在校大学生究竟该不该自主创业?

It's little more than a decade since Mark Zuckerbergdropped out of Harvard at the age of 19 to launchFacebook. The social network has made him thefourth-richest man in America and a hero to anyaspiring college entrepreneur.十多年前，19岁的马克扎克伯格从哈佛辍学，创办了Facebook。该社交网络使他荣登全美富人榜单第四名，同时也成为所有雄心勃勃的大学生企业家心目中的英雄。

Of course Zuckerberg was already something of aprodigy when he started his global empire. But forthose with more modest abilities, there are nowthousands of schools across the country offering courses in entrepreneurship.

当然了，扎克伯格在刚开始打造他的全球帝国时已经是一个传奇人物了。然而对于那些没那么才华横溢的人而言，目前全国有成百上千家学校开设了创业课程。

The days seem long gone when students sought skills that would secure them a job for lifeworking for somebody else.

学生学习一技之长，然后找一份工作终身为别人打工的时代已经一去不复返了。

"There's been a massive shift," says Derrick Maggard, director of the Apex Systems Centerfor Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech. "Most of these students grew up duringthe great recession and saw their parents, maybe their grandparents or an aunt or unclestruggle and get laid off by large companies. They're almost fearful to go into the corporateworld. They say, I don't want that to happen to me - I want to do my own thing and controlmy destiny."“现在发生了翻天覆地的变化。”弗吉尼亚理工学院尖端系统创新创业中心的德里克·马加德主任说。“这些学生大部分在经济大萧条时代长大，亲眼目睹了他们父母或者祖父母、叔叔阿姨努力工作，最后却被大公司解雇。他们非常害怕进入公司工作。他们说不想类似的事情发生在自己身上-他们想做自己的事情，掌握自己的命运。”

He says the most important characteristics for a successful entrepreneur are the ability tohandle ambiguity and the skills to bring an idea to fruition.

马加德认为，对一个成功的企业家而言，最重要的品质就是有能力处理模棱两可的事情，并且擅于将想法变成先现实。

Mark Zuckerberg is now worth more than $52bn, adding $18bn to his fortune in the last yearalone according to Forbes. And while he represents a tiny percentage of entrepreneurs, manyother successful companies have been started in a college dorm room.

据福布斯数据显示，马克扎克伯格目前身价520亿美元，仅去年一年身价就涨了180亿美元。尽管他只代表了很少一部分的企业家，但也有其他很多成功的公司都是在大学宿舍中成立的。

Dyn was co-founded in 2001 by Jeremy Hitchcock, studying at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts. He developed a way to optimise the flow of data between online companies andtheir users to improve internet performance. Dyn, based in Manchester, New Hampshire, nowemploys 400 people and boasts clients such as Twitter and Etsy.

Dyn公司于2001年由马萨诸塞州伍斯特理工学院的杰里米·希契科克创办。他发明了一种方法能够优化网上公司和其用户之间的数据流，从而提高网络性能。Dyn总部设在曼彻斯特新罕布什尔，现在有400名员工，并且以拥有Twitter和Etsy之类的客户资源为荣。

"I'd give the same advice to any university student," says Hitchcock. "Go start a company or bepart of something where you're creating or building, because you're at a time in life when youhave that freedom of exploration. And do something that's crazy, that's non-traditional."

“我会给所有大学生同样的建议。”希契科克说。“创办一家公司，或者成为你创办或搭建的事物的一部分，因为你处在人生一个有探索自由的阶段。做一些疯狂的、打破传统的事情。”

"If you are a student entrepreneur and you have an idea with a time limit on getting it tomarket, I would encourage you to take a leave of absence and give it a go. But those arerare," Maggard says. "Work on it while you're in school. Develop the idea and continue to docustomer research. Then when the time is right and you are ready to move forward, go for it."

“如果你是个大学生企业家，你有个想法在规定期限内要把它推向市场，我建议你休学并把想法付诸实践。然而这是很少见的。”马加德说。“在学校里继续做研究。完善你的想法并继续开展客户研究。当时机到来而你也做好了前进的准备时，尽管努力争取吧。”

29-year-old Mehr Pastakia already had a degree in horticulture but started her rooftop gardencompany while studying at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Baltimore.

29岁的梅尔·帕斯塔基已经取得了园艺学学位，但她在巴尔的摩约翰霍普金斯大学商学院就读时创办了自己的屋顶花园公司。

"I just wanted to learn what everybody else seemed to know about business," she says. "I had afew really great classes and really great classmates that made it totally worth it for me."

“我只是想学习那些似乎人人都知道的商业知识。”她说。“我上了几堂非常棒的课程，认识了一些非常棒的同学，这让我觉得非常值得。”

One of the most important lessons was how to manage conflict and develop self-knowledge asa leader, she says. She was also able to meet a potential investor who focuses on backingwomen-owned companies.

她表示，最重要的一课就是如何处理冲突和发展作为领导人的自我认知。她还认识了一位潜在投资人，专门资助女企业家的公司。

"Female entrepreneurs are on the rise," says Maggard. "But one challenge they do face is equalaccess to capital. Venture capitalists are known to invest less in female led start-ups."

“女企业家的人数逐渐增多。”马加德主任说道。“然而她们的确面临着一项挑战：得到同等资金的机会。众所周知，风投家对女性创办的新兴公司投资相对较少。”

"Research shows that women are more risk averse than men, and this can be paraded around asunfavourable," says Kathy Korman Frey, entrepreneur in residence at George WashingtonUniversity and founder of Hot Mommas Project, the world's largest online library of femaleentrepreneur case studies.

“研究表明，女性比男性更加容易规避风险，而这一点被很多人认为是不利条件。”乔治华盛顿大学入驻企业家凯西科曼弗雷说。她是全球最大的女企业家案例研究网上图书馆“辣妈计划”创始人。

But, she says, attitudes towards women entrepreneurs are changing. "If I know my investmentis safer with a person who is going to consider all the options and then make a move, that's a (good) investment strategy."

然而，她表示，人们对女企业家的态度在逐渐发生改变。“如果我知道我的投资放在一个能够考虑所有选择最终才做出决定的人那里会更安全，那这是一个好的投资策略。”