异类之不一样的成功启示录 第97期:黄金机会

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.

这栋独特的建筑依然耸立在曼哈顿百老汇的下半区，从时代广场上的20街的10到15层工业仓库到坚固的Soho和Tribeca阁楼，几乎都是为服装制造商、帽子制造商和女内衣制造商而建，巨大的男女服装制造间耸立着缝纫机器。

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年代来到纽约从事服装制造的人是财富的浓重一笔。

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

就像1986年出现在硅谷的上万小时的计算机程序一样都在你的掌握中。

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

“毫无疑问，这些犹太移民在完美的时刻带着完美的技艺到来”，社会学家斯蒂芬·斯坦伯格说，

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

“为了发现机会，你需要有特别的勇气，而这些移民工作努力。

They sacrificed. The scrimped and saved and invested wisely.

他们牺牲、他们精打细算、存钱并明智的投资。

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

但是，你需要记住的是这些年服装工业发展迅猛。

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

经济发展需要他们拥有的技能。”

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

路易斯和瑞吉娜夫妇，及成千上万的其他一起来的人都得到了这个黄金机会。

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.

他们的孩子及子孙辈的人因这些服装工人晚上带回家的学问成为世界上的领先者，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.

在第一次将四十个婴儿围嘴全部卖光之后，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销售“干货”的代理公司，相当于一家波兰的Brandstatter公司。

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

由于路易斯不会讲英语，在那里他找到一个可以说德语的销售人员，

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.

他用他与瑞吉娜的毕生积蓄-125美元，购买了足够做十打婴儿围嘴的布料，

Day and night, he and Regina cut and sewed.

无论是白天还是黑夜，他和瑞吉娜不停的裁剪和缝纫。