從夢想家到行動家

????當杰夫?貝索斯有了關于亞馬遜（Amazon.com）的構想后，他在紐約中央公園散步時，和他當時的老板談到了這個創意。

????那是1992年，當時貝索斯是紐約D.E. Shaw對沖基金的高級副總裁。他描述了創辦網上書店的夢想。他的老板認真地聽完后，給了點建議：“聽起來真是個好主意，但它更適合那些沒有一份好工作的人。”

????主動改變自己的人生軌跡，有這種念頭的人不多，真正付諸實施的更少。但這就是夢想家和行動家的區別。貝索斯只花了48個小時就作出了決定，辭職開始創業。18年后，他仍執掌著亞馬遜，這家網絡公司幾乎顛覆了人們全部的購物模式，雇傭著5.62萬人，估值超過800億美元。

????作為一名作家以及在《商業周刊》（Business Week）和《快速公司》（Fast Company）工作多年的資深撰稿人及編輯，多年來我一直在研究貝索斯以及很多像他一樣的人們，我可以告訴你，貝索斯是少數在我們的經濟生活以及在這個世界上留下積極意義的人之一。他當然會入選當代最偉大的12位企業家名單。除此之外，還有誰會躋身這個行列？過去一年，為了我的新書《世界的變革者：25位改變我們商業版圖的企業家》（World Changers: 25 Entrepreneurs Who Changed Business as We Knew It (Portfolio Penguin)），我花了很多時間來思考這個問題。《財富》雜志（Fortune）也問過我，哪些人能登上榜單？我們能從他們每個人身上學到些什么？

????很多上榜者都顯而易見——從已故的史蒂夫?喬布斯，他幫助蘋果公司（Apple）成為了這個星球上最受追捧和最具價值的公司，到馬克?扎克伯格，他的Facebook即將上市，預計將成為有史以來規模最大的IPO（超過800億美元）。但也有一些意外人選，如印孚瑟斯（Infosys）遠見卓識的創始人納拉雅納?穆爾蒂，他打造了印度最大的公司之一，推動了當地經濟轉型，令其躋身世界舞臺。

????另外一個意外是，雖然女性在當今商界影響空前，但沒有一位女性入選這份名單。奧普拉?溫弗瑞已憑借個人名望建立了龐大的媒體王國，已故的美體小鋪（Body Shop）創始人阿妮塔?羅迪克則證明，人們可以兼顧社會及環境責任和銷售產品。她們顯然值得尊敬，但在我看來，她們對商業或社會面貌的影響不如榜單中的人們那么深遠。

????應該承認，這份當代最偉大的12位企業家榜單存在主觀性。基本上，我是參考了社會和經濟影響；創始人的革命性遠見（同樣激勵著員工和其他企業家）；創新紀錄；以及長期以來公司的實際表現。由這12位企業家創立和發展的、有益社會的可持續組織如今合計市值已超過1.7萬億美元。他們直接雇傭了超過300萬員工，人數最高至沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）的210萬員工，最低至Facebook的區區3,000多人。

????但這些數字還只是表面現象。每家公司都是一個蓬勃發展的生態體系的核心，滋養了其他公司，數量沒有幾百家，也有幾十家。很多小公司是這些大公司的供貨商，并借此獲得了長足發展。比如全食超市公司（Whole Foods）就向當地2,000多家農場購買農產品等。因此，每家公司的影響力都遠遠超出了其自身界限。下面是我列出的當代最偉大的12位企業家：

From dreamers to doers

????When Jeff Bezos came up with the idea for what would become Amazon.com, he went on a stroll in Central Park with his boss at the time to share his epiphany.

????Bezos, in 1992, was a senior vice president for the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw. He described his dream to create a company that would sell books on the Internet. His boss listened intently before offering a bit of advice: "That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job."

????Big ideas of the ground-shifting variety are rare -- and hard to pull off. But that's the difference between the dreamer and the doer. It took Bezos all of 48 hours to decide to quit his job and get started. Some 18 years later, he's still at the helm of Amazon.com, which has redefined the way people buy almost everything, employs 56,200 people, and is valued at more than $80 billion.

????Having spent years studying Bezos and others like him as an author, senior writer, and editor at both Business Week and Fast Company, I can tell you that Bezos is one of those rare birds who have made a meaningful mark on our economy and our world. He would certainly be on anyone's list of the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of my generation. Who else should make that cut? After spending the better part of the past year pondering that question for a new book, World Changers: 25 Entrepreneurs Who Changed Business as We Knew It (Portfolio Penguin), I was asked by Fortune who deserves to be on that list -- and what we can learn from each of them.

????Many are obvious -- from the late Steve Jobs, who helped make Apple the hottest and most valuable company on the planet, to Mark Zuckerberg, who will take Facebook public in what is anticipated to be the biggest IPO of all time (at a value of more than $80 billion). But there will be a few surprises too, such as N.R. Narayana Murthy, the visionary founder of Infosys who has built one of the largest companies in India, helping to transform that economy and put it on the world stage.

????Another surprise: Not a single woman makes the list of the top 12 -- at a time when women have gathered more influence and power in business than ever before. Oprah Winfrey has leveraged her celebrity into a formidable media empire, and the late Body Shop founder Anita Roddick proved that you could market products by being socially and environmentally responsible. They clearly warrant honorable mention but have not, in my view, transformed the face of business or society in as profound a way as those singled out here.

????Admittedly this list of the world's greatest entrepreneurs is subjective. I based it largely on social and economic impact; the world-changing vision of a founder who has inspired employees and other entrepreneurs alike; a record of innovation; and the actual performance of their companies over time. These founders created and then nurtured healthy, sustainable organizations that now have a combined market value of more than $1.7 trillion. They directly employ more than 3 million people, ranging from a high of 2.1 million at Wal-Mart to just over 3,000 at Facebook.

????Yet those numbers only touch the surface. Each of their companies sits at the nucleus of a thriving ecosystem that has cultivated and nurtured dozens if not hundreds of other enterprises. Small companies have thrived as suppliers, for example, to Whole Foods, which, among other things, buys produce from more than 2,000 local farms. So the power of each of these organizations extends far beyond its own walls. Here are my choices: