Common sense wins the world: the common secret of successful people

Chapter 10 Common Sense of Competition--The Skills a Winner Must Possess (1)
Competition is inherent and is the ultimate life lesson that everyone has to face.Let yourself have the common sense of competition, master the principles of competition, and crack the code of competition, which is an essential quality for a person or even an enterprise to continue to grow.In today's world, you must know how to compete smartly, understand the nature of modern competition, learn the rules of rational competition, and teach yourself a new common sense lesson related to competition in order to gain an advantage in the cruel game.

How can we win in this new era of hypercompetition, full of opportunities and risks?
Actively cooperate with the strong

Competition is essentially the scramble and possession of resources.People’s traditional common sense is that resources are limited, so they can only monopolize them—letting others take them means losing them; only by monopolizing them can we strengthen ourselves and attack our opponents.

Just like Mr. Li, a Chinese entrepreneur, said to me: "The shopping mall is like a battlefield. I am fighting to the death with my opponent. I cannot compromise. If I compromise, he will eat me and make me bankrupt." However, Mr. Li pursues the law of the jungle. The law of the jungle, carrying a gun and jumping a horse, galloping in the mall, no one is convinced, what is the result?He was in the cosmetics business in Nanjing, and he had been fighting openly and secretly with his main competitor for 20 years, but no one won. Instead, another company seized the opportunity of their infighting and entered the local market.The snipe and the clam competed, and the fisherman benefited. This company became the largest cosmetics wholesaler in Nanjing in one fell swoop.

This at least shows that Mr. Li's understanding of competition is wrong, at least not at all times.This is because after entering the information society, people have a more detailed division of labor, and resources are more shared—resources are no longer exclusive.On the contrary, the more people own it, the greater its value.On the basis of limited resources, they also have the characteristics of unlimited, which depends on how we create them.It is this new feature that determines that people need cooperation more when they compete, and timely cooperation has become the main competitive strategy that people must choose.

If the common sense of competition in the past was to pursue a win-win situation, then the common sense of competition today is to pursue a win-win situation.

Common sense 1: If you can't beat your opponent, cooperate with him and join his camp.

Common sense 2: The pursuit of modern competition is not "life and death", but "hello, me, hello, everyone".

Common sense 3: Cooperation is not only necessary, but also the basis for a win-win situation, especially cooperation with the strong, which is the only way to make you stronger.

When conducting research for Mr. Li's company, I asked him to take time to learn more about the two domestic video giants Youku and Tudou.Youku announced in January 2012 that it would sue Tudou for "unfair competition".But after only two months, the two companies compromised and integrated. Youku and Tudou, which respectively occupy the top two market shares, announced their merger and became one.

"Why did they go from hostility to cooperation?"
Mr. Li was quite sober about other people's affairs. He replied: "It is determined by the market. The online video market has always been a battleground. There are many competitors. Although Youku and Tudou are in the leading positions, they are not safe. This industry It is a well-known money-burning black hole, and the cost is constantly increasing. I think they all have certain losses. If they do not merge to deal with the pursuers behind them, both sides will suffer, and no one will be able to survive."
"Look, the truth is here, what about you?"
At this time, Mr. Li returned to himself, and suddenly saw his weakness—refusing to bow to the strong, determined to fight to the end.Is this kind of spirit worthy of praise, or is it a deplorable pedantry?Mr. Li's willpower is very strong, and he is also very talented in management, but competition is not a competition in the arena, not a one-on-one showdown, but a group game that combines vertical and horizontal.The person with the strongest personal ability does not necessarily have the last laugh. On the contrary, the person who is best at uniting the strong to increase his own strength can win the most drama and have the greatest chance of winning on this cruel stage.

In the competition, it has become more and more difficult for people to become winners or open up their territory easily by relying on the past concepts without updating them, because the whole world has entered an era of excessive competition.

"Excessive competition" has three distinctive features:
1. Excessive competition is a "no winner" market state.

2. Market participants are oversaturated with very low profit margins and high costs.

3. The average resources are very few, and most people are pursuing a single win, and do not want to give up any small benefits.

From looking for a job to doing business, from falling in love and getting married to competing for a parking space, and even going to your favorite restaurant to eat, you have to line up and compete for the vacancy.Everywhere we live today reeks of excessive competition.With a large population and few opportunities, more and more people are fighting for the same bowl of food.Compared with the past, whether it is employment, business or the game between countries, it is more and more difficult.In this case, you need to change your mind, change your thinking, and consider how to maximize your own interests.

For enterprises, if you improperly rely on the strong or cooperate with your opponents, you will encounter strong resistance in the competition, which will not only increase the cost, but also reduce the benefits.As time goes by, when I lack lasting financial support, I can't escape the fate of being eliminated.Many bankrupt companies have lost in this. They don't want to give up their immediate vested interests. They have no long-term vision and no consciousness of giving up profits. They try to swallow all the cakes.It seems that the ambition and appetite are not small, but the grave of failure has actually been dug.

Enterprises and individuals are facing excessive competition everywhere, and they can only achieve breakthroughs through one way-innovating thinking, changing common sense, innovating in the concept of competition, and turning around in the concept of competition, in order to regain control of destiny and become yourself the master.

For example, in the merger and acquisition cooperation between IBM in the United States and Lenovo in China, under the severe situation of lack of funds and intensified market competition pressure, if IBM does not sell its notebook department, it may encounter a serious consequence: Lenovo in the Chinese market. Eat, or be defeated by other opponents.This has a negative impact on its global development strategy.This result has become an even worse frame of reference for IBM.

Therefore, its partial merger with Lenovo has become an inevitable choice: instead of being divided, it is better to actively join a strongest opponent, and then swallow other weaker opponents, so as to preserve itself and wait for an opportunity to make a comeback.

Condition: When should you cooperate with the strong?

1. When your personal strength is not enough to fight the world alone.

2. When the market is saturated.

3. When there are too many competitors.

Mitchell, a psychological counselor, said: "In the more than 2 cases I have been in contact with, people fought fiercely for a foothold of less than [-] square meters in an office building, and went into battle shirtless. Today, metropolises are full of wandering lonely people. The soul, covered with spikes all over its body, looks around vigilantly and drifts alone, trusting no one, not knowing how to cooperate and share, thinking that his potential enemies are everywhere."
Some office elites may not agree with this view. These masters who are good at forming alliances know who to cooperate with to deal with internal competition.But you must know that there are not a few cannon fodder who are trampled under their feet. As Mitchell described them, they are "wandering lonely souls" in modern metropolises. They refuse to bow to the strong and blindly adhere to the ideal of independentism. Home, is falling every day on today's battlefield.

The conclusion of this common sense is that when you find that the benefits you gain by fighting alone are not as great as the benefits created by cooperation between the two parties, you should compromise with your opponents, establish mutual interests, and deal with competition together.Both businesses and individuals should find a partner for themselves, and through cooperation, both parties will be safer and stronger.In this way, both parties can make use of their strengths and avoid weaknesses, make up for each other's weaknesses, reduce costs, increase market share, and increase opportunities to improve their "profitability."

Whether you are an entrepreneur or an individual looking to make a difference in your own business, this is the strategy that works best for you.Approaching the strong, attaching to or learning from them is not to make you avoid competition, but to help you avoid falling behind prematurely or losing opportunities for improvement and transformation in the brutal competition.

Problems are not necessarily opportunities, they can be disasters
Some people think: "We will inevitably encounter problems, and it is always gratifying to have problems, because problems represent progress. As long as the problems are solved, it is equivalent to grasping new opportunities." This is a very common concept. Especially clearly reflected in some workaholics - they are optimists, never avoid difficulties, do not complain about the environment, but look for solutions to problems.Sometimes they even hope that some problems will happen to their work, and then use their ingenuity to solve them.They are eager to challenge difficult situations, as if they were born to fight problems.Because this can reflect his existence and realize his value.

Not escaping and not complaining are of course great advantages, and I encourage people to be like a brave beetle, defying hardships and drilling through the hardest rock.But at the same time, the coexistence of problems and opportunities is not necessarily true.Maybe that's true in some areas, but trust me - in most situations you'll encounter, a problem is probably a "catastrophe" rather than an opportunity.For example, when there is a problem in the company's operation, the most frequent result is layoffs instead of giving you—ordinary employees—the opportunity to turn the tide.

Therefore, preventing problems is the greatest common sense, rather than grasping the opportunity to solve problems after they occur.

When I was giving training courses to the employees of ICONICS, I met Tara Pan, a Chinese-American employee who worked as an assistant to the department head.She has been working here for four years. She was an ordinary employee in the first year and was promoted to an assistant in the second year, but now three years have passed and there is still no chance of promotion.She always loses to her opponents.At least two of them came from behind, and after only a few months in the department, they were successfully promoted to other departments as deputy directors, or were sent to foreign branches to take the lead, and she was still in Massachusetts (the headquarters of Logo Technology), There is no hope of development.

"Do you often make mistakes in your work?"
I guess this is the general reason employees don't get promoted.But Tara's answer shocked me, because she had a big mistake in her understanding of work, although she is a person with excellent work ability: "I like software work, I like the sense of accomplishment of correcting mistakes, and I like to see myself The projects I have worked on have sprung up, solved the crucial BUG, ​​and become a perfect software, which is why I have been working as a technical assistant in the department?"
"In other words, you're the best at correcting mistakes."
"Yeah, I get freaked out when I see a problem, that's my thing."
"Are there any exceptions, such as because you caught some problems early and fixed them in time, and then speeded up the work process, rather than because the problems delayed the work?"
Tara said no, she lacked that vision.But she is indeed a very powerful error correction expert, so the company believes that she is a rare professional talent, but also objectively believes that she is not suitable for management work, and can only be used as a technical assistant to provide a solution for the technical department. role.Her competitors at the time of promotion showed an extraordinary side: those people were better at the overall layout, avoiding mistakes and saving costs for the company.For the latter, the bosses prefer it.

As a result, Tara's annual salary continued to increase, but her position remained stagnant.

In fact, preventing problems is more important than dealing with them——
Sometimes small mistakes are just opportunities for exercise, other times they can be catastrophic enough to destroy all efforts, so the best situation is never to make mistakes.

Preventing problems reflects your ability to foresee, which is a more outstanding trait and a person's greatest competitive advantage-he can plan ahead and run ahead.

You must establish a preventive mechanism for yourself and your business, manage the possibility of problems, and nip them in the bud, instead of showing your unparalleled firefighting ability when something goes wrong.

In an experiment with monkeys, scientists at MIT looked at the monkeys' brains, tracking changes in the same areas -- the prefrontal cortex and striatum -- that responded differently to successful and unsuccessful stimuli.It was found that nerve cells in these areas will receive successful positive stimulation, and then become more efficient, whether it is thinking or processing information, will develop in a good way; after failed stimulation, the brain in this area Activities have little positive change and sometimes even regress.

This shows that our brains are not actually like the "traditional concept", which will have a benign response of "failure is the mother of success" and transform the experience of failure into experience.At least most people do not reflect this way in terms of the thinking principle of the brain, but need the stimulation of some unexpected factors to ensure that a "problem" can be turned into an "opportunity", or a very bad "problem" can be turned into a good thing.

I said to Tara, "You're known and proud of your problem-solving skills, but luck doesn't always come your way. Your boss is very conscious, and that's why he can't promote you to important positions."
There are many people like Tara, and I often see some people growling like a tiger after losing: "Why can't I win after doing so much?"
Victor, the founder of GOPSHOW Street Show Company in Los Angeles, declared bankruptcy a few weeks ago and is preparing to start bankruptcy liquidation procedures.In fact, it is a miracle that this company can last for 1 year and 5 months. I expected that he would close the door 7 months ago and go home in despair to learn the lesson.

Victor established a close relationship with me during the preparatory stage of the company, explaining his business idea.He refuted my pessimistic forecast for the street fair industry, saying passionately: "I know people are very sentimental about the street fair market, thinking that with the development of the Internet, the end of the physical street fair is coming. But I think it is based on that Judgment, it actually contains huge opportunities. As long as I can change people's traditional prejudices through the company's creativity, I can lead the market back and set off a wave of street exhibitions. At that time, my company will be the industry leader."
Victor felt that the problems people were avoiding right now were his opportunities.AutoNavi refused to help him with financing, which did not discourage him. He was perseverant, like a fighter, and quickly found funds from other channels.He raised a total of $80.For Victor, whose personal deposits do not exceed US$5000, this is not a small sum.

He opened in August, the most suitable season for street fairs in early autumn, but soon felt the harsh reality: in the first three months, he only received one order, the amount was less than 8 US dollars, and he undertook a century-old history of a famous local family. street fair.Then, his company fell into a long silence, like a wireless telegraph without power.No business, not even phone callers.His employees even joked: "Boss, let's just rent out the office equipment, and we can earn back the cost of working meals every day."
He began to face a series of problems: rent, personnel salary, equipment depreciation, and of course the increasing pressure from investors... Finally, Victor said in puzzlement, "Why can't I do it while others can?"
The answer is actually very simple, because he did not foresee the danger before he failed, but took the initiative to meet it like a fighter and even created difficulties for himself, thinking that as long as he jumped out of this huge dark pit, he would be like a god. Immortal.

When will this wrong cognition disappear in the human world?The really smart people can take steps to prevent problems from arising, steer their ship carefully, avoid reefs and eddies as much as possible, or solve problems in time when they are small.Because they know that if there is a problem, it means that they are deficient in a certain aspect, and it is a mistake in the work.Even a small mistake can cost a lot of energy, human or financial resources.Even if it can be solved well, it must have delayed the process and broken the original plan. This is not something to be proud of.

Prepare for the best, expect the worst
There is a saying: "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst." This truth is very simple, and everyone knows it, but it is difficult to practice.Because many people always hope for the best and prepare for the best. Although they have psychological expectations for the worst situation, they are limited to this, and they seldom make careful preparations and plans.When the worst happens, they are helpless and can only deal with it passively.

Over the past few years, AutoNavi Research has helped many angel investors identify potential projects and find trustworthy financiers and entrepreneurs.We get a ton of business proposals, almost a million by now.But over 95% of the business plans I've seen are substandard, or those guys are "totally untrustworthy".Because they only thought of the most optimistic results, only saw the bright future, and did not prepare for the worst, even the awareness of this aspect is seriously lacking.

"I have made all the preparations, and now I am only short of money. If I have enough money, my project will definitely make a profit."
"I was the first to think of this idea. Believe me, as long as the money is in place, we can establish a monopoly advantage and become a giant enterprise in this field."
"You will never lose money, and the return on investment must be beyond your imagination. I think it will pay for itself within 12 months, and achieve a return of more than 2 times within 5 years!"
(End of this chapter)