Economic Wisdom to Apply in Your Twenties

Chapter 9

Chapter 1 Section 2 Who doesn't want to become a handsome man and a beautiful woman
South Korea only has a population of over 4000 million, but it is known as the "big plastic surgery country" in the world. In 1990, the number of Korean plastic surgeons was only 276, but by 2005 it had exceeded 1100.There are countless beauty salons. Authorities in the Korean industry estimate that the value of South Korea's "beauty industry" is as high as 120 billion US dollars, including plastic surgery, cosmetics, diet food, and fitness clubs.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Korean men, women and children join the ranks of beauty care together.Even Roh Moo-hyun, the former president of South Korea, has undergone plastic surgery twice. He hopes that his good looks will help him win the hearts of the people.It is reported that 70% of parents in South Korea agree with their children to have plastic surgery.Many respondents to the survey believed that appearance played a huge role in success in life.Almost all respondents believe that appearance has a direct relationship with job interview results.80% of people admit that they judge people by their appearance when evaluating each other, and 87% think that appearance affects interpersonal relationships.

Not only Korean people, I believe that you, who are in your twenties, must also be deeply touched by the influence of appearance.Appearance has a considerable impact on our choice of friends, love and social status, and may also directly affect employment, promotion and career development.

If you've ever been job hunting, it's easy to understand this phenomenon: good-looking, attractive job candidates are always more likely to be favored.According to expert surveys, many college graduates in our country have undergone cosmetic plastic surgery, most of whom are girls, but there are also many boys who have quietly joined.Graduates hope to use their beautiful appearance to increase their self-confidence in the fierce competition for job hunting.

In 1994, labor economists Daniel (Daniel) and Jeff (Jeff) examined the personal survey data of the United States and Canada, rated the appearance of the interviewees, and then examined the relationship between wages and their appearance, education, and work experience. For men and women, attractive people earn 5% more than average people, and average people earn 5% to 10% more than unattractive people.

We should admit that beauty can indeed bring high benefits to enterprises.In some high-profit industries, such as show business, TV host, and modeling industry, face and figure are very important.In other industries, a good appearance is undoubtedly a "burning agent" for success.For example, a beautiful service industry can attract more guests to restaurants, beautiful teachers are more popular with students, patients are more satisfied with the services of beautiful medical staff, and beautiful reporters may get more opportunities to ask questions during press conferences.

Relevant studies have pointed out that good-looking men and women, even if they live behind the scenes, are also economically beneficial.When an employer decides to hire a candidate, it not only depends on whether he has the professional knowledge required for the job, but also pays attention to whether he can integrate into the enterprise well, deal with customers well, and get along well with colleagues.In the language of economics, the cost of hiring an employee is not only determined by the salary paid to the employee (explicit cost), but also related to the happiness of colleagues (implicit cost).The harder it is for new employees to get along with, the worse the working environment is, and the lower the happiness of colleagues, and correspondingly, the company needs to increase wages to offset employee dissatisfaction in order to retain talents, thereby indirectly increasing the cost of hiring new employees .And the less attractive the co-workers are, the lower the cost the company pays, as the happiness of most employees increases.As an economically rational person, the employer will naturally choose the employee with the lowest relative cost.

Furthermore, beauty is a scarce resource.According to economics, resources are scarce relative to human needs.In particular, resources that are innately decisive, such as beautiful women, are even scarcer.Rare things are more expensive, and the market follows the law of resource allocation, so it is not surprising that such scarce resources as beauty are charged high prices.

However, beauty is not everything.Economists believe that the income difference of people depends on the individual differences of people, that is, the differences in abilities, diligence and opportunities.Beauty is also one of the differences.In addition, beauty includes innate endowment and acquired cultivation.Part of the natural ability is good looks and body shape, which can enable attractive people to pursue careers that are difficult for ordinary people, such as actors or models.In addition, beauty also includes personal temperament, which is the expression of a person's inner cultivation and culture.If an externally beautiful person lacks temperament, internal cultivation, and rude manners, will we still consider him "beautiful"?On the contrary, if an externally ordinary person has self-cultivation and connotation, and cultivates an inner "intellectual beauty", he will also be loved by everyone.Zhao Benshan's "pig kidney face" does not affect the people's love for him!
In addition, with the passage of time, the marginal utility of beauty tends to decrease, while people with average looks, relying on their own efforts to struggle, the experience and talents they have accumulated will not decrease the marginal utility with the passage of time, on the contrary. Over time, the increment presents a tendency to elapse.

After reading this, if you are a person with a good image, then congratulations for taking the first step to success; if you have a good temperament, then you must be a very sought-after "commodity".If you have no inherent advantages in appearance, or you have been obsessed with professional research, work, and business warfare for a long time, then you can't ignore the appearance modification, and your self-confidence and optimism will also become your permanent charm.

Wisdom Pieces: Five Ways to Add Points to Your Image
1. Pack yourself: Clothes help others value your performance.
2. Emphasize characteristics: Be confident in your appearance and project a strong image.
3. Have your own "logo": You might as well try the sunglasses of Bono, the lead singer of U2 band, so that you can have a unique logo.
4. Pay attention to "soft power": attract people with your unique insights into things.
5. Sharpen eloquence: It is also very important to be thoughtful and good at self-promotion.

(End of this chapter)