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This was when the railroads were built and when Wall Street emerged.
鐵路正在興建，華爾街開始繁榮，
It was when industrial manufacturing started in earnest.
制造業正蓬勃發展，
It was when all the rules by which the traditional economy had functioned were broken and remade.
傳統的經濟體制被打破，新的經濟體制開始重建：
What that list says is that it really matters how old you were when that transformation happened.
這些因素對他們的成功來說至關重要。當經濟正發生變革的時候，如果你剛好20來歲，而你又能緊緊把握機遇，那么成功就近在眼前了。
If you were born in the late 1840s, you missed it. You were too young to take advantage of that moment.
如果你出生在19世紀40年代之后，那你就錯過了機會，因為你的年齡太小，無法掌握稍縱即逝的機遇：
If you were born in the 1820s, you were too old. Your mind-set was shaped by the pre-Civil War paradigm.
如果你出生在19世紀20年代，你的年齡又太大了：你的思維已經老化，觀念還停留在南北戰爭之前，
But there was a particular, narrow nine-year window that was just perfect for seeing the potential that the future held.
，只有在30年代的9個年頭，才是一個奇特的黃金年代。
All of the fourteen men and women on that list had vision and talent.
上邊列出的14個人都擁有過人的才華和超群的遠見，
But they were also given an extraordinary opportunity
但他們也和那些出生在1月份、2月份、3月份的曲棍球運動員、足球運動員一樣，
in the same way that hockey and soccer players born in January, February and March were given an extraordinary opportunity.
都離不開機遇的眷顧。
So let's do the same kind of analysis to people like Bill Joy and Bill Gates.
現在，讓我們用同樣的方法對比爾.喬伊和比爾.蓋茨這樣的軟件企業大亨進行分析。
If you talk to veterans of Silicon Valley,
假如你和一位在硅谷久經沙場的老手交談，
they'll tell you that the most important date in the history of personal computer revolution was January 1975.
他肯定會告訴你, 在個人計算機發展歷史上，最重要的時間是1975年1月。
That was when the magazine Popular Electronics ran a cover story on an extraordinary machine called the Altair 8800.
當時, 《大眾電子》雜志的封面故事報道了一臺特殊的機器，這臺機器的名字叫做Altair 8800計算機。
The Altair cost $397. It was a do-it-yourself contraption that you could assemble it at home.
這臺機器那時候的價格是397美元，機器設計非常巧妙，能滿足個人化組裝要求，你在家里便可以自己動手組裝。
The headline on the story read: "PROJECT BREAKTHROUGH! World's First Minicomputer Kit to rival commercial models."
雜志報道的標題用了大號的字體《工程的重大突破！世界上第一臺微機讓商業模式受到挑戰》。
To the readers of Popular Electronics, in those days the bible of the fledgling software computer world, that headline was a revelation.
在軟件和計算機行業羽毛未豐的那個時代，《大眾電子》對于讀者來說，無疑是這個行業的圣經，雜志刊出的大字標題報道，讓當時的讀者眼前一亮。
Computers up to that point had been the massive, expensive mainframes of the sort sitting in the white expanse of the Michigan Computing Center.
那時候的計算機都是龐大又貴重的機器，就像安置在密歇根計算機中心那所白房子里面的主機一樣。
For years, every hacker and electronics whiz had dreamt of the day
多年以來，能有一天擁有一臺小巧又便宜，
when the computer will come along that was small and inexpensive enough for an ordinary person to use alone.
即便是普通百姓都能購買和使用的電腦，一直是每位電腦黑客和電子怪才的夢想。
That day had finally arrived.
而這一天終于來到了。
