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 8217;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 8217;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 8217;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 8211;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 8217;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 8221;明星咖啡连锁公司 8221;，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。
Fresh Approach
浓郁香气扑鼻而来
（编辑：何佩琦）