一夜暴富的典范:来源于橡皮筋游戏灵感的少儿编织机

He spent six months refining the design. (The kit that's in shops today is the 28th iteration.) Then he set about finding suppliers in Southern China, getting their first shipment in June 2011. By then, the rubber bands had already arrived. He remembers standing with his wife, staring fearfully at the giant crate in their garage: it weighed 2, 000 pounds, as much as a small car.
他花了六个月时间改进设计。（目前店铺内销售的是第28代。）然后他开始在中国南方省份寻找供应商，并于2011年6月拿到了第一批货。当时，橡皮筋早已到货。他还记得当时与妻子站在车库里，忐忑不安地看着那个巨大的板条箱：箱子有2,000磅重，相当于一辆小汽车的重量。

Sales were glacially slow at first. He went to trade shows and children's camps to show off the plastic loom. When Ng went to pitch store managers in person, he was often asked to leave.
最初的销售非常缓慢。他去参加贸易展和儿童夏令营，推销自己的塑料编织机。那时，吴昌俊亲自去商店推销，但却经常被店铺经理轰走。

That changed after a single store in The Learning Express Toys chain picked up Ng's invention in July 2012. The shop, in Alpharetta, Georgia, offered bracelet-making classes to show off what could be done with the inexpensive loom. "Suddenly, they were calling us, saying they sold out 24 products in one week, " says Ng. "Then they sold out 96 pieces within a week." Then, when kids started taking their kits to school, good old network effects kicked in.
2012年7月，他终于迎来了转折点。当时The Learning Express Toys连锁店的一家店铺看中了吴昌俊的发明。这家位于乔治亚州阿尔勒特的店铺专门推出了手链编织课，介绍这款廉价织机的功能。吴昌俊说：“突然，他们给我打电话说，一周卖了24件。后来，一周卖了96件。”接下来，孩子们开始带着织机来到学校，于是网络效应开始发挥作用。

By October, Ng realized that something big was happening. In the run up to Christmas, demand soared. "Lots of orders were coming and we were trying to get help left right and center," says Ng, who was still assembling the kits at home with the help of his family.
到了十月份，吴昌俊预感到即将有大事发生。随着圣诞节的来临，产品需求激增。吴昌俊说：“大批订单蜂拥而至，我们只能尽力找人帮忙。”说话的时候，他正在家人的帮助下，忙着组装产品。

He'd taken a three-month sabbatical from Nissan, but by then it was clear he was never going back.
他从日产公司请了三个月的假，但很明显，他已经不可能回去了。

Newfound wealth hasn't stopped him from working around the clock, he says, a bit ruefully. "My daughters sometime miss the old days when I spent lots of time with them." Ng still drives his 12-year-old SUV and his wife regularly clips coupons. All of their profits, meanwhile, get reinvested into the business as the family searches for the next killer rubber-band app.
他有点伤心地表示，新得到的财富并没有改变他日以继夜工作的状态。“我的女儿们有时候会怀念以前的日子，那时候我有很多时间陪她们。”吴昌俊仍开着那辆陪了他12年的SUV，他的太太依然使用优惠券。他们的所有利润都投入到公司当中，全家正在寻找下一个杀手级的橡皮筋产品。

Maybe maps, Ng says. Again, it was his daughter Teresa who showed him the way—after making a colorful elastic map of the island nation of Haiti.
或许是地图，吴昌俊说道。这一次还是特蕾莎给了他灵感——特蕾莎用五颜六色的橡皮筋做了一幅岛国海地的地图。

Hey, it might work. Map-making, after all, is an even older craft than weaving.
这或许真的可行。毕竟，制作地图是比编织更古老的一门手艺。