【推荐2】When I was thirteen years old, I became very interested in shopping. After a while being just a buyer, I wanted to sell something. I had many things around the house from my childhood that I no longer needed. I knew, with the help of my father, I could make money. So far months and months I enjoyed myself by selling things on my dad’s account (账户).

On December 9, 2020, I opened my own account and began to start my own business. Things were going great and then I realized that selling things around house wasn’t making me the kind of money that I wanted to make, so I decided to turn my business into a resale shop. I went around to the garage sale (旧货出售处) and bought items at low prices and sold them at higher prices.

Last November, I went to a garage sale that was a little bit different. A single lady had many nice items that I knew I would sell quickly. I went up to her and started a conversation with her. Through the conversation, I knew she was jobless at the moment and needed money to support her family. I decided to sell any of her things for her to help her out. She looked at me for a moment and then broke into tears. I took away some of her things and over the next month I made over $1,500 for her! She was so thankful for all of my help.

I have never felt so happy to help someone in my life. I felt as if I had made a difference in this world and that my skills could be used to help someone who would really need it.

Cashmere Nicole was a struggling single mother, juggling (兼顾) her nine-to-five job and family life and battling breast cancer when she started her side business, Beauty Bakerie, a beauty brand. Started in her kitchen, the brand is currently sold in over 100 countries worldwide. “You can only find the things you truly love by exploring, by trying things,” says Nicole when interviewed about her achievement. “If we aren’t trying, we aren’t giving ourselves the best shot at finding the one thing that we’ll enjoy doing.”

Gerard Adams founded Fownders, a digital and in-classroom learning platform for entrepreneurs (企业家). Adams thanks his mentor (顾问), Tony Robbins, for much of his success. “Find a good mentor and get started,” he says. “We wouldn’t be anywhere as far as we are today without good mentorship.” Through Fownders, Adams provides mentorship to entrepreneurs.

Tamar Lucien had just $250 left to her name when she started MentalHappy. Inspired by her own struggles with anxiety, she wanted to create a business and movement that helps people overcome their own sadness and anxiety, which is done through MentalHappy’s signature “Cheerbox” filled with happiness tools.

Gray graduated from college and decided to help others find scholarship money, which is why he founded Scholly, a mobile and web app that finds students scholarship money for college and graduate school. Gray knows it takes a ton of hard work to be a successful entrepreneur. “There are no shortcuts (捷径) to success,” he says.

【推荐3】João Carlos Martins, the 80-year-old Brazilian classical pianist, had lost the ability to play for almost 20 years due to a series of unfortunate events in his life. But everything changed thanks to a pair of special bionic (仿生的) gloves.

He is one of the best pianists alive today. He had already won a contest playing Bach when he was only 8 years old. Then at the peak of his skills, he could play 21 notes per second. However, luck wasn’t always on his side. At 24 years old, he suffered an accident that caused nerve damage to his arm, atrophying (使萎缩) three of his fingers. Then when he was 55, an accidental brain injury completely paralyzed (使瘫痪) his arm.

João went through 24 surgeries, but nothing could help his hands, forcing him to stop playing the piano, seemingly for good.

However, João didn’t give up on his musical career. He became a conductor in 2003. He couldn’t turn the pages in the score, so instead, he just tried his best to memorize every score, note by note. He still played the piano sometimes, but extremely slow, since he could play only one note per second.

That might have been his life, were it not for an engineer who saw the pianist playing live and decided to work out something to help him. After a concert, he approached João with the first pair of special bionic gloves. Yet, they didn’t work. When the engineer first showed João the gloves, he joked that they were for boxing, not to play the piano.

But neither of them gave up, and after testing out several models, the perfect match was created. The gloves provide the necessary support for each finger and can even “tune” to what he plays.

João knows that he might never recover his speed of the past. But he’s starting over, as though he were an 8-year-old again. João says, it can take years, but he will keep pushing. He won’t give up.