On September 2nd, the first lecture of New Oriental's "Believe in the Future-201KLOC-0/China University Freshmen's Learning and Planning Public Welfare Tour" was held in the South Gate Square of Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park. Yu, Chairman and CEO of New Oriental Education Technology Group, and Kai-fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of innovation works, gave speeches on stage. Nearly 10,000 freshmen from Peking University, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Minzu University of China and Capital Normal University attended this wonderful lecture on learning and growth. The following is the full text of the speech:
Dear students from universities in Beijing,
Good afternoon everyone!
Thank you very much for coming to such a special place, and thank you for coming here to listen to me and Kai-Fu Lee talk about college life on a very sunny afternoon.
Excuse me, what is behind where we are sitting now? Yuanmingyuan. It can be said that the modern history of China started from the ruins of Yuanmingyuan. In what year was Yuanmingyuan burned down? Everyone knows that the British and French allied forces are at 1860. Why did Britain and France, thousands of miles away, go to China, the capital of China, to burn the Yuanmingyuan? What is the most fundamental reason? Is it because there are good things in Yuanmingyuan? Is it because Yuanmingyuan is unguarded? Or is it because China people in Yuanmingyuan can't protect it? Obviously not protective. As we all know, the development history of China in recent 100 years is a shameful history. China's 30-year history of reform and opening-up is a history of constantly rising from humiliation.
Today's China already has a certain position in the world. When I applied to go to America 20 years ago, I was refused a visa many times. Today, we can basically get visas to the United States or other western countries, which shows that we have become stronger and stronger. However, standing in this place, we can clearly know that a poor and weak country will be bullied. This is why * * * summed up a sentence, a very simple sentence, called "development is the last word". Today, China has a certain status, but it is not strong enough. When we say strong, we don't mean that we can defeat all countries. We are not going to fight with the British Museum in Britain or the Louvre in France to get these things back. When we say strength, we mean strength from economy, politics, culture to spirit.
The life history of each of us here can be brilliant or shameful; It can be failure or success. You want to succeed, you want to be brilliant, not because of any external conditions, but because of yourself. It's not where you are now, but what kind of dreams you have in your life. Many of our classmates struggled all the way to enter universities in Beijing. There are famous schools like Tsinghua of Peking University and private schools like geely university. It seems that we have different thresholds and scores for entering the university, but please remember, classmates, this is just a starting point of your life. In the past 12 years from primary school to middle school graduation, we have experienced arduous struggles. Because if you don't work hard and struggle, you can't enter the university. However, entering the university is only the real beginning of life.
As we all know, as long as you stay healthy, you can live for many years. If we can live to 100, you still have 80 years. Many students say that I am far behind other students now. How can I improve in the future? I have a saying that the most important thing for a person is ambition, an inner desire, not external conditions. From the external conditions, it is a fact that we are unequal from the day we were born. You were born in a peasant family and an official family, with different conditions and different resources. However, the process of our life's struggle is the process of constantly enabling ourselves to acquire more resources, realize bigger dreams, and contribute such resources to society in turn. So, when someone asks me, Teacher Yu, can I catch up with others in my life? Can I achieve something like you or do something like you in the future? I can tell you for sure: as long as I can do it, you can do it; As long as Kai-Fu Lee can do it, so can you; As long as Ma Yun can do it, you can do it. Because the starting point of us people is not higher than yours, in a sense, we should even be lower than you. Life is not a 100-meter race. 100 meter running one second earlier or one second later may be one second later or one second earlier. Life is an endless marathon. Marathon doesn't care whether you are behind the starting point or standing in the first place. Marathon cares about how far you can go and how long you can last. If you can persist in walking enough distance, even if you slow down a little, as long as you know the direction of progress, you will certainly be able to walk out of the distance that others have not walked out of, and you will certainly be able to see the scenery that others have not seen. I only hope that the students here will not end up in ruins like Yuanmingyuan. In retrospect, life is in ruins. What we hope is that while we are still young, while we still have ideals, and while we still have * * *, let life go further and let life shine further.
Students, we are now standing at a new starting point, and this is our college life. As I said just now, if our university life is forward-looking, we don't need to care too much about the past, whether the university we are in is good or bad, whether our family background is farmers or workers, whether our looks are good or ugly, and even whether you can study abroad or stay at home in the future, because these are all external things. Although external things are important to us at a certain stage, they are not important to us in the long run.
Take the university as an example. It's good for us to be admitted to universities like Peking University and Tsinghua, but not every student admitted to Peking University is sure to succeed. I saw many students from Peking University who stopped studying when they entered Peking University. Seeing that many students in Peking University have psychological problems because of the pressure of study; I also saw some students from Peking University doing nothing after graduation. Of course, I think schools like Tsinghua have the same situation. However, I saw many students with two or three copies. Through their all-out efforts, their graduate students were admitted to Peking University, Tsinghua or world-famous universities.
A friend I know, who graduated from technical secondary school, found that the technical secondary school education was far from enough after working for a period of time. He went to technical secondary school not because he was stupid, but because the conditions at home were really poor. That time should be close to 30 years ago. Middle school is generally a normal college, which doesn't need to pay any fees, so he can only choose middle school. After work, I found that this is far from enough. Later, I began to study hard and went to junior college. After being admitted, he felt that the junior college was still not enough. Now generally speaking, you have to study for a bachelor's degree to be admitted to a graduate school, but at that time, you could be admitted to a graduate school as long as you graduated from college. So after graduating from junior college, he made up his mind to take the postgraduate exam and get into the best school. So the ultimate goal is to lock in Peking University. He quit his job, rented a house outside Peking University and studied hard for three years. Finally, he was admitted to Peking University Graduate School of Political Science. After graduating from Peking University, I became a civil servant and entered a very good central unit in Beijing. When I was working in the central unit, I felt that a cup of boiled water and a newspaper were not my goal, so I came to New Oriental to study TOEFL and GRE in my spare time, with the goal of attending a world-famous university. I studied in New Oriental for almost two years, passed these two exams, and finally entered the Kennedy School of Politics of Harvard University through hard work. After working abroad for a period of time after graduation, I happened to meet China who wanted to go abroad to recruit some opportunities to work in China after graduation. After I came back, I soon joined the ranks of bureau-level management cadres in China. Because of his ambition, his efforts and his background of integrating Chinese and Western cultures, he soon became one of the more important management cadres in China.
There are countless middle school students who end their lives as middle school students. But we can see that there is a middle school student who can struggle to graduate from Harvard University. This is a journey of struggle. We often say that the conditions of people in famous universities seem to be relatively rigid, but as I said just now, not everyone in famous universities can succeed.
I have many similarities with Ma Yun. Ma Yun took the national examination for three years, so did I; Ma Yun took an English major, and so did I.. Three years later, I was admitted to Peking University, and he was admitted to Hangzhou Normal University. As we all know, this is a school that no one has heard of. If you have heard of this school now, you must have heard of it, because you are the first to hear of Ma Yun. Ma Yun and I still have many similarities. Both of us can report in English and still hold bachelor's degrees. In other words, our highest education is a bachelor's degree. But as you can see, schools and degrees can't stop a person from growing up. I used to think that I would do better than Ma Yun, because I was from Peking University after all. However, as we all know, Ma Yun did something that I 10 people may not be able to do. I have only been working in New Oriental for nearly 20 years, and Ma Yun's real venture (Alibaba) started in 1999, even later than me. But now he has Alipay and Taobao besides Alibaba. If Alipay and Taobao are listed again, the market value of these two companies will be around tens of billions of dollars.
So you can see that a person's success is not necessarily related to the school you attend, but to your inner impulse and inner desire. So I often say that a person can live a poor life, a person can live a lonely life, but a person can't live a life without fire in his heart, and a person can't live a life without desire and yearning in his heart. When I say these longings and longings, I don't mean that you are eager to eat a meal every day, not that you are eager to drink two bottles of beer every day, not that you are eager to make several girlfriends or boyfriends every day. Although you can have these desires, all these desires should be placed above your greater desires. This desire is to be great, to be successful, to be influential, to support themselves and their families, and to make contributions to this society. This desire is a powerful driving force for your future.
A person is like a plant. If there are no seeds of growth in your heart, you will never grow. This is the famous metaphor of trees and grass that I said on CCTV. If your heart is only the seed of grass, you are grass; If you are the seed of a tree inside, you will grow into a tree. In people's minds, the seeds of trees and grass can be changed. Unlike nature, it is not easy for pine seeds to become poplars, and it is impossible for grass seeds to become pine trees. However, people are changeable, and people's changes are often instantaneous. As long as you think lofty and great in your heart, you can change. So, first of all, we ask all the students here to do one thing, that is, to have a seed that is eager to grow.
There are two kinds of human growth: one is called natural growth; The other is called spiritual growth. Students here can grow naturally. You can completely predict what you 18 will look like when it reaches 30, 30 to 40, 50. Now you can see exactly what it looks like to be 90 years old through the accurate calculation of the computer. I once entered my avatar and found that 90-year-old was a shriveled, gray-haired and wrinkled wise old man. I believe I may lose everything in my life, but I will never lose one thing, that is, my desire for life and my desire for self-creation. Professor Yang Zhenning has always been my role model in my life. Professor Yang Zhenning is almost 90 years old this year. He is still giving lectures and instructing young scientists. Man is an animal that can keep burning, constantly seek his own energy and constantly produce gas. As long as you want to burn it, you will never burn it out. Have you ever found a phenomenon: only lazy people will be in poor health, while diligent idealists will always get better. Like the elderly, people who work hard often get Alzheimer's disease, while people who don't need to work often get Alzheimer's disease. Why? He stopped acting and thinking. In this sense, people, like animals, have to work. Any animal that loses its hunting ability will starve to death. So, you can see starving lions on the African grasslands. Why? Because it lost its hunting ability.
We can predict how long we will live and even what we will look like. But please think about it. Can you predict what you will achieve when you are 30? Can you predict what you will achieve at the age of 40? Can you predict what you will achieve at the age of 80? You didn't expect that. People can't just predict this, and you can never predict your potential. But where is your potential? In your heart. I never thought that everything I did today was all I could do. What I can do today is because I have a longing for life in my heart.
My home is near the Yangtze River. When I was young, I sat by the Yangtze River and watched the sun rise in the east and set in the west. When I look at the ships coming and going, I have a longing. I later summed up this desire in one sentence, which is called the desire to cross the horizon into the future, and that is to go far away. It is also important to have an example in life. In my life, my hometown has an example. His home is next door to mine. Everyone knows this man's name, Xu Xiake. We have listened to Xu Xiake's story since childhood, which gives me a feeling that if an example is far away from you, you may regard him as a god. For example, I let you take Churchill, * * *, Qin Shihuang, Liu Bang, Cao Xueqin and Lu Xun as examples. You think they are far away from you. However, if you have lived next to Lu Xun's Samadhi Bookstore since childhood, you may feel that Lu Xun is close to you. So I have a feeling since I was a child: If Xu Xiake could have traveled all over China more than 400 years ago and turned himself into a great man, why couldn't I? Therefore, the power of example is infinite. Since I was a child, I have a vision that ordinary rural children don't have, that is, I hope to travel all over China.
What is man's greatest pain? That is, if you have an easier choice, you will often go to the easier choice. Easier choices often lead you to lower your life goals and standards. If there were migrant workers, I wouldn't work so hard to get into college, because it is definitely more difficult to get into college than to be a migrant worker. However, when you find that a more difficult thing can be achieved through your own efforts, this more difficult goal is worth your efforts.
People should have yearning. My yearning at that time was that I could go out. This desire led me to enter Peking University at last. I took the national examination for three years in a row. In the first year of the national examination, I got 33 points in English, but I didn't even get into the secondary school. ; In the second year, I got 55 points in the English exam, but I didn't even enroll in the secondary school. However, due to the efforts of senior three, I got more than 90 points in many courses, and the most prominent one (except English) was geography. At that time, I got a score of 100, and I got a score of 97. Without the shadow of such a great geographer as Xu Xiake, I would not be so interested in geography. So far, where are the top 100 cities in China? Just name them, and I can mark them on the map almost without any suspense. Indeed, a dream can give birth to your life. I have fully realized that it is not enough to travel all over China now, but also to travel all over the world. Because there are so many wonderful things waiting for you to explore and so many places waiting for you to discover. It is precisely because of this goal that when New Oriental is listed in China or the United States, I do not hesitate to choose that New Oriental must be listed in the United States, not because I like the United States, but because I know that when I go to the new york Stock Exchange, New Oriental will go global, and it will bring New Oriental to a world platform.
Students, your future potential is infinite. Don't think about whether you have this ability now. I have a saying, don't judge your future by your present, because your future is unpredictable, so you should work hard. I often hear classmates say, Mr. Yu, people are predestined. He's lucky. There's nothing he can do. Born in a rich family, you have all the resources. Give a lot of money to start a business as soon as you graduate from college, and you will succeed as soon as you start a business. How do you think we compare? Indeed, on the surface, it is incomparable, and it is incomparable in a short time. However, for a long time, a person's resources do not determine that he will succeed all his life. We assume that some people can sleep on this resource all their lives, but we see more people who have no resources eventually move towards the road of resources. As I said just now, Ma Yun is a child of an ordinary worker's family, and his father is a rickshaw puller. Just like me, a child of an ordinary peasant family, my parents can't read. But today, it is no exaggeration to say that we have some social and enterprise resources in China. Of course, we try our best to use this resource to serve more people.
When we talked about a person's social resources just now, we often talked about fate. Some students said that fate is fixed. Will fate be fixed? One part is fixed. As I said just now, what kind of family you are born in and what you look like are fixed. Besides, others are variable. Therefore, we should pay full attention to the changeable destiny, not the fixed destiny. What do you mean by variable? We divide human luck into two kinds: one is accidental and the other is inevitable. If a person seeks accidental luck, life will often be miserable; But when a person seeks inevitable luck, life often appears more brilliant. What is accidental luck? Everyone knows the story of waiting for the rabbit. When the farmer saw a rabbit hit the stump, he was happy to pick it up. He concluded that rabbits should hit stumps every day. So he stopped working and waited for the rabbit to hit him. After waiting all my life, the stump was rotten and white, but the rabbit still didn't come. He thinks that accidental luck is inevitable luck. What is inevitable luck? If the farmer concludes that there are animals in this place, he will take the initiative to turn himself into a hunter. He may not only shoot rabbits but also tigers all his life. Everyone knows that there is a world of difference between active attack and passive survival. A person's hard life may not be changed, but the standard of living can be changed. Why am I in this place? Because through my life's efforts, I will not give up again and again, nor will I stop again and again.
I often like to tell two stories. Changes in people's minds bring about changes in life. One person won the first prize. On the way, he met an old monk and asked him what he wanted to do. He said he would win the first prize. The old monk looked at his face and said you didn't want to take the exam. You won't be the top scholar all your life. You'd better go home honestly. But he was halfway through, and he didn't want to continue. Walking to a river, he suddenly found a man falling into the water. He jumped into the river to save the man. His clothes were wet, so he ran back to the temple. The old monk saw him at this time and said, strange, you went out for two hours and came back again. Your life has changed. It seems that your face has the appearance of being admitted to the top scholar. Because this man has good ideas in his heart. It turns out that this man is selfish. This time, he was very kind and saved that man, so his life changed. This seems to be a fabricated story, but I believe it very much. What is the reason? The reason is that when your heart changes, your world changes, so your destiny changes. I think hard work, diligence and correct aspirations and goals are the only way for us to move towards the future.
What should universities do? The first thing is to study hard. Studying hard in universities is different from studying hard in middle schools. Universities are learning to broaden their horizons and life. When I say study, I mean paying attention to the professional knowledge of the university. If I didn't learn English well at Peking University, how could I be today's New Oriental? So professional knowledge is very important. If you don't like your major, study a major you like. Whether you really like your favorite major or not, you have to ponder over it again and again. American universities won't let you choose your major in the first two years, so you can spend two years to cultivate your interests extensively. Remember, my friends, if you have been doing a major you don't like all your life, it is a very sad thing. So, you must find your favorite major. If you can't change your major, find a second major; If the university allows you to change your major, you should think it over before changing. To learn the most important knowledge, universities can try to learn two majors.
We have done research in the university, and it should be 100% for students who change their majors, which should be a normal inference. However, some students still don't like their chosen major after changing majors, which shows that it is reckless for some students to change majors without serious thinking. Besides my major, I have to read a lot of books in my spare time, and I have to read a book every two days or so. I read nearly 800 books when I was in college. If I can finish it, so can you. Some students said, what should I do if I forget to read? You should remember that reading and forgetting are two concepts. When you see that all the students around you have read books, but you haven't read them, you immediately feel scared. Therefore, reading is not only for wisdom, reading is not only for the expansion of knowledge, but also for laying a good foundation for self-confidence. If I don't have the confidence to study in Peking University, I won't have the confidence to work in New Oriental. So reading is the foundation of self-confidence.
The second thing that universities should do is to expand the activities of middle schools. The most important thing in life is initiative. It is very important to be able to participate in various activities in college. I found that the future development of active students and inactive students in universities is very different. Everyone should make more friends in college. Please remember that you will make faster progress when you deal with more powerful people. I learned to read from Mr Wang Qiang. As soon as he entered the university, he divided his living expenses into two parts, half for books and half for living expenses, so he bought a lot of books every month. I learn from him, and I buy whatever books he buys. Remember, make friends in college as much as possible.
Another thing in college is to take care of all the students' emotions and serve other students as much as possible. We find two kinds of students in universities: one kind of students only pay attention to their own achievements, their own interests, how to win in the competition, and pay no attention to others. After this mentality is cultivated, it will generally be beaten out of the water in society, because this society will not accept people who only fight for their own interests. Therefore, when you are in college, you should learn to pay attention to others, leave the good things to others as much as possible, and leave the bad things to yourself as much as possible, so as to gain the trust of your classmates, and someone will help you in the future. When I was in college, I insisted on fetching water to sweep the dormitory for four years. When I was doing New Oriental, I asked my college classmates for help, and they were all willing to help me. Because they think I am a good man and a helpful person in college, they formed a team of college students to work together in New Oriental. I have a wide circle of friends today, but my best friend is my classmate in college.
In college, another thing we have to do is to gain as much as possible emotionally. I'm not just talking about friendship, but also the feelings between men and women. If you have the opportunity to fall in love in college, it is also a very good harvest. I didn't have any girls talking to me in college. If you have such an opportunity, you should seize it. Not for dating, of course. We must really love each other so that we can talk. Because only sincerity can truly feel and bring real growth. If you really love each other, you should love them wholeheartedly. When I say wholeheartedly, I don't mean that college can only talk about love once, but that we can only talk about it once. Because the true sense of belonging is the feeling of loving another person deeply and not being distracted for a period of time. If you are really in love, love generously. When I say generous, I don't mean to let you give your boyfriend or girlfriend to others, but there are so many talents in the university that you may fall in love with you today and others tomorrow. Sometimes there is a special phenomenon in love. This happened in our class when I was in college. Two male students are buddies. One of them has a girlfriend. Let's play together. As a result, the other two played together and left the boy hanging. As we all know, the happiest thing in love is that two people fall in love at the same time or two people stop loving at the same time. What is the most painful thing about love? You still love each other deeply, they don't love you anymore, and you can't let go of your love for each other. Last year, two people fell in love in a university. Later, the girl stopped loving the boy, and the boy still loved the girl deeply. The child can't get through. Finally, the boy ran to the girl's dormitory, pushed the girl out of the window and jumped himself. This is a tragic love story, but it is also a despicable love story. This meanness lies in the meanness of this boy. If you really love each other, you must bless them all the way and let them go, not hurt them. Therefore, if I find that these two people are in love, I will bless them and let them go all the way until the divorce. You can't say that your own life and other people's lives will be destroyed at the same time. Our classmates here will certainly encounter such love and pain, and we must also solve this pain generously.
What if nobody loves you in college? In other words, not everyone has to fall in love in college, and not everyone has the opportunity to fall in love. Even if you want to talk, no one loves you. My first and last love was when I graduated from college for two years and was 25 years old. I found my girlfriend on the campus of Peking University, and later became my wife and the mother of my children. In other words, students remember that even belated love is true love. If there is no love today, just wait. Just like you didn't succeed today, you are just waiting. Seek in waiting, work hard in waiting, and believe in yourself in waiting. One day, you can be successful and brilliant. Today our topic is called "Believe in the future". Believe in the Future is a poem written by forefinger, a famous poet in China. Please believe that no matter what your environment is today, no matter where you are today, as long as you are really passionate about life, as long as you believe that your future will become better one day, as long as you believe in the power of hard work and struggle, you will have a bright future.
Thank you!