Tony Wheeler was born to travel. His father worked for an airline. For the first 16 years of his life,Wheeler and his family lived in many different countries.

    In the early 1970s,Tony met a young woman named Maureen. They soon married. Before getting jobs, Tony and Maureen wanted to travel. They took a year long trip from England, through Asia, to Australia. On the trip,they visited places like Iran(伊朗),India,and so on.

    When Tony and Maureen arrived in Australia, people asked many questions about their trip. To answer these questions, Wheeler wrote a book called Across Asia on the Cheap. The book told people about different countries' weather, customs (风俗), and places to see. But unlike other travel books then,Tony Wheeler's book also talked about places most tourists did not go. He also wrote about unusual things to see and do. The book was very popular.

     Tony and Maureen started a company called Lonely Planet. They continued travelling. They wrote books for each place they visited. Today,800 people work {or Lonely Planet. The company has over 650 books. Tony Wheeler,the great traveller, still writes about travels to many places and will bring us more surprises.

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    Ricardo Semler became the boss of his father's company in Brazil at the age of 21. The name of the company is Semco. It sold parts for ships. Semler worked like a mad man, from 7:30 in the morning to midnight every day. One afternoon, while he was visiting a factory in New York, he fell down. The doctor said, “ There's nothing wrong with you. But if you continue like this, you'll find a new home in our hospital.” Semler got the message. He changed the way he worked. In fact, he changed the ways his workers worked, too.

    At the same time, Semler changed the office. Instead of walls, they have plants at Semco, so the boss can't shut himself away from everyone else. And the workers are free to decorate their workplace as they want. As for uniforms, some people wear suits and others wear T-shirts.

    Semco has flexible working hours: the workers can decide when they need to arrive at work. Also, Semco lets its workers use the company's machines for their own projects, and makes them take holidays for at least thirty days a year.

    It sounds perfect, but does it work? The answer is in the numbers: in the last six years, Semco's revenues (收益) have gone from $35 million to $212 million. The company has grown from 800 workers to 3,000. Why?

    Semler says it's because of “peer pressure” (同辈压力). Peer pressure makes workers work hard. It means if someone isn't doing his job well, the other workers will not allow the situation to continue. In other words, Semler treat his workers like adults rather than children, and expects them to act like responsible (负责任的) adults. And they do.

    A young woman traveled and stayed in a hotel. All the rooms in the hotel were singles(单人间). So she lived in a single room.

    Just when she was going to bed, there was a knock at the door. She had no friends in the city. So she was quite surprised but still opened the door.

    The man who was standing at the door looked a little nervous. "Oh! I'm sorry. I thought this was my room," the man said and walked away in a hurry.

    The woman called the police at once. Soon, the man was caught. He was a thief(小偷)! But how did the woman know that?

    All the rooms in the hotel were singles. Who would knock at his own door if he was staying alone? Only a thief would do this. He wanted to see if anyone was inside before he broke into the room.

    One day I got in a taxi, and we left for the airport. We were driving in the right lane(车道)when, suddenly, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver stopped his car at once. The tire(轮胎)made a very loud noise, and at the very last moment our car stopped just one inch from the back of the other car.

    I was frightened. But then I couldn't believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, turned his head and started yelling at us. I couldn't believe it！But my taxi driver just smiled at the guy. So I asked, "Why did you just do that？This guy almost sent us to hospital."

    This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call“The Law of the Rubbish Truck(垃圾车法则)".He explained that many people are like rubbish trucks. They run around full of rubbish, full of anger and full of bad feelings. As their rubbish piles up, they look for a place to throw it away and sometimes they'll throw it at you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their rubbish and spread it to other people at work, at home or in the streets.

    Successful people never let rubbish trucks change their moods. Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so love those who love you and pray(祈祷)for those who don't.