I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2，300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast， and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles -- something that simply couldn't exist in the physical world -- was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old， and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most startups don't， and I wasn't sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy， I'd been a garage inventor. I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires， a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil， baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I'd always wanted to be an inventor， and she wanted me to follow my passion.
追随自己内心的热情 16年前，我萌生了创办亚马逊的想法。彼时我面对的现实是互联网使用量以每年2300%的速度增长，我从未看到或听说过任何增长如此快速的东西。创建涵盖几百万种书籍的网上书店的想法令我兴奋异常，因为这个东西在物理世界里根本无法存在。那时我刚刚30岁，结婚才一年。我告诉妻子MacKenzie想辞去工作，然后去做这件疯狂的事情，很可能会失败，因为大部分创业公司都是如此，而且我不确定那之后会发生什么。MacKenzie告诉我，我应该放手一搏。在我还是一个男孩儿的时候，我是车库发明家。我曾用水泥填充的轮胎、雨伞和锡箔以及报警器制作了一个自动关门器。我一直想做一个发明家，MacKenzie支持我追随内心的热情。
译文：不该得到的名利，竟然得到了，看似是福，实则终将转变为祸事；贫穷和困境最让人难以忍耐承受，但能耐住它，一定会苦尽甘来。赏析：祸兮福所倚、福兮祸所伏。祸福可以相互转换。孟子说，天降大任于斯人，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，才能增益其所不能。如果名利来得太早，并不是好事，来得快也去得快。
城市是一个共同的梦想。
Psychology must be independent of philosophy and physiology.
经常要坦白地承认一项过失错误，这将使你的上司意料防备不及，才会给你一个机会去犯更多的错误。