（2022年11月號559期動腦雜誌）
In the acceptance speeches at many award ceremonies, we often hear the winners say: “I want to thank my family. Without their support, I would not be at where I am today.”
In addition to family members, coaches play a very important role for athletes in their sports career. I am very fortunate to have met a good coach. Without Coach Reel's recommendation, I could not have gone abroad for better training. Without his guidance, I could not have achieved great results. It's hard for young athletes today to imagine how scarce our resources were back then. In my days, there were no cash rewards for competitions, let alone training subsidies.
When I arrived in the United States in 1963, Coach Reel carried all my expenses on one shoulder. He is not an exception. There are also many coaches in Taiwan who have dedicated more to the athletes than their own children. Besides arranging training and competitions, they also need to provide food and accommodation, and even urge the athletes to focus on schoolwork and life education. Can you imagine how much time, money and effort a coach would dedicate to his athletes? Nevertheless, what would happen after their dedication? In the early days, these coaches couldn't even get any actual monetary compensation from training the athletes. Frankly, they just did it out of love and dedication to teach sports. As I remembered, the father of Taiwan's track and field, Kwan Sung-sing's child once said, "I think my father loves his athletes far more than us." The training resources and living conditions of this generation are much better than the past. Perhaps this kind of example is not common anymore, but the point I want to make is: “When you succeed, never ever forget the sacrifices and dedication of others behind you. In fact, no matter you succeed or fail, never ever forget.”
"Sacrifice" and "Dedication" are often linked together orally in the Chinese language. If I want to use an emoji to represent "Sacrifice” and “Dedication", my heartfelt feeling is that it would be a smiley face! Because I think the premise of sacrifice and dedication is to "Do with Joy". Only by loving what you do can you truly enjoy the process without caring about whether to get something in return. I remember a middle school track and field coach once said to me: “Sister Chi, watching these children practice seriously and happily is when I am most satisfied no matter what their scores are.”
Aside from one’s own efforts, a person's success must not leave out the sacrifice and dedication of others behind the scenes. Therefore, family harmony, social progress, and national development also require the selfless joyful dedication of more people. I think love and gratitude are very important elements of life, and joyful dedication is the key attitude in life. Don't ask what others can do for you, ask yourself what you can do for others.
Friends, let us use love to make dedication warmer; use joy to make dedication nobler.
The author is the chairperson of the Hope Foundation.
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