Nearly everyone else wanted to sell. Without a sense of higher purpose, this was the startup dream come true. It tore our company apart. After one tense argument, an advisor told me if I didn't agree to sell, I would regret the decision for the rest of my life. Relationships were so frayed that within a year or so every single person on the management team was gone.

几乎所有人都想让我把公司卖了。没有更高远的使命感，这个创业公司不可能梦想成真。经过激烈的争论后，一位顾问跟我说，如果我不同意出售，我会后悔一辈子。一年左右的时间里，当时的管理层几乎都走了。

That was my hardest time leading Facebook. I believed in what we were doing, but I felt alone. And worse, it was my fault. I wondered if I was just wrong, an imposter, a 22 year-old kid who had no idea how the world worked.

这是我在Facebook时最艰难的时刻。我相信我们在做的东西，但是我也感到孤独。更糟糕的是，当时我觉得这是我的错。我在想是不是我错了，一个22岁的小孩，都不知道世界是怎么运转的。

Now, years later, I understand that *is* how things work with no sense of higher purpose. It's up to us to create it so we can all keep moving forward together.

多年以后的今天，我明白了那是因为没有更高的目标。是否创造它取决于我们，所以我们能一起前进。

每个人都要有使命感

Today I want to talk about three ways to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose: by taking on big meaningful projects together, by redefining equality so everyone has the freedom to pursue purpose, and by building community across the world.

今天我想谈谈创造一个每个人都有使命感的世界的三种方法：一起做有意义的项目；通过重新定义平等，使每个人都有追求目标的自由；在全世界建立社群。

First, let's take on big meaningful projects.

首先，让我们来说说做有意义的项目。

Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks. But we have the potential to do so much more together.

我们这一代将不得不面对数千万的工作被机器取代的情况，比如自动驾驶。但我们还有很多事能一起去完成。

Every generation has its defining works. More than 300,000 people worked to put a man on the moon – including that janitor. Millions of volunteers immunized children around the world against polio. Millions of more people built the Hoover dam and other great projects.

每一代都有属于自己一代的作品。比如有超过30万人一起努力，让人类登上了月球——包括那个看门的人；数百万志愿者为世界各地的小儿麻痹症患者打疫苗；数以百万计的人为建立胡佛水坝和其他伟大的项目贡献了自己的力量。

These projects didn't just provide purpose for the people doing those jobs, they gave our whole country a sense of pride that we could do great things.

做这些项目的使命，并不仅仅是为人们提供工作，而是让我们整个国家感到自豪，我们可以做一些伟大的事情。

Now it's our turn to do great things. I know, you're probably thinking: I don't know how to build a dam, or get a million people involved in anything.

现在轮到我们来做一些伟大的事了。我知道，你可能会想：我不知道如何建造大坝，或者如何让一百万人参与到任何事情中来。

But let me tell you a secret: no one does when they begin. Ideas don't come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started.

但我想告诉你一个秘密：没有人从一开始就知道如何做，想法并不会在最初就完全成型。只有当你工作时才变得逐渐清晰，你只需要做的就是开始。

If I had to understand everything about connecting people before I began, I never would have started Facebook.

如果我必须在开始（Facebook）之前就了解清楚“如何连接人”的想法，那么我就不会启动Facebook了。

Movies and pop culture get this all wrong. The idea of a single eureka moment is a dangerous lie. It makes us feel inadequate since we haven't had ours. It prevents people with seeds of good ideas from getting started. Oh, you know what else movies get wrong about innovation? No one writes math formulas on glass. That's not a thing.

或许电影和流行文化会让人觉得被误导，那些想法会出现在一些灵光一闪的时刻，这其实是一个危险的谎言。这让我们感到不满足，因为我们没有了我们自己的（行动），它会阻止那些拥有好想法的人去开始。对了，你知道电影当中还有什么是对创新的误解吗？那就是，没有人会在玻璃上写数学公式。那不是什么事。

It's good to be idealistic. But be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision will get called crazy, even if you end up right. Anyone working on a complex problem will get blamed for not fully understanding the challenge, even though it's impossible to know everything upfront. Anyone taking initiative will get criticized for moving too fast, because there's always someone who wants to slow you down.

其实，理想主义是好事，但你要做好被误解的准备。任何为了更大愿景工作的人可能会被称为疯子，即使你最终获得成功。任何为了复杂问题工作的人都会因为不能全面了解挑战而被指责，即使你不可能事先了解一切。任何抓住主动权先行一步的人都会因为步子太快而受到批评，因为总是有人想让你慢下来。