Even the most brilliant and innovative minds have to start somewhere.

“千里之行，始于足下”，即便是智力超群，思维非凡的人，亦是如此。

Although it may be hard to picture high-flying multi-millionaires toiling away in the kitchens of restaurants or trudging the streets as parking attendants, many top entrepreneurs had to earn their spurs as youngsters.

虽难以想象事业有成的千万富翁在餐馆后厨辛勤劳碌或作为泊车员在街道上拖着疲惫身躯，但许多顶尖企业家年少时都曾不辞辛劳以望功成名就。

From Richard Branson to Jeff Bezos, here are the jobs some of the world's most successful businessmen did before they hit the big time.

从查理德•布兰森到杰夫•贝佐斯，世上最成功的企业家们在功成名就之前所从事的工作如下：

Jeff Bezos: McDonald's

杰夫•贝佐斯：麦当劳员工

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos may be planning on sending humans into space next year, but he had his feet very much on the ground when he worked at McDonald's as a youngster.

亚马逊创始人兼首席执行官杰夫•贝佐斯可能计划于明年将人类送入太空，但他在年轻时可是脚踏实地在麦当劳工作过。

Speaking to interviewer Cody Teets, he said: "My first week on the job, a five-gallon, wall-mounted ketchup dispenser got stuck open in the kitchen and dumped a prodigious quantity of ketchup into every hard-to-reach kitchen crevice. Since I was the new guy, they handed me the cleaning solution and said, 'Get going!'

他在接受科迪•蒂茨采访时曾说过：“我工作的第一周，厨房里一个五加仑大的挂壁式番茄酱自取机出现破裂，大量的番茄酱流入厨房那触手难极的缝隙里。由于我是新人，那些老员工就把清洗任务交给我，并催促道：‘快去！’。”

"You can learn responsibility in any job, if you take it seriously. You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald's.

“你若尽心尽力，在任何工作岗位都会学到责任。年少时在麦当劳工作会让你学到很多。”

"It's different from what you learn in school. Don't underestimate the value of that!"

“这与你在校园所学的并不一样。不要低估了它的价值。”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Vacuum cleaner salesman

网飞（Netflix）总裁里德•哈斯廷斯：真空吸尘器销售员

As CEO and co-founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings has come a long way since he sold vacuum cleaners as a door-to-door salesman before attending Bowdoin College in Maine.

网飞公司总裁兼联合创始人里德•哈斯廷斯在前往缅因州鲍登学院就学前，曾是一名挨家挨户推销真空吸尘器的销售员。自那之后，他的事业大有进展。

"I loved it, strange as that might sound,"he said.

他说：“我喜欢那份工作，这听上去可能有些怪异。”

"You get to meet a lot of different people."

“你每天要面对形形色色的人。”

He has gone on to re-shape the way we watch TV, but Netflix may be forced to make more German, French and Estonian shows under new EU quotas.

他将继续重塑我们看电视的方式，但网飞公司可能会因欧盟新配额的要求而被迫上线更多德语、法语和爱沙尼亚语节目。

Michael Dell: Dishwasher

迈克尔•戴尔：洗碗工

Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell, said he was just 12 when he got his first job as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant.

戴尔公司创始人兼首席执行官迈克尔•戴尔说，他的第一份工作是在中餐馆里洗碗，当时年仅12岁。

He was soon promoted to the position of water boy and then assistant maître d'.

他很快就被提升为茶水工继而是领班助理。

"I was moving pretty quickly in the Chinese restaurant business," he said. "And then I got recruited away to a Mexican restaurant. I was still pretty young - 12 or 13 years old."

他说：“我在中餐馆晋升很快。随后被招去了一家墨西哥餐馆。当时我还只有十二三岁，甚是年少。”

Duncan Bannatyne: Ice cream man

邓肯•班纳坦：冰激凌小贩

Dragons' Den supremo Duncan Bannatyne was working at a bakery when he decided to pack it in and buy an ice cream van for ₤450, he told the Telegraph.

《龙穴》（一档商业投资真人秀节目）评委兼投资人邓肯•班纳坦告诉《每日电讯报》记者，当时他正在一家面包坊上班，突然就辞职不干了，花了450英镑买下一辆冰淇淋车。

"Before long I had half-a-dozen vans and a turnover of ￡350,000 a year. I later sold the business for ￡28,000 and started building and running residential care homes."

“不久后，我就拥有了六辆冰淇淋车，一年的营业额可达35万英镑。后来，我以2.8万英镑卖了这一生意并开始修建、经营养老院。”

He has gone on to make his fortune in spas and health clubs, and has written seven books.

随后，他又投身于水疗中心和健身俱乐部，并撰写了7本书。

Vera Wang: Figure skater

王薇薇：花样滑冰运动员

Before she became a world-renowned fashion designer, Vera Wang, left, was a talented figure skater.

在成为享誉全球的时装设计师前，王薇薇（图左）曾是一位颇有天赋的花样滑冰运动员。

Wang competed in the 1968 US Figure Skating Championships but turned to fashion after she failed to make the cut for the US Olympic team.

1968年，她参加了美国花样滑冰锦标赛，但未能成功进入美国奥运队，之后便转而进军时尚圈。

"Skating was a chance for me to express myself in a creative way,"she said.

她说：“滑冰能够让我以一种富有创造性的方式实现自我表达。”

"It was the blend of all worlds - music, dance, athletics, choreography and, of course, costumes."

“它由各元素融合而成，包括音乐、舞蹈、田径运动、编舞艺术，当然，还有服装。”

Michael Bloomberg: Parking attendant

迈克尔•布隆伯格：泊车员

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the Bloomberg financial service, worked as a parking attendant to help pay for his tuition fees while he was a student at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.

前纽约市长、金融机构彭博社创始人迈克尔•布隆伯格在巴尔的摩约翰霍普金大学求学期间，曾为筹集学费而从事停车场泊车员的工作。

According to Forbes, Bloomberg now has a net worth of around ￡30bn. He spent months considering whether to run for US President, but said in March that he would not stand because of fear that his candidacy could make it easier for Donald Trump to secure the Presidency.

《福布斯》杂志称布隆伯格目前净资产高达300亿英镑，他曾为是否竞选美国总统而冥思苦想数月，但在三月表示，他担心自己的参选会让唐纳德•特朗普轻而易举地成为总统，这令他无法忍受。

Sir Alan Sugar: Selling cigarette lighters and aerials

艾伦•修格爵士：卖打火机和天线

Lord Sugar was just 21 when he launched Amstrad, his electronics company.

修格勋爵在创办其电子公司阿姆斯特拉德时年仅21岁。

Operating out of a van, he sold cigarette lighters, aerials, car radios and hi-fi systems.

他曾经营一小摊，销售打火机、天线、汽车收音机以及高保真音响。

A couple of decades later, Amstrad was one of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the country.

数十年后，阿姆斯特拉德已经跻身该国最大消费电子公司之列。

Lord Sugar now has an estimated net worth of ￡1.4bn.

据估计，修格勋爵目前净资产高达14亿英镑。

Marissa Mayer: Supermarket check-out

玛丽莎•梅耶尔：超市收银员

Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Mayer was one of Google's earliest employees and has amassed an estimated fortune of $380m (￡262m), according to Forbes.

据《福布斯》杂志，雅虎首席执行官玛丽莎•梅耶尔曾是谷歌公司最早雇员之一，其资产累计约有3.8亿美元（2.62亿英镑）。

But that wealth must have felt a long way away when she was working behind a till at a supermarket during high school.

这样一笔财富，对于当时埋头于超市收银台工作的高中生而言，真是任重道远。

"I learned a lot about work ethic from people who had been there for 20 years," she told the LA Times.

她对《洛杉矶时报》记者说：“在那里，我从那些工作长达20年的前辈身上学到了关于职业道德的诸多经验。

"They could do 40 items a minute over an eight-hour shift. I was pretty routinely in the 38-to-41 range. I was pretty happy about that. I have a good memory for numbers."

“在当班的八小时中，他们可一分钟刷完40项商品，我通常处在38至41项之间，对此我相当开心，我对数字记忆很敏感。”

Walt Disney: Ambulance driver

华特•迪士尼：救护车司机

In 1918, a 16-year-old Walt Disney tried to join the military but was told he was too young.

1918年，16岁的华特•迪士尼想要入伍参军，却被告知年纪太小。

Instead, he signed up to the Red Cross and was sent to France, where he drew cartoons on the sides of the ambulances he drove.

他转而报名参加红十字会，并被派送前往法国，在那里，他在自己所驾驶的救护车两侧画漫画。

Four years later, he was fired from his job as a newspaper cartoonist for a lack of creativity...

四年后，他因漫画缺乏创造性而被报社辞退。

Mike Ashley: Squash coach

迈克•阿什利：壁球教练

The controversial Sports Direct founder, who tries to keep a low profile despite his very high-profile ownership of Newcastle United football club, was a squash coach in the 1970s after playing at county level himself.

他是备受争议的英国运动服饰公司Sports Direct创始人，尽管拥有夺人耳目的纽卡斯尔足球俱乐部，却仍试图保持低调不露锋芒。二十世纪七十年代，他曾在县级壁球赛事中表现活跃而后退为一名教练。