The fun and profits came to an end at a Sunnyvale pizza parlor.
這樣的快樂和利潤在森尼韋爾的一家比薩店里結束了。
Jobs and Wozniak were about to drive to Berkeley with a Blue Box they had just finished making.
喬布斯和沃茲尼亞克正準備帶著剛做完的一臺藍盒子開車去伯克利。
Jobs needed money and was eager to sell, so he pitched the device to some guys at the next table.
喬布斯需要用錢,急需出售這臺機器,所以他就向鄰桌的幾個人推銷。
They were interested, so Jobs went to a phone booth and demonstrated it with a call to Chicago. The prospects said they had to go to their car for money.
那幫人很感興趣,喬布斯就走到電話亭,往芝加哥打了一個電話作演示。他們說要到車里去拿錢。
"So we walk over to the car, Woz and me, and I've got the Blue Box in my hand, and the guy gets in, reaches under the seat, and he pulls out a gun," Jobs recounted.
“于是沃茲和我就走向那輛車,我手上拿著藍盒子,那家伙走進車里,手伸到座位底下,拔出了一把槍。”
He had never been that close to a gun, and he was terrified.
喬布斯回憶道。他從沒有如此靠近過一把槍,被嚇壞了。
"So he's pointing the gun right at my stomach, and he says, 'Hand it over, brother.' My mind raced.
“他拿槍指著我的肚子說:'把它拿 過來,兄弟。’我的神經一下子繃緊了。
There was the car door here, and I thought maybe I could slam it on his legs and we could run, but there was this high probability that he would shoot me.
車門就在那兒,我想是不是可以猛關上車門砸他的腿,然后我們趁機逃跑,但很有可能他會朝我們開槍。
So I slowly handed it to him, very carefully." It was a weird sort of robbery.
所以我慢慢地、非常小心地把藍盒子遞給了他。”這種搶劫真的太奇怪了。
The guy who took the Blue Box actually gave Jobs a phone number and said he would try to pay for it if it worked.
搶走藍盒子的家伙給了喬布斯一個電話號碼,說如果藍盒子有用的話,以后會想辦法把錢付給他。
When Jobs later called the number, the guy said he couldn't figure out how to use it.
當喬布斯照著號碼打過去的時候,還真的找到了那個家伙,他不會用藍盒子。
So Jobs, in his felicitous way, convinced the guy to meet him and Wozniak at a public place.
喬布斯巧妙地說服此人在一個公共場合跟他和沃茲見面。
But they ended up deciding not to have another encounter with the gunman, even on the off chance they could get their $150.
但最終他們還是膽怯了,決定再也不跟那個持槍的男人打交道,即便那樣做有可能拿回那150美元。
The partnership paved the way for what would be a bigger adventure together.
這次惡作劇為他們日后更精彩的創舉鋪平了道路。
"If it hadn't been for the Blue Boxes, there wouldn't have been an Apple," Jobs later reflected.
“如果不是因為藍盒子,就不會有蘋果公司”,喬布斯后來回想說 ,
"I'm 100% sure of that. Woz and I learned how to work together, and we gained the confidence that we could solve technical problems and actually put something into production."
"這一點我百分百確定。沃茲和我學會了怎樣合作,我們也獲得了信心,相信自己可以解決技術問題并且真的把一些發明投入生產。”
They had created a device with a little circuit board that could control billions of dollars' worth of infrastructure.
他們創造的僅用一小塊電路板的裝置,竟可以控制價值數十億美元的基礎設施。
"You cannot believe how much confidence that gave us." Woz came to the same conclusion:
“你無法想象那給了我們多少信心。”沃茲也有同樣的感觸。
"It was probably a bad idea selling them, but it gave us a taste of what we could do with my engineering skills and his vision."
“出售它們也許不是個好主意,但這讓我們看到,我的工程技術和他的遠見卓識結合起來,我們可以做出怎樣的一番事業。”他說。
The Blue Box adventure established a template for a partnership that would soon be born.
藍盒子的這段奇妙經歷為兩人之間即將誕生的合作關系建立了一個模板:
Wozniak would be the gentle wizard coming up with a neat invention that he would have been happy just to give away,
沃茲尼亞克就是個文雅的天才,創造出一項很酷的發明,然后就算送給別人他也很高興;
and Jobs would figure out how to make it user-friendly, put it together in a package, market it, and make a few bucks.
而喬布斯會想出怎樣讓這個發明方便易用的方法,然后把 它包裝起來,推向市場,賺上一筆。