• 不用在价格上步步退让：绝望最能削弱议价力。银行里有钱就有资本说“不”，从而大大增强你的底气。

    • 有效维护个人声誉：没错，在硅谷，没有什么能比“成功”更能树立和提升一个人的声誉。但其他情形下如果应对得法，也能给你加分。

    或许你没能实现投资者的期望，带给他们10倍的回报，但通过努力，你至少返还了投资本金，这总比血本无归要好得多。

    或许你给员工开的薪水还不足以让他们过上舒适的生活，但至少给他们提供了一个前途大好的新机会，并给了他们“一点额外的东西”，让他们过去18个月的辛苦没有白费。

    至于你，虽然没有成为一直梦想中的“下一个扎克伯格”，但在既定环境下你已做到最好。员工们会明白这一点。投资者会明白这一点。最重要的是，你自己也明白这一点。

    本文作者马克•兰多夫（@mbrandolph）是硅谷资深的企业家、高科技行业管理人士兼初创企业顾问。近年来，Marc共同创立了互联网影视流媒体服务网站Netflix，并出任第一任首席执行官。他的博客地址是http://www.marcrandolph.com/

    • Be more aggressive about your price: Nothing undermines your negotiating power like desperation. Having money in the bank allows you to say no, which dramatically strengthens your hand.

    • Look after your own reputation: Sure, nothing will cement your reputation in the valley like success. But it's still possible to get points for the manner in which you've managed all those alternate scenarios.

    Maybe you didn't generate the 10X return your investors were hoping for, but fighting to at least return their original investment is still a materially better outcome than a complete wash out.

    Maybe you didn't get your employees the payday that sets them up for life, but at least you landed them in a promising new opportunity as well as getting them "a little something extra" that made their last 18 months of hard work well worth it.

    And for you, while you may not have ended up as "the next Zuck" like you had always dreamed, you still did the very best you could under the circumstances. Your employees will know it. Your investors will know it. And most important of all, you'll know it.

    Marc Randolph (@mbrandolph) is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, high tech executive and startup consultant. Most recently Marc was co-founder of the online movie and television streaming service Netflix, serving as their first CEO. He blogs at http://www.marcrandolph.com/