Drive-- combining will, pluck and perseverance--is an important factor in future success. Which is to say, if Mencius 'mother hadn't switched to a higher-brow neighborhood when she saw her son playing at being a shopkeeper or butcher, and if she hadn't cut the cloth on her loom to illustrate the fruitlessness of doing things half way, might not Mencius have ended up only a slick-talking market salesman?
而這其中，「成就動機」，或者說是意志力、毅力、企圖心，正是一個人能否成功的一大決定因素。換句話說，要是沒有孟母的「擇鄰處」和和「斷機杼」，孟子會是大思想家還是伶牙俐齒的市井商賈？