It is said to be a letter written by HP’s former president before he left. Everyone, take a look and share your thoughts.

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This letter can be found everywhere on the internet; it’s not clear where it first appeared, so I don’t dare to post the URLs where it was shared. I’m not sure if posting here violates the rules of copyright. If there are any violations, please ask the moderator for forgiveness and guidance. Actually, I agree with this letter. This letter is written in a very genuine, practical, and reasonable manner; even those of us who are impetuous in the workplace can draw some valuable insights from it. I wonder what everyone thinks. Please join actively and share your thoughts. The above text is my original creation; the following is reproduced. :):lol I’ve made an interesting observation: foreign companies are full of white-collar workers aged 25–35, with very few employees over 40. Employees in their twenties and thirties in foreign companies are full of energy, but managers around 40 in such companies find themselves in an awkward situation. The foreign company managers around 40 years old I’ve met **have mostly been changing jobs, and in the end most of them ended up working for private companies; for example, Tang Jun. The success of employees in foreign companies is largely a reflection of the company’s success, not their personal success. Siemens is indeed larger than Gome, but that does not mean that Siemens’ managers in China are better than Gome’s bosses; in fact, they are quite far behind. Those who work in foreign companies often fail to realize this early on; they attribute 90% of their success to their own abilities. In reality, simply replacing the general manager for the Chinese market in such companies does not have a significant impact on performance. Well, here’s the question: when these managers reach their 40s, their salary demands become very high, yet their talents aren’t that outstanding. As the owner of a foreign-owned company, how would you make your choice? Some positions just require young people who are not highly paid but are outstandingly smart, capable, and full of energy; while for other positions, the question is: why use you at all? 　　 From this example, we can actually see the trajectory of our lives: in our twenties and thirties, the pressures of life are relatively low, our health is good, our parents are still in good health, we don’t have any children, we don’t need to pay off a mortgage, and there are no children attending college. Being a junior employee in a foreign company is a pretty attractive option; the salary may not be high, but it’s enough for our needs. But in the end, people have to get married and have children; they will eventually grow old. By the age of 40, one’s parents are old and need medical care and medication, as well as someone to take care of them. One also has to pay off mortgage loans, maintain a decent standard of living, and raise children... It becomes important to know how much money is needed to cover all these expenses. Therefore, when looking at work, one should take a broader perspective; temporary differences in who is ahead or behind mean nothing. 　　 From this perspective, I am not in favor of paying too much attention to the salary of one’s first job; there is no need to compare the salaries of different first jobs either, and this is quite common among students who have just graduated from college. Normally, **in summary, it’s a 35-year journey – akin to a marathon. The difference from an actual marathon is that there are no professional athletes in this ‘race’, and everyone has only one chance. It should be noted that many people don’t even manage to reach the finish line; most people do make it to the end, while only a few actually cross the finish line. Therefore, trying to take the lead at the beginning isn’t very meaningful. When you first enter the workforce and land a job at one of the Fortune 500 companies, you can expect to earn around 3k–6k per month; those with highly specialized skills might be able to earn up to 8k per month. But the question is, how much will you earn after 5 years? 5k-10k is considered amazing I guess. Although the starting point is high, the growth rate is limited, and moreover, the pressure from younger people catching up is increasing. 　　 A couple of days ago I asked one of my salespeople: A newcomer can learn all these things in just 2 years, but they only ask for half of your salary. What will you do then? 　　 A career is like a sports competition, with preliminaries, quarterfinals, and finals. During the preliminary rounds, everyone had just entered the working world, and most of them had average abilities. At that time, putting in extra effort and being diligent could help one stand out quickly; as a result, some people became managers in their twenties, while others managed to succeed in the preliminary rounds later on and became managers in their thirties. Then comes the knockout round; those who qualify for it are those who won the preliminary rounds. Everyone there has certain skills, and there’s no shortage of intelligence. It becomes much harder to win at this stage – just a little effort and dedication aren’t enough; one needs strong perseverance, the ability to rely on the power of a team, the skill to win over people’s hearts, and a long-term perspective... It seems difficult to win the knockout round, but it’s not that hard after all. For the rule of this world is to give people a bit of success in order to make them proud and complacent. Those who have just won the preliminary round often don’t realize that what they’ve achieved is only at that preliminary level. With a small success, most people become proud and complacent, thinking they already understand everything and that they no longer need to work hard or learn more*. They believe that the reason they can’t go any further is not their own fault. Although they remain difficult to deal with, they lack patience, have no tolerance for others, and certainly no clear long-term vision. Just like an angry bull, though fierce, it will ultimately be defeated; whereas the winner of the rematch is like a matador, calm and unhurried, moving at his own pace to gradually drain the opponent’s patience and strength. After winning the playoffs, one has already become a highly accomplished professional manager, serving as the general manager of small to medium-sized companies or the deputy general manager of larger firms, overseeing businesses worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions per year. 　　 The final match has arrived. To be honest, I haven’t won a final myself yet, so I can only guess what will determine the outcome of this final. In such situations, winning or losing might be just as described in martial arts novels – everyone is an expert, and one can only wait for the opponent to make a mistake; it’s impossible to defeat the opponent easily. One needs to use all their skills, along with a bit of luck and time. The laws of the world still hold true; those who win the semifinals are not just full of pride and arrogance – they tend to be stubborn and unwilling to listen to others. Some of them become irritable, their mood becomes unstable, and their health deteriorates. Their greatest enemy is themselves. In the final, all they need to do is avoid being defeated by themselves, and wait for others to be defeated by them. It’s the same as sports competitions; in the final matches between the best players, it’s whoever makes fewer mistakes that wins the championship. 1: Root cause Are you happy at work? Is your work going well? Have you ever felt unhappy at work after working there for a while? Have you ever felt like you chose the wrong career? Have you ever felt that you haven’t been treated fairly? Do you feel like work is a mess and that going to work every day is a pain? Do you really want to change jobs? Don’t you think that companies these days aren’t as good as we once imagined? Have you ever felt that you took this job out of necessity due to financial pressures, and it’s really not right for you? Have you gotten what you wanted from your work? Are you happy every day? 　　 There are many angry people in the world; have you ever thought about why you aren’t happy? Why are you angry? In fact, the reason you’re unhappy is that you don’t know what you want! You don’t know what you want, so you don’t know what to pursue; you don’t know what to pursue, so you get nothing. 　　 I always feel that in one’s career, the first thing to focus on is oneself – what does one want? Most people **have never thought about this issue; their only thought is – I want a job, I want a good salary. I know everyone desires a good salary, but do you really want to go through the process of looking for a job again every few years? Do you want to spend every year in this anxiety over work and salary? If you don’t want to, think it through carefully. It’s like trying to quench thirst by drinking poison; one shouldn’t drink poison desperately just because they are thirsty. The more anxious you are, the more you feel the need to find a job; the more desperate you become, the less clear your thinking becomes, and the easier it is to fail. Your work experience gets worse and worse, and potential employers frown at your resume as soon as they see it. So the more you drink, the thirstier you get, and the thirstier you are, the more you drink, falling into a vicious cycle. In the end, one can only lament the unfairness of the world or the fact of being born at the wrong time; one can only go to distant places to vent one’s feelings, seeking a sense of psychological balance among those who have also suffered failures. Most people face pressures to survive, and I am no exception. Such pressures bring a lot of anxiety; positive people use that anxiety as motivation, while negative people get lost because of it. Everyone has to make choices under pressure; that’s just the way the world is, whether you like it or not. 　　 Generally, the tasks we handle are divided into important ones and urgent ones; if we don’t deal with the important tasks, we tend to focus on the urgent ones. For example, exercising to stay healthy is an important thing, while seeing a doctor is an urgent matter. If one does not exercise to stay healthy, they will often suffer from illnesses. Another example is that fire prevention is important, while firefighting is an emergency; if fire prevention is not taken seriously, firefighting will have to be carried out frequently. The same is true when looking for a job; it’s important to figure out exactly what you want. Finding a job is an urgent matter, and if you don’t decide ahead of time, you’ll end up having to keep looking for one. Urgent matters often exert considerable pressure, forcing people to act quickly, while relatively less important tasks do not create as much pressure. Most people are driven by pressure to act; under such pressure, they feel they must deal with the urgent tasks first, which results in being constantly busy dealing with emergencies with no time to rest. (Many people’s work is just as busy and stressful as that of a fire brigade, also because they fail to accomplish the important tasks at work.) ) Those friends who say they are living in difficult circumstances and don’t have time to worry about such things because they need to survive – the difficulty in finding a job today is due to the fact that you didn’t do what was important back then; it’s a consequence, not a cause. If you still choose not to think about it today because you’re in a hurry to find a job, then you might have to continue suffering as you search for one in the future. I’ve always felt that the topic I want to discuss is a bit heavy, requiring a lot of thought; it’s far more dull than the topics discussed by Tang Xiao. But there is no easy way to achieve success – success comes at a cost. Please forget all the pressures of survival for a moment, and think about what you want most in life So, the most important thing is to first figure out what you want. II: What is a good job? Back then at Microsoft, there was Tang Jun, and many young people from universities thought that this was the kind of career path they aspired to. The posts I made on Tsinghua BBS were dismissed by those students; at that time they only wanted to go abroad or work for foreign companies. But looking back, I was right – Tang Jun went to Shanda, the company founded by Chen Tianqiao, a private enterprise. It is the dream of many young people to work for a Fortune 500 company and earn a high salary as a highly educated returnee; the problem is that every year new graduates have this dream, yet there are only 500 such good positions available. 　　 People care about their reputation and like to compare themselves with others; even at work they tend to do this, whether it’s something they really want or not. Everyone thinks foreign companies are great, but what is so great about them? Well, they’re in a pretty good office building – is that what you want? They stay in nice hotels on business trips – is that what you want? Others will envy a job at a foreign company – is that what you want? It’s all for others to see; why do you have to live such a hard life just to show it to them? On the other hand, their salaries and benefits are average – nothing special – and they have few opportunities for promotion, making it difficult for them to reach high-level management positions. Although they dislike having to work overtime frequently, they don’t dare to avoid it because \"if you don’t do it, someone else will.\" In most cases, a Taiwanese or Singaporean is assigned to supervise them, and these people often have an inexplicable sense of superiority. Have you thought it through? Is being in the top 500 necessarily good? When looking for a job, should you consider what you want, or what others want to see? 　　 Most of my college classmates have gone to the United States; even though it’s been so many years since graduation, some of them have recently left for abroad as well. Is going abroad really that good? Most of my university classmates are still struggling with doctoral, postdoctoral, or visiting scholar positions; to this day, only one of them has secured a proper teaching position at an American university. Is it difficult to be a professor in China? I have a few cousins who have also gone abroad; their parents are left alone in the country with no one to take care of them. On several occasions, they fainted at home without anyone knowing. Is going abroad really that glorious? As some people say, \"Many things are like watching porn; those who watch it find it enjoyable, but those who do it may not.\" ” 　　 People always want to find the best one, but what is the best? Do you think it’s the best one because you truly understand it, or because others say it’s the best? Just because he is the best to others, does that mean he will necessarily be the best to you as well? 　　 One should be the clearest about what one wants; other people’s opinions are not that important. Many people are often influenced by the opinions of others – their relatives’, friends’, colleagues’. The question is, whose life are you supposed to live? One’s life is not a continuation of one’s parents’ life, nor a prequel to one’s children’s life, nor an addendum to one’s friends’ life. Only you are responsible for your own life; no one else can or should take that responsibility. If you make your own decisions, at least in the end you have nothing to regret. For most people with normal intelligence, there is no clear right or wrong in the decisions they make; any choice can be tried. For example, if you don’t get into the school you applied to or don’t enter this industry, can you not go on living your life? Will it be a complete failure? Not necessarily. 　　 I think a good job is one that suits you; more specifically, it’s one that can give you what you want. You should use this as a standard to determine whether a job is good or not, rather than judging it based on the size of the company, whether it’s a foreign or domestic enterprise, its reputation, or whether it’s listed on the stock market. A small company is not necessarily a bad one, and a job that pays well is not necessarily a good job. You still need to figure out first what you want. If you’re not clear about what you want, you’ll never find a good job, because you’ll only see the things you can’t get; everything you do get is something you don’t want. 　　 Perhaps, the best thing is already right beside you; it’s just that you haven’t yet learned to cherish it. People always focus on what they can’t get, ignoring what they already have. III: Ordinary people 　　 I have found that there is a significant difference between the motivational concepts in China and those abroad. In China, motivation tends to encourage people to set great ambitions, to endure hardships, with the goal of becoming wealthy and successful one day. In contrast, motivational stories from abroad encourage people to face real life bravely and the challenges faced by ordinary people. Although the outcome in both cases is success and prosperity, the starting points are different. Relatively speaking, I think the latter approach is more practical in terms of implementation, while the former requires 999 failures to create one story of success. 　　 We are all ordinary people, and by ordinary people, I mean that probabilities are quite accurate. Therefore, we won’t win 5 million in the lottery, we won’t become Bill Gates or Li Ka-shing, we won’t die in a plane crash, few of us will be successful in starting our own businesses, 30% of us will get divorced, and most of us will live past 65… So please be more realistic when thinking about what you want; if you say you want to be like Li Ka-shing, I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that. Becoming someone like Bill Gates or Li Ka-shing depends on fate; reading the article I wrote will by no means make you one of them, and even if you do become them, it certainly won’t be thanks to my article. “\"Are princes, dukes, generals, and ministers born with such status?\" Yet there is only one person who truly becomes an emperor, and the number of princes, dukes, generals, and ministers is not large. Setting high goals is beneficial for those who enjoy challenges, but for most ordinary people, it can easily lead to frustration and cause them to give up. 　　 Looking back, Li Ka-shing is roughly 500,000 times richer than you – is he happier than you? Maybe. There is no one who is 500,000 times happier than you; definitely not. He is at most one or two times happier than you, and it’s even possible that he isn’t as happy as you are. Finding what one wants is not about competing with others to get more or higher, or to have greater goals than them. Although achieving the goal of becoming Li Ka-shing is an ambitious one, you won’t necessarily find happiness in that goal or in the process of striving to achieve it, and basically you won’t be able to do it. You must listen to the voice within you and find what can truly bring you happiness; that is what you really want. 　　 What you desire, or what we might call goals, aren’t actually ranked as being higher or lower in importance. There’s no need to feel ashamed if your goals aren’t as ambitious as those of others; achieving your own goals is success in itself. Success can come in different sizes, but happiness remains the same. We pursue success; in reality, what we are chasing is the happiness that comes with it, not success itself. On the path of our careers, we are often blinded by a competitive mindset, forgetting what it is we are actually striving for and what can make us happier. 　　 There are many news stories in society about people becoming rich overnight. Such news always creates ripples in our hearts; when there are too many such ripples, they turn into turbulent waves. These turbulent waves in our hearts will not only capsize the boat that carries your goals but also won’t make you rich overnight. “Only the thief eating meat is seen, not the thief getting beaten. ”We ordinary people neither have the courage to be thieves nor the determination needed for it; although we envy those who can eat meat, we are even more afraid of being beaten. Occasionally, when we see a few thieves who haven’t been punished, we can’t help but feel upset, or think that it’s unfair, but if we were actually forced to become thieves, we wouldn’t dare to. 　　 I still lead an ordinary life, seeking the simple joys of everyday life; at least I can sleep at night. IV: Changing Jobs and Building Experience It should be noted that working is a matter that requires rationality; therefore, don’t be stubborn at work. There might be people out there who think you’re distinctive and praise you for it, but gas companies and telephone companies won’t waive your bills just because you consider yourself unique. When you effortlessly fire your boss or cleverly tease the HR person in charge of recruitment, the bills still have to be paid; you just have less time to earn money. No one other than you suffers any loss. 　　 I’m not against changing jobs, but switching jobs is by no means a solution to problems. Moreover, frequent job changes give the impression of a lack of loyalty and prevent one from being able to work with focus. These days, many people look for jobs online, and many job-seeking websites often give bad advice. After all, they are profit-driven companies, so they naturally have to consider their own profits. The more frequently people change jobs or look for work, the better business they do; therefore, encouraging people to change jobs is part of their job. So they will often tell you that your salary is too low and that the benefits you receive are poor, with all these so-called \"salary updates\" and talks about \"free-spirited souls.\" As for whether this will prevent you from feeling at ease, whether changing jobs solves the problem or makes you happier, well, they have no say in that. 　　 There must be some problem if one decides to change jobs. Generally speaking, once a problem arises, it cannot be avoided. Many people change jobs due to various sources of dissatisfaction, and if such dissatisfaction cannot be resolved in the current company, it is likely that it won’t be resolved either in the next company. You must believe that, in 90% of cases, the company you work for isn’t that bad, and the companies you think are good aren’t that great either. As it is said in The Siege, “The people inside the city desperately try to get out, while those outside the city desperately try to get in.” ”Every company has its own problems; there is no company that has no problems. In a different environment, you never know what problems you might encounter; rather than waiting, it’s better to solve the problems right away. Many problems, when you really want to solve them, might not be that difficult. Sometimes you think a problem cannot be solved, but in fact, that’s just what you think. 　　 The curve of life should be one that rises gradually; there may be dips from time to time, but the overall trend is upward. It shouldn’t be like a pulse wave that keeps returning to its starting point. I’ve met many candidates in their 30s who have had four or five jobs, with each tenure lasting anywhere from 1 year to 3 years. In their 30s, they end up back at the starting point, having to start over in a junior position and earn a basic salary, competing with younger people in their 20s. Doesn’t that seem a bit tough? Is it easy to live like this? 　　 I strongly disapprove of changing industries after working in one for more than 3 years. Basically, before the age of 35, our means of survival depend on hard work, while after that age it depends on accumulation – accumulation that includes interpersonal relationships, experience, networks, and a good reputation. If one keeps changing industries, all that effort spent over several years is wasted, and everything has to start from scratch. If someone has changed industries twice, they will have accumulated less than 5 years of experience by the age of 35, whereas someone who has never changed industries will have at least 10 years of experience. Who has the advantage? After working for 2-3 years, many people feel that things are not going well at work; it seems they have reached a bottleneck, and feeling frustrated, they think about quitting or even changing industries, believing that this way they can get rid of all their troubles and things will be much better. In fact, doing this only means starting over; the same difficulties as in the original industry will still arise. If you manage to get through them, you’ll take a big step forward. Keep in mind that everyone goes through this process – everyone faces several bottlenecks in their career. If you manage to overcome them while others don’t, you’ll be ahead. Those who run long distances know that it’s easy at the beginning, but soon the first wave of discomfort sets in; after getting past that, one can run for a long distance. Then the second wave of discomfort occurs, and after overcoming that as well, one can run some more. This process repeats itself, with each wave of discomfort becoming more intense until eventually it becomes impossible to continue running. Most people can’t hold on on the first try; some manage to last until the second attempt. By the third attempt, no one can hold on anymore, and not many people are left who have made it this far. That amount of capital is enough for you to live a comfortable life for the rest of your days. 　　 After working at a job for two to three years, most people become proficient in their tasks. At this point, they often find themselves engaged in repetitive work, which can lead to boredom for many; some people think they have understood everything and thus stop striving for improvement. In many cases, changing jobs is because one loses interest and feels that they have already achieved their goals. In fact, at this stage the competition has just begun. Those who have been working for two or three years still lack sufficient client relationships, networking, subordinates, and good relations with their supervisors, as well as a solid reputation in the industry. Yet those who have achieved some success tend to be overconfident; they think they have extremely strong relationships with their clients and that they enjoy a great reputation in the industry. It’s certain that it’s not the case; at this time, it’s still necessary to bring forth the same enthusiasm as in the previous two years, to proceed steadily, as the process of accumulation has just begun. 　　 Do you know your clients well enough? Do you know what his biggest worry is? Do you know your boss well enough? Do you know what his biggest worry is? Do you know your subordinates well enough? Do you know what his biggest worry is? If you don’t know, how can you think you’ve already accumulated enough? If you don’t even understand it, how can you ask them to help you do what you want them to do? If they don’t do what you want them to do, how can you achieve success?