1、Many people’s correct decisions end abruptly: Asking someone who has only ridden a bicycle, “Is Li Auto worth buying?” Asking someone who has never profited from equity investment, “Should you become a Mei Hua LP?”… Often, the wrong decisions and the missed opportunities stem from consulting the wrong people. One way of giving bad advice is by saying, “It’s for your own good.” When encountering people inferior to you, you must firmly hold your beliefs. When encountering people similar to you, you must doubt your beliefs. When encountering people superior to you, you must negate your beliefs.
2、The only true asset a person possesses is time. The only important strategy is how you use your time. For valuable things, don’t worry about the price; for worthless things, don’t waste time. The difference between a value mindset and a price mindset in decision-making is vast. Entrepreneurship is like building with LEGOs; time is often spent not on looking at the blueprint, but on finding the pieces. The three things founders must always focus on are: finding people, finding money, and finding direction.
3、If an entrepreneur does not thoroughly reflect on a lesson, that lesson will be repeated until you completely learn it. People teach others, but it takes a hundred repetitions to learn; things teach people, and it takes just one. What convinces a person is not preaching, but an undeniable truth (a “South Wall”).
4、The opportunity for the poor to turn their fortunes around is placing a high stake. If you don’t have the quantity of chips, you must have the multiplier; betting evenly is unlikely to lead to a turnaround. Your high stakes include money, time, energy, and loyalty. The so-called “first pot of gold” is the amount that allows you to climb the first step. This society is both realistic and cruel; money flows toward those who don’t lack it, and hardship is reserved for those who can endure it.
5、Many people’s lives are better than before, but they haven’t become as happy as they imagined. Human happiness is determined in three layers: the first by the senses, the second by dopamine, and the third by endorphins. Most people have the first layer, but most people lack the third. What truly determines the degree of a person’s happiness is how much dopamine is secreted in the second layer. From a dopamine perspective, having a stock (existing amount) is boring; only gaining an increment is interesting. Don’t rely on old capital; establish new achievements. Only with an increment will there be dopamine, leading to greater happiness. A cross-industry stand-up comedy performance for investors is also an increment.
6、A game of consistency is: “If the level is equal, who makes fewer mistakes.” Similarly, entrepreneurship is a game where, if the strategy and tactics are clear, you compete to be leaner and more frugal than others. Among the new car powerhouses, Li Auto makes the fewest mistakes in the same areas, which wins it half the battle.
7、An entrepreneur must evolve by leaving the comfort zone and entering the zone of adaptation. Whoever suffers changes, whoever changes adapts, and whoever adapts benefits. The most effective way to leave the comfort zone is to use others as a mirror to reflect your own problems. Ordinary people like to hear pleasant words, just as children like to eat candy—sweet but useless. Experts like to hear unpleasant words, just as adults like to drink tea—bitter but detoxifying.
8、Don’t pull people onto the entrepreneurial road; instead, attract the people who need to join you on the entrepreneurial journey. If you pull people along, you must make a promise. A promise gives certainty, and certainty triggers laziness and bad behavior.
9、Smart people seek fools as opponents and experts as friends. This is contrary to human nature, but logical. Dumb people seek experts as opponents and fools as friends. This is in line with human nature, but against common sense.
10、A person has three lives: one at birth, one when mental power emerges, and one when cognitive awakening occurs. Mental power and cognition are the Du and Governing Meridians of the entrepreneur; only by opening them can one truly be invincible. Success without the growth of mental power and cognition is scarier than failure, because eventually, time will revert luck-driven success back to its original state. Climbing the social ladder is difficult; falling requires only a very short time.
11、Humans are naturally double-standard creatures. Understanding others’ double standards and overcoming your own double standards is a lifelong cultivation—it is a painful refinement of the mind, and it distinguishes whether a person can truly be objective, honest, and empathetic.
12、Charlie Munger believes in a 5-point checklist for a happy life:
- Don’t overconsume; don’t exceed your capacity.
- Engage in shrewd investments.
- Stay away from toxic people and toxic activities.
- Maintain lifelong learning.
- Do more things that involve delayed gratification.
Otherwise, you will need to possess extremely good luck! The master believes that even ordinary things contain subtle complexities. Most people ultimately hope to have extremely good luck, spending time burning incense and praying to Buddha, choosing to enter the temple in their evolution and career.
13、Money that is merely raised is not truly spent; only money that can be earned in the market is truly spent. A first-class entrepreneur’s ability to make money is always far greater than their ability to raise funds. 95% of founders’ spending ability must be honed through painful experiences; when you don’t know how to spend, being frugal is crucial. Many founders spend money on the back of the blade, or even the hilt, instead of on the edge of the blade—meaning they aren’t spending it effectively.
14、That’s just how people are. Even if it’s barely, as long as they lead the opponent by even a tiny margin in some aspect, their state will emerge, and they can even exert 120% or 150% of their power. You must grit your teeth and maintain the lead, fully utilizing the “Big Tree Principle”: in a forest, the taller the tree, the more sunlight it receives; the faster the tree grows through photosynthesis.
15、In any company, fence-sitters and grass-on-the-wall types make up the majority. When you are struggling or making mistakes, it is normal for them to observe from the sidelines. If you use a single, absolutely loyal value system, you will push them toward your side as your opponents.
16、The unwritten rule of entrepreneurial socializing is: only screen, don’t educate. Changing others is a huge internal drain; changing yourself is growth. Both favorable and adverse circumstances are reflections of the inner self. If you cling to them, if your heart is moved, they are adversity for you; if you let go, if your heart remains still, everything is favorable.
17、Moving toward the high places means moving toward higher dimensions, in order to acquire more information, not just capability. In a higher dimension, the speed, density, and precision of information you possess are completely different; it becomes your cognitive depth. With cognitive depth, you can down-dimension, achieve compatibility, and serve the users you can serve—this is the logic of making money.
18、“True light is not the time when there is no darkness, but rather the time when darkness is never obscured. A true hero is not the time when there are never base emotions, but rather the time when those base emotions are never subjugated.” — A passage I deeply appreciate.