我相信你现在对我讲的这个故事将信将疑。

Brilliant immigrant kid overcomes poverty in the Depression, can't get a job at the stuffy downtown law firm, makes it all on his own through sheer hustle and ability.

一个富有才气的外来移民的孩子，他虽然克服了贫穷和绝望，但不可能在市区乏味的律师事务所找到一份工作，不可能只靠自己的才华和努力就挣大钱。

It's a rags-to-riches story, and everything we've learned so far from hocky players and software billionaires and the Termites suggests that success doesn't happen that way.

这是一个从穷光蛋到富翁的故事，但是我们前面所有的故事都认为成功是不可能发生在穷光蛋身上的，无论是曲棍球运动员、软件行业的亿万富翁，还是特曼人，他们都不是这种人。

Successful people don't do it alone.

成功人士不可能仅凭一己之力就获得成功，

Where they come from matters.

他们的成功离不开自身之外的很多因素。

They are products of particular places and environments.

他们总是在特定的环境和条件下产生。

Just as we did, then, with Bill Joy and Chris Langan, let's start over with Joseph Flom,

那么，正如我们前面对比尔·乔伊和克里斯·兰根所做的分析一样，

this time putting to use everything we've learned from the first half of this book.

现在我们也利用前面四章所学到的，来对约瑟夫·弗洛姆进行分析。

No more talk of Joe Flom's intelligence, or personality, or ambition, although he obviously has these three things in abundance.

人们很少说到乔·弗洛姆的智商、性情、雄心，虽然他显然在以上三个方面都很丰富；

No glowing quotations from his clients, testifying to his genius.

他的客户也没什么热情洋溢的评语，没人说他是一个天才；

No more colorful tales from the meteoric rise of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.

一路飙升的世达律师事务所也没什么缤纷多彩的故事。

Instead, I'm going to tell a series of stories in the New York immigrant world that Joe Flom grew up in-a fellow law student,

我们将要讲述的，是来自纽约移民社会，一个名叫乔·弗洛姆的人成长的系列故事——我们将从一个学法律的学生，

a father and son named Maurice and Mort Janklow,

一对名为莫里斯（Maurice）和莫特·詹克洛（MortJanklow）的父子，

and the extraordinary couple by the name of Louis and Regina Borgenicht-in the hopes of answering a critical question.

一对叫做路易斯（Louis）和瑞吉娜·鲍各尼特（ReginaBorgenicht）的夫妇那里听到这个故事——希望能从他们那里找到答案的关键问题所在。

What were Joe Flom's opportunities?

乔·弗洛姆的机遇是什么？

Since we know that outliers always have help along the way, can we sort through the ecology of Joe Flom and identify the conditions that helped creat him?

我们知道，那些卓尔不群的人都受益于各方面的因素，那么，我们是否能抽丝剥茧地对乔·弗洛姆的生活环境进行分析，从而找到成就他一番事业的主要原因？

We tell rags-to-riches stories because we find something captivating in the idea of a lone hero battling overwhelming odds.

我们常常听别人讲一些从穷光蛋到富翁的故事，因为一个敢于挑战艰难困苦的孤胆英雄，有他自身的魅力。

But the true story of Joe Flom's life turns out to be much more intriguing than the mythological version

与那些虚构的英雄故事相比，乔·弗洛姆生命中的真实故事更令人着迷，

because all the things as seemed in his life to have been disadvantages-that he was a poor child of garment workers;

因为他生命中的所有事情看起来似乎都是不利条件——他是一个外衣制作工人家的穷孩子；

that he was Jewish at a time when Jews were heavily discriminated against;

犹太人的他，生活在一个犹太人受尽歧视的时代；

that he grew up in the Depression-turn out, unexpectedly, to have been advantages.

他的成长历程令人觉得沮丧——要获得好的转机，似乎非常渺茫。