---
title: "20,000 Words, 108 Reflections: My Third Year of Entrepreneurship on Marketing, Management, and Life"
description: "2021 was my third year of entrepreneurship and the hardest year of my life. I went through the bottleneck period of a founder and transitioned into a new role as a mother. Throughout this process, I constantly explored two things: 1. What is happening in the world, and what can I bring to it; 2. How do I see myself, and what kind of person do I want to become. I have always believed that my relationship with myself is inseparable from my relationship with the world. In this exploration, many systematic thoughts have been organized into articles, but many fragmented reflections remain, like seeds waiting to sprout."
author: "刀姐doris"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-03-10"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/20-000-words-108-reflections-my-third-year-of-entrepreneurship-on-market-36010354/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/20-000-words-108-reflections-my-third-year-of-entrepreneurship-on-market-36010354.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oDD8rFgl3bslqLmzJ_WTuA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/2%E4%B8%87%E5%AD%97-108%E6%9D%A1-%E5%A4%8D%E7%9B%98%E6%88%91%E5%88%9B%E4%B8%9A%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%89%E5%B9%B4%E5%AF%B9%E4%BA%8E%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80-%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86%E5%92%8C%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB%E7%9A%84%E6%80%9D%E8%80%83-36010354.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/20-000-words-108-reflections-my-third-year-of-entrepreneurship-on-market-36010354/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# 20,000 Words, 108 Reflections: My Third Year of Entrepreneurship on Marketing, Management, and Life

> 2021 was my third year of entrepreneurship and the hardest year of my life. I went through the bottleneck period of a founder and transitioned into a new role as a mother. Throughout this process, I constantly explored two things: 1. What is happening in the world, and what can I bring to it; 2. How do I see myself, and what kind of person do I want to become. I have always believed that my relationship with myself is inseparable from my relationship with the world. In this exploration, many systematic thoughts have been organized into articles, but many fragmented reflections remain, like seeds waiting to sprout.

2021 was my third year of entrepreneurship and the hardest year of my life.
I went through the bottleneck period of a founder and also went through my own identity transformation, becoming a new mother.
Throughout this process, I constantly explored two things: **1. What is happening in the world, and what can I bring to it; 2. How do I see myself, and what kind of person do I want to become.**
I have always believed that my relationship with myself is inseparable from my relationship with the world.
In this exploration, many systematic thoughts I have often organized into articles, but there are still many fragmented reflections, like seeds, waiting to sprout and bear fruit later.
Inspired by Peng Ying, who posts 300+ reflections on her Moments every year, this year I also learned from her and organized my own reflections from Jike, Weibo, and Moments, to share with you.
******Marketing**
1. The era of the super individual:
**I have always believed that the future will be an era of super individuals** (it is already happening). We will see many individuals who bring their own traffic and represent a group (KOLs), and they will become various forms of mini-companies, with different skills (even multiple), cooperating with enterprises in various forms such as collaboration, consulting, and shareholding.
Today, most bloggers, influencers, and even celebrities are only in the first stage of the super individual: using topics, hype, and hot spots to attract attention.
In fact, what is more important about super individuals is that they are representatives, reflections, and value leaders of many groups. They represent not only the beauty and goodness of a group, but also reflect the shortcomings and fragility in growth. Importantly, they need to help the group face and overcome each hurdle together.
Everyone can be such a super individual.
2. **Studying growth makes people increasingly anxious and impetuous, staying at the level of skills, resources, and dividends.**
**Studying brands makes you quiet and contemplative, digging deeper and deeper, from society to psychology,**
In the end, you find that marketing is really a pseudoscience; everyone's opinion is just one perspective.
3. Let me say it again: if you do private domain traffic without a sufficient operations team to create content, activate, and reply, you will only end up with a bunch of dead accounts. If you have that team, but don't have a product line with high enough LTV, you will only end up spending more than you earn. Before doing private domain, think clearly whether you have the capability.
4. **Potential energy brands build the brand; kinetic energy brands do traffic.**
Potential energy brands capture core KOCs; kinetic energy brands spread widely.
Potential energy brands can be admired from afar but not played with; kinetic energy brands are approachable and accessible.
5. PMF (product market fit) is like orgasm. You know it when you get it.
6. Either scale up or have high profit margins.
If you have neither, you're screwed.
Some people bet on sacrificing profits early, using capital to rush scale, hoping for later profits plus scale, but in the end, they find they have neither, which is awkward.
7. I've thought about the category adoption cycle; you really need to go with the flow. Competition in existing categories is definitely the toughest. When structural changes occur in existing categories, or when incremental categories see an explosion point, it's hard to judge whether it will quickly penetrate category awareness, or only pause among high-potential groups in first- and second-tier cities. For example, meal replacements, healthy foods, etc.
8. The Chinese market is too complex and too large. It's hard to find the tipping point from first- and second-tier to third- and fourth-tier cities. Content e-commerce has definitely accelerated penetration, but the differences in urban cultural environments cannot be leveled out that quickly.
So consumer goods growth gets stuck at the 3 billion yuan mark because new sub-categories can't grow penetration, and down-market channels haven't been broken. In the end, it turns out that going overseas is faster.
9. Most businesses have marketing problems because the whole company doesn't know who their consumers really are. Saying things like "20-35-year-old first-tier women" doesn't mean you truly know your users. People who know their users can often attach a vivid label to them.
For example, cat-like women. Or Fan Shengmei. They have deep insights into their subtle needs and scenarios, even able to turn them into jokes.
10. A friend kindly reminded me to write more brand analysis articles and fewer management insights, otherwise my positioning would gradually become imprecise.
  * What he said is completely right, but I just want to be free and authentic, say what I want, and not position myself.
  * People are like brands. In the first ten years, I tried to find a life positioning because it could quickly enter a mind. Now I want to tear down all the frameworks and live as a brand concept that cannot be boxed in by a single positioning.
  * In the first ten years, I was a marketer. From now on, I want to be a person.
11. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is not that you move up only after the lower levels are satisfied. It's possible that when higher-level spiritual needs are not met, you desperately seek satisfaction at lower levels.
12. Trust is the most valuable asset of this century. The value behind a brand is based on trust. Whether it's a product, an institution, or an individual. Trust builds slowly and destroys quickly.
13. The five stages of a brand: recognizable, associative, trustworthy, representative of me, and idolized.
14. Video accounts are just a tool for private domain interaction and conversion, not a content platform for gaining followers. Recognizing this reality, brands are better suited to use video accounts to carry content, as a private domain business card and activation-conversion tool. But content creators don't need to invest too many resources in video accounts; the efficiency of converting private to public is limited.
15. If you want to build a large-scale business, always go with human nature.
  * Human nature is entropy-increasing; people like fast, happy, lazy, and shortcuts. Only a few are willing to maintain long-term self-discipline. Unless you clearly want to do a small, beautiful, and difficult business, don't target that disciplined minority.
  * Fitness is against human nature; weight loss is with human nature. So the fitness industry is hard (at least in China), but selling weight loss pills is easier.
  * Reading and learning are against human nature; reading summaries and notes, copying homework, and taking shortcuts are with human nature. So non-certification/utilitarian education is hard, but knowledge payment is easier, though with a certain threshold.
  * Health is a big trend, but at the bottom, people still want to be lazy, don't want to give up sweetness (happiness), speed, and shortcuts. So health punk was born.
  * Doing business with human nature feels smooth. Doing business against human nature often leads to inexplicably high education and recall costs.
16. A record of involution in the consumer circle—
Investment circle involution: one project, a bunch of investors following, valuation bubbles inflated, founder's mindset like yesterday a beggar, today thinks he's an emperor.
Brand circle involution: same track, a group of competitors, all sorts of people entering, wild ones, so they have to throw traffic hard, finish one platform then open another, afraid of missing traffic and activities.
Traffic circle involution: there are only a few good content creators and anchors; once you sign one, they grow up and fly away, and you've paid various traffic support fees for nothing.
Media circle involution: when a hot topic arises, they can't wait to fabricate three versions of the story before it even happens; video, audio, text—all must not be missed.
Marketing circle involution: can't think of creative ideas, copy templates, H5, TVC, brainwashing ads all fail, content seeding prices rise layer by layer, private domain is washed once and becomes dead fans.
17. A counterintuitive point: growth that can be solved with traffic doesn't necessarily require refined operations.
  * Sometimes doing refined operations is using "doing the hard but right thing" to find something difficult to make yourself feel better. Actually, it could be simpler and more direct.
  * Especially excellent people often don't like doing things they think are "direct and simple"; they insist on making it harder.
  * Knowing when to drive at what speed is the key. If you insist on driving slowly during a dividend period, or looking for dividends when you should be cultivating internal skills, you're asking for trouble.
  * Things that go with the times and consumer needs are like pushing a boat with the current; they are often much simpler than you think.
18. Content also needs SKUs. Start with simple basic items, then expand horizontally and vertically, summarize the methodology for viral content, and think about how to mass-produce. It's the same logic as brand + product, but the supply chain is lighter and faster.
However, the best content is definitely not replicable or templatable. The talent that can produce such content must be monopolized or strongly bound.
19. Historically, brand theory appeared at least 100 years after brand practice.
20. Every time I watch "Awakening Age," I get great inspiration for doing media and content.
1) Media is to lead thought and inspire minds. It has always been a powerful and dangerous tool.
2) To sustain high-quality content, you need the ability (breadth, attitude, values, and professional competence) to gather like-minded people to produce content together.
3) To gather like-minded people (KOLs), you first need to have advanced and leading thinking and attitudes, lead by example (KOL of KOLs), influence with values and mission, and guide the collision of ideas. At this point, it's about openness of mind, allowing multiple viewpoints to collide; gentlemen are harmonious but different.
4) To influence the masses, you first need to break through a circle, requiring KOCs to influence the circle. Use reason to influence the primary elite circle. At this point, you need not only values and mission, but also explanation, teaching, and discussion.
5) To break out on a large scale, reason and academia don't work; the key is emotion. The essence of communication is emotion. Emotional outbursts need a breaking point; so-called sacrifices are to ignite the emotional point.
21. Let's discuss the topic of "persona": persona is a strange product of the social media era, truly a case of "water can carry a boat but also capsize it."
It can carry because a persona can depict a concrete image that easily attracts the group it appeals to. No need to elaborate.
It can capsize because the collapse often happens in two ways, and it's often hard to refute:
  * Proving the persona is fake. For example, setting up a scholar persona but being found out not to be one. Or setting up a good boyfriend image but being found to be involved in group activities. As long as you're human, there will be loopholes, and when you can't maintain the persona, you'll be attacked.
  * Exploiting the persona. For example, the purpose of setting up a persona is to gain traffic or sympathy and then commercialize that traffic and sympathy.
So, whether the persona is consistent with reality or not, in today's social media era, you can easily find information to disprove the persona (assuming the person has high enough traffic, it's easier to cause huge exposure and topics), or be accused of "deliberately shaping for commercial purposes," leading to collapse.
So my advice to influencers/celebrities: if you want happiness, the more precious your private life or feelings, the less you should expose details online, especially not the real name of your partner, and don't show off your love. Only discuss the concept of love itself, with all details hidden.
Otherwise, love dies when exposed, family becomes traffic, everything changes flavor, and it accelerates the death of feelings and personal privacy. Celebrities and bloggers who expose their partners, if they are inexperienced and purely in love, will definitely suffer backlash later.
22. To keep a persona standing, there are currently a few situations. Welcome to add and discuss others:
1) The IP themselves keep as far away from the audience as possible (a bit like deifying). Admire from afar, don't play close. The farther, the easier to imagine, and not disillusion. Don't go on TV or do interviews; you need to control your image and expression very carefully and skillfully, usually shaped by a third party, not self-expression.
The farthest way is for the IP to pass away. Once deceased, they are separated from the world, becoming the most distant and sacred legend. Representatives: Steve Jobs and many historical figures.
2) The IP themselves have such strong family background and psychological resilience that nothing can stop them, and the persona itself is a madman. The persona that can't be toppled is the one that lies down.
"I'm just a madman, you know that, I'm not afraid, what can you do to me" type, such as Elon Musk who often goes crazy on Twitter, and the fearless Kardashian who started low and rose high.
3) A way to reduce risk but not completely eliminate it: clearly separate your business model from your persona/traffic. Since the public is unhappy about monetizing the persona, don't monetize the persona.
For example, the IP's social media doesn't carry ads or do product promotion, so there's no talk of using traffic. But the problem is, you can always associate commercialization with the persona, just with different degrees of directness.
But conversely, the reason we follow celebrities and bloggers is that we like their personalities, their opinions, and the values they represent. If everyone really lost their personas, and the content environment only had cold opinions, that would be against human nature. And according to my thinking, in the future, everyone will be an IP, with their own personality, attributes, and labels, and their own personas. When the boundaries between audience and blogger, fan and celebrity become increasingly blurred, what will this world become?
23. I've been doing communities for nearly 10 years, part-time and entrepreneurial. I have deep feelings. First point: [Don't be obsessed with community activity]
1) Community activity and scale are definitely inversely proportional. Do you want activity or scale?
2) Activity is definitely linked to the community's threshold. The more vertical and higher the threshold, the more similar the people, the higher the activity. Same as point 1.
3) But if a group of people is willing to chat every day, it's like a feast that never ends, a dinner that opens every day. But it's said that all feasts must end; how could that be? If they chat every day, it must be artificially created, or the people in the group just want to chat every day, and that person's time cost must not be high.
4) The higher the net worth, the less they chat in a large or non-vertical group. The higher the net worth, the more they prefer high-density, high-efficiency socializing, usually offline.
5) So for a long-term, stable, high-value community, you don't need it to be active every day. Activity is an illusion. If many people chat every day, you'll just feel noisy, then mute the group, and bad money drives out good.
6) Often, community activity relies on the group owner's ability to organize. Even if you can organize, can you organize thousands of groups? Even if you use alt accounts to copy, communities aren't about distributing information but about multi-point interaction.
It's like at a dinner table, wanting a group of strangers to start talking. Just setting rules for self-introductions isn't enough. To keep them talking long-term, you need topics, introductions, and various organizing to eliminate the strangeness between people. Not everyone has this ability; it requires experience and emotional intelligence.
So, what do you really want from a community? Think clearly and find the right key metrics. What's the cost? It's consuming your energy to maintain this vanity metric. For what sake?
24. Why do priceless jewelry exhibitions? These visitors can't afford it either? Because potential energy brands (especially top luxury goods) not only need customers, but also an audience that admires the brand and its customers.
25. If you only look at user/market data to decide products or content, you'll find that products or content that hit human weaknesses always perform better: voyeurism, gossip, love of emotion, sex, gambling, drugs. Doing content/products this way is indeed easy to go viral and get high data, but over time, you'll find your content is inflammatory, violent, fake, and impetuous.
So creators should not "completely follow consumers" but need to "lead consumers by half a step." Creators should not be factories without values and bottom lines, fully responding to market reactions. Doing the right thing is hard.
26. People with C-end thinking and B-end thinking should try not to communicate on the same topic; you'll find they're talking past each other.
C-end thinkers tend to listen to correct but useless talk; they're actually seeking emotional value.
B-end thinkers like to solve problems; they understand the principle, but tell me how to implement it logically.
C-end thinkers doing B-end will find it too idealistic.
B-end thinkers doing C-end will find it too realistic and lacking human touch.
27. Brand self-broadcast rooms have become the first window for users and brands to communicate and interact after PR events. Two days ago it was Hanshu, today it's Hongxing Erke.
28. Looking at others' success and reverse-engineering the cause is often stupid. Success is likely because they caught a certain wind, so it's hard to replicate. You should look at what environment they were in, why they made that choice, what they saw, what judgment they made, what they gave up, and what they persisted in. Of course, even more impressive are those who create the wind.
29. In China, there are many who started from the "loser economy," built grassroots businesses with large scale, and then turned around to acquire high-end brands to form groups, aka "rural surrounding the city." However, those who rise from elitism often trip over their own idol baggage. The most impressive are those who are elite but can descend to the grassroots. The worst are the middle layer, neither up nor down.
30. If you keep doing entry points, you'll just keep acquiring new users, losing them, acquiring new, losing. After the glitz, nothing remains.
But if you focus on retention and repurchase, and have data feedback that allows you to optimize faster than competitors, accumulate word-of-mouth to build brand and referrals, then you'll form positive feedback and compound interest. Then you only need a little traffic boost to spread quickly, and you won't be anxious anymore.
31. Yesterday I met a Chinese brand entrepreneur I truly admire. I asked him, "Why have Chinese brands mainly been in the low- and mid-end, while the high end is occupied by foreign companies?"
He said four main reasons:
1) Insufficient scientific research; basic and applied research need strengthening.
2) Insufficient operational management; many companies don't understand pricing management, gross margin management, etc.
3) Insufficient standardization; problems arise when going public.
4) Private entrepreneurs have some corporate culture issues, not understanding sharing (options), not understanding delegation. Not understanding delegation is especially serious; everything is decided by one person, and mistakes are blamed on subordinates.
Also, brand building is not achieved overnight; it requires accumulation, but given time, China will definitely produce high-end brands.
32. There's a logic behind pricing:
  * 200 yuan and below is impulse-buy knowledge payment (only product, no service)
  * Around 1,000 yuan, even up to 2,000 and below, is knowledge + service products that individuals can afford, usually starting to have communities.
  * 30,000-60,000 yuan is closed-door community fees that people pay without thinking, just to follow traffic and make friends; essentially individual big C payment.
  * 120,000-160,000 yuan and above starts to be C to B, enterprise B payment, with decision thresholds, solving enterprise problems, close to private board meetings. For example, Hupan, Hundun.
  * 300,000-500,000 yuan and above is the consulting threshold, high customization, 1v1, of course, some like Huayuhua charge 2 million.
Behind this is the continuous upgrade from product to service, standard products to high customization, C to B.
33. The essence of business is to solve a social problem with innovative solutions and higher efficiency. The bigger the problem, the greater the value.
After three years, my understanding of business has finally evolved from "I have this, so I do this" to "Society needs this, so I do this." The former is "I can, therefore I must." The latter is "I must, therefore I can." The former is self-interested; the latter is altruistic.
34. The primary goal of a brand is to help differentiate the product;
The intermediate goal of a brand is to help the company become a mind;
The advanced goal of a brand is to help the company increase value;
The ultimate goal of a brand is the externalization of the company's mission, vision, and values.
35. Previously, Luckin Coffee was always trying to ride on Starbucks' coattails. Now Starbucks is imitating SanDunBan:
Starbucks partnered with Nestlé to launch instant coffee, also in small cups, and even launched a recycling plan, similar to the return plan.
When foreign companies start to lower their dimensions, I'm worried for domestic brands!!
36. Since my comeback, I've had the honor of meeting many entrepreneurs and business owners, and I've gained a deeper understanding of "entrepreneurial spirit."
Those who have crossed cycles, seen the vicissitudes of life, made trade-offs and choices, and paid life's tuition are especially open, transparent, and broad-minded.
Birds of a feather flock together is true. Those who want to build good brands will eventually gather.
37. Last time I chatted with a few friends, Shanghai is a place where people have strong boundaries. Being proper and not crossing boundaries is an unwritten rule. Shanghai doesn't like people who are unclear; being unclear means you don't know where the boundaries are.
Making friends in Shanghai is slow. Unlike the north, where people are familiar quickly. In Shanghai, friends bring friends into a circle. Making friends in Shanghai has a certain threshold. People in Shanghai don't easily promise; they confirm only when they're sure things can be done.
Everything revolves around one word: boundary sense. This is both good and bad.
So from this perspective, Shanghai should be the city most capable of producing brands, because the core of a brand is boundaries.
38. Media people observe emotions;
Product people find solutions;
Brand people seek ideology.
39. Several types of communication that post-90s young people particularly dislike:
1) Clichés. Repeating what's already agreed upon, wasting time.
2) Preachy communication. Not caring about the other person's feelings, acting like what I say is definitely right.
3) Emotional communication. Actually just venting for oneself, not caring whether the other person listens.
The above types all end up as ineffective communication, even counterproductive.
40. Some thoughts after Double 11. Recently, I see retail overall starting to weaken, and the consumption bubble is going from the peak of foolishness to the valley of despair. Entrepreneurs are entering a reflection period: why did we rush so fast before? If I could do it again, I might slow down, start re-finding my original intention, my users, my values, my mission, vision, and values, cultivate internal skills, and look inward.
Brands that figured this out early had already thought it through a year ago, unhurried, with wisdom from crossing cycles, able to overcome all downward anxiety. Do your own thing, polish your internal skills, accumulate assets and barriers, maintain antifragility, have self-hematopoiesis ability, and internal organization readiness; nothing is a big deal.
After all, before it was about speed, efficiency, and human wave tactics. Now that the tide has receded, we can see the essence clearly.
Next time the tide comes, people will still crowd and rush in the direction of the tide; that's human nature. But there will be a group of people always following the direction of the North Star, where there is their persistence, responsibility to society, and faith. That is where people won't be anxious and can maintain inner peace.
Our era is the fastest and also the slowest. It's an era where you can earn money standing up, and where sincerity can be seen. I think it's the best of times.
41. 2021, Brand=Purpose.
Continuing from the last point, since we proposed the mission and original intention of "Achieving China's Good Brands" in our article last year, we've been thinking: who are our users? Who are our knife friends?
As we operate year after year, we clearly see that our club gathers a group of new brand operators representing China's future—
They are not "traditional creatives" stuck in existing theories, but "new marketing people" who bravely explore the unknown;
They are not "sellers" fighting only for traffic and sales, but "operators" who hope to hold the brand in one hand and performance in the other, creating the future from 0 to 1;
They are the main force of China's new brands and new marketing. Every day, they use their own hands to achieve China's good brands; they are "brand believers."
42. Today I met a CEO who spent two hours telling me about the philosophy, origin, original intention, and products behind their brand. He said he entered the industry at 30, has been doing it for 10 years, and has 90 more. I almost cried, but I held it in. I'm still quite emotional.
43. This wave of new consumption has only been around for about 2 years. There are no real predecessors; some just started half a year earlier. Next year is expected to be a trough. A trough is good; it restores essence and lets everyone see reality. But China's brand journey still has a long way ahead. Instead of struggling alone, there are actually a few companies that have thought clearly from certain angles, and we can learn from each other.
44. Just now, a consumer goods entrepreneur said that during interviews, they ask if the candidate has read Daofa or is a Daofa member to judge how much they love learning and are motivated.
45. L'Oréal's culture is called "Poet and Farmer," which I think makes a lot of sense.
46. I think entrepreneurs are always on the road. What matters is not right or wrong, but choice.
And what I've observed: the key to entrepreneurship is still the founder themselves, whether they can constantly break their own fixed cognition, break through thinking bottlenecks, and constantly reshape themselves. Often it's that moment of stupidity that makes you reborn. To achieve China's good brands, we are always on the road, constantly reshaping.
And the new generation of brand founders (regardless of age) iterate faster, are more willing to accept feedback, and are closer to consumers than ever. Consumer brands are not a short-term window; they are a long-term marathon.
My mom, a thrifty but frequent-buying first-tier middle-aged female consumer, recently wore the Jiaonei thermal underwear I bought and said it's really comfortable. And today, as a southerner, she started using body lotion. I think new consumption is still full of hope.
Many businesses that seem to lack demand are actually lacking supply.
******Entrepreneurship Insights**
47. A recent learning: if a close partner/friend does something that makes me uncomfortable, I must give feedback immediately, point out the facts, and not accumulate feelings into a judgment of the person. Every thing has many dimensions; it's not necessarily the essence of a person.
48. For example, if someone is late three times a week, you can't simply record it as "he is a person who likes to be late" and store it in your mind as a stereotype. Instead, after the behavior occurs, point out the impact and consequences of that single behavior, then state your needs. Vice versa.
This is especially important for close partners and family.
49. The biggest threshold for personal progress is the inability to humble yourself to seek advice from those around you, learn from their strengths, or hire talented people, instead insisting on proving your superiority and omnipotence.
50. Anger itself is not an emotion but a tool, hoping to suppress and punish the other to show your power. People who get angry easily are not really bad-tempered; they are used to using suppression as the most efficient way to solve problems.
But suppression is never a good way; it makes the war stop on the surface, but behind it, a bigger revenge is brewing.
—After reading "The Courage to Be Disliked" again, combined with some of my own bad habits, I feel this book is worth reading 100 times, and the principles inside are worth studying for a lifetime.
51. I discussed with my coach the difference between "effective judgment" and "prejudice against people":
Effective judgment is "judging that it's difficult for someone to meet expectations within a limited time."
Prejudice is "thinking this person has no hope in this life, thus absolutely giving up."
The principle is "not denying that people have new possibilities. Not absolutely denying a person because of one past event."
52. What's the difference in feeling between being a boss/executive of a big company vs. a startup/small company?
In a big company, when the boss sends a message in the group chat, a bunch of sycophants reply, like, and flatter.
In a small company, when the boss sends a message in the group chat, maybe no one replies for a week.
53. I've discovered that the secret to entrepreneurship is not to rush, not to expect quick solutions, but to solve problems patiently.
54. Startups often don't have clear rules and regulations like big companies. At this time, the founder/partner's habits become the rules themselves, until one day you find that the habits themselves are flawed. That's why in startups, executives' personal problems are especially exposed.
55. Time management and goal management are closely linked. Where you spend more time, you'll gain more there.
Smart people know how to get things done with less time, while wise people know time and energy are limited, and choose where to spend time and where to give up.
Today's reminder to myself: Am I really spending time on the goals I want to achieve?
56. Since working, I've met several people who say "I want to make money, I want to start a business, I want more autonomy," but when they encounter a little difficulty, they complain, "I want to go home and farm, this is too hard, I can't do it." I really want to say, suck it up and just own your shit.
Be brave. No one is scheming against you or messing with you. What's there to cry about?
Wanting to make money and have an easy life doesn't exist. Wanting the independence, flatness, and no politics of a small company, and also wanting the benefits and rules of a big company, doesn't exist either. Choose a path and accept its costs.
THIS IS CALLED TRADE OFF.
Accept reality. Instead of saying "I can't, I can't do it," think about how to do it.
Think of the classic scene in "The Devil Wears Prada":
I can get another girl to take your job in five minutes...one who really wants it. Andy, be serious. You're not trying. You are whining. What is it that you want me to say to you, huh? Do you want me to say, "Poor you. Miranda's picking on you. Poor you. Poor Andy"? Hmm? Wake up, six. She's just doing her job.
57. Today I asked an organizational consultant to give a performance and management training to Daofa's core leaders. Some golden quotes to share:
Persuasion without a solution is not help; it's just blame and complaint.
Victim mentality attributes externally: "Because he did XX, I suffered XX." Responsible mentality attributes internally: "Even though he did XX, I can do XX."
Goals are indicators of output, not input (resources invested) or processing (how many things done). Goal management manages the relative value of actual vs. expected, not absolute value.
Set standards based on the position, and measure people against the standard, not setting different standards for each person.
If a person's performance is not up to par, judge whether it's a lack of willingness or ability. Lack of willingness: inspire motivation. Lack of ability: provide methods and tools.
After motivating and providing methods, observe whether the team immediately practices and improves, and further give feedback and guidance. The worst is not improving or practicing.
Do we all have a consensus on "doing your utmost"? Doing your utmost is exhausting your ability (devoting all day to it) + exhausting resources (asking everyone you can) + exhausting asking for help (getting all possible help from those around you).
The craziest thing a person can do is keep doing the same thing and expect different results. — Einstein
58. Find something you want to persist in researching deeply or a philosophy, and then what you need to do is persist in digging deep, researching, and accumulating compound interest in that field. Internal abilities, knowledge, team, and assets are the anchor. This is a sense of security, a happiness no one can take away. External trends are winds; whether they come or not is a matter of timing.
Instead, if you chase butterflies today and dragonflies tomorrow, after fluttering around, besides eating the northeast wind, you catch nothing and may also expend a lot of physical and mental energy, making yourself anxious.
59. When encountering problems and conflicts, don't stay in complaining. Ask yourself, "If this is the situation, what can I do?" or "Is there another way I can find a solution by consulting others?"
In other words, don't assume "there's only one solution" so "I have to do XX." Solutions to problems are always more than you think. There are many ways to look at a problem, and more than one cause. It just depends on whether you really want to do your utmost to solve it.
60. Doing your utmost = exhausting your ability + exhausting resources + exhausting asking for help.
61. Last week, I chatted with several team members I highly approve of and gave them some advice. I thought it might help many people, so I'll share it here:
  * Accept and acknowledge your current shortcomings in certain abilities/experience, then improve—everyone discovers their ability gaps every day. Finding gaps is a good thing; it tells you where to improve. When you find a gap, don't cry, don't hide, don't cover up. Strong people can accept their weaknesses and actively iterate.
  * Don't stay in the complaint and helplessness after finding a problem. Think "what solutions exist for this situation," "since the situation is so, what can I possibly do," then try it yourself, or propose it to your boss.
Trust me, your boss will be happy. At least they see you trying. Over time, you'll find your circle of influence and ability circle growing, and you'll maintain a positive, problem-solving attitude toward life.
  * You might say, what if doing this gets me scolded, or it's thankless? Go try with the mindset "I got nothing to lose."
62. When I was in my 20s, I comforted myself, "At worst, I'll just XX." For example, when I saw many company problems, I spent several weekends doing research and strategy, made a PPT, and sent it directly to my boss, saying, "I see you have the following growth problems. This is my plan. I can help you XX. Please see if it's useful."
Of course, I spent a lot of time on it. I was also worried about overstepping, but I thought, "At worst, I'll be ignored or laughed at," "At worst, I'll be fired and find another job. I'm still young and my salary is low, but if I don't try, I'll regret it later. I got nothing to lose."
63. Even if I don't get any benefit in the end, set yourself a small topic, research it on the weekend, and the experience and skills gained are mine. The boss won't disapprove; they'll only think I'm proactive.
But others can't think like me, doing research and planning on my own without anyone asking, thinking ahead of the boss.
64. When you're young, sometimes you can't analyze what problems and environment you're in. Timely seek your superior or an external mentor to discuss—note, when communicating, state the facts and phenomena I saw, and I felt XX.
Actually, for the same thing, after struggling for a long time, an outsider can already analyze the root cause.
65. Of course, as for me, I still have many problems. For example, my management team and I should also be careful not to have so many statements like "You should XX," "Why don't you know XX?" "You don't even know this?!" "Why haven't you learned this yet?"
Accept that startup teams may lack awareness. Many rules are habits taught by our past workplace experiences, but for teams without professional training, they don't have the same rule awareness. At this time, think "since the situation is so, what can I do to cultivate rules and habits in them," instead of staying in complaints.
66. In short, all unhappiness is because you can't accept the status quo, but are too lazy to work hard to change it, or you lack the patience and perseverance to persist until you break through.
67. The above may not apply to companies that are hard to push upward, not flat, or pedantic, or to people who are content with the status quo and don't want to work hard to improve.
But it definitely applies to those who want to break through.
68. A skill I want to deliberately practice recently:
Make others feel good about themselves.
69. "Diligence" is really a bad habit. Thinking you have unlimited energy, but actually you're using short-term diligence to destroy long-term efficiency. Tactical diligence makes up for strategic laziness. Better to leave more blank space from the start and see clearly what you're doing.
70. Yesterday I watched Wang Qiang's dialogue with David from Perfect Diary, and he mentioned how to partner with friends: the key is to lock friendship under rules. I was deeply touched.
71. "There are no hurdles in entrepreneurship that can't be crossed; there are only endless hurdles."
  * "Grassroots have values and abilities; middle management has values, abilities, some brains, and strategy; top management has values, abilities, and strategy."
  * "Manage sincerity with sincerity; at worst, the other party won't give me sincerity."
  * "Before hiring, think clearly about your business."
  * "Once you've decided to do this one thing for the next ten years, you won't be so anxious."
72. Writing a JD is definitely a skill. It should also follow the "attraction-threshold" principle to increase conversion.
73. Regarding how early-stage startups identify and judge people, and build efficient organizations, after talking with our organizational consultant Meiji, and combining my thoughts during this period, I've summarized a few insights to share:
  * Early-stage startup competition is not just about user market competition; it's also about talent market competition.
  * Innovative businesses especially need to find incremental talent. Whoever finds incremental talent first can take the lead in competition. Sort out your talent profile, rethink the entry and exit of such high-quality talent, to win this war.
  * Understand human nature to identify and judge people.
  * In the adult world, there's no right or wrong, only choices. For startups, besides hard skills matching the company's golden triangle, and ensuring first-level positions have political commissars, industry talent, and connecting talent, you must judge whether core people are entrepreneurs at heart—Are they smart and hardworking? Do they have vision and leadership? Do they have a unified direction to persist in? Do they have enough security?
  * These determine whether you can walk together. Also judge whether they are resilient and emotional; these determine how far you can go.
  * Each company has its own organizational culture, closely related to its core driving capability. If it's not a sales or labor-intensive industry, there's no need to deliberately pursue wolf culture.
  * For young people, the most direct thing is to ask what they really want. Be sincere, and talk about money without hurting feelings.
  * Entrepreneurs should expand their vision and boundaries in identifying people, and judge talent capability boundaries early to avoid many later problems entangled by feelings and people.
74. This article is a reminder to myself, and I hope to encourage fellow entrepreneurs.
In-depth dialogue | Early-stage startups, how to identify and judge people, and build efficient organizations?
75. When interviewing employees, startups should look more at the bottom line, aka, whether this person has startup genes, can accept chaos, heroes emerge in troubled times, embrace change, rather than hoping many systems are already built for them to use. Those who wait for everything to be built and just come to command are professional managers.
76. Companies under 100 people don't need the boss to talk too much about organizational operations. Just bring in a steady stream of excellent people, think clearly about the shortest path and key nodes, and find money and resources. Find people, find money, find direction.
77. Startup partners ≠ executives.
  * In startups, the "partner" identity is actually not equal to a position. I misunderstood before, thinking the highest position was partner (maybe influenced by consulting firm hierarchies).
  * Actually, partners are those willing to go through thick and thin with you, who follow without complaint when the company direction changes, and are willing to start over from scratch. They should own company shares and be long-term bound.
  * Executives are those in high positions managing a department or business line, but they may not be of one heart with you, back-to-back. They are just managers who can complete tasks in the current position. If the company direction changes or problems arise, executives may leave. Even a CEO may not be a true partner, just a professional manager.
78. Nonviolent communication for managers:
Transform "Why can't you complete this task?" into pre-communication: "What do you think I can do to help you complete this task? What problems do you foresee? What support do you need? If you encounter unforeseen problems, what do you plan to do then?"
The former questions the other's ability and work attitude. The latter provides resources and help, and helps anticipate.
79. Managing people is essentially managing yourself:
  * Manage your expectations: are they correct for the business and others, not fluctuating?
  * Manage your business understanding: can you patiently break down the business and set priorities clearly?
  * Manage your judgment and vision: do you know what abilities the other has, whether short-term tools can fill gaps, or whether you need to add people, and where to find them?
  * Manage your leadership: is it that the other has no will or motivation, or that I haven't inspired their willingness?
80. Whether leading a team or raising children, the moment to cultivate habits is not when the other "makes mistakes," but when they "do well."
  * Actually, many people don't know they "did well," or "why this is good."
  * So-called positive feedback is giving feedback based on the details (key point) of "why it's good" when the other does well.
  * For example, don't just say "You're great" or "Well done," but explain what they did, what value it has, and why it's good. For example, "You did XX, very good. You put thought into a difficult problem, brought XX to the company, which reflects your resilience. Resilience is a precious quality."
  * And the reason for praise should preferably match the values the company already believes in, not praise "You're smart" or "You have talent." Praise words based on effort and character like "You're resilient." Don't let the other mistakenly think they're praised for talent, thus always wanting to prove they're gifted.
  * Conversely, when they "make mistakes," scolding and lecturing can backfire. Correctly feedback where the problem is, what the objective reality is, but choose to tell them I've made the same mistake, and there are better ways. Finally, forgive; this is the best moment to connect emotionally.
81. Founders can't fill their time too full; they need blank space. Otherwise, without thinking time to go out, find people, money, direction, and check if strategy is deviating, it's scary.
Similarly, people who are exhausted will definitely not have innovative breakthroughs.
82. Recently, as an entrepreneur and boss, I finally feel my management cognition has upgraded and iterated. Let me summarize a few profound experiences.
I hope to help more bosses like me, bald,徘徊 between "wanting to be a good boss" and "not wanting to be a goody-goody and end up suffering and losing company performance."
1) The most basic is that communication is not about emotions, but about values, suggestions, and facts. For example, don't say, "You make me angry." Instead, say, "At what time, you did what, and it violated what value."
It's not about the person, not because you caused me emotions, but about the behavior of a person in a specific scenario, time, and state, and why it doesn't conform to the rules and values we agreed on before. Nothing is absolutely right or wrong; no one is unchanging. There are only agreements and failures to fulfill them.
2) Understand that colleagues are not friends. There are more boundaries between colleagues, but there can also be love. Each relationship has its way. Once you understand they're not friends, you don't have to pay for many emotional burdens, like "Will I make her uncomfortable?"
I used to often confuse colleagues and friends, and when I talked about work issues, the other would feel hurt. For each relationship, find a reasonable way and boundary.
3) As a boss, you need to reflect, but don't over-reflect, always thinking it's your problem. Actually, speaking harshly is not a problem; it's choosing communication efficiency.
As long as you tell the other in advance, "I speak directly and like to question; be mentally prepared," otherwise, I have to think about how to say every sentence, which delays our communication efficiency. That itself might be unsuitable. Again, there's no right or wrong, only choices.
4) Leadership is not brainwashing, coercion, or punishment, but enlightenment and inspiration. But this doesn't mean I need to teach step by step like a teacher. After all, school is not a classroom; I pay for productivity, and cultivation also considers ROI and opportunity cost. If I spend time on you, it means I spend less time cultivating others/thinking about the big direction my position should think about.
5) My first responsibility is definitely not incubation and cultivation, but finding direction, building the right team (buy borrow build), finding money, setting goals, and distributing money.
6) Back to cultivation: if you want someone to develop good habits and standards, the real opportunity to change habits is not when they do wrong, but when they do right (here, right/wrong can be understood as conforming to company values/standards or not).
Instead of scolding when they do wrong, which only makes them resistant and unsure what to do, the best opportunity to cultivate habits is to praise when they do right. When they do wrong, don't scold; use the opportunity to understand, empathize, and give feedback.
Also, when praising, don't praise them for being smart or talented, and don't praise too broadly like "great job." Praise specific things and values, like "You did very well because you hold yourself to standards beyond the industry, because you didn't give up and fought to the end."
If you praise talent or intelligence, the other will think后天努力 isn't as important as innate, and will always want to prove they're smart. Praising too broadly seems perfunctory and forced, praising for the sake of praising.
7) If you really need to give optimization suggestions to team members, first acknowledge progress and effort, then make requests. And give them a rope. Not emotions and pressure.
8) Don't force the company's current needs onto the other. They may need a completely different level of ability and experience, not over-stretching.
9) Giving the team correct and objective feedback is helping them, not just praising or hiding things for fear of hurting their feelings.
83. In short, managing a company should use more objective things like principles, standards, systems, and goals, and less subjective indicators like feelings, emotions, and personal judgments.
84. Entrepreneurship is a spirit, a mindset of always being on the road, always exploring, iterating, and empowering others. Entrepreneurship is not about making a quick buck for financial freedom. The premise of entrepreneurship is financial self-sufficiency. Only self-sufficient people can maintain an entrepreneurial mindset, not arrogant or impatient.
Entrepreneurship has nothing to do with company size. Each of us, even as an individual, is a company. As long as you're constantly testing and iterating, constantly turning yourself into a platform for talent and value creation, you are an entrepreneur.
It's never too late to start a business. Entrepreneurship is a normal state of life. It makes you proactively take responsibility, make choices, solve problems, not complain, and have a growth mindset.
Entrepreneurship makes us more and more tolerant and composed towards our lives and environment, more focused on what we can do, letting go of what we can't, finding boundaries while continuously expanding our influence boundaries.
85. Be in awe when dealing with founders. They think and iterate at the highest speed every day. In the end, entrepreneurship is about iteration speed. Being able to be with a founder and absorb every bit of their iteration is a blessing.
86. I think every entrepreneur may need to go through some experiences like these to be considered just getting started:
Wholeheartedly believe and give, then be completely betrayed, used, and deceived by human nature, fall into disappointment with people, and finally see through it. After recognizing the truth, still choose to believe without fear of being hurt. This time it's antifragile belief—doing risk management while being prepared to be shattered again and still be strong.
87. Today I chatted with a friend. A great CEO must master "rhythm," like driving a car: when to build momentum, when to overtake, when to change tires—all need to be planned in advance.
There are so many important things. Which to put down first, when to speed up to expand territory, when to slow down to cultivate internal skills—all need to be decided at the right time. Each stage has its first priority. You need to see clearly what is the underlying architecture of what, and what is the first contradiction that affects the whole.
The worst is wanting everything and always chasing the wind. Doing "hard but right things" also requires timing.
88. Actually, people have unrealistic expectations of others, leading to mismatched expectations and collapse. Usually it's like this:
First, "long drought meets sweet rain"—for example, a single person always wants a partner, imagining that finding a partner will solve many problems, like being happier, financially stable, having company, traveling together...
Later, they indeed find someone, and they're much happier, so they pin all their fantasies on this person and say, "You are my hope! You bring me so much joy." But gradually, they find the other is not perfect, maybe only satisfying one of many needs.
For example, someone who is family-oriented/caring may not be so "bold" in career, or someone who can satisfy material needs may not be able to have good conversations, etc. After all, no two puzzle pieces fit perfectly; two people are more like two spheres with holes, bound together to roll.
89. Not only romantic relationships, but also friends, children, and work. Work, especially for me, in building a team.
At the beginning, it's easy to have the same problem: hoping to find someone who can do this and that. For example, many CEOs don't know how to do marketing and ask me, "Do you have a CMO recommendation?" They hope the CMO can do brand marketing, growth, team management, and connect strategy to performance. Such people exist, but why would they join you? Why not do it themselves?
So demand and supply don't match. In the end, you'll just keep blaming your team for not being good enough. Actually, it's still one problem: most people are not "both this and that," just like finding a husband. Our needs can't be met by one person; they need several. That's why we say, if talent is insufficient, the organization makes up for it.
90. Often both sides suffer because they don't see that the other "is actually imperfect." So identifying and using people is not just in the workplace; it's needed every day. Only by seeing the other's strengths and weaknesses accurately can you set expectations correctly and use other talents to fill gaps, so you don't kidnap the other's life with your needs.
91. Recently, I've been thinking about the differences between founder, CEO, and COO.
  * The founder is the spiritual pillar, the brand core, the source of culture, and the anchor under risk. The founder needs consistent pursuit, shaped into mission, vision, and values, often with some whimsy.
  * The CEO is the planner of strategic decisions and rhythm, who can translate the founder's mission, vision, and values into strategic deployment, find people (mainly executives), find money (core resources, assets), and find direction (landing in business model).
  * The COO is the company operator, the first person responsible for revenue – expenditure = profit, deploying strategic rhythm to various business lines/departments, managing and supervising, effectively motivating, improving operational efficiency, increasing revenue, reducing expenditure, improving human efficiency, expanding market share, etc.
  * Of course, in most companies, these three may be the same person.
92. At work, sometimes you need to give negative feedback, but you're worried it becomes verbal attack/PUA and makes the other lose self-esteem. So where is the boundary/difference between "verbal control/attack" and "giving correct feedback"?
My coach's answer: the key is whether the other feels "I'm not good enough so I need to change" or "I genuinely want to grow"?
93. Let me share some simple "American workplace jargon" I used in the US workplace. I used these a lot before. The more you use them, the more ownership you feel, and it's easy to become the person who dares to take responsibility in chaos.
1) Streamline: simplify, improve efficiency. Common in project management. For example, a project has many contacts, everyone talking, information is messy. Then the PM will step up and say, "Send all information to me, I will streamline it."
2) Spearhead: lead. For example, a project has no main person in charge, and no one steps up. You can volunteer, not necessarily as the project lead, but to show initiative, you can say, "I can take the lead and spearhead this project," meaning you'll drive the project and become the leader.
3) Vet: review and judge. In the workplace, it's taboo to just be a messenger, passing a bunch of information to your superior without your own judgment. Usually, you say, "I will vet it first." That means as an intermediary, I first review and judge the project and information, then pass my judgment to my superior, saving their mental effort.
4) Align: level cognition. No need to explain. The bigger the project, the more people, the more you need to align cognition from verbal meetings to written words, ensuring you know I know, and I know you know, not "I thought you knew but you didn't." Expand the public quadrant.
5) Flesh out: refine the plan. For example, when you receive a project plan and want to initially check with your boss that you're not off track, you can say, "I'll set a big framework first, and will flesh it out later. Do you see any major problems?" Or the boss might think details are insufficient and say, "Please flesh it out."
94. On the surface, I'm teaching English words, but actually I'm talking about workplace habits: proactively take responsibility, take the lead, summarize information in project management, align cognition, act as the middle review and judgment processor, manage expectations, find rhythm, not hold back a big move and find out the direction is inconsistent.
The secret to making yourself more valuable in the workplace is helping others (especially your boss) save time and improve overall efficiency.
95. These days, many startup titles are nominal or highly inflated. These days, aren't there many who call themselves directors, VPs, or heads? Even if you're a CEO or founder, you can be self-appointed; it has no meaning.
Power can also vanish in an instant. Also, being backed by a big company makes many people mistake the company's capabilities for their own. Temporary workplace supply-demand distortion causing high salaries makes people think they're invaluable.
  * Actually, after the bubble, it's clear who's swimming naked. For example, I've met several people over 35 who held high salaries and titles at big companies but now, after leaving, can't find their positioning and can't re-enter the game.
  * You should treat every experience as experience, cultivating yourself into a talent who dares to embrace change, adapts to circumstances, and can bend and stretch.
  * Fame, money, power, and position are all fleeting. The only things you can't take away are experience, ability, and your own value.
  * This is also what the current VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) era truly needs: the strong.
96. Small boss's self-iteration notes
1) Break down ambition. In early-stage startups, to succeed, you must break down ambition, break it down again, and then break each business into skill points to hire. Find strong or potential people for each skill point, not find one person who can do both this and that. You'll never find them, have unrealistic expectations, and make each other miserable.
2) Communicate with subordinates: communicate needs, not right or wrong. Communicate why these requirements exist, and what goal they serve. In the workplace, people often say "You should be like this" and "What you did is wrong." In fact, there's no absolute right or wrong; everything is a choice.
What does that mean? As in nonviolent communication, don't communicate "Why didn't you do XX?" but communicate "I have this need, so I need you to do this."
Everyone's brain is different, and their growth environments differ. So communication is about aligning the goals of both people and the way to achieve them, not blaming or criticizing. Because we need to reach goal A within a certain time, and to reach it we need B, so I need you to do B.
3) Empathize: communicate what benefits doing B can bring to you. For example, what abilities can you improve? Or maybe we can hire an expert to do B, and you can learn from them. Find win-win points. Long-term cooperation can't be based on sacrifice, but on mutual understanding and gaining together.
4) Read the fear and emotions behind words. Sometimes when the team says something, don't take it literally. Read the need behind it. For example, are they seeking security? Seeking trust? Seeking support and attention? Seeking to know their work is valuable and meaningful?
The team needs a leader who can give them security, not a leader who lacks security and constantly tests their loyalty or adequacy. Because of belief, you see; believe in the power of belief—these chicken soup phrases actually have truth. A leader must know how to give love, which requires having enough love themselves first.
5) Why pay attention to employee emotions, have empathy, spend time doing these, why not just look at results and set performance? Because first, realistically, as a small startup, it's your honor that others work for you. Don't think it's the boss choosing employees these days; it's mutual selection, and more likely employees choosing you! Especially excellent employees have many opportunities.
Second, companies that do good work must have a united team behind them. Finally, companies driven not by labor but by brainpower and creativity especially need to nurture people, not train them. Empathy after putting yourself in others' shoes will only make you more united and stronger with everyone. Empathy won't make you weak; irrational sympathy will.
97. Many people now set employees and bosses against each other, but they don't recognize reality, aka the long-term supply-demand balance of quality talent. Companies that can't retain talent in the long run probably won't do well in user retention either~😁
98. Recently, I figured out one thing: as a boss, you can't always fill the gaps in employees' abilities. It shouldn't be "lower the standard because the employee can't do it," or always have the leader fill the gap to standard. Instead, the boss should clearly state the standard for the position, the gap between the employee and the standard, and what company-wide standards are.
Employees need to improve their abilities to the standard line. At first, if they can't, the leader can demonstrate or guide them to find resources to improve. But if the employee doesn't work hard to reach the standard, then you need to replace them. Otherwise, the company's overall standards, capabilities, and levels will sink. Of course, unreasonable standards should be adjusted in time. How to know if they're reasonable? Look at industry baseline levels and corresponding salaries.
99. After two years of organizational structure AB testing, I finally understand a principle:
In startups, there won't be talent doing only a single function in a single business line. If there is, it's too luxurious and definitely not saturated.
Because many businesses are still changing, it's hard to lock down completely. So talent should either do a single function across business lines, or a single business across functions. Those who can do both across business lines and functions are even more precious. If you can't accept this, don't go to early-stage startups.
From this, it follows that if the company—
  * If it's a business line system, then everyone needs to be T-shaped talent (comprehensive, all-round).
  * If it's a function line system, then the team definitely won't have just one business goal; goals may differ based on different activity objectives.
100. Today I chatted with an executive in online education managing hundreds of people in user operations. One point was how to make the whole company one heart: constantly let employees hear how you view a matter and why you do something. You have to keep saying it in front of everyone, repeatedly.
101. After three years of entrepreneurial exploration, I finally see clearly the values of our Daofa: China will definitely produce brands. It won't be P&G; P&G is actually a product of the old era's scale effects. It will be super brands like Nike, Apple, and Lululemon. It will represent China's new cultural circles, be people-centric, and coexist with virtual time-space and the real world.
102. The first thing in entrepreneurship is to delete your ego, admit your boundaries, admit you're ordinary but not mediocre, and admit you need help.
103. The original intention and mission of entrepreneurship determine many things. It takes time to see the difference.
The original intention is like the starting point of a flight to the future; a slight deviation in direction can change the final destination.
Mission is not a slogan, but the real reason that drives you to struggle every day.
Whether the mission is truly believed will greatly determine the details of execution.
Under the mission, delete personal agendas and ego outside the mission.
You can't change a person; you can only change yourself and choose fellow travelers.
Fellow travelers must believe in the mission, be willing to walk together, and be willing to stand back-to-back. Compared to ability, being on the same path is ten times more important.
There's no right or wrong in this world; everything is a choice.
104. I think people who want to start a business in the future should join early-stage startups early; it's like virtual practice for entrepreneurship.
That's what I thought. I joined a startup before, and every day I would think, "If I were the CEO, how would I make decisions in this situation?" Then I'd watch the boss make decisions, think about whether they were optimal, then see the results, and judge the effectiveness of those decisions.
Then when I started my own business, I could avoid some of its mistakes and know which pitfalls can't be avoided even with prevention; you still have to fall once to learn.
In fact, during my internship, my boss at the time said, "If you think and act at a high position and role, you'll reach that position. Think in that role and you will become that role."
******Life**
105. This is one of my happiest moments recently: having a meal with my mom at Xibei across from our home. We ordered a big beef rib, a grilled fish, a bowl of noodles, and a plate of mung bean jelly. My mom said the noodles were very chewy. Then I put the grilled fish in front of me, added some vinegar, and ate it all.
After eating, my mom packed the leftovers and took them home. She said Xibei's service was very attentive and asked me to give them a five-star review. After eating, we took a walk. It was such a simple moment—no fancy restaurant, no plot, just pure joy. This might be the greatest happiness of being alive.
It's not a moment of honor, not pride, not superiority, just a peaceful day.
106. I usually play Angela, but on the weekend, I rarely played a marksman in ranked. After the game, a teammate immediately sent me a friend request. Wow, I played so well, and a netizen wants to add me to play more? I excitedly opened it and saw the friend request message: "I suggest you uninstall the game."
......... Bronze person, bronze soul, bronze skills, very pure.
107. Many people are affected for life by their original families and early environments, and it's hard to even see that their habits are caused by these, let alone reshape them. Those who can clearly see what inertia influences them are already a lucky minority.
And in my heart, I think, "I must let my future children have a happy childhood, not be judged or blamed, not carry too many burdens, not have to fulfill anyone's ideals, and just live their lives joyfully."
108. On intimate relationships
When I was a child, I saw a cartoon saying that good partners are like puzzle pieces; together they form a complete piece. When I grew up, I realized this is actually a long-standing wrong metaphor. No one can't live without someone else.
Everyone is an independent circle. The relationship between each other is actually a cooperative one, more like partners. No one can rely solely on another to gain happiness, completeness, or satisfaction. If you have this idea, it will instead cause problems like mental dependence, emotional binding, and PUA.
In fact, any relationship can't be too close or too dependent. As the saying goes, "The friendship between gentlemen is as light as water." Everyone should maintain a social distance. Excessive dependence is a precursor to illness. And people who stick together all day are not far from separation. Not because they're unsuitable, but because people are born lonely for a hundred years; it's impossible for another person to fully understand you, and you're born with different growth environments and habits.
Source: Daojie Doris (ID: doriskerundong) Author: Daojie Doris
 _**-END-**_


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671