I finished Collins' Choosing Excellence with the fastest speed and the highest attention. After reading it, I felt a thrill. When I come across an idea and a research achievement, my heart is happy, just like two hands holding hands warmly and forcefully.

We can't predict the future, but we can create it. In an uncertain environment, we can still make positive progress and flourish-this belief itself is enough to inspire the human spirit and boost confidence, to light up every seemingly unremarkable day, to light up every bleak season, to make it shine, to make every morning dawn full of expectations, and to make your heart warm and happy even on a cold winter night.

First, seeking truth and choosing: always adhere to the "right path" in your heart.

Just as Amundsen, a school teacher who made sufficient and necessary preparations in advance, led the team to the South Pole and returned safely, he chose to proceed from the "right thing" in his heart and stick to the "right path" in any difficult environment. On the one hand, he realizes that the environment is full of uncontrollable variables, on the other hand, he firmly believes that human efforts can make a difference. This is the secret of achieving success and even creating miracles and greatness in a turbulent environment.

As far as personal pursuit is concerned, 10 leaders will not overreact to events, will not succumb to the public, and will not rush to pursue attractive but unimportant opportunities. They have an indomitable spirit, on the one hand, they will not deviate from their own standards, on the other hand, they will not go to extremes and go too far. They have their own values, goals, long-term goals and strict performance standards. If they are asked to deviate from the normal behavior track, they will not hesitate, but they will not let external pressure or even social norms change their persistence.

In an extremely uncertain and harsh environment, following the madness of the masses is one of the best ways to go to ruin. In fact, in most cases, those less successful leaders are more confident than 10 leaders, but the decisions and actions of 10 leaders have a more solid empirical basis, so their confidence is well-founded and the risks they face are controllable.

These characteristics of 10 speed leaders mentioned above are actually independent, realistic and steady intelligent thinking characteristics.

Second, the rule of 20 miles a day: keep a moderate pace and strength in progress.

The rule of traveling 20 miles a day. In order to maintain consistent performance, it is necessary to follow the upper and lower limits of 20 miles per day, the lower limit that can be crossed and the upper limit that cannot be exceeded, which means stable development, control of growth rate, no stagnation and no rush for success. Maintain growth in difficult times and control the growth rate in prosperous times. The rich are not arrogant, and the poor are not complacent.

In fact, this is what we usually call the golden mean. Constantly persisting, just right, not retreating, not moving forward, just right, just right. Just like eating, don't be hungry, and you can't eat fat at once. It's willful to be hungry, but what about the consequences? The stomach is also willful, and the digestive ability is not good, and the whole person will follow it badly.

In such a turbulent era full of rapid changes and subversive changes, those 10 times speed companies are the practitioners of the 20-mile distance rule. Make a little progress every day, no matter in good times or bad times, you can maintain a high degree of self-control even in an out-of-control environment, and always maintain a steady growth and sustainable development.

The outside world is uncontrollable and changeable, but when you choose to stick to the 20-mile rule, you will have a focused focus. Whether facing difficulties, uncertainties or chaos, this concentration and a habit formed from it can ensure that you and your team are not distracted, keep a close eye on the goal, and move on with a calm mind and a steady attitude. Compared with the myth of getting rich overnight, perseverance and enterprising spirit should better explain the great success story.

Third, SMAC method: grasp consistency and continuity in change

SMAC method is a concrete, orderly, consistent and lasting operation method. The greater the uncertainty of your environment, the faster the change and the more unfavorable the conditions, the more you need SMAC method. When Collins introduced this method, he told us that a reliable and proven SMAC method is like a constitutional amendment. If your method is appropriate and based on practical insights and empirical verification, then it should be used for you for a long time; Equally important, fundamental changes are inevitable, so keep questioning and challenging your methods, but don't change them frequently.

If we try to cope with any changes, we will soon find that we are incapable of coping with the ever-changing external world. Most of the changes are just noise, and these changes do not require us to make fundamental changes. However, some changes are not noise, and we need to adjust and improve them. Otherwise, we are faced with missed opportunities and disastrous consequences such as backwardness and frustration.

For any cause of mankind, it is one of the biggest challenges that people face to handle the relationship between consistency and change. Change and invariance face a problem of coordinating tension. In fact, it is what China called "adhering to the classics and achieving change", seeking and grasping consistency and continuity in the process of change.

Fourth, face up to luck: it is king to actively play the existing cards in your hands.

An exciting and gratifying research shows that luck is not the key factor to achieve Excellence, and there is an interesting asymmetry between good luck and bad luck: good luck does not necessarily bring high returns; Bad luck does not necessarily correspond to low returns, but it often brings high returns. For example, if you catch a good hand, you may not be able to play well, and if you catch a bad hand, you may not be able to play well. The key is to play the existing cards as well as possible.

Life is uncertain and full of all kinds of great forces that we can't predict and control. The uncertainty of luck is beyond our grasp and of great significance. Luck is coming, whether it is good luck or bad luck, actively creating better and higher luck returns is the strategy.

On the way forward, neither make excuses for yourself nor complain about others. As Nietzsche famously said: Anything that can't kill me will make me stronger. Every one of us will meet with bad luck. The crux of the problem lies in how to use bad luck, the best test and tempering factor, to turn adversity into advantage and crisis into security, and how to make it "one of the best things that have happened to us" instead of being a mental prison that imprisons us.

Fundamentally speaking, the realization of Excellence lies not in the external cause of the environment, but in the internal cause of people, which lies in wise choice and good self-control.

Fitzgerald said: A person should have two abilities at the same time: one is the ability to see hopeless things, and the other is the ability to turn this hopelessness into hope. We always seem to have something to learn, and there is always uncertainty in life. No matter how hard you try, stop the major events of the game and the continuous big countries-diseases, accidents, earthquakes, tsunamis, civil wars, financial disasters, economic crises ... and thousands of other possible events may make you fall short. But even so, we still have to act, not to abandon, not to give up.

When you feel scared, when you are exhausted, when you encounter the cruel reality, what choice will you make? Will you give up your value? Will you lose your dreams? Will you accept the average performance that most people can accept? Will you willingly give in, give in and give up?

We are not bound by our own environment. Not bound by luck or the unfairness inherent in life. Free from the shackles of our times. Not bound by a day or even a short life. In our life, maybe we can control very little. But even so, we still have the freedom to choose. All the driving forces and standards are internal and come from the deep heart. Such an innate and endless pursuit of autonomy is-

The right and freedom to choose Excellence.