The first sentence is: excellence is a habit.
This sentence was said by Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher. If excellence is a habit, then laziness is also a habit. When people are born, in addition to the temperament will be different because of nature, other things are basically formed later in life, is the result of family influence and education. Therefore, our every word and action is a habit formed over time. Some of us form very good habits and some of us form very bad habits. By the time we are about 20 years old, we have become self-aware and have begun to understand what kind of habits will benefit us for life. So we need to make excellence a habit from now on, so that our good behavior becomes habitual and second nature to us. Let's habitually think creatively, habitually do things carefully, habitually be kind to others, and habitually appreciate nature. Many of my habits were gradually developed during the ten years of running New Oriental, including my attitude towards teachers and staff, and my views on many things. If you develop good habits, you will look good in people's eyes. For example, let's learn to smile today, to keep our sadness to ourselves and bring joy to others. It doesn't matter if you smile genuinely or professionally, as long as you smile, you are beautiful and good looking, and you make a good impression on people. In the western society, you go to many places where people are smiling, even though you know that it is professional, you can still feel that these smiling people are very friendly. If everyone at New Oriental smiled at work, people would feel like they were suffocating, and we probably wouldn't be able to pay you any more money to work at New Oriental, unless you're a masochist who likes to be angry.
The second sentence is: life is a process.
The results of a career are important, but the process of doing something is even more important, because we are living in the process of each day, and if we are not happy each day, we are not happy in our whole life. So even though we focus on the outcome of our career because we are happier when the outcome is good, the process makes our life fulfilling.
The final outcome of human life must be death, and we cannot therefore say that our life has no meaning. Joy is the longing of life itself. Humans are the only animals in the world that can laugh, but not the only ones that know how to be joyful. All animals have a joyful nature, which can be seen in the joyful running and playing of many small animals. Human beings often have to aim at a higher goal than just survival, because in addition to a material life, they must also have a spiritual life to satisfy, and therefore they have to work harder than animals. On the material side, we hope that a salary of $2,000 a month this year will become $3,000 a month next year through our own efforts; after all, $2,000 and $3,000 bring us a different quality of life. But beyond that, we would have to make the spiritual life a big win.
Zeng Guofan said, "Just plowing, not harvesting." He did not mean that we should not reap. Zeng Guofan's meaning is very simple, the seed into the ground, the seed will naturally grow, grow to the end of the natural harvest, but in the process of maintaining the growth of the crop to give it watering and fertilization listed as important. This is because only then will the seed grow robust and the harvest will be better. In addition, your daily labor process of working at sunrise and sunset is the best experience of your life. Isn't it a wonderful feeling to welcome the sun as you walk towards the beautiful earth and watch the sun set as you carry your hoe home? Almost to the Tao Yuanming's "pick chrysanthemums under the east hedge, leisurely see the south mountain" realm.
So we must seek the fulfillment of each day. There is very little eternity in the world, college students fall in love, every day in the vow that I will love you for life, which is actually not true, just in the expression of a wish. But we are saying it anyway, because at least in that moment, our expression like this is an outpouring of true feelings. The pursuit of eternal love is the lifelong dream of mankind, for man is forever enriched in love. But real life is not like that. Statistics show that 90 out of 100 pairs of college students who fall in love will end up breaking up, and half of those who end up getting married will get divorced. Do you think love can last forever? So the truest statement is, "I am truly in love with you today, right now." Tomorrow maybe you will fall out of love, and after that we will experience the pain of falling out of love. Then we will experience it, and experience it, and that experience will be a process that enriches your life.
The third quote is that the shortest distance between two points is not necessarily a straight line.
Especially in human relationships and in the process of doing things, it is difficult for us to get things done in a straight line. Sometimes we need to wait, sometimes we need to cooperate, sometimes we need skill. Maybe an airplane can fly straight between two points, but even when an airplane flies, if there's a big jet stream in front of it, it can usually only fly around that big jet stream. We come across many difficulties and obstacles when we do things, and sometimes we don't necessarily have to push or charge through them; we can choose to go around difficulties and around obstacles, and perhaps things will go more smoothly that way. Think about it, we still have to think about which sentence sounds better when we talk to others. Especially in China's more complex society, we have to learn to find ways to understand others, to make people feel that you as a person is very mature, very good, you can make things happen.
The fourth sentence is: only those who know how to stop know how to speed up.
The higher the quality of the car, the faster it drives. For example, cars like Mercedes-Benz and BMW are high quality not only in their engine systems but also in their braking systems. When you drive these cars, you dare to drive at high speeds because you know that as long as you apply the brakes, the car will be able to come to a steady stop without overturning or running off the road. But when we drive a Charade, we must not drive as fast as a Mercedes, because we know that if we let it go too fast, it will be hard to brake, and we may hit the railings or turn over. That's why people who are not sure of stopping are the ones who can't run fast.
The biggest thing I've learned while skiing is that I can't stop. I didn't hire a coach when I first started skiing, and I watched other people skiing and thought it was easy, wasn't it just from the top of the mountain to the bottom? So I put on my skis and giggled and skied down. I ended up skiing from the top of the mountain to the bottom, actually rolling down the mountain and falling many times. I realized there was no way to know how to stop and how to keep my balance. In the end, I repeatedly observed how other people stopped and skied, and then I learned little by little, practicing over and over again how to stop in the snow and on the slopes. After practicing for a week, I finally learned to stop, slide, and stop again on any slope. By this time I realized I could ski, and dared to go down the slopes from the top of the mountain at high speeds. Because I knew I could stop as soon as I wanted to, as soon as I turned around. As long as you can stop, you won't hit a tree, a rock, or a person, and you won't get run over. Therefore, only those who know how to stop know how to move forward at high speed.
The last sentence is: to give up is wisdom, and shortcomings are a boon.
I read this quote in a book once and didn't understand it at first, but in life and work, I finally began to understand the significance. In life, the stupidest behavior we can do is to get too attached to what we have, to pinch and not let go of what we have. As a result, if you pinch and don't let go, no one else will share his things with you. Without giving up, there is no gain; this is a theory that is more than understandable. Let me give you a little theory of sharing here. When you have six apples, don't eat them all, because if you eat all six apples, you will only have six apples and only one flavor, which is the flavor of the apples. If you take five of the six apples and give them to someone else to eat, even though on the surface you have lost five apples, you have actually gained the friendship and goodwill of five other people. Later you can get more, when others have other fruits, they will also surely share with you, you will get an orange from this person's hand, a pear from that person's hand, and in the end you may get six different fruits, six different tastes, six different colors, and the friendship of six people. One must learn to exchange what you have for what is more important and abundant to you. Learning to exchange and share among people is a hundred times more rewarding than eating six apples by yourself. It's gained because you gave up five apples, so think about it, isn't giving up a kind of wisdom?
And what does it mean to say that a shortcoming is a favor? Like we said at the beginning, if we were perfect, we would have no room to grow. What's the point of living as a human being when you have everything in your life? The greatest joy of being a human being lies in the struggle to get what we want. So having shortcomings means we can further perfect ourselves, and having deprivations means we can further strive. I have watched a TV movie in the United States about a rich man who left an inexhaustible inheritance to his offspring, and as a result, all of his offspring became drug addicts, suicides, jailbirds, or psychiatric patients. Why is that so? Because the rich man left so much money to his offspring that they did not need to work to inherit a large fortune. When you inherit a large fortune, you can buy almost anything. We all know that money can buy all the things you need in the material world, but the only thing it cannot buy is the fulfillment of your heart, the friendship of others, and your sincere love. Since these things cannot be bought, the richer you are, the emptier your mind becomes, and you will try your best to fill your emptiness with money, and in the end you will have no choice but to take drugs instead, so that you can enter an unreal world. That is why I have said that when a person lacks nothing, he is deprived of his living space. If we wake up every morning and feel that we lack something today, that we need to be more perfect, that we still have something to strive for, what a thing to be happy about.