---
title: "Ten Years as a Marketing Director: Hard-Won Insights!"
description: "The author, having transitioned from a professional manager to a trade partner and marketing consultant, shares lessons from over a decade in marketing, covering topics like corporate politics, career growth, and practical wisdom."
author: "佚名"
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published: "2014-08-28"
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# Ten Years as a Marketing Director: Hard-Won Insights!

> The author, having transitioned from a professional manager to a trade partner and marketing consultant, shares lessons from over a decade in marketing, covering topics like corporate politics, career growth, and practical wisdom.

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In the blink of an eye, I have transitioned from a professional manager to a trade partner and marketing consultant. Over a decade of professional management for a living, with joys of success and lessons from failure, I dedicate this article to commemorate that bittersweet, sentimental marketing career. For any errors, please consider this for reference:
01. In a company, some things can be said but not done (e.g., “employee interests first”); some things can be done but not said (e.g., layoffs and pay cuts). Understanding this can save you from detours.
02. Promotion, wealth, learning, and growth are the most genuine dreams of every marketer.
03. The best system is one tied to money.
04. Choice is more important than effort; I have seen countless mediocre people rise swiftly, and many talented but unrecognized people suffer misfortune, feeling that fate plays tricks.
05. If your ideal is to be a professional manager, it’s better to go to a large enterprise, which offers a big platform and resources to achieve great things.
06. Political struggles in large enterprises are often fierce; be mentally prepared.
07. Infighting is sometimes tolerated and even encouraged by the boss.
08. Knowledge accumulation for professional managers in large enterprises is often “narrow and deep,” while in small enterprises it’s “broad and shallow.”
09. Believing that effort alone guarantees success, or that success can come without effort, are both signs of immaturity. As Zeng Guofan said, self-cultivation is up to oneself, but success depends on heaven.
10. If you think you can, you can; if you think you can’t, you definitely can’t.
11. The crying child gets the milk.
12. Having someone in power helps.
13. The downside of good companies is that they often make incompetent people in high positions think too highly of themselves. The upside of bad companies is that they force grassroots marketers to rely on no platform, ultimately honing solid skills.
14. If your desire to get rich is strong, entrepreneurship is the only path. Marketers can hardly get rich on normal salaries; of course, gray income is an exception.
15. Few marketers can resist the temptation of gray income, just as few can resist the temptation of beauty.
16. Marketing has patterns but no fixed rules.
17. Marketing is a road of no return; becoming a marketing director is already the end of a career. The ultimate destination is either entrepreneurship or manager shareholding. Entrepreneurship can be hoped for; manager shareholding is desirable but not always attainable.
18. A colleague asked me how to interpret the boss’s words, “Work hard, and I won’t treat you unfairly.” I said, if you’re still young, maybe you can give it a try.
19. Marketing is a young person’s game; some things can’t wait. Money is recognition of one’s value and ability; incentives detached from money are the most ineffective.
20. Books often tell inspirational stories, teaching us to work for ideals, not money. I often wonder: working for ideals is natural, but why can’t we work for money?
21. Lock onto an industry, a company, and a profession, and you will eventually succeed. If you must change, you can change companies; if you must change again, you can change industries; but do not lightly change professions.
22. A man should be tough on himself (in career) and kind to himself (in hobbies).
23. Marketing matters often lie outside marketing itself, such as your knowledge reserves and learning.
24. In a company, everyone is both a chess player and a chess piece.
25. Heaven rewards the diligent; that’s not a lie.
26. At the annual meeting, when the boss talks about the hardships of entrepreneurship, I ponder; when employees raise hands to pledge loyalty, I become wary; when someone “cries bitterly,” I smile.
27. No one can defeat you except yourself.
28. I truly hope good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil.
29. Endure a word and the wind calms; step back and the sea and sky widen.
30. What you can’t figure out is only because your perspective isn’t high enough.
31. Among marketers, a person with great aspirations and a pursuit of success is often surrounded by a motley crew.
32. I thank those who helped me; they are my benefactors. I thank those who framed or looked down on me; they are also my benefactors—they inspired me to achieve.
33. So-called benefactors are those who inspire you to strive and fight harder.
34. Company political struggles are purely dung beetles fighting over dung.
35. Power tactics are a double-edged sword: harming others begins, and harming oneself ends.
36. Marketing is essentially three things: speaking well, writing well, and doing well. “Speaking well” means communication and presentation skills; “writing well” means the ability to write summaries and reports; “doing well” means execution.
37. The best motivation is self-motivation, and the best self-motivation is a habit of correct thinking and action.
38. The best motivation for team management is four words: promotion and wealth.
39. Managing teams and distributors ultimately comes down to four phrases, sixteen characters: convince with reason, move with emotion, entice with benefits, and restrain with consequences.
40. “Read classics, watch news.” In today’s flood of information, calming down to read a few classics will benefit you immensely.
41. Marketers often have worldly stereotypes, like “eating, drinking, whoring, gambling” or “glib tongues.” In reality, these are just packaged images; true marketers are those with ideals, pursuits, who are grounded and insightful, who are “learned, thoughtful, questioning, discerning, and diligent.”
42. In this materialistic and deceitful society, a marketer without firm beliefs and persistent pursuits can easily lose themselves and drift with the tide.
43. Management is nothing more than setting people, time, quantity, goals, standards, and rewards and punishments.
44. If there’s a chance to be lazy, one will be lazy; if there’s a chance to be corrupt, one will be corrupt.
45. Marketers only do what is rewarded or punished, not easily what is expected.
46. Paratroopers (external hires) have the highest casualty rate, simply because they are often “appointed in times of crisis.”
47. If you love someone, make them do marketing; if you hate someone, make them do marketing.
48. How to allocate sales targets? It’s usually “GDP + growth rate + completion rate + others (market level, competition, gut feeling).” Actually, such allocation isn’t entirely scientific. My method is to allocate based on the above indicators, retaining 5-10% flexibility, then adjust regionally afterward. How to adjust? Look at process indicators (key tasks, channel development and maintenance, terminals) and result indicators.
49. Branding is actually very simple, so simple that everyone understands it. It’s also the most complex, so complex that some “brand experts” make a living from it.
50. Better to violate heavenly rules than to incur public wrath.
51. There is only disclosure, no truth.
52. Packaging is more important than reality; marketers’ resumes often have water, and bosses may pay a million for a manager who previously earned only two or three hundred thousand.
53. The root of conflicts between manufacturers and distributors is unequal distribution of spoils, because the final consumer price cannot be infinitely expanded; it’s governed by market laws. Therefore, in the product circulation chain, both sides want to squeeze more profit from each other.
54. One of the greatest qualities for salespeople is: not playing by the rules.
55. The front line is always the source of innovation.
56. Beware of marketers who are sweet-talking and flashy but insubstantial.
57. Obsequious and servile marketers are pitiful, pathetic, and lamentable!
58. Data can reveal the truth, but it can also conceal it.
59. Marketers sometimes need a bit of dominance, heroism, and a “who else but me” spirit, a spirit of “even if thousands oppose, I go.”
60. Without responsibility (job duties), where does a sense of responsibility come from?
61. Laissez-faire management harms and helps: it harms those without direction and helps those who are proactive.
62. In reports, use tables, data, formulas, or models; you will benefit immensely.
63. Even if faked, data is better than pure narrative.
64. The wise accomplish things; those with simple hearts and firm ideals accomplish great things.
65. It’s undeniable that brown-nosing is a good communication tool.
66. Be a righteous person, manage the petty.
67. Negative incentives for process indicators, positive incentives for result indicators.
68. In a company, you don’t necessarily have to start from the bottom.
69. To see if a company is worth joining, check if its toilets are clean and if its employees look sunny.
70. When you don’t ask for favors, you’re equal; when resigning, you sit on equal footing with the boss.
71. Being humble before the boss means either you need something from him, or you admire him, or both.
72. The essence and core of management were already clarified by the ancients: “If you can win hearts, dissent will disappear; from ancient times, those skilled in war are not warlike. If you don’t assess the situation, leniency or strictness will both be wrong; later, when governing Shu, think deeply.”
73. If you thoroughly learn how religions manage believers and how governments manage people, you will be the most brilliant management expert.
74. Try a few times to manage from the bottom up: go to the front line and work as a salesperson or promoter.
75. Bamboo shoots become bamboo only after falling to the ground; fish become dragons only after swimming.
76. It’s undeniable that showing off works; if you show off long enough, you become awesome.
77. Some companies or jerks do unjust things under the banner of justice.
78. Companies and employees benefit greatly from empathy.
79. We are all mortals controlled by invisible powerful forces; either join them or adapt to them.
80. The scene of decline is within fullness; the mechanism of growth is within decay. Therefore, a gentleman in peace should be cautious about danger, and in adversity should endure with patience to achieve success.
81. Civilize the spirit, barbarize the body.
82. In this materialistic, deceitful, and complex society, calming down to read a few books will benefit you immensely.
83. When far from home, food and sex are natural, but don’t forget good time management.
84. Those who wait long will fly high; those who bloom early will wither early.
85. Most marketing trainers are people who have never done sales; it’s an industry where outsiders train insiders.
86. Training is like cooking—the highest level is achieving both color, aroma, taste, and nutrition. But in reality, most marketers still value color, aroma, and taste; lively atmosphere is more important than knowledge.
87. In some industries, the regional manager’s main role is to be the operator for agents and the marketing consultant for small accounts.
88. Great wealth depends on fate; small wealth depends on diligence.
89. Learn to have a grateful heart.
90. Warm heart, cold eyes; proud bones, humble mind.
91. The Way is in my heart; no need to seek outside.
92. Excellent performance requires full effort and heavy pressure.
93. Don’t fear, don’t regret, don’t torment yourself, don’t cry over spilled milk.
94. Paranoids either succeed or die.
95. When talking to others, say only three-tenths; don’t bare your whole heart.
96. Drink to slight intoxication, view flowers at half bloom; excess is as bad as deficiency. Getting drunk harms both body and heart.
97. “Alcohol capacity reflects sales, and drinking behavior reflects character” is pure nonsense.
98. Corporate culture is figuring out the boss’s mind.
99. Report level by level; appeal over levels.
100. As long as thinking doesn’t slide, methods are more than difficulties.
101. When there’s work, do it; when there’s no work, plan.
102. During work hours, focus on work; outside work, think about work.
103. Goal—Plan—Action—Review—Feedback—Improvement.
104. Think carefully—act quickly—communicate frequently.
105. Action is the key to success.
106. Those who waste time waiting for perfect cooperation accomplish nothing.
107. There are at least three ways to achieve anything.
108. Effectiveness is more important than being reasonable.
109. With heart (full effort) and brain (scientific methods), nothing fails.
110. Not knowing what to do is the beginning of being fired.
111. Excellent performance requires full effort and heavy pressure.
112. Improvement is endless.
113. Find problems, analyze problems, solve problems.
114. If I’m told to do it, nothing gets done; if I want to do it, nothing fails.
115. The meaning of communication is to achieve your goals by any means.
116. Details determine success or failure.
117. Be loyal to the company and to your leaders.
118. Weekly plans, daily arrangements.
119. All behaviors at work affect and determine your personality, and personality determines destiny.
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