钱的笑话：5、 How to make fortune 发财之路

5. How to make fortune

Once a young man who believed he himself can achieve1 great happened to meet a famous billionaire2, he thought it might be a great opportunity to ask the billionaire how to make fortune, but his second thought was that it might be naive3 and impolite to ask directly, so he decided to ask the billionaire how he started in the beginning. The billion was very patient4, and told him a long story.

I remember that year came with the Great Depression, and all I have was only 5 cents. "That year was 1929, wasn't it?" The knowledgeable young man said.

Yeah, I spent the 5 cents buying an apple, and sold it out in 10 cents the second day. "Oh, then you earned 5 cents." The young man looked thoughtful.

The following day I bought 2 apples with 10 cents. "I see, then you must have sold out the 2 apples!" The clever young man was enlightened. "Well, I had no idea where were the apples at the third day, because at that day I inherited 2 million dollars."

Notes:

1. achieve 成就，完成

2. billionaire 亿万富翁

3. naive 天真的

4. patient 有耐心的

发财之路

一位相信自己能够做成一番事业的年轻人，机缘巧合，遇到了一位声名显赫的亿万富翁。他心想，这或许是向亿万富翁请教如何寻求发财之路的好时机，但转念一想，觉得贸然请教别人发达秘诀不仅不客气，还显得自己幼稚，于是他变通了一下，请教这位富翁当年是如何起步走向成功的。富翁倒是好耐性，娓娓道来。

“记得那一年是大萧条，我只有5美分。”“哦，那是1929年，对吧？”学识丰富的年轻人说。

“是啊，我就用这5美分买了一个苹果。第二天，用10美分卖了出去。”“哦，你赚了5分钱啦。”年轻人若有所思。

“第二天，我又用这10美分，买了两个苹果。”“哦，那么，第三天你一定把两个苹果都卖了出去。”聪明的年轻人恍然大悟。“哦，第三天，苹果我忘记哪里去了，因为那天我就继承了一笔200万美元的遗产。”

Useful link:

经济大萧条：1929年10月28日，纽约证券交易所股指暴跌13％。第二天，道琼斯指数一泻千里，暴跌22％……美国乃至全球历史上最恐怖的一次经济危机拉开序幕，人们迎来了长达十年的大萧条。