赚了大概六万，而我在活动上只花了八千，或者更少。

And so that first event in six weeks made about 60Gs, and I only spent eight grand or some low number like that on the event.

我当时就想，'哦，那挺酷的。'

So I was like, "Oh, that's cool."

然后我就拿着那笔钱，其实有六个月的时间，我骑着摩托车环游全国，露营、闲逛。

So took that money, and actually for six months I drove my motorcycle around the country and camped and hung out.

在旅途中，我就想，'咱们再来一次吧。'

And then during that trip, I was like, "Let's do this again."

第二次，这次是80天。

The next time, this time was 80 days.

那是我遇见你的时候，我想，对，就是那时候遇见你的。

That's when I met, I think, yeah, that's when I met you.

那次活动收入大概25万，而支出只有两三万。

That event did about a quarter of a million in revenue on 30 or 20,000 in expenses.

然后我就想，好吧，这挺酷的，但我不想一直办会议。

And then it was like, okay, this is cool, but I don't want to run a conference forever.

我刚读了泰德·特纳的传记，就是创办CNN的那个人。

I had just read the biography of Ted Turner, the guy who started CNN.

我当时就想，那家伙是南方人。

I was like, that guy is Southern.

我也有点南方人的感觉。

I'm kind of Southern.

他跟我一样有点野。

He is kind of wild like I am.

我也能做到。

I could do that.

我其实已经在做类似的事了。

I'm already doing that kind of.

我可以创办一家媒体公司。

I could start a media company.

所以那时候我们就说，'咱们搞个媒体公司吧。'

And so that's when we said, "Let's do a media company."

然后The Hustle最初六个月，也就是2015年刚起步的时候，它只是个博客。

And then the first six months of The Hustle, which started in 2015, it was just a blog.

但后来——

But then-

我记得。

I remember that.

你当时讲的故事确实很棒，但都是长篇的。

You were just telling really great stories, but it was long form.

就像是——

It was like-

长篇博客文章，我会写一些有趣或好玩的事，比如服用LSD或者连续30天只喝Soylent。

Long form blog stuff, and I would just blog about funny stuff or interesting stuff like taking LSD or living on Soylent for 30 days.

就是这类内容。

Just stuff like that.

虽然流量很大，但很明显这成不了大生意。

And it got loads of traffic, but it was clear that wouldn't be a huge business.

所以我们在2016年4月19日重新上线了。

So we relaunched on April 19th of 2016.

所以我才说我们大概成立三年了。

So that's why I say we're about three years old.

那时候我们决定，全力投入邮件。

And that's when we decided, let's go all in on email.

把整个业务都建立在邮件上。

Let's build this whole thing on email.

后来我们研究Groupon、Daily Candy和Thrillist的历史，发现很多人可能都不知道后两家是什么。

And then it became very clear that if you study the history of Groupon, of Daily Candy, of Thrillist, people may not even know what the last two are.

但不管怎样，我当时就想，天哪，这些价值数十亿美元的公司，很多都是从邮件列表起家的。

But anyway, I was like, man, some of these billion-dollar companies all started with an email list.

那我们也这么干。

Let's do that.

先积累一个庞大的邮件列表，然后开发更多产品，把它当作分发渠道。

Let's build up this huge email list and then start creating more products and use that as a distribution channel.

我觉得这样能打造一家十亿美元的公司，这就是我们的想法。

And I think we could build a billion-dollar company that way, and that was the idea.

我记得很早的时候，有个诱惑，倒不是你看起来被诱惑了，而是其他人被诱惑了，说：“赶紧上Facebook，上视频，上——”

And I remember pretty early on, there was a temptation from, not even really, you didn't seem tempted, but other people were tempted to say, "Jump on Facebook, jump on video, jump on-"

“……这个趋势，Snapchat。”

"... this trend, Snapchat."

我从第一天就知道那是个糟糕的主意。

I knew from day one that would be a horrible idea.

我一直想保持独立，我觉得在Facebook上建立受众就像在租来的公寓里做生意，房东每个季度都涨房租。

It's like, I've always wanted to be independent, and I felt that building an audience on the back of Facebook was like building a business in a rented apartment where the landlord raises the price every quarter.

那是个糟糕的主意。

That's a horrible idea.

所以我把我的邮件列表称为我的海盗船，每个订阅者都是我们帆上的一阵风。

And so I called my email list my pirate ship, and every subscriber was a little bit of wind in our sails.

因为就像我说的，我有点头脑简单。

Because like I said, I'm kind of a simpleton.

我是个简单的人，如果你看看在Facebook或其他人的平台上做事的成本效益，你会想：“那利润从哪来？”

I'm a simple guy, and if you look at the economics of building something on Facebook or someone else's platform, you're like, "So where's the profit come from?"

“嗯，如果你这么做……”

"Well, if you do this..."

我不明白。

I don't understand that.

这真的说不通——

That doesn't really make sense to-

对我来说太复杂了。

Too fancy for me.

这对我来说说不通，我也不想这么做。

That does not make sense to me, and I don't want to do that.

所以我们没做。

And so we didn't.

我觉得这很值得，因为现在你有了……

And I think that's paid off, because now you have...

这肯定是世界上最大的每日邮件之一。

This has got to be one of the biggest daily emails in the world.

对，我觉得是这样。

Yeah, I think so.

我觉得我们肯定排在前列。

I think we've got to be up there.

据我所知，可能只有两三个人能跟我们竞争。

I only know of maybe two or three people that can compete.

那是谁？

And who's that?

谁能竞争？

Who can compete?

有The Skimm。

There's The Skimm.

他们声称有六七百万，甚至八百万用户。

They claim to have six or seven or eight million.

他们规模挺大的。

They're pretty big.

然后可能还有几个一次性的事情，虽然还没确认，但我猜是这样。

And then there's maybe a handful of one-off things that aren't confirmed, but I would guess.

当你做这个并且开始赚钱的时候，那也挺反直觉的。

And when you were doing this and it started to make money, that was also pretty counterintuitive.

除非你真的懂邮件营销这一行——

Unless you really knew the email game-

我确实不懂。

Which I didn't.

顺便说一句，我什么都不懂。

By the way, I knew nothing.

直到最近，我什么都不知道。

Up until recently, I didn't know anything.

我连基本术语都不懂，比如RFP或者……天哪，我什么都不懂。

I didn't know what basic words were, like an RFP or... Man, I knew nothing.

我不知道CPM是什么意思。

I didn't know what CPM meant.

我当时在做我们的会计工作。

I was doing our accounting.

我分不清现金流和收入的区别。

I didn't know the difference between cash flow and revenue.

我什么都不知道。

I didn't know anything.

那现在你懂这些了吗，还是你只是雇了懂的人？

And do you know things now, or you just hired people who know things?

我现在懂很多了。

I know a lot of things.

是的，确实懂。

Yeah, I do.

我会看资产负债表，也会做损益表。

I know how to read a balance sheet and do a P&L statement.

我知道怎么赚钱。

I know how to make money.

我不会编程。

I don't know how to code.

我完全不会写代码，但我们有一个技术团队，规模还挺大的，而且我们所有的定制技术都是自己开发的。

I cannot code at all, and we have a tech team, a nice-sized tech team, and we've built all of our own custom technology.

我很擅长提出这样的问题：“最简单的解决方案是什么？”

I'm really good at being like, "What's the simplest solution?

“应该存在什么样的需求？”

What need should exist?"

然后我就会说：“嘿，各位，如果这个功能存在就好了。”

Then I'm like, "Hey, guys, it would be cool if this existed.

“你们知道怎么实现吗？”

Do you know how to make that happen?"

他们就会简单地说：“知道。”

And they would just say, "Yeah."

我就会说：“好的。”

I'd be like, "All right.

太好了。

Great.

一周后给我看看，我们再说。

Show me in a week, and let's see."

那你第一次觉得“天哪——”是什么时候？

And what was the first milestone where you were like, "Holy shit-

呃……

Uh..

……这东西不只是能用，而是真的会变得特别大？

... this thing's actually, not just it's working, but this thing's actually going to be really big"?

其实，我们成立的第一周，就有一百万人访问了网站。

Well, the first week of our existence, we got a million people coming to the website.

我当时就想，“太棒了。”

And I was like, "That's awesome.

这真是太棒了。”

That is great."

我们还上了Reddit首页，实时分析里有两三千个同时在线的用户，谷歌分析上也是，我当时就想，“太牛了。”

And we got on the front page of Reddit, and we had 2,000 or 3,000 concurrent users on real-time analytics, Google Analytics, and I was like, "Sick.

“太棒了。”

That's awesome."

看实时数据的感觉怎么样？

How good is it to watch the real time?

会上瘾的。

It's addicting.

非常上瘾。

It's hugely addicting.

然后我又想，“这不可能做大。”

And then I was like, "This cannot be big."

我当时觉得……

I thought that...

曾经有个大媒体公司的CEO，你肯定知道的那家，跟我说，“这个生意一年最多赚两百万美元。”

And someone once told me, a big CEO of a huge media company that you know of, told me, "This business will never make more than $2 million a year."

我们现在一个月就能做到。

We could do that in a month now.

那个人哪里说错了？

And what was that person wrong about?

他们没搞明白什么？

What didn't they get?

那是个纽约媒体人，挺讲究的那种，他们说：“电子邮件这么小的事。

They were a New York media person who was kind of fancy, and they're like, "Email is such a small thing.

电子邮件通讯？

An email newsletter?

你连网站都没有？

You don't even have a website?

广告主怎么可能想要那个。”

There's no way advertisers are going to want that."

我就想：“嗯，但你想啊，只要看看他们在其他平台上每次点击付多少钱，谁在乎是在邮件里还是网站上呢？”

And I'm like, "Well, but if you think about it, if you just look at how much they're going to pay per click on all these other platforms, who cares if it's on your email or on a website?

这有关系吗？

Does it matter?

只要他们能带来流量，谁在乎呢？

As long as they get traffic to their stuff, who cares?"

然后他说，"嗯，不是这样运作的。"

And it's like, "Well, it doesn't work like that."

我当时就说，"好吧。"

I was like, "Okay.

"嗯……"

Well..."

所以我有点相信他了。

And so I kind of believed him.

我当时觉得这不会成功。

I didn't think that it would work.

然后当我们开始发展起来，我就想，"哇，这太疯狂了。"

And then once we started growing, I was like, "Oh, this is crazy."

直到六个月前我才意识到，天哪，这真的有可能做到每年一亿美元的收入。

And then it wasn't until six months ago where I was like, "Man, there's a path to make literally $100 million a year in revenue on this."

我其实早就隐约觉得这可能会做得很大。

I kind of knew a little bit that it could be big.

Daily Candy，就是我早期模仿的那家公司——

Daily Candy, the company that I modeled us-

他们声称年收入2500万，净利润1000万。

... after early on, they claimed to have 25 million in revenue and 10 million in net income a year.

所以我就想，如果我们能做到那样，那也不错。

So I was like, "Well, if we just do that, that might happen."

他们现在还在呢。

And they're still around.

他们经营得挺好的。

They're doing well.

他们以1.25亿美元卖给了康卡斯特，但康卡斯特搞砸了，最后把他们关停了。

They sold for $125 million to Comcast, and then Comcast screwed it up and shut them down.

明白了。

Got you.

好的。

Okay.

那我们来玩个小游戏，叫“重赚我的第一个一百万”。

And so, let's play a little game called Remake My First Million.

如果你要重新赚到一百万，我把你现在的生意拿走，你不能再做那个了。

If you had to remake a million bucks, so I take away your business as it is today, you can't do that again.

这个具体的生意，你不能重来。

This exact business, you can't do it again.

不过你回到21岁，我把那份青春活力和时间还给你。

You're 21 years old, though, so I give you back that youthful energy and time.

你会做什么？

What would you work on?

你会尝试做什么？

What would you try to do?

假设你没有资金，没有人脉，也没有很多那些条件。

Let's say you don't have capital, you don't have network, you don't have a lot of those pieces.

你还是你，但只有21岁。

You're you, but you're 21.

你会再做什么？

What would you do again?

或者这次你会有什么不同的做法？

Or what would you do differently this time?

如果我是21、22岁，我会先追求一个快速的胜利，试着通过创办一个每月赚10万美元的生意，在银行里存下几十万甚至一百万美元，然后尝试卖掉它，并且完全拥有它。

If I was 21, 22, I would try to get a quick win and try to get a couple hundred thousand or maybe a million dollars in my bank by starting a business that made 100 grand a month and would try to sell it and own all of it.

我觉得这比大多数人想象的要可行得多。

And I think that that is significantly more possible than most people think.

所以我现在21岁，听到这些。

So I'm 21, I'm listening to this.

我会说：“好吧，听起来不错。”

I say, "All right, that sounds pretty good."

说得具体一点。

Be more specific.

你是什么意思？

What do you mean?

什么样的想法能做到这一点？

What sorts of ideas could do that?

嗯，如果他们现在21岁，那就开始写博客。

Well, if they're 21 today, start blogging.

我说的写博客，是指每周学一个有趣的新东西，然后把你学到的写下来。

And when I say start blogging, I would say learn one new interesting thing each week, and then just blog about what you learned.

每天坚持，每周坚持，坚持一年。

Do that every single day, every week for a year.

争取每天有2000到3000人通过搜索访问你的网站。

Try to get 2,000 to 3,000 people a day coming to your site through search.

想知道写什么，就去ahrefs.com买个订阅，它会告诉你人们都在搜什么，这样你就知道该写什么了。

The way you find out what to write about is you go to ahrefs.com and you buy a subscription, and that will teach you what to write because it will tell you what people are searching for.

试着为这些关键词做排名，积累一个5000人的邮件列表，然后创建一个课程卖给他们。

Try to rank for those words, build up an email list of 5,000 people, and then create a course and sell it to them.

我喜欢这个主意。

I like it.

我也喜欢查关键词这个做法。

And I like the looking up the keywords.

就像有了考试的答案一样。

It's like having the answers to the test.

就像，这就是人们想知道的。

It's like, here's what people want to know.

对，直接回答就行了。

Yeah, just answer it.

直接回答就行了。

Just answer it.

通过自己学习来回答，然后把你学到的东西教给别人。

And answer it by learning on your own and then just teaching people what you learn.

教别人或者创作内容有两种方式。

There's two ways to teach or to create content.

一种是当专家，另一种是当好奇的新手。

One is to be the expert, and the other way is to be the curious novice.

所以很多——

And so a lot of-

第二种方式百分之百有效。

The second one 100% works.

很多人把自己排除在外，因为他们觉得“我不是专家”，但实际上，好奇的新手——

A lot of people count themselves out because they just assume, "I'm not the expert," but in reality, the curious novice-

你只需要比别人领先一步。

You only need to be one step above

……看起来很好。

... looks great.

对，你只需要比你的观众领先一步，而这一步可能只是你周末读了一本书。

Yeah, you've just got to be one step in front of your audience, and that one step could be you just read a book over the weekend.

所以如果我是个21岁的小伙子，我会去Yelp上找个非常具体的领域，比如灌溉服务、脚手架租赁、草坪修剪服务。

So if I was a 21-year-old kid, what I would do is go on Yelp, pick a very specific niche like irrigation services, scaffolding rental, lawn cutting service.

在纳什维尔或丹佛这样的小镇选个细分领域，然后试着开一家能在Yelp上打败所有其他商家的公司。

Pick some niche in a town like Nashville, Denver, something like that, and try to start a business that beats all the other people on Yelp.

我对整合本地商家这个想法特别着迷，所以——

I'm quite obsessed with the idea of consolidating local businesses, so-

所以你——

And so you-

挺无聊的，对吧？

Boring stuff, right?

其实不无聊。

Well, it's not boring.

就像人们不喜欢听那些显而易见的东西，这几乎是显而易见的，或者说就是基础的东西。

It's like people don't like to hear the obvious, and it's almost the obvious, or it's the basics.

哥们，因为人们都太花哨了，真的。

Dude, because people are super fancy, man.

我和拉蒙，我们俩一起创办或投资了五六家公司，加起来大概赚了一千万美元左右，而且做的都是地球上最简单的事情。

Me and Ramon, him and I have started or funded five or six companies that collectively make $10 million or something like that, and it's like the most simple shit on earth.

如果我告诉你这家公司赚了这么多钱，你肯定会说："什么？"

And if I told you that this company makes this much money, you'd be like, "What?

"这也太蠢了吧。"

That is so stupid."

拉蒙有一家公司，我也参与了一点，是卖狗狗坡道的。

Ramon owns this one that I participate on a little bit as well that sells dog ramps.

什么是狗狗坡道？

What's a dog ramp?

狗狗坡道就是给腊肠犬或者...

A dog ramp is when you have a dachshund or...

你养的是什么狗？

What kind of a dog do you have?

吉娃娃吗？

Like a chihuahua?

我有一只马尔济斯贵宾犬。

I have a maltipoo.

他说那是给腊肠犬用的。

He said it was for wiener dogs.

那就是腊肠犬。

That's a dachshund.

哦，好的。

Oh, okay.

那是它的正式叫法。

That's the fancy word for it.

香肠狗。

Sausage dog.

腊肠狗。

Wiener dog.

当你养这些小狗，它们想跳上床却跳不上去，所以就是一个……其实就是一块木板，可以翻起来，就像一个小型的无障碍坡道，你的狗就能上去了。

When you have these small dogs and they want to get on your bed, they can't get up, so it's just like a... All it is is a piece of wood and it flips up So like a ramp, like a miniature handicap ramp, and your dog can get up there.

而且有时候一天就能赚好几万美元。

And that makes sometimes tens of thousands of dollars a day.

那为什么人们会害怕这些生意呢？

And why are people scared of these businesses?

还是他们只是觉得不可能赚那么多？

Or do they just assume it can't be that big?

或者——

Or-

原因在这里。

Here's why.

我经常想这个问题，因为我和我的团队一直有分歧。

I think about this all the time because I struggle with my team.

他们不理解杠杆效应，所以他们觉得要赚，比如说，一百万美元，就得付出他们认为相当于一百万美元的工作时间。

They don't understand leverage, so they think that in order to make, let's say, a million dollars, you have to work an equivalent amount of hours that in their head they think is a million dollars.

或者你得有一个相当于百万美元级别的创意。

Or you have to have an idea that is the equivalent of a million-dollar idea.

但实际上，你只需要执行得非常好，这跟你在某件事上花多少时间没有关系。

When in reality, you could just have really good execution, which is not tied to the amount of time in which you spend on something.

你可以执行得相当好，比如短时间内投入百分之百的精力，如果杠杆用得对，就能创造巨大的价值。

You could have pretty good execution, like 100% effort for a short amount of time, and that if you leverage it correctly, it creates significant amounts of value.

所以他们把事情想得太复杂了。

And so they overthink stuff.

而且，我觉得他们心里有愧疚感。

Also, I think they feel guilty.

就像——

It's like-

怎么个愧疚法？

Guilty how?

我打个比方，就像你妈妈做的花生酱果酱三明治，总是比你自己做的好吃，因为你看到它有多简单，你就会想，"哦，这也没什么嘛。"

Like the way I compare it is like when your mom makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it always tastes better than when you do it because you see how simple it is, and you're like, "Oh, this isn't that."

就像，"对，肯定得比这好得多。"

Like, "Yeah, it's got to be way better.

就像别人肯定是用完全不同的方法做的，因为这不可能是这样。

Like the other people must do it way different because this isn't that.

这不可能这么简单，对吧？

This can't be that easy, can it?"

差不多就是这个意思，人们就是想太多了。

And that's kind of like the idea, and people overthink stuff.

我还觉得我们身边有很多高智商的人，而且我觉得你越聪明，在某些事情上反而越吃亏——

I also think that we hang out with a lot of high IQ people, and I think the smarter you are, the more disadvantaged you are at some of these-

在赚钱上

At making money

……在某些简单的事情上。

... at some of these simple things.

还有恐惧。

And it's also fear.

人们害怕。

People are afraid.

这些花生酱果酱三明治生意，如果你善用杠杆，就能做得很好。这就是区别所在，你那个热狗摊的点子，如果当初多加点杠杆，也能做成大生意。

These PB&J businesses can be great businesses if you apply leverage, and that's sort of the difference where your same hotdog stand idea could've been a big business if you just applied more leverage.

多开几家摊子，多设几个点。

More stands, more locations.

搞成加盟。

Franchised it out.

而创造杠杆的方式，就是你必须用一种非常特定的方式来布局。

And the way you create leverage is you just have to set things up in a very particular way.

所以你就雇几个关键人物，或者利用互联网，然后意识到，我可以做同样的事，只不过把广告投入后面加两个零。

So you just hire key people, or you use the internet and you realize, well, I can do the same thing, but I just put two zeros on the back of my ad spend.

就像，哇，我没多费什么劲，但赚的钱是原来的十倍。

It's like, wow, I'm not doing any extra effort, but I'm getting 10 times the amount of money.

然后那个——

And that-

我觉得你买过一家公司，一家SaaS公司，或者对不了解的人来说，就是一家订阅制公司。

I think you had a business that you bought, a SaaS company, or for those who don't know, a subscription company.