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

Chapter 5 Common Sense of Thinking--80% of success is won by thinking (4)
This is one of the most powerful thinking principles for everyone.Its essence is: we need to find the key part in the complicated things, get rid of the redundant part, and hit the core of the problem, and then you will be successful—successfully solve a problem, successfully accomplish one thing, successfully Manage an organization.This is "successful thinking", which is so simple that people dare not imagine it, so they are always used to doing a lot of useless work to prove that they "paid a lot", thinking that based on so much effort-"I closer to success."This is just wrong.

Occam's razor law in management also talks about this point: "If there is no need, don't add entities." This is closely related to the path of thinking, and the two are interlinked.It is reflected in our brain as an advanced compound IQ, which is the ability to think and solve problems shown by a person in a complex environment and in the face of multiple challenges and high pressure.If you can quickly calm down in such an environment, follow the correct common sense and start thinking, think of the most powerful method and execute it immediately, then you are a person with successful characteristics, and there is a place for you in this world.On the contrary, it will be difficult for you to deal with complex situations, and you may often mess things up and have to ask others for help.

In fact, many things in our lives are very simple and can be handled in one step.But all because people's overly complex thinking and concerns become a mess, and the result is that a small thing becomes a big thing.David Hadlow once said to me: "Grand, efficiency comes from simplicity, not complexity. When encountering problems, don't think too much, it's easier to handle." During more than ten years of work, the I take this sentence seriously.When you revisit it later, you will find that most of the things we did were meaningless.It's just that I didn't have the ability and energy to think of this at the time, and I always realized it after the fact.

Brook immigrated to the United States with her husband ten years ago. They have a stable job and a happy life. Although they have three children who have not yet gone to school, they spend a lot of money, but there is no pressure.But the good times didn't last long. Brooke's husband died suddenly due to an asthma attack, and her life changed completely from then on.The main source of income for the family is gone, and the children still need to be taken care of.This is tantamount to the tragedy of life, but Brooke was not knocked down.

Ten years later, instead of living on the streets or living on subsistence allowances, as people expected, she has become an executive of a company with an annual turnover of tens of billions of dollars.what is the reason?It was Brooke's attitude towards life, she adopted the most powerful method and solved the complex dilemma she faced in the simplest way.

"I know I'll never have enough time, so I have to learn not to freak out about the little things so I can focus on the big things," Brooke said with a laugh.
First, she no longer does the housework herself, but outsources it and hires someone to come and clean it.

Second, she paid the nanny more to prepare the family's dinner by the way, and she didn't ask for it to be rich and delicate.

Thirdly, she has developed a good habit of keeping records. She asks her children to write down everything that needs to be purchased, post it in one place, and then hire hourly workers to buy it.In this regard, one of her important principles is: "Accept that other people's choices are different from your own." Of course, there will be unsatisfactory things when you authorize others to buy things, but you must accept it to save time and energy.

Fourth, when traveling, she always chooses a place, and then takes the children to live for a few days, and play safely without spending all her energy on the road.

Fifth, at work, she sets her own work priorities, empowers her colleagues and subordinates as much as possible, and only does the most important things to control the efficiency of her work.This not only allowed her to handle the work in an orderly manner, but also won her popularity and cultivated a large number of excellent subordinates.

Brooke is strong because she is intelligently aware of an important question in life: Do I go in the direction I think I know, or do I feel inferior?She has a powerful decompression ability, and also has an efficient decompression method.She made complicated things simple and saved her life.

In contrast to Brooke, one of my clients in Southern California, Mr. Felegnin, died in his "excellent" ability to complicate simple things. Seven years ago, when his company was established, it once had tens of millions of dollars in assets and was the most famous local machinery export agency; he employed more than a thousand employees, owned more than a dozen luxury cars, and lived in two A large house of 7 square meters.Unfortunately, the federal government later introduced a bill restricting technology transfer, and the door to the market for exporting precision machinery to the third world was closed.

At this time, Mr. Felegnin faced two very simple choices: switch the market to Central American countries such as Mexico, which is the backyard of the United States, and are not included in the restrictions of the bill; or change his agency products and switch to other markets ( His company has such capabilities).Either way, he could have weathered the storm, brought the company back to life, and returned to profitability.This is exactly the strategy I recommended to him.

However, Felegnin was very angry.This is contrary to his ideal. He hopes to become the largest machinery export agent in the United States monopolizing the Asia, Africa and Latin America markets. He even has the ambition to enter the military industry market.So he decided to spend more money asking us to publicize the federal bill.

He said: "Grande, I need a broker, he must help me open the exit joint, I am willing to pay any money, as long as I continue to let me export."
I told him it wasn't going to work, that the US Congress wasn't a Mexican drug dealer, and it just needed a few dollars to buy the way.My firm turned him down, and he went to Washington to find other firms—PR firms that claimed to have strong connections in Congress.Obviously, Felegnin failed.He spent tens of millions of dollars in two years, and all he got was a sentence of illusory promises like castles in the air.He also launched a media war, inviting many first-class media people across the United States to write gorgeous news reports, questioning and attacking Congress' decisions.

None of this worked.Fegelenin's career became a mess, old markets were lost and new ones were not created.Not only has the company lost revenue, but its expenses are growing day by day.What happened next was predictable. Employees left one after another because they could not pay their salaries, the bank came to call for loan repayments, and the media also exposed rumors of his drug use.

Three years ago, Felegnin went bankrupt.He regretted it later. In the email he wrote to me, he was full of confession: "If I could have made a decisive decision earlier, I would not even lose my house now. If I were given another chance, I will definitely tell myself to calm down and not be fooled by people's instigation. What I thought I should do now seems to be a trap."
Complicated thinking and procedures will only kill our efficiency, and many problems people face come from "complicating everything".Simple will be happy, simple will be efficient.Similarly, only simplicity can save us time and use the extra time for other aspects.Compared with others, you have relatively more time to allocate.

What is the solution?
1. Start with the way of life, start with the way you like;
2. Make everything in order, instead of worrying about it endlessly;

3. What is missing?Either fix it now, or never think about it again;
4. When doing the same thing, ensure that you can do it better than the other 80% in less time;
5. Cultivate your own core skills, even if there is only one, or only do one thing well;

6. Possess curiosity and inquiry spirit, and pursue the efficiency of one-shot success;

7. Do what you like, love your work, this is the foundation;

8. Observe, learn and practice: learn from winners, have the same efficient thinking style as them, observe their style and way of seeing things, and then make yourself like that.

AutoNavi Survey: Winning in Mind

thinking is mental ability
Mental models were created by psychologist Cohen in the 20s and have been widely used in various fields and become a common term.For the past 40 years, we have been investigating people's understanding of mental models and their impact on life, emotion and career.

Mental ability is the embodiment of the depth of thinking, and also represents people's ability to understand and apply common sense.It refers to people's understanding of themselves, others, organizations and the world around them, as well as their thinking and conclusions.The mind is deeply limited by people's habitual thinking, thinking patterns and prior knowledge.Usually it also represents a kind of taken-for-granted and accustomed cognition in people's brains.

Roosevelt: "Honor does not belong to those who are cynical, nor to those who judge the strong, and those who think they are smart "after the fact."——The mind is a calm force.

Mark Twain: "To explore, to dream, to discover."—The mind is activism, the ambition to explore.

George Patton: "If you have courage, you will make strides forward." - The mind is brave and adventurous.

Buffett: "Enter the market when others are fearful, and leave the market when others are greedy."——Mind is a unique decision-making ability.

Mental models determine our common sense of thinking
In research, psychologists have found that mental models have seven typical characteristics:

1. Everyone has their own unique mental model, that is, thinking habits;

2. It determines the perspective of people observing things and the judgments and conclusions drawn from it;
3. It determines the strength of people's thinking ability and the difference in behavior;
4. It is the main basis for people to see the world and whether they are confident;

5. It is incomplete and imperfect, and everyone's mental model is flawed;

6. It affects people's behavior results, and also strengthens people's behavioral will;

7. It is not affected by the effect. Sometimes people know that there is a problem with their mind, and they will not make improvements, but let it continue to control their thinking.

How can we improve our mental models?
Mitchell, a psychological consultant of Gaode Company, said: "There are two main ways. You can reflect on yourself and use reflection and self-criticism to improve. You can also compare with others and compare your mental models in comparison. Perfection. No matter which way you use, people should understand that the mental model is so important to you, it determines our thinking principles, cognitive methods, and controls the way we see the world."
People often learn about the world by asking, "Why is it the way it is, and what should I do?" This is where the mind begins to function.Excellent mental ability allows us to establish a positive attitude towards life, overcome difficulties, stimulate potential, and achieve extremely high achievements in life and career.Instead, it makes you run your life terribly -- and you don't know why.

What do you think about the influence of mental ability on us?

Claywell (male, entrepreneur in California): I think mental ability is the prerequisite for managers to achieve self-transcendence and lead the enterprise to achieve transcendence.Because it will reflect different characteristics in different people and companies.For example, a manager’s level of culture, psychology, and awareness determine his level of management; employees’ knowledge structure, work experience, and personality characteristics also determine their level of integration into the team.At the same time, group minds have common aspects, relative consistency and difference.

Mona (female, freelancer): I often recognize the bad mental models I have, and I always remind them to correct those biases, so as to improve self-control and deal with my career.For example, when I think about being lazy, I think that this is a shortcoming that will hurt my work and clients, and then I will immediately restrain myself and make a work and rest plan.Different people will react completely differently to this.

Mr. Li (male, manager of a company in Beijing): I sometimes feel that I am a leader, and my subordinates have to listen to what I say. At least they should not contradict me face to face. This is the embodiment of a bad mental model.This messed with my career for a long time, and the employees were very resentful towards me.I rationalized my judgment, and when my subordinates had different suggestions, I desperately defended my authority and suppressed them. This habit has killed me badly.When I noticed this problem, I made a plan to correct it.

(End of this chapter)