和朋友合夥創業會降低成功機率?

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。”

口語字彙：這些字不只要讀懂，要學會用在口語中！

1. by the same token: 同樣地，由於同樣的原因 Token的原意是記號、象徵。你去遊樂場、賭城買的代幣，英文就叫做token。這個片語的含義很簡單，表達“同樣地”，類似於：in the same way。 Travelling is from the place you are sick of to another others are tired of. By the same token, changing jobs is from the company you are sick of to another others are tired of.　旅行就是從自己待膩的地方到別人待膩的地方去。同樣地，換工作就是從自己待膩的公司換到別人待膩的公司去。

2. falling-out: 吵架、鬧翻 falling-out是從片語動詞fall out衍伸而來的可數名詞。接近中文的"翻臉、"鬧翻"。fall out作為動詞常用的有兩個意思，一個是字面上掉下來，另一個則是爭吵、絕裂。爭吵對象可以是人或事。 I fall out with a lot of photographers over this. 就這一點，我和許多攝影家都鬧翻了。 I fall out of love with smoking recently. 我最近不再喜歡抽菸了.

3. on a .....basis 在....基礎上 這是一個很好用的片語，最常使用的有on a regular basis: 通常、經常；on a daily basis 是指每天，on a weekly basis是指每週，on a monthly basis是每月。 Our employees are paid on a monthly basis. 我們的薪資是採月薪制。

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