Lee Kai-Fu's sixth letter to Chinese students-wisdom of choice (3)

（5) Use self-consciously correct attitude

The Chinese often say that people have self-knowledge. This actually means that everyone in social life should have a clear understanding of their qualities, potentials, specialties, flaws, experiences and other basic abilities, and have a definite position on their role in social work and life. In psychology, this ability to self-knowledge is called "consciousness", which usually involves perceiving the influence of their emotions on words and deeds, understanding and correctly assessing their qualifications, abilities and limitations, believing in their own values and abilities.

A self-conscious person can make the most intelligent choice for himself, choose to do the job that he can do, choose to do the job that can get satisfaction and so on. To be a conscious person, you will not judge your ability too much, and will not easily underestimate your potential. People who judge too much about themselves tend to be impulsive, aggressive, not good at working with others, in the cause of setbacks when the psychological gap is larger, difficult to calm the objective facts; people who underestimate their potential will be timid and hesitate in their work, without the courage to take responsibility and shoulder the burden, and no initiative to volunteered the initiative. In either case, the potential of the individual can not be fully played, the personal cause can not achieve the greatest success.

I had a subordinate who was obviously deficient in "conscious power". Although he has some talent, but snob, he is always dissatisfied with his current position, but also likes to boast at anytime. In his self-assessment, he wrote: "Although I am very modest, I can only judge myself: my performance is the most remarkable ever." "When I see this self-comment, I know that this person will not have any good development, because he lacks the minimum consciousness." Sure enough, he soon put forward, I do not understand his talent, can not reuse him, he decided to other departments to seek another job. But he finally found that he could not find a better job, and his colleagues in the company thought he lacked self-knowledge. Finally, he left the company in dismay. The man who took over his post is a man of great ability and humility. Although the man was not very successful in his last job, he understood that it was because he had been promoted too quickly and was not well prepared, so he was willing to do the job from a lower level in order to lay a good foundation. He did a great job later on.

A conscious person in a work encounter setbacks will not say failure, in the work to achieve results will not be complacent. Self-awareness, accurate positioning of the ability of self-worth can not only help individuals find their own suitable space and development direction, but also can help enterprises to establish their own responsibilities, teamwork and excellent team. A conscious person's choice makes others more willing to trust.

Consciousness is also very important for the management of modern enterprises. In the company, the manager in the measurement of the performance of an employee's work, if found that the employee did not do well, will immediately ask the question: "The employee is not enough consciousness?" Is he aware of his shortcomings? Is he willing to improve? "If the answer to the question is no, then the manager will not have any hesitation to get him out of the job directly, and if the answer is yes, the manager will usually give the employee a chance to prove himself."

On the Internet, a student from China University of Science and Technology put forward "self-consciousness is the necessary quality of college students." He said: "The reason why this point of view, this is mainly from my experience in campus life." How many people can really know themselves now in school? For more than a year, I have been able to get in touch with many different types of students because I have organized work in a school community. What makes me sad is that few people know where they are and what they are interested in. Especially when the school system changed from five years to four years later, I found that many freshmen once enrolled in the school began to prepare for postgraduate examination, go abroad, two eyes closely staring at GPA. At this time, the postgraduate examination, go abroad,GPA is no longer a means of further study, and become a lot of people pursue the only goal. It's not hard to get to know yourself. In fact, many people just never think about themselves. When deciding on plans and principles, you must be fully aware of yourself. The most important thing is to be clear about what you are most interested in. After making a plan, there may be some degree of change over time, but always be clear about your direction. So I think the more difficult point is, can often take the eyes of the beholder to look at themselves, to see what aspects of their well-done, need to maintain, which aspects do poorly, need to work harder, which aspects went astray, need to correct. ”

（6To accumulate experience with learning

There is a parable in the West about the secret of a young man consulting wisdom with an elder sage. The young man asked, "Where does wisdom come from?" The wise man said, "the right choice." The young man asked again, "Where does the right choice come from?" "The wise man said:" Experience. "The young man further questioned:" Where does the experience come from? "The wise man said," the wrong choice. ”

The wise man means that it is difficult for everyone to make the right choice at first, but in the wrong choice of time and again, if he learns enough lessons, he will learn to choose the right way, and he will naturally become a wise man. Looking back on my life, I can say with certainty: I have learned much more from failure than I learned from success. So don't be afraid of failure. Every failure is not a punishment, but a learning experience.

Learning experience is not an overnight thing, and sometimes it takes a long process. There is a famous saying in English: "The journey itself is the Harvest (The journey is thereward). "Most of the time, your harvest is not necessarily the success of everything, but what you experience in your journey towards success. Every right or wrong choice in the journey will allow you to learn new knowledge, acquire new lessons, adjust your self-awareness, and master the right choice.

I have ever met such a thing. When I returned from China to Microsoft, I found that there was a deviation in the direction of a project in the department I had just taken over-the development team did not put the user first, but only knew about some seemingly "cool" technologies-and decided to terminate the project. At the time, a staff member asked me, "How can you be sure that your choice is right?" Products like Windows have been in the market for about 10 years before they get their footing. What makes you think this project will not surprise you in the future? ”

In fact, I was able to make a quick decision, mostly because I had a similar lesson in my previous work.

Previously, I had led more than 200 teams at SGI to develop one of the world's most advanced three-dimensional walking techniques. This set of technologies can create a beautiful three-dimensional effect on hardware over a decade ago. But in doing this project, we did not consider the needs of users and the market, the development of the three-dimensional experience is not targeted at a particular customer base, but to solve all customer problems. As a result, the final product cannot take advantage of SGI 's existing marketing channels, the product's hardware and network requirements are beyond the affordability of ordinary users, our project was eventually canceled, technology was sold by the company.

This is a big blow to me, because more than 200 of my men need to find a new way out, and some even lose their jobs. I am deeply guilty of my heart. But on the other hand, I have learned enough from the bitter lessons, which makes me understand that innovation is important, but useful innovation is more important. It was on the basis of such a choice that I decisively canceled Microsoft's project, which made a similar mistake.

Throughout the course of learning, whether it is the wrong choice, or the experience of failure, they can be engraved in our hearts, can be taken out at any time to compare, learn from the"template". When we face new choices, we use the "templates" we have accumulated in the past to compare and analyze the probabilities of success in different situations, to weigh the pros and cons and make the right choices.

（7Give up the burden with courage

When new opportunities lie ahead, it takes a lot of courage to give up everything that has been gained. Sometimes you have to give up what you already have before you find a "new opportunity," and you need more courage.

A problem many people have is the reluctance to give up what they already have and not to open up new Horizons. These people are always hesitant in the face of opportunity, let the thought of the loss of the mind to imprison their own minds. In fact, some things seem to be worth cherishing, but this immediate interest is often the root of the obstacles to your greater success. When the new opportunity comes, the courage to give up what has been obtained is not fall short, more than halfway, this is to seek new development space. If you are brave-and, of course, wise-to give up what you already have but may become obstacles in the right place, you will most likely be surprised to find that what you have left behind is an umbrella that will hinder the sight of the wind, but it is a vast, majestic landscape that you see for yourself!

I've had several "courage to give up" experiences myself.

When I entered the university, I was very ambitious to enter the law department because I naively thought I had a high political talent. So, when I chose my major in college, I took the Humanities college and I felt I had to be a lawyer or a politician in the future. Unexpectedly, the situation is not exactly as I thought. I feel that in the professional class can not lift the spirit, the results are not good, the most frustrating is that I do not feel the passion and motivation, and even want to throw a dull textbook to the professor. I do not have any outstanding in this field, neither the blazing love, nor the desire of devotion. In the end, I decided that it was not a suitable industry for me, so I decide to give up on political and legal studies. Fortunately, the school allowed students to Physico, and I had found my favorite-computer science. I don't regret that I have spent a year. I realized that it was not the cause I wanted to be in, that I had not spent half my life there, or that I was lucky. So, I bravely gave up the original professional, began my new life in the field of computer.

After joining Google , a lot of reporters asked me: "In Microsoft you have seven years of network, have Bill Gates Trust, so give up, you do not feel pity?" "Indeed, these are valuable things, but when I see the opportunity to go back to China to start a business again, when I see the emergence of an innovation model in the Internet era, when I see a company that insists on his ideals and social responsibility, I find that creating Google China is a unique opportunity." I understand more deeply that if I'm only reluctant to hold on to what I have, I will miss this opportunity to "once in a lifetime". So, as I said in "Following my new choices": "I have the right to choose-I chose Google." I have chosen China. I want to do something influential-in China, I can help the young people of China more and do the most influential things. I want to be the best of myself-at Google, I can learn a new mode of innovation and become the best of myself. "At the same time, I gave up my connections with Microsoft, gave up the opportunity to continue working with Bill Gates, gave up that secure job, and gave up the honor of the world's first big IT Company."

My life in these times to give up the experience, all make me more aware of their pursuit and interest, also make me more passionate to engage in their favorite career. To give up means to lose, but to lose is those who lack the passion of their own things, to get is their own initiative to pursue the cause.

Lee Kai-Fu's sixth letter to Chinese students-wisdom of choice (3)