Some people bring out the best in you in a way that you might never have fully realized on your own. My mom was one of those people.
My father died when I was nine months old, making my mom a single mother at the age of eighteen. While I was growing up, we lived a very hard life. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life, “Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it.”
At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I wanted to badly enough. She drove that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school — walking on my own!
When the Great Depression （大萧条） hit, my mom lost her joB．Then I left school to support the both of us. At that moment, I was determined never to be poor again.
Over the years, I experienced various levels of business success. But the real turning point occurred on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951. I was dissatisfied with the second-class hotels available for families and was angry that they charged an extra $2 for each chilD．That was too expensive for the average American family. I told my wife that I was going to open a motel （汽车旅馆） for families that would never charge extra for children. There were plenty of doubters at that time.
Not surprisingly, mom was one of my strongest supporters. She worked behind the desk and even designed the room style. As in any business, we experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother’s words deeply rooted in my soul, I never doubted we would succeeD．Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world — Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.
You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.

一些人可以把你内在的最好品质用一种你自己都从来没有完全理解的发式显现出来。我的母亲就是那些人之一
我的父亲在我9个月大的时候去世，这让我的母亲在18岁时就单身。在我长大的过程中，我们过着艰苦的生活。我们几乎没有钱，但我的母亲给了我许多爱。每天晚上，她把我放在她的膝盖上并对我说那些将会改变我一生的话。Kemmons，你一定会成为一个伟大的人并且你只要努力的工作就可以做你生活中的任何事。
14岁时，我被一辆汽车撞倒。医生说我将再不能行走。每天我的母亲都用她那温柔、慈爱的声音告诉我无论那些医生说什么，只要我真的迫切希望行走，我就可以行走。一年后，我返回了学校——我是自己走去的。
当大萧条来临的时候，母亲失业了。那以后我离开学校来支持我们俩。在那时，我下定决心不再贫穷。
这么多年来，我体验了各种层次的商业成功。但真正的转折却发生在1951年我和妻子及5个孩子的旅行中。我对家庭所能获得的二流酒店很不满意并且对他们对每个孩子加收额外2美元的做法很生气。那对普通的美国家庭来说太贵了。我告诉我的妻子我将创立一家为家庭服务的永远不对孩子收取额外费用的汽车旅馆。在那时人们有许多怀疑。
毫不惊奇，母亲是我最强有力的支持者之一。她在桌前工作甚至设计了房间的样式。正如在任何生意中一样，我们经历了大量的困难。然而由于母亲的教导深深的扎根在我的心中，我从来没怀疑我会成功。15年后，我们有了世界上最大的连锁酒店——小酒吧酒店。在1979年我的酒店有在50多个国家有1759个分店，年收入超过10亿美元。
你可能没有以最好的方式开始你的人生，然后如果你找到一件人生中值得为之工作的任务并且相信你自己，没有什么可以阻挡你。


参考文献：2007年江苏高考