Chegg掌門人：押寶也要押自己

????丹?羅森維格信仰美國夢。他在霍巴特和威廉史密斯學院（Hobart and William Smith Colleges）獲得政治學學士學位后從賣電腦雜志做起，直到成為互聯網熱潮中的重要人物【這會成就怎樣的一份簡歷呢——他在網絡媒體公司CNET Networks擔任了總裁，在雅虎（Yahoo）擔任了首席運營官，還是音樂游戲《吉他英雄》（Guitar Hero）的首席執行官】。

????一路走來，羅森維格發現，有一個市場一直在懇求人們去顛覆它，這就是教育行業，特別是在教科書成本不斷上升的情況下。出于這個原因，他在2010年加入了在線教科書出租服務以及學生資源調配機構Chegg。

????52歲的羅森維格日前接受了本刊的采訪，內容如下：

????1. 你在技術領域最欣賞誰？為什么？

????我要給你兩組答案。首先，我欣賞的人非常多，比如馬克?安德森、馬克?扎克伯格等等，他們都很出色。不過，目前我欣賞的是布萊恩?切斯基和喬?杰比亞，也就是短期租房網站Airbnb的兩位創始人，原因是他們沒有任何工程或技術背景。他們上的是自由藝術設計學院，卻把一個偶然產生的想法打造成了所有行業中最具有顛覆性的公司之一。他們無所畏懼，而且擁有極大的價值。他們真的是讓人欣賞的年輕人，這也正是我們想看到的美國新生代。

????2. 你欣賞哪家公司？為什么？

????我欣賞星巴克（Starbucks），因為它把一個想法變成了一個品牌，又把這個品牌培育成了一種文化，而且是一種向上的、能帶來積極變化的文化。

????我也欣賞Adobe，不光是因為我是這家公司的董事會成員，還（因為）多年來這家公司在CEO更迭方面一直把握得非常好。它的聯合創始人如今仍然在擔任董事，原因是他們重視長期發展思路和長期投資，而且希望為別人提供干一番大事的能力和手段。他們的文化妙不可言，他們是最受推崇的公司之一。

????我還欣賞Airbnb和Facebook，以及其他許多公司。這些公司的共同之處在于，它們的成員都有勇氣和信念，眼光比較長遠，有擔當，而且不會改變自己的渴望，立志打造一家偉大的公司，同時為人們作出巨大的貢獻。這是一種令人羨慕的狀態。

????3.有些人希望從事和你一樣的工作。你對他們有什么建議？

????采取行動時不要像我一樣長時間等待。如果要押寶，那就押在自己身上。我不是說一個人得自大。人們應該謙遜行事，同時要意識到自己失敗的次數一定會比成功多。不過，就算會失敗，采取行動的時候至少也要有自己的信念。美國的美妙之處并不在于跌倒，而在于站起來。我們欣賞的，或者說我欣賞的那些人都在獲得成功前品嘗過失敗的滋味。但他們有信念。如果你覺得自己想做什么事，那就去做好了。別去管那些老愛唱反調的人。要全力以赴。

????4. 你得到過的最好建議是什么？

????許多人都曾通過各種方式給了我這條建議，比如我爺爺、我妻子、我的女兒們，還有約翰?多納霍這樣的朋友，那就是“做真的自己”。我無法成為史蒂夫?喬布斯、馬克?扎克伯格或者謝麗爾?桑德伯格。而且，實際上我也不必成為他們。我就要做自己，而且必須忠實于我自己。我必須學會掌握那些對我來說很難的事情，也必須借助“我是誰”的信念所提供的力量前進。

????5. 現在你的公司面臨著什么樣的挑戰？

????和所有創新者相比，我們公司現在面臨的挑戰沒有什么不尋常的地方，那就是不可知和不確定。一個行業的參與者很多，很多老公司都根基牢固，它們都不希望局勢發生改變。我在發言時總是這樣說：“你們中間有多少人希望自己三年以后就能退休，這樣就能把問題甩給別人呢？”對每一個被顛覆的行業來說，都有許多人希望它不被顛覆。具體到教育上，人們需要的是可變技能，而教育機構是不變的。整個教育體系都旨在為這些機構提供支持，而不是幫助學生。所以存在許多障礙，但任何這樣做過的人都曾面對過同樣的障礙，而且我們知道這些障礙最終都能得到克服。

????Dan Rosensweig believes in the American Dream. After earning a bachelor's degree in political science from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, he worked his way up from a job selling computer magazines to becoming a major player in the Internet boom. (How's this for a résumé: He has been the president of CNET Networks, the chief operating officer of Yahoo, and the chief executive of Guitar Hero.)

????Along the way, Rosensweig noticed that there was a market begging to be disrupted: Education -- specifically around the escalating cost of student textbooks. Which is why in 2010 he joined Chegg, an online textbook rental service and student resource hub.

????Rosensweig, 52, spoke with Fortune.

????1. Who in technology do you admire most? Why?

????I'm going to give you two answers. First of all, there is a whole host of people that I admire. I admire [Marc] Andreessen and [Mark] Zuckerberg and all of these people; they're amazing. But right now I admire [Brian] Chesky and Joe Gebbia -- they're two of the founders of Airbnb -- because they had no engineering background or technology background. They went to a liberal arts design school, and they had an idea that they discovered by accident, and they're building it into one of the most disruptive companies in any industry. They have no fear. They have great values. They're just admirable young people, exactly what you want to see coming out of this country.

????2. Which companies do you admire? Why?

????I admire Starbucks (SBUX), because here's a company that had an idea, then turned it into a brand, then turned into a culture. And it's a culture for good and a positive force for change.

????I admire Adobe (ADBE), not just because I'm on the board, but [because] this is a company that has handled the transition of CEOs remarkably well over the years, and their co-founders are still on the board because they value long-term thinking and long-term investment, and they want to provide the capabilities and the tools so that other people can do great things. They have an unbelievable culture around their people, and they're one of the most admired companies.

????I admire Airbnb and Facebook (FB) and so many other companies, too. But what they all have in common is that they all have people who had their own courage and conviction, took a much longer view, took lumps along the way, but didn't waver from the desire to build a great business while doing great things for people. It's an admirable position to be in.

????3. What advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?

????Don't wait as long as I did to do it. If you're going to bet on somebody, bet on yourself. I don't mean you should be arrogant. You have to do it with humility and recognize that you're going to fail more often than you succeed, but at least you're going to do it with your own convictions if you do fail. The beauty of America is not in failing; it's in getting up. Every one of those people that we admire -- that I admire -- are all people who have failed prior to success. But they had a belief. If you think you have something you want to do, go do it. Don't worry about the naysayers. Do it with everything you have.

????4. What is the best advice you ever received?

????I've been given it many ways by many people, by my grandfather, by my wife, by my daughters, by my friends like John Donahoe, which is: "Be authentic." I am not going to be able to be Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg, and the truth is, I don't have to be. I have to be Dan, and I have to be authentic with who Dan is. I have to learn to overcome the things that are hard for me to do, and I have to go with the strength of my conviction of who I am.

????5. What challenges are facing your business right now?

????The challenges facing our business are not unusual to anybody that's building a new category, which is the unknown, the uncertainty. There are a lot of players, a lot of entrenched constituents, who would prefer things don't change. As I say when I give speeches: "How many of you wish you were three years away from retirement so this was someone else's problem?" Every industry that's been disrupted has had a lot of people who prefer that it not be. With education in particular, the skills you need are fluid, but institutions are not fluid. The whole system has been designed around supporting the institution and not supporting the student. So there are a lot of obstacles, but they're the same obstacles that anyone who's taken on these things has faced, and we know they can be overcome.