There's nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn't.

To be honest, I know that a lot of Asian parents are secretly shocked and horrified by many aspects of Western parenting.

Once you get to the Enlightenment, the way that powers get to be hyperpowers isn't just by conquest. It's through commerce and innovation. Societies like the Dutch Republic and the United States used tolerance to become a magnet for enterprising immigrants.

Happiness is not always through success. Equally, the constant pursuit of success is sure unhappiness. But we have to find the balance. My own thoughts are that parenting is very personal. And we all feel enormous insecurity about parenting. What are they going to think of us 20 years down the line?

Most things are difficult at the beginning and they become fun, something you love, only after you've worked at them.

I see my upbringing as a great success story. By disciplining me, my parents inculcated self-discipline. And by restricting my choices as a child, they gave me so many choices in my life as an adult. Because of what they did then, I get to do the work I love now.

Everything I do as a mother builds on a foundation of love and compassion.