How a Simple Idea Became a Huge Business

我怎样白手起家

要是我有个水晶球能窥见未来，我会怎么样呢?许多人一遇到障碍就打退堂鼓，但我不会这样。我一旦有了目标，就必然锲而不舍，全力以赴。我相信人生中充满机会，但我们往往不懂得把握。

By Howard Schultz

霍华德·舒尔茨

[1]When I was a child growing up in public-housing projects in Canarsie, Brooklyn, I remember lying in bed at night thinking: what if I had a crystal ball and could see the future? But I quickly shut out the thought. I realized I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew was I had to get out of the projects, get out of Brooklyn.

[1]小时候我住在纽约市布鲁克林区卡纳西的房租低廉的住宅区，有一天夜里躺在床上思量：要是我有个水晶球能窥见未来，我会怎么样呢?不过我迅即抛开了这个念头。我知道自己在人生路上仍然漫无目标，只知道必须设法离开这里，离开布鲁克林。

[2]I was fortunate to go to college, but I didn't know what to do next. I had no mentor to help me sort out my options . My main goal was to escape the struggles my working-class parents lived with every day.

[2]后来我有幸上了大学，却不知道下一步该怎么走，也没有人替我指点迷津。我的父母都是工人阶级，每天都必须操劳，而我当时最大的愿望就是不步他们的后尘。

[3]Eventually I discovered I had a talent for sales, and was hired by a Swedish housewares corporation. By age 28, I was vice president in charge of sales in the United States. I had an excellent salary and a co-op apartment in New York City, and was happily married to a beautiful woman, Sheri. My parents couldn't believe I had come so far so fast. The life I was leading was beyond their best dreams for me.

[3]我发现自己善于推销，便进入了一家瑞典人开的家庭用品公司工作。我表现出色，28岁就晋升为主管国内销售的副总裁，薪金优厚。我买了套住宅，又娶了如花似玉的妻子--雪瑞，生活舒适愉快。连我的父母都不敢相信我会如此飞黄腾达。他们从未梦想过我能过上这样的生活。

[4]Most people would be satisfied with all this. But I was getting antsy . I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny . It was around this time, in the early 1980s, that I became aware of a strange phenomenon. A little retailer in Seattle was placing large orders for a drip coffee maker: a simple plastic cone set on a thermos . The company, Starbucks Coffee and Tea, had only four small stores, yet it was buying our product in quantities larger than Macy's was. Why was Seattle so taken with this coffee maker when the rest of the country was using electric coffee makers?

[4]一般人有了如此成就，也许会志得意满，我却还想更上一层楼，决意要主宰自己的命运。就在这个时候(80年代初期)，一个奇特现象引起了我的注意。西雅图有家经营零售业的小公司向我们订购滴滤式咖啡壶。这家公司名叫"明星咖啡连锁公司"，只有4家小店，向我们买这种产品的数量却超过百货业巨擘梅西公司。当时美国各地普通使用电气咖啡壶。何以此器具在西雅图那么受欢迎?

[5]I had to find out, so I went to Seattle.

[5]为了查明原委，我前往西雅图。

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