The fastest way to develop a big brain is to learn how to make money

1. Don't show poverty upwards, don't show wealth downwards.
2. If your family is involved in politics or business, you must listen to your parents. If your family is involved in farming or manual labor, you must distance yourself from your parents' perceptions.
3. Thinking directions for making money:
Men's lustful money, women's vanity money, elders' health money, children's education money, lazy people's lazy money, rich people's fear of death money, poor people's desire to get rich overnight money.
4. For planning and discussing matters, find wealthy people with ample resources. For execution and implementation, find poor people with limited resources.
5. Soft-hearted people are doomed to be unlucky; being soft-hearted may seem open-minded but is actually dull; seeming kind but actually cowardly. Being soft-hearted and shy will only kill yourself; rational indifference and ruthlessness are survival tools.
6. Your wealth level equals the average of the five people you are most closely in contact with. Mix with the rich, and you'll get richer; mix with the poor, and you'll get poorer. Don't be friends with poor people, although harsh, this is the fact.
7. The essence of making money is collecting money, not working for others, not learning impressive skills, not studying advanced thinking, nor networking, building connections, or forming teams. If you want to make money, just thoroughly understand the act of collecting money. Just this alone deserves your praise!
8. To succeed, don't be afraid to look foolish. The more foolish you look, the faster you succeed.
9. In business, learn to read gold: When gold prices fall — the economy is prosperous, suitable for entrepreneurship; when gold prices rise — the economy is deteriorating, be cautious.
10. Learn to be exploited: The lower class loves to study how to take advantage of others, leading to no cooperation; the upper class loves to study how to make others take advantage, and the business grows more and more.
11. Cash flow > profit: Profit is a number on paper; cash flow is the blood of the enterprise. Even if temporarily losing money, as long as cash flow is healthy, you can survive; conversely, high profit but difficult to collect payments can suddenly collapse.
12. Customers are divided into "three, six, nine" grades: Don't waste 80% of your energy on 10% of trash customers. 20% of high-quality customers contribute 80% of profits. 5% of "troublesome customers" may consume 30% of your costs. Learn to screen customers, and cut losses decisively on long-term overdue or unreasonable customers.
13. Always keep 30% of emergency funds: Don't gamble your entire wealth. Even if the project is stable, don't push your capital chain to the limit. Market sudden changes, policy adjustments, supply chain disruptions... Black swan events can happen at any time. Reserve emergency funds to withstand risks.
14. Products can be imitated, differentiation lies in added value: Price wars are a last resort in competing with similar products. True barriers are: service response half a beat faster than competitors, exceeding expectations in detail experience, or precise emotional resonance.
15. Before employees leave, they have already lost hope. When core employees suddenly leave, it's often not because of salary, but because they have been ignored for a long time, not recognized, can't see growth, or the boss is untrustworthy. Regular communication, drawing personal development plans for key staff, is more effective than high salaries in retaining people.
16. Peers are not enemies; learn to compete and cooperate. Instead of spending energy discrediting opponents, join forces to develop markets, share supply chains to reduce costs, or even recommend clients to each other. The bigger the cake, the more you will naturally get.