Chapter 26 Letter twenty-six: Patience is strategy

Motto: Impulse is our worst enemy at any time. Only by being able to endure the disobedience that others cannot bear, can we do things that others cannot do. If you really want to succeed, you must grasp and protect your own opportunities, and you must try to snatch other people's opportunities. (Conformity is the enemy of thought and the jailer of freedom.) September 2, 1902 Dear John: Thank you so much for placing your trust in me and telling me about your resignation from the Citibank board.Of course I understand why you do this. You can no longer tolerate certain practices of your colleagues, let alone continue to submit to them.

However, it seems that time will tell whether your decision is wise or not.The reason is simple, if you don't voluntarily give up the position of director of Citibank, but choose to stay there, maybe you will get more. I know that submission is the enemy of thought and the jailer of freedom.However, for a person with great ambitions, maintaining the necessary submission and patience is precisely a time-tested and successful strategy.Looking back on the past, I have endured a lot, and I have gained a lot because of my patience. At the beginning of my business, due to lack of funds, my partner, Mr. Clark, invited his former colleague, Mr. Gardner, to join. What you want to do, what you are able to do, and what you can do as long as you have enough money.

However, to my surprise, Clark brought a purse and at the same time gave me a humiliation that they were going to change the name of the Clark-Rockefeller Company to the Clark-Gardner Company, and they changed the Rockefeller surname from The rationale behind the removal of the company's name: Gardner comes from a prominent family, and his surname would attract more clients. This is a reason that greatly stabbed my dignity!I am angry!I am also a partner, and what Gardner brought is only his share of funds. Can he deprive me of the status I deserve because he was born in a noble family? !However, I endured it, and I told myself: You have to control yourself, you have to keep a calm mind, this is just the beginning, there is still a long way to go!

I pretended to be calm and told Clark as if nothing had happened: "It's nothing." In fact, it was a complete lie.Think about it, how can a person who is suffering from injustice and hurting his self-esteem be so tolerant!However, I quenched the burning anger in my heart with reason, because I knew it would benefit me. Patience is not blind tolerance. You need to calmly consider the situation and know whether your decision will deviate from or harm your goal.Not only would it be unseemly to throw a tantrum at Clark, but more importantly, it would create a rift in our cooperation, and even lead to kicking me out and making me start all over again.And unity can form a joint force, making our cause bigger and bigger, and my personal strength and interests will also grow accordingly.

I know where I am going.After this I continued to work with the same enthusiasm and tireless enthusiasm as before.In the third year, I succeeded in getting the extravagant Mr. Gardner out of the company and getting the Clark-Rockefeller sign back up!By then people started calling me Mr. Rockefeller, and I was rich. In my eyes, patience is neither swallowing one's anger, nor is it groveling. Patience is a strategy, and it is also a kind of character training, which breeds a competitive heart.This is what I learned during my cooperation with Mr. Clark. I love equality and I hate being bossy.However, Mr. Clark always put on a high-spirited posture in front of me, which disgusted me very much.He never seemed to take me seriously, regarded me as a short-sighted clerk, and even belittled to my face that I had nothing to do but keep accounts and manage money, and I was worthless without him.This is a blatant provocation, but I pretended not to hear it, I know that respecting myself is more important than anything else, but I have already started a war with him in my heart, and I told myself over and over again: surpass him, your strength is the best for him The humiliation is the loudest slap on his face.

It turned out, as you know, that Clark Rockefeller was history forever, replaced by Rockefeller Andrews, and I was on the billionaire express train.Only by being able to endure the disobedience that others cannot bear, can we do things that others cannot do. Impulsivity is our worst enemy at all times.If patience can resolve conflicts that should not arise, such patience is always worthwhile; however, if you stubbornly go your own way, instead of resolving the crisis, it will bring even greater disasters.Mr. Andrews does not seem to understand this truth. Mr. Andrews is a self-righteous man with no business acumen, a man with evil prejudices who lacks ambition to be a great businessman.It is not surprising that such a person conflicts with me.

The conflict that led to our eventual parting ways was due to the company's dividends to shareholders.We did a good job that year and made a lot of money, but I don't want shareholders to take home all the money the company earned. I hope to reward half of the profits and invest them in the company's operations.But Andrews firmly opposed it. This selfish guy wanted to share all the money he earned, and even angrily threatened me that he didn't want to continue working in the company.I can't stand any thought of stopping the company from being strong. I can only show my cards to him and ask him to offer a price for the stock he holds. He said one million. I said no problem. I bought it for one million the next day. .

As soon as the money came in hand, Andrews was very excited. He thought he was lucky, and thought that the stock he held was not worth a million at all.But he didn't expect that I would make 300,000 yuan in a short time.When this matter got to him, he even scolded me for being despicable.I didn't want to get a despicable reputation just because it was only 300,000 yuan, so I sent someone to tell him that he could get it back at the original price.But an annoyed Andrews rejected my offer.In fact, what he rejected was an opportunity to become the richest man in the United States. If he could keep his one million worth of stocks until today, he would become a multi-millionaire of course.But in order to gamble for a while, he lost the opportunity that he could never catch in his life.

John, there are too many people and things in this world that require us to endure, and too many people and things that tempt us to be emotional.Therefore, you have to cultivate your ability to manage your emotions and control your emotions. You should pay attention not to be influenced by emotions when making decisions, but to make decisions based entirely on your needs, and you must always know what you want.You also need to know that in the world of opportunities, there are not many opportunities to fight for. If you really want to succeed, you must grasp and protect your own opportunities, and even try to snatch others' opportunities.

Remember, keep patience on your body every day, it will bring you happiness, opportunity and success. love your father