It Is a Green Thing

全靠经验

With Williams’ help and a room supplied by Glide Memorial when he needed it, Gardner not only made it through the brokerage training program, he passed his licensing exam on the first try.
    在Williams的帮助下，Gardner 需要时就住在Glide教堂提供的一间房间里，Gardner不仅完成经纪人培训课程学习，而且一次性通过营业执照考试。 Gardner went to work making cold calls at the firm of Dean Witter. He says no one at the firm knew he was homeless. “I was the first one at work, I was the last one to leave。 I’d be on the phone, 200 phone calls a day. That’s what they noticed,” he said. “Every time I picked up that phone, I was digging my way out of this hole.”
    Gardner为谋到一份工作，几次访问Dean Witter的公司，受到冷遇，他说公司里没有人知道他无家可归。“我第一个上班，最后一个下班。我一天接200个电话。这就是他们注意到的，”他说。“每一次我接电话，我都在寻找出路。” Gardner moved on to Bear, Stearns. As he learned the business, he also learned that it came with some unpleasant baggage. Because African-American brokers were rare, one phone customer, assuming that Gardner was white, told racist jokes as he placed his orders. When the client came for a face-to-face meeting, Gardner says, “He was either gonna close his account with me or I was gonna get all his business.”
    Gardner搬到Stearns市Bear区居住。他学会做生意的同时，还懂得干这一行的艰辛，因为美籍非洲人很少作经纪人，有一位打电话的顾客以为Gardner是白人，一面下定单，一面讲带有种族歧视的玩笑，当顾客前来开会互相照面时，Gardner说，“他要么不再委托我作他的经纪人，要么把生意全都交给我做。”
Gardner kept the account.“That’s when I learned in this business it’s not a black thing, it’s not a white thing, it’s a green thing. If you can make me money, I don’t care what color you are.”
    客户继续让他做下去。“我干这行才了解到，作经纪人与你是黑人还是白人无关，全靠经验。只要你能给我股票赚钱，我就不管你是什么肤色。”
In 1987, with $10,000 in capital, Gardner started his own company in Chicago，operating at first from his home. His company is now an institutional brokerage firm with offices in Chicago’s financial district.
    1987年，Gardner 用$10,000美元作资本在芝加哥的家中创立了自己的公司，他的公司现在是一家经纪人公司，办事处设在芝加哥金融区。
Ironically, when San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit System issued new bonds to raise money a few years ago, one of the underwriters was Gardner's company run by a man who, when he was homeless, had bathed his son in the bathroom of one of its train stations.    具有讽刺意义的是，几年前，当旧金山湖湾区快速运输站发行债券募集资金时，一家保险公司的经营者正是当年在火车站洗手间给他儿子洗澡的那个男人。liuxuepaper.com