Most people have an incomplete understanding of opportunity cost.

Do people calculate opportunity cost when making choices?

Yes.

But usually they only calculate the explicit opportunity cost and overlook the implicit one.

Most people are short-sighted by nature. In other words, you can calculate the immediate cost, but you can't calculate the long-term cost.

Over the years, who has gotten rich?

When a new industry emerges, the early players in that industry tend to become wealthier. Hasn't that been your experience over the decades?

First, it was owners of township enterprises who got rich. Then came those in foreign trade, real estate, computers, the internet, finance—and now, it's becoming those in AI, robotics, and so on...

Think back: hasn't it always been wave after wave like that?

So why is that?

In the 1980s, if your village was deep in the west, were you suited to start a township enterprise?

If you'd never seen a foreigner, would you even think about getting into foreign trade?

So many things work this way—they follow their natural course. A person's range of potential profit is a subset of the range they've already explored.

The world where you can profit is a small circle. The world you've explored is a larger circle. Your small circle always falls within the larger one.

Opportunity cost has two parts. Within your profitable radius, there's the explicit opportunity cost—you're already a lawyer, so you know doing cleaning work isn't worth it. But there's also the implicit part. You know you can be a lawyer, but do you know you could also be an A, B, C, D, E, F, or G? Those hidden options are your opportunity cost—but only if you actively explore the possibilities in your own life.