「硅谷牛人传」覃超大魔王对话LinkedIn总监张溪梦（Simon）
硅谷人物故事，覃超大魔王原创，内容诙谐，但是以小见大，发人思考。
我想写出视角不同的文章，给大家以营养和启迪。所以如果看，请深看。
全文阅读量大概15分钟。
在硅谷的华人大神中，想必大家听过微软的陆奇，Facebook第一工程师赵海平和第二工程师王淮，但很少有人听过和他们齐名的一位LinkedIn大神，名叫 张溪梦 Simon Zhang。
开门见山，Simon作为硅谷华人的骄傲和偶像，最近刚回国创业。国外很多知名媒体 （比如VentureBeat）都对他进行了报道：LinkedIn exec Simon Zhang's next new thing: A data-analytics startup 。新闻资讯的介绍难免官味十足而缺乏独特和入木三分的介绍，就请各位观众听覃超大魔王来帮你们解读这位LinkedIn的华人大神。
中文 张溪梦，英文 Simon Zhang；
中文名文静婉约，英文名睿智彪悍（注意英文读音不读“西蒙”）；
他将LinkedIn的Business Analytics（商业数据分析，下同）由自己一个人做到近80人的部门；
他的部门支持整个公司的 Sales，Marketing，Monetization，Operations等部门，给LinkedIn的业务和营收提供了坚实的后盾。
金庸的小说里有“东邪西毒，南帝北丐，中神通”。而在北美的科技圈，大魔王窃自以为也有这么几个华人的风云人物。这次介绍的便是北美互联网界的南帝 张溪梦 Simon Zhang。（后续文章介绍北丐，中神通等）
段智兴，金庸武侠小说《射雕英雄传》和《神雕侠侣》中的人物，是为“南帝”，以大理“一阳指”自成一派，武学修为登峰造极，“天下五绝”之一。张溪梦，之所以被覃超帝国封为南帝，一是因为LinkedIn的总部在F.L.A.G.公司里地理位置最靠南 <(￣︶￣)>，二是因为张溪梦擅长的是在大量繁复细微的数据中，提炼出来可以指导公司业务部门和高层进行裁决的信息。这就好似拥有一阳指一样的绝学，在大数据中一针见血地看出问题的关键。
言归正传，张溪梦是华人在北美科技界事业卓越的一面旗帜。他2010年4月加入LinkedIn，从 Data scientist（数据科学家）开始做起，4年内平步青云，升值Sr director（高级总监），可谓是华人在美国科技公司的奇迹。他主导的 Business Analytics 部门从开始自己的一个人，后来扩张成80+人的大部门，这绝对是华人的一大骄傲。
让人觉得有趣的是他这一路走过来的经历。整个过程我和他面对面交谈了三次才完整说完，完全可以写成一本书。简要说来，溪梦同学本科在医学院读了5年，后来去了天津一所脑肿瘤医院当脑科手术医生（对，您看的没错，就是一个脑肿瘤外科医生）。他说当年做医生特别累，手术一场接着一场地做。另外主要是自己很喜欢计算机，很喜欢游戏和编程。中途发生了很多故事，他毅然选择跟随自己的兴趣，于是背包来北京上新东方申请出国读书。终于有北美大学录取他，他也顺利拿到了MBA学位。溪梦毕业后先后加盟了 Linde，Epson 和 Petco，之后来到Ebay。
一直以来，溪梦的工作就是数据分析，在Ebay工作时他碰到了他职业中的第一个“西门吹雪”。在和溪梦聊天的时候，他反复地强调在一个领域做到极致的重要性，而他玩笑地将自己之前看到的那些在个人领域中做到登峰造极的人称为“西门吹雪”。溪梦跟着他学到了很多关于网站分析和数据分析的知识，而且凭借自己的认真负责，溪梦一直做到了Senior Manager的职位。
真正的转折点来自于溪梦加入LinkedIn。2010年，溪梦以Data Scientist的身份加盟硅谷的职业社交巨头 LinkedIn。刚开始，他只是负责给不同部门（比如Sales（销售），Marketing（市场））提供数据支持。后来他要负责的东西越来越多，便开始向LinkedIn的高层建议，既然一个部门里的人需要的数据和呈现方式基本上是相同的，不如把它们做成一个一个规范的data dashboard（数据样板），这样每个部门需要关注的数据可以很清晰地被展示出来。这个idea很靠谱，于是溪梦拿到越来越多的headcount（人头数），他的团队也慢慢组建起来。
4年后，2010年底，溪梦已经做到LinkedIn的 Senior Director，手下有5个Director，总共80多号人。4年被晋升4次，这在硅谷的华人圈算是不小的成就。而在老书虫咖啡和他的聊天中，覃超大魔王发现溪梦表现出超乎寻常的谦逊（humble）。他坦言能取得今天这样的成就一是因为LinkedIn的高层很信任自己，给了自己发挥的舞台（他们没有以语言和外国人等原因，而限制他的发展），二是他的团队里的人非常团结和努力（大部分是中国人）。
但是，覃超大魔王和各位可能更加关心的是，他是如何在硅谷公司做到如此成功的？和他的数次谈话后我发现了几点：（注意如果上面的东西一句都没记住，没关系；只要你认真看到下面的东西，你在你的学业或者职业道路上也能平步青云。）
1. 追求极致的工匠精神
他反复强调在海外被褒扬的“Bruce Lee”（李小龙）精神：
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” - Bruce Lee
他列举了很多自己之前玩铁拳游戏的时候常年苦练的结果，其中之一就是手指都打弯掉了。但是他发现和韩国职业选手相比依然有着差距。韩国选手可以将不同招数的连接精确到帧（60FPS），所以他们对于人物的操控更加细腻。同理，张溪梦自己在数据分析上也一直积累经验，坚持了10年之久；这使得他像一颗钉子一样，牢牢地站稳了脚跟。因此，他很佩服在工作之中碰到的那些努力和专注的人，他还说自己从身边登峰造极的同事那里学到了很多。
2. 重视团队的力量和保持团结
在交谈过程中，溪梦同学一直强调自己的团队里的人多么团结，多么努力，大家会齐心协力把事情给做好。他说了一个我特别有感触的事实：“在美国的华人，他们要比白人辛苦三倍并且干出差不多三倍的成就，才能达到白人相同的地位和实现个人价值。” 我特别能够理解这句话，这让我想到我之前的mentor魏小亮刘永延还有赵海平，他们都是非常拼命的人，丝毫不比在高三时候松懈。而很多白人他们可以更好地利用语言和文化优势，以及适当整合资源，来达到相同的级别和影响力。
所以张溪梦在自己的团队里，绝对禁止窝里斗，大家上下一条心，把事情做成。另外在招人方面，相同水平的人里，他坦诚自己会优先选择中国人。因为我们是同胞，因为外界经常说中国人不团结，而他想用自己的行动来改变这个事实。（让我们为他点赞）
3. 保持感激
大魔王的另一体会，就是溪梦同学一直在感谢LinkedIn的高层对于自己的信任。他说他的新业务部门得到了很多LinkedIn高层的支持，也给他大量的人头数用来招人。即使后来他准备出来创业，LinkedIn公司的CEO还特地介绍他认识了 Reid Hoffman （LinkedIn的主席和创始人，Paypal Mafia成员之一，和 Peter Thiel，Elon Musk 齐名）。他说 Hoffman 就说了一句话："I support you, no matter what project you're gonna initiate." ( "This is so fucking awesome!" Simon replied. ---- 哈哈，覃超大魔王杜撰。）接着梦溪的公司也拿到了来自邵亦波的投资，这个公司刚建立不久，正在欣欣向荣的发展之中。在下一篇覃超帝国专栏文章我将专门介绍他们的公司，因为我觉得它对于醉心于技术的中国程序员，特别是对大数据「Hadoop，Spark，Kafka」感兴趣的人来说实在是一个十年难遇的机会。
这就是LinkedIn的大佬张溪梦的前世今生。在谈话中，记忆犹新的一点是：“15年前，他离开医院和医生的岗位，选择出国。一个人来到北京，背包去新东方上英语培训（新东方真牛）。然后准备申请，出国，从头开始打拼。” 他坦言自己这次回国创业，仿佛第二次背包在北京从头开始打拼。只不过，这次自己不是一个人，而是拥有整个团队和投资人在背后的支持。他说：”这既让他兴奋，同时也倍感压力，不过创业是自己开始工作时的梦；有梦想，同时去付诸行动，就很好了。”
对，有梦想，并且背包踏出行动的第一步，就应该为此感到高兴和自豪。不禁想到Sandberg的一句话："THE FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD"。
谢谢你阅读覃超大魔王的文字
谢谢你对覃超帝国的支持
对了，另外很多人反映想在微信上看，更加方便。为此这周我开始建立和维护微信的公众号。如果你习惯微信，可以订阅我的公众号；当然我的知乎专栏也会一直同步更新。
公众号： qc_empire ， 或者扫描下面的二维码
- Do have the faith in what you love
下一篇已经完成：「GrowingIO」介绍一家以技术为核心的创业公司 - 覃超帝国兴亡史 - 在希望的田野上 - 知乎专栏
附带 张溪梦 在LinkedIn离职时写的文章： (原文： My best learning from LinkedIn CEO )
My best learning from LinkedIn CEOYesterday (Feb 18, 2015) was my last day at LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been the most career transformational place in my professional life. It was an amazing 5 year journey for me. I started as a Data Scientist and ended up building the LinkedIn Business Analytics team from 1 person to almost 80 team members and helped our business significantly across all of the monetization business lines. I am so proud of being part of the team which makes significant impacts. There were so many great people who helped and supported me, and I had a lot of insightful learning from this great company and my colleagues. As a result, I thought it might be interesting to share a few of my most important learning.
Let’s start from a brown-bag session with Jeff Weiner in 2014. Jeff joined one of my Biz Analytics staff meetings and he spent 1.5 hours with 50 team members and shared a lot of his wisdom. For me, the most imperative learning was from the last question he answered. One of our best business analysts asked him, “Jeff, why you always have so much energy?” Jeff’s answer was crystal clear and insightful, “Well, first, have enough sleep. Second, eat healthy food. Third, have a happy family which supporting you, Fourth, work out on a regular base. By the way, I have a fitness coach trains me on a regular base……” “…..having a fitness coach and working out…..” that’s the most important point I learned from Jeff in that meeting. :-) I wanted to be energetic. So I joined a fitness club and found a great coach right away and started my workout training.
Instantly, the true learning started….
A sore body today is a strong body tomorrow!
Working out is hard. Because I did not workout much at all for a long time, I felt extremely tired and sore after each training session. For instance, after my first training, I almost felt asleep in the car when I was driving. However, day after day, week after week, I felt better and better. The workout training was still tough to me, but I felt less arm/leg sore than before even I worked out for longer time week after week. So when we insist and keep working towards the goal, the pain and sore will become muscles and strength.
Small improvements on a regular base will make big differences.
My coach gave me a little bit more weight here and there during my training, finally, I can work out longer and lift more weights than when I just started. I am a data analyst, and would like to use numbers to demonstrate the difference. Let’s say, if we do 1% more everyday, after a year, the difference is HUGE. Guess what, (101%) 365 = 37,783%
The gravity is the fundamental force making us stronger and better.
Working out is an anti-gravity game. "Anti-gravity" is not just the concept in science fiction or the “force” lectured by master Yoda in Star Wars movies. It is real. (BTW, Newton’s model has been replaced by general relativity where gravity is not a force but the result of the geometry of spacetime.) I noticed that to become physically healthy and strong, we need to leverage gravity in a very natural way. Either through lifting weight, pushing up, or running on the treadmill or outside. Whatever we do, we always need to anti-gravity. Gravity slows us down, but also makes us stronger, faster and more energetic.
Friction is a part of the greatness of nature.
If you did sled drags or car push (yes, car push.:-)) before, you would know that friction between the equipments and the ground surface is just huge. :-) It reminds me that in our life, when we want to do something new, there is always people telling us “no” or “impossible". It is just very natural. We shouldn’t be bothered much by it. Receiving “no”s is like having frictions between slides and ground. Part of the life/nature. Let’s keep moving forward.
Tough feeling vs. comfortable feeling, we need to get out of our comfortable zone.
I used to run cross some small hills close to my previous house. I found out that when I climbed hills, it was always tough. However, when I run downhills, I felt very comfortable and cozy. It reminded me that when life becomes too comfortable, it might be the time for reconsidering whether it is good for long term or not. To highlight this point, when I was working in the hospital as a neural surgeon during the early stage of my career, one of the founding doctors for Tianjin Cancer Hospital told me that, “To become a good medical doctor, you should always keep a very firm stool, but not a cozy sofa at home. Why keep a stool like that? Very simple, it keeps you alert and awake when you study.” So my conclusion is that living within our comfortable zone might cause very uncomfortable situations in the future.
Our brain always “tells" us you CANNOT.
When I just started with my fitness coach, I gave up several times. In my mind, full of comments such as “I cannot do it anymore.”, “I am too tired, let’s skip tomorrow’s training”.“I would die if I did one more set.” “This is just too heavy.” “ It is impossible for me to finish one more pushup.” blah, blah, blah. You know what, all of these random brain signals are “true lies”. We can do it. We can finish one more set of pushups. we can get up a little early and be there on time. We won’t die if we do 20 more crunches. Our physical body can do way more than our physical brain can “think”. The key is to listen to your heart and not the brain.
Having a great coach can help us make huge difference.
I reserve the best part as the last piece of my post. A great coach molds you into the players she sees inside of you and watches your talent and dedication grow into a skill that you both can be proud of. Her payoff is the smile she sees on your face after you have reached your goal. Her drive are the tears you cry because you want it so bad, knowing that she had the same feeling inside her too. —Author Unknown
Next Play:
My next play is to build a start-up and our vision is to help people use data analytics to solve business problems and make decisions in an efficient way at massive scale.
I am deeply grateful for many inspiring LinkedIn colleagues, such as Jeff and team, who support me with all of the opportunities and it is a great honor of serving such a wonderful company for 5 years. I’d also like to deeply thank my fitness coach, Derek Emma, and executive coach, Stacy McCarthy for their kind mentorship and inspirational guidance.
THANK YOU, Everyone!
