财富精英励志演讲96:确定你的目标(2)

 　　So I mean, we tried to be as academic about this as possible in trying to think rigorously through the different results that we'll get if we go to different directions. But a lot of it is just like you define your objectives, what you're going for. In this case, to optimize¹ for the best of the whole community and the whole user base and over the long term, and that's important too, long term but short term. And then, you just kind of operate and do what you think will be best along that line.

　　所以我说，我们一直努力以最学术的态度去谨慎地思考不同方式所能产生的不同结果。但多数时候，你得先确定你的目标，你要的是什么。对我们来说，是寻求长期的整个社区及用户群体的利益最大化，注意是长期的，而不是短期的，这一点很重要。然后就是为更好地达到这一目标而竭尽全力。

　　When you're running a site, and you're four people, and on the kitchen, your operating expenses are relatively² low. So traditionally, what we've done was we had a very small sales force, and we sell some ads. You might see them on the site, and we just keep our operating expenses low so far and by doing that, we've been able to stay cash flow positive for basically the entire existence of the company.

　　当你经营一个网站时，你们有四个人，围坐在餐桌旁工作，你的运营成本是比较低的，之前我们一直只有个很小的销售团队，主要靠广告赚钱。你已经在网站上看到了，而且我们一直努力将成本控制在最低，这样一来，我们就能保持现金流入大于现金流出，基本上公司创办以来一直都是这样的。

　　After we took some money from these guys, we decided³ that it is OK to go a few months in casual negative. While… barely any cash flow, Yeah, at a point, you know, losing like a $l00000 a month, not millions. So, and then... Now we're back. And we do a lot of page views. I think that it's not something that you really think about, because you probably just think about this as a Stanford site.

　　所以当我们从这些家伙（译者注：此处说的是吉姆`布菜耶等人，Facebook的投资人） 那里得到些钱之后，我们决定有几个月可以让现金流出现负值，可是……基本上可以说没什么现金流动。对，就是有段时间，一个月亏10万美元，不是几百万。然后……不过现在好了，我们的页面访问量很大，大家可能不会仔细去想这个，因为你可能只把它当作一个斯坦福的网站。

1 optimize   

v.使优化 [=optimise]

参考例句：

• We should optimize the composition of the Standing Committees.优化人大常委会组成人员的结构。
• We should optimize our import mix and focus on bringing in advanced technology and key equipment.优化进口结构，着重引进先进技术和关键设备。

2 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。