From Knowledge to System: Unlocking the Path to Success

In a world where everyone is racing to gather the most knowledge, it’s easy to believe that being the smartest person in the room is the ticket to success. But here’s the twist—knowledge alone won’t get you to the finish line. What you need is a system, a method, a way to harness and channel all that knowledge into something truly powerful.

Let’s talk about Grant Hill, a name that echoes through the halls of basketball greatness. From a young age, Hill’s talent was undeniable. He wasn’t just a star on the court; he was also a stellar student. But at the height of his career, a series of debilitating injuries knocked him off his game. Despite his immense talent and hard work, Hill’s story teaches us a hard lesson: without a resilient system to support and adapt, even the brightest stars can fade.

This brings us to a crucial point—building and refining a system is not just for the elite or the entrepreneurial but for everyone. Whether you’re a small business owner or an aspiring artist, creating a system that continuously evolves and adapts is key. Remember, it’s not just about the grind; it’s about having a framework that supports you through thick and thin.

Consider the economic landscape shaped by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These businesses are the heartbeat of economies, driving job creation and innovation. However, success isn’t just about having a groundbreaking idea—it’s about embedding that idea into a structured, flexible system.

Take a page from the book of successful entrepreneurs. They didn’t just accumulate knowledge; they built systems. These systems allowed them to pivot, scale, and adapt, turning potential failures into opportunities. Embracing mistakes and learning from them became an integral part of their journey, reinforcing the strength of their systems.

Scaling up is another facet where systems shine. A robust system can turn small-scale operations into powerhouse enterprises. Think about cities: as they grow, their infrastructures—roads, power lines, and utilities—become more efficient, not less. This principle of scaling can be applied to businesses, where the right system can exponentially increase productivity and efficiency.

Diverse perspectives fuel innovation, making systems even more resilient. By incorporating different viewpoints and independent thinking, systems become robust, creative, and capable of navigating complex challenges.

In essence, building a system is like planting seeds for future success. It’s about nurturing growth through a structured, adaptable, and resilient framework. So, whether you’re aiming to make it big in your career, launch a startup, or simply improve your personal productivity, remember that success isn’t just about what you know. It’s about creating and sustaining a system that turns knowledge into lasting achievements.🌟

In the past few years, the most popular saying on the Internet is: The biggest difference between people lies in cognition. The most popular topic is the discussion between the thinking of the poor and the thinking of the rich.

A frequently mentioned saying is ” You will never make money beyond your cognition, unless you rely on luck; but the money earned through luck will often be lost through strength in the end. “

Over and over again, they all convey one meaning: cognition determines a person’s achievement.

  However, I have a different idea.

  I’ve met quite a few people like this before:

• They are very smart and have an extremely rich spiritual life. They have the ideas of Plato, Kant, and Habermas at their fingertips, and the theories of sociology, management, and economics are very clear.
• They particularly like reading, have many elegant hobbies, have their own understanding of various social phenomena, and can communicate with people in any industry;
• Some of them like traditional culture very much, and they can speak eloquently about the “Book of Changes”, “Tao Te Ching”, “Spring and Autumn”, and “Zi Zhi Tong Jian”, and can even tell people’s fortunes;
• They are all interesting people. I like chatting with them and I can always learn things from them that I don’t know.

However, these people achieved nothing great. They were full of confidence when they were young, but when they get older they feel a sense of loss and feel that their talents have been wasted.

  Why?

Because they did not allow themselves to become systems (which is also the ultimate path to knowledge management).

  They are merely collectors of knowledge, not creators of it.

They have not established their own ideological system and have not created a system that is consistent with their own evolution and development.

  Therefore, no matter how high their knowledge is, they cannot resist the power of the system!

01 

Once upon a time there was a basketball player named Grant Hill. Hill was discovered to have basketball talent since he was a child, and he participated in a series of professional training. In high school, Hill’s talent began to shine. Not only did he excel on the basketball court, he also excelled academically.

When he entered Duke University, Hill quickly became the core of the basketball team, won the National College Basketball Championship, and became famous in the NCAA basketball world.

In 1994, Hill was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA draft, and he quickly became the focus of the team. The coach at the time said: “Based on my years of experience, Hill has an extremely rare talent and is the most comprehensive player I have ever seen. I can guarantee that as long as you train with me well, you will definitely become an All-Star in the future!” Hope Er and his family were convinced.

Hill practiced hard and quickly became the team’s main force. Not only did he perform well in scoring, rebounding, and assists, but his game attitude and leadership also made him quickly become one of the most popular players in the league.

By all accounts, Hill is a rising superstar. Hill works harder. He constantly improves himself and wants to go to a higher basketball hall.

However, at the peak of his career, Hill suffered a serious ankle injury. This injury plagued him for several seasons. Multiple surgeries and rehabilitation processes caused him to miss a large number of games and his career came to a standstill.

Hill and his family felt desperate. They asked the doctor and the team : “Didn’t you say he could become a superstar? Now that he can’t even participate in the game normally, what do you think we should do?” Hill felt as if he had fallen into a trap. into the abyss. For the team and coach, does losing Hill, the superstar, mean that all efforts are in vain?

It didn’t. Hill is the team’s most promising player and the coach’s best player, but the coach has more than one “best player.” What he originally meant was that if he could grow up smoothly, Hill would become a star at the national team level. But he knows most young players won’t grow up that smoothly. Even the most talented players’ careers are full of uncertainties.

The team’s management and coaching staff are more concerned about the team’s overall system and long-term development plan. Although Hill’s injury was a major blow, it prompted the team to pay more attention to player health management and injury prevention mechanisms, and also promoted the team’s improvement in lineup depth and tactical flexibility.

There are risks in any sport, but clubs can manage the risks. For example, a football club has five potential stars, but they do not need to all become talents. As long as one of them becomes a superstar, all the investment in the club may be returned.

This is the system. Of course coaches and clubs care about players, but compared to the success or failure of a specific player, they are more concerned about whether their “system” for cultivating stars is working. As long as the system works, it can ensure a certain success rate and achieve long-term and stable success.

Scott Adams is the author of the Dilbert comic series. He also blogs, draws comics, and writes books. In short, he is very productive and self-contained. He has his own writing system.

At that time, Adams was painting and writing in his spare time while working, which brought him very little material return, only 5% of his salary. Someone asked him why he persisted. Adams didn’t know how to answer at the time.

However, the book “Tools of Giants” talks about Adams’ later summary. He said that he did this not to accomplish a specific “goal”, but to develop a system. It doesn’t matter how much income or reading a specific article or comic can bring. What’s important is that the system must continue to evolve and develop. This is the basis for the compound interest effect.

The system allows you to make mistakes to a certain extent and change within a certain range, but these mistakes and changes are all under the control of the system, so that you have a sufficient sense of autonomy.

The same goes for everyone in reality. If you have a system, then the most important thing to consider is how to prevent your life from getting into trouble, and then achieve success step by step.

You are not afraid of trial and error, and mistakes will become your nourishment; you are not afraid of getting rich slowly because you have enough patience to resist long-term fluctuations.

  As the saying goes, ordinary people fear results, Bodhisattvas fear causes, and Buddhas fear systems!

02

Have you noticed that whether it is various business books, various MBA business theory courses, or case studies from top business schools, they generally refer to large companies, or at least medium-sized companies.

  But most people just do small businesses.

A report in December 2022 “What role do small, medium and micro enterprises play in the country’s economic and social development?” 》shows that as of 2020, the total number of market entities is 140 million, of which small and medium-sized enterprises account for 95.68% and operating income accounts for 62.98%. Small, medium and micro enterprises contribute more than 80% of urban labor employment.

It can be said that small, medium and micro enterprises are the mainstay of the economy and employment.

However, the boss of a small business is not called CEO, employees do not have stock options, the company does not talk about vision, there are no professional R&D personnel to engage in innovation and product upgrades, and there is no need for modern management concepts and philosophies. It is also difficult for small businesses to receive attention from the news media. Most of them have no say on the Internet, but they are the main body of “businessmen”. Think about how Tencent, Alibaba, Microsoft, and Apple all started out as small businesses instead of looking for angel investments with a plan to change the world.

There may be such small business people around you, maybe they are classmates, friends, or former colleagues, but they are very down-to-earth, and they talk about business over tea and dinner, instead of saying “I have an idea to change the world.” , not to mention “modern business thinking”, their understanding of “first principles”, “agile management”, “learning organization” and “amoeba management” is not as good as yours, but many of them have actually made a lot of money. , he also works on the front line himself.

For example, there is such a person in the United States called Keith Smith. He started a small business and came from an ordinary background, but he became a millionaire on his own. His experience is very interesting, and he wrote a book specifically called “Ten Differences between Millionaires and the Middle Class.”

Of course, what I want to say is not the content of this book, but the ” unconscious system ” contained in Smith’s experience :

At first, Smith was just like ordinary people. After graduating from high school, he found a job as a golf caddy, earning $5 an hour. But he decided to start a business because he couldn’t make money working part-time. At that time, the government had significantly increased taxes on Freon used in car air conditioners, causing the price of Freon to rise sharply. So Smith went to a place to wholesale Freon every day. The wholesale price was 200 US dollars per barrel, and he came back to retail for 250 US dollars per barrel. Such simple buying and selling allowed him to earn $500 a week!

But before long, the Freon business could no longer continue. Then he discovered that he could buy good old furniture at very low prices at auctions and make money by reselling it at the flea market. So he opened his own furniture store specializing in selling old furniture. At this time, his annual income increased from US$20,000 to US$50,000.

One day, Smith happened to see a furniture store in a better location for sale on the street. When he went in, he found out that the rent was not high, so he decided to move the store here. Smith chatted with the original owner of the store and learned that he mainly sold new beds, and that business was more profitable than selling old furniture. So Smith sold new beds instead. His annual income reached $70,000.

Once when he was purchasing goods, he met a person who specialized in selling sofa beds and found that that person’s business was much better than his own. So the Smiths positioned their business in the specialty market, selling only sofa beds. The annual income reached one hundred thousand dollars.

Of course, there were various twists and turns, and later he did some real estate and other businesses. In short, he finally became a millionaire.

Does Smith have high awareness? I’m afraid not necessarily, but he has his own system:

• He has not received professional training or research, but he likes to observe and inquire, and he always seizes opportunities when he sees them;
• He doesn’t know where the good business is, and he doesn’t have a high level of knowledge. He has never entered an MBA program, but he can always act decisively;
• Instead of focusing on his business all day long, he went out all day to expand his social circle and never stayed in his comfort zone.

The ten major differences in thinking he later wrote, such as “Millionaires work for profits, middle class people work for wages”, “Millionaires discuss the long term, and the middle class consider the short term”, etc., in my opinion are all explanations after success.

  There is nothing more important than becoming a system.

03

Some people have been studying for more than 20 years and claim to be “learning” all day long, but they do not think strictly and calmly. These people only read about values ​​and aesthetics, they only sigh when encountering things, and they only complain about their fate in addition to panic.

You need real knowledge, real knowledge, not the kind of knowledge that is like a castle in the air like an ivory tower, but the kind of knowledge that lays a solid foundation.

• When you encounter problems such as “I know so many truths, but I still can’t live this life well”, “Is it more important to choose or work hard”, “How can I improve myself when I am so busy at work”, you can clearly and clearly explain the reasons, make decisions, Act now.
• If you encounter those people on the Internet who criticize others indiscriminately and only vent their emotions regardless of facts, opinions, and positions, you will not blindly listen and follow them. You have your own logic and your own principles.
• When you encounter conversations that confuse you, such as “You either stand out or you’re out”, “Your so-called stability is just a waste of life”, you can well distinguish their truth from falsehood, analyze their logic, and examine them. the position behind it.

This is what it means to be knowledgeable. Behind these knowledge, it must represent your learning and thinking system.

You have the insight to see through appearances to see the essence. Because you have seen more, thought more, and acted more, you naturally have a set of skills.

If you have the confidence and sense of control, you will find that the world is reasonable, and this reason is supported by mathematics and logic. For example, the world conforms to the 28/20 law, social resources will show the Matthew effect, interpersonal relationships are the source of troubles, etc. Even if these “underlying logic” fail, you also know that the macro world is based on the “law of cause and effect.”

  A truly great person must have a system, and the core of the system must be action.

By understanding this logic, people will not be confused about anything, nor will they randomly apply some principles to fool their brains in order to gain a sense of certainty.

If you understand this logic, you will know that what we should care about is not the result, but the reason and the long-term success. You will know the slightest thing, but you will know the ice is coming when you step on the frost.

But the world is very complex . When a product fails, is it due to poor market performance, poor sales, poor product capabilities, or other problems? The development of things in the real world is often caused by multiple reasons.

Moreover, the chain of cause and effect is often very long . If a project breaks out today, it will be discovered that hidden dangers were laid five years ago. A person suddenly becomes ill as a result of being accustomed to eating leftovers for many years. A middle-aged man’s decadence, frustration and mediocrity are due to a series of wrong decisions he made when he was young.

But can you guarantee there is no other reason? You can’t tell which reason is the original, which reason is fundamental, and which reason is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. So who should you hold responsible for this project?

Furthermore, the world is a random walk , and everyone’s ideas are very different. It is difficult for us to predict whether tomorrow or the accident will come first. Zhao Er did not smoke or drink, often ran marathons, and had a regular schedule. As a result, he died before he was sixty. Zhang San drinks and smokes every day and is heavy on oil and salt. He is still very tough in his eighties. Why do you think this is? In fact, even if you have everything ready, the east wind may not come. Many things just depend on luck.

Li Si likes to play mahjong and manages to survive every day at his own small supermarket. As a result, he becomes rich after demolishing the house. After moving to a big city, he drives a luxury car and lives in a bungalow.

Wang Wu worked and studied diligently every day in a big city, took the initiative to expand his social circle, worked hard and made no mistakes, but in the end he could only save a down payment for a house in ten years.

Sometimes fate is like this. Knowledge of cause and effect does not allow you to control the world, and luck is not available to everyone.

The so-called luck is a perceptual term for ordinary people. In the eyes of the Buddha, good luck and bad luck are empty; in the eyes of the system, luck is probability.

Ordinary people care about the success or failure of specific events, while experts care about the system. As long as this system is reasonable, then the results of specific events will only fluctuate occasionally, and it will definitely win in the long run.

What the people care about is the results. If they accomplish something, they will achieve their goals. If they fail to accomplish something, they will fail and their efforts will be in vain. What experts care about is the system. The system is a continuously changing thing, or a skill or a relationship. For this system, what habits can you ask yourself to develop?

  What you want is not “success or failure” but development of the system.

Scott Adams, the author of the Dilbert comic series mentioned earlier, was asked why he persisted so much. He didn’t know how to answer, but he knew whether a specific article could earn income and how many people would read it. It’s not important. What’s important is that the system keeps moving forward.

When many people first started writing, they didn’t expect any reward, it was just a hobby. For example, Qi Junjie had no income when he first started blogging. He had not made much money from blogging for several years. But then his writing brought him compound interest growth.

  The system has no goals and some results are the result of natural emergence.

We often say, do good deeds and don’t worry about the future. There are rules for doing good deeds. If you act like a good person, you will only be oppressed at the bottom of society. To do good things, you must have a system for doing good things, and you must have a system for everything you do.

The results are always unpredictable because there are too many surprises, but the system keeps moving forward, small successes can continue to emerge, and personal influence can continue to accumulate.

04

Moreover, the larger the system, the stronger the scale effect.

What is scale effect? If the side length of a cube is doubled, the volume will be 8 times its original size. This is the power of scale, the power of systems.

First, the larger the system, the higher the utilization of infrastructure. Simply put, the larger the scale, the more resources are saved.

Someone has calculated that the total length of roads, the number of gas stations, and the total length of water and electricity lines in a city are all directly proportional to the population raised to the power of 0.85. According to this relationship, if a city of 1 million people needs 50 gas stations. So, a city of 2 million people probably only needs to add more than 30 gas stations.

The second reason is that the larger the scale, the higher the output. Note that this is not a simple scaling up, but as the scale increases, the output efficiency will increase faster. Someone has also calculated that the number of innovation patents and production capacity of a city is directly proportional to the population raised to the power of 1.15. That is, as a city gets bigger, its production capacity increases at a faster rate. This is why it is necessary to go to a big city. You see, the larger the city, the higher the utilization of infrastructure. At the same time, production capacity is increased faster.

The third reason is that the more diverse an organization is, the more dynamic it is. What is diversity? To put it simply, everyone in the organization can think independently, and everyone can act according to their own wishes to a certain extent.

  This is why the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Similarly, the knowledge system in the human mind also has a “scale effect”. The larger the scale of your knowledge network, the greater the marginal benefit of continuing to expand the network, and the input-output ratio will become higher.

In August 2022, Google Brain researchers released a paper specifically talking about some of the “enlightenment” capabilities of large language models, such as small sample learning, suddenly learning to do subtraction, multi-task language understanding, learning to classify, etc. These capabilities will only appear when the model parameters exceed 100 billion. (Jason Wei, Yi Tay, Rishi Bommasani, et al., Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models, Transactions on Machine Learning Research (2022).)

  If the quantity is large, it can really make a qualitative difference.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you first build your own knowledge and behavior management system (such as my PMCDE system), and then gradually surpass this system and build yourself into a system.

Your influence, your thoughts, your emotions, your energy will all flourish.

There was once a grieving father who had just lost his child. He wrote a letter to Einstein expressing his pain. Einstein wrote back:

Everyone is part of the whole universe. Although we are limited by time and space, we will have the illusion that we are separate from the outside world. But if you can liberate yourself from this illusion and realize that you are part of the whole, you will Get inner peace.

This doesn’t just make you the system, it’s you playing the symphony of life.

In this symphony, information rushes like blood, washing through every cell in your body. Knowledge sparks like lightning between neurons, and thoughts bloom like fireworks, illuminating your inner universe.

Energy erupts like a volcano, destroying the old self and forging new life. Potential is like a seed breaking through the ground, and vitality grows wildly, breaking through all shackles.

You are no longer you. You are a microcosm of the universe, a miracle of evolution, and the embodiment of creation.

With every breath you take, you are reinventing yourself. With every thought, you impact the world.

This is the real system. Not a rigid framework, but the rhythm of life. It takes you from fragments to wholeness, from stillness to movement, from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

  Feel it. Embrace it. Be it.

Let your life no longer be a pool of stagnant water, but an endless river. Let your mind no longer be an island, but a gravitational web between galaxies.