We've proved that it is in fact possible to earn a billion dollars, because it only depends on two numbers, one of which startups routinely hit without cheating, and another that cheating couldn't possibly affect.
我不认同这个论证的点在于，首先我承认初创公司可以达到15%的月增长率。但是我不认为它能连续增长超过数年，甚至是十年。它会增会少，同时呢，增长率的减缓，甚至是负增长，意味着出现了问题。那么解决这个问题的时候，就要采取行动。我们无法保证这个行动总是不 cheating 的，不作弊的。另外就是市场规模，市场规模这部分我是认的，它是不需要通过我们 作弊来进行扩大的，他也无法扩大。所以我还是对第一点最有问题吧。
They don't understand the math of exponential growth, so when they see people becoming what seems to them impossibly rich, they assume they must have cheated.
可疑观点
I don't want anyone to accuse me of using unrealistic numbers, so let's take a more conservative growth rate.
论证-让步
The reason I know about this topic is that 21 years ago Jessica and I started something called Y Combinator. If you haven't heard of Y Combinator, it's a cross between an investment firm and a school for startup founders. Since we started it in 2005 we've funded about 6500 companies.Starting a successful startup is the most common way to become a billionaire, so in effect I've spent the last 21 years training people to become billionaires. So far about 30 of them have, but there are many more in the pipeline.
So you can imagine how astonished I was last month when an American politician said that it was impossible to earn a billion dollars.
Since this is apparently the future prime ministers' club, I'm going to tell you about something it would be good if more politicians understood: I'm going to tell you how people become billionaires. I hope this will be useful to you even if you don't plan to go into politics. Those of you who don't become prime minister can become billionaires instead.