几周前，微软CEO鲍尔默在美国斯坦福大学发表了一场激情演讲，与在场学生分享了自己对创新概念的理解。此外，他还在北京做过一场类似的演讲。以下就是鲍尔默的讲话原文，我很乐意拿出来与大家共享。

　　大约30年前，我加入了微软，原本是打算跟大家谈谈我个人的从商经历。后面这张图上的人就是我，那时我刚离开斯坦福。你们看，和那时的自己一样，现在的我还是梳着偏头。

　　我和比尔是在哈佛认识的，大二的时候我俩成了好朋友。那时还有比尔的高中同学，他们在念高中的时候就已经创办了一家自己的公司，专门开发可以分析道路交通数据的软件。不知道大家在开车的时候，是否注意到有时会横跨在马路中央的这些橡胶管。在过去，当你驾车驶过其中一根橡胶管时，它就会在安置于马路边一个盒子里的磁带上打上一个孔。比尔和保罗注意到了这种被称作Intel 4004的装置，之后他们就开始着手为华盛顿研发这种纪录软件。

　　之后比尔考入哈佛，但他们仍然热衷于微处理器的研究。保罗希望能开办一家专门制造带微处理器的电脑的公司，不过比尔并不认同这样做。他对保罗说：“保罗，我很清楚咱俩真正擅长做的什么，那就是软件，所以还是不要有那种想法的好。”

　　大二那年，《大众电子》(Popular Electronics)杂志的封面刊登了一张照片，显示的是首台名叫Altair的微处理器电脑。那时，比尔和保罗就决定要为这台机器开发出一切可能运用到的软件。显然他们没能办到，但是也已经为这台电脑研开发出几款关键的软件程序，随后他们就成立了自己的公司并开始正式投入运营。直到1980年我加入的时候，公司内部总共有30个人，且全都是程序员，没一个是商科出身。自然而然，我就成了负责商业这块儿的人，尽管连我自己也不清楚这样的定位意味着什么。老实说，我真正做过的无非就是招聘面试，还有营销之类，这方面自己还真称不上一个合格的员工。在斯坦福念大一的那会儿，我就开始学习财务报表，这实在是一项重要的活儿。那时公司的进账很少，所以报表内容也不是很多。但不管怎样，开始的那些经历还是相当重要的。

　　在那之后，公司就在不断的磨合中向前发展着，真可谓是一分的创新却需要花费九分的心血。就在刚才，我才和几个风险投资家在一起交谈了有一个小时的时间。他们问我是否会谈论企业家。我说，我会谈论一些关于企业家的东西，比如你从创业阶段学到了哪些东西这样的问题。他们的想法很简单，那就是雇佣一些优秀的员工。相比之下，在我们创业之初并没有非常出色的员工。不用说，比尔本人相当杰出，此外就还有四五个不错的人。在加入公司大约一个月的样子，我来到比尔的办公司，告诉他我们还需要再招进18个人。他说，史蒂夫，你应该知道我们现有的人并不是十分的优秀，为何还要再招18个人呢？难道你是想让我们大伙都破产不成？除非你能做得比现在更好，不然的话还是回你的斯坦福继续念书或者做点别的，别再呆这儿。自那以后，我们开始在招人上下功夫了，努力寻找真正优秀聪明的人才。

　　事实上，你们所知道的那些成功人士，他们的成才路程都是异常艰难而崎岖的。就拿微软初期的那些程序员们来说，他们其实也是跟着比尔一起逐渐走向成功。最开始，我们从大学里所熟识的人当中挑选员工，并邀他们加入微软，因为这些人是我们所熟悉且信任的。对于刚起步的企业来说，首先需要的人才，其次就是足够的耐性。也许会有企业家把发展看做是一件轻松快捷的事儿，认为成功是90%的创新加上10%的努力。事实并非如此。成功的确需要出众的想法，但更需要大量的精力投入，以及你在时间上的付出，也许是1年，2年，甚至是10年。很多事物在真正得到认可前往往都需要10年的时间。在阅读流行报章后的你也许不相信这样的说法，但这的确是事实，是真真切切的事实。Windows的发展历程是这样，SQL数据库亦如此。同样，Google的成功也是在艰辛付出数年的时光后才实现的。在这过程中，或许会有少许的期待，但更多的是磨合。而这也正是微软早期的发展历程。

　　我们制造了一些产品，但我们也是一家名不见经传的小企业。当我决定放弃斯坦福大学商学院的学业而加入这家研发软件的小公司时，我父母认为我一定是疯了。那时的我对他俩说，爸，妈，我们做的就是为个人电脑研发软件，所以我才决定离开斯坦福。而我父亲对此却不很理解。他质问我，软件又是个什么鬼东西？我母亲也说，别人为什么非得要台电脑呢？说到这里，不得不提醒大家，我们这里正在谈论的是上世纪80年代的事儿，那时的生活显然与现在大相径庭。但我父母提出的这些问题也正好反映出，那时的外部大环境并不十分看好，摆在我们面前的还有许许多多的困难和阻碍。

　　换作现在，你或许会问过去科技发展的那些美好时光是否都已经过去了？这也是那些刚起步创业的人会常常问我的一个问题。在他们看来，在过去的这5年，10年，15年，甚至20年期间，科技领域已经发生了翻天覆地的变化，那是不是也就意味着这个行业已经饱和了，再也不容他人插足了呢？我的答案是。不！而且永远不会！事实上，只要看看现在的科技行业，不难发现这其中其实到处是各式规模的公司，既有几家巨头企业，也有一些中等规模的公司以及许许多多的小企业。而这个行业本生充满活力的特性也决定了各企业间的势力一直在发生着此消彼长的变化。与此同时，新生事物也在源源不断地涌现出来。就在我们说话这会儿，芯片运作的方式也许就已经在发生着巨大的变化。因此，我们每个人都有机会使自己发展壮大。

　　在我走上这个讲台之前，我还没注意到这个东西。大家请看，这只是一张塑胶，而它自己显然对此一无所知。我可以触碰它但不是试图掌控它，它却不会认出我并说，史蒂夫，别碰我了。它既看不到也说不了，更不会跟我说话。我不太确定是不是有一首关于这个的歌，不过，我相信未来会有，这也就是科技发展的趋势。

　　今天，你们学习说计算机语言。若要编写程序的话，你们还得学会用计算机语言来写。若要运行程序，找到文件，打开，复制，粘贴。但目前的电脑指令尚不能为我的斯坦福之行做好准备，而我的秘书却可以打理好这一切。我相信，像这样的指令在未来的数年内就可以实现。

　　你甚至都不用培养自己对科技领域的兴趣，软件的发展势必将为许多行业带来一轮翻天覆地的变化浪潮。它将改变的触角伸向包括能源，环境科学在内的各个领域。诚然，软件的影响力还将更加广泛地显现出来。对此我抱有极大的热忱和期待。此外，这对商业的发展无疑也将会遭受巨大的冲击。

　　身处这个互联网飞速发展的时代，我相信一切都在发生着巨大的变化。人们会说，互联网已经诞生15年，各式各样的事物被不断创造出来。而就在眼前，整个科技世界也正在经历着脱胎换骨般的变化。科技是伴随着电脑的产生而发展的，而现在科技本身就已经意味着电脑，智能电视。若是没有互联网，电视和电话，电脑也不会有今天的改变。而与此同时，若是没有未来的电脑，电话以及电视，相信互联网也不会有今天的成就。因此，相信在未来，这些软件的发展会给这些领域带来更多的惊喜和变化。

　　自我加入微软以来，仅编写软件的基本范式就已经发生了数次改变。此外还有客户服务器，个人电脑，互联网，以及我们目前正致力于的Web 2.0和Web 3.0。当前新涌现的智能手机，智能电脑，智能电视等，也为这一商业领域的变化和发展创造了无限的机会。

　　许多人都提出这样的疑问，市场是否会持续需求智能手机，智能电脑等呢？答案是肯定的。的确，每个人都希望能获得最好的，而这些东西又是如此的廉价。正如比尔在创建微软之初时所说的那样，硬件只代表着自由智能的形式，我们还需软件使其运作起来。作为一个消费者，你个人的世界需要统一起来。在电话这端你是一个身份，在互联网上又是另一个；在工作中是一个你，在家里又是另一个你。你也许会想要将这各种的身份都加以区分起来，但不愿意应付眼下遭遇的不幸。再比如，当有人要搬家，或是换电话号码，你得更换多少东西。又或者你自己想去哪些地方。如此这般的诸多事情都等待着你去处理。

　　言归正传，正因为微软，我们能够享受到不受时空限制的交流接触，以及智能手机，智能电脑，还有智能电视。我们也正致力于为互联网开发一个崭新的智能应用程序平台，我们将其称之为Windows Azure。今年，公司将投入90亿美元用于R&D研发。我没法想象这笔巨大的资金要怎样运作起来，但我每天又不得不从事这项工作。这意味着我们拥有4.5万人进行软件开发，更重要的是，在未来12个月内，我们还有可能需要投入同等规模的资金。不过当前的经济形势暂时不允许我们这样做。不过，这也正好反映了我们对于这项研究成果保有十足的信心。当前微软所处的地位有些微妙和有趣。我们已经拥有了这些大份额的商业，但我们还不得不继续改进这些大份额中的软件行业。就比如Windows这样的产品，在某种意义上来说，目前的这个版本或许会和其上一个或上上个版本的表现持平，但又有别于上一个。也就是说，不管怎样我们都还得持续不断地改进。当我开始踏足IT业的那一刻起，我就已经了解到自己将要从事的是怎样的一个行业。总之，一旦你加入一家大型企业，不管它的商业目标是大是小，你都得有这种观念。这不像是经营一家工厂、银行亦或是零售点。

　　在这个行业中，你得不断有所创新，因为软件本身就是一个永葆青春的行业。它不会中途停断，就算会，也只是在你完成它的那一刻，但从整个时间轴上来看，它是绝不会向其它物品那样中断的。因此，从这个意义上来说，对于所有企业，包括那些刚起步的企业来说，创新的机会和需求自始至终保持强劲势头。也因为这样，我们才得不断地进行投资。

　　对风险投资家们，我想说的是今年的风险投资机会或许会比去年少了，不过在我看来整个市场实际上还有很大的需求缺口。因此，不管你是打算加入一家刚起步的企业，还是自己创办一家公司，亦或是加入一家像微软这样的大企业，我认为都存在巨大的商机。

　　我们希望能成为那些刚创立自己事业的人们的伙伴以及朋友。为此，我们已经面向学生、新办企业、以及合格新公司免费提供我们的产品。同时，我们也免费提供我们的软件，旨在为那些愿意与我们携手共进的企业家们提供尽可能的帮助，并帮助那些有创新及前瞻意识的人们。

　　早前我就已经谈论过有关创新这一概念的定义范围，而现在我仍然愿意再一次老话重谈。在座的各位，比起比尔和我，你们身处一个更好的时代，这全都多亏了信息技术的力量为创新带来了更多的可能性，不仅在科技本身，在科学、医疗、甚至教育领域它也展现了其惊人的力量。只用一台电脑，你就能够改变现在的这个世界，而在过去，这一切是连想都不敢想的。

　　有人质问：我们当前正面临能源问题，解决方案在哪儿呢？答案就是，我们需要研发出更好的软件。不管你认为解决的最好方法是找到新的能源替代品，亦或是制造出能够掌控新能源的辅助工具，我相信都离不开软件，因为后者也将毫无疑问加速这一进程。

　　软件的功效同样也将发挥在推进医疗研究的进程上。此外，还有教育领域。说起教育，这永远是一个投入不足的领域。这里绝对无意针对任何教育机构，只是指出了一个人所共知的现实。人们认为，获得更高一级学校教育的唯一途径就是创办更小的班级规模---抱歉，说错了，是更大的班级规模，不过也有人对此表示反对。因此，怎样运用信息技术来真正改进、评估并促进教育的发展成了一个问题。另一方面，在医疗保健上，我想每个人或许都认为当前的医保体制需要改革和创新，那么在这个过程中，信息技术就成为医生、护士以及其他健康专业人士必须利用的是制胜武器。

　　我个人认为，各式各样的企业还会如雨后春笋般陆续涌现出来，而当前还只是处于初步阶段。同样，在软件研发的基础上，我相信微软以及这个行业还将创造出更多无限的机会和可能。

　　我只是希望一切都能有个完美的结局。尽管当前我们身处一个经济形势严峻的时期，但也正因此才有了更多的发展机遇。总之，我想表达的只是个人的一些基本想法。在我还是商业学院一名学生的时候，绝大多数人都希望日后成为咨询师或者投行家。而那时，这些都是炙手可热的职业。我个人也很喜欢这两种工作。但是，咨询师不创造产品。至于投行家们，他们的确也在创造一些金融产品，然而这种创造往往令人生疑，尤其是置身于当前这场金融风暴中。只有那些真正创造产品，并在现有经济中的生产力中注入全新的创新活力的企业家们，才拥有改变世界的能力，才能够生产出经济价值，才能够创造出新的就业岗位，同样也才拥有更多的工作激情和乐趣。因此，在我看来，对于那些时刻关注科技动态，有创造热情以及在科学和信息技术等个别领域拥有一技之长的人们来说，此时此刻正是他们迎来发展的大好时机。因此我希望，你们当中的部分人，亦或者绝大部分人都能够踏上这一旅程。你们将与我们一道创造更美好的未来，我也衷心祝愿你们能在这条道路上一帆风顺。(哈蒙/文  普莱/编译)

本文为哈蒙授权网易科技独家翻译，转载请注明出处：网易科技博客。

PS:史蒂芬哈蒙不仅是IT互联网界知名人士，同时也是一名创业者和CEO。他对中国的一些创业企业非常感兴趣，如果他来到中国，将会和一些公司创业者见面。对创业有兴趣的人可以发邮件到：steveharmon@163.com

 

附英文全文：
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Talks Innovation

A few weeks ago, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, addressed students at Stanford and shared his insights into innovation. He also spoke the other day in Beijing. I wanted to share it with you in Ballmer’s own words some of his thoughts. Here it is:

"I started at Microsoft almost 30 years ago. I thought I would give you my “entrepreneurial story.” That’s me when I left Stanford. I still part my hair, by the way, on the right, just like I did back then.

I did meet Bill Gates at Harvard, and our sophomore year at school we lived down the hall from each other. And his friend from high school, they had started actually a company when they were in high school that did software that processed traffic tape. I don’t know if you notice when you drive down the road you sometimes see these rubber tubes across the road. Well, it turns out in the old days when you drive over one of those, it would punch holes in a paper tape in a box at the side of the road. And you would have to ship them back to Maryland. And Bill and Paul said, gee, let’s buy one of these new Intel microprocessors. At the time it was something called the Intel 4004, just to show you how olden days that was, and they started a business processing these tapes for cities in the State of Washington.

And then Bill came to Harvard, and they still loved microprocessors, and Paul Allen wanted to build a company to build computers with microprocessors. And somehow even then Bill kind of said, no. I know what we’re good at, Paul, we’re software guys. Let’s not do that. And then finally, when our sophomore year in college, the cover of Popular Electronics magazine, there was a picture of the first microprocessor-based computer, something called the Altair. And Bill and Paul decided to “write all the software the machine would ever need.”

Of course, they didn’t, but they wrote some important software for the machine, and the company got started and was kind of purring along with 30 people when I joined. There were no business people. It was all programmers when I joined the company in 1980. I came in to “be a business person,” whatever that meant. I didn’t know much. Frankly, all I’d ever really done was interview for jobs, and market brownie mix. I wasn’t exactly well-credentialed. I’d taken the first year in Stanford Business School, so I could read a balance sheet. That was really important. We didn’t have that much money back then, so there wasn’t much to read. But, anyway, those lessons were important.

And then from there, we kind of just kept grinding and grinding, a few bits of inspiration, a lot of perspiration. I just spent an hour with a group of venture capitalists, and they said, hey, look, if you’re going to tell entrepreneurs – I said, I’m going to go talk to some entrepreneurs – what would be your lessons from the early days? They were simple. Hire good people. We actually didn’t have very good people when I started. Bill was good. There were like four or five very good people, and I went into Bill’s office after I’d been there a month or so, and I said, we’ve got to hire 18 more people on top of the 30 that we had. He said, Steve, our people aren’t even very good. Why do you want to hire 18 more? And you’re going to bankrupt us, go back to Stanford or something, but don’t stay here  unless you’re going to do better than that. And so we just really worked hard at getting good people, smart people.

The people you know, at least in my case, they wound up being super important. The initial programmers at Microsoft were people  who grew up with Bill. We brought in people we knew from college, because those are the people you know and you trust if you start something. With good people, and then a lot of patience. I think a lot of entrepreneurs think that things happen quickly. Success is 90 percent inspiration, 10 percent perspiration. It’s much more balanced than that. It’s great idea, a lot of hard work, and then you work at it for a year, two years, three years, four years, five years, six years, seven years, eight, nine, 10. Some things that actually wind up being really important take more than 10 years to get popular.

You wouldn’t believe it reading the popular press, but it’s really true. It’s really true. It’s true with Windows. It’s true with SQL databases, for guys like Oracle. The Google guys were at it for a number of years before that thing really took off. There’s a few exceptions, but most things you’ve got to really grind up. And certainly that was kind of the history of Microsoft in the early days.

We had some products. We were a tiny company. My parents thought I’d lost my mind to drop out of Stanford Business School to go join some company that made software. You know, I said, software for personal computers, mom, dad, that’s why I’m leaving the hallowed halls of Stanford. And my dad said, what the heck is software? And my mother said, why the heck would a person need a computer? Well, we’re talking about 1980, and life was a little different in 1980. But it’s those kinds of questions that – there’s a little bit of spark, there’s a little bit of a powerful force, and then there’s just a lot of hard work to get from here to there.

You know, if you say today, OK, is all the good stuff in the days gone by? This is one of the questions I get a lot from people who are just starting out who say, wow, technology has changed so much in the last five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. Are all of the great companies created? The answer is no, not even at all. The truth of the matter is, if you look at the technology industry there’s always a few big guys, some medium-sized guys, and lots of small guys, and the names are always changing, because the industry is so darned dynamic. And there’s so much new stuff being invented. The way chips work is changing completely as we speak. You’re able to get bigger, and bigger displays at cheaper and cheaper prices.

I didn’t check this one out before I walked up here, look, this is just a piece of plastic, it doesn’t know a thing. I can touch it, I’m not controlling it, it doesn’t recognize me and say, hey, Steve, stop beating on me. It doesn’t see me, feel me, speak to me. I don’t know, there’s some song that sounds a little bit like that. But, that’s the future. That’s where things are going.

Today you learn to speak the computer’s language, if you want to write programs you learn to write programs in the computer’s language. If you want to control programs, file, open, copy, paste, not get me ready for my trip to Stanford. My secretary is able to process that command, my computer cannot process that command. The kinds of things that are going to be invented over the next several years is just to me outstanding, and particularly for somebody who’s got skills in software.

You don’t even have to be interested in the tech field, software is going to change so many fields. It will change energy, environmental science, the impact of software will be broadly felt. So I’m a bit of a zealot on that, as a particular expertise, but the chance for entrepreneurship is really, really high.

We live in a world where I think things are really also changing based upon the fact that we’re still quite early in the presence of the Internet. People say, well, the Internet, we’ve had that for 15 years. So much has been invented. And yet really the whole world of technology is being redone as we speak. Technology grew up with the computer, and now it’s the computer, the PC, and maybe the smart TV. The computers, phones, and TVs, didn’t grow up assuming the Internet. And frankly the Internet didn’t grow up assuming tomorrow’s PCs, phones, and TVs. And so the whole mode of how software gets written to run intelligently in PCs, phones, and TVs, to talk to the Internet cloud, that’s all going to get redone.

Since I’ve been at Microsoft the basic paradigm for how software gets written has changed a few times. Mainframes, PCs, client-server, Internet, and now we’re in sort of a Web 2, Web 3 kind of generation. Smart phones, smart PCs, smart TVs, talking to a smart Internet, and that creates a whole generation of opportunities to disrupt the businesses that are to there. To create new businesses that people couldn’t dream of before. We talk about the cloud, the cloud is kind of that smart Internet presence talking to those smart clients.

A lot of people sort of question the fact, will we continue to need smart phones, smart PCs, et cetera, and the answer is yes. Yes, people will actually want to get the best they can get, because this stuff is just so darned cheap, and as long – Bill Gates when he started Microsoft said, the hardware represents a form of free intelligence. We just have to have the software to switch it on. And that opportunity still exists. Your world needs to be brought together, the consumer, you have one identity on the phone, you’ve got another on the Internet, you’ve got another at work, you’ve got another at home. You may want them separate, but you may not want to manage the cacophony of things that you deal with today.

Just take contacts, how many different places do you have to update when somebody switches homes, switches phone numbers. How many different places do you go touch, just simple things, so much to do, so much to do to improve the overall experience people have with these things. See, I wish there was a camera in that darned screen.

Anyway, at Microsoft we’re investing aggressively across the spectrum, touch, voice, natural language input, smart phones, smart PCs, smart TVs. We’ve introduced a whole new platform for writing smart applications in the Internet, a new version of Windows that we call Windows Azure. Our company this year will invest over $9 billion in R&D. Nobody sort of is – you can’t process what numbers like that mean, I can’t and I deal with them every day. It means we’ve got about 45,000 people involved creating software, and perhaps most importantly we will invest the same amount of money this next 12 months that we did the last 12. We were going to increase it, because of the economy we won’t. But, it sure reflects the fact that we’ve got fundamental optimism about what can be created.

Now Microsoft is sort of a funny place. We’ve got these big businesses, but in the software business big businesses need to be constantly recreated. A product like Windows is, in a sense, only as good as its last release or two, not just its last release, but it’s last release or two. So we need to have this mix of sort of large – thank you. Anyway, moving right along. I kind of knew what I was doing when I walked down that road. Anyway, you need to have a mix even in a big company of smaller entrepreneurial projects, bigger entrepreneurial projects. It’s not like running a factory. It’s not like running a bank. It’s not like running a retailer. Not just Microsoft, but nobody.

In our business you’ve got to be inventing new things, because software doesn’t wear out. It doesn’t break, or at least if it breaks it was broken when you finished it, it doesn’t break over time the way physical goods do. So the opportunity and need to invent, just like any other startup, or entrepreneurial activity remains strong.

So we’re investing. Venture capitalists, there’s going to be less venture capital this year than last year. There is still probably in my opinion more venture capital than there are really good ideas to absorb the venture capital. So whether you’re going to join a startup, whether you want to start a business yourself, whether you want to join a company like ours, I think there’s just incredible opportunities.

We want to be kind of a partner and friend to people who are starting these businesses. We’ve made our tools now free for students, for startup companies, qualified startup companies. We’ve made our software free so we can bootstrap entrepreneurs who want to come with us, and help pioneer and really pursue the future, the future for students, for consumers, for businesses, for the whole range of things.

I hinted at this earlier, but I really want to come back to this notion that the range of innovation, you live in almost a better time, you’re coming out of school in almost a better time than Bill Gates and I did, because the power of information technology to give new innovation possibilities, not just in technology itself, but in science, in health, in education, it’s unbelievable. You’re able to model today the physical world, with computers, in a way that was never possible before.

People say we have an energy problem, what’s the answer? We need better software, whether you believe in oil and gas to simulate, or whether you need better tools to model what can happen with new forms of energy, software accelerates the process. Pharmaceutical research, software accelerates the process. Education, education is the one industry that never gets more efficient. This is not a slam at Stanford or other fine educational institutions, but in a sense everybody says, hey, the only way to get more efficient is to actually have smaller class sizes – I’m sorry, bigger class sizes, and yet people resist that. So how do we use information technology to actually improve and measure, and advance education? Healthcare, I think everybody kind of understands that healthcare needs to be reborn and reinvented, and information technology is at the key of what doctors and nurses and other health professionals really do.

I think it’s just a phenomenal time to be starting all kinds of companies. And I think leveraging and building on the kind of software that our company and our industry provide is just a great, great opportunity.

I just want to end on the notion of good times. These are tough economic times, but these are times that I think are rich in opportunity. In a sense I’m going to make kind of a radical statement. When I was a student here at the business school most people wanted to become consultants or investment bankers. Those were the hot jobs. I love consultants, and I love investment bankers, but consultants don’t invent, and most of the products investment bankers invented are somewhat discredited in the current environment.

Entrepreneurs who invent, who create, who really add to the level of innovation, the productivity in the economy, will change the world, will create economic value, will drive jobs, and will have a heck of a lot of fun doing it. So I think despite everything else now is the time. Now is the time for people who care, who want to invent, who have skills in specifics, scientific and information technology areas. I think now is the time, and certainly I hope for many, or most of you who choose that path, you’ll do it with us, working with us, partnering with us, building on our tools and technologies, but I certainly wish you all the best, if you choose to take that path."

PS: Besides being a well-known technology leader, Steve Harmon is an entrepreneur and CEO of his own software company. Steve will be meeting with companies in China very soon. He is interested in meeting with Chinese corporations and venture firms to discuss expanding his own venture, Taleee, into Asia. To reach Steve Harmon about this please email him at steveharmon@163.com