---
title: "Ways to Make Money Change Daily, but the Axioms of Making Money Never Change"
description: "We talk about business every day, but the environment changes so fast that what worked yesterday may fail today. However, even in the ever-changing business world, there are underlying principles that never change, like axioms in mathematics. These axioms, such as 'consumers always want to buy better products at lower prices,' serve as the foundation for deriving methodologies and theorems that help you navigate business with constancy amidst change."
author: "刘润"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-12-31"
language: "en"
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---

# Ways to Make Money Change Daily, but the Axioms of Making Money Never Change

> We talk about business every day, but the environment changes so fast that what worked yesterday may fail today. However, even in the ever-changing business world, there are underlying principles that never change, like axioms in mathematics. These axioms, such as 'consumers always want to buy better products at lower prices,' serve as the foundation for deriving methodologies and theorems that help you navigate business with constancy amidst change.

We talk about business every day. But if you are immersed in the business world for a long time, you will find that the environment changes too fast. Methods that could make money yesterday may suddenly fail today. Indeed, that's the case. However, even in the ever-changing business world, there are many underlying logics that do not change. These underlying logics are like the 'axioms' we learned in school. They are common sense, existing without proof. Based on these 'axioms,' you can develop basic methodologies and derive many 'theorems.' This will add bricks to your business knowledge tree, helping you see the essence behind the fog and thus navigate the business world with constancy amidst change. For example, **'Consumers always want to buy better products at lower prices' is an axiom that never changes.** Let's start with this business axiom today.

**To Succeed in Business, You Must Make Cheaper and Better Products**
You might ask: If that's the case, buyers are happy, but how do sellers survive? How can this cycle drive economic and business development? Indeed, this confusion arises from 'different perspectives.' We all have two perspectives: **one is the buyer's perspective, and the other is the seller's perspective.** When you are a producer, selling the same thing, you naturally want to sell it at a higher price. A bit higher. But when you are a consumer, you always hope to buy the same thing at a lower price. Not enough. It needs to be cheaper. So when you look at this axiom again, it actually answers this question: **Does the producer or the consumer have the final say in this world?** Of course, the consumer has the final say. Why? Because only those who spend money have the final say, and only then can the transaction be closed. What consumers spend more money on is equivalent to selecting the one that 'best fits' the current business world rules. This process is evolution. So, who did consumers vote for? Let me give you an example. Two years ago, the Nikkei reported on the companies with the highest stock price increases in Japan over the past 30 years. Guess who rose the most? Not a tech company, not a game company. It was NITORI Holdings, a well-known Japanese affordable furniture and home furnishing chain: Nitori. It rose 57 times during 'Japan's Lost 30 Years.' Nitori's founder, Nitori Akio, significantly reduced costs by acquiring products from bankrupt companies in bulk, building warehouses for bulk purchasing, and aggressively importing when the yen appreciated. But he was uncompromising on raw materials. Other companies that performed well in the past 30 years include Fast Retailing. The name might sound unfamiliar, but when I say it's the parent company of Uniqlo, you know it. That's an old friend. This shows that consumption habits formed during good economic times persist even in bad times, as people expect to maintain a similar standard of living. In recent years, you might hear discussions about 'consumption downgrading' from time to time. But if you look closely at people's spending around you, you'll be surprised to find that consumption is actually 'upgrading.' Yes, we want lower prices, but at the same time, we demand higher quality. The same applies in the financial world. Interest rates are prices. Higher interest rates mean 'more expensive.' Don't we always hope for lower bank loan rates? That way, we can own our dream homes at a lower 'price.' So when the government wants to support housing prices, you see mortgage rates being cut again and again. It's like saying, 'I'm selling at such a low price, these are good houses, won't you come and take a look, maybe buy one?' **Natural selection, survival of the fittest. This 'nature' refers to the ultimate consumer.** So you see, the final business form in many industries is selected by you and me from the consumer's perspective. What is the selection criterion? It's actually a simple, self-evident truth: buy better products at lower prices. Okay. Now, from the producer's perspective, how can you make 'cheaper and better' products? I have derived three 'theorems.' Let me share them one by one.

**To Be Better and Cheaper, You Must Pursue Innovation and Efficiency**
Now we know that consumers always want to buy better products at lower prices. So as a producer, you have only two methods. The first is innovation. What is innovation? Before answering this question, I'd like to invite you to play a small game. In the image below, please use 4 strokes (four line segments connected end-to-end) to connect all nine dots. Give yourself 2 minutes to see how you would connect them. Isn't it a bit tricky? Horizontal lines break, vertical lines break. Horizontal and vertical strokes, oh, the segments are not continuous. Start over. After a few tries, you feel a bit impatient. It seems that no matter which dot you start from, you need more than 4 strokes. You really want to twist these nine dots and rearrange them. But what if you try to shift your gaze away from the nine dots? Add two dots outside, and you'll find it takes no effort to connect them perfectly. That's the magic of innovation. If you are trapped by the nine dots and only think within existing frameworks, you may keep doing useless work. But if you can break out of conventional thinking, you can make truly meaningful changes. In the business world, prices correspond to the '4 strokes' and '9 dots' in the puzzle, which are the challenges the world poses to you. For example, if you could make a phone like the iPhone without raising the price, wow, that would be amazing, and consumers would go crazy for you. Price stays the same, but the product is better. Who does this? Xiaomi. As Lei Jun said in his annual speech, 'Consumption upgrading is not about products getting more expensive, but about being able to buy better products at the same price.' From phones, cars, small appliances, to large appliances, Xiaomi continuously optimizes design and smart features. Gradually, consumers' impression of you becomes: Wow, I can always buy better products from you at the same price. From the producer's perspective, this thinking is **'same cost, better effect.'** For example, you can achieve better results with a fixed, meager budget. Let me tell a story. Before Christmas, you take a flight. Before boarding, you notice a Christmas gift-like decoration, and an electronic screen next to it flashes 'Please scan your boarding pass.' After scanning, an electronic Santa appears and interacts with you warmly. He asks who you are and what Christmas gift you want. At this point, you might happily interact with Santa and casually mention something you want. There's a long line behind you, and everyone treats it as a joke. Some say they want a camera. Some say they want a Christmas stocking. A couple says it must be a big TV! Later, you forget about it. When you arrive at your destination and wait for your luggage, you are surprised to find that the luggage belt has the gift you wanted! On the gift, your name is handwritten. How do you feel? Oh my. This airline is so thoughtful. I'll fly with them next time. Not only will I fly, but I'll go home and tell my family and friends about my legendary experience, encouraging them to choose this airline. This is actually what WestJet, a Canadian airline, did 10 years ago. After passengers boarded, 175 WestJet employees rushed to supermarkets, bought gifts for 250 passengers, and wrapped them. They filmed the whole process and uploaded it to YouTube, where it received over 50 million views. They achieved an innovative marketing effect that would normally cost millions of dollars with just $50,000. The short film is less than 5 minutes long and very heartwarming. I've attached it below; I highly recommend you watch it. Seeing those people who initially thought it was a joke, and then actually received tablets, TVs, snowboards, and scarves after landing, and cried with joy, I truly felt the power of innovation. Who wouldn't be moved by such thoughtful gifts? The second method is efficiency. You might say innovation is too difficult; good ideas are sometimes hard to come by. Then try another path: same product quality, lower price. This means you have to improve production efficiency. For example, Taylor's factory. Or Toyota's workshop. Whether it's 'top-down' or 'bottom-up' management, they both pursue efficiency to the extreme. What are the benefits? In Taylor's case, inspection costs dropped from $62 to $11, and the workforce was reduced from 2,000 to 1,200. In Toyota's case, from the small task of tightening screws, they saved 12 years of work time across 10 million vehicles. So, same price, better product is innovation. Same product, better price is efficiency. This is the first theorem: **To achieve business success, you must have either innovation or efficiency.**

**Technology is the Primary Driving Force**
Innovation. Efficiency. Understood. The examples mentioned earlier are indeed useful, but not powerful enough. What do I mean? For instance, a company with 100 million yuan in annual revenue—how many employees do you think it should have? A thousand? Or at least a hundred? Have you used Midjourney? It's an AI drawing software. Previously, humans did the drawing. Today, technology does it, greatly reducing costs. To what extent? When it had 100 million yuan in annual revenue, it had only 11 employees. In the past, you had 3 processes; now you iterate and reduce them to 1.5 processes. This is called **iterative efficiency improvement.** But it's not the primary driving force. Technology is the primary driving force. **Every time it appears, it brings disruptive innovation and efficiency gains.** In the past, we cut trees with stones, then axes, then chainsaws, and then laser clearing devices. That's technology. In the past, we wrote letters by hand, then used telegraphs, then SMS, and then WeChat. That's technology. The ability to make better things at the same price, which was impossible before, is now possible thanks to technology. Let me give you a few more concrete examples. For instance, outdoor jackets. Now we can use a very special fabric that is one-way breathable and reverse waterproof, thanks to material technology. At the same price, you buy a jacket that also protects you well outdoors; that's technology. For example, pre-made dishes. Cooking at home involves going to the market, processing, washing and cutting, preparing seasonings, and then cooking before you can enjoy. But with pre-made dishes, the price might be similar to cooking yourself, but the steps become simple: take out, thaw, heat, and enjoy. Current freezing technology can keep fish fresh after thawing. That's also technology. Another example: new energy vehicles. Musk was ridiculed before building electric cars. Why? Not to mention functionality and aesthetic design, the battery cost alone was extremely high, making the car exorbitantly priced. Who would buy it? Musk thought that iron, nickel, aluminum, and other metals together form the battery. The cost of buying these metals indeed cannot be reduced. But other costs can be cut. Sales expenses, operating costs, import/export taxes, labor, storage, and factory costs—these are all costs arising from human collaboration, so there is room for optimization. Applying the same thinking to rocket building, Musk's SpaceX rocket costs can be reduced to 10% of other rockets. If we need a definition, then 'any tool that reduces labor and improves efficiency' is technology. **Technology is the driving force, the fuel for corporate acceleration.** Conversely, once you slack off and neglect technology, the consequences are always severe. For example, Kodak. It invented the world's first digital camera in 1975 but insisted on sticking to film business and shelving digital technology. Ironically, when Kodak finally realized in 2003 and tried to transition to digital, it was too late. In 2012, Kodak was bankrupted by digital cameras. Similarly classic is the decline of Nokia. There are many more examples. So, to be cheaper and better, technology is the primary driving force. That's theorem two.

**There Are No Successful Enterprises, Only Enterprises of the Era**
The third derived point is: **There are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the era.** Why do I say that? Remember our axiom? Consumers always want to buy better products at lower prices. This means that no enterprise can rest on its laurels forever and survive. Why? Because what consumers want is not a specific product, but a 'more.' There is no best, only better. The word 'more' means you cannot stop moving. This is significant. Once technology advances, past efficiency and innovation become outdated. Relying on old technology makes it hard to win future battles. Here's a rather cruel example. AT&T, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. It was once the world's top communications company. You might not have heard of AT&T, but you might have heard of Bell Labs. The world's first international communications satellite was developed by Bell Labs. It's fair to say that Bell Labs drove the development of global communications. But as the company grew, internal views on the prospects of wireless communications diverged. Unfortunately, the ultra-conservative faction prevailed, causing them to miss the greatest communications feast in human history in the mid-to-late 1990s. AT&T missed this feast, but two players that made American companies 'fearful' began to grow rapidly: ZTE and Huawei. Then came the story we all know: chips, being choked. New eras always produce new methodologies. Whoever can grasp new methods, higher efficiency, and better innovation will provide cheaper and better products and succeed. If you seize this round, good, you win. But if you don't stay on your toes and keep sprinting, you won't keep winning. Every era is an era brought by technological iteration. So, any enterprise's success is success within its era. That's theorem three.

**Final Thoughts**
To succeed in the business world, you must remember this underlying logic: 'Consumers always want to buy better products at lower prices.' As Huang Zheng said in an interview, **'Our core is not 'cheapness,' but satisfying users' feeling of getting a bargain.'** For an enterprise to succeed in business, it needs to find entry points that align with this underlying logic from two perspectives: from the consumer's perspective, put yourself in consumers' shoes and create cheaper and better products. From the producer's perspective, figure out how to create greater value with less money. To achieve these goals, you must have either innovation or efficiency. Same price, better product is innovation. Same product, better price is efficiency. How to achieve innovation and efficiency? Technology is the primary driving force. So, we must keep moving forward, pursuing innovation and efficiency. But more fundamentally, we must grasp technology. Iterative progress is evolution, and it is eternal. Finally, there are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the era. Survival of the fittest. May you keep evolving. May you keep moving forward. Let's encourage each other.

**【New Order · Symbiosis】**
**The 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference**
**Time: March 17-19, 2025**
**Location: Chengdu, China**


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