This Life: capped above, unlimited below

走上 society, you’ll realize it’s not about wanting to get things done—you can’t just make them happen.

Some students are naive. They think: “I’ve set the scope, I’ve done pretty much everything, and I ended up with a 78—still happy.” After all, it was an easy pass. Then comes the recommendation slot, and the person with a perfect score gets in while you, with your 78, get left behind. That’s life. Your opponent is never some abstract standard. Sixty isn’t your friend, and fifty-nine isn’t your enemy.

Your real opponent is always your peer group.

If the top score among your peers is 58, scoring 59 makes you untouchable. But if the top score among your peers is a perfect 100 and you score 99, you’re still getting beat. So here’s my take: take every exam you can. If there’s something I couldn’t possibly do, that’s not my fault. If I don’t know what exactly I’m supposed to achieve, that’s also not my fault. But once I know—and I have the ability—I won’t allow myself to make mistakes. Otherwise, I’m not a mature person, and I probably wouldn’t survive in a place like East Asia.

Look around East Asia. Go check the trash bins in your neighborhood—even the auntie collecting bottles will miss out if she’s five minutes late.

Other people worry about how to score 120, not about whether 99 is “good enough” like you do. That’s East Asia.

Success rates drop far faster than you’d imagine as conditions dwindle.

For example, you might think: “I went to a top school and I have great technical skills, but my personality is poor.” Do you think your success rate is just halved compared to a colleague who’s both technically strong and has a good personality? No—it drops to one-tenth. Because scarcity works multiplicatively, not additively.

Having 10% more strengths than someone else doesn’t give you a 10% edge—it gives you a 10x competitive advantage.