How to Make Your First $1M (At Any Age)

章节 1：成为领域专家，打造高价值公司

📝 本节摘要：

本章通过 Joe Liemandt 创办 Trilogy 的经历，探讨如何从解决客户真正重视的问题出发，打造即使价格提升十倍仍值得购买的高价值产品。创业者应热爱事业，持续学习并成为领域专家，以专业知识建立信任、积累受众，将人工智能聚焦于企业需求，最终建设卓越且能击败竞争对手的公司。

[原文] [Speaker A]: He was going to write me a check for $25 million, and I was under 25 years old. For me, it wasn't about what I could spend. It was about building something customers really value. Being able to create a product that could be 10 times more expensive, and the customer still thinks they're stupid if they say no. That is how you design great products. But a valuable product is only part of it. People need a reason to trust what you know, and that can start before you launch. And so you will be able to build an audience even before you have a product, just with your knowledge. So when you hear these pitches, think about the problem, the price, and the people you're trying to reach. Before we jump into this video, this is from our first week at Founder School. Students had 5 days before

[译文] [Speaker A]: 他当时准备给我开一张 2500 万美元的支票，而那时我还不到 25 岁。对我来说，重点不是我能花多少钱，而是打造真正有价值、让客户看重的东西。你要能够创造出一种产品，即使价格提高十倍，客户仍会觉得拒绝它是愚蠢的。这就是设计伟大产品的方法。但有价值的产品只是其中一部分。人们需要有理由相信你所掌握的知识，而这种信任甚至可以在产品发布之前就开始建立。所以，即使你还没有产品，只凭借你的知识，也能提前积累受众。听这些项目路演时，要思考他们要解决的问题、定价，以及想触达的人群。在开始这期视频之前，先说明一下：这是我们创始人学校第一周的内容。学生们有 5 天时间，在

[原文] [Speaker A]: pitching Joe on their business ideas.

[译文] [Speaker A]: 向 Joe 介绍他们的商业创意。

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: Seems like you could charge a lot more.

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 感觉你完全可以把价格定得高得多。

[原文] [Speaker A]: So my offer is

[译文] [Speaker A]: 所以我的报价是——

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: You're going into the hardest market in the world. You're on 11 out of 10.

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 你要进入的是全世界最难的市场。你的难度是 10 分制里的 11 分。

[原文] [Speaker A]: If you enjoy these videos, please leave us a like. Let us know in the comments, and hit the subscribe button so we see you in the next video. But first, here's what the man who planned to write that check told me.

[译文] [Speaker A]: 如果你喜欢这些视频，请给我们点个赞，在评论区告诉我们你的想法，并点击订阅按钮，这样我们下期视频再见。但首先，听听那个准备给我开出那张支票的人是怎么对我说的。

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: When I was your age, if somebody gave me $25 million, I would have gone to some island. I would have just been out of here, and that's—I would have been done. And I was like, okay, but I'm not. I'm building, like, the world's greatest company. And cuz they were worried that they're like, I'm giving too much money to a young kid. And I'm like, no, we are building the world's greatest thing. And so, back to having one of the things when you start building your company, what you think about is the money you're making is what lets your company get better, not that you have the money, right?

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 我在你这个年纪时，如果有人给我 2500 万美元，我可能会跑去某个小岛。我会直接离开这里，就此结束一切。但我当时想，好吧，可我不会这么做。我正在打造世界上最伟大的公司。他们之所以担心，是因为他们觉得，自己给一个年轻人投了太多钱。我却说，不，我们正在打造世界上最伟大的事业。所以，回到创业时需要思考的一点：你赚到的钱，应该用来让公司变得更好，而不是因为你手里有钱，就只想着花掉，对吧？

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: That your initial interest may be, "Ooh, I want to make a bunch of money. That sounds awesome." But what that will translate into for the company is, "No, the money is what lets me build, do what I love, which is build a better, more awesome company," right? And you'll find that most entrepreneurs spend vastly less than they could. They don't do it so that they can go spend the money; they do it so they can go build more.

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 你一开始可能会想：“哇，我想赚一大笔钱，听起来太棒了。”但这件事最终对公司意味着的是：“不，钱能让我去建设，去做我真正热爱的事，也就是打造一家更好、更棒的公司。”对吧？你会发现，大多数创业者实际花的钱远少于他们能花的钱。他们这么做不是为了以后拿钱去消费，而是为了继续建设、创造更多东西。

[原文] [Speaker A]: I was just wondering, okay, when you dropped out of college, what business did you start?

[译文] [Speaker A]: 我想问一下，你从大学退学后，创办的是什么公司？

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: So I started Trilogy, and it was an AI company. So my background of stuff was just in—when I was in high school, I wrote a paper on AI, and this is way back, a hundred zillion years ago, in the '80s. And it was old-school AI. It's not the stuff you guys think today. And then I went to Stanford because they were the center of AI, Silicon Valley AI, and the father of expert systems and AI back then. I went to his class, learned everything about it, and then I'm like, I can build one of these. So for me, I knew I'd written about AI and the technology, and I had this technology idea, but the big thing—and I think you guys are doing the first 70 pages of Formosy's book, right?

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 我创办了 Trilogy，它是一家人工智能公司。我的相关背景是这样的：我上高中时写过一篇关于人工智能的论文，那已经是很久很久以前了，大概在 80 年代。当时是老派的人工智能，和你们今天理解的不是一回事。后来我去了斯坦福，因为那时斯坦福是人工智能的中心，也是硅谷人工智能的中心；而且当时专家系统和人工智能之父就在那儿。我去上了他的课，学会了相关领域的全部知识，然后我想：我可以做出这样的系统。对我来说，我了解人工智能及其技术，也有一个技术创意，但更重要的是——我想你们正在读 Formosy 那本书的前 70 页，对吧？

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: Which I think, if you guys have gone through it, right, you are now better than 90% of the entrepreneurs because so few people master that. And that is, like, when we talk about critical skills that you can teach people, right, that concept of narrow your focus, right? Be able to create a product that could be 10 times more expensive, and the customer still thinks they're stupid if they say no. That is how you design great products. The way I was thinking about it is, what product can I build that companies will give me tons of money for, right? Where is there huge value that, if I build this extra system, right, this AI product, that companies like IBM will give me $25 million?

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 我觉得，如果你们已经读过这部分内容，那么你们现在就已经比 90% 的创业者更强了，因为真正掌握这套方法的人非常少。这就是我们谈到可以教给别人的关键技能：聚焦，把范围缩小，对吧？你要能够创造一种产品，即使价格提高十倍，客户仍会觉得拒绝它是愚蠢的。这就是设计伟大产品的方法。我当时思考的是：我能打造什么产品，让公司愿意为它支付巨额费用？如果我开发出这个额外的系统，也就是这个人工智能产品，像 IBM 这样的公司会愿意为它支付 2500 万美元，那么它的巨大价值究竟在哪里？

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: That's what caused me to realize when I—that I should drop out, is cuz there was all these people who tried to do AI in the '80s, and none of them focused on, well, what provides a ton of value to the customer. They focused on what's cool to work on, right? And there's always this temptation of, oh, I want to work on the cool thing. I had come from it. And I was like, "Yeah, whatever, on the cool thing. That doesn't seem to be working out." Cuz all these other companies weren't doing well. And I was like, "I'm going to focus on something that companies think is really valuable." And so that was why we were the first company to sell a billion dollars. I was literally the first one, even though I was a kid, to be like, "Hey, let's make sure this is

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 这让我意识到自己应该退学，因为 80 年代有很多人尝试做人工智能，但他们没有一个真正关注：什么能为客户提供巨大价值。他们关注的是哪些东西做起来很酷，对吧？人总是会受到这种诱惑：“哦，我想做那个酷的东西。”我以前也有这种想法。但我后来想：“算了，那个酷东西似乎并没有奏效。”因为其他那些公司发展得都不好。于是我决定专注于那些公司认为真正有价值的东西。这也是为什么我们成为第一家卖到 10 亿美元的公司。我确实是第一个——尽管当时还是个孩子——提出：“嘿，我们得确保这东西

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: Worth a ton of money." And there was an article that had been published that this concept, the big hardware companies like Hewlett-Packard and IBM and AT&T, it was worth a million dollars a day. And I was like, "Okay, that seems like a lot of money, and if I can solve that problem, they're going to give me some of that money." And that was the key. And so I hadn't—and I had to narrow because AI expert systems are a big field. I had to narrow it down just to the total herozi thing.

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 值一大笔钱。”当时有一篇文章发表，说这个概念对惠普、IBM 和 AT&T 这样的大型硬件公司而言，每天价值 100 万美元。我想：“好吧，这看起来是一大笔钱。如果我能解决这个问题，他们就会把其中一部分钱给我。”这就是关键。所以我必须进一步聚焦，因为人工智能专家系统是一个很大的领域。我必须把它缩小到整个 Herozi 这件事上。

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: Make sure it's 10 times more expensive than everybody else, right? And then still have companies like IBM say they feel like they're idiots if they'd say no to me. If you are going to build a product, right, and build a company around something, you do have to wake up and love it and say, "I want to be the world's best at this. I want to be the world's best." And that concept of "I am going to become an expert. There won't be anybody who knows more than me about it," right? That embodies everything that you'll do. So when I said I want to become a principal of a school, and I'm like, well, I went and read all the learning science papers that said, how can kids learn 10 times faster, right? And now I can sit and—why, why do I get invited on podcasts? Because

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 确保它比其他所有产品都贵十倍，对吧？但即便如此，还是要让 IBM 这样的公司觉得，如果拒绝我，反而像是他们自己犯傻。如果你要打造一款产品，并围绕它创建一家公司，那你必须每天醒来都热爱它，并告诉自己：“我要成为这件事上全世界最优秀的人。我要做到世界第一。”这种“我要成为专家，没人比我更了解这件事”的想法，会贯穿你所做的一切。所以，当我说我想成为一所学校的校长时，我就去阅读了所有关于学习科学的论文，研究孩子如何能快十倍地学习。现在我可以坐在这里——为什么，为什么我会受邀参加播客？因为

[原文] [Joe Liemandt]: I'm now an expert in education in less than four years, right? So when you think about your four years of Founders School, right? You guys, in your field, whatever your product is, whatever the company you're starting is, you will be the world's expert in this, right? If you're going to be successful, you have to be the expert because if you aren't, there's going to be someone else who is. And when they are, they're going to build a company that actually beats you because they have better insights into how to do that. And so the first part is just this. And that's the part of: are you chasing this for money, or are you chasing this because you love it? And that's part of what you guys want to find. You want to find something you love because you're like, "Oh, this is awesome. I like to work on

[译文] [Joe Liemandt]: 不到四年，我现在已经成了教育领域的专家，对吧？所以，当你们想到自己在 Founders School 的四年时，要明白：在你们各自的领域里，无论你们的产品是什么，无论你们正在创办什么公司，你们都将成为这个领域的世界级专家，对吧？如果你想成功，就必须成为专家，因为如果你不是，就会有别人做到。而当别人掌握了更深的专业洞察，他们就会打造出真正击败你的公司。所以，第一点就是：你是在为了钱追逐这件事，还是因为热爱它才去追逐？这正是你们需要找到的答案之一。你们要找到自己热爱的事情，因为你会觉得：“哇，这太棒了。我喜欢做这个……”