3 hours of in-depth interviews. For the brothers to understand quickly, I summarize and share 50 classic insights that strike at the heart, covering wealth, happiness, self-growth, and interpersonal relationships.
💰 Wealth and leverage
1. Wealth is not money, nor status; it is 'assets that make money while you sleep.'
2. You can never get rich relying on rental time. You must have assets or productize your skills to break through the limitations of time.
3. 'Productizing yourself' is the core of success. Find your innate interests and strengths, as well as the 'specific knowledge' that the world needs, and turn it into a scalable product.
4. Leverage is the key to wealth; just mastering these three types is enough: labor leverage, capital leverage, and zero marginal cost leverage (code and media).
5. Choice is more important than effort, especially in these three matters: who to be with, what to do, and where to live.
6. Future high-end jobs will present a 'Hollywood model': project-based collaboration, working for oneself, enjoying freedom of time and place.
7. Morality and wealth do not conflict; true wealthy people earn money by creating value. They are honest and long-term oriented, which allows them to accumulate more trust.
8. What is money for? Wealth brings freedom. Reinvest the money you earn into enterprises to benefit humanity and achieve greater causes.
Self and growth
1. Self-esteem is the most costly character flaw. Most people are not trapped by incompetence, but by pride.
2. True strength is not about maintaining self-esteem, but having the courage to admit ignorance.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously to live more freely. If you want to breakdance, go dance; if you want to start a business, start over—don’t worry about what others think.
4. Understanding is more important than discipline. If you see the truth with your own eyes, this understanding will lead you to change proactively, being ten times more efficient than discipline.
5. The courage to start over is a core characteristic of successful people. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people lies in their 'willingness to start over again and again.'
6. Don't be bound by identity labels; you can update yourself at any time. Humans are fluid beings; today's you can be different from yesterday's you.
7. Attention is the ultimate currency, more valuable than time. Protecting your attention is protecting your future.
8. Habits determine who you are; you don’t have to change a lot all at once, just stick to one small thing every day.
9. The core of lifelong learning is 'solving real problems,' not rote memorization.
10. Spend time on 'creation' rather than 'consumption.'
11. The essence of procrastination is that you don't want to do this at the moment; you want to do something else instead, so go do what you want to do first.
12. Change mainly comes from inner desire and awareness, rather than from force or self-suppression.
13. Decisively abandon opportunities that do not match your worth or imperfect situations; my life absolutely does not accept second-best results.
14. No one is better at being you than you.
15. Two ways to attain happiness: one is to pursue success and get everything you want; the other is to want nothing at all.
16. There were difficult moments in the past, but I will no longer think about those times. I long for success, and more importantly, to completely surpass the past.
17. Being willing to be foolish is key to preventing mental stagnation. Those great creators all have the ability to start over.
🐌 Happiness and the heart
1. Happiness is not a continuous ecstasy, but rather 'acceptance of the current situation'—not feeling that something is lacking in the moment, with no obsession or regret in the heart.
2. You always think, 'Once I earn XX money, it will be fine,' but when that day truly comes, happiness will only last for a moment. Rather than enduring the present while looking forward to the future, it's better to learn to enjoy the process of striving.
3. Two paths to happiness: either reduce desires like Diogenes, or achieve material success first and then transcend it.
4. Desire is suffering; every desire is the root of your pain.
5. Don’t try to change others to gain happiness. You can’t make an unhappy person happy.
6. Living in the moment is not just a slogan; it is the key to avoiding internal friction. Wasting time is not doing nothing, but being absent-minded.
7. Happiness is a skill that can be practiced, just like fitness requires daily commitment.
8. The world is actually neutral; it does not judge. How to interpret everything depends on yourself; you have the right to choose.
9. Interpreting things from a positive perspective allows you to let them go more quickly.
10. Deliberately pursuing happiness seems to declare, 'I'm actually not happy' and engages in self-suggestion.
⚖️ Decision-making and principles
1. Learn to say 'no' to 99% of things to focus on what truly matters.
2. When making decisions, prioritize the path of 'short-term pain, long-term gain.'
3. For things you cannot control, learn to be 'indifferent.' Focus your energy on things you can control.
4. The triadic decision-making rule: (1) If you can't immediately say 'yes,' the default is 'no'; (2) If the two options are equal, choose the one that causes more short-term pain; (3) Choose the long-term option that brings you more inner peace.
5. People ultimately settle at the lowest level of 'acceptance'; daring to 'leave the not good enough' situation is a watershed.
6. Inspiration is fleeting; it must be executed immediately.
7. Mastery comes from ten thousand corrections rather than ten thousand hours of mechanical repetition.
8. How to balance reason and intuition? Trust your intuition; it is a judgment that has been refined.