吉姆·克莱顿：将竞争对手的失误转化为17亿美元[异类]

这是关于吉姆·克莱顿和克莱顿·霍姆斯的故事。欢迎收听《非凡人物》，我是主持人肖恩·帕里什。本节目旨在向他人学习，掌握他们总结出的精华，以便你能将这些经验运用到生活中。吉姆·克莱顿成长于大萧条时期田纳西州的一个小镇。

This is the story of Jim Clayton and Clayton Holmes. Welcome to Outliers. I'm your host, Shane Parish. This show is all about learning from others, mastering the best of what they've figured out so you can use their lessons in your life. Jim Clayton grew up in a small town Tennessee during the Great Depression.

他是佃农的儿子，家里种植棉花。七年后，沃伦·巴菲特会读到他的自传，并用17亿美元现金收购他的公司。正是我今天要和大家讨论的这本自传。现在，请聆听并学习。本集内容仅供信息参考。

He was the son of a sharecropper who farmed cotton. Seven years later, Warren Buffett would read his autobiography and buy his company for $1,700,000,000 in cash. The same autobiography that I read that we're going to talk about today. It's time to listen and learn. This episode is for information purposes only.

吉姆·克莱顿在田纳西州的木屋里度过了前十八年。墙壁没有隔热层，冬天冷如冰窖，夏日热似蒸笼。大萧条时期，他出生在一个佃农家庭。他们为别人耕种棉田，收成对半分。全家人——父亲、母亲、吉姆和弟弟乔——每周总收入约8美元。

Jim Clayton spent his first eighteen years in a log cabin in Tennessee. The walls had no insulation, so in winter they froze and in summer they boiled. He was born into a family of sharecroppers during the Great Depression. They worked someone else's cotton fields and split everything down the middle. The entire family, his father, his mother, Jim, and his brother Joe, made about $8 a week combined.

听起来他们生活在极其艰苦的环境中，事实的确如此。但吉姆在自传中反思：即便在那个时空，我仍领悟到某些永恒真理——自律、意志力、坚持、明白失望不等于失败、懂得困境常藏机遇。障碍或许挡路，但人类精神能战胜这些。吉姆的父亲不同于当时大多数佃农，他识字受过教育。

It sounds like they lived under extraordinarily harsh circumstances, and they did. But Jim reflects in his autobiography, Even in that time and place, I learned that certain concepts are ageless, self discipline, willpower, perseverance, realizing that disappointment is not defeat, knowing that problems often present opportunities. Obstacles may get in the way, but the human spirit can triumph over these things. Jim's father was different from most sharecroppers at the time. He could read and write.

他高中毕业，坚持让儿子们也读书。某个早餐时分，父亲勾勒出梦想：‘李，只要你努力工作、攒钱读完高中，给自己买头骡子，我就再送你一头。外面那片棉田就是你的了。你会过得比我好。’吉姆点头微笑，但即便那时他也知道自己永远不会当个泥腿子农夫。

He'd finished high school, and he insisted his boys would learn too. One morning at breakfast, his father laid out the dream. Lee, if you work hard, save your money, finish high school, and buy yourself a mule, I'll get you a second mule, And that cotton patch out there will be yours. You'll have it better than me. Jim nodded and smiled, but even he knew back then that he'd never be a dirt farmer.

他怀揣更大梦想。尽管当时尚未知晓，有朝一日他将把公司卖给沃伦·巴菲特。但首先，他得明白一粒种子的价值。吉姆的第一份生意是挨家挨户卖种子，年仅十岁的他对此颇有天赋。

He had bigger dreams. And while he didn't know it at the time, he would one day sell his company to Warren Buffett. But first, he had to learn the value of a seed. Jim's first business was selling seeds door to door. He was only 10, and he was quite natural at it.

种子公司用奖品激励孩子们销售。你可以选择即时满足——拿玩具车，或者选择更多种子自行销售并保留利润。其他孩子都选了玩具车，吉姆选了种子。数十年后，他在书中写道这个选择。

The seed company offered prizes to motivate the kids to sell. You could choose the instant gratification of a toy car or more seeds to sell on your own and keep the profit. Every other kid took the toy car. Jim took the seeds. Decades later, he'd write about this choice.

我不知不觉中定下了基调，塑造了一种将贯穿余生的哲学。我选择了种子。这是我首次尝试成为企业家。将利润再投资是明智之举。我能保留所有额外种子的收益，这确实增加了我的现金流。

Without realizing it, I was setting the tone and shaping a philosophy that would characterize the rest of my life. I chose the seeds. It was my first attempt to become an entrepreneur. Plowing the money back into my business was a smart move. I get to keep all the proceeds from extra seeds, so it really increased my cash flow.

但我学到了更宝贵的经验：放弃那些带来短暂满足的事物。着眼长远，为更实质性的东西延迟获利。拒绝塑料玩具，投资你的资本。

But I learned something far more profitable. Forgo those things that give you momentary satisfaction. Look at the long term. Defer profits for something more substantial. Pass up the plastic toy and invest your capital.

播下正确的种子。有趣的是，他十岁时就已奠定日后建立商业帝国的基石。金钱不仅改变了吉姆的银行余额，更改变了他看待世界的方式。二战期间，他父亲因种植棉花和粮食支援战争而获得兵役缓征。

Plant the right seeds. It's funny how the foundation of how he would go on to build his empire was already taking shape when he was 10. The money wasn't just changing Jim's bank balance. It was changing how he saw the world. During World War II, his father got a deferment from the draft because he raised cotton and food for the war effort.

他还购置了一台福特8N拖拉机，能完成六名男工和十二头骡子的工作量。由于大量农村青年参军，吉姆的父亲让拖拉机24小时运转，不仅耕种自家田地，还帮邻居们犁地。父亲通宵操作到日出，母亲接班后由吉姆和乔接手。黄昏前父亲又会跳上拖拉机继续工作。他们每天收费50美元，那年赚了2000多美元，这笔钱让全家搬出木屋，住进了有电灯和独立卧室的镇区房子。

He also acquired a Ford 8N tractor that did the work of six men and a dozen mules. With so many farm boys gone off to war, Jim's father ran that tractor twenty four hours a day, plowing not just his own fields, but all the neighbors' fields too. His father would run it all night until sunrise, and then Jim's mother would take over, and then Jim and Joe. Just before dark, his father would hop back on and keep plowing. They charged $50 a day, and that year made over $2,000 That money let the family leave the log cabin and move into a house in town, one with electric lights and individual bedrooms.

吉姆领悟到关键一点：跨越社会阶层是可能的。棉田并非他的宿命。他开始尝试各种能找到的工作。当然仍在卖种子，但同时也经营着自己的出租车服务。

Jim saw something crucial. Jumping social classes was possible. The cotton patch was not his destiny. He started working every job he could find. He was still selling seeds, of course, but now he was also running his own taxi service.

每天清晨上学前，他6:45先送母亲和四位同事上班，再载四位老师和自己一起去学校。每人每周收费25美分。16岁时吉姆吉他技艺精进，获得了首个重要机会。田纳西州杰克逊市的电台有个周六节目《农场与家庭秀》，为本地表演者提供半小时时段。

Every morning before high school, he'd drive his mother and four of her colleagues to work at 06:45AM. Then he'd pick up four of his teachers and drive them to school along with himself. 25¢ per person per week. By 16, Jim was getting good at the guitar and he landed his first real break. A radio station in Jackson, Tennessee had a Saturday program called the Farm and Home Show, where local performers could get half hour slots.

但有个条件：必须自带赞助商支付播出费用。每条广告收费1美元，60秒广告时间。吉姆从附近商店老板处争取到两个赞助，自带乐队表演乡村歌曲，以赞美诗收尾，并亲自完成所有广告口播。

But there was one catch. You had to bring in your own sponsors to pay for the airtime. Each commercial was a dollar a holler, sixty seconds of ad time for a buck. Jim landed two sponsors from nearby store owners. He brought in his own band, did country songs, and closed with a hymn, and handled all the commercial reads himself.

他会在节目播出前给每位赞助商打电话，根据他们最新的优惠和库存定制广告内容。当时他才16岁，就已经拥有了自己的电台节目。他在播客这个概念出现前就开始做播客了。如果你好奇为什么我们会有赞助商，这就是原因。他完全理解这其中的意义。

He'd call each sponsor before the show to customize the ads with their latest offers and inventory. He was 16 years old with his own radio show. He was podcasting before podcasting. And if you're wondering why we have sponsors, this is why we have sponsors. Understood exactly what this was.

他称之为'亏本引流品'。也许节目本身没赚到钱，但它带来了其他工作机会，并赋予我某种声望。那些组织教会联谊会和乡村集市的人听了我的节目后，突然以特别的眼光看待我，有时甚至把我当明星。16岁的吉姆已经明白，有时候产品本身不赚钱，赚钱的是产品带来的可能性。

He called it his loss leader. Maybe I didn't make any money from the program itself, but it brought in other work and gave me a certain cache. The people running those church socials and country fairs heard my show and suddenly saw me in a special light as a star in some cases. At 16, Jim already understood that sometimes you don't make money on the product itself. You make money on what the product makes possible.

效果非常好，以至于一位伴奏吉他手开始每周六早上为吉姆伴奏。这位吉他手也是佃农的儿子，他父亲用雪茄盒、扫帚柄和打包铁丝给他做了第一把吉他。五年内，这个家伙在土豆袋背面草草写下一首叫《蓝色麂皮鞋》的歌，卖出了200万张。那个每周六为少年吉姆·克莱顿伴奏的吉他手，名叫卡尔·帕金斯。当吉姆发展副业时，他与父亲的关系正在破裂。

It worked so well that one of the staff guitar players started playing backup for Jim every Saturday morning. This guitarist was also a sharecropper son whose dad had made his first guitar from a cigar box, a broom handle, and a bailing wire. Within five years, this fellow would scribble out a song on the back of a potato sack called Blue Suede Shoes and sell 2,000,000 copies. That guitar player who backed up teenage Jim Clayton every Saturday morning, his name was Carl Perkins. While Jim was building his side businesses, his relationship with his father was fracturing.

吉姆的母亲和祖母很喜欢他的电台节目。她们会提建议，夸他唱得好。但他父亲呢？吉姆说：'爸爸从不对我的电台节目多说什么，虽然我知道有些周六遇到坏天气时，他会在屋里听。'然后发生了一件让吉姆终生难忘的事。

Jim's mother and grandmother loved his radio show. They'd offer suggestions and tell him how good he sang. But his father? Jim says, Dad never said much to me about the radio show, though I know he listened some Saturdays if bad weather kept him inside. Then came a moment that would stick with Jim for the rest of his life.

他在当地加油站时，无意中听到父亲对邻居说话。邻居问吉姆是否会修收音机。不知道吉姆能听见的父亲说：'他修东西很在行，几乎什么都能修好。'吉姆写道：'当听到爸爸这么说时，我无法形容那种涌上心头的幸福感。他以为我没听见，而我后来也绝口不提。'

He was at the local service station when he overheard his father talking to a neighbor. The neighbor asked if Jim repaired radios. His father, not knowing Jim could hear him, said he's really good at fixing most anything that can go wrong with him. Jim wrote, I can't begin to describe the good feelings that washed over me when dad said that. He didn't think I had heard him, and I surely didn't bring it up to him later.

我太害怕打破这个魔法。那次无意中听到的称赞是父亲给他的第一次真正表扬。这让吉姆渴望得到更多认可。于是他决定为父亲做件好事——偷偷在父亲的老雪佛兰皮卡里装了台收音机。

So afraid was I to break the spell. That overheard compliment was the first real praise from his father ever. It made Jim hungry for more. So he decided to do something nice for his dad. He secretly installed a radio in his father's old Chevy pickup.

他想父亲可以听新闻、音乐，甚至可能听到他的周六电台节目。午饭时，吉姆溜到卡车旁，小心翼翼地把二手收音机装进仪表盘。收音机效果很好。但当吉姆骄傲地告诉父亲这个惊喜礼物时，父亲勃然大怒：'如果我要收音机，自己会买！'

He figured his father could listen to the news, music, maybe even Jim's Saturday radio show. At lunch, Jim snuck over to the truck and carefully installed the used radio in the dash. It worked perfectly. But when Jim proudly told his father about the surprise gift, his father exploded. If I'd wanted a radio, I would have bought one.

于是他的父亲抓起巴洛刀，从桃树上砍下一根枝条，准备抽打吉姆。但吉姆已经18岁，能自己挣钱了，他受够了。'你现在不能打我，以后也休想再打我，'吉姆回忆道。他边说边后退。这话听起来或许不够英勇，远不及丘吉尔让德国人见鬼去的气魄，但考虑到我当时从未顶撞过父亲，这已是最大的反抗。

Then his father grabbed his Barlow knife, cut a switch from a peach tree and came at Jim to whip him. But Jim was 18 years old and he was making his own money and he'd had enough. You're not going to whip me now and you're not going to whip me again, Jim admits. He said it while backing away. That might not sound particularly courageous, not exactly on the order of Churchill telling the Germans to go to hell, but considering that I had never, at that point, talked back to dad in my entire life, this was the ultimate defiance.

他父亲没能抓住他，只能怒吼：'像个男子汉一样回来挨打！'吉姆淡淡地说：'我看不出这两者有什么关联。'当晚，吉姆拆走了收音机，确保父亲再也见不到它。几个月后，当父亲用旧卡车换新车时，车上配了一台豪华的雪佛兰按键式收音机。

His father couldn't catch him. Instead, he yelled, Come back here and take your whipping like a man. Jim says simply, I failed to see the correlation between the two. That night, Jim removed the radio and made sure his father never saw it again. Months later, when his father traded in the truck for a new one, it came with a deluxe push button Chevy radio.

18岁的吉姆无比确信自己受够了务农。他看到了三条出路：参军、去底特律造汽车，或是成为乡村音乐明星。母亲立刻否决了参军选项，希望他离家近些。而吉姆知道音乐之路需要更多时间和运气。

Jim was 18 years old and knew with absolute certainty he was done with farming. He saw three escape routes, join the military, move to Detroit and build cars, or become a country music star. His mother shut down the military immediately. She wanted him closer to home. And Jim knew the music option would take more time and luck than he had.

1952年6月高中毕业的第二天，吉姆借了家里的车前往孟菲斯。他穿着二手店的旧西装走进州就业办公室，当天就获得四次面试机会，拿到两份工作邀约。其中一份是焊接工。

The day after his high school graduation in June 1952, Jim borrowed the family car and headed to Memphis. He wore a used suit from the secondhand store. He went to the state unemployment office, and by the end of the day, he had four interviews. He got two job offers. One was welding.

另一份来自孟菲斯水电煤气公司，负责维修双向车载无线电。虽然时薪少25美分，但无线电是他的专长。他选择了后者。工作很艰苦，但吉姆如鱼得水——晚上修电视机，在酒馆演出每场挣20美元，还开始挨家挨户推销吸尘器。

The other was with Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, repairing two way mobile radios. It paid a quarter less per hour, but radios were his specialty. So he took it. The job was brutal, but Jim thrived. He repaired TVs at night, played honky tonk for $20 a show, started selling vacuum cleaners door to door.

他甚至在西孟菲斯维持着电台节目。后来他结识了比尔·埃利奥特。这位孟菲斯水电煤气公司的电气工程师比吉姆年长几岁，已是职场新星。他拥有吉姆从未认真考虑过的东西：大学文凭。比尔成了吉姆的非正式导师。

He even kept his radio show going in West Memphis. Then he met Bill Elliott. Bill was an electrical engineer at Memphis Light, Gas and Water, a few years older than Jim and already on the fast track. He had something Jim had never really considered before, a college degree. Bill became Jim's unofficial mentor.

首先，他指导吉姆考取联邦通信委员会无线电操作执照。吉姆通过考试后立即获得加薪。接着比尔做了更宏远的安排：某个周六上午，他带吉姆参观了孟菲斯州立大学校园。到周一午餐时，他们已制定好课程表。

First, he coached Jim to get his FCC radio operator license. Jim passed and got an immediate raise. Then Bill did something more ambitious. On a Saturday morning, he took Jim on a tour of the Memphis State University campus. By Monday at lunch, they'd worked out a schedule.

吉姆上午上工程预科课程，下午在公用事业公司工作。这种节奏难以持续。大学课程、作业、公用事业工作、电视维修、乡村乐队、电台节目。到圣诞节时，吉姆右脸开始不受控制地抽搐，随后完全瘫痪。

Jim would take pre engineering classes in the morning and work at the utility company in the afternoon. The pace was unsustainable. College classes, homework, utility job, TV repair work, the honky tonk band, the radio show. By Christmas, the right side of Jim's face began twitching uncontrollably. Then it went completely paralyzed.

我个人经历过这种诡异状况——我患过贝尔氏麻痹症。整整六个月他无法微笑，不用手指就闭不上右眼。他的身体在强迫他慢下来。医生们却无法确诊病因。

And I know from personal experience just how freaky this is because I had Bell's palsy. For six months, he couldn't smile. He couldn't close his right eye without using his finger. His body was forcing him to slow down. Doctors couldn't diagnose it.

瘫痪症状最终消退，但这个教训刻骨铭心。然而比尔·埃利奥特仍在推动——到1953年，他鼓励吉姆追求更大目标：获得田纳西大学电气工程学位。于是吉姆收拾雪佛兰汽车，驱车400英里来到诺克斯维尔。入学第一天他就加入了兄弟会，并在相亲中遇见了未来妻子玛丽。

The paralysis eventually faded, but the lesson stuck. Still, Bill Elliott kept pushing. By 1953, Bill was nudging Jim toward an even bigger goal, getting an electrical engineering degree from the University of Tennessee. So Jim packed his Chevy and moved 400 miles to Knoxville. On his first day, he joined a fraternity and met his future wife, Mary, on a blind date.

她来自宗教家庭，主修家政学。她父亲是个酗酒的面包师转行汽车经销商，哥哥卖奥兹莫比尔汽车。这个细节的重要性远超吉姆当时的认知。

She was a home economics major from a religious family. Her father was a stewed baker car dealer. Her brother sold Oldsmobiles. That detail would matter more than Jim knew at the time.

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Basecamp brings both back together. Basecamp's intuitive design ensures that everyone knows what's happening, who's responsible, and what's coming. My head of operations swears by this platform and is the first person to suggest it to anyone. If you need another decorated referral, you should call her. Whether you're a small team or growing business, Basecamp scales with you.

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1954年，吉姆看到一块广告牌上写着：花5美元从空中俯瞰诺克斯维尔。他从未坐过飞机，但十分钟后，他花了10美元上了飞行课，而不是观光飞行。六节课后，他爱上了飞行。但飞行课程昂贵，吉姆需要自己的飞机。他在分类广告上发现一架好飞机售价895美元，这在当时是笔巨款。卖家是个正在服刑的私酒贩子。

In the 1954, Jim saw a billboard that said, see Knoxville by air for $5 He'd never been in a plane, but ten minutes later, he was taking a flying lesson for $10 instead of the tourist ride. Within six lessons, he fell in love with flying. But flying lessons were expensive and Jim needed his own plane. He found a classified ad mentioning a good airplane for $895 That was a crazy amount of money at the time. The seller was a bootlegger doing time.

吉姆想了个主意。他说服兄弟和几个朋友组建飞行俱乐部，每人出资120美元，合伙买下了飞机。其他人很快发现考飞行员执照需要真功夫，纷纷失去兴趣。吉姆实际上只花了120美元就拥有了自己的飞机。他决定飞回家乡，让家人看看这个佃农的儿子如今的模样。

Jim had an idea. He convinced his brother and some buddies to form a flying club, each put in $120 So they bought the plane together. The other guys quickly discovered that getting a pilot's license required actual work. They'd lost interest. Jim essentially had his own airplane for $120 He decided to fly home to show his family what the sharecropper son had become.

他在800英尺高空绕镇盘旋，看着人们涌出建筑物抬头张望。从未坐过飞机的母亲毫不犹豫地登上了飞机。父亲的自豪之情溢于言表。但返回诺克斯维尔的航程差点要了他的命——他正按飞行计划飞行时，乘客突然查看了地图。

He circled the town at 800 feet watching people pour out of buildings to look up. His mother, who'd never flown, climbed in without hesitation. His father's pride was unmistakable. But the flight back to Knoxville nearly killed him. He was following his flight plan when his passenger checked the map.

检查点本应有一条溪流穿过山谷。山谷还在，溪流却不见了。他们肯定偏离了航线。吉姆放弃了飞行计划，开始寻找70号公路。但他怎么也找不到。

The checkpoint should have had a stream running through a valley. The valley was there, but the stream wasn't. They must be off course. Jim abandoned his flight plan and started searching for Highway 70. He couldn't find it.

他们转向南方。二十分钟后，又转向北方。油表在空油位置跳动，他们像无头苍蝇般徒劳打转。最终勉强降落在偏离航线50英里的双车道公路上。几个农民给了他些燃料，他们才得以返航。

They turned south. Twenty minutes later, north. They were chasing their tails with the fuel gauge bouncing on empty. They barely made it, landing on a two lane road, 50 miles off course. Some farmers gave him some fuel, and they eventually made it home.

但这场闹剧让他领悟了受用数十年的商业哲理。后来他写道：'若不知身在何处，怎知该往何方？'这才是问题的核心——它不仅适用于飞行。无论是企业、家庭、人际关系还是个人，要实现任何目标都需要计划，需要像锚点般的参照物来指明方向，同时估算所需时间和资源。他继续写道：放弃精心筹划的方案是绝望之举，往往预示着灾难降临。

But the whole fiasco would teach him some business lessons that would guide him for decades. Later, he writes, How do you know which way to go if you don't know where you are? That was the crux of the question, and it applies to more than just an airplane ride. A business, a family, a relationship, or an individual all need a plan to reach whatever endeavor a human being is engaged in, an anchor is needed reference points to provide directions to the destination along with the time and resources required to get there. And he goes on abandoning a well thought out and well researched plan is an act of desperation that occurs just before a crash and burn.

坚持计划。一个糟糕的计划也比没有计划更可能成功。如果我总是凭感觉行事，可能早就跳楼好几次了。相反，把情绪放在正确的位置很重要。要认识到在一天之内，你会经历几十种不同的情绪。

Stay with the plan. A bad plan is more likely to work than no plan at all. If I'd always acted on my feelings, there's probably a time or two I'd have jumped off a building. Instead, it's good to put emotions in their proper perspective. Recognize that in the course of a single day, you'll pass through dozens of different emotions.

你会对一些事情一笑置之，对另一些则尽量克制反应。用战略规划来制定你的路线。把商业计划想象成带有时间线和沿途检查站的地图。基本上，当你飞行时，必须忽略直觉感受——在某些情况下，你的感官会完全出错。

You'll shrug off some laugh at some and minimize reaction to them. Chart your course with strategic planning. Think of a business plan as your map with a timeline and checkpoints to follow on route. Basically, when you're flying, you have to ignore the seat of your pants feelings. Under certain conditions, your senses just can be dead wrong.

唯一重要的是仪表数据或外部视觉参考。吉姆用他从飞行员手册里摘录的一句话完美总结了这点，我认为非常关键：你最不该做的就是第一直觉想做的事。换句话说，在困境中迷失方向时，不要相信感官，不要冲动行事。

The only thing that matters is data from the instruments or outside visual references. Jim summed this up in a line he took from a pilot's book that I think is really important. The last thing you should do is the first thing you feel you should do. In other words, during predicaments, when you've lost all sense of direction, don't trust your senses. Don't act on impulse.

商业也是如此。如果在事业上失去方向，不要凭一时冲动反应。相反，排除情绪干扰，收集所有可分析的数据，咨询专家，联系可靠消息源，通过理性思考而非盲目热情找出问题根源。大约同时，吉姆有了另一个改变人生的发现——他和玛丽找公寓时路过了一个移动房屋社区。

It's the same with your business. If you've lost all sense of direction there, don't react on a whim. Instead, take your feelings out of the mix, gather all the data you can analyze what you've got available, consult with your experts, engage your reliable sources and identify the root cause of the problem through rational thinking, not raw passion. Around the same time, Jim made another discovery that would actually change his life. He and Mary were looking for an apartment when they passed a mobile home park.

那是1956年。移动房屋当时被视为建筑工人或军人家庭的临时住所。但吉姆看到了不同：这种产品能同时解决多个问题——经济实惠、隐私性好、没有上下左右的邻居共用墙壁。于是他找到一家急于脱手的经销商，说服对方以欠银行的余额价格出售房屋。

This was 1956. Mobile homes were seen as temporary housing for construction workers or military families. But Jim saw something different, a product that solved multiple problems at once. Affordability, privacy, no shared walls with neighbors above, below, or beside you. So he found a retailer desperate to get out of business, convinced him to sell a home for just the balance owed to the bank.

这比批发价还低500美元。多年后吉姆发现经销商在发票上加了500美元回扣。这是他学到的第一课：移动房屋行业每个环节都存在抽成。记住，这后来成为了他主导的行业。

That was $500 below wholesale. Years later, Jim discovered that the retailer had added a $500 kickback to the invoice. This was his first lesson in how the mobile home industry worked. There was skimming at every level. Keep in mind, this is an industry that he would come to dominate.

生意从汽车开始。吉姆当时想卖掉没人要的老凯撒汽车，因为找不到配件。他在当地报纸登了三行广告：必须卖车支付大学学费。立刻就有两人按要价给出了报价。

The business started with cars. Jim had been trying to sell his old Kaiser, a car nobody wanted because parts were impossible to find. So he ran a three line ad in the local paper. Must sell car to pay for college. He got two offers right away at his asking price.

卖掉凯撒汽车后，他还有另一位感兴趣的买家。于是吉姆急忙找到朋友准备出售的斯图德·贝克汽车，也成功卖掉了。朋友为此给了他50美元好处费。两辆车，一则广告。吉姆心想：我找到门道了。

After selling the Kaiser, he had another buyer still interested. So Jim rushed over to a friend, Stewed Baker, that was for sale and sold that too. The friend gave him $50 for the favor. Two cars, one ad. Jim thought, I'm onto something here.

于是他开始频繁出没于克林顿公路的二手车市场，参加拍卖会。他会花200美元买下雪佛兰，整修一番，刊登需要大学学费的分类广告，工作几小时就能以350美元利润转手。很快他开始同时购买两三辆车，并招募弟弟乔和六位朋友组成销售团队。业务发展太快，以至于某个雨天的下午，州机动车管理部门找上了门。

So he started haunting the used car lots on the Clinton Highway, going to auctions. He'd buy a Chevy for $200, fix it up, run his classified ad about needing money for college, sell it for $350 profit for a few hours of work. Soon, he was buying two or three cars at a time. He recruited his brother, Joe, and six friends as his sales force. The business grew so fast that the state motor vehicle department showed up one rainy afternoon.

工作人员立即看出吉姆在无照经营车行。他们说明了可能面临的巨额罚款。但吉姆没有争辩，而是承认自己的无知，将对手转化成了盟友。吉姆在书中写道：当时很明显，与他们争执只会自取其辱。

It was immediately obvious Jim was operating in a legal car dealership. They explained the massive fines that he was facing. But instead of fighting them, Jim admitted his ignorance and turned his adversary into an ally. Jim writes about this moment. It was obvious that arguing with them would be self defeating.

于是我变得谦逊，认真倾听。我承认自己的无知，向他们保证我的目标是遵守所有法律。我感谢审查员指出问题，并为给各部门及其工作人员带来不便道歉。以适当的谦卑态度，我请求他协助我成为完全授权且注册的汽车经销商。

So I became humble and listened intently. I acknowledged my ignorance. I assured them my goal was to obey all laws. I thank the examiner for bringing this to my attention and apologize for inconveniencing the various departments and their staff. With the appropriate meekness, I asked him to assist me in becoming a fully authorized license and registered automobile dealer.

转眼间，对手变成了导师。如果吉姆迅速满足所有要求，他们可以免除罚款。那时吉姆已获得电气工程学位，并在田纳西河谷管理局找到稳定的政府工作。收入不错，但他感到极度无聊，而兼职卖车赚得更多。于是他辞职了。

Within moments, my adversary became my mentor. If Jim acted quickly to meet all their requirements, they'd waive the fines. By then, Jim had graduated with his electrical engineering degree and gotten a stable government job at the TVA. It was decent money, but he was bored out of his mind and making more selling cars on the side. So he quit.

他以每月60美元租下德士古加油站场地，挂起"吉姆·克莱顿汽车乐园"的招牌。这次是合法经营。转折点出现在吉姆遇见山谷忠诚银行贷款专员芬顿·金斯顿时。吉姆问他："您想要我未来优质客户的贷款申请吗？"芬顿非常热情。

He rented space at Texaco station for $60 a month and put up a sign, Jim Clayton Autoland. He was in business legally this time. The breakthrough came when Jim met Fenton Kingsting, a loan officer at Valley Fidelity Bank. Jim asked him, would you like to have applications on good future customers of mine? Fenton was enthusiastic.

他答应了。他们设计了一套流程：吉姆预审客户后将优质客户推荐给芬顿。信用核查和文件处理完成后，吉姆能快速拿到支票，而芬顿也不再仅是贷款经办人。

He said yes. They worked out a system. Jim would prescreen customers and send the good ones to Fenton. Credit checks, documents done. Jim would have his check quickly, but Fenton became more than a loan processor.

他成了吉姆的导师。'你的车卖得太便宜了，'芬顿直截了当地告诉他，'价格再提高点。你的车值得更高的价钱。'吉姆听从建议，将每辆车的利润从100美元提高到了250美元。

He became Jim's mentor. You're selling your cars too damn cheap, Fenton told him bluntly. Charge a little more. Your cars are worth more. Jim listened and raised his profit from $100 to $250 per car.

销量持续攀升。到1959年，吉姆开始涉足进口车业务。他发现可以作为灰色市场经销商销售大众汽车——通过购买大众秘密供应的甲壳虫车型，同时让官方经销商保持配额以制造人为稀缺。城里的大众官方经销商斯奈德兄弟在报纸上刊登大幅广告警告消费者不要购买灰色市场的大众车。他们从未点名吉姆，但所有人都心知肚明。

Sales kept climbing. By 1959, Jim had moved into imports. He discovered he could sell Volkswagen as a gray marketer, buying Beetles that Volkswagen secretly supplied while keeping official dealers on the allocation to create artificial scarcity. The official Volkswagen dealer in town, the Snyder Brothers ran huge newspaper ads warning against gray market Volkswagens. They never named Jim, but everybody knew.

吉姆回忆说，斯奈德兄弟无意中成了我们绝佳的推广者。'他们广告打得越多，我们卖出的甲壳虫就越多。大家都想知道什么是灰色市场大众车，为什么不用像在官方经销商那里排队等待就能买到。'到1960年，克莱顿汽车的发展超出了所有人的想象。吉姆已与沃尔沃、雷诺、英国汽车公司和美国汽车公司签订了特许经营协议。

Unwittingly, Jim recalls, the Snyder's became excellent promoters for us. The more they ran those ads, the more Beatles we sold. Everyone wanted to know what a gray market Volkswagen was and why you didn't have to wait to buy one like you did at all the official Volkswagen dealers. By 1960, Clayton Motors had grown beyond anyone's imagination. Jim had franchise agreements with Volvo, Renault, British Motor Company, and American Motors.

他们在多个地点拥有70名员工，业务飞速扩张。'我想分享几个他们快速发展的秘诀，因为这些做法很有意思。比如吉姆坚持要求经理们在投放广告前必须了解市场——人们都听哪些电台？这类信息其实很容易获取。'

They had 70 employees in multiple locations. They were growing fast. I want to tell you about a few of the tricks that they use to grow fast, because I think they were interesting. Jim insisted that managers knew the market before advertising, for example, which radio stations do people listen to? And this information can be easily gathered.

他们在五六十年代常用的方法之一，就是去附近的购物中心，穿过停车场，透过每辆车的窗户查看收音机调频指针的位置。'几乎总能发现大多数车都停在同一个电台。我觉得这招特别聪明。'吉姆另一个非常规做法是：尽管经理们总是坚持要投放昂贵的大版面黄页广告——毕竟所有竞争对手都这么做——

One way that they used to do this in the fifties, sixties, and seventies was to go to a nearby shopping center, walk through the parking lot, and look through each car window to see where the radio dial was set. Almost always, most of the cars would be set to the same station. I thought that was really clever. Another unconventional thing Jim did was his managers would always insist on these big and expensive yellow page ads. After all, all the competition has them.

于是吉姆与他们达成协议，但附加一个条件：在销售中心办公室专门设置一部鲜红色电话，并分配新号码。这个号码只出现在黄页广告里。'约定是只要这部红电话能响几次，我们就解除限制，允许经理投放一个小版面广告，上面只印销售中心的主号码。猜猜结果如何？'

So Jim would argue with them, but eventually he would agree on one condition. A bright red phone is set aside in the sales center office specifically for this test, a new number assigned to it. This number only appears in the Yellow Pages ad. The deal is that if the red phone rings even a handful of times, we'll remove the yellow handcuffs and let the manager buy an ad, a small ad with the sales center's main number listed. Guess what?

那部电话从未响过，无论他们投放的广告有多大。就在业务高速发展时，汤姆·普雷斯顿出现了。这位汉密尔顿国民银行（诺克斯维尔最大银行）的年轻副总裁，主要资历是拥有持有银行大量股份的祖父和担任银行行长的叔叔。

That phone never rang, no matter how big the ad was they placed. They were growing fast. That's when Tom Preston showed up. He was a young vice president at Hamilton National Bank, Knoxville's largest bank. His main qualification was having a grandfather who'd owned a large share of the bank and an uncle who was bank president.

但汤姆告诉吉姆的正是他想听的话：要更快更多地扩张。这与芬顿的建议背道而驰。要知道，此前所有融资都由芬顿经手。芬顿曾建议吉姆暂停扩张一年，他认为吉姆发展过快，而且芬顿对汤姆·普雷斯顿也没什么好感。

But Tom told Jim exactly what he wanted to hear, grow more and faster. This was the opposite of Fenton's advice. Remember, Fenton had been doing all the financing up until now. Fenton wanted to put Jim on a growth moratorium for a year. He thought Jim was growing too fast and Fenton didn't much like Tom Preston.

但汤姆在吉姆耳边低语的每个字都正中其下怀。于是1960年，吉姆做出了那个几乎毁掉一切的决定——将所有账户转至汉密尔顿国民银行。他带着11万美元的银行本票走进芬顿办公室时，芬顿没有动怒。

But Tom was whispering to Jim exactly the words he wanted to hear. So in 1960, he made the decision that would nearly destroy everything. He transferred all of his accounts to Hamilton National Bank. He walked into Fenton's office with a cashier's check for $110,000. Fenton didn't get angry.

他甚至没有提高嗓门。但吉姆在回忆录中写道，芬顿很悲伤，主要不是因为失去我这单生意，更像是为我感到痛心。芬顿当然清楚汤姆·普雷斯顿的种种作为，也深知汤姆宽松的信贷标准已抢占了大块市场份额。他含泪预言：汤姆的部门迟早要出事。

He didn't even raise his voice. But Jim writes, he was sad and not so much because he was losing my business. More than anything, he seemed to be sad for me. Fenton, of course, was up to speed on Tom Preston and his various activities and was well aware of how Tom's liberal credit requirements had already taken significant market share. There were tears in his eyes when he said Tom's department's going to get in trouble.

最多再撑一年。你能不被牵连就是万幸。当时吉姆的反应是：芬顿又开始杞人忧天了，总是这么保守谨慎。可问题在于？

I'll give him a year. You'll be lucky if you don't get caught up in it. Jim's reaction at the time was, there goes Fenton again. So conservative, so careful. The only problem?

芬顿是对的。汤姆·普雷斯顿即将大祸临头，而克莱顿汽车也会被卷入其中。1961年，从事汽车销售仅五年后，沃尔沃就授予吉姆全美最佳经销商称号，邀请他赴瑞典庆祝两周。吉姆甚至向600名全球沃尔沃经销商发表演讲，数十名同传译员实时翻译。

Fenton was right. Tom Preston was about to get in a lot of trouble and Clayton Motors would get caught up in it. In the 1961, after just five years of selling cars, Volvo named Jim their top dealer in America. They flew him to Sweden for two weeks of celebration. Jim even gave a speech to 600 bolvoo dealers from around the world with dozens of interpreters translating simultaneously.

只要你们造得出，美国人就买得动，我自会卖好我的份额——他这番演讲赢得全场起立鼓掌。27岁的吉姆享受了王室般礼遇，他象征着沃尔沃在美国的未来。可几天后，弟弟乔在机场接机时面如死灰。

If you build them, America will buy them and I'll keep selling my share, he told them. He received a standing ovation. At 27 years old, Jim was treated like royalty. He was the personification of Volvo's American future. A few days later, his brother Joe met him at the airport with devastation written on his face.

银行出问题了——乔见面就说道。在吉姆旅瑞这两周，他新换的那家激进银行汉密尔顿国民，终于发现了芬顿预见的危机：汤姆·普雷斯顿的业务账簿充斥着坏账、漏洞文件和愤怒客户。问题终于爆发，银行陷入恐慌，当即决定终止与所有间接经销商的合作。

I have a problem with the bank, he said immediately. During Jim's two weeks in Sweden, the aggressive bank that Jim had switched to, Hamilton National, had discovered what Fenton had predicted. Tom Preston's book of business was full of bad loans, poor documentation, and angry customers. It had finally caught up with him and the bank was panicking. They decided to terminate relationships with all their indirect dealers immediately.

吉姆·克莱顿曾是那些经销商之一。他们正在催收克莱顿汽车公司的所有票据。今天到期27.5万美元。银行会议彻底搞砸了。吉姆和乔带着他们刚法学院毕业的律师到场。

Jim Clayton was one of those dealers. They were calling in all of Clayton Motors notes. $275,000 due today. The meeting at the bank was a disaster. Jim and Joe brought their lawyers, both fresh out of law school.

年轻律师开始对银行资深律师和行长哈里·纳西指手画脚。这可不是个好主意。吉姆看着怒火不断升级。最后纳西看了看手表——二十分钟后他还有场网球赛。

The young lawyers started telling the bank's veteran attorneys and president Harry Nacy what they could and couldn't do. That was not a good idea. Jim watched the aggravation mount. Finally, Nacy looked at his watch. He had a tennis match in twenty minutes.

纳西说："让这些小混蛋破产吧，我可不能错过网球赛。"当吉姆和乔还在开会时，银行代表已带着法院令出现在克莱顿汽车各门店。他们搬空了一切——每辆车、每把钥匙，连客户送来换机油的车辆钥匙都不放过。他们抢走了技工工具、现金和账本。

Let's bankrupt these little SOBs, Nacy said. I can't be late for my tennis match. While Jim and Joe were still in that meeting, bank representatives were already above Clayton Motors locations with court orders. They took everything, every car, every key, even the keys to customers' cars that were in for oil changes. They grabbed mechanics' tools, cash, and accounting records.

他们甚至拿走了吉姆会计师的加法机——当时他正在做审计。当会计师想离开时，发现连他的车钥匙也被没收了。诺克斯维尔报纸头版刊登了破产新闻，电视台也作了报道。有家报纸提到吉姆刚从瑞典回来，却被部分读者误认为是瑞士。

They even took the adding machine from Jim's accountant, who was there doing an audit. When the accountant tried to leave, he discovered they'd taken his car keys too. The Knoxville newspapers ran the bankruptcy on their front pages. The TV news covered it. One paper mentioned Jim had just returned from Sweden, which some readers confused with Switzerland.

此后数十年间都流传着吉姆在瑞士有秘密账户的谣言。克莱顿汽车公司倒闭那晚，吉姆躺在床上觉得人生完蛋了。但次日清晨醒来时他却精神焕发——六点半就和乔带着四名核心员工在餐厅策划东山再起。

A rumor would persist for decades that Jim had secret Swiss bank accounts. Clayton Motors was gone. That night, Jim went to bed thinking his life was over. Then he woke up the next morning feeling great. By 06:30, he and Joe were at a local restaurant with four of their best employees planning a resurrection.

他们将成立新公司"克莱顿汽车股份有限公司"。破产律师伯尼·伯恩斯坦解释：即便在破产期间也能注册新公司。难点在于选址——汉密尔顿国民银行已接管了他们原有租约。伯尼对此也有解决方案：联系原房东，以新公司名义重新签订相同物业的租约。

They would form a new company, Clayton Motors Incorporated. Their bankruptcy attorney, Bernie Bernstein, explained that even in bankruptcy, they could form a new corporation. The challenge was getting a location since Hamilton National had taken over their leases. Bernie had a solution to that too. Contact the old landlords and sign new leases for the same properties under the new company name.

银行发现后暴跳如雷却无可奈何。克莱顿汽车股份公司甚至允许银行将查封车辆暂存原处等待拍卖——吉姆想让过往车辆看到一切如常。与此同时，吉姆父母从神秘来电得知破产消息——当时他母亲在家接到了电话。

When the bank found out, they were furious, but they had no choice. Clayton Motors Incorporated even let the bank store the seized cars there while preparing for auction. Jim wanted it to look like business as usual to all the passing traffic. Meanwhile, Jim's parents found out about the bankruptcy from a mysterious caller. His mother was home and the phone rang.

克莱顿小姐，有个消息你需要知道，那个声音说道。但首先，你必须承诺永远不告诉别人是我透露的这个消息。当她同意后，来电者抛出了重磅炸弹：你的儿子们刚刚申请了破产。在他母亲眼中，破产和一级谋杀同样严重。

Miss Clayton, there's something you need to know, the voice said. But first, you have to promise never to tell anyone I gave you this information. When she agreed, the caller dropped the bomb. Your sons have just filed for bankruptcy. To his mother, bankruptcy was as bad as first degree murder.

克莱顿家族从未有人赖过债。她立即打电话给儿子们，感到极度震惊。次日清晨，他们的父亲就踏上了前往诺克斯维尔的路。当抵达时，吉姆看到了前所未见的一幕——

Nobody in the Clayton family had ever Welshed on her debt. She called her boys immediately. She was horrified. The next morning, their father was on the road to Knoxville. When he arrived, Jim saw something he'd never seen before.

父亲眼含泪水。'我的儿子们会坐牢吗？'父亲问律师。伯尼搂着他的肩膀说：'克莱顿先生，我向您保证您的儿子们不会入狱。'

Tears in his father's eyes. Are my boys going to jail? His father asked the lawyer. Bernie put his arm around his shoulder and said, Mr. Clayton, I assure you that your boys won't go to jail.

'我会确保这一点。'临走前，父亲给了他们一张2600美元的支票，这是他银行账户里的全部积蓄。汽车特许经营权立即撤销了吉姆和乔的资格。美国汽车公司，没了。

I'll see to it. Before leaving, their father gave them a check for $2,600. It was everything he had in the bank. Auto franchises dropped Jim and Joe immediately. American Motors, gone.

雷诺，没了。英国汽车公司，没了。除了一家。吉姆致电沃尔沃总部，说明他们的金牌经销商现已破产。然而六辆崭新的沃尔沃已经运往诺克斯维尔。

Renault, gone. British Motor Company, gone. All except one. Jim called Volvo headquarters and explained that their golden boy was now bankrupt. However, six new Volvos were already on the way to Knoxville.

沃尔沃面临抉择：收回车辆或相信吉姆会付款。沃尔沃选择了信任。接下来是精妙之处：伯尼证实虽然企业破产，但吉姆和乔个人并未破产。

So Volvo had a choice. They could reclaim the cars or trust Jim to pay them. Volvo chose trust. Now came the clever part. Bernie confirmed that while the business was bankrupt, Jim and Joe as individuals were not.

他们可以新公司名义参加银行清算拍卖。当银行拍卖查封库存时，兄弟俩带着现金到场——父亲的2600美元，员工的3000美元，以及变卖吉姆在瑞典购买的沃尔沃跑车所得的8500美元。他们对每辆车、每个零件、每件工具都了如指掌，精准掌握所有物品价值。当他们以低价连续拍回自家库存时，银行代表们惊恐地看着这一切。

They could bid at the bank liquidation auction under the new company. So when the bank auctioned off the seized inventory, Jim and Joe were there with buds of cash, $2,600 from their father, 3,000 from their staff, and 8,500 from selling a Volvo sports coupe that Jim had bought in Sweden. At the auction, Jim and Joe knew every car, every part, every tool. They knew exactly what everything was worth. As they won bid after bid, buying back their own inventory at bargain prices, the bank's representatives watched in horror.

这合法吗？我们能阻止他们吗？他们做不到。但精彩的部分来了。吉姆和乔在拍卖会开始前就预售了许多那些车。

Is this legal? Can we stop them? They couldn't. But here's the brilliant part. Jim and Joe presold many of those cars before the auction even started.

他们联系客户，解释如何以拍卖价买到好车，收取现金完成交易，赚取合理利润。对于带回停车场的车，他们甚至翻倍赚回。银行犯了个致命错误。正如伯尼指出的，如果债权人在破产程序中获得超过10%的赔偿，那破产可能就不合理。吉姆的债权人每美元获得了41美分。

They'd contacted customers, explained how they could get a great car at auction prices, take their cash and made the purchase and they pocketed a reasonable profit. On the cars they took back to the lot, they doubled their money. The bank had made a crucial mistake. As Bernie pointed out, if creditors got much more than 10% in bankruptcy proceedings, the bankruptcy probably wasn't justified. Jim's creditors got 41¢ on the dollar.

银行本应和他们合作。用吉姆的话说，他们投下了原子弹。吉姆和乔立下誓言：不仅要偿还破产要求的每美元41美分，更要100%全额偿还每位债权人。虽然花了五年，但他们确实全额还清了所有人。

The bank should have just worked with them. They dropped, as Jim put it, an atom bomb. Jim and Joe made a vow. They would pay back not just the 41¢ on the dollar required by bankruptcy, but 100¢ on the dollar to every single creditor. It took five years, but they paid everyone back in full.

这个话题特别有趣因为它反复出现。记得吉米·帕特森的父亲吗？他花了几十年还清所有人。迪克体育用品创始人迪克·斯塔克在公司破产时变卖所有财产偿还债权人。关于这次破产，有三点特别值得注意：首先是他祖父给的建议。

This theme is super interesting because it keeps coming up. Do you remember Jimmy Patterson's father who worked for decades to pay everyone back? Dick Stack, who founded Dick's Sporting Goods, sold everything he had to pay his creditors back when the first company went bankrupt. There are three things about the bankruptcy that I wanna draw your attention to that stood out for me. The first is the advice his grandfather gave him.

如果要吞下一只青蛙，别盯着看太久。如果要吞两只，先吞大的那只。吉姆用这话形容破产——要吞的青蛙太多，而且全是巨型的。我特别喜欢这句话。

If you have to swallow a frog, don't look at it too long. If you have to swallow two frogs, swallow the big scutter first. And Jim would write that about bankruptcy. There were so many frogs to swallow, and these were all supersized. I really like that line.

如果要吞青蛙，别盯着看太久。另一点让我印象深刻的是他乐观的态度。他写道：这确实是令人沮丧的时期，但乔和我几乎没时间哀叹遭遇。我们俩都倾向于保持乐观。这里的教训是：抱怨遭遇或不公所花的时间，本可以用来改善现状。

If you have to swallow a frog, don't look at it too long. Another thing that stood out to me was his optimistic approach. Certainly, he wrote, these were depressing times, but Joe and I spent almost no time moaning about what happened. Both of us tend to be consistently optimistic. The lesson here is that all the time you spend complaining about what happened or how unfair it was comes at the expense of making the situation better.

最后，艰难时期会检验哪些关系真正持久。安逸时看不透这点。每天在破产法庭，吉姆都坐在律师伯尼·伯恩斯坦身边，看着律师们肢解破产的克莱顿汽车公司。律师掌控一切，说着他听不懂的行话，运用着他不知道的规则，收费高得让他头晕。

And finally, hard times reveal which of our relationships are truly lasting. You can't figure that out in the easy times. Every day at the bankruptcy courthouse, Jim sat next to Bernie Bernstein, his lawyer, watching the lawyers tear through the bankrupt Clayton Motors. The lawyers controlled everything. They spoke a language he didn't understand, wielded rules he didn't know existed, and charged bees that made his head spin.

吉姆心想，要是早知道伯尼知道的事，他一开始就不会沦落至此。于是在1962年，当同龄人都在事业上安顿下来时，吉姆·克莱顿却进了法学院——不是为了当律师，而是为了不再破产。田纳西大学法学院对他这个学生摸不着头脑。他总是缩在教室最后一排，躲在他能找到的最高大的同学身后，用吉姆的话说就是‘双倍宽幅’的人肉屏风。被点名时会突然挺直腰板，对侵权法或合同法发表几句见解，然后又继续忙自己的杂耍把戏。

If he'd known what Bernie knew, Jim thought, he never would have ended up here in the first place. So in 1962, while most men his age were settling into their careers, Jim Clayton enrolled in law school, not because he wanted to become a lawyer, but because he wanted to avoid bankruptcy again. The University of Tennessee School of Law didn't know what to make of him. He showed up in class in the back row, hiding behind the biggest student he could find, what Jim called a, quote unquote, double wide. He'd snap to attention when called upon, venture a comment about torts or contracts, and then go back to his juggling act.

上午是法学院学生，下午是汽车销售员，还要兼顾电台工作。他的成绩全是刚及格的C，勉强够继续学业。但吉姆求学不为分数，而是为了学会洞察先机。此后四十年里他拟定的每份合同、躲过的每场官司、应对的每条法规，都带着那三年学到的思维烙印。

Law school student in the morning, car dealer in the afternoon, working at the radio station again too. His grades were straight Cs, just enough to keep moving forward. But Jim wasn't there for the grades. He was there to learn how to see around corners. Every contract he draft, every lawsuit he dodge, every regulation he'd navigate for the next forty years would be filtered through what he learned in those three years.

真正的教育来自观察伯尼工作。吉姆花了无数时间看伯尼如何在表态前消化海量研究资料。伯尼教会他生意之道在于准备充分，而准备的关键就是比房间里任何人都更懂规则。不过最重要的教训始终是：别惹麻烦。

The real education came from watching Bernie work. Jim spent countless hours observing how Bernie devoured mountains of research before taking any position. Bernie taught him that business was about being prepared. And a large part of that preparation meant understanding the rules better than anyone else in the room. The most important lesson he learned though, was avoiding trouble.

他后来反思道：‘我的经验表明，超过80%的法律索赔都源于客户满意度未达标。因此我始终认为，只要达到甚至超越客户预期，就能消除大部分索赔。’这让我想起《穷查理宝典》里想给你们读的一段话，是查理·芒格的自述：‘我年幼时，父亲从事法律工作。’

My experience, he reflected later indicates that over 80% of legal claims originate because of a failure to deliver customer satisfaction. Therefore, it has always been my conclusion that most of our claims can be eliminated if we simply meet or exceed customer expectations. This reminds me of a passage from poor Charlie's Almanac that I want to read to you. And this is Charlie Munger talking. When I was very young, my father practiced law.

‘他最好的朋友之一格兰特·麦克法登——奥马哈福特汽车经销先驱——是他的客户。这位白手起家的爱尔兰裔完美绅士，年少时因不堪父亲殴打从农场出走，没受过正规教育却闯出了自己的一片天。他才华横溢，魅力超凡，正直高尚，是个极其出色的人。相比之下，父亲还有个夸夸其谈、得寸进尺、蛮横傲慢的难缠客户。’

One of his best friends, Grant McFadden, Omaha's pioneer Ford dealer, was a client. He was a perfectly marvelous man, a self made Irishman who'd run away uneducated from a farm as a youth because his father beat him. So he made his own way in the world. He was a brilliant man of enormous charm and integrity, just a wonderful, wonderful man. In contrast, my father had another client who was a blowhard and overreaching, unfair, pompous, difficult man.

‘大概十四岁那年我问父亲：为什么您要为X先生这种贪得无厌的讨厌鬼做那么多工作，而不是多帮帮格兰特·麦克法登这样的好人？父亲说：格兰特善待员工，诚信待客，妥善处理问题。遇到疯子会立刻主动周旋，尽快脱身。所以他的法律业务根本不够你买可口可乐喝。’

And I must have been 14 years old or thereabouts when I asked, dad, why do you do so much work for Mr. X, this overreaching blowhard instead of working more for wonderful men like Grant McFadden? My father said Grant McFadden treats all of his employees right, his customers right, and his problems right. And if he gets involved with a psychotic, he quickly walks over to where the psychotic is and works out an exit as fast as he can. Therefore, Grant McFadden doesn't have enough renumerative law business to keep you in Coca Cola.

‘但X先生简直是座法律业务的金矿。这个案例揭示了律师行业的困境：很大程度上，你不得不与品行恶劣之人打交道。正是这些人创造了最赚钱的法律业务。’

But Mr. X is a walking minefield of wonderful legal business. This case demonstrates one of the troubles with practicing law. To a considerable extent, you're going to be dealing with grossly defective people. They create an enormous amount of the renumerative law business.

即便你的客户是道德楷模，你也常会面对对方甚至法官的严重缺陷。这就是我离开法律行业的部分原因。我认为父亲关于那两个客户的模式完全正确——他教会了我重要一课：芒格说人生中偶尔可以为了养家糊口向无理取闹者提供服务，但要像格兰特·麦克法登那样经营自己的人生。

And even when your own client is a paragon of virtue, you'll often be dealing with gross defectives on the other side or even on the bench. That's partly what drove me out of the profession. I'd argue that my father's model, when I asked him about the two clients was totally correct. He taught me the right lesson. The lesson Munger says, as you go through life, sell your services once in a while to an unreasonable blowhard if that's what you must do to feed your family, But run your own life like Grant McFadden.

拥有法学学位的吉姆·克莱顿也像格兰特·麦克法登那样生活：善待员工、客户，正确处理问题，就能避开多数法律纠纷。从汽车转行到活动房屋的契机始于一个恼火场景——每天早晨，吉姆从日益壮大的汽车展厅望着门前高速路的堵车长龙，泰勒兄弟正在运送活动房屋。

And Jim Clayton, even with his law degree, was running his life like Grant McFadden. Treat your employees right, treat your customers right, and treat your problems right, and you avoid most legal trouble. The transition from cars to mobile homes started with an irritation. Every morning from his growing car dealership, Jim watched the traffic jam on the highway in front of his dealership. The Taylor brothers were delivering a mobile home.

这些10英尺宽50英尺长的庞然大物缓慢驶离时，双向车道都排起长龙。每次吉姆看到这场景就想：他们每天如此，每卖出一套就能赚几千美元，是我们卖车利润的十倍。这些讨厌的家伙。

These massive boxes, 10 feet wide and 50 feet long would lumber out of their lot while cars were backed up both directions on the highway. And every time Jim saw one, he would think this happens every day. These darn guys, and they hear and they make a couple thousand bucks every time they sell one. 10 times what we make when we sell a car. Darn guys.

那些活动房屋商确实混得风生水起。难怪他们过着奢华生活，都是派对常客。想想看，每次路上那些大家伙经过时，他们就赚了几千块——而我天天都能看到。天啊，这生意肯定利润丰厚。

Those tailors sure are doing well. No wonder they're living the high life. Real party guys. Just think every time I see one of those big things pass me on the road, they've made a couple grand and I see it every day. Gee, that mobile home business must be really good.

要知道这是1960年代，2000美元是笔巨款。因曾住过活动房屋，吉姆对此很了解，于是决定试水。他找到分类广告：10×56英尺，近乎全新，厨房小火灾。

Remember, this was the 1960s. Dollars 2,000 was a lot of money. He already knew a lot about mobile homes having lived in a couple. So he decided to test the waters. He found a classified ad, 10 by 56, like new, small kitchen fire.

到场后才发现'厨房小火灾'说得太轻巧——整个厨房已成焦炭，天花板熔化，黑色烟灰如火山灰覆盖一切。但吉姆看到了价值：1200美元的骨架可改造成4500美元的房屋。他动员父母参与改造：母亲负责清理现场。

When Jim arrived, he discovered small kitchen fire was being generous. The kitchen was charcoal. The ceiling had melted. Black soot covered everything like volcanic ash, but Jim saw something else, bones worth $1,200 that could be rebuilt into something worth $4,500 So he recruited his parents for the rebuild. His mother attacked the sit.

父亲重修固定装置，吉姆负责商务谈判。投入800美元工作两天后，新地板还没铺完，就有路人看见出售标志当场买下。两天净赚2000美元利润。从此吉姆开始夜间研究活动房屋生意。

His father rebuilt the fixtures. Jim handled the business side negotiating with suppliers. Two days and $800 later, they hadn't even finished the new floor when somebody driving by saw the sign for sale and bought it on the spot. Dollars 2,000 profit in two days of work. Jim started studying the mobile home business at night.

他想了解每一个细节。他会走遍泰勒兄弟公司的场地，测量房屋尺寸，检查建筑结构。他会假扮顾客走访其他经销商，询问供应商、利润率和融资情况。他发现这个行业正在蓬勃发展，但仍处于原始阶段。数字令人震惊。

He wanted to know every single detail. He'd walk through the Taylor Brothers lot, measuring homes, examining construction. He'd visit other dealers, posing as a customer, asking about suppliers, margins, financing. He discovered an industry that was booming, but still a little prehistoric. The numbers were staggering.

1966年，当吉姆认真考虑活动房屋时，该行业年出货量约20万套。到1973年，这个数字将达到58万。活动房屋不再是利基市场，越来越多美国人选择这种居住方式。但这个行业仍停留在黑暗时代。

In 1966, when Jim was getting serious about mobile homes, the industry was shipping about 200,000 units a year. By 1973, it would hit 580,000. Mobile homes weren't a niche anymore. This is how a growing portion of Americans were choosing to live. But industry was stuck in the dark ages.

制造商仍像造旅行拖车那样生产房屋。零售商纯靠佣金运作，没有培训、没有标准、售后无服务。贷款机构将活动房屋买家视作次级借款人，即使他们信用良好。每个环节都在用最小努力榨取最大利润——而需求仍在疯狂增长。

Manufacturers built homes like there were still travel trailers. Retailers operated on pure commission with no training, no standards, and no service after the sale. Lenders treated mobile home buyers like subprime borrowers, even with perfect credit. Everyone was trying to extract maximum profit at every level with minimal effort. And demand was still growing like gangbusters.

吉姆的真正突破源于与唐·蒂德威尔的偶遇，这位活动房屋制造商是个狂人天才。蒂德威尔留着猫王式的鬓角，穿着镶满水钻的衬衫，他通过革命性设计改变了行业——使用棕色以外的颜色。当其他制造商还在用深色木板覆盖所有表面时，蒂德威尔已开始使用亮红、蓝和金色。

Jim's first real move came through a chance meeting with Don Tidwell, a mobile home manufacturer and madman genius. Tidwell had Elvis Presley like sideburns. He wore rhinestone studded shirts and had transformed mobile home design by doing something revolutionary. He used colors other than brown. While every other manufacturer covered every surface with dark wood paneling, Tidwell was using bright reds, blues, and golds.

顾客们趋之若鹜。但蒂德威尔遇到了麻烦：泰勒兄弟想阻止他向竞争对手供货，同时把订单导向其他制造商。在这个充满此类手段的行业里，这是典型的强权打压。

Customers couldn't get enough. But Tidwell had a problem. Turns out the Taylor brothers. They wanted to prevent him from selling to competitors while they directed sales to other manufacturers. It was a classic storm arm tactic in an industry full of them.

蒂德威尔受够了，正寻找出路。当吉姆——这个懂制造的飞行员律师工程师汽车经销商——出现时，蒂德威尔看到了转机。在机场跑道上，蒂德威尔直接在吉姆的塞斯纳飞机机翼上画出了克莱顿活动房屋的标识，顶部还画了个旋转的小活动房屋。随后两人握手成交。

And Tidwell was fed up and he was looking for an out. So when Jim showed up, this pilot lawyer engineer car dealer who actually understood manufacturing, Tidwell saw his opportunity. Standing on the airport tarmac, Tidwell sketched a sign for Clayton Mobile Homes, right on the wing of Jim Cessna. He drew a little revolving mobile home on top. Then they shook hands.

吉姆就这样成了活动房屋经销商，尽管他没有库存、没有场地、缺乏实际经验。但他拥有更宝贵的东西：对这个行业前景的清晰愿景。当初支持克莱顿汽车的那位银行家（曾警告他不要扩张太快）被请来融资。吉姆写道：'他的脚还没踏上碎石路，你就能看到他脸上的不情愿。他甚至不愿多看那些闪闪发亮的新房一眼。'

Jim had just become a mobile home dealer, except he had no inventory, no lot, no real experience, But he had something more valuable. He had a crystal clear vision for what the industry could become. Then the banker that originally backed Clayton Motors, the one who warned him about growing too fast, was called to help finance things. Jim writes, You could see the reluctance on his face even before his feet touched the gravel. It seemed hard for him to even look at their shiny new homes.

他立刻提醒我，经历过一次破产后，他已年迈无法再承受第二次。我花了大量时间向他保证，Movall Home只是副业，仅此而已。毕竟，我们总得为闲置土地做点什么。我表示理解他的担忧，但承诺这块地永远不会建造超过十栋房屋——这个诺言仅维持了一个月。

He was quick to remind me that with one bankruptcy under our belts, he was too old to go through another. I spent considerable time assuring him the Movall Home business was just something on the side, nothing more. After all, we had to do something with the extra land. And I understand your concerns, I said, but I assure you, there'll never be more than 10 homes on this lot ever. That promise would last a month.

吉姆选址克林顿公路的策略很巧妙，正对泰勒兄弟那块曾是倒闭汽车餐厅的土地。每位被泰勒高压销售手段激怒的顾客都会看到吉姆·克莱顿的招牌，每次泰勒造成的交通堵塞都会让司机们盯着吉姆的库存。但吉姆真正的创新不在选址，而在于整合。制造商只想以最低成本建房并运给经销商。

The Clinton Highway location Jim chose was strategic, right across from the Taylor brothers on land that had been a failed drive in restaurant. Every customer who got frustrated with the Taylor's high pressure sales tactics would see Jim Clayton sign. Every traffic jam the Taylor's caused would have drivers staring at Jim's inventory. But Jim's real innovation wasn't location, it was integration. Manufacturers wanted to build homes as cheaply as possible and ship them to dealers.

经销商追求最高利润空间，卖完即忘；贷款方渴望收取最高利率，并在首次逾期时立刻收回房产。没人考虑顾客离店后的体验，没人关心产品生命周期，没人以工程师思维思考问题。

Dealers wanted to sell homes for as much markup as possible and then forget about them. Lenders wanted to charge the highest rates possible and foreclose at the first missed payment. Nobody was thinking about the customer after they walked out the door. Nobody was thinking about the life cycle of the product. Nobody was thinking like an engineer.

吉姆作为工程师，采取了截然不同的方式。顾客从克莱顿购房只是关系的开始而非终结：出现问题立即维修，需要升级时接受以旧换新，贷款受阻时主动联系其他机构或自行融资。

Jim was an engineer and his approach was different. When a customer bought a home from Clayton, that was the beginning of the relationship, not the end. When something broke, Clayton fixed it immediately. When customers needed to upgrade, Clayton took their trade in. When financing fell through, Clayton found another lender or financed it themselves.

但吉姆明白，要真正把控质量必须掌控制造环节。'我原计划建造与众不同的房屋，很快发现实现独特性异常困难，连建造标准款都成问题。'他的首间工厂由废弃钣金车间改造，仅能容纳三栋房屋。

But to really control quality, Jim realized he needed to control manufacturing. My original plan was to build homes that were nothing like the competition. I quickly found out how difficult it would be to make homes that unique. Even building homes with the standard look was going to be a problem. His first factory was an abandoned body shop, barely big enough for three homes.

他们首次建造的房屋宽12英尺，而车间大门仅11英尺10英寸，不得不破墙而出。协助生产的父亲来电告知：'有个小问题。'

The very first time they built was 12 feet wide. The door in the body shop was 11 feet, 10 inches. They had to knock out the wall to get it out. His father was helping with production called with the news. We have a small problem.

房子比那该死的门还大。这个错误让吉姆意识到关键问题：活动房屋行业从未精确测量，所谓12英尺宽60英尺长的规格都是约数。

The home is too big for the darn door. But the mistake taught Jim something crucial. In the mobile home industry, nobody really measured anything precisely. Homes were built to about 12 feet wide. They were around 60 feet long.

双宽活动房屋的两半基本能拼合。正是这种随意性让活动房屋名声不佳。吉姆推行了质量控制。每栋房屋都精确到英寸测量。每个系统在发货前都经过测试。

Two halves of a double wide pretty much fit together. This casualness was why mobile homes had such a terrible reputation. Jim instituted quality control. Every home was measured to the inch. Every system was tested before shipping.

当行业标准还是分开建造双宽房屋、指望现场拼合时（往往需要动用大锤），吉姆坚持先整体建造再锯开。当这些房屋运抵客户处时，它们能完美拼合——完全不需要大锤。制造厂连续六年亏损，六年间银行家们对他连连摇头。

When the industry standard for double wides was to build them separately and hope they fit together at the site, often involving a sledgehammer, Jim insisted on building them as one unit, then sawing them apart. When those homes arrived at a customer site, they fit together perfectly. No sledgehammer required. The manufacturing plant lost money for six straight years. For six years, his banker shook their heads at him.

董事会施压要求关停，但吉姆看到了他们没看到的：每栋严丝合缝的房屋都意味着会向朋友推荐克莱顿的客户。每次推荐都是未来的销售。每次未来销售都是迈向市场主导的台阶。随着规模扩大，客户投诉也随之增长。

His board pushed him to shut it down, but Jim saw what they didn't. Every perfectly fitted home was a customer who would recommend Clayton to friends. Every recommendation was a future sale. Every future sale was another step towards market domination. As they grew, so did customer complaints.

竞争对手雇佣律师军团对抗，但吉姆另辟蹊径。三十年间，克莱顿霍姆斯的法务部只有一人——吉姆自己。不是请不起更多律师，而是不需要。当愤怒客户威胁起诉时，吉姆不会躲在法律文件后，他会直接拿起电话。

Competitors hired squadrons of lawyers to fight them, but Jim took a different path. For thirty years, Clayton Holmes operated with a legal department of one person, Jim himself. Not because he couldn't afford more lawyers, but because he didn't need them. When an angry customer threatened to sue, Jim didn't hide behind legal briefs. He'd pick up the phone.

对方律师本以为会对接另一位律师，结果直接面对CEO。吉姆会用橄榄球话题卸下对方防备，然后直说：'我们律师桌上总有两叠文件——能赚钱的和不太赚钱的。我看不出这案子能让谁退休。'对方律师常会笑着认同。

The opposing attorney would be expecting another attorney. Instead, they get the CEO. Jim would disarm them with talk of football, then say simply, we lawyers always have a stack of files on our desk that will be profitable and another stack not likely to produce much income. I don't see how either one of us is gonna retire on this case. Often the opposing attorney would chuckle and agree.

他们会达成友好和解。吉姆记起法学院教授的律师第一守则：拿到律师费。所以在这些谈话中，吉姆会主动提议补偿对方客户的律师费。他不说具体数字，但会给个他知道足够的区间。

They'd reach an amicable settlement. Jim remembered something from law school. His professors rule number one about being an attorney, get the fee. So during these conversations, Jim would offer to reimburse the attorney's client for their legal fees. He wouldn't suggest an exact number, but give them a ballpark he knew would be enough.

还有些时候——这也是最奏效的——他会做企业律师绝不会做的事：亲自拜访客户。带着相机、记事本和引发问题的克莱顿经理。他们与客户一起从前门到卧室记录每个问题。而进行到一半时，奇妙的事情总会发生。

On other occasions, and this is what worked the best, he'd do something no corporate lawyer would do. He'd visit customers personally. He'd bring a camera, a notepad, and the manager from Clayton Homes who'd caused the problem. Together with the customer, they document every complaint from the front door to the back bedroom. And a strange thing would happen halfway through this tour.

充满敌意的顾客会停止敌对态度。他们会开始说，哦，别管装饰条上的小缝隙了，我自己来处理。到最后，他们会笑着谈论钓鱼和政治。这个秘密就是吉姆所说的马克斯·尼科尔斯服务信。

The hostile customer would stop being hostile. They'd start saying things like, oh, don't bother with that little gap in the trim. I'll take care of that myself. By the end, they'd be laughing about fishing and politics. The secret was something Jim called the Max Nichols service letter.

他们会按顺序处理清单上所有问题，并让顾客在每项维修上签字确认。一对因房屋延迟交付而愤怒的夫妇，最终在一年内为克莱顿介绍了三位新客户。解决他们投诉的总成本——维修费加上500美元法律费用——若走诉讼程序则需50倍于此。克莱顿在法律费用上花费极少，并非因为他们问题少，而是吉姆发现80%的法律索赔都源于同一个原因：未能让顾客满意。

They'd fix everything on the list in order with the customer initialing each repair. One furious couple whose home had been delivered late ended up referring three new customers to Clayton within a year. The total cost to resolve their complaint, the repair work plus $500 towards legal fees. A lawsuit would have been 50 times that. Clayton spent a fraction on legal fees, not because they had fewer problems, but because Jim saw that 80% of legal claims came from one source, a failure to deliver customer satisfaction.

解决了满意度问题，法律问题自然消失。他们从未想过要经营移动房屋公园，但这笔生意却意外落到他们手中。一位投资者在诺克斯维尔建造了绿茵移动房屋公园，却找不到人入住。他说服吉姆在那里安置了12套克莱顿房屋并完成装修，随时可入住。问题是没人购买。

Fixed the satisfaction problem and the legal problems disappear. They'd never wanted to own mobile home parks, but the deal fell into their lap. An investor had built Greenacres mobile home park in Knoxville, but couldn't find anyone to move in. He convinced Jim to put a dozen Clayton homes there completely set up and ready for immediate occupancy. The problem was nobody bought them.

卖掉这12套房子花了两年时间。到1973年，绿茵公园仅有30套房屋时，投资者放弃了。他以低于建筑成本的价格将其卖给克莱顿。吉姆认为这仍是笔好投资——盈利的公园能提供稳定的全年收入，在冬季房屋销售淡季时弥补缺口。

It took two years to sell those 12 homes. By 1973, with only 30 homes in Green Acres, the investor gave up. He sold it to Clayton for less than the construction costs. Jim thought it was still a good investment. A profitable park would provide reliable year round revenue and take up the slack during winter when home sales were slow.

随着收购其他公园，他们学到了昂贵的教训。有个公园中间有条小溪流过。本不是问题，他们以为可以改造地形让溪流改道边缘。结果铸成大错。

As they bought other parks, they learned an expensive lesson. One park had a creek running through it. No problem. They thought they'd reshape the land and divert the flow around the edge. Major mistake.

吉姆写道：水往它想去的方向流，而它想去的地方就是它一直流淌的地方。人行道塌陷，沥青路面碎裂，原本是小溪的地方冒出了渔夫。他们两次重铺那个公园，每次花费三万美元。

Water goes where it wants to go, Jim writes, and where it wants to go is where it has always gone. Walkways collapsed. The blacktop crumbled. Fishers popped up where the creek used to be. They paved that park twice, dollars 30,000 each time.

不到一个月，雨水就把一切冲毁了。教训很简单：顺势而为。让你的规划顺应土地，而非相反。要么与之和谐共处，要么放弃离开。

And within a month, the rain washed it all away. The lesson was simple. Literally go with the flow. Make your plan conform to the land, not the other way around. Either work with it or walk away.

当时吉姆正在制造房屋，销售它们，并有安置房屋的公园。垂直整合的下一步显而易见。吉姆目睹贷款机构从移动房屋买家身上赚取巨额利润，收取的利率之高连高利贷者都会脸红。于是他创立了范德比尔特抵押贷款公司，最初只是在他兄弟乔的办公桌上放了12张索引卡，代表他们已启动的业主融资账户。通过控制融资环节，克莱顿可以接触其他经销商不敢碰的客户。

Now Jim was making the homes, he was selling them, and had parks to put them in. The next step in the vertical integration was obvious. Jim had watched lenders make fortunes off mobile homebuyers, charging rates that would make a loan shark blush. So he created Vanderbilt Mortgage, starting with just 12 index cards on his brother Joe's desk representing owner financed accounts they had started. By controlling the financing, Clayton could sell to customers other dealers wouldn't touch.

通过自行处理贷款服务，他们能准确掌握客户的还款状况。当有人逾期未还款时，克莱顿不会立即取消赎回权，而是与客户协商解决方案——或许客户需要暂缓还款，或许需要重新贷款，又或许需要换购更小的房屋。

By servicing their own loans, they knew exactly how their customers were doing. When someone missed a payment instead of foreclosing, Clayton worked with them. Maybe they needed a payment holiday. Maybe they needed to refinance. Maybe they needed to trade down to a smaller home.

吉姆掌握着所有解决方案。这种整合甚至更加深入：克莱顿创建了范德比尔特人寿保险，在家庭经济支柱遭遇不测时同时保护买方和公司；他们收购移动房屋公园以控制房屋安置地点；还推出保修计划让客户明确知晓保修范围和期限。

Every solution was available at Jim's fingertips. The integration went even deeper. Clayton created Vanderbilt life insurance to protect both buyer and company if something happened to the breadwinner. They bought mobile home parks so that they can control where the homes were placed. They created warranty programs so customers knew exactly what was covered and for how long.

到1973年，克莱顿房屋公司已不仅是移动房屋制造商，而是一个垂直整合的住房体系。他们掌控着从工厂生产到最终抵押付款的每个环节。当客户踏入克莱顿的销售场地，就进入了一个能解决所有潜在问题的生态系统。其业绩数字令人震惊——

By 1973, Clayton Homes wasn't really a mobile home company anymore. It was a vertically integrated housing system. They controlled every step from factory floor to the final mortgage payment. When a customer walked on to a Clayton lot, they entered an ecosystem designed to solve every problem they might encounter. The numbers were staggering.

他们曾在一个周末售出26套房屋，单月单店销售86套，年度700套的纪录至今未被打破。没有其他经销商能接近这个成绩，因为没人像吉姆那样构建了完整的基础设施。然而1974年到来时，一切土崩瓦解。

In one weekend, they'd sold 26 homes. In one month, they sold 86 homes from a single location. They sold 700 homes in a year, a record that still stands. No other dealer had ever come close because no other dealer had built the infrastructure Jim had built. Then came 1974 and everything fell apart.

石油输出国组织禁运引发危机：通胀飙升、失业率暴涨、利率突破天际。移动房屋行业1973年出货58万套，到1975年仅售出21.2万套，两年内暴跌60%。制造厂亏损严重，零售点消耗巨额管理费用，数百员工依赖薪水度日，还有数百万个人担保贷款。但吉姆此时做出了看似疯狂的举动——

The OPEC oil embargo hit, inflation exploded, unemployment soared, and interest rates went through the roof. The mobile home industry, had shipped 580,000 units in 1973, sold only 212,000 in 1975. It was a 60% collapse in two years. Dead manufacturing plants that were bleeding cash, dozens of retail locations burning through overhead, hundreds of employees depending on paychecks, and millions in personally guaranteed loans. But Jim did something that seemed insane at the time.

他选择了主动出击。当竞争者纷纷关店时，他保持所有门店营业；当同行解雇销售人员时，他保留全部员工；当其他企业削减广告时，他反而增加投入。他的逻辑很简单。

He played offense. While competitors closed locations, he kept everyone open. While others fired salespeople, he kept them all employed. While others cut advertising, he increased it. His logic was simple.

经济衰退结束时，克莱顿房屋将成为唯一准备好抓住复苏机遇的公司。但为了生存，他们必须创新。于是吉姆的团队推出了Vegas车型，这款精简版比许多二手移动房屋便宜5995美元。当传统贷款机构停止放贷时，吉姆扩大了范德比尔特抵押贷款业务；当客户无力支付首付时，他们又开发了新的保险产品。

When the recession ended, Clayton Homes would be the only company ready to capture the recovery. To survive, they had to innovate, though. So Jim's team created the Vegas, a stripped down model that sold for $5,995 less than many used mobile homes. When traditional lenders stopped lending, Jim expanded Vanderbilt mortgage. When customers couldn't afford down payments, they created new insurance products.

每个问题都成了强化生态系统的机遇。到1976年经济衰退结束时，克莱顿房屋创造了前所未有的成就——不仅作为全产业链房屋公司挺过了行业史上最严重的萧条，还实现了增长。少数幸存竞争者仍只是零售商、制造商或贷款商，而克莱顿同时具备所有这些身份。

Every problem became an opportunity to strengthen the ecosystem. By 1976, when the recession ended, Clayton Homes had something unprecedented. Did not only survive the worst downturn in industry history as a fully integrated housing company, but they grew. The few competitors who survived were still just retailers or manufacturers or lenders. Clayton was all of those things.

当70年代末和80年代新的衰退来临时，克莱顿形成了一句口头禅：'国家在衰退，我们选择不参与'。在利率高达20%的艰难时期，克莱顿每年保持25%的销售增长，工厂持续运转，销售中心人员齐备。华尔街注意到了克莱顿房屋，投行开始致电联系。公司为IPO进行了路演，十天跑遍二十个城市。

When other recessions arrived in the late 70s and 80s, Clayton had developed a saying, the country is in a recession, and we have elected not to participate. During those tough times with 20% interest rates, Clayton grew sales by 25% each year while keeping factories open and sales centers staffed. Wall Street noticed Clayton Homes. Investment bankers started calling. The company went on a roadshow for their IPO, 20 cities in ten days.

当他们抵达波士顿时，分析师悄悄告诉吉姆彼得·林奇可能会来五分钟。这位将富达麦哲伦基金打造成史上最成功共同基金的传奇人物，最终停留了整整一小时。等吉姆回到酒店时，所有人都想参与认购——富达要求三倍于最初配售的额度。

When they got to Boston, analysts whispered to Jim that Peter Lynch might drop by for five minutes. The Peter Lynch who turned Fidelity's Magellan Fund into the best performing mutual fund in history. He'd stayed a full hour. By the time Jim got back to his hotel, everyone wanted in. Fidelity wanted three times their initial allocation.

1983年6月22日IPO定价16美元，次日中午已涨至19.5美元。仅一个上午就融资3100万美元。上市前吉姆拥有公司100%股权，出售20%给公众后，他获得1050万美元现金，仍保留80%股权——此时克莱顿房屋估值已达1.2亿美元。

The IPO priced at $16 on 06/22/1983. By noon the next day, was trading at $19.50. They'd raised $31,000,000 in a single morning. Before the IPO, Jim owned 100% of the company. After selling 20% to the public, he received 10 and a half million dollars in cash and retained an 80% ownership of Clayton Homes, now valued at $120,000,000.

当团队询问是否要举办庆祝派对时，吉姆建议大家回去工作。上市确实改变了游戏规则：季度财报电话会、从未卖过移动房屋的分析师指手画脚。但吉姆屏蔽噪音专注基本面：他们还清所有债务，并开设了新制造工厂。

When his team asked if he wanted a party, Jim suggested they all get back to work. Going public changed the game a bit. Quarterly earnings calls and analysts who'd never sold a mobile home telling you how to run your business. But Jim ignored the noise and just focused on the fundamentals. They paid off all their debt and opened a new manufacturing plant.

战略简单得出奇：当80年代末竞争者通过放宽信贷标准追求增长时，克莱顿保持纪律。当这些竞争者在90年代初因储贷危机崩溃时，克莱顿依然屹立。从1983年到2003年2月，克莱顿从30个零售中心发展到300多个，从3家制造厂扩展到20家，抵押贷款应收账款从几百万增长到超十亿。90年代末，预制房屋行业再次陷入危机。

The strategy was surprisingly simple. While competitors in the late eighties chased growth by loosening credit standards, Clayton maintained discipline. When those competitors collapsed in the early nineties from the savings and loan crisis, Clayton was still standing. Between 1983 and 02/2003, Clayton Homes grew from 30 retail centers to over 300, from three manufacturing plants to 20, from a few million in mortgage receivables to over a billion. By the late nineties, the manufactured housing industry was in another meltdown.

所有大公司要么已经倒闭，要么濒临倒闭。他们都做了吉姆拒绝做的事——通过向不良借款人发放不良贷款来追求增长。听起来耳熟吗？2008年也发生过同样的事。

All the big names were either dead or dying. They'd all done what Jim refused to do. They'd all chased growth with bad loans to bad borrowers. Does that sound familiar? This is what happened in 2008 too.

但克莱顿公司不仅幸存下来，还主动出击。当竞争对手倒闭时，他们以极低价格收购了最佳零售点。当贷款机构逃离行业时，克莱顿的金融部门以大幅折扣抢占市场份额。到2002年2月，克莱顿·霍姆斯已成为最后的赢家。

Clayton didn't just survive this, though. They played offense. So as competitors collapsed, Clayton bought their best retail locations for pennies on the dollar. As lenders fled the industry, Clayton's financing arm grabbed more and more market share at steep discounts. By 02/2002, Clayton Holmes had emerged as the last man standing.

然后沃伦·巴菲特打来了电话。2002年2月，吉姆·克莱顿决定撰写回忆录《最初的梦想》，这也是我们今天讨论的这本书。他自费出版时，以为行业里可能只有几百人愿意读。没想到我们的播客会让数十万人知道这个故事。

Then Warren Buffett called. In 02/2002, Jim Clayton decided to write his memoirs. First, A Dream was the title and is the book that we're discussing today. He self published it, figuring maybe a few 100 people in the industry might wanna read it. Little did he know that we'd be doing a podcast on this reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

他把书赠送给商学院，在会议上分发，邮寄给所有感兴趣的人。其中一本落到了田纳西大学学生手中，他们正要去内布拉斯加州的奥马哈拜访巴菲特，就把这本书当作来自田纳西的礼物带去了。

He gave copies to business schools. He handed them out at conferences. He mailed them to anyone who seemed interested. One of those copies ended up in the hands of some University of Tennessee students heading to Omaha, Nebraska to visit Warren Buffett. They brought the book as a gift from Tennessee.

据巴菲特在2003年伯克希尔年会上所述，他称这份学生礼物是个意外收获，让克莱顿·霍姆斯进入了他的视野。巴菲特用一个周末读完书后，1999年起执掌公司的凯文·克莱顿收到了一条改变一切的语音留言。巴菲特说他很喜欢这本书，并祝贺他们成为行业翘楚。但故事还有后续。

According to Buffett's account at the two thousand and three Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, he called this gift from the students an unlikely source that put Clayton Holmes on his radar. Buffett read the book over a weekend. Shortly after Kevin Clayton, who'd been running the company since 1999, received a voicemail that would change everything. Buffett said he'd read the book, enjoyed it, and congratulated them on taking it to the top of the industry. But there's more to this story.

2003年的预制房屋行业仍处于危机中。即便被巴菲特称为行业标杆企业的克莱顿房屋公司，也面临资金短缺这个关键问题。凯文·克莱顿后来解释称，虽然公司资产负债表显示债务很少，但每年需要约10亿美元来维持抵押贷款和库存，而遭受过重创的贷款机构已基本停止为预制房屋提供融资。换句话说，尽管克莱顿的贷款表现良好，但由于竞争对手的行为及其后果，银行不愿提供更多资金。

The manufactured housing industry in 2003 was still in crisis. Even Clayton Homes, despite being what Buffett called the premier company in the industry, faced a critical problem, access to capital. As Kevin Clayton would later explain, while the company's balance sheet showed little debt, it lacked the enormous capacity for borrowing needed to sustain its mortgage lending and inventory needs, about a billion dollars annually. The lending community had got burned very badly by past failures and had largely sworn off providing financing for manufactured homes. In other words, while Clayton's loans were performing, and they had no problem with Clayton, the banks weren't giving them more because of how all their competitors behaved and the consequences.

收购进展神速。正如巴菲特在伯克希尔年会上所说："几个电话后我们就达成了交易"。克莱顿·霍姆斯与伯克希尔·哈撒韦以17亿美元现金达成合并协议。这笔交易的战略亮点在于伯克希尔能解决克莱顿的关键资金问题——这是其他任何机构都无法做到的。

The acquisition moved with remarkable speed. As Buffett stated at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, a few phone calls later, we had a deal. Clayton Holmes and Berkshire Hathaway entered into a merger agreement for $1,700,000,000 in cash. The strategic brilliance of the deal lay in Berkshire's unique ability to solve Clayton's critical capital problem. Berkshire can do something that nobody else could do.

他们可以将贷款保留在自己的资产负债表上，而不是出售给他人。正如巴菲特解释的那样，伯克希尔会将其保留在投资组合中。通过提供克莱顿所需的资金，伯克希尔将一个可能成为全行业负担的业务转变为无与伦比的竞争优势，这成为了克莱顿的救命稻草。虽然部分股东反对，但吉姆·克莱顿知道公司28%的人支持这笔交易。他明白这不仅仅是价格问题。

They could hold the loans on their own balance sheet rather than sell them to other people. As Buffett explained, Berkshire would keep it in the portfolio. This was a lifeline for Clayton by providing the capital they need to Berkshire transform what would have been an industry wide liability into an unparalleled competitive advantage. Some shareholders resisted, but Jim Clayton knew 28% of the company supported the deal. He understood this just wasn't about the price.

关键在于确保克莱顿住宅能在一个愿意提供发展所需资金的母公司旗下永久安家。交易于2003年8月完成，凯文·克莱顿继续担任CEO。克莱顿开始从本杰明摩尔涂料和萧氏地毯等伯克希尔子公司采购材料，形成了自我强化的生态系统。从田纳西州那个每周只能赚8美元的长屋开始，吉姆·克莱顿已建立起价值数十亿的帝国。

It was about ensuring Clayton Homes had a permanent home with a parent company that would provide the capital it needed to thrive. The deal closed in August 2003. Kevin Clayton would continue as CEO under Berkshire's ownership. Clayton began sourcing the materials from other Berkshire subsidies like Benjamin Moore and Shaw Industries carpet, creating a self reinforcing ecosystem. From that long cabin in Tennessee where the family made $8 a week, Jim Clayton had built an empire worth billions.

他经历了破产、多次经济衰退和行业崩溃——这些几乎摧毁了他所有的竞争对手。他带领克莱顿住宅上市并将其卖给了沃伦·巴菲特。从1200美元购买的二手拖车起步，克莱顿住宅成长为美国最大的住宅制造商。在被伯克希尔收购时，公司已为数十万家庭提供了住房。通过克莱顿家族基金会，他和妻子每年捐赠数百万美元。

He'd survived bankruptcy, multiple recessions, and industry collapses that destroyed nearly every one of his competitors. He'd taken Clayton Homes public and sold it to Warren Buffett. Clayton Homes grew from a single used trailer bought for $1,200 to become the largest manufacturer for homes in America. By the time of the Berkshire acquisition, the company had provided housing for hundreds of thousands of families. Through the Clayton Family Foundation, he and his wife give away millions of dollars each year.

克莱顿的名字出现在田纳西州的医院、博物馆和大学建筑上。他所有书籍的收益都捐给了慈善机构。那个10岁时选择种子而非玩具车的男孩，播下的种子生长得超乎他最狂野的梦想。从挨家挨户卖种子到与巴菲特握手达成数十亿美元交易，吉姆·克莱顿证明了一个佃农的儿子可以建立帝国、失去它、重建它、以数十亿出售它——87岁仍会出现在当地大剧院弹吉他。这才是真正的故事。

The Clayton name appears on hospitals, museums, and university buildings all across Tennessee. All the proceeds from his books went to charity. The boy who chose seeds over a toy car at age 10 planted something that grew beyond his wildest dreams. From selling seeds door to door to shaking hands with Warren Buffett on a billion dollar deal, Jim Clayton proved that a sharecropper's son could build an empire, lose it, build it again, sell it for billions, and he still showed up at 87 to play guitar at the local Opry. That's the real story.

不仅是成功，更是生存；不仅是财富，更是韧性。音乐从未真正停止。好，我想谈谈这个惊人故事给我的启示。有个非常有趣的部分我没能放进节目里。

It's not just success, but survival, not just wealth, but resilience. The music never really stopped. Okay. I wanna talk about some of my reflections from that incredible story. There's one part that I didn't work into the episode that I thought was really interesting.

吉姆·克莱顿有个'行动、态度、氛围'三位一体的理念：生活中所有领域都需要行动，行动必须积极且充足。关于氛围，他认为积极的行动自然会产生积极的态度，进而营造积极的氛围。

And Jim Clayton has this concept called the three action, attitude, and atmosphere. Action. We have to have action in all areas of our life. The action must be positive and plentiful. And on atmosphere, he says, of course, positive action produces positive attitudes, which produce positive atmosphere.

另一个我在节目中强调不够的点是——正如我刚重读时注意到的——吉姆·克莱顿始终在主动进攻。当竞争对手因降低贷款标准陷入困境被迫收缩时，他始终向前推进。虽然他没有通过降低信贷标准来激进扩张，但实现了全周期的持续增长。这点很重要——我们在卡内基身上也看到过这种特质。

The other thing that I didn't highlight enough, I think, in this episode, as I just reread it to you, was that Jim Clayton was always playing offense. So while his competitors worked themselves into trouble by lowering their loan standards and found themselves in hot water and they had to pull back, Jim Clayton was always moving forward. He might not have grown as aggressively during those times by lowering his credit standards, but he was able to grow throughout the cycle. And I think that's important. We saw that with Carnegie too.

我们还没谈过这个。但看看卡内基，他在19世纪70年代的经济衰退中赚了大钱，当时所有人都停止建造钢铁厂，而他继续前进。他买断了合伙人的股份，让自己处于有利位置以迎接随后的复苏。我认为这是我们反复看到的关键一课。

We haven't talked about that. But if you look at Carnegie, he made most of his money during the recession of the eighteen seventies when everybody else stopped building steel plants and he kept going. He bought out his partners. He positioned himself to take advantage of the ensuing recovery. And I think that's a key lesson that we see over and over again.

约翰·D·洛克菲勒、安德鲁·卡内基、吉姆·克莱顿，他们总是采取攻势。他们的布局总能让自己保持进攻姿态。好，我想谈谈我们能从中汲取的一些经验。

John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jim Clayton, they're always playing offense. They're always positioned in a way that they can play offense. Okay. I wanna talk about some of the lessons that we can take away from this.

我们刚讨论了攻势策略——这绝对是重要经验之一：始终保持进攻。其他让我印象深刻的原则包括：如果要吞下一只青蛙，就别盯着它看太久。当银行要求立即还款并迫使克莱顿汽车公司破产时，他本可以沉溺于痛苦。

We just talked about offense. That's definitely one of the lessons. Always be playing offense. Some of the other ones that stood out to me are, if you have to swallow a frog, don't look at it for too long. When the bank demanded immediate repayment and forced Clayton Motors into bankruptcy, he could have wallowed.

但第二天早上6:30，他已经坐在餐厅筹划东山再起。你抱怨现状的时间，本可以用来改善处境。第二，选择种子而非玩具。十岁时，吉姆·克莱顿挨家挨户卖种子，公司用玩具车作为即时奖励，或提供更多种子来销售以保留利润。

But by 06:30 the next morning, he's at a restaurant planning his comeback. All the time you spend complaining about what happened comes at the expense of improving where you are. Two, choose seeds over toys. At ten, Jim Clayton sold seeds door to door. The company offered prizes, instant gratification of a toy car or more seeds to sell, keeping all the profit.

其他孩子都选了玩具。吉姆·克莱顿呢？不，他选了种子。这个选择成了他的人生哲学。

Every kid chose the toy. Jim Clayton? No. He took the seeds. That choice became his philosophy.

放弃即时满足，播下正确的种子。第三，水往它想去的方向流，而它想去的地方就是它一贯的流向。克莱顿买下有溪流穿过的移动房屋公园，他们花了6万美元试图改道，结果堤坝两次都在原溪流处决堤。

Forgo momentary satisfaction, plant the right seeds. Three, water goes where it wants to go, and where it wants to go is where it has always gone. Clayton bought a mobile home park with a creek through it. They spent $60,000 trying to divert the water. Twice the payment collapsed exactly where the creek used to flow.

他由此领悟：让计划顺应地形，而非相反。第四，现实扭曲力场。70年代经济危机时，克莱顿·霍姆斯看着竞争对手关闭门店并裁员，而克莱顿保留所有员工并增加广告投放。他们的口号是：国家陷入衰退，但我们选择不参与。

Make your plan conform to the land, not the other way around, he learned. Four, reality distortion field. During the seventies crash, Clayton Holmes watched competitors fire everyone in closed locations. Clayton kept everyone employed and increased advertising. Their motto, the country is in a recession, and we have elected not to participate.

他们在灾难期间仍保持25%的年增长率。经济衰退是市场份额重新分配的契机。第五，最好的法务部门是满意的客户。克莱顿房屋公司三十年来法务部门只有吉姆·克莱顿一人，并非请不起律师，而是根本不需要。

They grew 25% annually through the disaster. Recessions are market share redistribution events. Five. The best legal department is a satisfied customer. Clayton Homes operated for thirty years with a legal department of one, Jim Clayton, not because they couldn't afford lawyers, because they didn't need them.

超过80%的法律诉讼源于未能满足客户需求。大多数公司聘请律师对抗客户，而克莱顿选择直接解决问题。第六，化敌为友。

Over 80% of legal claims originate from failure to deliver customer satisfaction. Most companies hire lawyers to fight customers. Clayton just fixed their problems. Six. Turn your adversaries into your allies.

州监管机构发现吉姆·克莱顿经营非法汽车经销业务，本应面临巨额罚款。但他没有聘请律师，而是谦逊地承认疏忽并向检查员求助。顷刻间，对手变成了导师。第七，精准创造利润。

State regulators caught Jim Clayton running an illegal car dealership. They would have to pay massive fines. Instead of hiring lawyers, he admitted ignorance with appropriate meekness and asked the examiner for help. Within moments, my adversary became my mentor. Seven, there's profit in precision.

活动房屋行业普遍建造12英尺宽的房屋以求适配。吉姆·克莱顿做了项颠覆性举措：精确测量每英寸尺寸，而竞争对手分别建造双宽房屋的两半后祈祷能拼合——这个过程常需要现场用大锤调整。克莱顿先整体建造，再精准切割重组。第八，不良贷款是瘟疫。

The mobile home industry built homes about 12 feet wide that pretty much fit together. Jim Clayton did something radical. He measured every home to the inch while competitors built double wide halves separately and prayed they'd fit together a process that involved a sledgehammer on-site. Clayton built them as one, sawed them apart and rejoined them perfectly. Eight, bad loans are a virus.

1990年代末，克莱顿目睹所有竞争者通过放宽信贷标准追求增长，却始终坚守底线。这已非首次经历。竞争者接连暴雷后，克莱顿以极低价格收购了他们的资产。

In the late 1990s, Clayton watched every competitor chase growth by loosening credit standards. Clayton held firm. This wasn't the first time they'd been through this. One by one, competitors imploded. Clayton bought their assets for pennies on the dollar.

到2002年2月，他们成为行业最后的幸存者。当竞争对手犯错时，千万不要打断他们。第九，全产业链盈利。当时所有人都在卖活动房屋，

By 02/2002, they were the last company standing. Never interrupt your competitor when they're making a mistake. Number nine. Money at every level. Everyone sold mobile homes.

吉姆·克莱顿还建工厂生产房屋、开银行提供贷款、造园区安置房屋、办保险进行保障。1974年行业崩盘导致60%企业倒闭时，克莱顿活了下来——他们拥有完整供应链。垂直整合不仅关乎效率，更是打造不死之身。

Jim Clayton built factories to make them, banks to finance them, parks to place them, insurance to protect them. When the nineteen seventy four crash killed 60% of the industry, Clayton survived. They were their own supply chain. Vertical integration just isn't about efficiency. It's about becoming unkillable.

10. 你最后该做的事往往是你直觉认为最先该做的事。吉姆·克莱顿驾驶塞斯纳飞机时，因地标位置偏离而迷航。他放弃了原定飞行计划，开始追逐高速公路，结果燃油耗尽险些坠毁。

10. The last thing you should do is the first thing you feel you should do. Flying a Cessna, Jim Clayton got lost when the landmark wasn't where it should be. He abandoned his flight plan. He started chasing highways and nearly crashed running out of fuel.

如同飞行一样，他在商界领悟到：仪表数据胜过本能直觉。第十一条，三A法则。吉姆·克莱顿发现成功源于自我强化的循环——积极行动催生积极态度，进而营造积极氛围。1974年经济危机时，当竞争对手纷纷裁员，克莱顿却保留了所有员工。

In business as in flying, he says, your instruments beat your instincts. Eleventh, the three A's. Jim Clayton discovered that success runs on self reinforcing cycle. Positive action produces positive attitudes, which produce a positive atmosphere. During the 1974 crash, when competitors fired everyone, Clayton kept all the employees.

一切始于积极行动。第十二条，某些理念历久弥新：自律、意志力、坚韧不拔，明白失望不等于失败，洞悉危机常藏转机。障碍虽在，人类精神终能战胜。逆境锻造韧性，磨砺品格。

Everything starts with a positive action. Twelfth, certain concepts are ageless no matter what year you're in. Self discipline, willpower, perseverance, realizing that disappointment is not defeat, knowing that problems often present opportunities. Obstacles get in the way, but the human spirit can triumph over these things. Adversity breeds resilience and can build character.

13. 无知优势。吉姆在回忆录中写道：'若早知创业如此艰难——从撕心裂肺的挫折到高强度工作，再到每个企业家都深有体会的漫长煎熬——我可能至今仍是个吉他手或种子销售员。'14. 永远保持进攻姿态。感谢收听本期节目，希望您和我一样享受了解吉姆·克莱顿与活动房屋产业的历程。

13, the ignorance advantage. In his memoir, Jim wrote, if I had even the slightest idea of just how difficult it would be from the gut wrenching heartaches to the hard work, to the long hours, a grueling combination every entrepreneur can identify with, I probably would have remained a guitar picker or maybe a seed salesman. And 14, always play offense. Thank you for listening and learning with us. I hope you enjoyed this episode and learning about Jim Clayton and the mobile home industry as much as I have.