Passage 2
My mother has been dead for 31 years.I am now one year older than she was when she passed away at 61.My mother married at what was then the ripe old age of 28 and went on to have 10 pregnancies and eight children in 12 years.I am her first borm and my mother was always my champion and full-time cheerleader.
Back in the 1970s I interrupted my college career in order to go looking for the life worth living.One day I was racing from Washington,D.C te Cleveland,Ohio on the Pennsylvania Tumpike when I saw the exit for Pittsburgh.Impulsively I pulled off and took a 50-mile detour (绕道)just to surprist her.When I burst unannounced through the front door she was watching TV and I will never forget the look of ineffable(不可言喻的)delight on her face as she raced into my arms.
I was on a very tight schedule and a few minutes later I was climbing into my van.Suddenly I heard my mother “Augie!"at the top of her lungs.She was stangding ay the top of the grassy hill overlooking the street outside our front door.I rolled down the window just in time to hear her shout,"You are terrific!"
One thing all great leaders share is that ineffable quality that psychologists call “achievement motiyation”Great leaders don’t achieve as a mean to something else like money.They achievement because of the pure delight they get from accomplishment.So where dose achievement motivation come from?Most pcople cite education,but I read several studies years ago that undermine that assumption.It is not education that produces achievers,but achievers who seck out and value education.
Parents deserve far more credit for turning out achievers than education does.My mother bore and raised eight children (her first seven were boys!)on a shoe string,but she never stopped reading voraciously(贪婪地)and she passed her curiosity and love of learning on to me and all her children.Despite long and exhausting days of washing,ironing and cooking for a family of 10,I still vividly remember her trading her chance to finally enjoy cup of coffee and read the newspaper so that she could drill English and later Latin graminar Into my head well into the evening.And when I came home complaining of being bullied at school by older boys,it was my Irish mother that gave me a boxing lesson or two and sent me back to the playground ready to box some ears.
Bus perhaps most importanlly,my mother always encouraged me to take risks.When I poke of the idea of going off alone to summer camp at the age of 9,she encouraged me to take the plunge and even managed to find the money for my adventure.When I wanted to apply for a scholarship to an exclusive New England boarding school,she supported me once again.But while many tears were shed at my departure,when I later wanted to quit and return home,she gently but firmly let me know that quitting was not an option.
For the rest of her life my mother remained my mentor,coach,friend and in many cases my secret collaborator as I went on to ever bigger challenges both in business and in my spiritual life.It was a rare week indeed when my mother and I didn't talk areast once on the phone,and I even called her from a Greek island while on even theugh it meant going to the local telephone exchange and spending a fortune to make the call.
Looking back over my life I can honestly say tihat I have achieved far more than I ever thought I would white growing,up in a small house on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.While I could poinf to many reasons for my success,perhaps most important of all is my achievement motivation or "fire in the belly."And when I wonder where all that passion came from I give most of the credit to my mother.
What is the mother's attitude toward her son’s decision to interrupt his college career?
A.Encouraging B.Indifferent. C.Reser D.Tolerant正确答案A
