Zhang Yiming, founder of Today's Headlines, said, "Tencent's social networking and Ali's e-commerce are essentially an information distribution method, and in the mobile Internet era, it is not to let people find information, but to let information find people, and the efficiency of information flow is more important than the information itself." All the content gaps that can make information distribution more efficient should become the area covered by today's headlines. ”
Zhang Yiming, because he has an essential understanding of the field of information, he firmly believes: "If a thing can be established in theory and can be done in theory, then we should find a way to make it." ”
Zhang Yiming, with his understanding of the information field far beyond others, has long insisted on the premise that many people are not optimistic, and successfully founded Today's Headlines, Douyin, TIKTOK and so on.
Tesla founder Elon Musk said: First principle is a way of looking at the world, peeling off the appearance of things layer by layer, until you see the essence of things, and then face the essence of the problem, to find the fundamental source. First principles is a way of thinking about me, and I use this way to dismantle all my problems in my career. I like this mode of thinking, which allows me to see the smallest unit of things and then make some combinations that help me overcome the difficulties in front of me. When I had challenges in my past careers, it worked wonders. ”
The first principle convinces Elon Musk that "as long as there is a goal, I will be able to achieve it, even if I have not yet thought of a path to achieve it, there is a power of total belief." 」 ”
Elon Musk applied his first principles to all of his entrepreneurial fields, and each of them was not optimistic at first, but the end result was that each field achieved disruptive success.
If we analyze it carefully, we will find that behind the success of top masters such as Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk, there is a similar success model, and there are 3 links within this model.
The first link is to have an essential understanding of something.
The second link is the conviction that if something is theoretically true and feasible, it can be done in reality. The theory here refers to the important theory of important disciplines, such as the reduction theory of physics and the basic theory of network science, which are basically the most basic core theories of a discipline.
The third link is under the premise that the first two links are determined, no matter what others say, they will persist for a long time, constantly trial and error, and constantly iterate until they succeed. And the final success will feed back to the first link, and then continue to the second link,
These three links form a small loop, looping out an increasingly successful model.
This successful model, which has been verified by top masters such as Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk, is worth learning from.
In this article, we will take how professionals win a successful life through reading as an example, interpret this success model in detail, and hope that people who want to read and love to read can refresh their understanding of reading through this interpretation and win the life they want.
1
Recognize the essence of reading and position the goal of life
From this successful model of Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk, we can draw a conclusion that the initial difference between ordinary people and top masters lies in the recognition of the essence of a thing, and this recognition of the essence of a thing determines the completely different life of ordinary people and top masters. As said in the movie "The Godfather", people who can see through the essence of things in half a second are doomed to completely different fates than people who can't see through the essence for a lifetime.
In fact, each of us also understands the importance of reading, and we are familiar with "reading can change our destiny", so we will continue to buy books, constantly ask others for book lists, and constantly try to read books. But the reality is that only a small number of people have achieved a counterattack in life through reading. Most people either buy books like mountains, read books like silk, or desperately read a lot of books but do not get the return they want, but the more they learn, the more tired they are, and the more they learn, the more anxious they are.
The main reason why this is the case is that you do not have an understanding of the nature of reading.
Reading is only a means, not an end. Reading books can only play their role if they act on one thing.
The essence of reading is to change, what kind of life goals you want to achieve in the next 3 years, the next 5 years, the next 10 years through reading, this is the most essential understanding of reading.
There is a classic saying in Sun Tzu's Art of War: The winner wins first and then seeks to fight, and the loser fights first and then seeks victory. The meaning of this sentence is that the people who can achieve victory are often those who are well prepared. They only fight when they have a complete understanding of the situation and think they can win. And the losers are often the ones who were not prepared before the war. The war had already begun, and they were plotting how to win.
Reading is also like a war, and whether a person can succeed through reading is likely to be basically determined before you read the book.
People who have an essential understanding of reading will first have a goal, and then find a way to figure out what books to read and how to read to achieve this goal.
People who do not have the essential understanding of reading, reading is to see what books others read and what books they read, and to see what books recommended by others to read, and the result is either that they cannot read or have no effect.
When reading books, the order is different, the direction of life is different, and the fate will be different.
How to read is a tactic, what to read is a strategy, do not use tactical diligence to cover up strategic laziness.
How to read is to do things correctly, and what books to read is to do the right thing. Be sure to choose the right thing first, and then use the right method to do the right thing. This is the "winner wins first and then fights" of reading.
What kind of life goals you have, what kind of books will you read. What kind of books you read, what kind of person you become.
What kind of person you become, what kind of life you will have.
Therefore, before reading, you must consider why you read, what kind of life goals you want to achieve through reading, what kind of person you become, and what kind of life you have.
2
Build your first skill to reach the top 10% of your field
After having a goal in life, you still have to act. The goal is only the direction you go, and action is the key to achieving the goal. The first step in action is to build your first skill and make your first skill the top 10% in your field.
Why?
Charlie Munger, a well-known American investor and Buffett's golden partner, said: "You have to figure out what you have. If you play games that others play well but don't know anything about yourself, you're doomed. Recognize your own strengths and compete only within your circle of ability. ”
Your first skill is your circle of competence and your most important core competency.
We should all have heard of the law of two eights: 20% of the world's people control 80% of the world's wealth.
You'll find that this 20% group, each of whom has almost one or several skills, can surpass more than 90% of the population.
This skill is either their personal brand label, their life orientation, and their source of wealth.
For example, when we mention Buffett, we know that he is a master of investment, and Buffett has not only become a billionaire through investment, but also created one legend after another through investment. Investment skills are Buffett's first skill, and this skill is definitely within the top 10% of the investment field, and even in the top 1% is not exaggerated.
From this successful model of Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk, we can also see that Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk have their own first skills in their respective fields, and their first skills are definitely within the TOP1% of their respective fields.
Even if we can't become the TOP1% of people like Buffett, Zhang Yiming, and Elon Musk, if we want to achieve our life goals, we must make ourselves the top 10% people.
If you don't know what the top 10% of the field is, try to become your company's CEO, COO, CTO, CTO, CFO, CFO.
You can evaluate your skills and whether they can reach the top 10% in the field. If not, then from now on, we must redouble our efforts and strive to become the top 10% in the field in the shortest possible time.
If your first skill can reach the level of the TOP10% of your field, then you will not only have an essential understanding of this field, but also find your own positioning in this field, and you will also form your own personal brand.
You'll be able to link to the top 10% of people in this field and the top 10% of other fields, and the more opportunities you have to develop, the greater your achievements, and the easier it will be for you to achieve your life goals.
Actor Huang Bo once said such a passage: "When I ran the dragon set, when I was weakest, I found that everyone had a careful machine for you, you would be wronged and misunderstood, but when you were strong, you would find that the whole world is a person who supports you, and will be happy with you." ”
If your first skill is good enough for every stakeholder to work with you to do his own thing. Then you will find that the whole world is full of people who support you and will be happy with you.
Therefore, if we want to achieve our life goals, we must create a first skill of our own, so that this skill reaches the top 10% of the field. Let this skill keep you close to your life goals until you succeed.
3
Pay attention to the compound interest effect and adhere to long-term doctrine
Through your understanding of the nature of reading, you already know that you must have your own life goals before reading, and you know that the first step to achieving your life goals is to build your own first skills and make them the top 10% in your field. So how do you build your first skills by reading books and make them the top 10% in your field?
We should all hear the story that King Shehan intended to reward the inventor of chess, Prime Minister Sisa Ban Dayir.
The king asked him what he wanted, and he said to the king, "Your Majesty, please give me 1 grain of wheat in the first small grid of this chessboard, 2 grains in the second small grid, and 4 grains in the third small grid, and each small grid in the future will be doubled than the previous small grid." Please give all the 64 grains of wheat on the board to your servants! ”
The king felt that this request was too easy to satisfy, and ordered him to be given these grains of wheat.
When the people brought bags of wheat and began to count, the king realized that even if he brought all the grains of wheat from all India and even the whole world, he could not meet the demands of the prime minister.
So how many grains of wheat is the prime minister asking for? The total is 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 ... + 263 = 264-1≈ 184.4 billion.
That's the magic of compound interest. In the beginning, the compound interest effect is very small and imperceptible, but when it reaches a certain stage of development, it will have a very surprising effect.
This compound interest effect is expressed in the mathematical formula: F = P(1 + i)n, where F represents the terminal value, that is, the value of the sum of principal interest at the end of the period. P stands for present value. i stands for Interest Rate. n represents the number of interest periods.
In this story, we will find that there are 3 factors that affect the effect of compound interest: present value, interest rate, and number of interest periods.
The present value is the first grain of wheat placed on the first chessboard, that is, the present value = 1.
The interest rate is that the number of grains placed on each next chessboard is 1 times the number of grains on the previous chessboard, that is, the interest rate = 1.
The number of interest periods is the number of executions.
We can find that under the premise that the present value is very small, the two factors of interest rate and number of executions are the key to affecting the effect of compound interest. From the first time the first grain of wheat is placed on the first board, the difference between the previous times is not obvious and is not easy to detect. As interest rates continue to grow, the number of executions increases, until through a critical time node, the effect of compound interest begins to appear, showing explosive exponential growth.
From this we can conclude that the essence of compound interest is to do things A, which leads to result B, and result B strengthens A, a continuous cycle. Anything in life that conforms to this law can be regarded as a compound interest effect. And obviously, we continue to build our first skills through reading books, so that they reach the top 10% in our field, which is also in line with this law, and using compound interest growth to create the first skills is also our fastest shortcut.
We all know that everyone does not have a high first skill at the beginning, even the top masters such as Zhang Yiming and Elon Musk have accumulated from low to high. While using compound interest growth to build our first skills is our fastest shortcut.
However, we all know that even if compound interest grows, the initial growth is very slow, and the effect of compound interest will not appear until the milestone-like time node is passed.
So when we build our first skills, we should also take a long-term view while focusing on compound interest growth.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, said: "If you do one thing, look at the next three years, there are a lot of people competing with you; but if you can look at seven years, then there are very few people who can compete with you, because very few companies are willing to do so long-term plans." 」 ”
Some people may think that it is too long to build the first skill to look at 7 years, in fact, you don't have to look at 7 years, as long as you can build the first skill you look at 5 years, you have already achieved half the success.
We all know that there are very few people who can stand on high places, in fact, not only are there few people standing on high places, but even the road to high places is sparsely populated. So if you can look at 5 years from now, you've surpassed half the people in your field and you're half successful.
When you first start building your first skill, you'll find that your first skill may be low, but you don't have to worry. You just have to improve your first skill a little bit every day than yesterday, and the worst of the year will also be a small step forward. If you can stick to one small step every year, one big step in 3 years, you are likely to let your first skill enter the exponential growth brought about by the compound interest effect, and it is possible to make your first skill reach the TOP10% of your field within 5 years.
Your first skill reaches the top 10% in your field, you can shorten the time to achieve your life goals, and you can live the life you want.
4
Write at the end
The family at the time of a person's birth is usually not determined by himself, but what kind of life a person wants to have can often be changed through his efforts. That's why most of us have to read.
But the ideal is very full, the reality is very bone, and most of us get rewards through reading books are not what we want. If you also want to know how to achieve your life goals and win a successful life through reading, then you read this article a few times, I think you will definitely gain something.
Zweig has this sentence in his book "When the Stars of Mankind Shine": "The greatest happiness of a person is to discover his mission in this life in the middle of his life, in a creative prime." ”
I hope that each of us will discover our mission or purpose in life when we want to win success in life through reading. Only when we have a firm direction in our hearts can we shake the bridge without distraction and eventually reach the other side of life.
Takashi Nakajima said in the book "Getting Up at 4 O'Clock": "There is only one difference between successful people and unsuccessful people, that is, once successful people find good habits of others, they will immediately turn this habit into their own." Unsuccessful people will feel: Although the habit is good, it is someone else's, and I don't want to copy it. ”
Success lies in action, not in knowing, doing is more important than knowing, as Han Han said: "Knowing a lot of big truths, still can't live this life well." ”
The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago, followed by now. If you want to win success in life through reading, it's never too late to start.
The sun arches a pawn, and the merit is not donated.
Finally, may we all win the life we want through reading!
Author | Meng Ge, reading monetization tutor, founder of Xueya Chuangju Reading, original creative reading method, is committed to influencing more people to refresh cognition and innovate life through reading!
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