Vocation & Choice

Love family, build a career, establish yourself, build alliances

● Love family

○ Quietly give your all to family; in return, they share your pressure. Within family, speak only of love, with no need to argue reason.

● Build a career

○ Whether the career goes smoothly or not, changes or not, simply invest persistently with the fullest confidence. Success and failure are both results; do not fear failure, and do not give up.

● Establish yourself

○ Persist in improving yourself. In family or career, simply keep a pure heart, maintain a progressive, optimistic attitude, and continually improve yourself.

● Build alliances

○ Set aside interests while using interests to build relationships. Seek resonance of values and union. Setting aside interests allows alliances to develop longer without being disrupted by interests; using interests to build relationships is also a requirement for results, an expression of the alliance’s value.

If you knew you could live 10,000 years

Your pursuits would move beyond material needs

Because you would know

Material things are no longer enough to fill the emptiness of your inner spiritual world

A person’s greatest suffering is not finding life’s foundation. What is life’s foundation? “A way of living.” What is a way of living?

Finding goals, purpose, and a place to belong: having something to pursue, doing meaningful things, and, through doing them, gathering a group of caring, loyal people to live with in old age. Money is merely a tool for realizing a “way of living”! Affection is merely a memory in realizing a “way of living”! Love, hatred, attachment, and enmity are merely recollections in realizing a “way of living”! Temperament, fame, and gain are merely seasonings for realizing a “way of living”!

Life is like a play: a way of living determines life;

Life is like chess: breadth of vision sketches life;

Life is like tea: perception savors life.

Find your way of living, cultivate a broader perspective, perceive the mortal world, and enjoy the existence of everything, good and bad!

Why do employees not believe the boss’s goals?

Some say the goals are unreasonable; the goals are useless; employees will not buy it… These are all appearances.

The underlying core is that your inner energy cannot carry your words.

In other words, you cannot boast! The bigger you can boast, the bigger the things you can accomplish. All political and religious leaders can give humanity “hope”!

And when a boast falls apart, there is only one reason: “You do not believe it yourself.”

Ordinary people pursue happiness

Great achievers pursue happily!

What do they pursue?

“The three alignments”

One is alignment between interests and career

One is alignment between love and marriage

One is alignment between body, mind, and soul

When interests and career align,

Your potential can be developed to the fullest

Marriage without love is an immoral marriage, an unstable, false marriage

When body, mind, and soul cannot unite, you become entangled in the past and worried about the future

And cannot enter the present

Happiness need not be deliberately pursued; it requires only unity of body, mind, and soul

Leave suffering and attain joy!

One thing I find very happy is that what I do still interests me. Wanting to study, ask further questions, and understand problems sustains motivation at work. When merely completing instructions in exchange for income, people tire more easily.

Interest changes too. Things feel fresh initially, become repetitive once familiar, and later may grow difficult. Keeping interest alive requires finding something worth exploring deeply in concrete work: an unresolved problem, a method that could improve, an ability I want to build over time.

Real conditions also matter. Does it have practical value, support life, and require investment I can afford? When interest connects with these conditions, there is room to continue; if they do not connect yet, small-scale practice can gradually test them.

Interesting things can still be hard and tedious. But knowing why I want to continue gives hardship direction. More than continually seeking novelty, I value the feeling of going deeper and deeper in one direction.

I once viewed my situation in separate parts: at the levels of survival and everyday life, I felt happy; in pursuing value, I experienced many setbacks. Both judgments can hold at once. Different parts of life need not progress at the same pace.

Measuring all life only by unmet goals obscures every existing good. Conversely, a stable life does not mean pursuits should stop. Acknowledging present happiness can coexist with wanting to make work more valuable.

Distinguishing these levels helps allocate energy accurately. Handle career problems as career problems; develop abilities where growth is needed; people nearby and daily life also deserve careful attention. Do not let disappointment in one area keep overdrawing others.

Pursuit gives direction; happiness gives feeling. The former can reach further into the distance while the latter is seen today. Those whose wishes remain partly unrealized still have the right to acknowledge beauty already present in their lives.

First answer “Who am I, where am I going, and why set out?” Then arrange each day’s actions.

A way of living is not a slogan, but the unity of goals, purpose, destination, and daily choices.

Find the soul before doing things!

A sense of mission:

Loving someone is happier than being loved!

Three levels of a sense of mission:

First, love those nearby well;

Second, create some value for customers;

Third, contribute to society.

Yet most businesses lacking a mission die at the first level. Many expect to be loved without knowing whom they love, perhaps never having loved. When I found my “love,” I discovered life full of value, meaning, sacredness, gratitude, happiness, and energy. Finding “love” meant finding everything! “Love,” it turns out, is the source of all positive energy!

“Love” gives oneself a direction and pursuit!

“Love” is the root of mission.

I am fortunate to have found my love. I deeply love my current family and friends, and my brothers in business. What about you? Have you found your “love”? Come! Fill in the blanks together; complete them and you are someone with a mission.

For whom do I give? What do I give?

Earning money is only a result, not the fundamental purpose and meaning. Life is not about what you possess, but what you can leave. Birth is accidental, death inevitable; in the end a handful of earth returns to nature. Cherish memories, cherish life, “love” those nearby well, find love, give love, pass love on, and be a real, simple person of positive energy!

If you cannot influence people, your inner energy is not great enough.

Once you have thought through the ultimate boundary—death—your energy becomes powerful.

Great people carry dreams, see through the ultimate boundary, and give humanity hope and guidance; great people can rebound even from the depths.

To judge whether someone is outstanding, do not look at how much money they have today, but at their ability to rebound when they were down in the past. Unextinguished conviction is a spark of fire!

Dreams are not for achieving, but for nourishing the soul!

Why do employees not believe the boss’s goals?

Some say the goals are unreasonable; the goals are useless; employees will not buy it…

These are all appearances

The underlying core is that your inner energy cannot carry your words.

In other words, you cannot boast! The bigger you can boast, the bigger the things you can accomplish. All political and religious leaders can give humanity “hope”!

And when a boast falls apart, there is only one reason: “You do not believe it yourself.”

The first prerequisite for a rich life is being as self-disciplined as reasonably possible and not doing things that harm yourself. The second is preserving a relatively independent, free identity as much as possible, without blindly following others. A couple of days ago I visited Silicon Valley and felt it is especially vulgar now. A few years ago it was full of “.com”; now everything has become “.ai,” showing that Silicon Valley is also a place that follows trends. **If you are an independent individual, someone wholeheartedly intent on living your own life better, maintaining independent pursuits is very important.**

Dreams provide direction; a mission shoulders responsibility. Both must be grounded in specific people and matters.

Do not define a mission by momentary gains and losses; test sincerity through long-term commitment.

We must make many choices in life, and the first step is always the hardest. The fact is that the second step is always hidden behind the first. If you do not take the first step, how can you see the second? You must overcome fear and make a choice.

For everyone, a doorway may be a barrier. If you cannot cross it, it is a barrier; once you cross it, it is a doorway.

“Goals are meant to be achieved.” That is pure bullshit! It only proves the goal is not great enough. Great people never achieve their goals; only ordinary people do. Great people are always on the road toward their goals and do everything possible to make people believe. All political and religious leaders can give humanity hope.

The secret behind goals is uniting people.

Dreams are not for achieving, but for nourishing the soul!

Exert all your strength; await Heaven’s decree

Choices

Miss a choice, and you will choose again

A wrong choice leads to constant choosing

What is most frightening is constant choosing

Timing matters when buying into a small business

A man’s unhappiness comes from marrying at the wrong time

If a man marries before establishing himself, his wife looks down on him and feels no admiration, and he cannot become strong and establish himself in the world.

Direct destruction

I place great value on choosing direction. Different industries, roles, and settings can bring the same effort to different results. Looking back and finding my original choice suited me gives confidence to keep investing.

Yet the only path we truly experienced is the one taken. We lack equally complete evidence about industries never entered or whether another choice could also have worked. Using today’s result to write another path’s ending makes judgment too absolute.

A more useful review explains why this path suits me: where my interests lie, how abilities accumulated, which opportunities appeared, and what costs I bore. These reasons can guide the next choice; merely proving I chose correctly then may offer no method.

Direction matters, and effort needs a direction. Clarify discernible conditions and leave the temporarily unknown unknown, so we can choose seriously and adjust when new circumstances appear. Grounded confidence better withstands change.

The quality of a choice depends on clearly seeing costs, boundaries, and the next step.

First take a verifiable step; only then will the hidden second step appear.

If I know increasingly more yet cannot relinquish a single direction, choosing remains unfinished.

Curiosity reveals new possibilities. Each deserves understanding, every mechanism invites investigation, and many continuing tasks readily appear. Yet knowing more does not increase time. A little energy for every path each week sometimes leaves none enough conditions for depth.

I hope knowledge ultimately helps select and relinquish. What do I most want to test now, which path does existing accumulation support, what will I pause, and what will I not prove for now? Keep material for paused directions without declaring them worthless. What is relinquished is this stage’s investment, not necessarily future possibility.

A choice’s weight often hides in what is given up. Listing what else I want to do easily preserves enthusiasm; clarifying what I will no longer do now creates conditions for what truly matters.

When someone cannot forget the past and repeatedly recalls it, creating an inescapable shadow that prevents concentration and interferes with present work, this is called mental illness…

Do not become entangled in the past or worry about the future, and body, mind, and soul will unite, enter the present, enjoy the present, and do the present well.

Break a long-term goal into one action that can be completed today.

Do not be held back by the past, or treat imagined futures as today’s achievements.

In a job we struggle to adapt to, we easily magnify present feelings into judgments about all of life. A difficult day seems to mean we are incapable; temporarily finding no place seems to mean there will be no future place either. A local difficulty suddenly covers our whole self.

Life is long, and the current job only one stage. This perspective helps narrow the problem: have abilities not caught up, is the role a poor fit, or have organizational conditions changed? Different problems need different actions.

A stage-based perspective also needs a time boundary. Allow room to adapt while watching for change: are we progressing, are conditions improving, can this investment still lead to the next step? If nothing changes for a long time, renegotiate, adjust, or leave.

Returning work to the scale of life lets us take the present seriously while avoiding a lifelong verdict based on one position. Taking on current tasks and preserving future choices can happen together.

Life continually adds new roles. Joining a team, beginning a relationship, becoming a parent, or assuming management duties all require adjusting previous time allocations and ways of relating. Direction may be unchanged, but daily life has new demands.

At such times, room to adapt is necessary. First clarify new responsibilities, what can be coordinated, and which old arrangements no longer fit. Accelerating everything together often leaves both ourselves and those nearby unsure how to cooperate.

Stability also needs observation and discussion. After a while, check whether current arrangements are sustainable, whether someone has long borne excessive costs, and whether important personal directions have lost all room. Adjust what needs adjusting; temporary stability cannot justify indefinite postponement.

Life plans can advance in stages. Sometimes first make life run smoothly, then gradually return energy to long-term goals. Knowing priorities and willingly changing pace with responsibility also expresses seriousness about goals.

The hardest part of choosing is that what we relinquish is worthwhile too.

Career deserves progress, family companionship, learning persistence, and the body rest. All are right, but do not therefore order themselves. Promising each the best from the same time may only postpone impossibility and leave others facing disappointment for me.

I want to clarify the conflict within a stage: what comes first this time, why, what the other loses, and when it will be rescheduled. Discuss jointly where shared life is affected. Seek ways to accommodate both; where impossible, acknowledge a real cost rather than dismiss it because another goal is greater.

Balance sometimes adjusts proportions and sometimes makes a regrettable choice. Maturity need not perform the preservation of every good simultaneously; it should give tradeoffs reasons and let affected people know how they were considered.

My understanding of freedom relates to the life someone wants in their heart. Better external conditions and more choices certainly increase freedom. But if time remains filled with ever-growing desires and demands, returning to what we truly want to do may become harder.

So when discussing freedom, look at daily life: to whom has this time been given, what was it used for, how much was necessary responsibility, how much personal choice, and how much merely fear of falling behind or being judged? These answers are often more concrete than “I am very free.”

Our own direction also costs something. Focusing on one thing means less attention to others; assuming responsibility means giving up some convenience. Seeing these costs clearly and knowing why we accept them makes choices more our own.

Freedom needs room and discernment. Being able to arrange time, know what deserves investment, and dare stop what does not gradually brings us closer to the life we want. Conditions offer freedom opportunities; daily life determines how we use them.

A person’s time and energy are limited. Increasing focus on one direction reduces attention elsewhere. After focusing, we may become poorly informed about many things. This real cost of choice deserves acknowledgment.

Knowing what we do not know reduces unnecessary judgments. Deep accumulation in one direction does not mean clarity in every field; methods effective in our experience need conditions to enter others’ circumstances. Abilities gained through focus should have a clear scope.

Meanwhile, leave an entry for outside information. Hear how different roles describe problems, occasionally encounter unfamiliar things, and maintain basic awareness of important changes. This need not disrupt the main thread, but can keep it connected with reality.

Focus requires giving things up; curiosity requires preserving some room. Together they allow long-term accumulation and revision of judgment. Using what we know well and leaving blanks for what we do not can actually make it easier to go deeper.