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Deng Xiao Ping

He is an example of success through speaking up, fighting for your ideas, and never backing down.

Permission to Think Outside the Box

He may not have a sterling reputation in the West, especially considering the brutal crackdowns he launched against democracy in China, but Mr. Deng, leader of China from 1977 to 1997, gave himself permission to think outside the Communist box, believing that China could come into the modern economic world without sacrificing its one-party political system.

Seek truth from facts. Deng's thoughts took China from a billion peasants slaving for the government into a country where they can work for themselves. He gave a billion people the chance to leave poverty behind. His great thinking was obvious when he said, "It is time to prosper. China has been poor a thousand years," and, "to get rich is glorious."1 His thoughts and ideas are still shaping the modern China.

Deng Xiao Ping's path to becoming a Great Thinker:

• Born into a landlord family with money; after studying topics in the Confucian education style, joined a 1920s era "work study" program to France. Deng shows us that much can be learned from studying in and about other cultures.
• In France, Deng studied Marxism and Communist ideas. He shows us how topics we learn in our youth can be expanded as adults
• Deng used this knowledge to eventually become the most powerful man in China.
• Had a firm belief in Communism, but Deng also had his own ideas about it, especially about education and economics. He never backed down from his ideas, landing himself in Chinese prisons at least three times.
• Deng was known to be very organized, a skill that he used to his advantage in organizing people, propoganda, and eventually governments. Realizing your natural skills can really help with both your education and career!
• Believed that people should be rewarded for hard work, and that the lazy shouldn't be rewarded. That's thinking that has ultimately changed a nation.
• Deng Xiao Ping was a man with a lot of ideas at a time and place where ideas were needed. He is an example of success through speaking up, fighting for your ideas, and never backing down.

Learn more!
If you like to think about politics, economics, and social change, explore these links for online degree programs and courses that might interest you: political science degrees; economics degrees; social science degree programs; and online degrees in history.

References:
1. http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/features/aoc/aoc.deng.html and others.