Common sense wins the world: the common secret of successful people

Chapter 3 Common Sense of Thinking--80% of success is won by thinking (2)
When communicating with me, many Chinese who have just started business in the United States often say that this thing cannot be done, and that thing cannot be done, and they always deal with one thing with very absolute standards.They sit in the position of decision makers, but they like to talk about right and wrong instead of analyzing gains and losses.This is similar to Boss Wu's thinking.

I told them: "This kind of thinking makes you unable to do anything. The common sense of business people should be to analyze the gains and losses from their own perspective, instead of seeing what is wrong with a market. Because the attributes of the market are always neutral, In fact, there is no right or wrong, and there is no standard for what should be done. What you think is not good, others may not feel the same way; if others do not do well, it does not mean that you are not good. So you have to make your own judgment, and you must think To be neutral, you must have a scalpel thinking, cut it open and see clearly, and draw conclusions objectively."
A man from Northeast China surnamed Chen borrowed 30 yuan of start-up capital to do business in Shenzhen, and lost a lot of money.He later went to the United States to open a restaurant with his friends. He opened a Chinese dumpling restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown—perhaps the place with the best Chinese restaurant business in the world. Half a year later, he found that he was losing money again.

He was very depressed: "I'm not this kind of material?" He went to my company with his friends for market consultation. He wanted to understand why he always bumped his head against the south wall despite his good preparation.The boss Chen said helplessly: "When I first entered this industry, the prospects were pretty good, and everyone was making more money. But as soon as I entered, I found that it was not good. Not only did I not make money, but I even lost my capital. "
I read his plan and rough financial statements, which contained some of his opinions on the business, all of which were idealized designs, which were of no reference value; the financial bookkeeping was very unprofessional, and it was not suitable for his current small business. It's not the most important and it doesn't make sense.I asked him how he operates, if he can share with me.

Before Boss Chen could speak, his friend spoke first: "That's exactly what I've been telling him. He manages the company too emotionally. For example, when he manages employees, he doesn't like the care-taking style of white employees. He was fired immediately. In fact, he was the most capable guy in our store; he thought that his dumplings must have the taste of the Northeast, regardless of the fact that most of the customers around him were immigrants from the south of the Yangtze River, so he made dumplings with the Northeast style. , resulting in a pitifully low passenger flow."
"Oh, I think the market can be opened up, and it is more important to create a brand! Don't worry about temporary gains and losses!" Boss Chen said stubbornly.

His friend was not without irony: "Hey, don't forget that we are a small business. How can we have time to wait for your idea to bear fruit? By the time the brand is made, we have already closed down."
Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, the company's consultant stopped them and signaled the two to stay calm.At this time, everyone saw the problem, that is, Boss Chen's right-wrong thinking is not suitable for being a manager.Good decision makers need to analyze gains and losses and make rational decisions, instead of being obsessed with right or wrong, or being bound by their own preferences, and then ignoring the needs of reality.

For business owners, common sense thinking can kill as well as save.The key lies in how he positions himself, whether he can face the reality rationally, and decide how he thinks and makes decisions.For some things, it is more important to analyze the gains and losses; for some things, it is more critical to recognize right and wrong.The distinction between the two is subtle, and identifying them is an advanced intelligence.An important quality of a successful person is to be able to distinguish when to talk about gains and losses, and when to talk about right and wrong.

Most people have the attitude that they expect others to change to solve their problems, rather than making compromises and finding common ground together.This attitude is the embodiment of right and wrong thinking.

Sometimes people insist on distinguishing between high and low in a debate, let the other party say right or wrong, or argue about right and wrong, which is essentially right and wrong thinking.

People with right and wrong thinking don't really care about problems.They only care about whether they can win, or whether they have face.What they want is "the other party is a head shorter than themselves", or their "strong desire" has been implemented, no matter the result is right or wrong.But it often turns out that good expectations don't materialize and bad problems get exacerbated.

The performance of gain-loss thinking is the opposite: this is not a question of right and wrong, but a question of pros and cons.What I have to do is to choose the most reasonable solution, not to knock down my opposite.Right or wrong is only related to the position, it is a subjective judgment and has nothing to do with the matter itself, but gains and losses are related to whether the matter can be resolved.

Do you often presuppose positions?

In layman's terms, it's a question of "where do our asses sit" when thinking and making decisions.The wrong common sense is that people's thinking often obeys his position, and then serves a specific position; the correct common sense means that we have to establish an objective thinking.That is to say, you have to jump out to look at the problem, jump out of the limited vision set for you by yourself or others, and analyze it from a higher and more comprehensive perspective, so as to avoid being kidnapped by certain positions.

What is a default position?
1. Have a conclusion first, and then look for evidence: You have already established right and wrong in your mind, and then collect "evidence" to support your point of view. In order to "conform" to the conclusion, you will barely put together evidence to prove that you are correct.

2. Make a decision first, then listen to suggestions: I have already decided how to do it, and I listen to other people's suggestions, just to seek more support for my own decision.

3. Make an impression first, then look at the performance: With the first impression first, no matter how the person behaves in the future, he will tend to judge the first impression and convince himself to believe this judgment.

Before the human brain recognizes things—any strange thing is neither a blank board without a little impression nor a vacuum cup, but an environment in which a certain inclined viewpoint (position) already exists.This is determined by many factors such as his knowledge, values, interests, emotions, and emotional state at that time.These factors have quietly pre-positioned his observation, thinking, decision-making and action.

For example, when the Shelton family lost their axe, he immediately believed that his neighbor Leonardo had stolen it, because it was this guy who had just moved in who had borrowed his ax to chop down a tree two weeks ago.When he walked out of the house, he happened to see Leonardo passing by outside. He observed the way this guy walked, as if he had stolen his own axe.Two days later, Sheldon accidentally found his ax in the basement of his home. It turned out that no one was a thief, but he accidentally left it here.At this time, when Shelton saw Leonardo again, he found that his every move was no longer like a thief.

This is the default position, also known as preconceived.Leonardo is an unlucky guy kept in the dark, his behavior has not changed in any way, it is Sheldon's own psychology that is constantly changing repeatedly, and his position is constantly self-correcting.If you are also a person who likes to presuppose positions, then when you deal with things, you will be like Sheldon-you have not started to analyze, and your heart is already biased.When looking at issues (people) with a preset standpoint, no matter what opinions or information other people put forward to you, it is difficult for you to change the "prejudice" or impression that has been formed.

Ms. Kanae Yamae from Japan made a similar mistake, which almost cast a shadow over her career.She works for a company owned by General Electric in Washington, and although she has excellent performance, she is a sensitive girl.One night, at 7 o'clock in the evening, she was cooking dinner in her single apartment, when her boss called suddenly and seriously talked to her about a plan related to a key project.The proposal came from her, and she thought it was well written, fully taking into account the intelligence of competitor Toyota, and provided GM with a comprehensive market analysis and pricing strategy proposal for a new model.However, the boss said on the phone:

"I don't think you've considered some of the terms mature enough. Come to my office tomorrow morning with a plan! That's it, bye!"
What does Miss Yamae think at this moment?Like countless ordinary people, she has developed her own preconceptions.

Position A: "The boss doesn't like my proposal at all. If I go there tomorrow, I will be reprimanded like a storm, and then the proposal will be shot, and I will be out of this project!"
If you have long been hostile to your boss or have conflicts, you usually have this premonition.But maybe the boss didn't have this idea, he was just dissatisfied with the details, and hoped to discuss with Kanae Sane face to face and urge her to come up with the best plan.

Position B: "My boss wants to play tricks on me! It must be, especially since everyone knows I'm still single. What should I do? Should I tell my friends, write an email to the board, or just call the police?"
When your boss calls you after work and asks you to meet him at a certain time, you may take it as a sexual innuendo and develop a position of alarm or resentment.But in fact, you may be pretending to be affectionate, and the other party just cares about work and has no delusions about you.

Position C: "I firmly believe that the plan is well written. No one in the company knows how this project should work better than me. So, the boss wants to promote me?"
Among these three positions, C is the most optimistic one.But it's also one of those possibilities that often turns joy into tragedy, and many people have told me that when they walk into their boss's office with high hopes, they basically end up with a dismal outcome.So, if you like to assume optimistic positions, perhaps you should gather the most sufficient reasons for yourself, preferably with irrefutable and well-substantiated inferences.

Ms. Shanhui's default position was B, which almost made her a big mistake, because she hesitated for a long time and decided to send a text message to her colleague (the person with the best relationship with her in the company) to ask for his opinion.She painstakingly wrote out all her concerns, then eagerly awaited the quickest answer:

"Think of a clever plan and help me get rid of this "bad boss", quick!"
Luckily, she paused for three or four seconds before sending—a brief moment that saved her GM career.At last she thought of a dire but highly probable outcome: If my suspicions were wrong, then I was screwed.Colleagues would tell others about it, and within 24 hours, the whole company knew about it.I ruined my boss's reputation, and I ruined myself at the same time.

The next morning, Kanae Sane walked into her boss's office on time, and she was greeted by another person—the head of the personnel department.The result was C. The boss announced that she would increase her power in this project team immediately, and she was promoted.Of course, the task is also arduous, because some details need to be revised by her.It turned out that due to time constraints, her immediate superior did not wait until the next day to go to work to notify her, so she chose to make an urgent phone call at night to make her mentally prepared for the re-promotion plan.

Some managers have told me that this pre-set "conflict of positions" often occurs in their communications with subordinates or management colleagues.A boss of a real estate company in Hangzhou said: "When I put forward a proposal for discussion, I occasionally presuppose that certain shareholders will definitely disagree and will definitely oppose me. Once such a position is presupposed, communication becomes a quarrel As expected, the general meeting will lead to a stalemate with those shareholders. Sometimes it is the same with the subordinates in the meeting, subconsciously feel that he will contradict me, and in the end it really turns against me."
This is because they set their positions in advance and put themselves in different positions from others.In actual actions, he just went to verify his position-"Look, I said it earlier, he is singing the opposite of me!"
I remember one company interview, sitting across from a well-dressed gentleman with a good resume, and his words and deeds also left a good impression on the company's interviewers.But in the re-examination, when I asked him why his original company could not let him continue to stay, he listed many problems in that company to me.

I nodded and suddenly asked, "Have you tried to communicate with your boss about these things?"
He replied disdainfully: "Oh, sir, I can't reason with him. He has weird ideas and is not a person who can take advice. Colleagues also know this."
Half an hour later, I informed the personnel department to cancel the decision to hire him.Because this person is used to preset positions in communication and has a serious emotional side, he is not suitable for the role of investigation consultant-this position requires extremely high objectivity for practitioners, otherwise he will be easily swayed by his own preferences, consciously To "induce" the answer you want, so as to draw an investigation conclusion that is completely opposite to the actual situation.

And I think that a subordinate who puts a "devil" hat on the boss before communicating with the boss will not be a good subordinate, nor will he be a good boss in the future.This kind of preconceived psychology at work is not harmful, it is a "toxin" that hinders a person's promotion.

Objectively speaking, each of us has an established preset "framework" in our hearts, which is used to deal with future problems and decide our next action.For example, if you hate your client, you may feel that there is a trap in anything he says; if you hate a certain rule, you will deliberately challenge its constraints when doing things, causing the fact that the rule is violated.Driven by this kind of motivation, we form a pre-valued judgment on things, or first determine right and wrong, right and wrong, and then analyze it in detail.In this kind of framework, it is easy to lead to biased hearing, blindness or deafness. We ignore the information that is not good for us, only see the information that is beneficial to our preset position, and then quickly adopt it.

Then, the conclusions and results drawn from this must not be objective and cannot bring you the best return.There is only one solution: never take sides lightly, and assume positions impulsively, if circumstances do not compel you to do so.Learn to see the facts before making a decision, thereby saving time and avoiding misunderstandings in communication and mistakes in decision-making.

The Trouble with Inferences of Guilty

One of the troubles related to thinking caused by the "preset position" is the inference of guilt. To take action, instead of taking an objective and neutral standpoint, first analyzing in detail and then locating the person responsible.

It's like the police draw a gun and arrest you just because you look like a bad guy: "I think you're a bad guy, so I'm going to arrest you." It's like the boss thinks you'll be late again because you're late once, and doesn't look into it Like the reason for being late, the harm this habit of thinking brings to our life and work is usually extremely serious.

We encounter this frequently during investigations and interrogations.Agent Snow once focused on Ms. Julie, who lived on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, and believed that she was related to an attempted attack on the Iraqi embassy in the United States.Julie is a middle-class lady in her 40s. She owns a small immigration agency, which specializes in immigration from the Middle East to the United States. After "9·11", this business has shrunk greatly in the United States, and it is generally difficult to operate successfully, but Julie's firm is proficient in this business, with a high success rate.In addition, Julie also has a distant relative doing business in Iraq, and the two have had 96 phone calls in the past six months.Julie's own character is also one of the doubts, she has some dual personality.The combined information made her the object of suspicion.

The neighbor said: "I don't like her. Sometimes she is silent, walks past you indifferently without looking at you, and sometimes talks and laughs with you, talks endlessly, and is overly enthusiastic." Another neighbor shrugged Shrugged and said: "No one knows what she thinks, but I just want to stay away from her."
To sum up, Snow said with certainty: "I think she is the main thread of the attack organization. Perhaps the suspect entered the United States secretly through her operation, and she may even be the mastermind behind it."
In order to prove that Julie was guilty, Snow used high-tech eavesdropping methods. A team of five federal agents worked hard for two months and finally heard that she was going to a secret place in Manhattan with her distant relatives. Meet. "Is she going to plan a new attack? To organize new terrorists to enter the United States? It's all possible!" Snow decided to arrest her immediately.

But when Ms. Julie sat in the interrogation room in a panic, I could tell immediately from her eyes that this woman must be the victim of Agent Snow's inference that she was just doing some business related to Iraq or the Middle East .She may have powerful connections to immigrate wealthy Middle Easterners to the United States (perhaps with a broker who has deals with immigration), but she is by no means a terrorist financier or mastermind behind an attack.The results of the interrogation also proved this point. In the face of real evidence, Snow's previous inferences were vulnerable, and in the end he almost took the blame and resigned in front of the opponent's powerful lawyer team.

This also became an experience cited by Snow as a profound lesson, which made him extremely cautious and objective in his later work, and rarely crossed the boundaries of laws and regulations.For FBI agents, this may not be a good thing, but at least it won't get him into big trouble again.

When people think about whether a person has done something wrong, a very bad common sense or habit is-because of "what happened in the past", "it must be like this now".First assume that the other party must be like that, and then prove this "conclusion".This makes people too idealistic when thinking and deciding on a problem, "What I think and guess must have happened or will happen!" It is difficult for them to listen to the suggestions of others, they cannot see the real situation clearly, and communication barriers occur. and be blinded by illusions.

(End of this chapter)