The difference between doing business and working
Today, I read a customer's log and had deep feelings, so I transferred it to my space to share with friends.
I find that many friends have a strong resistance to entrepreneurship. They are passionate about starting their own business but at the same time worry about the tragic fate after failure. So many friends think for a long time and finally decide to wait and see. Month after month, year after year, time flows by, they are deeply indulged in the career of working, getting married, providing housing, the economic shackles on their bodies become increasingly heavy, unable to fight again, and finally have to accept their fate of working all their lives.
The people of Wenzhou in China are known as the richest group in China. I know several young friends from Wenzhou. When they were still in college, their concepts were extraordinary. Their favorite words were: "Rather sleep on the floor than be a boss" or "Rather do business and make only 1000 yuan a month than work for 3000 yuan a month."
These concepts are believed to be warnings given by their elders in life, and through constant exposure, they have become the standards by which they act. These standards are some concepts, and these concepts differ greatly from the thinking concepts of many other places. Even if there are similar choices now, I estimate that many friends would make choices opposite to theirs.
However, this concept is very advanced. It is precisely such a concept that makes the people of Wenzhou outstanding and the richest group in China. "Thinking determines the way out"!! Many people have heard this sentence, but they forget it instantly. However, the reality around me constantly verifies this truth!
In my university, there was a female classmate who was the only person from Wenzhou in the class. She was not beautiful, didn't study hard, and her parents ran a leather shoe factory, so they were financially comfortable. In the class, she always ranked in the middle or lower in exams. She liked to show off when she had money, was quite arrogant, so male classmates didn't pursue her, and female classmates looked down on her.
But this girl loved to boast that within five years after graduation, she would buy a BMW car and give it to her future husband as a wedding gift. Everyone thought she was daydreaming and disliked her even more.
However, this girl's behavior was different. Others were busy taking exams and improving their knowledge reserve for better job opportunities in the future, while she disliked studying the most. What she liked the most was setting up a stall at the gate of the college at night, selling some cheap trinkets from nearby small commodity markets, shouting loudly to sell them, not making much money. Later, she sold tanghulu (Chinese candy apples), then bought a pressure cooker herself and made popcorn at night, charging two yuan per pot. She mixed like this until graduation and actually claimed herself that she earned nearly 20,000 yuan in four years of university.
After graduation, she didn't look for a job but went directly to Hangzhou Silk Street and opened a small store with the help of relatives. Three years later, it was said that she became rich. At the class reunion, she actually came in a Honda car.
What does this real-life example explain? It explains that this girl's concept was more advanced. While others were working hard for postgraduate studies, learning, and validating things, she was determined to do business and never thought of working in the future. As a result, she became what people call a successful person a few years after graduation, while other classmates with higher comprehensive qualities than her either got a salary of one or two thousand yuan a month or just graduated from graduate school and were desperately looking for jobs.
This shows that different choices determine different fates, and different ways of thinking determine different futures! This girl had average intelligence and an ordinary personality, and she wasn't beautiful. But the only precious thing was her relatively advanced concept. She was determined to start her own business and persisted in it, making more progress than those classmates who obtained master's or doctoral degrees.
Looking back, let's talk about the people of Wenzhou and Sichuan in the 1980s. The farmers of Wenzhou and Sichuan in the 1980s were among the first groups to start exploring. The way Wenzhou farmers explored China was by repairing umbrellas, pens, iron pots, or reselling miscellaneous goods, wandering everywhere.
The way Sichuan farmers explored was by directly going to Guangdong to work. Those who dared to explore in the 1980s were brave because information was not developed and transportation was not convenient in that era, and people had deep fears about the outside world.
Both Sichuan and Wenzhou people had courage and grandeur, but due to different ways of thinking, they took different paths to wealth.
Twenty-nine years have passed, and Wenzhou farmers have become the richest group in China. They have mastered the most absorbent business skills in China, and their wealth can even allow their descendants to go abroad and do business in Europe.
On the other hand, the first generation of migrant workers from Sichuan has retreated from the historical stage. Most of them continue to live in poverty in their hometowns in Sichuan, and their younger generations follow in their parents' footsteps, crowding into Guangzhou and enduring cruel exploitation from bosses, becoming one of the poorest groups in society.
What does this indicate? Due to the different choices of the older generation, it not only affects themselves but also affects their descendants! The difficult entrepreneurship of Wenzhou farmers allowed both themselves and their descendants to completely escape poverty, while the hard work of Sichuan farmers resulted in endless sorrow and poverty for their offspring.
Thinking determines the way out, once again proven! Among the Zhejiang people, there is an economist who is remarkable. He summarized the work philosophy of the Zhejiang people: "Rather be an entrepreneurial wolf than a working dog." Of course, this statement is extreme, and many working friends don't want to hear it. But if we carefully consider, this fellow's words seem to make sense.
Wolves, in pursuit of freedom, prefer independence, free thinking, running across the vast grasslands, hunting cattle and sheep at will, enjoying all the delicacies provided by nature as much as possible. After eating their fill, they lie on the grassland, not thinking about anything, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. They are the masters of the grasslands, full of dignity.
However, when the cold arrives, they must learn to resist the harsh snowstorms, learn to find prey under thick snow, often endure the pain of hunger, and constantly worry about freezing or starving to death. The life of wolves can be described as half water, half fire.
The life of dogs, on the contrary, is different. Normally, dogs can only eat the leftovers from their owners, being ordered around and busy everywhere, without freedom or dignity, only wagging their tails and begging. The life of dogs is secure, though they never taste any delicacies, but when winter comes, they don't worry about hunger or cold, protected by their owners. Dogs detest this deeply and swear loyalty to their owners in the next life, even if the owners scold and beat them, they mostly dare not say a word because obedience and submission are the marks of dogs.
Enduring humiliation is the label of dogs. For a stable job and a fixed ration in old age, everything is accepted!
If we compare the lives of people in real life, I estimate most of us lead the life of dogs—stable and comfortable, but never fully satisfied. We want to leave the doghouse of our employers but lack the courage to fight to the last stand!
I feel that the career choice of young people today is mostly to be a working dog rather than an entrepreneurial wolf. Many friends might say, how can students right out of school have the capital and experience to start a business? The best choice is to work in a company for a few years, accumulate some experience and funds, and then start their own business after a few years if there's an opportunity.
Actually, this idea proves to be wrong. After working in a unit for a few years, not only do you not earn enough money for starting a business, but you also fail to learn the necessary experience and skills for entrepreneurship.
The things learned in a working life are basically useless for entrepreneurship because the perspectives are different, the thinking methods are different, and the experiences gained are also different. You can only say that after a few years of working, the only improvement you gain is the skills of working, but what entrepreneurship needs the least is technical skills.
Even worse, after a few years of working, young people generally lose the passion for entrepreneurship and the courage of youth, becoming increasingly indulged in their units and unable to extricate themselves. Later, the motivation for entrepreneurship can only remain buried in their hearts, becoming a permanent regret.
When you reach your forties and get laid off by your boss, you regret why you didn't start your own business twenty years ago!
So, are the requirements for being an entrepreneurial wolf really high?
My answer is: as long as you have the concept of being an entrepreneurial wolf, even if you only have 100 yuan in your pocket, you can still succeed in entrepreneurship! How much money did the early entrepreneurs from Wenzhou bring when they started their businesses? Didn't they earn their first money by trading eggs for iron pots? If you only have 100 yuan, you can at least set up a stall on the street, selling socks and gloves in winter, pineapples in summer, and when you have more capital, you can start a barbecue stand, etc. No matter how little money you have, you can still start an entrepreneurial path. The key is whether you want to be an entrepreneurial wolf?
A working life and an entrepreneurial life are definitely different. Over time, the personalities of workers and entrepreneurs will differ more and more.
Let's ask ourselves honestly: the longer we work, the more we feel anxious about gains and losses, fearing the unfamiliar world outside, afraid of unemployment risks, our minds becoming increasingly sensitive and weak.
Our mentality gradually becomes tired and lazy, losing our sharpness and energy. We can only comfort ourselves with contentment and indifference to fame and fortune.
But life becomes increasingly mediocre, the economic burden on the family becomes heavier, housing and children's education gradually become the economic ropes around our necks, tightening more and more, making it hard to breathe. We have to adjust our mindset and gradually adapt to the positioning of urban little crawlers, originally being mediocre people, why bother the mediocre, wealth is someone else's thing, we don't have that destiny.
The most feared event is hearing news about the company's poor performance and layoffs. The most urgent thing is to maintain good relations with the leader, keep learning to flatter and curry favor, adapting to local customs.
Our thoughts become numb, and we can only go with the flow. After all, the bowl of rice is in the hands of the leader or the boss. If they want you to leave, you have to leave.
The second most fearful thing is seeing our age increase while our work skills don't improve at all. Although our salaries increase with seniority, we see the new young graduates working vigorously for only a fraction of our salary. The boss reminds us: look at how much less the young people eat and how much more they work, we old revolutionaries are getting worse as we age.
No wonder, the result of a working life is depreciation as we age, especially in the 40-50 age range, which is almost the most tragic phase of our careers, constantly on the brink of abyss, like walking through a minefield, easily facing layoffs and unemployment.
Some people say that the past decade was the peak period for blue-collar workers to be laid off, and the next 10-20 years will be the peak period for white-collar workers to be laid off. Do you think that having a university degree makes you an elite?
Society keeps advancing, but your knowledge structure, physical condition, and professional concepts are no longer comparable to newly graduated university students. Bosses are practical and will lay off white-collar workers aged 40-50 first when crises arise.
Therefore, if you currently have a stable job and feel secure, it's equivalent to planting a time bomb next to you. After ten or more years, it will explode, and the pain and cost of your unemployment then will likely be a hundred times worse than now.
So, what are the personality traits of entrepreneurs?
I have a relative with whom I have a close personal relationship, who is already a billionaire at the age of 39. He was originally a discharged soldier and later entered a state-owned unit where he often felt oppressed. With his strong personality, he immediately resigned and chose to venture into business.
Ten years later, he has accumulated hundreds of millions of assets. During the Spring Festival family gathering, he told me: "XX, you are the most educated member of our family and also teach at a university. Tell me how much your annual income is."
I honestly replied: "My annual income is less than 50,000 yuan."
He continued: "I've observed a phenomenon: the employees working for me in the company performed better academically during their school days than me. The lowest educational qualification among them is a vocational school diploma. I struggled immensely during my three years of high school but couldn't even pass the vocational school entrance exam, so I had to join the army. Therefore, I've always respected those with academic qualifications, thinking they are intelligent and capable. But now, I am their boss, providing them with livelihoods, which is something I didn't expect."
Why is this so?
He analyzed further: "I think a person's success in employment depends on three factors: IQ, EQ, and courage quotient. However, for a true talent, the importance of these three factors should be ranked as follows: courage quotient first, EQ second, and IQ third. Currently, the so-called talents cultivated by China's education system are very one-sided, only excelling in IQ, but EQ and courage quotient are not included at all.
And the group eliminated by schools may precisely contain a large number of business talents. Therefore, China's education system, especially higher education, largely engages in reverse elimination, producing graduates who are mostly high scorers but low achievers, intelligent but timid and unsocial, naturally lacking in social survival skills."
After listening to my relative's words, I was greatly surprised. His words seemed to make a lot of sense!
Upon careful consideration, it seems that in real life, bold people often have advantages over smart people in survival competition.
Smart people tend to be timid, while bold people are often not very intelligent.
Another interesting phenomenon is that the more books people read, the smarter they seem, but the more books they read, the more timid they become, always thinking twice before acting. On the contrary, those with less education tend to act first and think later, and these action-oriented people often achieve success first.
From the perspective of IQ, the group with the highest intellectual level in China currently consists of so-called master's and doctoral degree holders, as well as professors. Most of them work and live in universities, but the overall income level of these supposedly smartest groups is not high. A doctorate holder in a university earns around 50,000 yuan annually, a master's degree holder around 40,000 yuan, and professors mostly do not exceed 80,000 yuan (this is the case in Jiangsu Province's higher education institutions where I am located).
This is a phenomenon worth studying: the group with the highest intelligence does not have the highest income, not even as high as senior white-collar workers in companies.
Finally, I want to draw a conclusion: being good at studying is not useful!
In primary and secondary school, studying well is to enter a good university, and in university, studying well is to find a good job. However, in real life, the career income of people who studied well is not high. On the surface, the risks faced by entrepreneurs seem much higher than those faced by workers, but in the long term, the risks brought by working are even higher.
The risk of entrepreneurship is losing the expected income from working in recent years, or even having to pay part of the borrowed money if bankruptcy occurs. However, since one is young, one can repeatedly fight despite failures, drawing nourishment and experience from failures, improving business acumen and ability step by step, gradually integrating into the community of businesspeople, broadening horizons and gaining experience daily, eventually achieving a qualitative leap.
Once one truly enters the business world, the future career is basically smooth sailing. Money is earned more and more, wealth accumulates more and more, and one's own value can be maximally realized.
On the contrary, continuing a working life means apparent safety in the short term, but one is actually continuously depreciating and shrinking, not becoming stronger. The longer one works, the more insecure and fearful one becomes. After ten or more years, a slight misstep could result in being fired, becoming unemployed, and laid off. Which risk is greater?
Concepts determine how you choose, choices determine which path you take, and the path you take determines your future life process and outcome.
An ancient saying goes: "Men fear choosing the wrong industry, women fear marrying the wrong man." This saying is profound. There are 365 industries in the world, and theoretically, anyone can do them. However, for the same person, choosing to do business versus choosing to work leads to vastly different outcomes, truly significant differences!
If you choose a working life, you might be extremely lucky and become a super golden-collar worker with an annual income of a few hundred thousand. If you're unlucky and become a junior white-collar worker, you might only earn one or two thousand yuan a month. When pork prices rise, your family probably can't afford pork; when egg prices rise, your family might have to eat fewer eggs. Even with such a humble life, you often carry fear in your heart, fearing unemployment.
If you choose an entrepreneurial life, you might be extremely lucky and become a wealthy person in China, able to donate several Hope Primary Schools at will, occasionally enjoying golf and private yachts.
If your business skills are not good, you might only open a grocery store or even sell tofu and cabbage at the market. You can still earn one or two thousand yuan, leading a life not much different from a junior white-collar worker.
But you won't fear unemployment because every day people come to buy tofu and cabbage, which is better than the life of a white-collar worker.
It can be seen that different concepts lead to different choices; different choices lead to different outcomes and different lives.
Today, I went to get a haircut, still at the old barber shop. A flat cut costs 5 yuan, and I'm a regular customer. This barber shop is located in an alley near my home, about 15 square meters in size, with a monthly rent of only 350 yuan, plus utilities, not exceeding 500 yuan a month.
The barber is a 35-year-old villager from Nantong who came to Yangzhou with his wife more than ten years ago to make a living. Relying on the hairdressing skills he learned in the countryside, he managed to settle down in Yangzhou, raising two children and buying an old house.
I am familiar with him; he knows everything. Every time I come for a haircut, I enjoy listening to his boasting, which is also a major source of news. He proudly told me that the houses in the Yangzhou Laibin Garden neighborhood had risen by 900 yuan per square meter in the past three months. I said that had nothing to do with us poor common people.
But he mysteriously told me it was related to him. Curious, I asked him if he owned property there.
He told me that two years ago, he bought a 60-square-meter shop on the first floor of a street in Laibin Garden for 500,000 yuan, which has now risen to nearly 800,000 yuan.
At the time, he paid a down payment of 300,000 yuan and took out a mortgage loan of 200,000 yuan. After receiving the house, he simply renovated it and immediately rented it out to a private clinic called Muxiang Clinic, located on the roadside of Yanfu East Road in the Laibin Garden neighborhood in Yangzhou, where local people can clearly see it.
He told me that the rent exactly covers his mortgage payments. Now, he has no financial pressure, and his only goal is to work for another 20 years, retire, and enjoy life.
I was quite astonished. Considering his very small barber shop, usually only he cuts hair, according to my calculations, he wouldn't earn more than 2,000 yuan a month, similar to working. But judging by his financial strength in buying a house, he should earn between 60,000 and 70,000 yuan a year, averaging 5,000 to 6,000 yuan a month. I immediately asked him if his average monthly income could reach 5,000 yuan. He just smiled, neither answering nor denying.
I couldn't help but sigh. Often, we think that small businesses don't make money, and when dealing with them, we even pity their low income. Who knew that many unnoticeable small businesses make more money than our working class.
Recently, an organization conducted an experiment among American citizens, investigating their impressions of Chinese people.
The results showed mostly negative impressions, although there were also positive ones. To learn and correct, we'll focus on the flaws rather than the merits.
1. The most lacking quality in Chinese people is integrity and a sense of responsibility.
2. The most commonly exhibited characteristic of Chinese people is selfishness and utilitarianism.
3. The most discouraged valuable quality among Chinese people is冒险精神(adventure spirit).
It seems that besides points 1 and 2 which everyone knows, the most lacking important quality in Chinese people is adventure. No wonder the ordinary life of Chinese people can only be considered mundane and boring, humble and hopeless, the key lies in the lack of this important seasoning - adventure.
Only by adding adventure as a remedy to life can a person regain passion, restore fighting spirit, and perform like a warrior in the arena of life! Warriors always receive God's favor and rewards!
In fact, adventure is the most scarce excellent quality in China. Many people worry that failure after an adventure will reduce their quality of life.
But that is temporary. As long as one persists in repeated attempts, the ultimate harvest of adventurous people will be much greater than that of ordinary people.
Thinking determines the way out, actions determine the results. The vast majority of people are accustomed to being giants in words but dwarfs in action.
People with higher IQs are more likely to fall into this paradox and find it hard to extricate themselves.
It seems that God is fair, granting wisdom while often depriving one of bravery.
Therefore, only a few people in the world enjoy brilliant lives.
A famous