華爾街的賺錢(qián)經(jīng) 第56期:馬云談創(chuàng)業(yè)(4)

We competed with China Telecom for about a year. The general manager of China Telecom offered toinvest$185, 000 to do a joint venture. It was the most money I had ever seen in my life. But unfortunnately, China Telecom got five seats on the board. I got two seats on the board. Everything we suggested, they turned us down. It was like an elephant and an ant. I resigned. Then, I got an offer to come to Beijing and run a new government group to promote e-commerce.

我們與中國(guó)電信競(jìng)爭(zhēng)了長(zhǎng)達(dá)一年的時(shí)間。中國(guó)電信的老總愿意出資18.5萬(wàn)美元與我們建立一個(gè)合資公司。這可是我當(dāng)時(shí)所見(jiàn)到的最大的一筆資金。但不幸的是，中國(guó)電信占了董事會(huì)的五個(gè)席位，而我們只占了兩個(gè)。我們所提出的要求都被他們拒絕了。這就像是一頭大象和一只螞蟻在較量，于是我辭職了。之后，我來(lái)到北京，加入了一個(gè)政府部門(mén)的新團(tuán)隊(duì)來(lái)推動(dòng)電子商務(wù)的建設(shè)。

My dream was to set up my own e-commerce company. In 1999, I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table and that got us$60, 000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name. Alibaba is easy to spell and people everywhere associate that with "Open ,Sesame," the command that Ali Baba used to open doors to hidden treasures in One Thousand and One Nights, the book of Middle Eastern folktales.

我的夢(mèng)想是建立一家屬于自己的電子商務(wù)公司。1999年，我召集了18個(gè)人到我家來(lái)，把我的想法跟他們講了整整兩個(gè)小時(shí)。所有人都把他們的錢(qián)放到了桌子上，就這樣，我們湊了6萬(wàn)美元，開(kāi)始了阿里巴巴的創(chuàng)業(yè)之路。因?yàn)槲蚁雱?chuàng)建一個(gè)全球化的公司，所以我為公司取了一個(gè)國(guó)際化的名字。阿里巴巴的英文拼寫(xiě)非常簡(jiǎn)單，而且世界各地的人會(huì)由此聯(lián)想到“芝麻開(kāi)門(mén)”——在中東民間故事集《一千零一夜》中“阿里巴巴”是為了藏寶物而用來(lái)叫開(kāi)盜穴大門(mén)的咒語(yǔ)。

There were three reasons why we survived. We had no money, we had no technology, and we had no plan. Every dollar, we used very carefully. The office opened in my apartment. We expanded when we raised money from Goldman Sachs in 1999 and then Softbank Corporation in 2000.

我們沒(méi)有資金、沒(méi)有技術(shù)，也沒(méi)有計(jì)劃，但是我們?nèi)阅?ldquo;活下來(lái)”有三個(gè)原因，一是每一分錢(qián)我們用得都非常仔細(xì);二是辦公室就在我的家里;三是1999年和2000年，我們分別從高盛公司和軟銀集團(tuán)那里籌集到兩筆投資，之后我們擴(kuò)大了公司的規(guī)模。

注釋：

1.joint venture n.合營(yíng)企業(yè);合資企業(yè)

例句：This point is particularly important for joint venture projects.

這一點(diǎn)對(duì)合資企業(yè)項(xiàng)目來(lái)說(shuō)尤其重要。

2.resign v.辭職;辭去(某職務(wù))

例句：It would be foolish and impetuous to resign over such a trivial matter.

為這樣的小事辭職未免愚蠢而輕率

3.command n.命令;指揮;指令;司令部v.命令;指揮;控制;博得

例句：The party was no longer able to command a majority in Parliament.

該黨已不再能夠在國(guó)會(huì)中占有多數(shù)。