If there's one thing we don't do well is to pause（中止）, take a moment, reflect（反射）, learn, revisit, self（自己）-correct. We hardly（几乎不） even pause（中止） to celebrate. Small wins（赢）, big wins（赢）. We are the worst at doing that. Because after achieving something, you move on to the next. Yes, I wrote a book called Pause.

  It was a letter to myself, to my 18-year-old self. A book that said, "Hey, what would be the things that I needed to know before enrolling（登记） in varsity?" Now, pause with me. If you were to take an exam on life, how would you do? How would you do? Chances are, I want to do well. Even though（ 虽然） I haven't yet told you what the variables（[数] 变量） are, you're going to tell me about financially（ 财政上） you did this, you traveled the world, right?

  At least you've been to the seven continents. Your health is doing quite well, right? And hey, your social networks are also doing great. And I think those variables, as much as they are good, and I'm not criticizing（批评） them, they are great. However, I think there's only one measure（量） of trying to find out if you really are doing well. And that measure is to do better than your father.

  Do better than the generation（一代） before. This is you honoring（纪念） your predecessors（前任）. If they were present, great. If they were absent（不在场的）, they are lost, but still do better. Why say this? They have given（做） you a foundation（基础）.

  They have put a bar, regardless（不顾一切地） of how low or high, but it is your base（基础） to do something. My story, I'm raised by a laborer（ 体力劳动者）, a man who managed to get to grade（给…分等级） eight, married to a grade ten. You ask him for shoes, sneakers, I'm a sneakerhead. You ask him for shoes, he'll say no. You turn around 20 seconds later, ask for a textbook（教科书）, he gives（做） it to you. Why?

  Because he believed in giving something that he himself never had the chance to acquire（获得）. Education. He even went on to say to me and my sister, this is a wealth（ 财富） that no one can take away from you.