Li Zheyuan, born in 1991, was admitted to Yale University from Xiamen at the age of 18, the first undergraduate student admitted directly from Fujian, China, in the university's more than 300-year history, and was awarded full scholarships for all four years of college. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Yale University and? He was employed by Goldman Sachs as an analyst in the investment banking department, and is currently pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School, where he published his work "Better to Break In" and held a premiere ceremony at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. (From Baidu Encyclopedia)
About the book:
Studying abroad and starting one's own business is currently one of the trends in the development of post-90s and post-00s young people. In the book "Why don't you just go for it", Li Zhenyuan shares his own successful experience in great detail, from the stage of life planning to the essay writing and interview preparation for study abroad application, and guides the young people nowadays towards success, teaching them how to fish and teaching them how to catch fish. He proved through his own experience that there is a way to success, and this "way" is the result of self-motivation, action and planning, which cannot be catalyzed by bowls and bowls of chicken soup. (From Baidu Encyclopedia)
Achievements: Elementary school, high school key middle school, 18 years old Yale University to study undergraduate, 22 years old Goldman Sachs employment, 24 years old entrepreneurship, 25 years old Harvard University to study MBA (in progress).
The author uses his own accomplishments as a cornerstone and shares his struggles without reservation in his book.
Here are my thoughts:
This is an autobiography, an inspirational book, a success textbook, and can also be considered a parenting book.
It is an autobiography because all the words in the book are descriptions of the author's experience, what he did, what he did, what he thought and what he thought. From the author's decision to give up his guaranteed admission to Tsinghua University and choose Yale University, one of the world's top universities, as his goal, to his current study at Harvard Business School, the book is a detailed account of the author's experiences, his actions, and his thoughts. The book is a detailed account of how he worked his way up through the ranks, and how his efforts were rewarded with an experience that is the envy of all.
The author set out to get into Yale as a freshman in high school, and spent his three years in high school building a foundation and competing with students from all over the world. While we were still agonizing over what schools we could get into in college, he had already quietly passed the TOEFL with a near perfect score, as well as the SAT, which is many times more difficult than the TOEFL and the college four or six grades, with a high score. In order to be admitted to Yale, he had to have more impactful grades and extracurricular activities than the average person (U.S. college admissions look at more than just high scores, but also extracurricular activities). When he was still in high school, he organized his classmates to participate in the Model United Nations General Assembly (similar to a large-scale debate, hereafter referred to as the "MUGA"), just like the president of a university club. This is a world-class event that adds a lot of color to the author's extracurricular activities. In addition, he excelled academically and his English was perfectly fine (the final interview was conducted in English). The first undergraduate student from Fujian Province to be admitted to one of the world's top universities, Li Zheyuan, was born.
Encyclopedia entries: Model United Nations, Yale University, Harvard Business School (MBA)
Why is this a textbook success story?
Because there's so much of the author's own experience in here.
We are often hopelessly inadequate:
Why can't we learn English well?
Why do we memorize words and forget them?
Why can't I find a good job?
Why is he able to participate in this world-class event?
Almost all these questions are answered in this book.
The author has written carefully about his own life from freshman year of high school: how to overcome English, how to organize extracurricular activities, how to write beautiful documents, how to prepare for interviews, how to become a Goldman Sachs employee, and how to be appreciated by his superiors as a newcomer to the workplace. And so on and so forth, all carefully written out their own methods and insights. The coverage is not limited to students, but also to workplace attitudes. It's very useful.
Dare to think. This is really beyond the norm, at least beyond my thinking at his age.
In the book, the author mentions that when he was 9 years old, he liked to raise silkworms (something I did as a child), but when his silkworms were so fruitful and full of babies, he made the decision to sell them in front of the Children's Palace and use the money he made for a good cause. If you were at that age, could you come up with such a witty idea and be generous enough to contribute your first pot of money to the more needy. The author's talent and atmospheric personality began to show from such a young age, and you're probably not surprised that he came up with the idea of sprinting to one of the world's top universities.
Dare to do it. Dare to break the mold. Just because it's not there now doesn't mean it won't be there later.
In 2008, only the most prestigious universities in China were eligible to participate in this event, and the author wanted to make his extracurricular activities eye-catching, so he looked into this event. And it took less than a week from the start of the Internet research to contacting teachers and organizers for the qualification, to the successful registration. This kind of execution is daunting! I think it's this amazing execution and perseverance that has helped him overcome one difficulty after another and move forward to today.
The author lists his secret to success in the book: the todo-list
No matter how big or small, the author sets goals for himself, makes small plans every day, and accomplishes them. Most of the text mentions words like todo-list and breaking out of the comfort zone. He is well aware of the intense pressure he has to endure and believes that this is what you should do when you are young, "It is better to struggle when you are young than when you are old" is the quote from the book.
I'll post some of my favorite quotes after the article, so you can get a deeper sense of the author's intent.
Why is it a parenting book and is the author married?
Not really.
I think the fact that it's a parenting book is not a compliment to the author. Rather, it's a compliment to his mom.
The author's mother was gentle, never taught by example more than words, and was the author's greatest spiritual support. I think the author's mother has a few good qualities:
1, is a book lover. The author has written many times that she often reads and explores books with her mother. And the author's mother is a university English teacher, English skills naturally. In such a bookish atmosphere of the family, there will always be some love of reading temperament.
2. Believe and encourage. The author writes in the book that when he was in junior high school, because he loved traveling, he became a travel expert consultant on the Ctrip Travel's Aiqi knowledge platform. Sometimes because of the answer to a lot of questions and stay up until 11:00 pm (for this age of children, it is already very late), the author is still worried that his mother will be upset, go to ask his mother's opinion. As a result, instead of blaming him, his mother encouraged him, "You are an expert now, you need to be a bit more careful in what you do, and don't disappoint the person who asked the question." . Such warm words should be the words that every child wants to hear!
Maybe you're young, maybe you've already passed your prime, not confused. The author's vision is not to be replicated, but we still have the rest of our lives, and we can find our own heaven and earth in the limited life.
The rest of your life is very long, please do not be discouraged;
The rest of your life is very short, please cherish.
When I look at the excitement, I want to take them out, here is a list of a few passages that I think are very stimulating, and feel the author's powerful aura with you.
"Many Chinese children have raised silkworms, and I also have a fondness for the white, chubby silkworm babies. When I was in the fourth grade, I was recognized by my classmates as the king of the silkworms - I was able to raise four small silkworms into a large nest of thousands of silkworms, which was a great sight to see (if you have a dense phobia, don't make up your mind).
I couldn't raise so many silkworms by myself, so I gave them to interested students and dormitory mates. The first thing I'd like to say is that I don't know what to say.
What should I do?
The first thing I did was to sell them!
One Saturday afternoon, the sun shone brightly, and there were white clouds in the sky. I carried a box of silkworms and a box of mulberry leaves to the entrance of the city Children's Palace to set up a stall - there were all the children and parents there, and it was hard to think of bad business.
One dollar for three, two dollars for seven, a bag of fresh mulberry leaves 50 cents ...... I was so hot to sell open, business is so red hot that attracted the nearby city police uncle.
At that time, I would have been small, but also surrounded by a group of people, the city manager from a distance can not see who the peddler is. I remember him rushing over with a fierce look, shouting angrily as he walked: "Disperse, disperse! The young people in front of the palace can not be random stalls do not know!"
The children were scared away, I also entered the eyes of the city police uncle. Seeing that it is such a "small" peddler, the uncle's attitude was instantly better.
"Why don't you go home and study hard? You can't sell anything here, you know? Quickly go home."
When he found the cute baby silkworms in the box, his eyes softened further, and seemed to show a bit of fatherly love.
"Uncle, I'm sorry. Can you let me sell for another hour? I am a fourth-grade student at the Experimental Primary School. I recently paired up with the Western Little Friends Hand in Hand to sponsor two children in rural Ningxia. I want to use the money from selling silkworms to buy them some stationery. Mom is very supportive of me doing this, uncle can not drive me away?"
The city management uncle must have been impressed by my sincerity, and completely lost the intention to blast me.
I struck while the iron is hot: "Uncle, your children must also like silkworm babies, right? I send you 10 small silkworms and 3 bags of mulberry leaves, you take home, the child will certainly be particularly happy ......"
The city manager uncle laughed loudly: "The little kid is very fine! Good, then I'll give you the green light this time. But say goodbye, at most one more hour to sell to go home, or don't blame me for not being polite."
"Oh, and don't let the adults cheat you when you collect the money. Move your stall inward, away from the passing cars to be safer, do you hear me?"
"Okay! Thank you uncle." I saw the uncle far away, continue their own red-hot small business.
That afternoon's turnover was 238.5 yuan. If I remember correctly, the "use of funds" is like this: to the Ningxia hand in hand with the small friends to buy stationery with 200 yuan, to a very poor begging grandmother 20 yuan, the rest of the money to treat yourself - bought the juvenile palace dining table of roasted chicken legs and fried sausage, but also a beautiful drink a big cup of Pearl Milk Tea (which was a rare and foreign drink at the time)."
Because the first draft didn't make the professor very happy.
"Without a major overhaul, getting a high grade must be hopeless. I don't want to end up with a B or even a C on the first PAPER of my college career.
Some Yale students who were always first in high school might say, "Are coursework grades and rankings still that important in college? Why overstress yourself!
But I'm not superstitious about grades, I just try to do my best. It's not like I don't have the ability, the energy, or the time to do it, so why don't I give it a shot if I have a chance? This is my first paper in college, and I'm going to grit my teeth and write it in color no matter how hard it is or how annoying it is. I'd like to be able to see the results of my work, and I'd like to be able to see the results of my work, and I'd like to be able to see the results of my work.
There is still a Friday and a weekend before the final draft is submitted, and after taking away the time needed for other coursework and eating and drinking, assuming that I sleep 4 hours a day for these three days, I still have 20 hours left for me to "save the day".
The goal is to make a plan and put it into action.
Step 1: Discuss the feedback in the email with the professor face to face
Implementation status: Completed on time
Implementation time: Friday at 4:00 pm, the professor's Office Hour
Process and gain: The professor patiently went through the three major elements of rhetorical analysis with me, and sent me several rhetorical analysis examples for my own study and research. The first is to make sure that you have a good understanding of the subject matter of the article. I was able to get a clear understanding of the subject and was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Step 2: Read the model essays recommended by the professor, and carefully analyze the structure and arguments
Implementation status: completed on time
Implementation time: after dinner on Friday, until 1:00 a.m. on Saturday
Process and gain: I stumbled when I read the first one, but I gradually found my way when I read the second, third, and fourth essays, and then I could easily grasp the analyst's meaning of the word when I read the last one. I can easily grasp the analyzer's structure and analytical method. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do it!
Step 3: Re-conceptualize your paper and make an outline
Implementation status: Completed on time
Implementation time: In the early hours of Saturday morning, until almost four o'clock (I poured myself two cups of bitter chai)
Process and gains: Combined with the study of the model essay, I resisted the onset of drowsiness, and took advantage of the iron to re-read the Little Asia on the Hill, which was to be analyzed, and extracted a number of points that were not in the analysis. The Hill, extracted a number of the most typical ethos (credibility proof), pathos (emotional proof) and logos (logical proof) of the use, abandon the previous paragraph by paragraph analysis of the wrong way, to "the beginning paragraph + ethos analysis + pathos analysis + logos analysis + closing paragraph" form a good outline. The first step in the process is to outline the process.
The fourth step: the chicken blood "hold paper"
Implementation status: completed ahead of schedule
Implementation time: Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. to start, until late at night nearly twelve o'clock (heart loaded with the task of writing a paper (thesis), the morning after 7:00 a.m. to wake up. So, no longer sleep back to sleep, a carp jerk to get up running shower into the library)
Process and harvest: after the first three steps of the "baptism", has got rid of writing the first draft of the entanglement and lack of self-confidence, the whole state of full-blooded, the pen as a god, than the original idea of two hours ahead of the completion of the 4 full page of the writing, the spirit of refreshing! I was so happy that I almost sang in the library at midnight when the doors were closed.
Step 5: Read the entire draft and revise it twice
Implementation status: Completed on time
Implementation time: Sunday morning at 10:00 am (with the joy of the second draft the night before and a sense of stability, not disturbed by the drunken and noisy U.S. friends, slept angrily until half past eight)
The process and the harvest: with the full charge of the brain to full capacity to review the paper, and found that some of the flaws in the line. The first step is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you are talking about, and what you are talking about.
Step 6: Make an appointment to meet with a tutor at the English Writing Center for further revisions (The Yale English Writing Center is an organization that provides students with all kinds of writing instruction at Yale, and most of the tutors are retired professors who have been teaching English literature or writing for many years, and they are very experienced)
Implementation status: Completed on time
Implementation time: Sunday afternoon from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Process and gains: Before visiting the tutor, I sent both the first and second drafts to her in advance. This seventy-something kindly old professor surprisingly read both drafts carefully even before I went there, and penciled in nearly ten suggestions for revision on the second draft, including sculpting the language and strengthening the argument. The old lady recognized the huge improvement in my second draft-another piece of reassurance. Half an hour of in-depth conversation helped me bring the quality of my paper up another notch.
Step 7: Revise, finalize, submit
Performance: On time
Performance time: Sunday, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Process and reward: With the guidance and confidence given by the old professor, I went back to the sofa chair in the library, where I was sitting on my own permanent buttocks, and turned on the computer to touch up the paper one by one, finally putting an end to the paper before dinner. I'm not going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do it," he said.
From the first shot at fixing the paper at 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon to the seventh step of clicking "submit" at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday evening, I had one of the most intense and energizing weekends of my freshman year.
Admittedly, I was a typical Asian nerd who only had eyes for papers and studying, and many of my friends were partying and drinking this weekend, expressing their dismay at the fact that I was carrying a big backpack between the dorm and the library, and that I only had books to keep me company in the library at midnight, but in order to achieve my only goal in the 48 hours, which was to get my paper ready for submission, I had to get my paper done and submit it. But in order to achieve the only goal in these 48 hours - to write the paper well, I am willing to block out all the temptations of fun and slacking off, take the incessant laughter outside the library window as the most beautiful background music, and walk through the process of pain and then sweetness in silence by myself.
This is the story of how I wrote my first paper at Yale. And as you can certainly tell, it is impossible to write a paper at Yale without making something up. Even if you are writing a small paper of only 4 pages, you have to read a lot of literature, conceptualize, write a draft, discuss with professors, and then finalize the paper. Every time you write a paper, it is a complete and thorough study of something new. Only after reading hundreds of pages can you combine the best of them into your own arguments and condense them into a paper.
Sometimes, tricky papers can really strip people of several layers of skin. I've seen the "afterlife" look on the faces of students who have written a big paper, and I've heard the lament, "I look in the mirror after writing this paper and I feel like I've aged ten years"."
"One morning at the end of December, I was in the middle of a teleconference when I received an email from Yvonne, the executive director of the Wanzhou project. It was an 'urgent request for help' email to all the managers and analysts in the group.
Guys: The Wanzhou project is about to undergo biological asset due diligence. Currently, all the bankers on Wanzhou are working through the night to build financial models and write key sections of the prospectus, and no one will be able to attend next week's due diligence. The due diligence will take three days, from December 29th to 31st, at Wanzhou's meat pig base in Zhumadian, Henan Province, with the main tasks being pig barn inspections and pig inventory - also known as "pig counting". We are in urgent need of a male banker to assist the Wanzhou team in completing this due diligence. Thank you very much.
When we received the email, the office was in an uproar.
"Holy cow, count the pigs! That's awesome."
"Biological asset due diligence seems interesting. The New York team did a fishing company project before and supposedly dived in to check out their aquaculture."
"I can't believe they went to due diligence in the last three days of 2013, are they going to cross the New Year's Eve in the pigsty and dance with the pig ****? It's a bit ruthless. Who would want to go?"
Listening to my colleagues' heated discussion, and once again reading the succinct email asking for help, I couldn't help but feel my palms burning and my heart racing. That's my inevitable reaction every time an opportunity presents itself.
The Wanzhou IPO was a project I had dreamed of joining. I thought I had lost touch with it, but now the opportunity has fallen from the sky, even though it was just a "side project" - a three-day bio-asset due diligence.
But again, work is work, and it is an indispensable element for the successful completion of the project. Besides, you can't be choosy about opportunities if you want to get them. When most people shy away from the dirty work, if you can get in on the ground floor, you've already won half the battle.
Thirty seconds later, I made my decision - to volunteer to count the pigs.
I immediately dialed Yvonne and told her that I could help, but in the spirit of responsibility, I would have to get approval from a few of my own team supervisors.
It didn't take long for the email to be answered, and Yvonne, who was in Hong Kong, was overjoyed and thankful.
In the second step, I quickly emailed my two executive director bosses to explain the Wanzhou Bioasset Inventory, explaining that I was willing to stay up all night to get the project work done in advance, and that I wouldn't lose too much time on a business trip to Henan.
At the same time, I verbalized the situation to several project mini-bosses and analysts in the Beijing office, and got their approval and support directly.
An hour later, the two big bosses also gave me the green light with alacrity. One of them didn't forget to wish me good luck and have fun (good luck and enjoy the process) at the end of the email.
With all the team's approvals, I immediately sent a confirmation email to Yvonne.
"Leo, you were the only one who replied willing to help, really appreciate it. It's almost New Year, but I have to trouble you to make a trip to rural Henan, it's hard for you. I'll have the team add you to the Wanzhou workgroup mailbox right away and get it ready in advance." Yvonne's relieved and slightly apologetic voice came from the other end of the phone."
"Thoughts after the survey
The whole round of due diligence tends to give the impression that Harvard students don't work as hard and are not as miserable as popular opinion portrays them. -You see, they don't study all night every day.
Wait, is there really a direct correlation between "staying up late" and "hard work"? Are Harvard students, or students at Harvard and Yale for that matter, really not that hard working?
I don't think it's reasonable, or even stupid, to measure hard work by the number of hours one studies. At Harvard and Yale, I don't see anyone taking pride in "brushing up", let alone students secretly competing to see who can stay up later. Instead, they celebrate a word called "productiveness" (efficiency, prolificacy).
I don't have the experience of going to college in China, so I'm not sure I can comment on the students in our country. But what I can say for sure is that the vast majority of Harvard-Yale students are quite productive, in these ways:
1. Compared to their domestic counterparts, they don't skip classes easily (in many American universities, skipping classes is a big deduction).
2. pay attention to the lectures, take notes, and ask the professors questions or even start a debate when they don't understand something. The new knowledge points before the end of the class to understand, rather than holding the "do not understand, it is okay, anyway, after the class can still make up for the" mentality of remedial.
3. Almost everyone uses Google Calendar and other tools to make a daily To-do list, listing the day's study tasks in "1, 2, 3". Some students will further prioritize and set a time limit for themselves to complete a piece of homework.
4. Work hard, play hard-When it's time to learn, focus on learning, and when it's time to play, play hard. A lot of my classmates were drinking and partying one night, and then completely shutting down the next. They would "lock themselves away" and read a book, do a problem set, or write a paper without any distractions. Sometimes you won't find them in study mode: their cell phones are turned off, and they don't respond to Facebook messages or e-mails. High-intensity retreats often help them get their study tasks done quickly and accurately in a short period of time.
5. Learning with a clear task: Many of my students study with a very clear goal. For example, I'm reading this book to find evidence A, B, and C to support my thesis point; I'm going to this review class in the afternoon to figure out the xx concept, the yy function, and the zz curve, and I'm not going home until I get it. With a goal, or purpose, efficiency tends to be much higher, rather than learning in a daze and still not knowing what you've gained in the end.
With the above habits that make people very PRODUCTIVE, is there still a need to stay up until 4:30 am every day in order to study?
Hard work that is predicated on staying up late and hurting yourself is not good hard work.
Stop blindly worshipping "Harvard's 4:30 a.m. library", it's not real and it's stupid."
"First of all, we have to know that whether we procrastinate or not, things are always there waiting to be accomplished, and even if we procrastinate past the first day, we can't procrastinate past the fifteenth.
"Long pain" vs "short pain", which one do you want to choose?
The process of getting something done without dragging it out, of course, will be tired and entangled and even crazy, but this is still considered a "short-term pain"; while dragging the task not to complete the sense of instability, especially by the deadline chasing after the sense of pressure, as long as you do not finish the thing, it will be like a shadow following you all the time, which is really considered a "long pain"; the task is not completed. This is really a "long pain", but also deep into the spiritual level of the "pain". "Long pain" is not as good as "short pain", so bite the bullet and force yourself to finish things immediately, is definitely a wiser choice. What's more, the short-term pain is nothing compared to the feeling of relief that comes with accomplishing a task.
What can be done in two minutes is never put off until the third
One of my best friends is a man who is so good at what he does that I'm afraid of him. One of his mottos is "If you can do it in two minutes, don't put it off until the third".
For example, move your fingers to deal with the work of WeChat, now send; move your lips to play the business partner phone, immediately play. If his secretary is a little bit abrasive, he will be mercilessly asked, "Are you waiting for the zodiac?"
Several core team members had initially grumbled and complained, feeling pressured by their overbearing boss's strict style. But gradually, they no longer complain, began to become convinced, but also thankful to have met a good boss of the thunder and lightning. The company of this big shot, founded in two years has been in the industry, the profit is rising, but also in the beginning of the year successfully listed on the new three board.
Planted in the heart of this sentence: can be two minutes to solve things, never delayed to the third minute to do. Meditate and practice it every day, so that this rule of faith is firmly rooted in your own conception."