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... Contemplating hard on your theme for this year, -- “EVERY LITLLE STEP COUNTS… ONWARD TO SUCCESS” -- lead me to one virtue, which caused many great men and women to create wonders and difference. It’s the virtue of PERSISTENCE. This human trait, natural or developed, could very well spell success for anybody of us here, especially for us, young people, who are the future of our motherland. Let me cite examples. A stonecutter kept pounding at a rock with his hammer, without cracking it. At the 100th blow the rock split into two. What blow split the rock? Not the 100th blow alone, but each and every pounding before it. Another anecdote, Thomas Edison, science enthusiasts probably know this guy as the most prolific inventor of all time, who invented the phonograph which is the predecessor of today’s recording tapes and CDs, and also the telephone and electric lighting. Did you know that he went through 50,000 experiments before he finally came up with a new storage battery. Now, were the 49,999 experiments a waste of time? Definitely NO, because as Edison said, now he knew 49,999 things that wouldn’t work. That’s persistence, my friends. Man’s quest for perfection. Why am I emphasizing this? Because there is no magic formula for success. Self-made men, and women, have one thing in common: they regard problems as opportunities. The problem is that, opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t...