Perseverance and skills conquer all

Ada Tsang Yin-hung, a 40-year-old former school teacher who on Sunday morning became the first Hong Kong woman to scale the highest peak in the world, was safely back at the base camp on Tuesday and hopefully will be home soon to a hero's welcome. She was a life education teacher at a secondary school in Ma On Shan when she decided to pursue mountaineering seven years ago. One of her main motivators was to set an example to her students about being a winner in life with determination and perseverance. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim are among thousands of fellow Hong Kong residents who congratulated her and fellow climber Elton Ng - also from Hong Kong - on their remarkable feat.

Following seven years of strenuous training and two attempts to reach the top of Qomolangma, or Mount Everest, which failed due to natural calamities in 2014 and 2015, she finally scaled the mountain, about 6 am on Sunday. Numerous Hong Kong residents cheered and applauded her extraordinary achievement upon hearing the news, especially considering her near-death injury when a strong earthquake caused an avalanche that killed more than a dozen people in 2015. Her story is proof that with determination, perseverance and necessary skills one can accomplish a lot of things others may regard as impossible. To all young people today - they have no reason to give up if they fail once, twice or even more times at something, because hard-earned success is always sweeter than the easy ones, not to mention the extra knowledge one gains from setbacks.

Some people say you can succeed if you want it badly enough, but in reality one needs more than determination and perseverance to win. We are talking about knowledge and skills to excel in any given career. That is why we have schools and universities, and why some of us continue learning on the job and even in retirement. One can never have too much knowledge or too many skills because one can never be sure what life will throw at one next. As we all know school can be tough as well, which is why we need as much determination and perseverance in acquiring the knowledge and skills we will need in life after school education. Whatever difficulties one encounters in learning will prove worthwhile later for sure but only those who push through them all will know.

We should let our children know and remember that all the hard work at school prepares them for future life and the more they persevere in learning, the easier they will find it to do jobs when the day comes. Don't wait for good luck to fall into your lap but work for what you need instead. That's how you succeed.

(HK Edition 05/24/2017 page8)