People who can never have enough money don't want the money. What they want is the dopamine hit they get every time they feel they have won. Money is the measuring stick they are using to keep track. No amount of money will make them happy. You can say the same about the elites in any field. It's not about the thing but about winning the competition.
那些永远无法满足于金钱的人并不想要金钱。他们想要的是每次感到自己赢了时所获得的多巴胺快感。金钱是他们用来跟踪的衡量标准。再多的金钱也无法让他们快乐。你可以对任何领域的精英说同样的话。这不是关于物质，而是关于赢得竞争。

Many of us will hit a point where what we have is enough. If we are lucky enough to hit that point then we will retire or keep doing what needs to be done to maintain that point. Looks like you hit that point. Good for you...
我们中的许多人会达到一个点，在这个点上我们所拥有的就足够了。如果我们足够幸运地达到那个点，那么我们将退休或继续做需要做的事情以维持那个点。看起来你达到了那个点。为你感到高兴……

I just want to have a dignified journey. Help those around me, be a little bit better everyday, and leave peacefully when it's time. Hoarding anything seems like a way to get attached and thus unable to face my curtains time gracefully.
我只想拥有一个体面的旅程。帮助我周围的人，每天变得好一点，到了时候平静地离开。囤积任何东西似乎是一种依附的方式，因此无法优雅地面对我的帷幕时光。

Why would I care about getting “rich”? I’m 50. I work remotely, I have a great marriage and deep close personal friends, I’m in pretty good shape, I’m well known and respected in my niche, I travel as much as I want to and for extended period of times.
我为什么要在意变得“富有”？我 50 岁了。我远程工作，拥有美好的婚姻和深厚的个人朋友关系，我的身体状况很好，在我的领域内享有良好的声誉和尊重，我可以随心所欲地旅行，并且可以长时间旅行。

I’ve worked at one BigTech company (only for a little over 3 years ending a couple of years ago) and turned down opportunities to make almost six figures more than I make now because stress wasn’t worth it.
我曾在一家大型科技公司工作（仅工作了三年多，几年前结束），并拒绝了几乎比我现在收入高出六位数的机会，因为压力不值得。

I’ve given up the big house in the burbs to live in a condo one third the size, more access to amenities and much better weather.
我放弃了郊区的大房子，住进了一个三分之一大小的公寓，享受更多的便利设施和更好的天气。

My short term needs are met in abundance and my long term needs are being addressed by putting money in investments every pay period.
我的短期需求得到了满足，我的长期需求通过每个工资周期投资来解决。

I make good money by any objective measure - but it’s equivalent to slightly less than what a mid level developer makes in BigTech.
从任何客观标准来看，我赚的钱都很好——但这相当于比大科技公司中级开发者的收入略少。

I figured out how to make money - go to work for 40 hours a week, get good in my niche and companies with money put some of that money in my account in exchange for labor.
我 figured out 如何赚钱——每周工作 40 小时，在我的专业领域变得优秀，拥有资金的公司将部分资金存入我的账户以换取劳动。

Life has seasons.  生活有季节。

There's a season for heat/fire.
有一个炎热/火的季节。

There's a season for cooling off.
有一个降温的季节。

I'm in the same boat, where I've cooled off.
我也在同一条船上，我已经冷静下来了。

I think it's okay.  我觉得这没问题。

The other way to go increase energy and light a fire again.
另一种增加能量和重新点燃火焰的方法。

I gave up this year when I learned that I have a fatal disorder. There isn't enough time left to get rich. I don't recommend slacking off because you have plenty of time yet. Once your number comes up, it's too late.
当我得知自己有致命疾病时，我今年放弃了。没有足够的时间去致富。我不建议你因为还有很多时间而松懈。一旦你的号码被抽中，就太晚了。

Then don't sound like one.
那就别听起来像个混蛋。

Well it’s toxic for someone to think when they have a fatal disease - “I wish I could have been rich”.
好吧，认为自己得了致命疾病的人会想 - “我希望我能富有”。

Feeling a bit lost - if there are no jobs left in 5 years, what can I do etc? With a family you can't make 1 year of savings last 5 or 10 by living very cheaply.
感觉有点迷茫 - 如果五年后没有工作，我该怎么办等等？有了家庭，你无法通过非常节俭地生活让一年的储蓄持续五年或十年。

A few years - and a couple babies - ago, I transitioned from education to implementation consulting. I have been doing very well at it, but I’m not an owner and won’t get rich. It’s a funny thing to feel very good about my time as an educator while also understanding the financial safety I gave up by doing so for ten years.
几年前 - 还有几个孩子 - 我从教育转向了实施咨询。我在这方面做得很好，但我不是老板，也不会变得富有。感觉自己作为教育者的时光非常美好，同时也理解我为此放弃的财务安全，这是一件有趣的事情。

I would love to join a product team and build something more durable. Consulting is very transactional and fleeting.
我很想加入一个产品团队，构建一些更持久的东西。咨询是非常交易性的和短暂的。

Similar here. I have no desire to be super successful. I just want to feel like a valued member of the team and do good work. I want enough money to someday retire and work on some reasonably priced hobbies. It's weird, but it seems like even asking for this is asking a lot.
类似的情况。我并不渴望超级成功。我只想感觉自己是团队中有价值的一员，并做出好的工作。我希望有足够的钱在某天退休，并从事一些价格合理的爱好。这很奇怪，但似乎连要求这个都是在要求太多。

> Anyone else give up on trying to get rich?
> 还有其他人放弃了致富的尝试吗？

How hard were you actually trying when you were trying to get rich? How close did you come to getting rich?
当你试图致富时，你实际上有多努力？你离致富有多近？

Why didn't you start a plumbing business or become a dentist or something?
你为什么不开始一个管道业务或成为牙医之类的？

Did you ever have a concrete definition of "rich" or was it always some nebulous "more" amount compared to what you had at any given time?
你有没有对“富裕”有过具体的定义，还是说它总是相对于你在任何给定时间拥有的东西而模糊的“更多”数量？

I failed a few FAANG interviews.
我在几次 FAANG 面试中失败了。

E5s at Facebook make around 200k a year in pure stock. Assuming it grows in value, do that for a decade and your at 2.5 million or so.
Facebook 的 E5 年薪大约为 20 万美元，全部为股票。假设它的价值增长，十年后你大约有 250 万美元。

Even after the taxes, that's enough to retire overseas.
即使扣除税款，这也足够让你在海外退休。

Now I'm old. It didn't happen so I'm content to write code for a middle class wage
现在我老了。事情没有发生，所以我满足于为中产阶级的工资写代码。

Building for fun what made me sleep well. I realised money is evil. It always brings bad crowd including your partner
为了乐趣而构建的东西让我睡得很好。我意识到金钱是邪恶的。它总是带来坏人，包括你的伴侣。

Many years ago when I took my current role I made a conscious decision to choose something that would grant me a good work-life balance. I wanted to check out at 4PM, not have to think about work after that, and do whatever I wanted.
许多年前，当我担任目前的职位时，我做出了一个有意识的决定，选择一个能让我获得良好工作与生活平衡的工作。我想在下午 4 点下班，之后不再考虑工作，做我想做的事情。

Since making this decision I've become an expert in a number of hobbies, gotten married, had kids, and am now living a quite pleasant life. The financial freedom people aim for in retirement, the time, I have that already. I'm already living a care-free life, largely doing what I want.
自从做出这个决定以来，我在许多爱好上变得很有经验，结了婚，生了孩子，现在过着相当愉快的生活。人们在退休时追求的财务自由和时间，我已经拥有了。我已经过上了无忧无虑的生活，基本上在做我想做的事情。

I have a family member who is a multi-millionaire and who owns multiple businesses. He has more money now than I'll have in my lifetime. But I have something that he doesn't have - time. In my estimation time is a much more valuable commodity to obtain than money. If you can work your career so you have enough money, but also time, that's a more valuable goal than simply 'being rich'.
我有一个家庭成员是百万富翁，拥有多家企业。他现在拥有的钱比我一生中能拥有的还要多。但我拥有他没有的东西——时间。在我看来，时间是一种比金钱更有价值的商品。如果你能在职业生涯中赚到足够的钱，同时也有时间，那比单纯的“富有”更有价值。

Money with no free time and boat load of stress is a shit life.
没有自由时间和大量压力的生活就是糟糕的生活。

> But I have something that he doesn't have - time
> 但我有他没有的东西 - 时间

No, both of you have the exact same amount of time each day.
不，你们两个人每天的时间是完全一样的。

But it seems like he has more freedom in how he spends that time? It's just that you don't agree with how he chooses to use it? The reason I say that is that you say spend your time "largely doing what I want." Doesn't your rich relative spend ALL their time doing what they want?
但似乎他在如何花费这些时间上有更多的自由？只是你不同意他选择使用这些时间的方式？我之所以这么说是因为你说花时间“主要做我想做的事。”难道你富有的亲戚不花所有时间做他们想做的事吗？

Nope. He is still dependent on his businesses to survive. It's a job for him just like it is for me. I have a boss, his businesses are his boss.
不。他仍然依赖他的生意来生存。对他来说，这就像对我一样是一份工作。我有一个老板，他的生意就是他的老板。

The difference is that I work far fewer, less stressful hours, and have much more time to myself.
区别在于我工作的时间远少于以前，压力也小得多，拥有更多的个人时间。

That's not to say that all businesses turn our like that, but the point is that having more money doesn't necessarily mean you have a better lifestyle.
这并不是说所有的企业都是这样，但关键是拥有更多的钱并不一定意味着你有更好的生活方式。

I can count a number of people who have more money than me but who have awful, stressful or tedious jobs.
我能列举出一些比我有钱的人，但他们却有糟糕、压力大或乏味的工作。

Yes.

I have a family member who is a multi-millionaire and who owns multiple businesses. He has more money now than I'll have in my lifetime
我有一个家庭成员是百万富翁，拥有多家企业。他现在的钱比我一辈子能拥有的还要多。

Why can’t he sell the businesses or hire an operator to run them while he collects checks?
他为什么不能出售这些企业或雇佣一个运营商来管理它们，同时他收取支票？

The difference is that I work far fewer, less stressful hours, and have much more time to myself.
不同之处在于我工作得少得多，压力也小得多，并且有更多的时间属于自己。

You both have 24 hours to yourself each day.
你们每天都有 24 小时属于自己。

You choose to spend yours one way, he chooses to spend his in another.
你选择以一种方式度过你的时间，他选择以另一种方式度过他的时间。

Because then he risks the businesses failing and losing his livelihood.
因为这样他就冒着企业失败和失去生计的风险。

On the second point, still nope. He took on the businesses for lack of a better option. It's true that it was a conscious choice, but my career path was actually harder to obtain, and more deliberate.
在第二点上，仍然不行。他接手这些企业是因为没有更好的选择。确实这是一个有意识的选择，但我的职业道路实际上更难获得，而且更有目的性。

Not that there's anything wrong with being a business owner, but hopefully I'm making the point clear that there is more to the life equation than the quantity of money you make.
并不是说成为企业主有什么错，但我希望我能清楚地表达出，生活的方程式中不仅仅是你赚多少钱。

He can't be a multimillionaire then? By definition if he was he could liquidate it all and retire if he wanted.
他不能成为百万富翁吗？根据定义，如果他是的话，他可以将所有资产变现并退休，如果他想的话。

See my comment above. It's not that simple. Yes he could retire, but then he'd be sitting around, doing nothing. As many entrepreneurs have discovered that's not actually an appealing life. So the work that he does have to do just happens to be stressful and time consuming.
请看我上面的评论。这并不简单。是的，他可以退休，但那样他就会无所事事。正如许多企业家发现的那样，这实际上并不是一种令人向往的生活。因此，他必须做的工作恰好是压力大且耗时的。

Basically, a business owner can find themselves in a theoretical situation where they have a boat load of money but are also overwhelmed with work and have no other options.
基本上，企业主可能会发现自己处于一种理论情况中，他们有一大笔钱，但也被工作压得喘不过气来，没有其他选择。

Granted, he probably will retire earlier than me, but in my scenario many of my co-workers actually choose not to retire, because they like the work.
当然，他可能会比我早退休，但在我的情况下，我的许多同事实际上选择不退休，因为他们喜欢这份工作。

> It's not that simple.
> 这并不简单。

No, it is that simple.
不，这就是简单。

Yes he could retire, but then he'd be sitting around, doing nothing
是的，他可以退休，但那样他就会无所事事。

So? Is that not a valid choice?
那又怎样？这不是一个有效的选择吗？

So the work that he does have to do just happens to be stressful and time consuming.
所以他必须做的工作恰好是压力大且耗时的。

Imagine that he doesn't have to do this. That doing it is something that he gets to do.
想象一下，他不必这样做。这样做是他可以做的事情。

Doesn't everything this person does tell us that they enjoy stress and having their time consumed by their business?
这个人所做的一切难道不告诉我们他们享受压力并且让自己的时间被生意占据吗？

Basically, a business owner can find themselves in a theoretical situation where they have a boat load of money but are also overwhelmed with work and have no other options.
基本上，企业主可能会发现自己处于一种理论情况中，他们有一大笔钱，但也被工作压得喘不过气来，别无选择。

There are always options.
总是有选择的。

Nope, he has no choice but to work as well, but he works 7 days a week and 10 hour days to keep his businesses afloat.
不，他也别无选择，只能工作，但他每周工作 7 天，每天 10 小时，以维持他的生意。

If he retired.. then what? I'm also going to retire, but in the interim I experience no stress, have plenty of free time, and enjoy what I do.
如果他退休了.. 那又怎样？我也要退休，但在此期间我没有压力，有很多空闲时间，享受我所做的事情。

If I understood you correctly, he can retire today because he already has enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life. He does have this choice, and he chooses to continue working. Do you have the same choice? Can you retire today?
如果我理解得没错，他今天可以退休，因为他已经有足够的钱可以舒适地生活余生。他确实有这个选择，但他选择继续工作。你有同样的选择吗？你今天可以退休吗？

What you're not understanding is that he doesn't have the choice either. He could retire in theory, but his businesses are how he spends his time. If he retired he would have too much free time. So in practice he's in the same situation as me, he has to work. But I work much less under less stressful conditions. As I said, work life balance. He doesn't have that.
你没有理解的是，他也没有选择。他理论上可以退休，但他的生意是他花时间的方式。如果他退休，他会有太多的空闲时间。所以实际上他和我处于同样的境地，他必须工作。但我在压力更小的情况下工作得少得多。正如我所说，工作与生活的平衡。他没有这个。

Let's see: he must work because he would have too much free time if he didn't, you must work because you would starve if you didn't. Yeah, clearly you're under less stressful conditions.
让我们看看：他必须工作，因为如果他不工作，他会有太多的空闲时间；你必须工作，因为如果你不工作，你会饿死。是的，显然你在压力更小的情况下。

I’ve read all your comments here, and as someone who has at different times been both the entrepreneur making big money and the employee working a chill job, I think you’re missing the point here.
我已经读过你在这里的所有评论，作为一个在不同时间既是赚大钱的企业家又是做轻松工作的员工的人，我认为你在这里错过了重点。

You started by making the point that he might have more money, but you have more time, which you conclude is ultimately more valuable.
你开始时指出他可能有更多的钱，但你有更多的时间，而你得出的结论是最终时间更有价值。

As many have pointed out, he can sell his business and retire, which you don’t have the option to do. Your rejoinder that he can’t do that because then he’d have too much time makes little sense, both because you’ve already setup the axiom that “more time = more freedom”, but also because he could at that point decide to do all kinds of things: start another business, buy one, get a job, work for charity, whatever. He’s quite obviously more free than you, although perhaps not psychologically, who can say.
正如许多人指出的，他可以出售他的生意并退休，而你没有这样的选择。你反驳说他不能这样做，因为那样他会有太多的时间，这没有什么意义，因为你已经设定了“更多时间 = 更多自由”的公理，但也因为他在那时可以决定做各种事情：开另一家公司，买一家公司，找一份工作，做慈善，等等。他显然比你更自由，尽管也许在心理上不是，谁能说呢。

You don’t need to defend your life choices to anyone, but from the outside it looks like you’re making an illogical case because you can’t accept that he actually does have more freedom than you. Which is OK! There’s always someone out there doing better than us.
你不需要向任何人辩护你的生活选择，但从外部看起来你似乎在做一个不合逻辑的论证，因为你无法接受他实际上比你拥有更多的自由。这没关系！总会有人在某些方面比我们做得更好。

Try retiring at age 45 and see how that goes.
试着在 45 岁时退休，看看会怎么样。

As I'm trying to re-iterate, work-life balance. Others in this thread are making the assumption that work is always bad. People like working, without work we have no purpose. But finding work that offers work life balance offers both - purpose and leisure time. Not an excess of one or the other,
正如我试图重申的，工作与生活的平衡。这个讨论中的其他人假设工作总是坏的。人们喜欢工作，没有工作我们就没有目标。但找到提供工作与生活平衡的工作可以同时提供目标和闲暇时间。不是单一的过多或过少，

When we have an excess of work and money we have no leisure time, when we have an excess of leisure time we have no purpose. This isn't that controversial of a point, read up on any number of uber-wealthy people that attempted to retire early.
当我们工作和金钱过多时，我们就没有闲暇时间；当我们闲暇时间过多时，我们就没有目标。这并不是一个有争议的观点，阅读任何数量的超级富豪试图提前退休的故事。

Sure they were financially free, but in practice they were beholden to the work they chose.
当然他们在经济上是自由的，但实际上他们依赖于自己选择的工作。

I get what you’re saying, I just think you’re justifying your position because you can’t change it. Someone who is financially independent can choose any point along the work/life balance continuum. You can’t.
我明白你的意思，我只是觉得你是在为自己的立场辩护，因为你无法改变它。一个经济独立的人可以在工作/生活平衡的连续体上选择任何一点。你不能。

And lots of people have retired early. Many struggle with it and return to work to find purpose or meaning. But they can choose to do that, and on their own terms. I’ve never heard anyone who has become financially independent wish they were back where they had to work a job in order to survive.
很多人提前退休了。许多人对此感到挣扎，并返回工作以寻找目的或意义。但他们可以选择这样做，并且是按照自己的条件。我从未听说过任何一个经济独立的人希望回到必须工作才能生存的地方。

And guess what, if they DID want that, they could choose that too! They could donate their money and go back to work.
而且你猜怎么着，如果他们确实想要那样，他们也可以选择那样！他们可以捐赠他们的钱然后回去工作。

They’re more free than you are, no matter how you slice it. It’s OK to acknowledge that.
无论你怎么切分，他们比你更自由。承认这一点是可以的。

I'll stop with this comment but I will say that there are a few fallacies in your comment. In short, you're overestimating the level of freedom many entrepreneurs actually have.
我会停止这个评论，但我会说你的评论中有一些谬论。简而言之，你高估了许多企业家实际上拥有的自由程度。

Can they choose anywhere on the work / life continuum? Maybe sometimes. Can they just go do something else? It's not always that simple.
他们可以在工作/生活的连续体上选择任何地方吗？也许有时可以。他们可以去做其他事情吗？这并不总是那么简单。

I’m not overestimating the freedom that entrepreneurs actually have. I didn’t make any statements about entrepreneurs in general, we’re talking specifically about your rich relative and how much freedom they have.
我并没有高估企业家实际上拥有的自由。我没有对企业家一般做出任何陈述，我们具体在谈论你的富有亲戚以及他们拥有多少自由。

For the record, I am currently self-employed again after a five-year stint in big tech. Prior to that I worked for myself for more than a decade. I’ve seen this issue from both sides, and I definitely wouldn’t say most entrepreneurs can pick anywhere on the work/life balance continuum. But again, we’re not talking about most entrepreneurs, or even really about entrepreneurs at all. We’re talking about people who have reached financial independence, specifically your relative. All of this would still be true if they were an employee who had enough money to stop working tomorrow.
为了记录，我目前再次自雇，在大型科技公司工作了五年之后。在此之前，我自己工作了十多年。我从两个方面看到了这个问题，我绝对不会说大多数企业家可以在工作/生活平衡的连续体上随意选择。但再说一次，我们并不是在谈论大多数企业家，甚至根本不是在谈论企业家。我们在谈论的是那些已经实现财务独立的人，特别是你的亲属。如果他们是一个有足够钱明天就可以停止工作的员工，这一切仍然是正确的。

As someone who eventually 'got rich' (to a very comfortable FatFIRE level) after decades of high-tech startup entrepreneurship across three startups and over a dozen new products, my primary objective was never "get rich". It was to earn a good living, making cool things, in ways I found interesting, in collaboration with people I liked, for customers I liked (<--- that last part is important). While I knew making better-than-good money was always a possibility, it was never the deciding factor in choosing what to do, how to do it, who to do it with or for.
作为一个最终“致富”（达到非常舒适的 FatFIRE 水平）的人，在三家初创公司和十多个新产品的高科技创业经历了几十年，我的主要目标从来不是“致富”。我的目标是赚取良好的生活，创造酷炫的东西，以我感兴趣的方式，与我喜欢的人合作，为我喜欢的客户服务（<---最后这一点很重要）。虽然我知道赚取比好钱更好的钱始终是一个可能性，但这从来不是我选择做什么、如何做、与谁合作或为谁服务的决定性因素。

trying to come up with multi-million dollar ideas
试图想出数百万美元的创意

In my experience, starting with that mindset is unlikely to work - and worse, its focusing on the wrong thing. If you can see the multi-million dollar idea - so can other people, including competitors with more money and momentum than a new startup. I approached it differently.
根据我的经验，以这种心态开始不太可能成功 - 更糟的是，这关注的是错误的事情。如果你能看到数百万美元的创意，其他人也能看到，包括那些比新创公司拥有更多资金和势头的竞争对手。我以不同的方式处理这个问题。

The general pattern which had the best success rate for me was applying a new technology (or old tech in a new way) which I found intriguing or cool to solve a real-world problem in a new or different way that was both better and cheaper than existing solutions. One important element was validating very early on that this problem actually existed and was important (ie high-value) to real potential customers. This meant actually meeting these people and sharing a non-functioning demo or conceptual prototype able to get them interested enough to want to test prototypes as the product evolved. If your non-functioning solution demo doesn't get real potential customers almost pleading to get in the beta - then you don't yet have the right problem, solution or customer.
对我来说，成功率最高的一般模式是应用一种新技术（或以新方式使用旧技术），我发现这种技术引人入胜或很酷，以一种新的或不同的方式解决现实世界中的问题，而且这种方式比现有解决方案更好且更便宜。一个重要的元素是尽早验证这个问题确实存在，并且对潜在客户来说是重要的（即高价值）。这意味着实际上要与这些人见面，并分享一个非功能性演示或概念原型，以引起他们的兴趣，想要在产品演变过程中测试原型。如果你的非功能性解决方案演示没有让真正的潜在客户几乎恳求加入测试版，那么你还没有找到正确的问题、解决方案或客户。

Developing solutions to solve real problems for real people whose names, needs and preferences we already knew made development both easier AND a lot more fun. It kept us focused and grounded in ways that were transformative. Note: I didn't say there had to be a million customers with a validated TAM of zillions of dollars. Just a handful of real customers in enough need to want to spend their limited time guiding some startup's non-existent product into existence. They're not doing it because they're nice, they're doing it because they're not happy with what they've got and want to ensure your solution arrives in a form able to solve their problem. I never spent a lot of time validating there was a huge market beyond the first pool of customers. I felt okay as long as there was plausible evidence of some reasonably sizable number of customers beyond our handful of "new best friend" customers. Doing it this way ensured we'd make some number of early adopters delighted as well as there being a high probability of at least enough early customers for a two-pizza-sized company to survive for a while.
为真实的人解决真实问题的解决方案开发，使得开发过程既更简单又更有趣，因为我们已经了解了他们的名字、需求和偏好。这让我们保持专注，并以变革性的方式扎根于现实。注意：我并没有说必须有一百万个客户和数以亿计的验证市场规模。只需少数几个真正的客户，他们有足够的需求，愿意花费有限的时间来指导某个初创公司的不存在的产品走向现实。他们这样做并不是因为他们好心，而是因为他们对现状不满意，希望确保你的解决方案能够以解决他们问题的形式到达。我从来没有花很多时间去验证在第一批客户之外是否有一个巨大的市场。只要有合理的证据表明在我们这几位“新好朋友”客户之外还有相当数量的客户，我就觉得没问题。这样做确保我们能让一些早期采用者感到高兴，并且至少有足够的早期客户的高概率，使得一个两比萨大小的公司能够生存一段时间。

While this was no guarantee of eventual riches, it did help ensure we were making something of real immediate value for at least some real customers who'd pay for our solution - and that alone put us past about >80% of the early issues that kill startups. The "riches" possibility is innate because once you're successfully applying an interesting new technology in new ways to solve a real problem that at least some real customers will pay real money for - there's probably at least a 10% - 20% chance you're one pivot (or less) away from an emerging new market you can be on (or close) to the ground floor of. So - once you're nearing first delivery to your "new best friend" customers, start keeping your eyes peeled for that emerging opportunity that's somewhere nearby in the same or an adjacent market. If it's not there, you've still got a lifestyle-sized business that's either breaking even or close to it, and that alone provides options. You can decide there's potential and work toward turning that break even into profit and growth or you can pivot to something adjacent with the benefit of some cash flow, real customers and the momentum of a shipping team. And that alone tends to get the attention of all the VCs who previously wouldn't return your calls.
虽然这并不能保证最终的财富，但确实帮助我们确保为至少一些愿意为我们的解决方案付费的真实客户创造了真正的即时价值——仅此一点就让我们克服了大约 80%以上早期会导致初创公司失败的问题。“财富”的可能性是内在的，因为一旦你成功地以新的方式应用一种有趣的新技术来解决一个至少一些真实客户愿意支付真实金钱的真实问题——你可能至少有 10%到 20%的机会，你距离一个新兴市场只有一次转变（或更少）的距离，你可以在这个市场的起步阶段（或接近）参与。因此——一旦你接近首次交付给你的“新好朋友”客户，就开始留意在同一市场或相邻市场中附近出现的机会。如果没有，你仍然拥有一个生活方式规模的业务，正在持平或接近持平，这本身就提供了选择。你可以决定有潜力，并努力将持平转变为利润和增长，或者你可以转向某个相邻的领域，利用一些现金流、真实客户和一个正在发货团队的势头。 而这单独就能引起所有之前不愿接听你电话的风险投资者的注意。

I hate the business side... actually figuring out how to make money... That's the hard part.
我讨厌商业方面……实际上弄清楚如何赚钱……这才是难点。

I doubt you'll be able to make it as a tech startup entrepreneur until you re-frame that. I used to jokingly say "If you solve a present and painful problem for your customers, it's hard to get them to stop throwing money at you." While an exaggeration, there's serious truth there. As for making money, until you find engineering a business model that actually works just as fascinating as engineering any other machine into actually fucking working - you'll suck at doing it and keep hating it. If you don't see a 'business model' as just another interesting, tangible and tractable engineering problem to be instrumented, debugged and solved - you'll probably have a better time working for other people.
我怀疑你能否成为一名科技创业者，直到你重新框定这个问题。我曾开玩笑地说过：“如果你为客户解决了一个当前的、痛苦的问题，他们很难不向你扔钱。”虽然这有些夸张，但其中确实有严肃的真理。至于赚钱，直到你发现工程一个实际上有效的商业模式和工程任何其他机器使其真正运作同样迷人——你就会在这方面表现糟糕，并且继续讨厌它。如果你不把“商业模式”视为另一个有趣的、具体的和可处理的工程问题来进行仪器化、调试和解决——你可能会更喜欢为别人工作。

I like building stuff with my friends
我喜欢和我的朋友一起建造东西

Okay, when you guys are done playing with yourselves, maybe try playing with someone else... or, even better, for someone else. Like real customers. Helping nice people in real need is way more interesting, challenging and emotionally rewarding than playing with yourselves. And having an audience who's invested in the quality of your performance is a wonderful way stay grounded in what matters. I got into this as a 20 year-old introvert who liked nerding around with computers, but on the journey I ended up meeting nice people with interesting problems and discovered I kind of liked using my nerd powers to 'save them' from the shitty, costly or annoying problem making part of their day miserable. Give it a try. Frankly, if solving interesting problems in cool ways for nice people doesn't light up some chunk of neurons in your skull, then maybe entrepreneurship isn't for you.
好吧，当你们玩够自己之后，或许可以试着和别人一起玩……或者，更好的是，为别人玩。像真正的客户。帮助真正需要帮助的好人比玩自己有趣得多、具有挑战性，并且在情感上更有回报。而且，有一个对你表演质量感兴趣的观众是保持关注于重要事物的绝妙方式。我是一个 20 岁的内向者，喜欢和电脑打交道，但在这个过程中，我遇到了有趣问题的好人，发现我有点喜欢用我的“极客能力”来“拯救他们”，让他们摆脱那些让他们的日子变得痛苦的糟糕、昂贵或烦人的问题。试试看。坦率地说，如果为好人以酷炫的方式解决有趣问题不能点燃你脑中的某些神经元，那么也许创业不适合你。

Bottom line, the way I eventually managed to "get rich" was by not trying to get rich. Instead, I changed my definition of success to: having fun with my friends solving real problems in technically interesting ways for real customers we liked. I emotionally came to peace with the reality that, if all I managed to do was solve problems for enough people to pay our rent and bills with a few bucks left over - that alone was enough. Not only enough to be worth doing but enough to be morally and ethically "Good". Sure, more financial upside would be nice if it happened but, the reality is, some of that will always be out of our control. Your post sounds like you're basically giving up on playing the tech startup game. Before you do, at least consider there may be ways to redefine the game so that it matters to more people than you and your friends, so that money is not the only metric and so that "winning" is mostly within your control.
底线是，我最终“致富”的方式并不是试图致富。相反，我改变了对成功的定义：与我喜欢的真实客户一起，以技术上有趣的方式解决真实问题，与朋友们一起享受乐趣。我情感上接受了这样的现实：如果我所能做的只是为足够多的人解决问题，以支付我们的租金和账单，并且还有一些剩余的钱——这就足够了。不仅足够值得去做，而且足够在道德和伦理上是“好的”。当然，如果有更多的财务收益那会很好，但现实是，其中一些总是超出我们的控制。你的帖子听起来像是你基本上放弃了玩科技创业游戏。在你这样做之前，至少考虑一下可能有重新定义游戏的方式，使其对你和你的朋友以外的更多人有意义，使金钱不是唯一的衡量标准，并且“胜利”主要在于你的控制之中。

>Your post sounds like you're basically giving up on playing the tech startup game. Before you do, at least consider there may be ways to redefine the game so that it matters to more people than you and your friends, so that money is not the only metric and so that "winning" is mostly within your control.
>你的帖子听起来就像是你基本上放弃了参与科技创业的游戏。在你这样做之前，至少考虑一下可能有办法重新定义这个游戏，使其对你和你的朋友以外的更多人有意义，使金钱不是唯一的衡量标准，并且“胜利”主要在于你自己的掌控之中。

Correct. I'm still open to working for startups, but as far as coming up with my own ideas, I've accepted it's probably not going to happen.
正确。我仍然愿意为初创公司工作，但就我自己提出想法而言，我已经接受这可能不会发生。

I still plan on making some side projects, working on an open source game now, and I've written a script ( probably going to switch it to a short graphical novel I can self fund).
我仍然计划做一些副项目，现在正在开发一个开源游戏，我写了一个脚本（可能会把它改成一个我可以自筹资金的短篇图形小说）。

I definitely will revisit your comment in the future, I think you've just provided a full semester of Business School in a few paragraphs. What I take from this is I need to find the tools that people want, and actually build those instead of building tools and then telling people how amazing and great they are.
我肯定会在未来重新审视你的评论，我认为你在几段话中提供了一个完整学期的商学院课程。我从中得到的是，我需要找到人们想要的工具，并实际构建这些工具，而不是先构建工具然后告诉人们它们是多么惊人和伟大。

I think the next big B2B opportunity would be something like Pivotal Tracker / Jira , but with intelligent LLM generated summaries of what each team member is working on. As well as the option to assign small scale tickets to code agents which would either write the code or at a minimum create a branch with the methods stubbed out.
我认为下一个大的 B2B 机会将是类似于 Pivotal Tracker / Jira 的东西，但带有智能 LLM 生成的每个团队成员正在做的工作的摘要。以及将小规模票据分配给代码代理的选项，这些代理要么编写代码，要么至少创建一个方法已被存根的分支。

I don't really think I have the capital to do this personally. But hypothetically if I did, I'd build a POC and then offer it to members of my game dev group.
我个人真的认为我没有资本来做这个。但假设我有，我会建立一个 POC，然后提供给我的游戏开发小组的成员。

Or maybe I should just go down to this one bar where I know a lot of old school business folks hang out. These are men and women with relatively high net worths, and just ask straight up what problems they'd liked solved.
或者我应该直接去那家我知道很多老派商界人士聚集的酒吧。这些是相对高净值的男女，直接问他们想解决什么问题。

Do you have any suggestions for books on your business philosophy ? I might have free time in a few months.
你有什么关于你的商业哲学的书籍推荐吗？我可能在几个月后有空。

> What I take from this is I need to find the tools that people want
> 我从中得到的启示是我需要找到人们想要的工具。

Yep.

Do you have any suggestions for books
你有什么书籍建议吗

Lean Startup by Eric Ries
《精益创业》 by Eric Ries

Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder
《商业模式新生代》 by Alex Osterwalder