異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第97期:黃金機會

To this day, the distinctive buildings that you see when you walk down the lower half of Broadway in Manhattan, from the big ten and fifteen story industrial warehouses that ran for twenty blocks below Time Square to the cast-iron lofts of SOHO and Tribeca, were almost all built to house coat makers and hat makers and lingerie manufactures and huge rooms of men and women hunched over sewing machines.

這棟獨特的建筑依然聳立在曼哈頓百老匯的下半區(qū)，從時代廣場上的20街的10到15層工業(yè)倉庫到堅固的Soho和Tribeca閣樓，幾乎都是為服裝制造商、帽子制造商和女內衣制造商而建，巨大的男女服裝制造間聳立著縫紉機器。

To come to New York City in the 1890s with a background in dress making or sewing or Schnittwaren Handlung was a stroke of extraordinary good fortune.

于1890年代來到紐約從事服裝制造的人是財富的濃重一筆。

It was like showing up in Silicon Valley in 1986 with ten thousand hours of computer programming already under your belt.

就像1986年出現在硅谷的上萬小時的計算機程序一樣都在你的掌握中。

"There is no doubt that those Jewish immigrants arrived at the perfect time, with the perfect skills," says the sociologist Stephen Steinberg.

“毫無疑問，這些猶太移民在完美的時刻帶著完美的技藝到來”，社會學家斯蒂芬·斯坦伯格說，

To exploit that opportunity, you had to have certain virtues, and those immigrants worked hard.

“為了發(fā)現機會，你需要有特別的勇氣，而這些移民工作努力。

They sacrificed. The scrimped and saved and invested wisely.

他們犧牲、他們精打細算、存錢并明智的投資。

But still, you have to remember that the garment industry in those years was growing by leaps and bounds.

但是，你需要記住的是這些年服裝工業(yè)發(fā)展迅猛。

The economy was desperate for the skills that they possessed."

經濟發(fā)展需要他們擁有的技能。”

Louis and Regina Borgenicht and the thousands of others who came over on the boats with them were given a golden opportunity.

路易斯和瑞吉娜夫婦，及成千上萬的其他一起來的人都得到了這個黃金機會。

And so were their children and grandchildren, because the lessons those garment workers brought home with them in the evenings turned out to be a critical for getting ahead in the world.

他們的孩子及子孫輩的人因這些服裝工人晚上帶回家的學問成為世界上的領先者，因而很重要。

The day after Louis and Regina Borgenicht sold out their first lot of forty aprons, Louis made his way to H.B.Claflin and Company.

在第一次將四十個嬰兒圍嘴全部賣光之后，路易斯找到了克利夫林公司，

Claflin was a dry-goods "commision" house, the equivalent of Brandstatter's back in Poland.

克利夫林公司是一家銷售“干貨”的代理公司，相當于一家波蘭的Brandstatter公司。

There, Borgenicht asked for a salesman who spoke German, since his English was almost nonexistent.

由于路易斯不會講英語，在那里他找到一個可以說德語的銷售人員，

He had in his hand his and Regina's life savings, $125, and with that money, he bought enough cloth to make ten dozen aprons.

他用他與瑞吉娜的畢生積蓄-125美元，購買了足夠做十打嬰兒圍嘴的布料，

Day and night, he and Regina cut and sewed.

無論是白天還是黑夜，他和瑞吉娜不停的裁剪和縫紉。