I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago.
十六年前我有了创办亚马逊的念头。
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.
我发现，网络使用正在以每年2300%的增长速度在发展。我从来没有看到过什么东西增长得这么快。
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.
创办一个藏书几百万册的网络书店，而它在现实世界中根本不会存在，这个想法令我很激动。
I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife Mac Kenzie 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.
当时，我刚刚满30岁，结婚一年。我告诉我的妻子Mac Kenzie，我想辞职，做一件疯狂的事情，它可能不会成功，因为很多创业者的项目也是如此，而且我不确定接下来还会发生什么。
Mac Kenzie, also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row, told me I should go for it.
Mac Kenzie，她也是毕业于普林斯顿的人，现在她就坐在第二排。她告诉我，我应该去做这件事。
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.
当时我还是个年轻的男孩，我是个车库里的发明家。我用装满水泥的轮胎制作了自动关门器，用一把雨伞、锡纸和烤盘的计时器制作了一个太阳能灶，不过它不太好使。
I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.
我一直想成为一个发明家，她想让我追随我自己的爱好。
I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired.
当时，我正在纽约的一个金融公司工作，我的同事都非常聪明，我有一个非常优秀的老板，我很钦佩他。
I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet.
我去找老板，告诉他，我想开个公司，在网上卖书。
He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, 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.
他带我去中央公园散步了很久，他认真地倾听我的想法，然后说，这听起来是个很不错的主意，但是，对于一个没有你现在这么好的工作的人而言，它的意义大得多。
That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision.
他说的道理，我也认可。他说服我，让我考虑48个小时，再做决定。
Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot.
在这种情况下，要做选择真的很难，但是，最终，我还是决定试一下。
I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.
我认为，如果我尝试了但是失败了，我也不会后悔。我猜，如果当初决定不去尝试，那么我会一直对此耿耿于怀。
After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice.
考虑再三之后，我选择了不那么安稳的道路，追随我的热爱。我为自己的这个决定感到自豪。
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