Mary Kay is a well-known American businesswoman. Her company, Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc, is a   very successful through hard work and she has a strong belief in herself.

Mary Kay was born in America. Soon after she started school, her father became ill. Her mother worked 14 hours a day in a restaurant to support the family. Mary Kay had to do housework, cook, and take care of her father.

After high school, her family couldn’t afford to send her to college. So she got married and started a family. Then she started her sales career. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited people’s homes to sell home care products. Mary Kay was successful selling those products. Her managers praised her work but never raised her pay. It taught her that men didn’t believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong.

In 1963, Mary Kay started her own company. It sold many skin care and beauty products. Today the company has sales of more than 1,000 million dollars and employs more than 800,000 sales representatives（销售代表）in 37 countries around the world and most of them are women.

Mary Kay shared with her employees her life motto（座右铭）—Belief first; Family second; Career third. Every year, she held an “Awards Night” and awarded a pink Cadillac car, diamond jewelries and 5-star vacations to successful employees. She praised them, not just money. The company wants women to feel good about themselves.

Mary Kay died in 2001. She was a tough businesswoman with a great knowledge of marketing and sales. Through her belief in women’s abilities and her willingness to give them a chance, she made the dream of a successful career come true for hundreds of thousands of women all over the world.

【推荐3】Zeng zi was one of Confucius’ (孔子) students. One day, Zeng zi’s wife wanted to go to a market and decided to leave their son alone at home. The boy kept crying without stop. Mother had to bend（弯曲）down and comfort him by saying, “My darling, I’ll kill the pig to make a nice meal for you if you do well at home.”

When the son heard this, he went home happily. Hours later, the wife returned home from the market and forgot all about her promise. But Zeng zi tied up their fat pig, took out a shining sharp knife and prepared to kill it. The wife held Zeng zi quickly by the hand and said, “Stop! What are you doing? I was only trying to make our boy happy.”

Zeng Zi said seriously, “How can you cheat a child? Although he is too young, he will do what you have done. Even worse, he will follow your example and cheat others. And it’s a promise that our son will no longer trust his mother.”

The wife kept silent for a while. Zeng Zi finally killed the fat pig.

【推荐2】Bobby Buns was a very amusing and lively young man. He had his own cafe. During a visit to his parents' village, he discovered a special young cow. Instead of producing milk, this cow produced milk coffee.

Bobby thought that the cow could help him make money, so he took it straight to the city. When he arrived home, Bobby's wife told him that he should organize the cafe to make room for the cow first. But Bobby didn't listen to his wife's advice. He was so excited and impatient that he took the cow straight to the cafe.

The cow was very popular. It appeared in newspaper and on TV. Customers came from far and wide to taste the delicious fresh milk coffee.

However, here came the trouble. Every day the cow broke 20 to 30 cups simply by swishing its tail. Moreover, the cafe smelt bad and the grass the cow ate spread all the place.

Before long, the cafe began to lose customers. What's more, someone came to do an inspection. They put a heavy fine on Bobby that he almost had to close his cafe. Then Bobby realized that he had to be more patient and organized. He should wait until everything was ready serving his freshly milked milk coffee.

After learning from his failure, Bobby recognized his cafe and took the cow back to the village. There he discovered that one of the new hens laid chocolate eggs. This time he knew he had to be patient and wait until everything was ready.

In order to make his cafe into a successful business, he made a development plan for his cafe. After all this was ready, his cafe became the most successful in the whole city. People liked spending time in Bobby's cafe, enjoying the milk coffee and chocolate eggs.