I always preferred to take on more than I should when I was a young man. At times, it was to prove to myself that I could _______it. At other times, it was to please someone and gain ______for my efforts. This sometimes led to     ______or frustration.

When I was an IT manager after college graduation I was_______to work with a wealth customer and be a go-between(中间人)for my company. I took on the assignment _______, thinking that this might be my time to shine.______ , the customer’s demands proved to be more than I could do with. And the company chose to________the customer and try to meet his unreasonable requirements rather than stick to what we had_______offered in the contract. As you can imagine, this led to a lot of unexpected ______ and arguing with some of the staff who________to do anything outside their scope(范围)of work. I remember walking into my office one morning, opening my laptop and _______the blank screen for long, thinking to myself: What should I do? That was a(n) _____time in my life and then I finally had to give up my first job and   _____that company sadly.

Perhaps, I thought then, I could find the______that didn’t involve dealing with difficult people and difficult situations. But later I realized: Is this_______in our modern world? No, it is impossible. Now, I know, I shouldn’t run away from the _____I faced in life: I had to learn how to deal with them. I _____ not persevering(坚持)in my job. We should train ourselves to look at things from a ______point of view, because that is far better than being     ______in the bad circle depression. I’ve come to ______that when faced with difficulties, I should not give up, but persevere.

Jenna had graduated from her junior school. She was ready for new _______ in high school and filled with confidence. However, she didn’t _______ that high school life was quite different. In the first week, Jenna went to tryouts (选拔赛) for cheerleaders. She was competing against very talented girls, and she knew it would be _______ for her to be chosen. Two hours later, the _______ read a list of the girls for a second tryout. Her heart _______ as the list ended without her name. Feeling _______, she walked back to her dormitory carrying her schoolbag full of homework.

Arriving at the dormitory, she started with _______. She had always been a good math student, but now she was struggling. She moved on to English and history, and was _______ to find that she didn’t have any trouble with those _______.

Later in math class, Jenna devoted herself to working out the problems that had given her so much ________. By the end of the class, she ________ how to get them right. As she gathered her books, Jenna decided she’d ________ to try to fit in with her new school. She wasn’t sure if she’d ________, but she knew she had to try. High school was just as her mom had said, “You will feel like a ________ fish in a big pond instead of a big fish in a small pond. The challenge is to become the ________ fish you can be.”

What is a true winner? We may be very ________ Honda.

In 1938, Soichiro Honda was still in school, when he started a little workshop. His ________ was to sell piston rings to Toyota. He ________ night and day, believing he could ________ his design and produce a worthy ________. Then came the day he took a sample (样本) to Toyota, only to be ________ that the rings did not ________ their standards!

However, he refused to give up. Rather than focus on his ________ he continued working towards his goal. After two more years of ________, he won a contract (合同) with Toyota. By then, Soichiro Honda needed to build a factory to supply Toyota, but building materials were in short supply.

Again he would not quit! He invented a ________ process that enabled him to build the factory. But ________ an earthquake destroyed the factory. Was he ________ to give up now? No! Soichiro Honda wrote to 18,000 bicycle shop owners and asked them to help him, 5,000 responded and ________ him some money. Finally, the company got great ________.

Honda succeeded because one man made a truly committed decision, ________ it and made adjustments on a continuous basis.