他白手起家，把一家小工厂办成了跨国集团。

[误] He started from white hand, developing a small factory into an international business group.

[正] He started from scratch, developing a small factory into an international business group.

注： “白手”是“从零开始”的意思，而不是“白色的手”。所以，有时候直译是会贻笑大方的。scratch 作名词时曾有“起跑线”之意，所以 start from scratch 才是“白手起家”的正确翻译。