Beyond oneself, create oneself, affirm oneself

Author: Liu Yong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: This well-intentioned father watched his son's actions, kept them in mind, and wrote them down, communicating love in a way that his child could accept. This collection of letters helped his son not only step by step into the renowned St. Vincent's School and Juilliard in the United States but also into Harvard. For fifteen years since its publication, this book has become the most famous and best-selling motivational work in the Chinese-speaking world, accompanying the growth of millions of children. It is a best-selling motivational book in the Chinese world and a classic work by the renowned writer, Liu Yong. Among his entire body of work, it is the most popular and influential. For fifteen years, it has moved millions of people with its millions of copies, urging millions of young people: Stand up where you fall! You must succeed because you cannot fail!
Dear parents who hope their children will excel, please give this book to your children; dear ambitious young people, please give this book to your parents. Only with full understanding and communication between family members can everyone taste the most primal, sincere, and pure love that flows in our veins...
In life, the greatest enemy is not always external but may be ourselves! We struggle to seize opportunities because of hesitation and procrastination; we easily become complacent with our current situation because we lack higher ideals; we dare not face the future because we lack confidence; we fail to break through because we are unwilling to push beyond our limits; we cannot unleash our potential because we cannot surpass ourselves! In fact, everyone has experience in surpassing themselves. In early childhood, no one forces us to learn to walk, yet we try to stand on our own, falling again and again, getting up again and again, taking steps until we move from crawling to walking. Then, we are not satisfied with walking and learn to run. The question is, why, after we can run, jump, speak, and write, do we lose the original drive to continuously surpass ourselves? Because it is designed by heaven to give us the ability to survive, we rarely think of continuing to surpass our limits. And that is how we quietly become "ordinary people." Only a few will say, "I don’t want to be ordinary; I want to surpass! I want to surpass the limited self I appear to be." In this frustration and effort of not believing they can’t do it, they elevate themselves. And with continuous elevation and surpassing, they create even greater achievements for human history!
There is nothing extraordinary in this book, but it is filled with a father’s earnest advice, taught through letters to his child on the cusp of adulthood, on how to overcome his own laziness and childhood dependency. In the competitive and diverse New York City and the star-studded schools, he learns to survive, protect himself, and seek further breakthroughs. The problems faced by the young people in this book are not unique to the students of St. Vincent’s High School in New York; in fact, they may include you too! Use this book as a spark of inspiration, and in the blazing fire, turn you from iron into steel!