In the early 1980s, one of our neighbors asked my mom if she would make a few gift baskets for her to give as gifts for the holidays. My mom agreed and news of the unique gift baskets my mum was making spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood. My mum was busy throughout the holiday season, so she asked a friend to help her. When the orders continued after the holiday season for baby gifts, birthday gifts and more, it occurred to them that maybe this job could be turned into a business and they did it.

    My mum went into her business because she had a creative idea. She got orders and filled orders. But there was no purpose and no real strategy(策略). In 1991, my mum' s partner got into financial trouble and there was not enough money to support either my mum or her partner.

    So if you are led by your creativity or enthusiasm, make sure you ask yourself what you want out of your business. If you don't set goals, how will you know what direction to go in? Do you want to create jobs and growth in the economy? Are you looking for a hobby? You can't keep scores if you don' t know what game you are playing.

    After my mom's partner gave up, she had to abandon(抛弃) her business to support herself. She swore（发誓）she would run a business again and do it differently the next time. However, there wasn't a "next time" for her. She passed away just after her 51st birthday. She never had someone tell her how important having a goal was. She never had an opportunity to be everything that she could be.

    There are no right or wrong goals, only the ones that matter to you. Set them so that you can make progress and achieve success, whatever that may mean to you.

    An old man went to live with his son, his daughter-in-law, and a four-year-old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was very poor, and he couldn't walk steadily(平稳地). The family ate together nightly at the dinner table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating rather difficult. Rice often dropped on the floor.

    The son and the daughter-in-law became angry with the old man, so they put a small table in the corner. There, the grandfather ate alone, while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner at the table. Since the grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.

    The four-year-old son watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with a piece of wood on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" The boy answered, "Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and mama to eat your food from when I grow up." The four-year-old son smiled and went back to work. The words struck the parents so that they were in silence. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks(脸颊). Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table.

    There is little rain in desert. Because deserts are so dry, they have no “quilt” to help stop the soil from going away. As a result, they may get very hot during the day with the sun shining, but don't hold the heat overnight. Many deserts can quickly get cold once the sun goes down. Some deserts can reach temperatures of over 100 degrees F during the day and then drop below freezing (32 degrees F) during the night.

    The largest hot and dry desert in the world is the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa. The Sahara is a sandy desert with great sand hills. It covers over 3 million square miles of Africa. Other large deserts include the Arabian Desert in the Middle East, the Gobi Desert in Northern China and Mongolia, and Kalahari Desert in Africa.

    Animals that live in the desert are also used to needing little water. Many get all the water they need from the food they eat. Other animals keep water that they can use later. The camel stores up fat in its hump while other animals keep something they need in their tails.

    Only certain types of plants can live in the terrible environment of the desert. You won't see a lot of tall trees in the desert. Most plants have a way to keep water in their leaves, or trunks so they can live a long time without water.

    Now deserts cover around 20% of the world's land, but they are growing. This is called desertification and is caused by different reasons including human activities. The Sahara Desert is growing larger and larger each year. What should we do with it?

    About 5,000 children die each day due to preventable diseases such as cholera and dysentery (痢疾) , which spread when people use unclean water for drinking or cooking. A lack of water for personal health leads to the spread of totally preventable diseases like trachoma, which has blinded some six million people.

    Water troubles also trap many low-income families in a cycle of poverty and poor education and the poorest suffer most from lack of access to water. People who spend much of their time on ill health, caring for sick children, or collecting water at distances averaging 3.75 miles a day don't have educational and economic opportunities to better their lives.

    Agriculture is called the lion's share of freshwater worldwide, using some 70 percent, and industrial uses consume another 22 percent. Water areas have no political borders and nations don't always work together to share common resources, so water can be a frequent source of international conflict as well.

    Day-by-day demand keeps growing, further needing water sources, from great rivers to groundwater. “We're going deeper into debt on our groundwater use,” Postel said, “and that has very significant impacts on global water security. The rate of groundwater consumption has doubled since 1960.”

    Some of Earth's groundwater is fossil water created when Earth's climate was far different. Today such water is as limited as petrol. “But we're pumping much of them out faster than ever,” Postel explained. “Humanity's growing thirst also causes a major problem about water and our ecosystems. And that also creates a cost to us, to our sons and to our grandsons, not just to nature.”

    In ancient Egypt, a shopkeeper discovered that he could attract customers to his shop simply by making changes to its environment. Modern businesses have been following his lead, with more tactics(策略).

    One tactic involves where to display the goods. For example, stores place fruits and vegetables in the first section. They know that customers who buy the healthy food first will feel happy so that they will buy more junk food later in their trip. In department stores, the women's shoe section is generally next to the women's makeup section: while the shop assistant is going back to find the right size shoe, bored customers are likely to wander over and find some cosmetics they might want to try later.

    Besides, businesses seek to appeal to customers' senses. Stores notice that the smell of baked goods encourages shopping, so they make their own bread each morning and then fan the bread smell into the store throughout the day. Music sells goods, too. Researchers in Britain found that when French music was played, sales of French wines went up.

    When it comes to the selling of houses, businesses also use highly rewarding tactics. They find that customers make decisions in the first few seconds upon walking in the door, and turn it into a business opportunity. A California builder designed the structure of its houses smartly. When entering the house, the customer would see the Pacific Ocean through the windows, and then the pool through an open stairway leading to the lower level. The instant view of water on both levels helped sell these $10 million houses.

    Did you know that Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old, and did not read until he was seven? His parents and teachers worried about his rnental ability.

    Beethoven's music teacher said about him，"As a composer（作曲家）he is hopeless." What if this young boy believed it?

    When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid that he could never learn anything. He once said, I remember I used to never be able to get along at school. I was always at the foot of my class…My father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided that l was a stupid person. "What if young Thomas believed what may said about him?

    When the sculptor(雕刻家)Auguste Rodin was young; he had difficulty learning to read and write. Today, we may say he had a learning disability. His father said of him, "I have an idiot(白痴) for a son." His uncle agreed. "He's uneducable," he said. What if Rodin had doubted his ability?

    Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have no "good ideas". Enrico Caruso was told by one music teacher, "you can't sing. You have no voice at all." And an editor told Louisa May Alcott that she was unable to write anything that would have popular appeal.

    What if these people had listened and become discouraged? Where would our world be without the music of Beethoven, the art of Rodin or the ideas of Albert Einstein and Walt Disney? As Oscar Levant once said, "It's not what you are but what you don't become that hurts."

    You have great potential. When you believe in all you can be, rather than all you cannot become, you will find your place on earth.