As a young child in Chongking, China, he fell in love with the accordion and persuaded his parents to buy him one when he was only 4.

NPR: Yundi Li's Passion for Chopin

His upset parents persuaded him to change his mind and he returned to Moscow.

ECONOMIST: Valentin Berezhkov

At age 11 he decided he wanted his family to take a vacation traveling cross-country and persuaded his parents to let him single-handedly design and organize the entire trip, his father, Bruce Sagan, recalls.

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