The essence of life is “uncertainty”, but human nature is the pursuit of “certainty”, so the two have always been difficult pains.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Idea’s Ideal” (ID: xiaoyaolsh) , author : Effie’s Ideal.
The essence of life is uncertainty.
From beginning to end, it is full of impermanence.
Whether it is a global emergency, such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the financial turmoil, the outbreak of a new type of coronavirus, or all kinds of uncertain things that everyone encounters in their work and life, they are impermanent.
But at the same time, human nature is pursuing “certainty”. Only “certainty” can make us feel safe. This seems to be an innate tendency.
So, the philosopher Russell said, “The pursuit of certainty is human nature and a bad habit of thinking. If you take your child to a picnic on a certain day, they will want to know exactly that day is It’s sunny or rainy, if you are not sure, they will be disappointed with you … “
So, the “uncertainty” of the nature of life and the nature of human pursuit of “certainty” constitute pain that is always difficult to resolve.
This question has always fascinated me, and I decided to write about it. It has more content and needs to be divided into two articles.
Porcelain bowls will break when they fall to the ground, but plastic bowls will not; some trees will break as soon as they are exposed to heavy storms, but some trees will not.
Why?
The reason is that they are different in tenacity and different in resistance to shock. Those that have more tenacity and resistance to shocks can survive when faced with fluctuations and uncertainties; on the contrary, those that are fragile, lack of tenacity, and are resistant to shocks are exposed to negative fluctuations and instability When it comes to certainty, it is vulnerable.
The same is true of others.
For individuals, if you want to have enough tenacity and resistance to attack, you must do the following four points:
In this era of uncertainty, we do n’t know when our platform ca n’t do it all of a sudden, or when our industry is hit by another industry ’s dimensionality reduction, or the epidemic situationWe were laid off when it happened suddenly.
So, you must have enough anti-strike force, that is, your core competitiveness.
“Core competitiveness” was first proposed by two masters of strategic research in the 20th century. It is a concept that is specifically used for enterprises. It is about the ability of this company to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Even if a company has many other capabilities, it is useless if these capabilities do not constitute a competitive advantage. A company’s world-class distribution network, exclusive sales channels, strong brands, mature ecosystems, refined processes, or reliable patents can all become its core competitiveness.
This principle applies not only to businesses but also to individuals. Any species faces a fiercely competitive market. In this market, species must have their own core competitiveness, and only then can they survive amidst severe fluctuations and uncertainty.
So for individuals, what kind of core competitiveness can be regarded as true core competitiveness?
1. Your core competitiveness should make your external customers and internal customers feel high value.
If you want to have enough anti-hit ability in the face of workplace fluctuations and uncertainty, it must be that you have something that is required by the market and required by customers. Only in this way, what do you think is the core competitiveness Real core competitiveness.
For example: the ability to solve problems.
Because, whether it is internal or external customers, everyone has to face and solve various problems. If you have this ability, you can naturally provide high value to internal and external customers.
2. Your core competitiveness should allow you to enter different fields.
For example, the core competitiveness of display systems can not only enable a company to participate in the competition of calculators and micro-TVs, but also it can participate in the competition of various related businesses such as laptop screens and automobile dashboard .
Similarly, for individuals, your core competitiveness should also allow you to enter different fields.
This is related to the “migration ability” that I proposed earlier. The more the bottom-level migration ability, such as thinking ability, the more able to help you migrate in different fields, thereby helping you to become familiar with Realm enters strange territory.
3. Your core competitiveness should be difficult to imitate, so it will form a moat.
For a company, if its core competitiveness is just a technology or an exclusive channel, it is relatively vulnerable. However, if it is a complex combination of technologies and production capabilities, it is unlikely that it will be copied. Competitors may acquire some of the core competencies,But it is difficult to replicate its overall complex model of collaboration and learning.
For example, when asked what Xiaomi’s core competitiveness is, Lei Jun responded as follows: The first is Mi Fan culture, which is to make friends with users. The second is to make good products that are touching and kind. The third is the triathlon, which is Xiaomi’s three basic skills: hardware + new retail + Internet. The fourth is industry + investment, using the ecological chain to improve the product mix.
Similarly, for individuals, the core competitiveness based on a certain ability is also relatively fragile, and the core competitiveness that is truly effective and able to resist blows should be a combination. Because only the combination is difficult to copy, others may be able to surpass you in some aspects, but they cannot copy the competitiveness of your entire matrix. Therefore, it should be an ecosystem based on abilities, talents, attitudes, etc., and a dynamic and interactive system.
These are the three essential elements of core competitiveness. However, this may be a bit abstract, so let me give you an example to better understand it.
Before, I worked in the marketing department of a foreign company. What I did at that time is very different from what I do now. The knowledge in the field is completely different. The specific skills required for the job are also very different. It’s useless now.
However, my core competitiveness has helped me achieve a smooth career transition:
· My abilities: thinking, learning, creativity, brand marketing, etc.
· My attitude: passion, long-termism, etc.
· My talent: keen intuition, strong curiosity, etc.
It is based on these abilities, attitudes and talents that I have learned the new knowledge and skills in the new field, such as how to write a deep and systematic book, how to operate from the media, etc. As a result, I successfully achieved a professional 180-degree turn. At the same time, my core competitiveness portfolio supports me to continue to provide high value to new customers in different fields. In addition, single ability is easy to “hit shirt”, but ability combination is rare “hit shirt”, so it is relatively scarce, so it has formed a career moat that is not easy to detect but very strong.
So, does it have such a combination of capabilities that you can still live amidst all kinds of fluctuations and uncertainties?
This is a question you must answer yourself.
2 Inward: with inherent stability and optimistic flexibility
To have enough tenacity and anti-strike ability when encountering external fluctuations and uncertainties, you need to have a sufficiently stable inner. And if you want to do better, you need to add oneOptimistic flexibility, which is the six dimensions.
Dimension 1: Cultivate a stable mood.
Our emotions often react very violently when we encounter negative uncertainty. And the unstable mood will further lead to out of control of life and work.
Many people have complained to me: How easy is it to control emotions? Every time a problem occurs, I will do everything possible to control my emotions so that it doesn’t explode or be extremely low, but it doesn’t take long for the mood to rise and fall again as soon as something happens.
Actually, the problem is just hidden in this text-for emotions, we never do “control”, on the contrary, we have to observe. If you can observe the emotion you are experiencing calmly and truthfully, looking at it “withdrawing” is like watching the emotion of another person. Then, most of your emotional problems will be solved.
On the contrary, if you can’t “separate”, but merge with your emotions, you will be where it is. Then you can only fall into it, and it will go up and down.
So, the first way to get emotional stability is to observe it. After you observe, maybe you can accept it. Or, you can try to think rationally to see what kind of “unrealistic” thoughts or thinking patterns are causing your emotions. As a result, your emotions will gradually fade away, and even disappear silently.
Dimension two: Regular life.
The more chaotic the external environment is, the more we need to set the “inner fulcrum” of the sea god. There is a kind of “inner fulcrum” that you can use at any time and in any situation, and as soon as you use it, you will soon get a sense of stability inside. This is the “regular life” .
In fact, most people are like this: in a familiar and predictable situation, you will feel comfortable and secure. If you are in a chaotic and uncertain situation, you will feel anxious. The more secure you are, the greater your tolerance for uncertainty. Therefore, a sense of security can support you in the face of chaos and uncertainty, and you can stay in it without being swallowed up. The easiest sense of security comes from “regular life.”
Dimension Three: Increase your pivot.
Accidents that occur in one aspect of life often lead to a loss of one’s internal stability and thus affect all aspects of life. But the fact is that everyone’s life is multi-faceted, family, close relationships, friends, entertainment, career development, personal growth, art, hobbies, etc. If, the more you focus on one side and the more you focus on only one side, the narrower your life circle becomes, and the more easily you will be defeated by it.
If love is all to you, when you fall in love, you will easily fall into collapse.
If work is all about you, when you lose your job, you will easily fall into collapse.
If the family is all you have, when you encounter a separation of the family, you may collapse completely …
In contrast, the larger your life circle, the easier it is for you to recover, because the fulcrum of your entire life is never just one aspect, but all aspects, so that your personal flexibility and internal stability will be greatly enhanced. . So, you have to try to add other pivot points in your life.
Dimension 4: Set the lighthouse.
Those who suddenly encounter accidents are like ships that were sailing smoothly in the sea. They are suddenly attacked by rough seas and lose their balance. When the boat returned to stability, he no longer knew the direction he wanted to sail, so he floated alone in the vast sea. At this time, if there is a bright lighthouse in the distance, it is tantamount to pointing him forward again.
This “lighthouse” represents exactly your long-term goal. This long-term goal is like a beacon on the vast sea. Its existence is to help you, regardless of adversity and adversity, always know your direction. Instead of being lost in the sea when the waves tumble and the tide is surging, follow the waves.
Not only must you have a lighthouse, but you must also have the perseverance towards the sun arch of the lighthouse, even if this effort is not a lot, but you will never be lazy and will not change this investment because of the confusion. When you have these, it’s hard for your boat to capsize in fluctuations and uncertainties.
Dimension five: Optimistic mentality.
The optimistic mentality allows you to deny the negative side when facing fluctuations and uncertainties, but you can look more positively, so you can get more energy and hope.
Seeing here, you might say that these are innate. In fact, optimism can be trained, because at its core, the core difference from pessimism is the difference in interpretation style.
This sentence means: For the same thing, optimistic and pessimistic people will explain in different ways.
For example, if both A and B were fired by the company.
A said: “I am a downright loser, not only failing at work, but also failing at home.”
B said: “This is just a setback I encountered in my career development.”
A said: “Not only will I fail now, but I will fail forever.”
B said this: “Although I have suffered setbacks now, I will get better soon.”
This is the huge difference between the two. Obviously the same thing happened, but the two gave completely different interpretations.
A expands a job to everything in life, and also extends it from the present to a lifetime.
B, exactly the opposite, he made this negativeThe influence of the incident is placed in its proper scope, so it can only represent the present, and it can only represent this failure in the cause.
This is the difference between pessimism and optimism.
It can be seen that if you can change your interpretation style of fluctuation and uncertainty, you can have a positive and optimistic attitude.
Dimension Six: Flexible Inner.
Why is it important to be flexible in the face of volatility and uncertainty?
In fact, flexibility is the same as a person’s “flexibility.” We know that the better the elasticity, the less likely it will be broken, such as rubber bands. Inelastic things are easily broken. The same is true of a person. A flexible person is difficult to be broken, while a person who is not flexible is easily knocked down.
So what exactly prevents us from having a flexible inner being?
I think the biggest obstacle is the rigid thinking mode, that is, “must thinking” and “should thinking”.
When in this mode of thinking, this year’s Spring Festival you are likely to think so:
“I was supposed to swim with my family at the moment, but now I’m sitting at home, it’s really depressing.”
“I will endure the third grade, and by the fourth grade, I must go out and play anyway.”
When such a mindset arises, you will find that if real life can’t go according to your original plan, you will be very depressed and even quite broken. Because in this mode of thinking, you don’t give yourself other choices, you only specify “should” and “must” for yourself, and these two words are enough to destroy all your internal flexibility.
So how do you improve your inherent flexibility?
You can start by paying attention to your language. See how many times you have said “I should …” or “I must …”. When you notice these languages, it is the beginning of change. At the same time, you can also observe whether these two words often appear in your mind. If they often appear, then you should try to replace the words, for example, you can replace them with “I can”.
If you continue to do this, slowly, your internal flexibility will increase.
3 Keep redundant
There is a saying: If you want to make a naked speech, you must first prepare yourself for half a yearCash for life also takes at least three months.
Why?
The reason is simple, you need to maintain some redundancy.
This is why people have two eyes, two lungs, two kidneys. This repetitive configuration is to deal with unexpected situations.
Based on the same principle, we not only store important information on the computer, but also make a backup copy to the cloud. Every large public building will not only be equipped with elevators, there will also be stairs, not only safety exits, but also multiple.
From the perspective of investment and property security, maintaining redundancy means that you have to hold sufficient cash. Although cash does not bring benefits, it can help you survive the crisis. Like Buffett, during the 2008 financial crisis, his company had $ 60 billion in cash on its books, accounting for half of its net assets.
Due to the impact of the epidemic, many industries and companies have fallen into a “cash flow disruption” situation, which is also closely related to the lack of redundancy. Because the “Black Swan Incident” (ie, an unpredictable, influential, and interpretable event afterwards) has never been expected, there is no redundancy left. When the crisis comes, cash flow will soon break Already.
Although, from an economic perspective, redundancy seems to be bad because it means idle resources and inefficiency. However, the real world does not care about this. In the real world, there are always a variety of “black swan incidents”, so only by maintaining redundancy can we live a tougher and more resistant to blows.
4 Extreme survival assumptions
What is the extreme survival hypothesis?
It says how do you survive when extreme situations happen?
On May 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a statement stating that Huawei and its subsidiaries were included in the regulated “entity list”. Prior to this, in 2018, ZTE had also encountered U.S. sanctions, eventually paid huge compensation, and experienced management’s blood exchange and acceptance of long-arm jurisdiction. This time the United States sanctioned Huawei, everyone was nervous and worried that it would bring Huawei an extremely serious blow.
Unexpectedly, it didn’t take long for Huawei to announce its “spare tires are normal.” In this way, Huawei survived and did not follow ZTE’s footsteps.
There is a very important reason here, which is Huawei’s “Extreme Survival Hypothesis”.
Huawei began to prepare many years ago. They assumed that this extreme situation would happen.-If one day, all the advanced chips and technologies in the United States are no longer available, what should Huawei do?
In response to this hypothesis, Huawei started a difficult technological self-reliance, self-developed chips, and self-developed operating systems. In 2004, when it was a busy season, it set up its own chip company.
ExactlyRelying on this extreme survival assumption, Huawei survived the real Black Swan incident.
In fact, this method is also applicable to individuals.
What should I do? You can make some extreme survival assumptions for yourself:
What if your company suddenly lays off employees?
If you put 90% of your money in the stock market, who knows that a financial crisis has suddenly occurred, what should you do?
Your other half suddenly decides to leave you, what should you do?
Suddenly, there is something wrong with the body of the pillars in the house. What should you do?
What should you do if your start-up company suddenly has a broken fund?
When you ask these questions, you may be sweating behind you, because you find that you have no answer at all.
This is an almost cruel assumption of extreme survival.
But slowly, after thinking about it, you will find the answer and ways to mitigate the impact of such events. At that time, you will find that your system has become stronger than before, and it is more resistant to sudden shocks.
This is the role of making extreme survival assumptions. It can help us think ahead and prepare earlier.
Last words
The nature of life is uncertain and impermanent; human nature is in pursuit of “determinism”, so we have to find and practice methods that will make us better alive in uncertainty: < / p>
· External-with core competitiveness
Inward-with inherent stability and optimistic flexibility
· Stay redundant
· Questioning the Extreme Survival Hypothesis
But in real life, tenacity and resistance are not enough. We also need to learn the ability and methods to benefit from uncertainty.
Effie
Author, Executive Coach, Direct Hits
Global Certified Advantage Coach, Personal Growth Coach
Former Head of China Fortune 500 Market China