3 Laws of the Strong: How to Think and Act Like a Master

In life, we often encounter a kind of “strange appearance”:

Some people seem to work very hard, but they always fail to achieve extraordinary results;

Some people seem to be careless, but they can seize every opportunity.

This is not a bias of luck, nor is it due to talent, but a different way of thinking.

As Kazuo Inamori said:

“In the way of thinking, there is a huge power to make everyone’s life change 180 degrees.”

The following three laws of the strong will help you clarify the way of thinking and doing things of the master, and realize the leap in life.

candy law

Psychology professor Walter Mitchell conducted an experiment:

Have a group of preschoolers sit in chairs with their favorite treats, such as marshmallows, in front of them.

If they can hold out for 20 minutes before eating, they will get an extra snack;

If eaten immediately, there will be no reward.

The results show that only a small number of children can persist to the prescribed time.

Later, Professor Michel conducted a follow-up investigation on these participants for half a century.

It is found that most of the children who can resist the immediate temptation and are willing to wait have achieved their life goals.

When faced with complex interpersonal relationships, it can also handle better.

This famous “candy experiment” tells us: If you want to achieve better development, you must know how to delay gratification.

Only in recent years, many people have fallen into a misunderstanding about “delayed gratification”, thinking that it is to blindly restrain themselves.

In fact, the meaning of delayed gratification is to exchange short-term pleasure for long-term benefits, so that we can control our lives more autonomously.

So really powerful people have strong self-control.

Yu Yingzheng, the author of “Life Algorithm”, shared such a thing:

After graduating from college, he started his own business.

When the company developed to the best stage, he had a great business cooperation with a listed company and made a project that satisfied the other party.

According to regulations, he could get a service fee of up to 600,000 yuan, which was enough for him to buy two houses in Guangzhou at that time.

However, considering the resources and platform of the other party, it can bring great value to itself and enable the company to achieve better development.

Yu Yingzheng gave up the immediate service fee and chose to reach a long-term cooperation with the other party.

Fan Deng once said:

“The stronger a person’s ability to delay gratification, the easier it is to accomplish great things.”

If you want to achieve dazzling results and achieve your life goals, you cannot chase immediate results and overnight benefits.

On the contrary, we must endure loneliness and temptation.

Only by taking a long-term view and abandoning short-term pleasure can we obtain unlimited possibilities for long-term development and usher in the peak moment.

horse fly law

In management science, there is a famous “horse fly law”.

It means: No matter how lazy a horse is, as long as it is bitten by a horsefly, it will become energetic and run fast.

In life and work, we will inevitably encounter some “horsefly” pressure.

It’s just that the same pressure, placed on different people, will have completely different effects.

Some people use pressure as a motivation to stimulate enthusiasm and enterprising spirit, and urge themselves to move forward;

Some people regard pressure as resistance, fear and deny themselves before they start doing anything.

World fighting champion Zhang Weili has practiced martial arts since she was a child, and once won the youth Sanda champion in Hebei Province.

Later, he had no choice but to retire due to injury, and successively worked as a kindergarten teacher, cashier, fitness sales and other jobs that had nothing to do with Sanda and competitions.

It wasn’t until 2013 when she encountered mixed martial arts that the flame of wanting to become a champion was ignited in her heart.

So she quit her job and started playing professionally.

As a fledgling fighting rookie, it is not easy to defeat many powerful opponents and win the world championship, and the pressure can be imagined.

But in her opinion, the pressure of playing against masters is the motivation to urge herself to train hard and achieve her goals.

So during the training process, she was “competing” with herself every day:

Fighting competitions are classified according to weight, so she strictly controls her diet and quits high-sugar and high-calorie foods such as hot pot and cola;

Practicing actual combat 6 days a week, sparring with a coach who is nearly 20 kilograms heavier than myself, over time, not only the hands are callused, but the bones are also deformed.

Every time I was tired during this period, when I thought of the moment when I put on the golden belt, my whole body felt endless energy again.

With day-to-day efforts, Zhang Weili finally defeated the then champion Andrade in 2019 and won the golden belt that symbolizes the strength of the strong.

as the saying goes:

“Stress doesn’t have to be negative, it can be a source of motivation for us to be more efficient and creative.”

I take it for granted.

People are born with inertia. If you don’t force yourself once through pressure, you may never know how much potential you have.

Appropriate pressure can not only help us get out of our comfort zone, but also meet new challenges and opportunities.

It also allows us to focus and improve work efficiency.

As long as you can treat the pressure correctly and work hard towards your goals, you will naturally gain something.

Cactus Law

In life, some people always want to socialize in the way they like, thinking that this is the most comfortable way to live.

But the reality is that people who are too sharp and don’t know how to adapt will make people stay away or even be excluded.

Just like a cactus, the reason why it was driven into the desert and no one approached it was because it had thorns all over its body.

Therefore, in different situations, we must know how to adapt, so as to have a longer-term development.

As the old saying goes:

“If you are poor, you will change, if you change, you will be successful, and if you are general, you will last forever.”

Rockefeller, the oil magnate, lacked funds in the early days of his business, and his partner Clark invited his former colleague Gardner to join him.

Because Gardner brought enough money to the company, they requested that “Clark – Rockefeller” be renamed “Clark-Gardner”.

For Rockefeller, it was undoubtedly a great shame to erase his surname from the company name, which made him very angry.

But he knew that if he lost his temper, it would not only lose face, but also ruin the cooperation opportunities and bring even greater disasters to the company.

He suppressed the anger in his heart, and said to Clark nonchalantly:

“It’s no big deal.”

After this, Rockefeller was as enthusiastic as before, working harder and harder.

With the improvement of his ability and the rapid development of the company, three years later, Rockefeller successfully invited the extravagant Gardner out of the company.

And re-erected the “Clark – Rockefeller” sign.

Edison said:

“Flexibility is a sign of wisdom, and it is one of the ingredients of success.”

The reason why water can continue to flow into the sea is because it knows how to turn when it encounters obstacles.

In some difficult moments, it is not the best choice to stick to the inherent thinking and the previous way of doing things.

On the contrary, it is only by taking the initiative to adapt can we have the opportunity to find a more effective solution.

someone said:

“Education is a bronze medal, ability is a silver medal, connections are a gold medal, and thinking is a trump card.”

Only with the right way of thinking about doing things can we get twice the result with half the effort;

Wrong way, all in vain.

In the future, I hope that we can all keep in mind these three laws of the strong, and, like the strong, deal with problems at a higher level and counterattack as we wish.