事业 · 创业者自述
安德鲁·卡内基：安德鲁·卡内基自传·补录 166
安德鲁·卡内基《安德鲁·卡内基自传》· Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie · 领导
That visit proved how much success turns upon trifles. We found we were not the lowest bidder. Our chief rival was a bridge-building concern in Chicago to which the board had decided to award the contract. I lingered and talked with some of the directors. They were delightfully ignorant of the merits of cast- and wrought-iron. We had always made the upper cord of the bridge of the latter, while our rivals' was made of cast-iron. This furnished my text. I pictured the result of a steamer striking against the one and against the other. In the case of the wrought-iron cord it would probably only bend; in the case of the cast-iron it would certainly break and down would come the bridge. One of the directors, the well-known Perry Smith, was fortunately able to enforce my argument, by stating to the board that what I said was undoubtedly the case about cast-iron. The other night he had run his buggy in the dark against a lamp-post which was of cast-iron and the lamp-post had broken to pieces. Am I to be censured if I had little difficulty here in recognizing something akin to the hand of Providence, with Perry Smith the manifest agent?
出处：
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17976
定位：Additional excerpt 166 · 核对日期：2026-10-19 · 核验：短摘录
白话
这次访问说明，成败常常取决于小细节。卡内基他们发现自己的报价不是最低的，主要对手是芝加哥一家桥梁公司，董事会已决定把合同给它。卡内基留下来和几位董事聊天，发现他们对铸铁和熟铁的性能差别几乎不懂。他们公司一直用熟铁做桥的上弦杆，对手却用铸铁。他就拿这个说事：想象一艘轮船撞上去，熟铁杆多半只是弯，铸铁杆一定会断，桥就塌了。幸好有位董事佩里·史密斯能帮他证明，说卡内基讲的铸铁性能没错，因为他前几天夜里赶马车撞上一根铸铁灯柱，灯柱就碎了一地。卡内基半开玩笑说，这简直像天意，而史密斯就是天意的代理人。
上下文
卡内基在自传中回忆1868年迪比克桥竞标，靠一个材料细节和偶然的证人扭转了局面。
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你的产品优势，能不能用一个外行一听就懂的生活例子讲清楚？
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