Kevinlee

Three Challenges in the Workplace#

Every challenge is difficult, but we can overcome them.

Challenge One: What Has Taken Away Our Wealth?#

Annual income does not equal annual salary. In traditional industries like retail, manufacturing, and dining, very few people can reach an annual salary of a million; perhaps only the general manager can achieve that.

However, if there is a small business owner, like a shopkeeper running a parts store or a hardware store, they can also reach the goal of an annual income of a million.

In this case, where does the general manager fall short compared to the small shop owner? Education, profession, eloquence, IQ, emotional intelligence—these seem to overshadow him.

The root cause lies in the different distribution methods.

Distribution Model#

No matter how small the shop is, for the shop owner, all the money earned in the store is theirs.

No matter how big the general manager is, they are like a cormorant in the hands of a fisherman; they need to earn millions for the company to take home a commission of over a hundred thousand.

So, the reason why we earn so little becomes clear.

It’s all taken away by the boss and capital, which has claimed the wealth that originally belonged to us.

But is this answer necessarily correct?

The first reason is that no one is supervising.

When you are at work, you are required to clock in. If you arrive late, it’s considered tardiness; if you leave early, it’s early departure; if the clock-in interval is less than 8 hours, it’s absenteeism. You have human resources and administrative departments keeping an eye on you.

It’s like when you were in middle or high school, being monitored by teachers and parents, not allowed to date early or go astray. Someone is watching you to ensure you don’t drop out, and the best outcome is that you get into college.

Sometimes, when opportunities arise, you might slack off, and then the opportunity slips away. Waiting for a rabbit to come by fails, and whether the next rabbit will bump into your stump is uncertain.

Then even if you slap your thigh and shout in frustration, it won’t help; the opportunity has already passed.

All of this is because no one is supervising, and you inevitably become lazy.

The second reason is, there is no timely feedback.

The company filters the return cycle for workers.

From the company's perspective, it may take a year to produce a product and two years to receive payment, but from the worker's perspective, they can receive their salary in the first month.

For ordinary people, this is a hurdle that is hard to overcome.

Many people wait foolishly by the stump for a few days without seeing a rabbit, wait for a few months without results, and eventually give up because they can’t stand it.

Many workers believe that their income, which is lower than the wealth they create through labor, is taken away by the boss. However, without the boss's involvement, can you create it yourself?

The reason the boss can be in that position is that they have capital, background, channels, and claim to have production materials.

At this point, you might think, if you also have production materials, you can do it too.

Can you really?

If given the opportunity, can you be useful?

The answer is clear: no, which is why we need to invent something called work.

The team leader who supervises whether you are slacking off is someone you hired yourself. That boss who advances your salary for a few months is also someone you brought on board.

What did you use to hire them?

With the rabbits you were waiting for.

So it’s not that someone took away your wealth; it’s that you must pay a management fee.

You need to be managed to create wealth, and this is something you discovered yourself.

One thing that Drucker’s management theory teaches us is to identify the top 10% among the crowd.

What are these 10% like? They are the ones who, during the waiting for rabbits, discover their own shortcomings.

By reversing those two shortcomings, we arrive at the lifelong research achievement of management master Drucker—execution power¹.

• Self-driven, able to take initiative without supervision.
• Long-term oriented, not requiring immediate feedback like in online games.

$Execution Power = Self-Drive + Long-Term Orientation$

This is the understanding that has been clear from Li Shimin to Hongli.

What is the purpose of the imperial examination? To win over the ambitious people of the world.

This is also the management experience summarized by Silicon Valley's father, Peter Thiel, over his lifetime.

Thiel says there are two types of companies in the world: those that earn monopoly money and those that attempt to earn monopoly money.

Drucker says there is no management in the world; there are only those who discover suitable candidates for bosses, promote them, and let them surround you to form a monopoly, rather than becoming your competitors.

If you haven’t succeeded, then you need to innovate for the people, attracting talents that meet Drucker’s standards from your competitors, forming a monopoly, and then earning monopoly money.

So how can you help yourself become one of that 10%?

Self-flagellation, do you need a reason to be beaten?

When you were a student, if a teacher said a certain knowledge point wouldn’t be tested, you would instinctively skip it; this is almost human nature.

At this point, you need to whip yourself, whip away the laziness hiding deep within.

From childhood to adulthood. Only you can whip yourself for it to be effective.

There is no such thing as impossible; it’s only about whether you want to or not. Ding Fatty begs for alms, thanking everyone he meets, saying God bless, his emotional value is maximized. Meanwhile, other homeless people are still waiting for government aid, their eyes dull.

It’s not for that rabbit; you are striving to whip yourself for the principle of becoming one of the 10%.

Challenge Two: People Can Only Earn Familiar Money, But Familiar Things Don’t Make Money.#

So is there a possibility that in the newly generated stumps, rabbits will collide more densely?

Let’s look at a common investment-related question:

For example, you have your preferred investment varieties, maybe one or two, or perhaps three to five.

At this point, a new variety emerges in the market, creating a big trend and sparking widespread discussion globally, like Bitcoin during the recent U.S. election period.

Now, when faced with this situation, do you chase it or not?

Inexperienced readers might say, I’ll chase it.

Because the trend has already formed. The earlier I chase, the safer it is; it’s a game of foolishness. As long as I can get in and out quickly, I can make money from those who are slower and more foolish than me.

At this moment, experienced individuals would oppose:

Doing this once is fine, but doing it multiple times can be very dangerous.

If you often walk by the river, how can you not get your shoes wet?

Why? Because of the law of large numbers.

If you play the fool too many times, there will always be a few times when you happen to be the most foolish and slowest, and then you will lose all the gains you made from others’ foolishness in one go.

When you see a trend through news and media, you are definitely in the later stages of that trend.

For example, the computer industry was booming in the early 2000s and for the next ten years, where a senior software engineer could earn 20,000 a month. But when the whole country is talking about it, it’s definitely in the later stages of the industry.

So when was the early stage of computers? In the late 1990s, a few people already knew the future prospects of computers and were preparing to cultivate them.

Now, some people are still waiting by certain stumps they see, waiting for rabbits; perhaps at this time, some unknown stumps will emerge.

If you see it as an investment, then these stumps represent investment varieties; if you see it as an industry, then these stumps represent newly emerging industries.

So, if you want to discover these new stumps early, what must you do?

You must have already intervened.

Nail It Down

When you are willing to strictly demand yourself according to the first challenge, no matter which industry you are in, you will definitely do well; you will definitely have the capacity.

So, are you willing to expand your advantages while everything is going smoothly for you?

When striving for progress and gaining more stumps, the best way is to expand. You need to know the cutting-edge changes in this world as much as possible.

You need to know what the cutting-edge parts of the industry are doing and what the related industries are doing.

Knowing what to do is more important than knowing how to do it.

You don’t have to make it your main business, but you must not be ignorant of it.

Invest a little in everything; it doesn’t necessarily mean you will make money from that little, but it’s meant to help you understand.

Before the troops move, the supplies must be prepared; before the supplies move, information must be prepared.

If you haven’t clarified the supply routes and explored the maps, how can you transform?

When a programmer is working on technology, they must have the resources to do sales, so they can switch seamlessly.

When a startup company runs out of money and the funding chain breaks, can you raise funds? The alliance under the city is bound to fail.

Only when you are not short of money is when you can raise funds; at that time, you have room to negotiate with investors.

While you can do your job well, maintain more contact.

This isn’t complicated; the only key point is to intervene early, even if it’s just to nail something down.

Just like what was mentioned in the first challenge, under normal circumstances, you need to nail down many things in advance, follow up, and in the end, only a few things will succeed.

You have to make many efforts in advance, beyond your main job, and many of these efforts may seem hopeless.

For example, in some industries or investments, you intervened but didn’t scale up, so you didn’t reap large rewards.

For instance, some preparatory work was done, but you weren’t promoted, so there were no gains.

Are these important?

Not important.

You have passed the first challenge; you are a very long-term oriented person.

You are an intermediary who will show a property a thousand times without success and will show it ten thousand times; who can stop you?

No one.

Over time, the law of large numbers will take effect, and you will win.

So the key to the second challenge is simple: expand your contact base.

Note that this is an expansion based on the foundation of the first challenge, expanding after you have established a foothold, expanding with a base.

Expanding your contact base without a foundation is like using a universal remedy.

What does a company fear the most? Blind diversification without occupying advantageous projects; this is a certain death.

Transformation is a cycle; it is not a single action.

Recognizing a benefactor must be done early; otherwise, you will have to wait in line.

For example: while I was under Ding Yuan (technical route), I had already secretly communicated with Dong Zhuo (the client, market) and had been in deep conversation with Wang Yun (high-frequency trading) for many days.

There’s no harm in recognizing more benefactors; a benefactor may not give you immediate returns, but the connections must be established, the joints must be opened, and the nails must be driven in early.

In case the benefactor rises strongly, because you have been in secret communication for a long time, you can quickly and timely switch allegiances and hold onto the new benefactor's thigh.

This challenge has no difficulty; after passing the first challenge, the second challenge has no real difficulty.

What limits you is merely your thoughts; apart from that, it’s a smooth road.

Challenge Three: Diligent People Often Work Hard, While Those Who Don’t Work Hard Are Often Lazy.#

Having passed the first two challenges, shouldn’t you enjoy the rewards now?

No, the greatest danger is just beginning.

A person’s greatest strength is often their greatest weakness; from another perspective, what rises with you will also decline with you.

Lazy people lack initiative.

How can a person without initiative cause trouble?

On the contrary, a person with initiative is the one who has the potential to cause trouble.

When Huang Laoxie taught Shagu, was her foolishness her flaw?

Yes and no.

Because she was simply foolish; she wouldn’t try to be clever.

Shagu is not lazy; she is a thorough executor.

Furthermore, she cannot be clever and create a fourth move; she won’t change her approach based on the skill level of others, and she won’t hesitate to use three moves against Li Mochou.

We no longer have the innocence of infancy; our mindset changes with our own strength.

Having passed the first challenge, you have endured countless hardships, and you may even be suffering for a lifetime because you are fighting against human nature.

After enduring so much suffering, don’t you want to seek some compensation?

In Liu Bei’s words, after fighting for so many years, can’t I enjoy a little?

Having passed the second challenge, you have experienced many things; you are no longer the person you once were; your horizons have truly opened.

After seeing so many cutting-edge practices in various industries, will you still have a sense of awe?

The little nun’s scalp moves, but I can’t move?

Your inner arrogance towards this world cannot be suppressed.

Being smart is a curse, and success is also one.

At the beginning, you need to whip yourself, scolding yourself while doing so, asking why you are running so slowly; you can’t even catch the warm food.

After passing the first two challenges, you still need to whip yourself, scolding yourself while doing so, asking why you are running so fast; are you in a hurry for a funeral?

It’s quite contradictory; the key is that if you are slow, you get beaten, and if you are fast, you also get beaten; it’s just a life of being beaten. It’s still you beating yourself, with no place to reason.

Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Three Teachings:
The first: When young, do not be lazy. You see your friends playing and having fun, but you don’t realize that time flies, and you waste it. When the real test comes, you will be unprepared.
The second: When middle-aged, do not become complacent. When you do well in something, don’t think you can live off your past achievements for life; the problem is, life is too long, and you might not even get to enjoy it before you graduate.
The third: When old, do not become satisfied. You feel that everything has lost its novelty; too many successes have numbed you. One failure can turn all your life’s efforts into nothing.

Life is all about being able to pick up and put down, able to climb up the mountain and descend.