Deisha walked up and down as she waited backstage. This would be her most important piano performance yet. At ten years old, she was the youngest performer in the recital (音乐演奏会). She had practiced playing her song more than 30 times that week. When she closed her eyes at night, the music played over and over again in her head.

    Now that the day had arrived, Deisha was not sure she was ready. She smoothed her hair and picked a piece of lint (绒毛) from the new dress that her mother had bought for her. She noticed that her hands were shaking. How could she play the notes of the song if her hands were shaking? She tried to concentrate on steadying (稳住) them, but they only shook more.

   Deisha's piano teacher, Ms Neal, walked up to speak to her. “I have something for you,” she said, putting a smooth black stone into Deisha's hand. “It's a special stone. There's no other one like it in the world. You've practiced so much, you don't need anything else.”

   The stage lights reflected off the rock. “Thank you,” Deisha said.

   When Deisha's name was called, she rubbed the stone, stepped onto the stage, and played better than ever. After her performance, she noticed that Ms Neal had a whole bag of black stones. “Why did you say this one was so special?” she asked.

   Her teacher responded, “Because, like your talent, it belongs only to you.”

    A young woman turns around and around quickly, and jumps high. In the background, a young girl reads a rejection (拒绝) letter from a ballet school. You have the wrong body for ballet, 'it says,' and at thirteen, you are too old. This was one of the most popular advertisements (广告) of 2014 and it describes American ballet Theatre's principal (主要的) dancer Misty Copeland.

    This was not a real letter. But Copeland says it is very similar to letters from her childhood. While many dancers start at the age of three. Copeland only began to study ballet in 1995 as a thirteen-year-old. People often told her that she was too old, or that she didn't have the perfect body type (She is only 157 cm tall). Her family moved a lot, and it was sometimes difficult for her to attend ballet classes. But Copeland loved dancing and did not want to give up. She stayed with her ballet teacher during the week and spent time with her family only at the weekend. This was a difficult life, but she worked hard and won her first national competition when she was fourteen years old. Copeland joined the American Ballet Theatre in 2000 and performed in many ballets over the next few years. In 2007, she became a solo (单独的) performer, and in 2015 she became its principal dancer.

    Copeland is now a dancer, author and Broadway performer. She also stars in the 2015 film A Ballerina's Tale. So what's next? According to Copeland, anything is possible: "My career (职业) really is just now beginning.'

    I did not have a rich father. I tried 3 times for university, but all failed. I applied(申请)for Harvard for 10 times, but all failed. They didn't even want to see me. For the last time, I went to the teachers' college which was regarded as the third class of my city. I applied jobs for 30 times.

    A lot of people said Alibaba was a terrible model. As I said, "I believe it. I think this thing could be big. I never thought it would be so big like today. "I believe that something, something is waiting for me there, and I have to work hard to prove myself. That was the tough experience. So we gathered 50 thousand US dollars from 18 founders. Little by little, we built up our business. And now, after 16 years, we have a Alibaba group; We have a T-mall group; We have a Taobao group; We have Alipay.

    “You are so smart, how could you make a company like that? People asked. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, the Jack Welch, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, the difference between those people and other people, they are always optimistic(乐观的)for the future. They never complain. They always try to solve the problems of the others. When you are optimistic, it's always an opportunity (机会).“Jack, Where's the opportunity? I don't have a job. I don't have this. I don't have that.” We are at the best of time of this century. The best asset(财产)you have is that you are young. Don't complain. Let the other people complain. The opportunity lies, always lies where people complain. I saw a lot of people, especially young people have fantastic ideas every evening. But the next morning, they go to the office on time again.

    Tomorrow is new. Make the move. Make action. Whether investors(投资者)believe this or not, whether your friends believe it or not, whether your parents believe it or not, that's not important. You believe it. Your team believe it and work day and night on this. Everything happens. Make enough mistakes. You fall, and you stand up. Any mistake is an income and a wonderful revenue(收益). Don't worry about the money. Money follows the people. Young people should follow the dreams. If you have a dream, just to go ahead.

    A 16-year-old Australian girl drove her bright pink ship out of Sydney Harbor on Sunday to begin her beautiful travel. She wanted to become the youngest person to sail solo（单人）around the world.

    After saying goodbye to her parents beside the sea, Jessica sailed her 10-meter ship out of Sydney harbor, smiling to well-wishers.

    Her plan is to make a 38-thousand-kilometer journey. Although people are not sure someone so young could make it, the girl and her parents insisted she was an experienced and good sailor.

    On the eve of her traveling, she said she was fully prepared.

    Jessica said, "I suppose it's a big, scary（恐怖的）, and possibly risky（冒险的）thing to do, but yes, there's plenty of different risks, but it can't beat me." Jessica's trip is to last about eight months.

    In August, a 17-year-old British boy, Mike, wanted to be the youngest solo round-the-world sailor. He made a 45-thousand-kilometer trip in nine months.

    James Cleveland Owens was the son of a farmer and the grandson of black slaves. His family moved to Cleveland when he was 9. There, a school teacher asked the youth his name. "J.C., "he replied.

    She thought he had said "Jesse", and he had a new name.

    Owens ran his first race at age 13. After high school, he went to Ohio State University. He had to work part time so as to pay for his education. As a second-year student in the Big Ten games in 1935, he set even more records than he would in the Olympic Games a year later.

    A week before the Big Ten meet, Owens accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. His back hurt so much that he could not exercise all week, and he had to be helped in and out of the car that drove him to the meet. He refused to listen to the suggestions that he give up and said he would try, event by event. He did try, and the results are in the record book.

    The stage was set for Owens victory at the Olympic Games in Berlin the next year, and his success would come to be regarded as not only athletic but also political. Hitler did not congratulate any of the African-American winners.

    "It was all right with me," he said years later. "I didn't go to Berlin to shake hands with him, anyway."
    Having returned from Berlin, he received no telephone calls from the president of his own country, either. In fact, he was not honored by the United States until 1976, four years before his death.

Owens' Olympic victories made little difference to him. He earned his living by looking after a school playground, and accepted money to race against cars, trucks, motorcycles and dogs.

    "Sure, it bothered me," he said later." But at least it was an honest living. I had to eat."

    In time, however, his gold medals changed his life. "They have kept me alive over the years," he once said. "Time has stood still for me. That golden moment dies hard."