This article was co-authored by Lisa Lovallo, a Wharton MBA graduate and Head of Business Development at RockThePost, an online investment platform that connects startups with investors.
本文由作者与莉萨·洛瓦洛（Lisa Lovallo）共同撰写。洛瓦洛是沃顿商学院MBA毕业生，担任在线投资平台RockThePost的业务发展主管，该平台旨在为初创公司和投资者牵线搭桥。
IBM and Kraft – his vision and discipline lend guidance to entrepreneurs as they launch and grow their businesses. Often, busy entrepreneurs are hustling to get customers and hacking to get users without a clear vision of the value they aim to bring to them. For direction on how to create undeniable value for the people who will pay you for it, some of Buffett’s unwavering tenets can be employed to help entrepreneurs identify how to create the value that resonates with end users and investors alike.
作为对价值一贯具有远见卓识的一位投资大师，沃伦·巴菲特（Warren Buffett）近来经常被人提及。虽然他的投资组合完全由历史悠久的跨国公司（比如可口可乐、IBM和卡夫食品公司）的股票构成，但他的远见以及自制力，可以为企业家在创办和发展自己公司的过程中提供指导。通常情况下，全神贯注的企业家们忙于获得客户和用户，但对于自己打算向客户和用户提供的价值却没有一个清晰的愿景。至于如何为客户和用户创造无可否认的价值——从而让他们为此愿意付钱给你，巴菲特一些坚定不移的基本原则可以加以采纳，以此帮助企业家确定——如何创造让最终用户和投资者均产生共鸣的价值。
There is plenty written about Buffett’s philosophy and strategy, but here are five principles that are most relevant to entrepreneurs, reinterpreted:
有关巴菲特的理念和策略的文章已经很多，但以下是我们重新诠释的与企业家最为相关的五个原则：
1. Build an economic moat
1. 构建经济护城河
A term coined by Buffett himself, an economic moat is a metaphor for competitive advantage. The wider the moat – the more distance you can put between you and your competitors – the better chance at coming out on top you will have. Buffett favors franchises over commodities simply because their products are more distinguishable from the others in the industry. A distinguishable characteristic is any competitive advantage that sets your company apart, making customers more likely to buy your product than anyone else’s.
由巴菲特自己创造的“经济护城河”这个术语是竞争优势的一种比喻说法。这个护城河越宽——即你把自己与竞争对手之间的距离拉得越远，那么你最终获胜的机会就越大。巴菲特之所以偏好特许经营权，而不是大宗商品，实在是因为拥有特许经营权的公司的产品能够更好地与行业中其他公司区分开来。一个可区分的特性是能让你的公司脱颖而出的任何竞争优势，从而让客户更有可能购买你的产品，而不是其他公司的产品。
What this means for entrepreneurs is to identify which characteristics your company can and should compete on to provide unprecedented value in the market. Often times, this means forging new ground that is completely different from your competitors. What you can do is identify the qualities that your competitors have – such as strong brand name or big-shot advisors – and then identify the qualities that your end users are looking for and deliver on those, regardless of what your competitors are doing. Most end users don’t care who your advisors are, as long as they are getting a product or service from you that makes their lives easier in one form or another. It’s your job to figure out what those dimensions are, much like Apple
对于企业家而言，这意味着识别你的公司可以而且应该拥有的特征，借此与对手竞争，并提供市场上前所未有的价值。很多时候，这意味着开拓与竞争对手完全不同的新领域。你可以做的是，无论竞争对手正在做什么，识别竞争对手所具有的品质——比如强大的品牌或者著名的顾问，然后识别最终用户希望得到的品质，并提供这些品质。大多数最终用户并不在意你的顾问是谁，只要他们从你这里获得的产品或服务能以某种方式让他们的生活变得更加便利轻松即可。你的职责就是搞清楚这其中包括哪些方面，就像苹果相继推出iPod、iTunes、iPad产品系列所做到的那样。
2. Be a strong rebounder
2. 成为一家强大的“抢篮板球型”企业
Buffett believes that investors “should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful, ” as noted in a Forbes article by fellow contributor, John Reese. Of course, this advice is intended for investors in the stock market – just because others are selling quality stocks as an overreaction to tough times, doesn’t meant that they aren’t stocks worth owning over the long run. It’s their perseverance that helps them pull ahead of the pack on the rebound.
正如我的同事、福布斯撰稿人约翰·里斯（John Reese）在这篇文章中所述，巴菲特认为，投资者“应该尽量做到在别人贪婪时恐惧，在别人恐惧时贪婪。”当然，这个建议是向股市投资者提出的：只是因为别人都在抛售优质股（对艰难时期作出过度反应），并不意味着这些优质股不值得长期持有。在股市反弹时，助投资者遥遥领先的正是他们坚持不懈持有这些股票的毅力。
As an entrepreneur, you are familiar with the ups and downs of trying to get your business off the ground. You have a level of personal perseverance – especially in the face of high risk – that most people don’t have. It’s your responsibility to pass that perseverance on to your company, and in turn, on to your end users. You want them to feel like the risk of buying from you (or investing in you), repeatedly over time, is worth sticking with you when times are tough.
作为一名企业家，你熟知让业务起步所要面临的各种曲折起伏。你拥有大多数人不具备的一种个人毅力——尤其是面对高风险时。你的职责是，把这种个人毅力传递给你的公司再到你的最终用户。你希望他们觉得，随着时间的推移反复向你购买产品或服务（或向你投资）所面临的风险，是值得在艰难时期与你站在一起的。
OMGPOP is an example of a company that persevered and rebounded often until they hit the right formula with Draw Something. The 20 other mobile games they created never took off, but they kept at it until they created something that 50+ million users wanted.
游戏开发商OMGPOP就是一个例子，在凭借游戏《你画我猜》（Draw Something）找到正确方法之前，该公司坚持不懈，经常从失败中再次站起。他们开发的其他二十款移动游戏从来没有获得成功，但他们坚持不懈，直到开发出一款5,000多万用户都想要玩的热门游戏为止。
3. Find a high margin business model, and then find higher margins
3. 找到一个利润率高的商业模式，然后提高利润率
Buffett looks at profitability at least five years into the past, if not ten, and he looks for a consistently increasing profit margin. Although early stage companies don’t have five years of history, they can begin building it now. It’s never too early to identify ways to increase your profit margin, especially since your business will depend on that the most early on.
巴菲特着眼于至少过去五年（甚至十年）的企业盈利能力，而且他希望看到企业利润率持续增长。虽然处于创业早期阶段的公司没有五年的经营历史，但它们可以现在开始创造这个历史。确定提高利润率的各种方法永远不会太早，尤其是因为你的公司在早期最依赖于利润率。
It is a challenge to do this, but not impossible. Visionaries like Henry Ford first identify the price point that will get the greatest number of customers buying the product, and then backwards engineered the process to reduce the cost. Ford not only envisioned selling cars at a fraction of the cost of other options, he also identified a new market to sell to – the horse and buggy owners – not just the few wealthy owners who could buy the custom cars of the time. Out of that vision was born the assembly line and interchangeable parts which drastically reduced the cost of the car, allowing him to produce a high-value product for the masses. Ford was a great entrepreneur who serves as an example, and a testament to that given how long his company has been in business.
要做到这一点颇具挑战性，但并非不可能。亨利·福特（Henry Ford）等具有远见的企业家首先确定了将会促使最多客户购买汽车的价格，然后反向设计旨在降低成本的产品生产工艺。福特不仅预想到以其他方案所花成本的零头销售汽车，还发现了销售汽车的一个新的市场——马和马车的所有者，而不仅仅是当时有能力购买定制汽车的少数富裕车主。从这一设想中诞生了组装生产线以及可互换零件，从而大幅降低了汽车生产成本，使他能够为大众生产一款高价值的产品。福特是一位伟大的企业家，考虑到他的公司经营历史相当悠久，他绝对是伟大企业家的一个典范以及一个证明。
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