名人激励录：转变人生点

文/方儒

一

在纽约市，莉姿·茉芮的生活充满了挑战。她的双亲沉溺于毒品，她从13岁起就必须自力更生。她在学校里因为衣着邋遢和头上的虱子而遭到同学的嘲笑。15岁时，她流落街头，白天找食物，晚上搭乘地铁睡觉。但她没有放弃。她决定重新学习，并且每天在地铁站写作业，一丝光线成了她的学习依托。在两年的努力下，她完成了高中课程，每门科目成绩都达到了A以上。

17岁时，莉姿的故事感动了《纽约时报》的评委，他们授予她一万美元的奖学金。这为她开启了通往哈佛大学的大门。后来，她还获得了楷模典范奖和无所畏惧奖，这些荣誉让这个曾经8岁就在街角乞讨的小女孩泪水涟涟。

现在，莉姿创办了一家公司“活出生命”，鼓励人们追求自己的梦想。她也成为了一名世界性的演讲者，用“革自己命”、“创造人生拐点”的理念去影响他人。

二

与莉姿相反的是苹果创始人的乔布斯。他选择休学，与其他学生不同，他不知道未来要做什么，也不明白大学能带来什么帮助。“当时这个决定看起来很可怕，但现在看来，那是我最好的决定之一。”乔布斯曾说。他相信船到桥头自然直，不用上无聊课20岁时，他与史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克在家中车库开始苹果事业十年内，他们成就了一家员工4000多、市值20亿美元科技巨头，如今苹果是全球最大市值公司。如果没有那次简单的决定，我们今天可能不会拥有iPod、iPhone或iPad。

三

中国市场同样充满机会。如果刘永好 hadn't chosen to leave his teaching job, he might still be a school teacher. If Li Yanhong hadn’t returned to China, he might still be an engineer in Silicon Valley. If Wang Zhongjun hadn’t chased his dream of filmmaking, he might still be a photographer.

In 2005, Amazon China CEO Wang Hanhua switched from Motorola to e-commerce when even his wife opposed it. He believed that the industry would succeed eventually; it was just a matter of time. In 2008, Renault’s China boss Chen Guochang chose to move from America to Beijing and transformed the struggling business into success.

Axel Dumas, the operations director at Hermès and sixth-generation family member, had never thought about entering the fashion world despite being familiar with luxury goods for years. Now under his leadership, Hermès is thriving and he is seen as a potential future CEO.

These stories show that making choices can lead to dramatic changes in life. You have the power to make decisions that shape your destiny rather than being controlled by others’ expectations or circumstances. Find what you believe in and keep searching until you find it – this is how you create your own turning points in life.