As the saying goes, "Knowledge is wealth." If a person wants to succeed, he must have rich knowledge and extraordinary abilities. But knowledge and ability alone are not enough for success. Without broad connections, knowledge can only be hidden in the heart. Without broad connections, talents cannot be used. Therefore, on the road to a person's success, connections are the key among the keys.
Having a "backer" makes it easier to do things
There is a famous saying in China: "A good bird chooses a tree to roost in, and a wise minister chooses the master to work." No matter how talented a person is , what a grand ambition, if the "backer" is not enough, there will be nowhere to display your talents. Therefore, if you want to be a virtuous minister, you must choose a virtuous monarch. Only by relying on the support of the wise master can you display your talents and realize your ambitions without any scruples.
During the Qin Dynasty, the famous minister Li Si was well aware of this truth. Li Si was originally from Shangcai, Chu State. When he was young, he served as a minor official in Chu State, but there was no opportunity for development. One day, Li Si went to the warehouse to do errands and saw that the rats there were all fat and strong, and they were not afraid of people. This reminded him of those rats that were emaciated in the toilet and fled in panic when they saw people. He couldn't help but sigh: "Whether a person is a virtuous person, and whether a virtuous person has the opportunity to display his talents, does not only depend on whether he works hard or is smart, but also depends on the environment he is in. At this point, people It's the same as a mouse."
Because of this realization, Li Si was determined to change his situation, so he resolutely resigned from his official position and became a disciple of Gou Zi, a great thinker at the time, and learned how to do it from him. Assist the monarch and govern the country. After completing his studies, Li Si knew that knowledge alone was not enough. It was more important to choose a "backer" worth relying on. He believes that low status is a shame and living in poverty is a tragedy. He wants to change his destiny. At that time, the heroes were fighting and the world was in chaos. Only Qin had the ability to unify the world, and King Qin Yingzheng did have the ambition to unify the world. Now was the time for Qin Yuan to recruit people, and he felt that the opportunity to change his destiny had come.
After Li Si arrived in Qin, he first managed to enter Lu Buwei's Prime Minister's Mansion as a retainer, and worked hard to express himself, which was appreciated by Lu Buwei. Lu Buwei saw that Li Si was a talented person, so he appointed him as a bodyguard. Only then did Li Si have the opportunity to get close to the King of Qin and win the government. After waiting patiently, Li Si finally had the opportunity to advise Ying Zheng. He said to Ying Zheng: "If a person wants to achieve great things, seizing opportunities and eliminating opponents is the most important thing. When Qin Mugong was hegemonic, he failed to The reason for annexing other countries is that the vassal states were still very powerful at that time, but the situation is different now. With the current strength of Qin State and your wise leadership, it is fully capable of annihilating other vassal states and achieving unification of the world. Great cause. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! If you don't take the opportunity to eliminate them now, it will be too late to seek hegemony when they become stronger!"
These words speak of winning. Zheng's heart was gone. At this time, Yingzheng was thinking about how to eliminate other vassal states and return all the world's territory to Qin. As a result, Yingzheng believed that Li Si was an assistant sent by God to help him unify the world, so he appointed Li Si as the chief historian. After being reused by Ying Zheng, Li Si was finally able to fully demonstrate what he had learned. He secretly sent people to lobby various countries, bribed wise ministers, alienated relations between countries, and further weakened the strength of the vassal states that were already inferior to Qin. As countries were annexed one by one by Yingzheng, Li Si's official position continued to rise. After the Qin State achieved its goal of unifying the world, Li Si also successfully became the prime minister of the Qin State, inferior to one person and superior to ten thousand people. After that, Li Si proposed to be the first emperor's Yingzheng to burn various theoretical works such as "Poems", "Books" and various schools of thought; unify the national legal system; unify writing, weights and measures, etc. These suggestions were deeply appreciated by Qin Shihuang and were implemented one by one.
"A wise man will make a mistake after thinking a lot." After all, a person's wisdom is limited. No matter how smart the person is, there will be times when he thinks poorly. Therefore, you must be good at borrowing the wisdom of others to realize your own ambitions.
Song Renzong Zhao Zhen was rated as a wise king in history, which was rare in the cowardly and mediocre Song Dynasty. Renzong's brilliance came from his ability to speak well and make good use of his wisdom. When Zhao Zhen came to the throne, the ills and bad habits were already very serious, posing a great threat to the long-term peace and stability of the country. At the same time, factionalism was prevalent in the court. For this reason, Fan Zhongyan, a talented person in the country, was also implicated and demoted. Many virtuous ministers defended him. Li Ruogu, the political counselor at the time, said to Song Renzong: "Recently, many people have used the label of crony to frame good ministers.
Gentlemen and villains have always been like birds of a feather, but the emperor Now, both gentlemen and villains are regarded as cronies and suppressed. I am afraid that loyal ministers will be framed and demoted in the future." Song Renzong accepted Li Ruogu's suggestion and re-employed Fan Zhongyan. At the same time, Song Renzong also promoted Ouyang Xiu, Han Qi, Fu Bi and others, and was good at borrowing their wisdom and talents.
On one occasion, Song Renzong summoned Fan Zhongyan and others, gave them seats, paper, and pens, and asked them to write a memorial on the spot. Fan Zhongyan and others submitted ten suggestions, including: limiting the channels for promotion through connections, improving the official evaluation system, attaching importance to agricultural production, reducing corvee labor, unifying laws, reforming the imperial examination system, selecting talents, rectifying armaments, etc.
Song Renzong immediately adopted them all. Later, Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi pointed out: "Recently, the imperial court has been deficient in local governance and employment, and local chaos has led to peasant uprisings in the long run." So Fan Zhongyan proposed a series of methods for selecting local officials, assessing political performance, and revitalizing local areas. Song Renzong also adopted it.
Later, Ouyang Xiu, Zhang Fangping, Wang Gongchen and others proposed that the court should set up schools in various regions to allow students to go to school locally, and then rely on the recommendations of village elders, and then rely on the recommendations of village elders. State and county officials reviewed their consistent performance and recommended them to the court if they were worthy of their reputation. In this way, students will focus on cultivation and studies again, instead of focusing all their energy on rhythm and verse. Song Renzong felt that the suggestion was feasible, so he immediately issued an order ordering all states and counties to set up schools and select teachers from local administrative officials.
If there are not enough officials selected, people with profound knowledge and high moral character will be selected from the local area to teach, and the court will grant official positions. With this order, the academic style in various places flourished, laying a good foundation for cultivating outstanding officials.
Later, Song Renzong consulted Fan Zhongyan and others on how to solve the problem of clique disputes. Fan Zhongyan and others proposed to Song Renzong based on the principle that "birds of a feather flock together and people divide into groups" and combined with the actual situation: gentlemen and villains will gather with people of their own kind. The difference is that gentlemen gather together to govern the country and serve the country with loyalty; while villains gather together for fame, wealth, title, money and property. When they have the same interests, they gather together to cover each other, take bribes and pervert the law. If they are not in harmony, they will They are ruthless and attack each other, but they will never consider the people of the country. Later, Ouyang Xiu specially wrote "On Clique" to write to Song Renzong, clearly explaining the "true clique" between gentlemen and the "fake clique" among villains.
Thus, Song Renzong clearly understood the clique alliance among officials, so he could always make wise decisions.
Song Renzong may not be wise enough to solve various problems in the world, but he is wise enough to appoint good ministers and generals, and can use their wisdom to govern the country, thus achieving peace and peace in the world. The purpose of ZTE. This is the power of borrowing the wisdom of others. Relying on the wisdom of others can make up for the lack of your own wisdom and solve things that you cannot solve yourself. Therefore, in real life, you might as well ask for advice from others and borrow their wisdom.
Borrowing reputation makes things easier
A person’s fame represents the strength behind him; a person’s reputation represents the behavior behind him. Fame and fame cannot be gained overnight, but require long-term efforts and accumulation of strength. People who are famous are more likely to succeed.
If you don't have enough reputation and reputation, you might as well get involved with someone who is famous and reputable. Borrowing other people's reputation will make it much easier to get things done.
George Johnson, the founder of Johnson Cosmetics in the United States, is a smart man who knows how to use the reputation of others to do his own things. In the 1950s, Frey Cosmetics almost monopolized the entire African American cosmetics market. George Johnson was a salesman for Frey Company. Later, George Johnson founded his own company. Although the company started with only $500 in assets and three employees, George Johnson was full of confidence in his company. Because he has already thought of a plan, which is to use his name to become famous. He concentrated his efforts on producing only one powder cosmetic cream, and then continued to strengthen his advertising. His advertising slogan was: "After you use Frey's products to make up, and then apply a layer of Johnson's powder cream, you will Received unexpected results.” Once the advertisement was launched, it was indeed “unexpected.” To Johnson's surprise, the advertising campaign was even better than he expected, and his product's market share expanded rapidly. So he took the opportunity to increase investment, and in just a few years, he seized most of the Frey cosmetics market.
George Johnson's strategy of borrowing fame not only made himself famous, but also squeezed his competitors out of the market. It was indeed unexpected. Although most people who use other people's reputation to do their own things cannot achieve such good results, there are many examples of people who use the opportunity to promote themselves and take advantage of opportunities for development. For example, Gansu Tianshui Brewery borrowed the name of Beijing Beer to great effect.
Gansu Tianshui Brewery is close to the famous historical spring - Ganquan. All the spring water used for brewing all types of beer is taken from Ganquan. So the quality is great and the taste is sweet. However, due to its low popularity, high-quality and low-priced beer was not popular and sales were sluggish. In 1994, Tianshui Brewery cooperated with Beijing Brewery. On the one hand, it improved the quality of its beer by introducing the technology of Beijing Brewery; on the other hand, it cleverly borrowed the reputation of Beijing Beer to make its own beer brand Directly changed to Beijing Beer. As a result, the "Beijing Beer" produced in Tianshui not only occupied the entire market in Tianshui City, but also occupied most of the market in Gansu Province. It even successfully entered other provinces and cities such as Xi'an, Baoji, Mianyang, etc., and was deeply consumed by consumers. Welcomed by customers, the market is very wide.
Liangzhou Huangtai Distillery, a famous distillery in the same province as Tianshui Brewery, also relied on the reputation of Maotai liquor, which has a long history and is famous at home and abroad, to build its own brand. The relationship between Huangtai Liquor and Maotai Liquor is not like that between Tianshui Brewery and Beijing Brewery. Rather, it is like George Johnson who became famous through advertisements. The slogan of Huangtai Distillery is: "There is Maotai in the south and Huangtai in the north." After borrowing the status of "Maotai", China's number one liquor, its own status has also improved. , and soon the little-known Huangtai wine was selling well all over the country.
As the saying goes, "Borrowing reputation makes things easier." Whether it was George Johnson or Gansu's Tianshui Brewery and Liangzhou Huangtai Brewery, they all cleverly borrowed famous brands at the time to use their reputations. started, using the popularity they have accumulated over the years to improve themselves. Of course, after promoting yourself, you can only maintain your reputation if you have enough strength; if you just borrow a name without real strength, you can only promote yourself for a while. Therefore, the most important thing is to have enough strength. After you have enough strength, borrowing your name to become famous is a great way to quickly expand your popularity and influence.