他在威廉·莫里斯代理行待了5年多，并很乐意待更长的时间，但命运弄人，不久他的师傅被解雇了。这使他有机会开始他自己的公司——创意艺术家代理行。1975年成立初期，公司只有四个从威廉·莫里斯代理行出来的同事，但创意艺术家代理行却获得了巨大的成功，为好莱坞传奇人物雪儿、麦当娜、汤姆·汉克斯和汤姆·克鲁斯等巨星代理。在最开始，只有这5个员工共同奋斗，一天18个小时，一周工作7大。他们在头两年里没向公司要一分钱。
梅耶尔有一个优势：很少有人能像他一样了解生意，也很少有人能像他一样与人为善。梅耶尔逐渐地建立了创意艺术家代理行的客户群，他总在与人拉关系，参加他所被邀请的任何活动——聚会、会餐、电影、录音。
他第一位重要的客户有《查理的天使》的主演费拉·福赛特和凯特·杰克逊。但他的重大转折点是他签下了西尔维斯特·史泰龙，在他拍《洛奇》和《第一滴血》的那几年。“每个人都想做西尔的代理，”梅耶尔表示。“作为他的经纪人实在是太棒了。那成了我能够代理迈克尔·道格拉斯、歌蒂·韩和杰西卡·兰格等巨星的开始。”
二十年以后，梅耶尔被任命经营环球影城，这是一个远超出他梦想的一个职位。但一旦他发现成功变得有可能，就感到有一种力量驱使他去获得成功。这一点对他来说很重要，尽管他已经是一位受大家信赖和尊重的成功人士。回顾过去，梅耶尔始终铭记他最初那段卑微的时光。
直到今天，同事都一致将他和他们的成功归结于梅耶尔的谦恭和坚定。这是一种需要坚韧、某种品质和某类天赋才能取得的成功，不管你是大学毕业生还是来自街头的混混。
做一个选择需要勇气，而坚持下去则需要毅力。
核心单词
dropout [5drap,aut] v.漏失
disposable [dis5pEuzEbl] adj. 可支的收入
glamorous [5^lAmErEs] adj. 富有魅力的；迷人的
intervened [7intE5vi:njEnt] v.干涉，干预；调停
财经知识一点通
代理行（correspondent bank）
是指与其他国家建立往来账户，代理对方的一些业务，为对方提供服务的银行。对一家银行来说，代理行实际上不附属于本银行，代理行关系就是不同国家银行之间建立的结算关系。
运营总监（Chief Operating Officer缩写COO）
该职位要全面负责公司的市场运作和管理；参与公司的整体策划，健全公司各项制度，完善公司运营管理；推动公司销售业务，推广公司产品，组织完成公司整体业务计划；建立公司内部信息系统，推进公司财务、行政、人力资源的管理；负责协调各部门工作，建立有效的团队协作机制；维持并开拓各方面的外部关系；管理并激励所属部门的工作绩。
翻译行不行
With little education or direction and few options，he figured he’d be drafted.
But Meyer had an advantage: Few people knew the business as well as he did，and few were as good with people.
But once he saw success was possible，he was driven to achieve it.
第一章 The Wizard of Web Retailing: Jeff Bezos
“电子商务教父”杰夫·贝佐斯
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1995 as an online bookstore. Due to customer demand the company later expanded and added other products to its inventories，including videos，DVDs，electronics，toys，apparel1，software，household items，and gourmet food. In an interview，Bezos indicated that books were chosen as Amazon.com’s first product category“because they offered so much selection”；in the same interview，Bezos stated，”I think the main thing that has differentiated Amazon.com from conventional retailers is its obsessive and compulsive focus on the end-to-end customer experience. That includes having the right products，the right selection，and low prices.”
Started up in Seattle，Washington，Amazon.com had its first base of operation in the Bezos’s garage，which was converted into a workspace initially housing three Sun workstations. Amazon grew to be an international enterprise and eventually expanded to include sites in Canada，the United Kingdom，France，and Japan. Coworkers and chroniclers of the Amazon story characterized Bezos as a visionary” and as a man who on the surface was easygoing but kept his employees on demanding schedules. Bezos demanded quick turnaround time for Project completion.He scheduled weekly management meetings which often ran as long as four hours，with managers reporting on new products and pricing and taking on questions from the CEO. Bezos promoted innovative efforts among his employees through the Just Do It program，which rewarded those who came up with and executed ideas that helped the company--without first obtaining permission from their bosses. Bezos was committed to hiring the best employees，always looking for intelligent and innovative individuals.
Amazon.com: The Early Years
Bezos had paid close attention to the rapid rise of the World Wide Web，noting in l994 that it was growing at an annual rate of 2，300 percent，and therein looked for a pure entrepreneurial outlet. He began his research by making a list of the top 20 mail-order companies，observing that there were no book mail-order companies because a comprhensive catalog would have needed to be thousands of pages long and thus expensive to mail. Bezos decided that an Internet-based company would have the capability to offer a substantially wider selection of printed matter to consumers. Thus，he made a thorough study of the book business，beginning by attending the American Booksellers’ Association’s annual convention.
When Bezos told Shaw，his former boss，that he was leaving to launch an online book business，Shaw advised him to take some time to reconsider his decision in a characteristically creative way.He told Time that he pictured himself at 80 years of age and was certain that he would not regret either missing out on a six-figure Christmas bonus nor having tried to build an online business and failing He stated，“In fact，I’d have been proud of myself for having taken that risk and tried to participate in that thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be such a big deal. And I knew if I didn’t try this，I would regret it. And that would be inescapable”.
Bezos’s parents supported his decision，investing the300，000 they had saved for retirement in their son’s venture (which was later amply rewarded；they became billionaires). Bezos and his wife，McKenzie，moved to Seatte to start the company and persuaded the highly successful programmer Shel Kaphan to be among the first employees hired. Bezos officially founded Amazon.com in l994. In June l995 the first Web site was tested.
