23岁一无所有怎么办

以我的名字还不到一美元，它仍然感觉不像是最低点。 (With not even a dollar to my name, it still didn’t feel like rock bottom.)

When you tell someone you’re working for a startup, they’ll either think you’re gonna be really rich or crazy broke.

当您告诉某人您正在为一家初创公司工作时，他们会以为您会变得非常有钱，或者会发疯。

I remember telling my parents and friends about my decision to join Christina’s,

我记得曾告诉我的父母和朋友我决定加入Christina's的决定，

“I really like the company’s mission and they’re growing really fast. If they continue at this speed, I should be coming back with more than enough to start my own business once my stocks are fully vested”.

“我真的很喜欢公司的使命，而且他们的成长非常快。 如果他们以这种速度继续发展，一旦我的股票被完全归属，我将获得足够的资金来重新开始自己的生意。”

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

是的，那没有发生。

Just like an investor would do their due diligence before investing, so did I before I committed to Christina’s. When the co-founder & CEO, Thu, reached out to me, I had him on hold for almost a month while I investigated. I looked into the company, the mission, the team, and especially, him.

就像投资者在投资前会尽职调查一样，在我致力于Christina's之前，我也是如此。 当联合创始人兼首席执行官Thu与我联系时，我在调查期间将他搁置了将近一个月。 我调查了公司，任务，团队，尤其是他。

He’s the kind of guy who shares his thoughts earnestly, finds silver linings in his mistakes and failures, takes on random 30-day challenges, writes love letters to a girl he’s never met before, advocates for a culture that empowers people to do what they love, and reads books like Leaders Eat Last and then actually does something about it. Like making sure everyone in the company gets paid first before the leadership team does.

他是那种认真地分享思想，在错误和失败中发现一线希望，随机接受30天挑战，向从未见过的女孩写情书，倡导一种赋予人们权力的文化的倡导者爱，并且读诸如Leaders Last Last之类的书，然后实际上对此有所作为。 就像确保公司的每个人都在领导团队获得薪水之前一样。

At the same time, he was a starry-eyed visionary that believed in not only changing the world but also how people viewed it. During this time, I had a competing job offer in New York but it was his persistence and vision that got me to pack my bags, say goodbye to my family and friends, and move across the world to Saigon.

同时，他是个满天星斗的梦想家，他不仅相信改变世界，而且相信人们如何看待世界。 在这段时间里，我在纽约有一个竞争性的工作机会，但正是他的毅力和远见使我收拾行装，向家人和朋友告别，然后在世界各地迁往西贡。

What was the vision? To make Vietnam a model for other developing countries. He got me, then and there. He knew I wanted to be a part of something bigger, and he was right.

愿景是什么？ 使越南成为其他发展中国家的榜样。 他从那时那里得到了我。 他知道我想成为更大的事物的一部分，他是对的。

A part of me knew that working for a startup can either return 10x or nothing at all. The other part of me knew that even if all hell broke loose, I would have been met with a great adventure and even crazier story to tell.

我的一部分人知道，为一家初创公司工作可能会返回10倍或什至没有回报。 我的另一部分知道，即使所有的地狱都崩溃了，我也会遇到一次伟大的冒险甚至是更疯狂的故事。

After all, I’m only 26. I’m not supposed to know everything, but after this, I can say I know a hell of a lot more than I did about people, work, and life than I did before. It was a trade-off that I could afford to make at this stage in life.

毕竟，我只有26岁。我不应该一无所知，但是在此之后，我可以说我对人，工作和生活的了解比以往更多。 在生活的这个阶段，我可以承受这一折衷。

2017年六月 (June 2017)

After wrapping up my goodbyes, I moved to Saigon, Vietnam to become Christina’s second product designer. There were less than 100 people working in the company at the time. Everyone knew each other’s name and during our bi-monthly town hall, we had enough time for every new member to strut to the front of the room and introduce themselves.

在告别了我之后，我移居越南西贡，成为克里斯蒂娜的第二位产品设计师。 当时在公司工作的人不到100人。 每个人都知道彼此的名字，并且在我们每两个月举行一次的市政厅中，我们有足够的时间让每个新成员都站到房间的前面并自我介绍。

2017年12月 (December 2017)

It’s almost Christmas and we’ve received news of a potential big investment. I won’t disclose who or how much the investment would have been due to the Confidentiality Agreement but it was more than enough to get everyone worked up.

快到圣诞节了，我们收到了一项潜在大笔投资的消息。 我不会透露由于《保密协议》而进行的投资是谁或多少，但足以让所有人努力工作。

一月2018 (January 2018)

We saw an increase in positive cash flow and were growing by 3x. From less than 100 members to now over 300, our family was growing bigger. It was now common to not know everyone’s name. Adjustments had to be made to our town hall format since we no longer had time for individual member introductions.

我们看到正现金流量有所增加，并且增长了3倍。 从不到100名成员到现在的300多名，我们的家庭越来越大。 现在很常见，不知道每个人的名字。 由于我们不再有时间介绍个人会员，因此必须对市政厅的形式进行调整。

With talks of the big investment underway and months of positive cash flow, the company announced a 20% salary increase company-wide. Our Tết (Vietnamese New Year) bonus was also paid out early and the company could now afford to provide every full-time member with additional benefits & private health insurance. It was the most exciting time of our lives, and the company’s.

随着大笔投资的讨论和数月的正现金流量，该公司宣布在全公司范围内加薪20％ 。 我们的Tết(越南新年)奖金也已提前支付，该公司现在有能力为每位全职会员提供额外的福利和私人健康保险。 那是我们一生和公司一生中最激动人心的时刻。

2018年八月 (August 2018)

8 months later and we barely missed the iceberg. Something happened and we struggled through our first month of financial setbacks. The company was unable to pay the team’s salary on time and it was delayed for several weeks.

8个月后，我们几乎没有错过冰山。 发生了一些事情，我们在第一个月的财务挫折中挣扎。 该公司无法按时支付团队的薪水，因此延迟了数周。

After all the salaries were disbursed, we were optimistic that it wouldn’t happen again. Certainly, someone would have looked into the issue and fixed it. Besides, if we’d gotten through it once, surely we could get through it again.

在支付完所有薪水之后，我们乐观地认为这种情况不会再发生了。 当然，有人会对此问题进行调查并解决。 此外，如果我们完成了一次，那么肯定可以再经历一次。

一月2019 (January 2019)

The next six months flew by with no visible issue and the company continued to grow as we took in more investments while waiting in anticipation of the even bigger investment.

接下来的六个月飞来飞去，没有明显的问题，随着我们获得了更多的投资，同时等待着更大的投资，公司继续发展。

By now, we’d grown 4x with over 450+ team members spanning across 8 locations in Vietnam. More promotions were announced including my promotion to Head of Product. Cutting it close with the Tết bonus this time, talks of slowing down started to surface.

到现在为止，我们已经跨越了越南8个地区的450多个团队，成长了4倍。 宣布了更多促销活动，包括我晋升为产品负责人。 这次用Tết奖金将其关闭，有关减速的讨论开始浮出水面。

2019年四月 (April 2019)

3 months later and our death sentence arrived in the form of an investment that never materialized.

3个月后，我们的死刑以从未实现的投资形式出现。

With news of the investment falling through, the company was now in fight or flight mode as we scurried to figure out a plan to stay afloat and pay our team in the coming months.

随着投资消息的流传，该公司现在处于战斗或飞行状态，我们急切地想出一个计划，在未来几个月内维持运营并向我们的团队付款。

New ideas to save the company sprung up and died out as quickly as they came up. More cost controls and salary delays were announced. Those who were in a position to loan money or part of their salary to the company did so and were promised a 10% interest in return.

拯救公司的新想法如雨后春笋般涌现，并很快就消失了。 宣布了更多的成本控制和薪资延迟。 那些有能力向公司借钱或部分薪水的人这样做了，并答应给他们10％的利息作为回报。

2019年七月 (July 2019)

With the company’s four business lines not generating enough revenue to cover our accrued costs, intense pressure was placed on our technology team to launch our products and generate at least $50,000 USD in monthly revenue within the first 6 months.

由于公司的四个业务部门无法产生足够的收入来支付我们的应计成本，因此我们的技术团队承受着巨大的压力，要求其推出产品并在头6个月内每月产生至少50,000美元的收入。

It was an unrealistic goal given the state of our products, but I volunteered to head the initiative. Still, no salary had been paid. No salary was reduced and the leadership team was adamant about not laying off anyone.

考虑到我们产品的状态，这是一个不切实际的目标，但我自愿领导了这一倡议。 仍然没有支付工资。 没有减薪，领导团队坚决不裁员。

2019年八月 (August 2019)

We managed to launch our technology, but not the way we wanted to. We went to market with bootstrap marketing and zero advertising budget.

我们设法推出了我们的技术 ，但没有达到我们想要的方式。 我们以引导式营销和零广告预算进入市场。

It was like a plane taking off with no runway. We were hoping that we could get off the ground without crashing and burning. And we did, kind of. Our product showed signs of life and market-fit but we ran out of fuel, and time.

就像一架没有跑道的飞机起飞。 我们希望我们能够在不坠毁和燃烧的情况下起步。 我们做到了。 我们的产品显示出生命力和适应市场的迹象，但我们用光了燃料和时间。

It was also around this time that I sent in my two months’ notice. It was time to look forward.

也是在这个时候，我发出了两个月的通知。 现在该期待着。

2019年10月，最终舞 (October 2019, The Final Dance)

During my farewell lunch, my CTO, a quiet and incredibly talented engineer, said three words to me that silenced my inner critic and guilt:

在我的欢送午餐中，我的首席技术官(CTO)是位安静而又非常有才华的工程师，向我说了三个字，这使我内心的批评和罪恶感消失了：

“Thanks for everything.”

“感谢一切。”

Looking at him, I knew he meant every word.

看着他，我知道他的意思是每句话。

I came to Saigon as a wide-eyed and ambitious self-taught product designer looking to gain experience, get my hands dirty and make a name for myself.

我来到西贡时，是一位胸襟宽广，雄心勃勃的自学成才的产品设计师，她希望获得经验，弄脏双手并为自己取名。

In that, I found myself building out an entire product team with our own set of processes and principles that allowed us to redesign our technology and assist the company in scaling operationally. Our team was looked up to by everyone in the company. We were the team that got it together and we wore that badge with pride.

这样，我发现自己要建立一套具有自己的流程和原则的产品团队，从而使我们能够重新设计技术并协助公司进行业务扩展。 公司中的每个人都对我们的团队敬而远之。 我们是团结起来的团队，我们为此而自豪地戴上了徽章。

外卖 (Takeaways)

There were many nights where I laid in bed unable to sleep as I played through the events that unfolded while rotating through a cycle of emotions. Guilt. Shame. Embarrassment. Sadness. Repeat.

在许多夜晚中，我躺在床上无法入睡，因为我经历了随着情绪循环旋转而发生的事件。 有罪。 耻辱。 不好意思 悲伤 重复。

But not once have I ever felt angry at the company and trust me, there were many, many reasons to be.

但是我从来没有一次对公司感到生气并信任我，有很多很多原因。

I could have been angry at the reckless decisions that were made, the inability to keep our finances in check, or even the lack of communication and unity displayed by the leadership team when everyone was looking to them the most.

我可能会对做出的鲁ck决定，无法控制我们的财务状况，甚至当每个人都最期待的时候领导团队缺乏沟通和团结感到生气。

Even then, I couldn’t allow myself to invite that anger in. I knew if I did, it would have chewed me up and spit me out into the dark, covered in nothing but self-pity and insecurities.

即使那样，我也不能允许自己发怒。我知道，如果这样做的话，它会把我咀嚼起来，把我吐到黑暗中，除了自怜和不安全之外，什么也掩盖不了。

I did question my calm demeanor those nights and wondered if I’d grown thicker skin over the years or had simply lost my sanity. I mean, where were the tears?

那天晚上，我确实问过我平静的举止，并想知道这些年来我是不是变得更粗壮或者只是失去理智。 我的意思是，眼泪在哪里？

Looking back, I realized that after cycling through all those emotions, I always came back to feeling resolved. Resolved in knowing that I did what I could and gave my best.

回顾过去，我意识到在经历了所有这些情绪之后，我总会恢复决心。 下定决心要尽我所能，尽我所能。

In my high school business class, we were taught to have an emergency fund of at least $1,000 to prepare us for unexpected costs and rainy days. Little did I know that it was hardly enough to prepare me for 4 continuous months of unpaid salary.

在我的高中商务班里，我们被告知要拥有至少1,000美元的应急资金，以应付各种意外的费用和下雨天。 我几乎不知道这足以让我为连续四个月的未付薪水做准备。

The question that I continued to turn over and over in my head was how I was supposed to look my parents in the face and tell them that after so many years of working abroad, I was coming home with nothing except credit card debt?

我继续反复思考的问题是，我应该怎么看待我的父母的脸，并告诉他们，在国外工作了这么多年之后，我除了信用卡债务外什么都没有回家？

And I don’t know yet, I’m still figuring that out. I’m still figuring out a lot of things. All I know is that it starts with an honest and vulnerable conversation and, no matter how I look at it, I can only feel blessed to be so young and boundless. I can only imagine how much more difficult this would have been if I had other people to take care of besides myself.

而且我还不知道，我仍在弄清楚。 我仍然在想很多事情。 我所知道的是，它始于诚实而脆弱的对话，无论我怎么看，我都只有如此年轻和无边无际才有福。 我只能想象如果我除了自己之外还要照顾其他人，这将有多困难。

For someone who plans to become an entrepreneur themselves one day, the lessons and skills I’ve gained through this experience have been nothing short of invaluable. I’ve worn so many hats and witnessed so many red flags that came with growing a startup.

对于一个计划自己一天成为企业家的人来说，我从这次经历中学到的经验教训和技能简直是无价之宝。 我戴着很多帽子，目睹了成长中的初创公司带来的许多危险信号。

I’ve toyed with the idea that maybe this was how the captain of the unsinkable Titanic felt before they hit the iceberg, especially after being warned that they were sailing too fast in such icy conditions.

我自欺欺人，也许这就是不沉的泰坦尼克号的船长在撞上冰山之前的感觉，尤其是在警告他们在如此冰冷的状况下航行得太快之后。

When did we start seeing the ice? Could we have switched course or slowed down enough to dodge the icebergs?

我们什么时候开始看冰的？ 我们可以改变路线还是放慢脚步以躲避冰山吗？

At the same time, I also saw firsthand all the things we did get right. Like scaling a company 4x with a 450+ team that were willing to give up their paychecks and loan money to the company for many consecutive months – all because they believed in the mission and culture we had worked so hard to build. I know I did.

同时，我也亲眼目睹了一切，我们没有得到正确的事情。 就像将一支拥有450多名员工的团队扩大到4倍，他们愿意连续几个月放弃薪水并向公司贷款一样，这都是因为他们相信我们一直在努力建立的使命和文化。 我知道我做到了

You can start a business overnight, but to build a strong and resilient culture with hundreds of people believing in one collective goal, that took something else.

您可以在一夜之间开展业务，但是要建立强大而富有弹性的文化，需要数百人相信一个共同的目标，这还需要付出其他努力。

I can only hope that the experiences I’ve learned will be of use for when I have my own business where I will be faced with making decisions that won’t just affect me, but my team and their loved ones as well.

我只能希望，当我拥有自己的事业时，我所学到的经验将对我有用，我将面对的决策不仅会影响到我，而且也会影响我的团队和他们所爱的人。

编辑：结语 (Edit: Epilogue)

The initial draft of this article was written during my one-way flight back to the States. At the time, I had a million questions in my mind and less than a dollar in my checking account.

本文的初稿是在我单程返回美国时写的。 当时，我脑子里有一百万个问题，而我的支票帐户里只有不到一美元。

Several months later, I’ve moved on to land a job at my dream company (Evernote), I've co-founded an exciting new venture (Noted), and even more importantly, engaged my parents in that overdue vulnerable and honest conversation.

几个月后，我继续在自己梦dream以求的公司(Evernote)找到一份工作，我与人共同创立了一家令人兴奋的新公司(注)，更重要的是，让我的父母参与了逾期未交的脆弱而诚实的谈话。

I confided in them about my setbacks, the lessons I learned, and how excited I am for the future. My mom cried, my dad beamed with pride as he looked away and asked what I wanted for dinner.

我向他们透露了自己的挫折，所汲取的教训以及对未来的兴奋。 我妈妈哭了，当我父亲看着别处，问我要吃晚饭时，我感到骄傲。

In my initial draft of this article, I concluded by saying there was no happily-ever-after ending to this story. It was never my intent to make this story inspirational either. My only goal was to wrap up this bittersweet journey by sharing my story, and writing was the only way I knew how to do that.

在本文的初稿中，我总结说，这个故事结束之后从来没有幸福过。 我也不打算使这个故事鼓舞人心。 我唯一的目标是通过分享我的故事来结束这个痛苦的旅程，而写作是我知道如何做到的唯一方法。

But after having lived it out and arriving at this point of clarity, I can say beyond a doubt:

但是，在将其付诸实践并达到这一明确点之后，我可以毫无疑问地说：

There wasn’t meant to be a happily-ever-after ending to this story.

在结束这个故事后，这并不意味着永远幸福。

It wasn’t meant to be inspirational either.

这也不是要鼓舞人心。

Yes, I was left with nothing.

是的，我一无所有。

But at the same time, I was left with everything: myself, the lessons I’ve learned from this bittersweet adventure, and my dreams.

但与此同时，我留下了一切：我自己，从这次酸甜苦辣的冒险中学到的教训以及我的梦想。

And to me, that was everything I could possibly need.

对我来说，这就是我可能需要的一切。

Besides, I’ve always been a believer that everything in life happens for a reason… as long as we give it one.

此外，我一直坚信生活中的一切都会因某种原因发生……只要我们给它一个。

Let that reason be to learn, to grow, and to continue evolving into that person we want to become someday.

让那个理由去学习，成长，并继续发展成为一个我们想要成为某个人的人。

And remember,

记住

“艰难的时刻不会持续，艰难的人们会持续。 ” (“Tough times don’t last, tough people do. ”)

— Robert Schuller

—罗伯特·舒勒

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/i-moved-abroad-to-work-for-a-startup-and-came-back-with-nothing-and-everything/

23岁一无所有怎么办