【推荐1】At five, I started getting ear infections. When I got a third infection, my parents couldn’t afford the treatment. I went deaf in my fight ear and was left with 20 percent hearing in my left at last. My doctors predicted that I would be thoroughly deaf but I’m not.

There was always music on in my house in my childhood. My dad was a DJ, so he played different kinds of music home and abroad. For my 18^th birthday, my dad asked me to deejay at the restaurant he owned. After doing that for a few weeks, I desired to learn more. I e-mailed DJ Shiftee, a distinguished New York City DJ: “ I know you like a challenge. How about teaching a deaf person to deejay?” He wrote back, “Challenge accepted.” He tutored me, helping me develop correct technique. I practiced four hours a day.

Now when I’m performing, muscle memory takes over. When I started, I wouldn’t tell the club managers that I was deaf. I would just shop up, introduce myself, and start playing music. They were always so astonished to hear I was a deaf DJ. Sometimes I would bring doctor’s notes to prove it. It was a comfort that they were giving me opportunities to perform because I was brilliant, not out of sympathy. Eventually people started calling me “ that deaf DJ”, and the name stuck.

What fascinates me most about deejaying is the creativity. I use software that turns the music into lines of color on a computer screen. I’m visually hearing the music. That is, cover your ears, and you’re able to hear the music in a different way. Music is not all about hearing. I play all sorts of get- togethers now. I also go to elementary schools for the deaf and talk to the students about motivation and believing in themselves. I’m big on talking to the parents. I tell them, “ My advice to you is let your kids chase their dreams. I’m a deaf DJ, so why not?”

【推荐1】One day when I was 5, my mother blamed me for not finishing my rice and I got angry. I wanted to play outside and not to be made to finish eating my old rice. When angrily opening the screen door (纱门) with my foot, I kicked back about a 12-inch part of the lower left hand corner of the new screen door. But I had no regret, for I was happy to be playing in the backyard with my toys.

Today, I know if my child had done what I did, I would have blamed my child, and told him about how expensive this new screen door was, and I would have delivered a spanking (打屁股) for it. However, my parents never said a word. They left the corner of the screen door pushed out, creating an opening, in the defense against unwanted insects.

For years, every time I saw that corner of the screen, it would constantly make me think about my mistake. For years, I knew that everyone in my family would see that hole and remember who did it. For years, every time I saw a fly buzzing (嗡嗡) in the kitchen, I would wonder if it came in through the hole that I had created with my angry foot. I would wonder if my family members were thinking the same thing, silently blaming me every time a flying insect entered our home, making life more terrible for us all. My parents taught me a valuable lesson, one that a spanking or stern (严厉的) words perhaps could not deliver. Their silent punishment for what I had done delivered a hundred stern messages to me. Above all, it has helped me become a more patient person and not burst out so easily.

【推荐3】When I was nine years old, I loved to go fishing with my dad. But the only thing that wasn’t very fun about it was that he could catch many fish while I couldn’t catch anything. I usually got pretty upset and kept asking him why. He always answered, “Son, if you want to catch a fish, you have to think like a fish.” I remember being even more upset then because, “I’m not a fish!” I didn’t know how to think like a fish. Besides, I reasoned, how could what I think influence what a fish does?

As I got a little older I began to understand what my dad really meant. So, I read some books on fish. And I even joined the local fishing club and started attending the monthly meetings. I learned that a fish is a cold-blooded animal and therefore is very sensitive to water temperature. That is why fish prefer shallow water to deep water because the former is warmer. Besides, water is usually warmer in direct sunlight than in the shade. Yet, fish don’t have any eyelids (眼皮) and the sun hurts their eyes. The more I understood fish, the more I became effective at finding and catching them.

When I grew up and entered the business world, I remember hearing my first boss say, “We all need to think like sales people.” But it didn’t completely make sense. My dad never once said, “If you want to catch a fish you need to think like a fisherman.” What he said was, “You need to think like a fish.” Years later, with great efforts to promote long-term services to people much older and richer than me, I gradually learned what we all need is to think more like customers. It is not an easy job. I will show you how in the following chapters.