“點子”成金
花季故事
作者：by Ashley Mateo
You never know when inspiration[靈感] will strike[來到]. I’d been building websites with my brother for years—we were computer junkies[上癮的人] who grew up playing Microsoft games and surfing the Web. But three years ago， his laptop crashed[損毀]， deleting a document[文檔] where he’d saved dozens of passwords， like his Facebook log-in. It would take hours to reset them all. As I laughed at him， I realized： Wait， we could actually fix this problem. If we created a virtual[虛擬的] “cloud”where you could store log-in info， you’d never have to press “forget password” again—maybe people would even pay for that service！ We’d taught ourselves how to write computer code， so I felt confident[自信的] we could figure out how to create it.
The summer before I started my freshman[大一學生] year at NYU， we built our program and called it MySocialCloud. But we needed money to make it real. Then I saw a tweet from Richard Branson注， the world-famous billionaire[億萬富翁]. He said the first 25 people to donate $2，000 to charity[慈善團體] would get to meet him in Miami. He started his first business when he was 16， so I figured he’d respect that I was a young person also trying to make things happen—and that I could convince[使信服] him to invest[投資]！ That meant we had to get from L.A. to Florida in 48 hours. Our first move was to hit up our parents for money—but they said that we’d have to earn it， just like in the real world. So we drafted[起草] a business proposal[提議]， including how we’d pay them back. Impressed， they agreed. As I rushed to pack， my mom took my jeans out of my suitcase and told me to bring my most businessy dress， because I could not look like a slob[懶漢] with Branson！
When we arrived， we were the only people under 25. Everyone else looked so accomplished[有成就的]， which was intimidating[嚇人的]. But when I spoke to Branson， I was determined. I knew he could hear the passion in my voice…even if I wasn’t polished[磨光的，精練的]. A few weeks later， Jerry Murdock （a friend of Branson’s） invited us to dinner—our fingers were crossed， but we tried not to get our hopes up！ He told us that he and Branson liked how gutsy[勇敢的] we were and they would invest $1 million. I looked at my brother like， is this for real？！？
After that， Alex Welch （a big name in the tech world） decided to invest too. My life totally changed！ I was busy with marketing and meetings in addition to taking classes at NYU. My schedule[時間表] was insane[瘋狂的]—sometimes I slept only three hours a night！ We hired five employees and moved to an office in L.A.， where we covered a wall with whiteboard paint and scribbled[潦草地寫] ideas as they came to us. Instead of getting someone coffee at an internship[實習期]， I’m the boss！