Reading is the same as exercising, except that one exercises the body and the other trains the brain repeatedly.
Text: "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Kong Yuexin
Edited by Ma Jiying
Header photo by Deng Pan
"I basically didn't read an extracurricular book until I was 15." Zhu Wei, chairman of Yunjiu, Qingjiu and Guizhou Alcohol, shared at the "2024 World Book Day" event hosted by "Chinese Entrepreneur" that this caused him to be most afraid of writing when he was in elementary school and junior high school.
But after graduating from junior high school, Zhu Wei fell in love with reading uncontrollably, and reading also accompanied him from high school to college and then to work.
The abundance of reading has made Zhu Wei more mature than his peers, and has helped him become the head of the human resources department of a company with more than 4,000 employees more than a year after graduating from college. Not only that, Zhu Wei said that 90% of his knowledge, understanding and mastery of all aspects and fields of business management at that time came from extracurricular reading.
In January 2020, the 43-year-old Zhu Wei ended his 20-year career at Yanghe Distillery, after which he became the chairman of Guizhou Alcohol. Since then, Zhu Wei, who is backed by Jiangsu Zongyi Group, began to frantically "buy, buy, buy", and successively acquired many wine companies such as Zhijiu, Qingjiu, Yongle Liquor, and Yunjiu, and continuously expanded its corporate territory.
Even now, Zhu Wei still insists on reading, in his opinion, reading is the same as sports, but one is exercising the body, and the other is repeatedly training the brain, and in the long run, the strongest brain will be cultivated, so he believes that the library is the gym of the brain.
The main points shared by Zhu Wei are as follows:
1. If you want to have an output capacity, you must first have accumulation, and if you accumulate a large amount, it is possible to eventually form a small "coal field".
2. A very important takeaway from a lot of reading is that the individual becomes mature, or rather matures faster.
3. 90% of the reason why I have a certain understanding, understanding and mastery of all aspects and fields of business management comes from extracurricular reading.
4. Through persistent reading and critical thinking training, neurons can be enriched and activated; Brain circuits can be repeated to strengthen brain circuits. In the long run, it is natural to develop the strongest brain.
Zhu Wei, chairman of Yunjiu, Qingjiu, Guizhou alcohol
The following is Zhu Wei's narration, with deletions:
Over the past few decades, I have had five experiences related to reading.
The first stage was probably before I was 15 years old. It would be a bit far-fetched to define this stage as my first stage related to reading. Because it's strange that at this point in my life, I haven't read at all. Before the age of 15, my reading (experience) was almost a blank sheet of paper, a blank slate, about 0.
I basically didn't read extracurricular books until I was 15 years old, so when I was in elementary and junior high school, I was most afraid of composition classes. My academic performance in the other classes was good, but I scored the lowest in each essay.
It wasn't just about essays, my father asked me to keep a diary every day, which was really difficult for me at the time. Looking at my diary now, I really can't bear to read it, the daily diary is only three or two lines, simply make up the number of words, I really don't know what to say.
This was the first stage of my study, and it can be said that I did not read. To sum up, as Lu Xun said, the formation of coal actually requires a large amount of forest accumulation, and finally it is possible to form a small coal field. The same is true of reading. If you want to have the ability to export, you must first have accumulation, and if you accumulate a large amount of it, it is possible to eventually form a small "coal field".
On the one hand, this experience has something to do with the living environment in which I was a child, when I had relatively few opportunities to get in touch with books. On the other hand, and more importantly, I haven't gotten the hang of it yet.
In the second stage, the summer vacation before graduating from junior high school and going to high school, a very strange thing happened. For some reason, I suddenly wanted to read, and I read voraciously and recklessly.
That summer, I read about a dozen or twenty books of all the books I could find, including the famous sayings of the Hundred Schools of Thought, "Caigen Tan", "The Art of War", Liang Shiqiu's "Yashe Essays", the "American Literature Appreciation" journal at that time, and even a "Dictionary of Idioms". I went from the first idiom to the last idiom, every idiom, its origin, explanation, application, word for word, the circle of the circle, the painting of the painting. I still remember the first idiom in the dictionary called mourning soldiers must win, because it is ABBS, which comes first.
After such a two-month reading experience, something magical happened. After the beginning of the school year, my first essay was read aloud by the Chinese teacher as a model essay in the class, which was almost unthinkable for me. I once had no idea how to write an essay, and my first high school essay was read aloud as a model essay. Since then, I have found a new direction in my life.
The third study-related experience was during the summer vacation of my sophomore year of college. Because of my junior high school experience, I developed a habit of reading. The main reason for the separate emphasis is that the structure and content of my reading have been greatly improved during the summer vacation of my sophomore year.
During the summer vacation of that year, due to a special opportunity, I borrowed more than 20 copies of Reading Magazine. Those who are a little older should know that this magazine was a journal with a very heavy academic weight, with more than 100 pages per issue, very small words, and extremely high academic content.
I spent a summer vacation reading these 20 books seriously, and the magazine "Reading" was inclusive of all kinds of literature, history, philosophy, sociology, and so on. Whether I understand it or not, whether I am interested or not, I bite it all down. What is the result?
When I went back to school after the summer of that year, there was a debate every day after the lights went out in the dormitory. In all the nightly debates, I was invincible. I even said that the other 7 classmates were basically not in the same dimension as me. After reading these two dozen or so Reading magazines and hundreds of profound academic articles, my brain underwent a miraculous change.
Looking back, what I miss the most was my time in the university library, where I would read until the library closed on weekends. What impressed me the most was Ge Zhaoguang's "History of Chinese Thought" published by Fudan University Press, a thick book, and I took it seriously from beginning to end. This kind of university study time is the best in retrospect. Although the dormitory space for 8 of us was very small, I forced out 1/4~1/3 of the space full of books with such a small bed.
The fourth stage is after my work. After graduating from university in 2000, I went to work for a state-owned enterprise, which at that time basically had libraries, and so did the company I worked for.
In the years since I started working, I have read most of the books that can be read and worth reading in our corporate library. How far did you go back then? The place where I work is only 20 km from home, and despite being so close, I hardly go home. Whether it's weekdays, weekends, or holidays, I basically just read, reading from morning to night. Once I read "The Biography of Lu Xun", after waking up on the weekend morning, I started to read it at dawn, went to the staff canteen at noon to have a little food, and read until the evening. When it began to get dark, I finished reading "The Biography of Lu Xun", and I was very impressed by it.
I think a lot of reading brings about a very important takeaway, which is that the individual matures, or matures faster. At that time, I worked for a company with about 4,000 employees, and I became the head of the human resources department less than two years after graduating from my bachelor's degree. Generally speaking, this is almost impossible, especially in such a large-scale enterprise to be the head of the human resources department, it is necessary to have a considerable degree of maturity. Personally, at least, I feel like most of my maturity comes from reading.
Reading brings more than that. I majored in business management in college, but to be honest, 90% of the reason why I can have a certain understanding, understanding and mastery of all aspects and fields of business management comes from extracurricular reading, including a large number of celebrity biographies, corporate biographies, business biographies, as well as "China Entrepreneur" magazine, "China Business News" and so on.
The last stage is now. We all say that thirty is standing, and forty is not confused. I was born in 1977 and the past few years have been my 40-year-old life. But where is "forty is not confused", I think it is precisely at this age that I begin to be confused.
What is this confusion? I think many friends may also have this question, that is, the eternal existence of thousands of years, many people in ancient and modern China and foreign countries are asking, "where do we come from, where are we going", or "what is the meaning of life".
I also thought about this when I was younger, especially when I first started working. At that time, through a lot of reading, I felt that I was getting closer and closer to the answer to this question, but unfortunately, the last layer of window paper could not be pierced, and then I put this question down.
At the age of 40, such a problem arises again. I think all of us have to give an account to ourselves, even if many people may not be aware of this problem today, but sooner or later you will encounter it, and you must give yourself an account for this ultimate problem.
Of course, this explanation is not necessarily the truth or the correct answer, but at least it will be self-justifying. From my point of view, if I can never give myself an answer, then for me, the task of life will not be completed, or I will not be reconciled.
So in the past few years, I have adjusted my reading direction, read more books related to this issue, and started to read in a different direction.
To sum up, I strongly agree with one truth: the library is the gym of the brain.
In addition to reading, I also have a hobby in the past ten years is sports, and the formation of my exercise habit is precisely because of reading. Why? Because when I was young, I continued to study recklessly, too uncontrollably, which brought about a very big consequence, probably a nervous breakdown, my sleep quality, physical quality became very poor, and I was out of breath when I climbed two or three floors. I was in my twenties and thirties, and I was horrible.
But sometimes, the good and the bad are really dialectical. Although my health became very poor because of my studies, the good thing is that I realized this problem when I was in my twenties and thirties. I learned from the pain and began to focus on exercise.
Reading and sports seem to be incompatible, but in fact, the logic behind them has a lot in common. If we want strength in our arms, do 100 push-ups a day, and if we want to give strength to our legs, then squat against the wall and squat for 5 minutes a day. If we want to have a strong heart and lungs, you run or swim for half an hour every day.
In the same way, if you want the brain's thinking to be powerful and the brain to be powerful, then read a book for an hour or two a day, and you stick to it for more than ten years, decades, and see what the results will be.
The process of reading a book is a process of repeated training of the brain. The most basic unit of brain structure is neurons, which can enrich and activate neurons through persistent reading and critical thinking training. Brain circuits can be repeated to strengthen brain circuits. In the long run, it is natural to develop the strongest brain, so I say that the library is the gym of the brain.