When I was a teenager, my dad did everything he could to dissuade¹ me from becoming a brewer². He'd spent his life brewing³ beer for local breweries⁴, barely making a living, as had his father and grandfather before him. He didn't want me anywhere near a vat⁵ of beer.

在青少年时期，父亲就极力告诫我，将来不要做一个酿酒人。因为，他一辈子就像他父亲及祖父一样，仅仅是为了谋生，专为当地的啤酒厂酿造啤酒。他甚至不许我靠近啤酒桶半步。

So I did as he asked. I got good grades, went to Harvard and in 1971 was accepted into a graduate program there that allowed me to study law and business simultaneously⁶.

因此我也就按他的意愿做了。我以优异的成绩考取了哈佛大学，并于1971年获得了继续在那里攻读研究生课程的机会，得以同时学习法律和商业专业。

In my second year of grad school, I had something of an epiphany I've never done anything but go to school. I thought, and I'm getting pressured to make a career choice for the rest of my life. That's stupid. The future was closing in on me a lot earlier than I wanted.

在读研究生二年级时，我似乎有一种顿悟的感觉，我想除了上学以外，我什么也没有做过。我感到有一种压力迫使我为今后的人生道路作出事业的选择。我真傻。未来早已向我逼近，比我预期的要早得多。

So, at 24, I decided⁷ to drop out. Obviously, my parents didn't think this was a great idea. But I felt strongly that you can't wait till you're 65 to do what you want in life. You have to go for it.

所以在24岁时，我决定退学。显然，父母并不认为这是什么好主意。但我强烈地意识到，人不能等到65岁才去做想要做的事。你得自己去寻找。

I packed my stuff into a U-Haul and headed to Colorado to become an instructor⁸ at Outward Bound, the wilderness-education program. The job was a good fit for me. Heavily into mountaineering and rock climbing, I lived and climbed everywhere, from crags outside Seattle to volcanoes in Mexico.

我打点起行囊，把它们装进一辆小面包车内，便上路向科罗拉多进发，去作一名野外训练项目教练。这工作的确很适合我。大量地登山、攀岩，从西雅图周围的峭壁到墨西哥的火山，到处都留下了我生活和登攀的身影。

I never regretted taking time to "find myself". I think we'd all be a lot better off if we could take off five years in our 20s to decide what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Otherwise we're going to be making other people's choices, not our own.

我从未因花费时间去“寻找自我”而后悔。我觉得如果人们能在20岁左右的时候，拿出五年时间去决定自己今后想要做什么，那可能会更快乐一些。否则，我们就将按别人的、而不是自己的意愿行事了。

After three and a half years with Outward Bound, I was ready to go hack⁹ to school. I finished Harvard and got a highly paid job at the Boston Consulting Group. a think tank and business-consulting firm. Still, after working there five years, I was haunted by doubt. Is this what I want to be doing when I'm 50?

野外训练工作干了三年半后，我准备重返学校。哈佛毕业后，在波士顿顾问咨询集团——一家智囊团兼商业咨询的公司，我找到了一份薪水丰厚的工作。然而，在那里工作了五年之后，我头脑中又萦绕起一丝疑虑：难道这就是我想一直做到50岁的工作吗？

I remembered that some time before, my dad had been cleaning out the attic¹⁰ and came across some old beer recipes on scraps¹¹ of yellow paper. "Today's beer is basically water that can hold a head," he'd told me.

记得不久前，父亲在整理阁楼时，偶然找到了一些写在发了黄的小纸片上的古老的啤酒配方。他告诉我：“现在的啤酒基本上都是水，只是面上有一些泡沫。”

I agreed. If you didn't like the mass-produced American stuff, the other choices were imports that were often stale. Americans pay good money for inferior beer, I thought. Why not make good beer for Americans right here in America?

他说的对。如果人们不喜欢喝那种大批量生产出的美国啤酒，那他们就只能喝进口的啤酒，但那常常是不新鲜、走味儿的。我想，美国人是在花大价钱买劣等酒。为什么不就在美国本地为美国人自己酿造好啤酒呢？

I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. When I told Dad, I was hoping he'd put his arm around me and get misty¹² about reviving tradition. Instead he said, "Jim, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"

我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。当我把这个想法告诉父亲时，我希望他会拥抱我，并为传统的复苏而心情激动。结果恰恰相反，他说：“吉姆，这是我所听到过的最愚蠢的话!”

As much as Dad objected, in the end he supported me: he became my new company's first investor¹³, coughing up $40,000 when I opened the Boston Beer Company in 1984. I plunked down $ 100,000 of my savings¹⁴ and raised another $ 100,000 from friends and relatives. Going from my fancy office to being a brewer was like mountain climbing: exhilarating, liberating¹⁵ and frightening. All my safety nets were gone.

虽然父亲尽全力反对我，但最终还是支持我了。1984年当我开办波士顿啤酒公司时，他成了我新公司的第一个投资者，勉强投入了4万美元。我拿出了10万美元的积蓄，又从朋友和亲戚那里募集了10万美元。从条件舒适的办公室出来，去做一名酿酒人，就像爬山一样：令人振奋，感到自由，但又觉法有些害怕。因为我所有的安全保护网都撤掉了。

Once the beer was made, I faced my biggest hurdle¹⁶ yet: getting it into beer drinkers' hands. Distributors all said the same thing: "Your beer is too expensive; no one has ever heard of you." So I figured I had to create a new category: the craft-brewed American beer. I needed a name that was recognizable and elegant, so I called my beer Samuel Adams, after the brewer and patriot¹⁷ who helped to instigate¹⁸ the Boston Tea Party.

一旦啤酒酿造出来后，我面临的最大问题就是：如何将它送到消费者手中。销售商们几乎异口同声地说：“你的啤酒太贵了；没人听说过你的名字。”于是我想，我得创造一个新品种：手工酿造的美国啤酒。我需要为它取一个响亮而又高雅的名字，这样，我便以曾领导波士顿倾茶事件的酿酒人及爱国音的名字来命名我的啤酒----塞缪尔·亚当斯。

The only way to get the word out, I realized, was to sell direct. I filled my leather briefcase¹⁹ with beer and cold packs, put on my best power suit and hit the bars.

我意识到，唯一能创出这个牌子的办法就是直销。我将啤酒及冰袋装进大皮箱里，穿上我那套尽显男人风度与地位的笔挺西装，向一间间酒吧走去。

Most bartenders thought I was from the IRS. But once I opened the briefcase, they paid attention. After I told the first guy my story--how I wanted to start this little brewery²⁰ in Boston with my dad's family recipe--he said, "Kid, I liked your story. But I didn't think the beer would be this good." What a great moment.

大多数调酒师起初还以为我是国家税务局的呢。但当我打开皮箱时，便引起了他们的注意。我向第一个家伙讲述了我的故事----我如何用父亲家传的啤酒配方开创了这家小小的波士顿啤酒厂——之后，他说：“孩子，我喜欢你的故事，但我没想到你这啤酒会这么好。”多么激动人心的时刻啊！

Six weeks later, at the Great American Beer Festival, Sam Adams Boston Lager won the top prize for American beer. The rest is history. It wasn't supposed to work out this way--what ever does? --but in the end I was destined²¹ to be a brewer.

六周后，在美国大啤酒节上，我的“塞缪尔·亚当斯波士顿啤酒”获得了美国啤酒的最高奖项。接下来的事情就成为历史了。其实开始时，无论如何都没有想到我会走这条路----但最终我注定还是要做个酿酒人。

My advice to all young entrepreneurs is simple: life is very long, so don't rush to make decisions. Life doesn't let you plan.

我对所有年轻的企业家有个简单的建议：生活的道路是漫长的，因此不要急于作出决定。生活不让你做计划。