Encouragement

Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusting friend. Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.

Now, she said triumphantly, you can write your book!

Yes, replied the man, with sagging confidence, and what shall we live on while I am writing it?

To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money.

Where on earth did you get that? he exclaimed.

I have always know you were a man of genius, she told him. I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year.

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter.

編者按：當一個人陷入困境時，來自所愛的人或是朋友的鼓勵與信任有著另人難以想象的強大力量。作家納撒尼爾-霍桑在妻子的鼓勵下成功寫出世界名著《紅字》的故事就是一個有力的說明。