When you feel confused and uncertain about your future, what can change you is more likely learning a new skill that helps you think, work, and live better. For young people, learning such skills may be more reliable than embracing ideals. Young people's life plans always fail to keep up with reality. I am often asked by newcomers to the workplace, or even freshmen and sophomores, how to plan their careers. When I was a graduate student in 1999, I also read books on career planning and even made serious 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year plans for my life. The most memorable one was planning to marry at 30, believing a man should first establish his career to secure his future family. You see, what a traditional man I am—but the problem is, in 2000, right after earning my master's degree, I got married to my current wife. You see, young people's life plans always lag behind reality. We often confuse life planning, career planning, and skill planning. Konosuke Matsushita, the god of management in Japan, founded the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. In 1993, over 250 people applied, but only 5 were admitted. The program lasted 5 years, and in the first year, no one taught; at the end, there was one question: "What is your life goal?" Matsushita's logic was that to become a leader, you must know your life mission. Ah, life mission, and having others spend a year finding it—isn't that a waste of life? People like Matsushita are wise because they understand that to be a leader, you must find your inner vision and a big goal worth fighting for, which motivates a person to stand up, lead others, and take on challenging, long-term tasks. Ordinary people worry to death about spending a year finding their mission, fearing others will surpass them too much in that time. This is completely unfounded worry. A person runs slowly not because they lose at the starting line, but because they lack a goal they truly identify with. Such people, no matter how much they do, exert effort here and there without forming a cohesive force, ultimately achieving limited results. However, most people are ordinary. Making a life plan is a big challenge; perhaps they won't figure it out until after 30. So, around age 20, shouldn't they first consider career planning? That sounds very reasonable, but the problem is that in China, a child studies until 18, and apart from a few textbooks, they have too little exposure to society, interests, and life. Chinese teenagers at 15 or 16 haven't read literary classics, haven't listened to rock music, haven't watched old movies. The world is so big; I only read about it in geography textbooks. Life is so hard; I only heard my mom complain. We have no experience of life, so how can we know our preferences? What's worse, even if I think I have a preference, it doesn't mean I have the ability to embrace my hobby! My younger brother studied at a medical vocational school at 16. He often complained to my mom that his dream was to dance. He danced much better than ordinary people, but the problem is that at 16, without professional dance training, can he make a career out of dancing? It's too hard! So many young people don't realize that the most likely path to life planning is: First do skill planning—then career planning—and finally life planning. That's how I grew. From age 21 to 27 after graduating from university, for about 7 years, I had no idea what job I wanted. I just knew that in any job, there was always something new to learn. After completing seven years, I found I had initially mastered a series of relatively universal skills such as public speaking, presentation, writing, project management, time management, plus some professional knowledge reserves. I realized I finally had the ability to choose the career direction I wanted and start my career planning—at that time, I wanted to become a cross-disciplinary professional with a personal brand, meaning someone who could do anything they wanted to do professionally. So in 2008, I left the software industry and entered the IT vocational education industry. I wanted to understand the marketing and communication methods needed for large-scale sales. From 2008 to 2009, I systematically studied various advertisements, especially online promotion methods. Today, you see me skilled in various online promotion techniques; these were all built on the rapid breakthroughs of those two years. With this foundation, plus my exposure to PPT in 2009, I found that using PPT as an entry point, I could do bigger things—turning more college students into doers, and through doing, into independent thinkers. This goal is big enough; it can be considered my life plan. I could spend a lifetime and still only complete a small part of it, but I am willing to persist for this goal. From being ignorant at 17 when entering university to roughly finding my life goal at 32, it took me 15 years. Is that fast? Not at all, but isn't any small achievement built through such gradual effort? So-called skill planning means skills that are useful across your major career directions. I'm about to turn 40, no longer young. But I still want to share some thoughts with young people. I think when you're too young, don't rush to set a career plan. I don't oppose you understanding and trying career planning, but I think you should first analyze what abilities or professional knowledge backgrounds the career you want requires. For example, if you want to be a lawyer, does a lawyer need expression skills? Writing skills? A bit of psychology? What kind of expression skills does a lawyer need (public debate, focusing on logic)? What kind of writing skills? What kind of psychology (criminal psychology, victim psychology)? Analyzing this way, you can turn your career plan into a series of skill and knowledge plans. At different times, you complete different skill exercises and learn different professional knowledge. When you've accumulated enough skills and read enough books, you suddenly find that your career plan naturally falls into place and becomes clear. As the old saying goes: "Don't do porcelain work without a diamond tool!"—spending so much time on a bunch of vague career plans is not as good as spending it on skill planning. One more thing to remind everyone: once you break down skill planning, you'll find that many careers require skills that, except for a small part of professional knowledge, are mostly universal skills! For example, written writing, oral expression, interpersonal communication, project management, time management, and even lofty leadership, etc. These are definitely not limited to one industry. When your abilities become stronger, your career development path will also become clear. For example, many college students ask me if learning PPT is useful—I often reply, which industry doesn't use PPT at all now? This is your workplace ability, not meaning you'll rely on PPT for a living in the future. Relying on PPT for a living is a very small job market, but industries that need the professional ability to make PPT are everywhere. When you've accumulated enough skills, your career path is open, and making a living is naturally not a problem. By then, your life experience is richer, and perhaps your inner sense of life mission will naturally activate. At that time, you're middle-aged, feeling everything is just right, with passion and fire inside, not feeling stuck between the elderly and the young, wasting your life with negative energy. I think for ordinary people, this path of growth and evolution is more feasible and more operable. What do you think? 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