Why do you have to be humble first if you want to be successful?

People often say: "If you don't succeed at low level, you won't achieve at high level." Although the order of the words is just changed, the meaning is very different. "If you can't do high things, you can't do low things." Those who are high are those who want to do big things but can't do them, and they don't want to live in small things, so they don't do anything. "If you don't succeed at a low level, you can't achieve at a high level" are related. If you want to "achieve at a high level", you must start from "achieving at a low level". Especially in today's highly competitive society, the inversion of this proverb has more practical significance, telling the secret of many people's success.

Oil tycoon Rockefeller was born into a poor family. When he first started working in an oil company, he had neither education nor skills. He was arranged by the company to do inspections and automatic welding of oil tank lids that "even a 3-year-old child could do". Quality work. Half a month later, Rockefeller couldn't bear it anymore and went to his supervisor to apply for another job, but was rejected. So he began to carefully observe the welding quality of petroleum tank lids, and carefully calculated the dripping speed and amount of welding flux. He found that for every petroleum tank lid welded, 39 drops of welding flux were needed. After careful calculation, it actually only took 38 drops of welding flux to weld the tank lid completely. After repeated tests and experiments, Rockefeller finally developed the "38-drop" welding machine. With this welding machine, each can lid saved one drop of welding flux compared with the original one. However, after one year, it saved the company a lot of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses. Rockefeller took the first step to success. In this way, relying on being good at discovery and having the courage to try, he moved towards success step by step.

As the saying goes: If you don’t accumulate steps, you can’t reach a thousand miles; if you don’t accumulate small streams, you can’t become a river. Rockefeller's story is true to the old Chinese saying: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In fact, if you observe carefully, you will find that many successful people often start from small things. In a modern society with fierce competition, sometimes, when your career is at its peak, an accident may bring you to the bottom of your life. At this time, it depends on whether you have the courage to start from scratch.

As early as the early 1970s, McDonald's headquarters in the United States was optimistic about the Taiwan market and planned to officially enter Taiwan. Therefore, the first priority is to train a group of senior managers locally, so recruitment is open. However, because the required standards are relatively high, many budding young entrepreneurs fail the assessment.

Later, after many assessments, a company manager named Han Dingguo stood out. Before the last round of interviews, the president of McDonald's talked to Han Dingguo and his wife three times, and asked him an unexpected question: "If we let you wash the toilet first, would you be willing?" By that time, Han Dingguo was already a small figure in the corporate world. Isn't it too insulting to ask him to wash the toilet because of his fame? While he was deep in thought, Mrs. Han at the side replied humorously: "He has always washed the toilet in our house!" The president was overjoyed when he heard this and decided to admit Han Dingguo on the spot. He believes that a successful entrepreneur should not only be able to do big things, but also do small things efficiently. Afterwards, Han Dingguo learned that the first lesson for training McDonald's employees was to start with toilet cleaning, because the basic concept of the service industry is "not to serve others, but to serve others." The only way is to put down your identity and start with menial jobs. Only then can we understand the principle of "customer first".

Therefore, we know that if we want to achieve great things, we must start with small things. Han Dingguo was able to succeed because he was able to start from humble beginnings and do things that others were unwilling to do. At the same time, you must not forget your goals. As the American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie said: “The first condition and the biggest secret for success is to completely concentrate your energy and resources on what you are doing. Once you start doing something, If you are in a job, you must be determined to make a name for yourself and improve every step of the way.” He himself once worked as an office cleaner. In fact, many famous entrepreneurs gradually became successful from small things. The motorcycle king Honda was an ordinary repairman when he was young, and the plastic king Wang Yongqing was just a millet seller when he was young...

From this we can It can be seen that no matter what a person does in his life, he cannot aim too high. If he wants to achieve high, he must first work low. When a tall building rises from the ground, a solid foundation is the first. A towering tree fights the wind and rain. A solid foundation is the first. The millet bows its head and laughs at the thatch. The abundant seeds are the first. People with lofty ideals make achievements and enrich themselves. However, this is often the case in life: some people have great ambitions, but are a little too ambitious. They always like to have wild imaginations and are unwilling to study honestly and act down-to-earth. If things go on like this, you will become a dreamer and be unable to accomplish much.

People who are so ambitious make big mistakes in the successful operation methods. They go straight to the end without going through the process, go straight to elegance without going through the vulgar, abandon the small and go straight to the vast, skip the near and go straight to the far. , such a result can only be a dream. The more you hate the humble and strive for the high and far, then you will always be able to squat on the grass and never get close to the edge of the elegant carpet. The high and far will always be out of your reach and touch, and you will not be able to make a difference.

There is a saying: "When the earth is low, it becomes the sea, and when people are low, they become kings." Being low-key is not cowardice and retreat. It is not only a state, but also a thought and a philosophy. For example, the personality tone of "the eagle stands as if it is sleeping, and the tiger moves as if it is sick" reflects a kind of art of life. Sometimes, we might as well do some reverse thinking, just like the "Law Science" monthly magazine where Mr. Tong Zhiwei is the chief editor said in warning readers "the welcome and unwelcome of this magazine". The famous economist Mr. Lang Chengping said on many occasions The repeatedly mentioned "feasibility report and non-feasibility report" is the same as what Mr. Xu Guodong, an expert in Roman law and civil law philosophy, wrote when talking about civil law philosophy, "what is civil law philosophy and what is not civil law philosophy?" It is necessary to establish a behavioral order. "If you want to succeed, you might as well start by working low." "It's better to lose first than to win." If you want to be "one step ahead of others," try to learn to be "lower than others." In fact, this principle of low-key life is not a kind of stagnation, let alone stepping into the abyss of life and not getting up, but the starting point of success and a profound art of life.

In fact, there are many such examples in history. Napoleon started out as an artilleryman, Chaplin was just a walk-on actor, and Jordan originally brought clothes for the team members and served people My favorite movie stars Stephen Chow and Andy Lau... they all grew from unknown little people, experienced the hardships of the world, and became well-known celebrities after the baptism of time. It's like building a building. The first step is not to build up, but to dig down.

The same is true for many figures in the business world. They were able to grow from a poor little person to a big shot with millions of wealth, all by slowly accumulating a little bit of small capital. In life, those who have haircuts, those who nail shoes... can do anything at a low level. Their low level does not mean that they will always be at a low level, but that they can rise up and grow stronger once they accumulate experience.

In order to achieve the ultimate goal, it is a wise choice to start from a low place and be a low-key person.