TeddyTerry Blog 部落格

You might have to pick between your relationships and your profits

假如你想創業，誰會是你創業最佳夥伴？多數人會從身邊朋友開始想起。哈佛這份研究報告，告訴你不要讓朋友做你的投資創業夥伴，這樣不但賺不到錢，而且還賠了友誼。

閱讀之前先想想這幾個字可以怎麼說：(1) 風險投資家 (2) 結伴 (3) 付出代價

Thinking of going into business with a friend? Your relationship could cost you, according to research.

Researchers at Harvard University, in a study looking at friendship among (1) venture capitalists, found that those who (2) paired together based on how much they liked each other - as opposed to basing the decision on ability - were likely to see less success on their investments.

在考慮和朋友合夥做生意嗎？研究表明，你的友情會讓你遭受損失。

哈佛大學研究人員發現，選擇交情好的人做合作夥伴的人，相對於根據能力來選合作夥伴的人，在投資上更容易失敗。這些研究人員對風險資本家之間的友情進行了研究。

'The Cost of Friendship' report by three authors - whether they are friends or not is not known - studied more than 3,500 venture capitalists from 1975 to 2003.

The study showed that if business partners of the same minority group worked together, their chances of a successful return dropped by 25 percent.

這一研究報告名為《友情的代價》，由三個人共同撰寫完成，至於他們是不是朋友就不得而知了。該研究在1975年到2003年間調查了3500名風險資本家。

研究顯示，以朋友作為自己的生意合夥人，投資成功率將減少25%。

By the same token, those partners who went to the same college saw their chance of success drop by 22 percent, and by 18 percent if they started a business together before.

The report said: 'Collaborations based on characteristics unrelated to ability might (3) suffer from a 'cost of friendship' and induce a negative relationship between affinity based similarities and performance.'

同樣，上同一所大學的合夥人投資成功的機率會減少22%，如果過去曾合夥創業，那麼成功機率更將減少18%。

報告說：合作關係建立在與能力無關的基礎上，將可能”因友情而付出代價”，而且關係親近的人相似點較多，這種相似性會對工作業績產生消極影響。”

If you want to see a real-world example, just look at Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. While the pair have both reaped millions - in Zuckerberg's case, many billions - the pair had an huge falling-out in the early days of the social network, as was portrayed in the film The Social Network.

The researchers said that the flip-side of working with friends included working with too many similarly-minded people, all sharing certain strengths and weaknesses, and potentially having poor decision-making as decisions would be made on a group basis.

想瞭解現實世界的例子，只需看看馬克札伯格和愛德華薩維林就知道。儘管這兩人都獲益數百萬美金以上，但是像電影《社交網戰》中所描述的，他們卻在社交網站創立初期大吵一架。

研究人員稱，與朋友合夥的弊端在於，和太多想法相似的人一起工作，這些人擁有同樣的長處和弱點，在共同做決定時，可能會做出錯誤的決定。

However, it is unlikely that this report will stop friends starting businesses together - it is one of the most popular ways to set up a business.

But, as the authors, warn: 'To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, you cannot afford to be stupid with old friends when you are venture capitalists co-investing together.'

這份報告也阻止不了朋友們一起創業，畢竟這是最普遍的創業方式之一。

但是，正如作者們警告的那樣：“改寫一下愛默生的話：和老朋友一起做傻事沒什麼，但如果你是要和老朋友一起做風險投資，那你可輸不起。”

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