I was born and raised in Beijing. I went to ordinary primary school at home when I was a child. I am really carefree and innocent, playing for six years.

At that time, at the beginning of Xiaosheng, there was no current "no-entry zone" policy in Beijing. Luckily, Mama Mi entered the famous X High School in Haidian District by mistake.

Along the way, although I am just a scum, I have seen too many top student and Daniel. We have never eaten pork, and we have never seen a pig run! A good school has an important influence on a child's life.

When I first entered the middle school attached to X University, Mom Mi discovered that only she had played in primary school for six years, and no one else did!

My English level at that time was basically limited to knowing 26 letters, which was far worse than many 3-and 4-year-old children who started learning English earlier in our community. My mother is at the same table in Haidian. Her English is as fluent as a lark. She watches English movies without subtitles at all. She also makes friends with foreign teachers and often laughs. After six years of primary school, she has been able to recite many original children's literature masterpieces, such as Charlotte's Web and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Mathematics, Chinese, physics and chemistry have all been crushed by top student. The boy sitting behind me finished middle school mathematics and began to teach himself calculus and college advanced mathematics; On behalf of our Chinese class, primary schools are familiar with the four books and five classics, and can write ancient Chinese gracefully; According to the head teacher of high school, there is a senior three student in our school who loves astronomy. He goes to the observatory of our school to observe every day and publishes papers in authoritative astronomical journals at home and abroad. Because of his great contribution, an asteroid is named after him internationally. He was 16 years old. . . .

Before entering middle school, Amy's mother always thought she was strange. When you go to a good school, you know how ignorant you are, how big the gap is, and how hard you have to work to get good grades.

(The affiliated middle school of Peking University broke the administrative class and implemented the "academy system")

Fortunately, Ma has been living in the school since junior high school, and we can observe how hard these bullies work 24 hours a day when they study in the evening.

Homework? The recess has already ended, and the students in the middle school attached to X University are reviewing and previewing (except those who do international Olympic Games and self-study university content).

My deskmate who studies at night is among the best in our ordinary class. Every night, she will make five or six extra-curricular exercise books for each subject and what she learns every day to consolidate it (how fast she does it! When she finished reading five or six books, Mimi could barely finish reading 1 book. After doing exercises, she often has time to "relax" and translate the ancient Chinese books into English. Then translate beautiful English into ancient Chinese. She later went to Princeton University as an undergraduate.

I didn't know until I went to a good school that I never achieved anything for nothing, nor did I succeed casually. Behind every progress is a step by step effort.

When I was in junior high school, the network was still underdeveloped and the information was very blocked. At that time, Amy's mother had no idea what an American university was.

The senior who sleeps opposite me loves the history of World War II, and her dream is to be admitted to the United States "West Point Military Academy". I asked why? She told me that the West Point Military Academy not only trained the most American generals (MacArthur, Eisenhower, General Barton ...), but also trained 1000 former chairmen, more than 2,000 vice-chairmen and more than 5,000 former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. No business school in the United States has produced so many management elites.

(United States Military Academy at West Point)

I was amazed at her vision, knowledge and dreams. So, I changed my dream from "being a white-collar worker" to "being admitted to West Point Military Academy". You see, it has such a great influence on children.

Later, although she didn't really apply for West Point, in the process of pursuing this dream, Ms. Mi read more than a dozen detailed history books of World War II and watched many documentaries of World War II (although she almost forgot them now).

For the physical requirements of military schools, we exercise very hard, running 1200m every day, jumping hundreds of steps and doing 100 sit-ups ... We also study English very hard for the dream of studying abroad. I started from my worst English classmate in Grade One, recited a new concept for three quarters every day, and watched Friends almost 10 times during the winter and summer vacations. I won the first place in the English exam of senior one.

In junior high school, our school is not far from Tsinghua Peking University, and there are many elite bookstores. Students compete with each other, scrambling to buy the outdated original The Economist Wall Street Journal and books related to "economic globalization". In fact, I don't understand it after buying it (anyway), but this kind of "comparison" is much better than "eating than wearing".

How many years later, when I saw the documentary "50UP (Seven Years of Life)" filmed by the British BBC, I often remembered the days when I bought the expired Wall Street Journal. Documentary show 14 children, 50 years of life track.

At the age of seven, John and Andrew from elite families were used to watching financial news or The Observer every day, while the ideal of slum children was to be punished less, beaten less and eat enough. Seven-year-old John and Andrew say that they read the Financial Times every day. )

Fifty years later, children from several elite families went to good schools and found good jobs. Three middle-class children, one became an elite, and two remained middle-class. The children at the bottom, including their descendants, are still often accompanied by unemployment. Behind the change of fate by knowledge, it is also a contest about family and vision.

When I was in college, Mimi's father's best friend, under the influence of her aunt, gave herself an English name Stanley at the age of 10, because his childhood goal was to enter "Morgan Stanley". He has a habit that I deeply admire. During his four years in college, he wrote several articles in the Wall Street Journal every day. First, be familiar with the financial market; Second, practice English writing.

He did this: he read an article first, then memorized it and scribbled it in his own words. Then check it again, and then buckle it back and write it again. Until it is almost the same as the original words.

Last year, he resigned from Goldman Sachs and joined the largest private equity firm in the United States, becoming the youngest partner. He is also the only Asian face in management, earning millions of dollars a year. His American colleague, if he needs to write an article, let him write it-an American born and bred, whose English writing is not as good as that of a China student who went to the United States after graduating from high school.

All roads lead to Rome. Some people were born in Rome. Born in Rome? As long as you work hard enough and have broad vision and ambition, why can't you be all-powerful in Rome?

Another thing is unforgettable for Mimi's mother. In high school, two of my friends applied to be volunteers in the school library. At that time, I was a little contemptuous of others, a library volunteer. Isn't that going to code books every week?

Later, it turned out how stupid I was. At that time, ordinary students could borrow two books at a time; Library volunteers can borrow five books at a time. I wasted my time and didn't care how many books I read in high school. When these two students go home every weekend, their suitcases are full of books and they talk a lot.

It took them two years to sweep our high school library (high school library, there were not many books originally), and everyone read hundreds of books. In the third year of high school, they study behind closed doors. One was admitted to Peking University and the other was admitted to Tsinghua. Graduation from college is even more impressive. Girls and graduate students who went to Peking University went to Princeton and became experts in domestic environmental science. The girl who went to Tsinghua went to Harvard to study PhD, and now she is a tenured professor in a famous American university.

Going to a good school can greatly expand children's horizons and knowledge, and let him see with his own eyes what the cattle people really look like, how big the gap is, and which direction he wants to work hard.

In the days of the college entrance examination, I vomited and diarrhea, and I missed more than 40 points in the exam. I entered the so-called China Third University (of course, there are more than a dozen universities in China that are the third). I was transferred to a wonderful major because of my low score. Unwilling to adjust, I took the TOEFL SAT and applied for transfer to the United States.

When I was in China University, I felt that progress was equal to textual research. Senior and senior told me that no matter what certificate, I will take the exam! You are from Beijing, and you have to take the Putonghua test! In a word, one more card is better than one less card. There seems to be no better way than textual research.

Before going abroad, my mind was full of "study hard"-I got an A+ in every course, my GPA was close to full marks, my GRE was bright, I got a recommendation letter from my professor, I applied for a postgraduate degree in Niu School, and then I went to Wall Street or Silicon Valley to find a glamorous job. . . In short, become a refined egoist.

As soon as I entered school, my whole outlook on life and values were subverted. In American universities, everyone is busy changing the world.

A doctoral student, born in poverty, saw that American university libraries sold 1 cent a ton of old books (in fact, they gave them away for free), but in their poor hometown, left-behind children were too poor to read at all. He set up a non-profit organization to help rural children read. Every year, hundreds of foreign students go to the countryside to teach, and he has also established primary school libraries in many poor villages, helping thousands of rural children.

A senior one year ahead of me founded the top three Chinese phone card websites in the United States because it was inconvenient to call my parents in China. At that time, he was only a junior, earning millions a month. We use his calling card platform to contact family and friends in China, which is convenient and economical.

There are more students, because it is not convenient to buy China ingredients (mushrooms, vermicelli, fennel, peppers and other American supermarkets can't buy them), and they have established supermarkets in China; Because I wanted to taste my hometown so much, I opened an authentic China Hotel. Because I often come to the United States to be a "local escort" for relatives and friends in China, I opened a large-scale travel agency chain in the United States ... Some students are undergraduates, not only earning their own tuition and living expenses (the tuition in the United States is 300,000 a year! ), but also to subsidize the family, it is really awesome.

After being deeply shocked, I began to think, don't just be an exquisite egoist, change the world and help and influence more people.

During my college years, under their influence, I did more than a dozen jobs back and forth, and I also practiced everywhere in winter and summer vacations to exercise myself and reduce the study burden at home. (Mimima Channel: MilimaPinDao (click to follow))

Famous schools cannot guarantee the upper limit of life, but they can set the lower limit of life. Not only gave the children a stepping stone and tickets, but also gave them contacts, circles and resources.

Stanley, Mimi's father's good friend mentioned earlier, found his first job by writing emails, making phone calls, recommending professors and meeting alumni working on Wall Street. Although Morgan Stanley (the second investment bank) didn't dream of entering the age of 10, he entered Goldman Sachs (the investment bank boss) and became the elite of Wall Street.

Many people know skull and bones, the most mysterious elite organization of Yale University, right? From these skeletons, three American presidents, two Supreme Court justices, and countless American congressmen and senior cabinet officials were born. After 185, skull and bones's members were almost everywhere, from the White House, Congress, cabinet ministries, the Supreme Court and even the Central Intelligence Agency. This is the power of contacts and circles.

(The Mysterious Yale skull and bones)

Lu Buxuan, who graduated from Peking University and sold pork, once made everyone laugh at him. Bobby Chen, an alumnus of Peking University, invited him to co-establish the Butcher School and the brand of "Local Pig No.1", which was sold in supermarkets all over the country. Now, their families have exceeded10 billion yuan.

(Lu Buxuan, who graduated from the Chinese Department of Peking University, and Chen Sheng, who graduated from the Economics Department)

In addition to contacts and circles, good schools also provide the best quality marriage and love circles.

Before the college entrance examination, Grandma Mi encouraged me to study hard. What grade did you go to college? What school is your boyfriend likely to go to in the future! Grandma Mi Li is really honest and frank, which hit the nail on the head.

But it's also true. China Family Development Report 20 16 shows that after 1980, more and more people choose people with similar educational background to get married.

There are fewer and fewer marriage modes of "men are superior to women", and it is increasingly difficult to achieve class leap through marriage. Marry whoever you are. The same is true in Mimi's dad's circle of friends and me. Some couples graduated from rattan school, some couples graduated from Wharton, and some couples graduated from Peking University and Tsinghua (I don't know if I will tell Eva later, which is the best university in China? ), like Mimi's father and I, both graduated from non-prestigious schools.

Knowledge affects vision, vision determines pattern, and pattern affects people's life. I am most afraid that you will be mediocre all your life, and it is valuable to comfort yourself.

This world is that some people always work hard day and night, and some people wake up to find that the world has changed.