While I was growing up, I often heard my teachers say, “Oh, Bob is gifted in math.” While watching the Olympics, my parents would say, “These gymnasts are born with such ability.” Statements like these made me believe people were born with certain talents (天赋) and if they didn’t have a particular one at birth, then they never would. Therefore, I hardly applied myself to math. Nobody told me that if you keep trying and trying, one day a difficult task will seem easy.

Actually, I learned this from my young daughter, Samaya. One day, I was finishing some paperwork and I said, “Oh no, how could I have made that mistake!” Samaya immediately said, “Mum, don’t worry. Mistakes make your brain grow bigger.”

In fact, we all need to be reminded that mistakes or failures are just fine and that they are a huge part of growth and success. However, the common and popular belief is the opposite. We must correct this with our children. We must encourage them to make mistakes because that means they are trying out new ideas.

Billionaire Sara Blakely, founder of the shapewear business Spanx, has seen many failures. She made a living by selling fax machines for seven years. Knocking on many doors and making a lot of mistakes was a journey she considers educational. Sara Blakely owes her risk-taking skills to the weekend talk she had with her father.

As a child, her father would ask her the same question every weekend. “What did you fail in this week, Sara?” He did not care how high her scores were. He wanted to know what she had tried but failed in. When she told him about her failures and mistakes, he would give her a high five. In this way, he programmed her mindset (思维) to believe that mistakes and failures are fine.

【小题1】 We need them to be our guides on the twisting, sometimes difficult road we call life to shows just how far we can go, to help us know just how high we can climb.

And we need heroes today more than ever. Our modern society is terribly confused about the difference between a hero and a celebrity (名人). And the difference is significant. A celebrity is all about fame-temporary, superficial fame, usually for qualities that are easy to see: a pretty face, a great dance move. 【小题2】 —qualities beneath the surface that aren’t visible until they prompt action. Qualities like courage, hope, compassion (同情), and perseverance (毅力).

Heroes, real heroes, are all around us. They truly hold our world together, through their unselfish devotion to helping others, supporting families, teaching children, protecting the environment. 【小题3】 They just want to help. In so many ways, these unsung heroes steer the boat in which all of us sail.

Yet, young people hear a lot more about celebrities than about heroes. 【小题4】 The underlying message they get from all this is that their self-worth comes from what they buy-which drink, which shoes, which cell phone-not who they are down inside. Young people’s sense of their own potential for heroic qualities-their own power to make a positive difference in the world is lost.

Truth is, there is a potential hero, a future difference maker, in every young person. Each of them, from whatever background, is a large amount of untapped (未开发的) energy-a positive force who can do something to steer that communal boat that carries us all. 【小题5】