It took my years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start the most elementary things.

我花了好几年来发掘和强化这种确信，从最基础的事情上开始。

youdao

For me it took the form of my first, and I hope only, encounter with writer's block—I was not able to produce anything for three years.

这是我第一次，我希望也是唯一一次，遇到作家瓶颈期——我有三年没写出任何东西。

youdao

It took 10 years before my grandma could make paper art skillfully.

我奶奶花了10年时间才得以熟练地制作纸艺术。

youdao

It took me nearly 20 years to write the book because it took my father 10 years to tell me the stories and teach me the principles of my own immigrant values and historical past, and another 10 years to put them into practice so that I could refine them and design the methodology.

FORBES: Transformational Changes Push Leaders to Embrace The Immigrant Mentality

The result was that it took my wife two years and countless phone calls and letters, to finally have her assets rolled over.

FORBES: 401(k)s: Far More Dangerous Than IRAs (March 2, 2001)

It took three years for my department to find a way to buy in outside data.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne