Be a Man and Do Things Pillow Book

Chapter 20 Be a down-to-earth person (1)
Develop your own skills.

Once a German TV station proposed a high-paying solicitation for a "10-second thrilling shot" campaign.Many journalists flocked to this, and the solicitation activities became the focus of people's attention for a while.Among the many entries, a shot named "Lying Down" won the championship with an absolute advantage.

The author of this 10-second shot is an unknown young man who has just stepped into work. Everyone is eager to see this work.

A few weeks later, the award-winning work was broadcast on the strong program of the TV station.

That night, most people sat in front of the TV and watched this set of shots. At first, they were waiting, curious or discussing. After 10 seconds, every pair of eyes was filled with tears.

It is no exaggeration to say that Germany was silent for 10 minutes after those 10 seconds.

The shot is like this: At a railway station, a switchman is walking to his post to turn the switch for a train that is approaching slowly.At this time, on the other side of the track, there was another train approaching the station from the opposite direction.If he didn't pull the switch in time, the two trains would collide.

At this time, he looked back inadvertently, and found that his son was playing at the other end of the railroad track, and the train that started to enter the station was driving on this railroad track.Whether to save his son, or to avoid a disaster, he has too little time to choose.At that moment, he majestically yelled to his son, "Lie down." At the same time, he rushed over and pulled the switch.

In the blink of an eye, the train entered the predetermined track.

On the other side, the train roared past.

The passengers on the train didn't know that their lives were at stake; they also didn't know that a little life was lying on the side of the railroad track as the train roared past, and the child was not injured at all.That scene happened to be captured by a reporter passing by.

People guessed that the switchman must be a very good man.

Later, people gradually realized that the switchman was an ordinary person.

His only advantage is that he is devoted to his duties and never misses a second of work.

What is even more unexpected is that his son is a mentally handicapped child.

He told reporters that he told his son over and over again: "There are too few jobs you can do when you grow up, and you must have one that is outstanding."

The son couldn't understand his father's words, and he was still stupid, but at the moment when his life was at stake, he "fell down". This is the only thing he understood and did best when he was playing war games with his father excellent action.

A down-to-earth person knows that at least one skill must be excellent in his work, and perhaps it is this excellent skill that will bring you unexpected success.

Good at learning and summarizing.

Someone has made a statistic that among the Fortune 1970 companies in the world that were selected every year by the U.S. "Fortune" magazine, about two-thirds of the top 2000 companies in the world in 0 had disappeared by [-]. The average lifespan is less than [-] years.Most of the reasons for the failure of the company are that the obstacles to organizational learning hinder the learning and growth of the organization, causing the organization to be eroded by a huge invisible force and eventually swallowed up.The same is true for individuals, if you do not develop your learning ability, you will eventually be swallowed up by the invisible forces of the entire society.

Down-to-earth work does not mean being complacent. A down-to-earth person should have the courage to challenge new things and new knowledge, because in the era of knowledge economy, if you do not make progress, it means you are being eliminated.

The five disciplines created by MIT professor Peter Senge are our five learning directions:
First, through self-transcendence, the "upward tension" can be stretched, the "upper limit of growth" can be broken, and the dream in the heart can be continuously realized.

Second, by improving the mental model, you can eliminate the "stubborn stone hidden deep in your heart", realize "spiritual transformation", and open a "window to see the world again".

Third, by establishing a common desire, we can find the value of life, find out the gap between reality and ideal, and live out the meaning of life.

Fourth, through team learning, we can treat each other with sincerity, realize communication in in-depth talks, and improve IQ in interaction.

Fifth, through systematic thinking, we can clear up the fog of thought and see the world we face more clearly.

Eternal career requires persistent persistence.

Success itself is alluring, but the pursuit of it can be tiresome.Therefore, a down-to-earth person is also a person who is good at persistence.

The process of pursuing a career is always full of drama. At the beginning, it always makes people see the dawn of success, but when the critical moment comes, some unexpected difficulties will come, which will cause you to lose confidence in the pursuit.Therefore, those who are eager to succeed must persevere.

But many people often take one less step, and the result is that success belongs to others.

The starting point of all success is desire, but in the process of turning desire into success, perseverance is one of the most important personality characteristics of a person.Most successful people like to say they are ruthless.In fact, they are just able to calmly face every critical moment in the progress of their careers.It is precisely because of this that they can steadily pursue their goals under difficult circumstances.

However, some people lack such a personality. They always have strong desires but weak wills.Therefore, when encountering a situation that is not conducive to them, they will let their fragile wills fiddle until the goal they pursue becomes a distant shadow in memory.

However, this weakness in human nature can be made up for. For example, strong desires can make up for the fragility of the will.Entrepreneurial experience tells us that as much desire as there is will generally bring about as much results.If you find that your will is being challenged by difficulty, you may wish to consciously light the flame of desire to motivate your will.There is a rule: all the rivers in the world flow towards the ocean.The same is true of wealth, which is also a never-ending movement towards the sea of ​​people's desires.

Someone analyzed the personalities of one hundred millionaires and found that most successful people have the following characteristics:

They have the habit of making up their minds quickly, but it is very difficult for them to change their original minds.Losers are just the opposite.

Why?Because the character of successful people determines that they have the courage to persevere, and they are waiting for an opportunity to bring "the original thing" back to life.They can always persist until the last second.They "make up their minds" about new ideas because they see value in them, but they don't give up on what they're doing so easily. They're decisive in making decisions and less impulsive in changing them.This is all a reflection of willpower.

Perseverance is an acquired part of human nature and can be cultivated.

Four steps in the cultivation process:
First, on the basis of determining the ambition, keep adding fuel to the fire of desire;

Second, make a practical plan so that your pursuit of success will never stop;
Third, close your heart and not be affected by all negative factors from the outside world, including the interference from your loved ones and friends;

Fourth, form strong business alliances with people who encourage you and believe in you.

If you do this, you will find that there will be a mysterious power that is strange to yourself, which can not only cheer you up, but also make difficulties bow down.

"Sudden success" comes from being down-to-earth.

After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, the United States must immediately get in touch with Garcia, the leader of the Spanish Resistance Army.General Garcia has all kinds of information about the Spanish army, but he is in the dense forest of Cuba. No one knows the exact location, so he cannot be contacted.However, the President of the United States wants to get his cooperation as soon as possible.A man named Luo Wen was brought before the president, and the task of delivering the letter was given to this young man.

Along the way, Rowan was intercepted by Spanish soldiers in Jamaica, slipped through the waters of Cuba under the eyes of a careless Spanish Navy ensign, participated in guerrilla warfare in Santiago, and finally delivered the letter to Rio Bouy on the Bayamo River. Handed over to General Garcia.Rowan was thus regarded as a hero.

If you study carefully, you will find that what Rowan does does not require superb skills at all, he just moves forward step by step, which is what we often say "one step at a time".It seems very simple, he just accepted the task assigned by his superiors, and then went to do it.In other words, it was just an ordinary job of his.

Maybe you will say, I am also doing my duty every day, isn’t this just being practical?Indeed, actions and things that everyone will do but disdain to do, run through every day's work, and even if you complete such an action, you don't remember it.For example, you send documents to your superiors every day, do you remember how you sent them?This is just like the trendy concepts such as "change" and "innovation" are talked about all over the world. "Practiceness" is something that everyone can do, but have you really achieved the new meaning of "practicalness"?
Doing things in a down-to-earth manner does not mean standing still and stagnating.It requires tenacity without losing sight of the goal, always moving forward, even if it is only to extend a short, unobtrusive distance at a time.

That is to say, most of the "sudden" success comes from these small but continuous "down-to-earth" advances.

Learn to keep thinking.

After reading the content in the previous section, have you understood the real meaning of being down-to-earth?Maybe you will say, isn’t being down-to-earth just doing your job step by step?This may be true, but the practicality we want to talk about does not mean that you give up your right to think.Let's look at such a true story first.

Ms. Zhao, who majored in economics and management in college, has been in the company for half a year. Her position is an assistant to the manager, which is actually more like a handyman.Ms. Zhao is faced with all kinds of reports every day, and she only needs to copy and bind this stack of reports into a book.When the finance staff is too busy, she will go to join hands.

If it were you, faced with such a messy job that is unlikely to have development opportunities, would you just muddle along and then look for an opportunity to change jobs?Let's take a look at Miss Zhao's approach.

When copying and binding the reports, she first carefully reviewed the filling methods of various reports, and gradually analyzed the company's expenses with economic methods, and combined with some of the company's ongoing projects to infer the company's economic management.When she worked for the eighth month, Ms. Zhao reported some unreasonable economic strategies within the company in writing, and put forward corresponding rectification suggestions.Now she is already the top decision-maker of the company.

It is clear that processing and analyzing the trivial matters of daily life embodies a person's agency.That is to say, in simple movements, you must independently develop the connotations you have.You need to be able to analyze and think calmly in very messy things, so that you can sublimate what you do to success.Otherwise, no matter how down-to-earth you are, day after day is just a simple repetition.

Now, you should be able to understand the practical meaning from a deeper level, remember, don't forget to think.

Be able to seize every opportunity.

Facts have proved that as long as you are young and smart, as long as you have ambition, as long as you desire to succeed, you should work hard.However, when you are working hard, are you also wasting the opportunities that belong to you?

Many people believe in "one chance" or "if I make it, it will come" because they don't see it.It's a frightening belief, and yet it's so pervasive in the collective consciousness of some people that it's become a cliché.When they do that, it's as if they're telling themselves and the world, "My creative years are over. My mission is done. My life is done." It's nonsense.

"Reliable" does not mean a dull mind and a lack of competitive awareness, on the contrary, it puts forward higher requirements for these.At work, you need to constantly discover and seize opportunities.Based on this, you need to do the following five things:
Develop the habit of mastering and obtaining a large amount of information;
Cultivate inspiration to seize opportunities;
Make scientific reasoning and accurate judgment;
decisiveness;

Learn about the success stories of other successful people.

Down-to-earth people are not passive people.On the road to success, every opportunity will knock gently on your door.Don't wait for an opportunity to open the door for you because the bolt is on your side.Opportunity doesn't come running and say "Hello", it just tells you "Stand up and move forward".

Be good at spotting opportunities.Many opportunities are like dusty pearls, and people cannot see their gorgeous and precious essence at a glance.A down-to-earth person is not one who waits blindly. He must learn to wipe away the dust that blinds his eyes for opportunities.

Practical is not the same as simple obedience and forbearance.There is no opportunity to see your success or failure in the future, and this is the beauty of life.Success without hard work is as dull as a cold case movie where the real murderer is known from the beginning.Compare the opportunities with your own abilities, hold on to the ones that are suitable, and learn to give up the ones that are not suitable.Treat opportunities wisely, and treat life wisely.The key to being "down to earth" to stand out is finding the right opportunity to "show" yourself.

Dare to face any setbacks in life.

Some people understand steadfastness as not making mistakes, thinking about work, walking on thin ice, they will not approach mistakes, let alone take risks.They see mistakes as defeat, destruction, death and annihilation.They are so focused on not making mistakes that they almost completely forget what they want to win.Not making mistakes turned into a victory.You ask these people, "What did you win?" They often say with pride, "I don't know, but at least I didn't make mistakes." People who only want to make no mistakes become rigid, inflexible, and arbitrary.They believe that "persistence" can get what they want.If what they want is not to make mistakes, they tend not to make mistakes.However, if they want to win, they must learn to face all kinds of mistakes and setbacks.

We will definitely encounter some unavoidable things, even mistakes, in our work.Every time you have to muster up the courage to come out from the lowest point, there is no trough again and again, and you can't get the breeze from a higher place.Have you ever seen a fallen elephant?Elephants have always been shown as standing, walking or running.But it can also get sick.At this time, the elephant should also maintain a standing posture.Why?The enormous weight of the elephant determines all this.Once it falls down, the huge internal organs will squeeze each other, coupled with the weight of the elephant itself, it will cause more damage to itself.So, unless it reaches the end of its life, an elephant will not fall down.Please also insist on facing up to the mistakes, maybe after a second, it will be clear.

"Practiceness" is not a talisman, and you cannot rely on it to insulate yourself from mistakes.Everyone can make mistakes, but learn from them, not just stumble.It's not that the more you fall, the faster you grow.

Have the courage to stick to your goals.

In the 20s, there was a female swimmer who vowed to become the first person in the world to cross the English Channel.In order to achieve this goal, she practiced constantly and prepared for this historic moment.

The day has finally come.

The female contestants swaggered confidently, and then, under the watchful eyes of many media reporters, they jumped into the sea with confidence and headed towards the opposite shore, Britain.

At the beginning of the journey, the weather was very good, and the female contestants were very happy to advance towards the goal.

But as it got closer and closer to the opposite shore, thick fog formed on the sea, and it became thicker and thicker, almost to the point where you couldn't see your fingers.

The female contestant is in the vast sea, completely lost her sense of direction, and she doesn't know how far she has to go before going ashore.

The more she swam, the more guilty she felt, and more and more exhausted.In the end she finally gave up.

When the lifeboat rescued her, she realized that she only had to swim more than 100 meters to reach the shore.

Everyone felt sorry for her, she was so close to success.

She expressed emotion to many media: "It's not that I am making excuses for myself. If I know that there are only more than 100 meters left to the goal, I will definitely be able to stick to the end and complete the goal."

Yes, maybe she would have succeeded with just a little more persistence, but just one step away, the result is completely different.People often stagnate at a place where there is still a little distance from success, but that place is still called failure.

Maybe you will be dissatisfied with the status quo of your job, maybe you will have no confidence in an unfinished plan, maybe you will have a grudge against your delay in being promoted...

At this time, maybe you will choose to leave angrily and give up seemingly chicly.However, you also lose a lot of what you are about to gain.

It's better to hold on, what should be yours is yours.

Let the right plan guide your actions.

People often linger in one place for a long time under the banner of down-to-earth work, and still can't make any progress after a long time.This is mostly because their goals are vague, or somewhere in between, is vacillating.A clear goal is not easy to give up.Down-to-earth work is not to repeat over and over again, but to reach your ideal height.Being down-to-earth is not just to advance step by step, but to continuously achieve goals and further create goals.

(End of this chapter)