People often say that failure is the mother of success. This is not entirely true. It should be said that reflection after failure is the mother of success. A truly wise person will not fall down twice in the same place, but there are many people in the world who make the same mistakes over and over again. According to statistics, people who have successfully started a business have on average had more than four entrepreneurial experiences in the past, and among all entrepreneurial projects, no more than 5% ultimately achieve commercial success. Therefore, in reality, success is accidental and failure is normal. If you want to increase the probability of success, you must have the courage to face failure and continue to accumulate strength in failure and loneliness, including inner strength, growth in knowledge, improvement in ability, and external resources. Once the accumulation reaches a critical point, as long as there is a breeze, it is enough for a strong person to rise to the top with it.

Let’s look at Liu Bang in history. In terms of his origin, he was of a humble status; He was also inconspicuous among the princes, and he could not be said to have made outstanding achievements in the war to destroy Qin. In terms of favorable weather, time and place, he did not have any advantage. The Peixian rebels pale in comparison to the nobles of the Six Kingdoms, let alone the all-powerful Xiang Yu. But just such a person, a few years later, can annihilate all the heroes and become the world leader. What does he rely on? In fact, it is his accumulation over decades.

First, in his early years, Liu Bang was not content with farming. Instead, he liked to make friends with heroes. He once went to Daliang to follow Zhang Er. Later, because Zhang Er was wanted by the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang had to return home. This shows that Liu Bang was unwilling to be mediocre and had a strong ambition when he was very young. That's why when he saw Qin Shihuang's chariot on his way to serve, he sighed, "This is what a man should do."

Secondly, although Liu Bang has not been involved in industry for many years, he is not an idle mediocre person with little knowledge. , while also maintaining a keen political sense, which laid a solid foundation for him to make correct decisions and adapt to changes in the future. It is precisely because of his extraordinary qualities that he will be followed by outstanding talents around him.

Thirdly, during the years when Liu Bang lived in Pei County, he had Xiao He and Cao Shenying in the Qin government, and he was surrounded by a group of buddies such as Lu Wan (wǎn), Fan Kuai, and Xia Houying. Although these Except for Xiao He and Cao Shen, none of them can be considered top-notch talents, but they were loyal and fought through life and death in the war. They all made great contributions to the establishment of the Han Dynasty and became the mainstay of the Peixian rebel group.

Fourth, Liu Bang's reputation among the elders in Peixian County is not bad. This can be seen from his ability to easily borrow money from taverns in his early years, and his ability to successfully become the leader of the Peixian army when he launched an army. It can be seen from this that although Liu Bang was already forty-eight years old when he raised his army and had never had any outstanding deeds before, these were just appearances. He basically had the qualities to become an outstanding leader and had a relatively complete and loyal team. , and after being tempered and polished by war, success will no longer seem sudden.

Some people may think that commenting on Liu Bang in this way is "with the benefit of hindsight" and that it is just a matter of judging a hero based on his success or failure. No matter how well prepared a person is, things are unpredictable. If the dynasty perished ten or twenty years later, Liu Bang would still be mediocre for the rest of his life? This is indeed the case, but it does not become a reason for a person not to make progress every day. There are two examples in history that illustrate this truth.

The first one is Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period. Zhuge Liang studied hard in his early years and had great ambitions. However, when he succeeded in his studies, he did not encounter good opportunities at the beginning. At that time, Cao Cao had basically unified the north, and Jiangnan was firmly controlled by the Sun Ce family. From a historical perspective, Zhuge Liang did not have much room to display. In addition, Cao Cao coerced the emperor to order the princes, and his behavior was not in line with Zhuge Liang's value orientation of loyalty to the emperor. Moreover, Cao Cao had many talented people, and there were several top-notch talents on the same level as Zhuge Liang. Even if Zhuge Liang gave up his ideal of rectifying the world and defected to Cao Ying may not necessarily be able to stand out. The Sun family of Soochow is a typical "family business". The senior officials and generals of the Sun Ce Group are either relatives of the Sun family or brothers-in-law. It is difficult for an outsider with no foundation like Zhuge Liang to get into the position. Zhuge Liang's brother Zhuge Jin entered Soochow very early. An official is just an ordinary staff member. Therefore, even though Zhuge Liang had the talent of Wang Zuo, he could only wait for the right time.

Of course, Zhuge Liang seemed to be living in seclusion in Longzhong, but in fact he was not idle at all. Instead, he made friends everywhere. On the one hand, he increased his knowledge, exchange knowledge, and obtained information; on the other hand, he built his reputation and increased his worth. To form a personal brand effect. For example, he married the daughter of Huang Chengyan, a famous scholar in Miǎn, and became friends with famous celebrities Pang Degong and Sima Hui. He also had close relationships with young talents Xu Shu, Cui Zhouping, Shi Guangyuan, and Meng Gongwei. Because of this, when Liu Bei lived in Jingzhou and looked for talents, he heard people praise the talent of "Wolong" several times. This greatly strengthened Liu Bei's mentality that he must meet Zhuge Liang in person.

Just imagine, if Zhuge Liang did not manage his business carefully and had no reputation among Jingzhou celebrities, how did Liu Bei know that there was such a rural sage like him in Longzhong? If Zhuge Liang had not been mentioned or recommended by a heavyweight, intentionally or unintentionally, but had recommended himself, I am afraid that there would not be as good a "rocket promotion" as Longzhong's rise to the core decision-making level after just a few questions and answers. You know, even if After three visits to the thatched cottage and Liu Bei's personal inspection, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were also very unconvinced after Zhuge Liang became the military advisor. From the perspective of inner cultivation and knowledge, Zhuge Liang is even more confident, so after meeting Liu Bei, a boss worthy of following, he did not tell lies or hide things in front of the real person, and immediately revealed his mature plan for the three-part world. , thus winning Liu Bei's trust.

Judging from Zhuge Liang’s life experience, what are his opportunities? To be honest, not great. As mentioned above, Zhuge Liang's time of success had already missed the critical period when the world was in chaos and the feudal princes were contending. The world was divided into three parts. The emperor ordered the princes to be sincere and not to compete with him. Sun Quan has held Jiangdong for three generations. The country is in danger and the people are attached to him. He can use it to help but cannot take advantage of it. "In this situation, Liu Bei had to admit. It is a good idea to have one of the three groups in the world. As for unifying the world, it can be said that it is far away.

After Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain, he followed Liu Bei to conquer the east and west, and worked hard. What was the result? The Shu Han regime relied on the high mountains between Bashu and the Central Plains to finally avoid Cao Cao's troops approaching the city; relying on the turbulent Yangtze River natural chasm, it was enough to face Sun Quan's eager gaze. The fact that the founding of the country relied on geographical advantages just proved that the Shu Han regime was inherently deficient and lacked acquired power. It had no advantage in competing in the Central Plains and could only settle in a corner. Faced with the general trend of the world, Zhuge Liang could not let go of his cherished ideal of reviving the Han Dynasty. He used the weak to defeat the strong, and entered the Central Plains seven times in vain. This made the Shu Han's national power even more exhausted, and finally died with regrets due to physical and mental exhaustion.

Zhuge Liang’s life was an inspirational one, and it was also a life of “doing something even though he knew he couldn’t do it.” Although he had huge regrets in his life, it was his courage to face possible failure and still persevere that made him succeed. It was his persistence that remained true to his original aspiration even though his ideals were far away, which won him the admiration of future generations. What a person should pursue in his life is the realization of life value, not the so-called success that is tangible and visible to others.

Another example is the story of Liu Bang’s brothers. Liu Bang is the third among brothers and has two older brothers. Liu Bang's eldest brother, Liu Bo, died young and did not catch up with Liu Bang to proclaim himself emperor. He was only treated as Wu Aihou (Liu Bang was the King of Han at the time, so he was not treated as king). The second brother Liu Zhong was the one whom Liu Taigong once taught Liu Bang to learn from as a diligent and down-to-earth example. Presumably Liu Taigong often forced Liu Zhong to scold Liu Bang in the early years, otherwise Liu Bang would not have become the ninth-five-year-old with his open-mindedness. I will still be worried about this in the future. But what was the quality of this good son in the eyes of the grandpa? "Historical Records" records that in 201 BC, Liu Bang issued an edict to confer Liu Zhong as Dai Wang, who governed the present-day Hebei and Shanxi areas. Dai State was an important northern border area. The next year, the Xiongnu invaded Dai. As the king of Dai but with no military talent, Liu Zhong was unable to hold on to the border and actually abandoned the country and fled back to Luoyang alone. Liu Bang was very angry about this, so he issued an edict to remove Liu Zhong from the throne and demoted him to the title of Marquis of Heyang. Liu Zhong did this for six years and died of depression in 193 BC. His younger brother Liu Jiao, after Liu Bang ascended the throne as emperor, he named Liu Jiao the King of Chu. He reigned on the throne of Chu for twenty-three years and died.

If only in terms of opportunities, Liu Bang's brothers can be called the "big winners" in life. They can easily break the earth and become kings in a lifetime. For someone who has great military exploits and is only a high-ranking minister, he is really getting a huge advantage.

However, there are still those who are unlucky - Uncle Liu was short-lived and did not catch up with the good times; Liu Zhong could be an honest farmer, but he could not afford to give him a kingdom. A country is easily obtained, and countless people can't even dream of treatment. Just because the enemy invades, they can abandon the country and the people and run away. It can be seen that without a strong heart and extraordinary wisdom, one can fly far away. The higher he fell, the worse he fell. Fortunately, Liu Zhong was the emperor's brother. He could still be a prince after committing such a serious crime, and he could finally continue to enjoy glory and wealth. The one with the best luck was Liu Jiao, who was sealed in a peaceful land and was able to live freely for the rest of his life.

There is nothing new under the sun. Everything that once happened in history continues to happen today, but with a different face. Those joys and sorrows, and the vicissitudes of history have turned into smoke and dissipated in distant time and space, but what kind of inspiration have these characters left us? That is, no matter at any time or under any circumstances, we should maintain a positive and enterprising mentality and an optimistic and open-minded attitude towards life. The former is to strive for the splendor of life, and the latter is to love life itself. It must be like Chengtang's motto The saying "It is new every day, it is new every day, and it is new every day", and it is also like Zeng Wenzhenggong said, "Feeding a ball of spring means supporting two poor bones."

To be continued... #HistoryMiscellaneousTalk#