Below, combined with the views in the book, to discuss how ordinary people realize the counterattack in life!
First, accept your ordinary reality.
Some people say, "there are three compromises in life: the first time is to realize the ordinary parents;" The second time I realized that I was ordinary, too; It was only the third time that I knew that my children were also very ordinary. " Realizing that you are ordinary, even mediocre, and accepting this fact from the heart is often the first step towards real growth and progress.
We all know Gaussian distribution, that is, normal distribution. The statistical law of educational statistics shows that the comprehensive quality of students' intelligence level, including learning ability and practical ability, is normally distributed, that is to say, 68.2% people are extremely ordinary in all aspects, even very ordinary; There are also 27.2% people who are only slightly better than the median, or slightly behind, usually only in individual aspects, and the overall situation is still average; Together, these two groups account for 95.4% of the total population. Only 2.2% of the people on the right may be said to have some kind of talent or IQ is obviously higher than that of ordinary people, while the other 2.2% may be said to have really mental problems or something.
This distribution shows that the vast majority of people are neither geniuses nor mentally retarded, just: ordinary.
Therefore, it is a happy thing to realize your own ordinary. If you are an ordinary person, but you are pretentious, it is easy to set unrealistic goals and usually encounter many setbacks. The old adage "Know yourself and know yourself" contains great wisdom. Knowing yourself requires a clear understanding of your own thoughts, behavior patterns, defect background, etc. This is a necessary and important thing for every individual, and it is also a dynamic and long process. Just as we know that we are halfway up the mountain in the process of rock climbing, we still need to know our remaining physical strength, equipment and time limit, and clearly understand these parts in order to climb to the top of the mountain with confidence.
Second, break through the trend and jump out of the "comfort zone"
The ancients said, "Water flows downwards, and people go upwards." The first half of the sentence is about the natural trend of things, and the second half is about an "abnormal state". Countering the trend requires extra attention and energy. It is a natural trend to let you develop in a direction that is not conducive to yourself. You must be able to restrain your inertia, follow your inclinations, break through the trend and make yourself develop in a better direction.
Keep studying.
The second law of thermodynamics, an isolated system is a dead end if it does not continuously input energy. All systems have the tendency of self-destruction, and develop towards "extinction" or "death". This trend is called "entropy increase". In order to maintain the system, it is necessary to continuously input energy, which is called "negative entropy flow". This continuous input of energy, in addition to material, there is information, if the system does not continue to input information, it will also become ashes. Similarly, if a person no longer accepts new information and challenges, but relies on existing knowledge, the result will be like a flame in a stove, which will gradually go out until it turns to ashes. It is very easy for any system or individual to embark on this road because downhill, self-destruction and "entropy increase" are natural trends. External challenges, new knowledge and new skills learning are all "negative entropy flows" of systems or people, and only those systems or individuals who continue to invest have a way out. For adults, constantly inputting information is knowledge.
For adults, it is necessary to make effective use of reading and learning between work, learn to "seize" learning and stick to it for a long time. The knowledge in books is generally of little use, but when a person's knowledge is accumulated on a large scale, to a certain extent, there will be an "emerging" effect. The more knowledge, the more obvious the emergence effect. Therefore, what we have to do is to persist and accumulate. Accumulation is always the first, and many new models can only be unlocked if they accumulate to a certain extent. This is the category of compound interest. Insist on doing something with a "low goal" every day, and believe that "repetition is power, and quantity accumulates quality".
Step out of your comfort zone.
The following is a familiar schematic diagram about improving skills and studying deliberately:
If you want to learn something, when you choose to learn what you already know, then you just stay in the comfort zone; If you really want to make progress and improve yourself, you must learn something more complicated than what you already know, that is, to enter the "training area" instead of going directly to the "challenge area", because the challenge area is too difficult, and it will inevitably be frustrated and difficult to persist. So, be sure to practice in the training area! It is both fresh and challenging, and will not be greatly frustrated. In this training process, you will constantly turn the training area into a comfortable area. Over time, you will find yourself making progress one after another unconsciously. As the saying goes, growth is the process of constantly turning "training area" into "comfort area".
Third, choose accurately and accumulate "long tail income"
Warren Buffett put forward the concept of "ovarian dividend", that is, "before you were born, your fate was decided by more than half". How cruel and ironic it is! However, this is also a key proposition in The Essence of Poverty: Your fate often depends on your parents, and your parents are your starting point.
At the same time, the book puts forward the concept of "homogenization and stratification". People with higher floors maintain a higher advantage in the competition. The lower the level, the worse the resource conditions, and the harder it is to get up. This phenomenon exists all over the world, and the more mature the society, the more so. Going up through the stratum and people constantly breaking through is the process of overcoming the inherent defects in genes.
But hard work does not mean struggle, and choice is very important. We must make a reasonable choice and choose accurately:
Choose something with "long tail benefit"
What is "long tail income"? It is the long-term income, or the income that can be generated continuously, just like snowballing, which conforms to the law of compound interest and is a bit like the assets that rich dad said. After the investment is completed, cash flow can be generated continuously.
Things with "long tail benefit" usually need to be polished for a long time. The initial return on investment is not much, or even no return, but with the passage of time, the return may increase in a curve, and it is uncertain, and it will be rich when you are lucky.
Earning wages by working is a typical negative example. The essence is to get your time back at once. After you get your salary, what you produce or create in the course of your work will often continue to generate subsequent benefits, but these benefits have nothing to do with you, and they are all owned by the company that employs you. However, you should realize that you are an ordinary person. After all, you have to eat or bring home the bacon. When someone is willing to spend money to buy your time, it is also a way to accumulate. But try not to sell all the time except sleeping, otherwise you won't have time to do something with "long tail benefit" When the situation is bad or the cost performance of your time decreases, once people don't buy your time and cut off their income, they will encounter a staged crisis in life.
Writing a book or an article is a positive example, because after publishing or sending it to the media, you hardly need to invest more energy, and your income is continuous. There may be little output at a time, but the longer it takes, the more it accumulates, or when luck knocks, it is even more different.
Save more money and change the status quo by saving money.
The basic ideas in The Essence of Poverty: save more money and change the status quo by saving money; Those who have constant production have perseverance. Its core idea is: whether to accumulate funds is the key to getting out of the predicament. For example, there are obvious routines for the rich to make big money: First, as long as the city develops, the real estate in the core area of the core city will continue to appreciate; The second is the stocks of cutting-edge technology companies, such as Microsoft and Apple, which Buffett has long held.
Therefore, as ordinary people, we should restrain consumption, delay satisfaction, accumulate wealth, make money with assets, and lay a wealth foundation for the counterattack of life.
Ready to go, break through the trend, grow bravely, and every ordinary seedling will be closer to the sun!