What’s the most pitiful thing in life?

When the moment comes, those who've been there can tell you a thousand times, but you'll brush it off—until you finally understand, and by then, the opportunity is gone.

In life, there are three kinds of "origin."

The first is your parents—you can't change that.

The second is the school you get into through the college entrance exam, commonly known as your "first degree."

Some people mess up the exam and can only get into a regular first-tier university—that's the top 16%. They think if they repeat a year, they can get into a 985 university—the top 2%—and they'd rather repeat. That's exactly why. If you waste eight years repeating, that's foolhardy. But if you spend one year repeating to upgrade your first degree (or your "second origin") from a regular tier-one school to a 985 university, it's still worth it.

The third is the first company you join as a fresh graduate.

Joining a well-known company doesn't necessarily mean you'll learn much, but after working there for a few years, whether you go to a startup or a small company, you'll have a dimensional advantage. When you start using all those big-corporate buzzwords you picked up, small business owners are completely in awe. They're not stupid—they know success isn't replicable. But the whole environment buys into it. Imagine a vocational training school: do they want to hire teachers from Tsinghua and Peking University? Do they want to recruit top students? Absolutely. This is called the demonstration effect. When the principal recruits, he brags to parents: "Our teachers all graduated from Tsinghua and Peking! Some top students turned down prestigious universities to join our vocational school. How compelling is that? Wouldn't you sign up immediately?" Small business owners want that same effect.

It's not about being the hardest worker—that's abundant. What matters is whether you look good on paper.

If you can't show something impressive, how can you become a manager? How can you bring clients along? Clients don't have time to watch you work at home—they need a talking point. That's why people from big tech companies who've barely done any real work can still get parachuted in as managers at small companies. The market demands it.

On the flip side, if you graduate and don't join a famous company, you might spend years at a small one and never get promoted, because local hires aren't valued the way outsiders are—the foreign monk is always thought to chant better. If your small company can't grow on its own into a public listing, you're pretty much stuck. Most small companies don't have that luck—in fact, 99.99% don't. So you end up working at a small company for a few years and then trying again to submit your resume to a big or well-known company. Round trip, you fall years behind that classmate who joined a famous company right out of college.

How do you move from a small company to a major enterprise? That requires real skill. If you don't truly have it, why would a big company hire you? They have plenty of people who can just talk a good game.

That's why experienced hires are harder than campus recruiting—it all comes down to this.

Back in the day, you could bluff your way into a famous company through campus recruiting, even if you couldn't do anything. Just polish your嘴 (your mouth), work at the big firm for a few years polishing it further, and then get parachuted into a small company as a manager. Someone else would handle the actual work while you're already in management.

Now? The former heartthrob has to become the real deal. You have to go toe-to-toe in a small company, fight through battle after battle, achieve legendary feats, and only then can a big company hire you.

So what's the point? Why endure so much hardship? Why didn't you study harder back then? Why didn't you job hunt seriously? If you'd shifted just a little of that suffering you later endured—just a fraction of the pain life dealt you—into your student days, gritted your teeth, and worked hard to get into a 985 university, you'd have that second origin. In college, don't get lost in video games—job hunt properly, join a well-known company after graduation, and you've got your third origin. Once you've secured the second and third, you can live freely afterward. There'll be plenty of time to let loose. Hand work to subordinates, take credit yourself—what kind of life isn't beautiful? Why make the rest of your life so miserable?