Business is human nature.

Hu Xueyan has a favorable climate, favorable geographical position and friendly people. Officialdom, love and casinos are all accessible. As long as you can succeed in business, no matter how black or evil, you will only talk about success or failure, regardless of black and white. At that time, there was a saying: "Being an official depends on Zeng Guofan, while doing business depends on Hu Xueyan". But if people who do business are as unscrupulous as Hu Xueyan, the relationship between them will be completely predatory. Then even success is a wolf's success, not an inhuman success. Such a success is neither recognized by society nor practical. The rise and fall of Hu Xueyan and the "original sin" debate on whether the primitive accumulation of some private entrepreneurs in today's society is legal fully illustrate this point.

But after reading Shangdao, I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The book "Shang Dao" runs through the idea that "Shang Dao is human nature" and "the master creates momentum, the middle hand creates the market, and the low hand does things". Lin Shangwo thinks that doing business is actually investing in people, and people who are tired of money can't get rich. Only by taking business as a career and letting nature take its course is the highest state of business. Lin Shangwo is still praised by people precisely because he is a capitalized person. He treats people honestly and succeeds with noble personality. What he wants to do is a career, not collecting money. Money symbolizes his success, not his ultimate goal. Therefore, if you succeed and have money, you will achieve the purpose of benefiting society. Isn't this the highest state of Confucianism?

Shang Dao tells the true and legendary life of Lin Shangwo, a North Korean businessman, who changed from an obscure grocer to the world's number one businessman in the early19th century, and the so-called "way of doing business" he realized in his business, that is, "treating property as ordinary water and being fair and upright as a weight". According to the author Cui's understanding, it is his master Shi Chong's three true words that make him a great success: the first is "death", only with the consciousness of death can we not be afraid of the crisis of life; The second is "Ding". The desire for wealth, power and reputation must be like the three legs of a tripod, so that life will not be overturned; The third is the "Jieying Cup". If a glass is too full, the wine will disappear and it will take seven minutes to finish. This cup always reminds his master not to swell. Under the guidance of Master Shi Chong, Lin Shangwo returned to the business world and became "the first business in the world". In his later years, he returned all his property to the society and was willing to be an idyllic poet and spend the rest of his life contentedly.

There is an old saying: "Don't suffer from poverty, suffer from inequality". In my opinion, the word "average" here does not mean "pot rice" or "absolute equalitarianism", but emphasizes that the distribution of wealth should be as fair and reasonable as possible. With the development of economy, it is an indisputable fact that there is a "rich class" or even a "rich class" in China society. For them, the problem is not how to have money, but how to spend it. Society is changing, but human nature is universal. When Cui wrote this novel, it coincided with the economic crisis in South Korea and the national economy was forced to accept the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Therefore, while creating, he thought that the reason why South Korea got into this situation was because it did not follow the "commercial road" in its economic activities. In a sense, yesterday in Korea is today. Whether his understanding is correct or not, it will be a warning to readers in China.

A short story told in the book made me think deeply.

One day, when Lin Shangwo came home, he saw three men coming to borrow money. He gave everyone a penny or two to see how much they could earn in five days, and then decided how much to lend them.

Five days later, the first man reported that he earned 1 cent by buying straw ropes and weaving straw sandals with a silver coin, and the second man reported that he earned 1 cent by selling kites at the temple fair. When the third scholar came, he said to Lin Shangwo, My Lord, what business can 1 silver do? I took a silver or two to the pub to drink. After drinking for a whole day, I spent 90 cents, leaving only 1. I used this 1 cent to buy a blank sheet of paper, and then wrote a passbook to Lord Yin Fuxun, saying that I was studying the Four Books and the Five Classics in the temple, hoping that it would provide some expenses during my study. You see, this is 10 silver from the prefect.

Lin Shangwo presented sandals 100 yuan, kite 200 yuan, scholar 1000 yuan. /kloc-meet again in 0/year.

1 year later, the shoemaker paid off his capital, the kite seller opened five stores, and the scholar returned empty-handed. He came to Pyongyang, the then capital, with 1000 silver and spent a year fooling around with a prostitute. Finally, he spent 1000 silver and borrowed the return trip fare from that lover.

Lin Shangwo asked him what to do, and the scholar said, can you give me another chance? I want to borrow some more money from adults?

Lin Shangwo gave him 2000 taels of silver for the next year.

I never heard from him again. Eight years later, one day, the scholar appeared and asked Lin Shangwo to prepare 10 oxcart. After 65,438+00 days, the scholar returned home with 65,438+00 carts of ginseng, worth 65,438+two thousand silver.

It turned out that the scholar took 2,000 taels of silver and then went to Pyongyang to fool around with prostitutes for two years. In the end, there was only 100 silver left, so he bought 100 seeds and scattered them in the deep mountains and forests. Six years later, he got a bumper harvest.

Lin Shangwo thinks: small wealth is hard-working, and great wealth is natural. People who weave straw sandals are like farming. "As you sow, you reap." As long as we work hard, it is not difficult to solve the problem of food and clothing and realize a well-off society.

Kite sellers are flexible, good at seizing market opportunities and can reach the middle level.

If you want to be rich or expensive, you should not be tired of money, and you should have the ability to "plant melons and get beans". Most successful people don't depend on Xiao Cong and Xiao Hui. They don't sell umbrellas when it rains and clogs when it clears up. Instead, we should have a three-year and five-year plan and be able to determine our own business strategy according to the situation in a few years. This is the so-called "still waters run deep".

This scholar drinks with 1 silver, which shows that he is not tired of money. He spent 100 silver on ginseng seeds and was willing to wait for six years, which shows that he has a long-term vision. This kind of person will go a long way after experiencing debauchery.

Associated with the so-called third category, the first category does "potential", the second category does "market" and the third category does "things".

In fact, the real winner should do all three things and do them well.

I found this book on my friend's bookshelf by accident. Although it is an outdated bestseller, after reading it in two afternoons, I feel that the classic will not be out of date.

By the way, because there are many ancient texts quoted, it is a bit obscure to read, which is not a problem for netizens who like China traditional culture.

This book has two main lines, one is the present and the other is the ancient. One is based on the suicide of Kim, president of South Korea's Qiping Automobile Group, and the other is based on life 200 years ago.

These two lines cross each other, with gold as the supplement and death as the foil.