Want to know why the best of the best, all have a narrow door mindset?

"Enter ye into the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and large is the way that leads to perdition, and many enter in; but narrow is the gate and small is the way that leads to eternal life, and few find it."

---Bible: New Testament Matthew

There are always people in this world who choose to start with the easy things. Although they start with the "wide gate", they will find that later on competitors crowd the road and it becomes increasingly difficult.

Others, however, choose to start with something difficult, a "narrow door" that seems to be full of thorns, but once they have crossed it, the sky is clear.

But, in this world, there is no easy way to go all the way, where there is a "wide door"?

The difference is that the masters have a bigger picture in mind, even if they have to give up 10 million in profits to share out, they are also willing to do so.

The top experts always choose the "narrow door".

1. The easy way out is the downhill way

In the Evolution Island community, I once shared my entrepreneurial journey.

In May 2013, I set up a small, ramshackle company called "Rumi Consulting" and started my own business.

I was the only one in the company, including the owner, staff, administration, HR, finance, security, and auntie.

I didn't even have an office. I don't need an office, what does one person need an office for?

I go to work at the community library every day. I didn't get my first employee until I had been working with the old men and women for a month or so.

That's when the problem arose: I could fit one person in anywhere, but what about two people?

Luckily, I had a lot of friends. One of my friends said, "I have a lot of tables here, so you can come and squeeze in first.

Over the next few months, one startup grew up nestled inside another, looking for the light to shine through the cracks.

A few months later, I finally found my own office.

Then I exchanged my teeth for dimes and stuck them on the wall, one by one, to decorate the office as it had been in the early days of Rumi Consulting.

That's how you start a business.

R&M Consulting has a common characteristic of most start-ups.

"It is poor.

Even though we were promised never to come to the door to sell ourselves, and we didn't even have a front desk.

We don't want to call out to clients with a loudspeaker, nor do we try to convince people.

If we find that this person has to be persuaded, it only proves that we are not yet able to do it ourselves.

It is very normal for start-ups to lack people, money, resources, direction, and opportunities.

Does a company have to open in a 5A office building to prove it has strength? Is it necessary to recruit good staff?

Is it really impossible to beat entrepreneurs with resources, backgrounds, and connections if you don't have resources, backgrounds, and connections yourself?

(Image source: Weibo)

The hard-earned money spent on "face", and the product potential is not enough, only needs marketing to make up, the channel to make up, can not make up, and finally have to accompany customers to drink, dinner, and relationships, but still can not be sold.

Drinking, eating, and relationships can not sell things, and the Internet, also can not help much.

The most difficult thing for companies and individuals to grow is to slowly build up from the smallest things, to create unique value for users, and to build a deep competitive barrier.

A gold cup is not as good as the word of mouth of the users.

Resources are not as good as your ability.

Accumulate your potential energy, and push down a thousand stones from the top of ten thousand feet.

Take the accumulated pains, walk the farthest road and enter the most difficult door.

For those who take the "wide door", relying on power and money transactions, relying on background, resources, and relationships, the road will only get narrower and narrower.

Those who take the "narrow door", rely on ability accumulation, product polishing, and create value for society, the road will get wider and wider.

2. Doing business is more about practical work and smart people doing stupid work

Liu Qin of Morningside Capital, as the earliest investor in Xiaomi, still held 17% of Xiaomi shares when it was listed, and he became famous in one battle. Of course, he has invested in far more companies than just Xiaomi, but also Racer, Keep, and many others.

As one of China's most influential investors, he once said to the founder of a company.

If you are short of money, I will invest in you, but can you promise me that you will not touch finance in the next few years?

If you don't make money in finance, the team will be badly wounded.

If you make money, the team will no longer be interested in the hard work of starting a business and will be even more wounded.

You may be wondering why this is.

Making money in finance, that's a skill, it means the entrepreneur is smart!

But being smart, for entrepreneurs, is often not a good thing.

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Over the years, the entrepreneurial windfall theory is prevalent. Now and then, a multi-billion dollar venture comes out for a few years, and you can't wait to have an internet startup model today, get investment tomorrow, IPO the day after tomorrow, and launch it globally the day after tomorrow.

It's too much of a rush. Too eager. Too much of a rush.

Too many people want to be fast, they like big, shiny things, and they like to "look good".

They are constantly chasing the wind and can't devote all their energy to getting down to business and consistently creating value for their customers.

They are like climbing a mountain and every time they get halfway up, they come back down and climb another mountain.

Constantly switching around, constantly looking for the windfall, and if they don't get rich, they switch again.

If you ask, do you want to be Xiaomi or Huawei?

Many entrepreneurs will think carefully and choose one.

You say, then from now on, accumulate 20 years like Lei Jun and struggle for 30 years like Ren Zhengfei.

Many will ask: Is there another way?

What many people want is just the success of Xiaomi and Huawei. Not their ability, let alone their same dedication.

Those who end up with some achievements are not so much clever, but probably use the time to exchange space, drip through stone, and gather sand into a tower.

They chose the right mountain, chose a "narrow door", insisted on doing something to the extreme, and insisted on climbing it.

Tang Taizong said in his "The Imperial Paradigm".

The only way to get to the top is to get to the middle.

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu explains it in more detail.

"Seek the top and you will get the middle; seek the middle and you will get the bottom; seek the bottom and you will lose."

It is human nature to seek the middle, to seek the bottom, to take shortcuts, and to avoid thinking. Those who actively choose the narrow door will always be the minority.

However, in business, it is slower, dumber, and more solid than the smart people who do dumb work.

Thousands of people think they are talented, but only a very small number of people can be the lucky ones.

Those who like to chase the wind will actively choose the wide door that is easy to follow because the road that is not easy to follow often does not have any shortcuts.

People who like to put in stupid efforts will take the initiative to choose the narrow door that is difficult to walk because the road that is easy to walk is often the final road to extinction.

3. Who is the fool?

Regarding "narrow door thinking", Mr. Ren Zhengfei has made the following analogy.

Huawei is a big tortoise, which has been crawling for more than 20 years without seeing the flowers on both sides of the road, without being swayed by the so-called "wind gusts", and just "foolishly" following its path.

During this period, there was a frenzy of investment in the stock market and a property boom in China.

One after another, companies benefited from this and became famous real estate companies.

Bunch after batch of people gained huge fortunes in the stock market and became the envy of everyone.

When people told him that he could make a lot of money by investing in the stock market, he laughed and said that money was not the most important thing.

People have ridiculed Ren Zhengfei as a "fool" who does not know how to adapt, but he is willing to be such a "fool", and also called on all employees to be "fools".

If you are double-minded and do not have strong determination, you will only end up with a basket full of water.

Although many entrepreneurs have succeeded in finance, the stock market, and real estate.

Most have failed miserably. After all, it is difficult for an entrepreneur without persistence and determination to take the long road.

If you choose the easy "wide door", more people will enter and there will be a glut.

So, don't do what everyone wants to do and everyone can do.

The only way to find a way to survive is to take on the challenge of what everyone thinks is very difficult.

To stick to the "narrow door mentality" is to stick to the right things, but the hard things.

The path is so wide that there are hardly any people there because it is too difficult.

But precisely because it is hard, your competition is not your peers, but the needs of your customers.

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The road to the top is usually hard, even lonely.

I often say to members of my team.

The choice before us is not usually between the 'path of success and the 'path of failure'.

The choice is not a difficult one, we all choose the "path of success".

What is difficult is that the choice is usually between the 'road to success and the 'easy road'.

The easy path is always so tempting, so easy and so comfortable.

So much so that, to choose the "easy road", we tell ourselves.

Maybe this path will lead to success too.

Choosing the easy path can even lead to addiction, like a drug.

Once you have given yourself a logical and self-referential justification and cognitive coherence, you become more and more dependent and eventually unable to escape.

When you feel that the path you have chosen is difficult, exhausting, and hard, It means that you are probably growing, that you are on an uphill climb.

When you feel that the path you choose is easy, very cool, very comfortable. It means you are probably running away, you are going downhill.

Final words

On the path of entrepreneurship, you will often face many temptations, bubbling with opportunities to make quick money and so-called partnership opportunities.

For example, bitcoin, finance ......

If you choose to make a quick buck, you are consumed by the desire for your most valthe uable resource: time.

Time was meant to be used to build your core competitive barriers.

So, making fast money is like taking drugs.

The more and faster you make fast outside your core values, the more and faster you lose.

What turns a dream into a reality is not the thrill of a moment, but the accumulation and restraint of each step.

The best of the best are practitioners of narrow-door thinking.

The top masters are slower, dumber, and more solid th, and the smart ones do the dumb work.

When you choose the narrow door, practically do things, and create value for society and users, the whole world will make way for you.