How a Simple Idea Became a Huge Business

我怎樣白手起家

要是我有個水晶球能窺見未來，我會怎么樣呢？

許多人一遇到障礙就打退堂鼓，但我不會這樣。

我一旦有了目標，就必然鍥而不舍，全力以赴。

我相信人生中充滿機會，但我們往往不懂得把握。

By Howard Schultz

霍華德·舒爾茨

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『水晶球』and could see the future? But I quickly shut out『摒棄』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.

小時候我住在紐約市布魯克林區卡納西的房租低廉的住宅區，有一天夜里躺在床上思量：要是我有個水晶球能窺見未來，我會怎么樣呢？不過我迅即拋開了這個念頭。我知道自己在人生路上仍然漫無目標，只知道必須設法離開這里，離開布魯克林。

【額外知識】Brooklyn：美國紐約市的五大行政區之一（其余四區是曼哈頓、布朗克斯、昆斯和里士滿），為黑人和窮人聚居區。

I was fortunate to go to college, but I didn’t know what to do next. I had no mentor 『導師；良師』to help me sort out my options『選擇』. My main goal was to escape the struggles my working-class parents lived with every day.

后來我有幸上了大學，卻不知道下一步該怎么走，也沒有人替我指點迷津。我的父母都是工人階級，每天都必須操勞，而我當時最大的愿望就是不步他們的后塵。

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『合作』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.

我發現自己善于推銷，便進入了一家瑞典人開的家庭用品公司工作。我表現出色，28歲就晉升為主管國內銷售的副總裁，薪金優厚。我買了套住宅，又娶了如花似玉的妻子--雪瑞，生活舒適愉快。連我的父母都不敢相信我會如此飛黃騰達。他們從未夢想過我能過上這樣的生活。

Most people would be satisfied with all this. But I was getting antsy『熱鍋上螞蟻般的；坐立不安的』. I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny 『命運』. It was around this time, in the early 1980s, that I became aware of a strange phenomenon. A little retailer『零售商』in Seattle was placing large orders for a drip coffee maker: a simple plastic cone 『圓錐體』set on a thermos『保溫瓶』. 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?

一般人有了如此成就，也許會志得意滿，我卻還想更上一層樓，決意要主宰自己的命運。就在這個時候（80年代初期），一個奇特現象引起了我的注意。西雅圖有家經營零售業的小公司向我們訂購滴濾式咖啡壺。這家公司名叫"明星咖啡連鎖公司"，只有4家小店，向我們買這種產品的數量卻超過百貨業巨擘梅西公司。當時美國各地普通使用電氣咖啡壺。何以此器具在西雅圖那么受歡迎？

【額外知識】

Seattle：美國西北部華盛頓州首府。瀕臨太平洋，著名的波音（Boeing）飛機制造公司坐落于此。

Macy’s：即R. H. Macy & Co.梅西公司。美國資格最老、最著名的百貨公司，總部設在紐約。

I had to find out, so I went to Seattle.

為了查明原委，我前往西雅圖。

Fresh Approach

濃郁香氣撲鼻而來

Starbucks’s flagship store was modest『樸素的』but full of character. The minute the door opened, a heady『刺鼻的；濃烈的』aroma『芳香』of coffee drew me in. Behind a wooden counter stood bins containing coffees from all over: Sumatra, Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica. Along one wall was a shelf full of coffee-related merchandise『商品；貨物』, including our thermos-and-cone coffee maker.

明星咖啡連鎖公司的總店樸實無華，卻別具風格。我一推開店門，濃郁醉人的咖啡香氣便撲鼻而來。木柜臺后面有一列箱子，分別裝盛從蘇門答臘、肯尼亞、埃塞俄比亞和哥斯達黎加世界各地進口的咖啡。靠著墻的貨架上擺滿各種咖啡用具，包括我們生產的滴濾式咖啡壺。