Third Cohort, Session 3 · Introduction

Theme of this session: Intentions and ecology, direction and perseverance, the art of reading people

Quick navigation

Find by topic

Search by question

Key Quotes at a Glance

Intent and Motivation

• "What matters in forming an intention is its purpose and motive; standing up for the weak is justice."
• "The strong must cherish the weak. A virus does not destroy humanity because it needs a host."
• "Stand up for the weak, take down the strong, and act in the name of heaven."

Direction and Persistence

• "With the right direction and the right method, the goal can definitely be achieved."
• "Quantitative change leads to qualitative change, qualitative change leads to a phase change, and a phase change leads to total transformation."
• "Knowing that you are not suited to something is, in itself, the right answer."

Reading People

• "The essence of reading people is understanding the situation: their social identity, professional attributes, and personality."
• "Kindness does not make a good commander, and righteousness does not make a fortune; a boss must have a bit of a bandit’s nature."
• "Staying calm in a crisis is an unmistakable sign of a great general."

Strategic Interaction

• "Strategy is the goal, Guiguzi is the means, and helping someone win is the original intention."
• "Inner conflict is a battle between heaven and man; one action is better than thinking too much."
• "The more you do, the more you learn what you can and cannot do—and the less you’ll be caught in inner conflict."

The “loser” persona category

• "If you can calmly accept that you are a loser, you are a strong person."
• "A person without shame is invincible under heaven."
• "The way of utmost sincerity: being sincere to the point of shamelessness."

Workplace category

• "If there are no opportunities internally, seek external forces."
• "You are the broker and front for transactions between internal and external parties."
• "Traffic is more powerful than the supply chain; once traffic is large enough, even taking 80% is fine."

Financial advancement category

• "Cashier → accountant → financial reporting → tax planning → equity → family succession."
• "From doing things to conducting oneself; from execution to design."
• "Equity is there to mediate disputes and make shareholders recognize their value."

Core Models Quick Reference

Model for evaluating one’s initial intentions

• Justice of one’s initial intentions:
  • For the sake of the weak → Just
  • The strong competing against the strong → Just
  • Bullying the weak → Evil intent
  • Supporting the weak and eliminating the strong → Upholding heaven’s justice

Evaluating whether the direction is correct

方向正确 → 量变 → 质变 → 相变 → 全变
    ↑
方法正确（可复制、可验证）

Four-dimensional model for understanding people

识人 = 社会身份 + 职业属性 + 性格 + 气场

Workplace breakthrough model

内部瓶颈 → 找外部势力 → 成为掮客/白手套 → 绕过内部竞争

Financial advancement path

出纳 → 会计 → 财报 → 税筹 → 股权 → 家族
(执行)  (执行)  (分析)  (设计)  (设计)  (战略)

Key Action Checklist

Do This Now

• ☐ Examine your initial intentions: Are they for the weak, or are you bullying the weak?
• ☐ Evaluate your current direction: Is it correct? Is there any feedback?
• ☐ Observe the people around you: Practice the four-dimensional method of understanding people
• ☐ Break free from internal friction: Replace thinking a hundred times with one action
• ☐ Find what you love: Test your talents

Short-term goals

• ☐ Establish the right direction and feedback loop
• ☐ Practice the art of understanding people and verify its accuracy
• ☐ Show your authentic self on social media, even if you are a loser
• ☐ Seek external forces outside the workplace
• ☐ Plan your financial and career advancement path

Long-term goals

• ☐ Develop your own system of thought based on the Dao of Heaven and Guigu philosophy
• ☐ Become an expert/model worker in a particular field
• ☐ Build a network of external allies
• ☐ Progress from getting things done to navigating relationships/shaping situations
• ☐ Achieve financial freedom and freedom of mind

Recommended reading list

Study Recommendations

Step 1: Examine Your Intentions (1 week)

• Examine your own motives
• Clarify whether your aim is to help the vulnerable or bully them
• Establish sound values

Step 2: Direction and Methods (2-4 weeks)

• Assess whether your current direction is right
• Find sound, replicable methods
• Create a positive feedback loop

Step 3: Assessing and Employing People (1-3 months)

• Practice the four-dimensional method for assessing people
• Verify the accuracy of your judgments
• Apply it to real relationships

Step 4: Putting Breakthrough Strategies into Practice (3-12 months)

• Seek external allies
• Create a content creator account
• Put strategies for overcoming workplace impasses into practice

Important Reminder

1. Your intentions determine the nature of your actions: The same tactics can produce different outcomes when the motives differ
2. Direction matters more than effort: The wrong direction only gets more wrong the harder you persist
3. Take action to break the cycle of overthinking: Doing it once beats thinking about it a hundred times
4. Sincerity is unbeatable: Even someone with a useless persona can win
5. External forces are key: Internal bottlenecks must be broken through from the outside
6. There’s a path to advancement: From doing things to dealing with people, from execution to design

Knowledge Graph

📺 Topics: Intentions, direction and persistence, reading people, breaking through workplace barriers

Module 1: Intentions and ecosystems

Core questions

• Does using Guiguzi’s strategies to fight for one’s rights violate the law of cause and effect?
• Look at one’s intentions and position in the ecosystem

Three elements of intention

1. Motivation: Who is it for?

• For the sake of the weak → Just
• For the majority → Righteous
• For personal gain → Evil intent

1. Target: Who is it aimed at?

• The strong competing against the strong → Just
• Help the weak and curb the strong → Righteous
• Bullying the weak → Evil intent

1. Means: What methods are used?

• Methods themselves are neither good nor evil
• Consider the target and the motivation
• Help the weak and curb the strong: even the most reprehensible methods are righteous

Position in the ecosystem

• Rules of the ecosystem:
  • Wolves eat sheep → In keeping with the ecosystem → Balance
  • Wolves eat wolves → Strong compete with strong → Competition
  • Wolves drive sheep to extinction → Not in keeping with the ecosystem → Self-destruction
  • Viruses and humans → Coexistence → Balance
• Lessons:
  • The strong must protect the weak
  • Don’t wipe them out completely
  • Maintain ecological balance
  • Otherwise, we will destroy ourselves

Stand up for the weak and oppose the strong

• The standard of justice:
  • For the weak
  • Oppose the strong
  • Protect the majority
  • Act in the name of justice
• Examples:
  • Stand up to the father and protect the mother → justice
  • Unite the weak to oppose the strong → justice
  • Promote the well-being of the majority → justice
  • Bullying the weak for personal gain → evil intent

Module 2: Direction and Perseverance

Core questions

• What should you do when you get stuck in a cycle of self-defeating thoughts before finding a solution?
• The direction is wrong, and the method is wrong.

From quantitative change to qualitative change

• Quantitative change → qualitative change → phase change → total transformation
• Prerequisites:
  • The direction is right
  • The method is right
  • Repeat consistently
• Examples:
  • Eat a little less every day → you will definitely lose weight
  • Run for 10 seconds every day → run 9.8 seconds a month later
  • Keep doing the right things → results will definitely follow

How to determine whether the direction is right

1. Find role models

• Find ten mentors
• Nine say the methods are consistent
• The overall direction is right

1. Replicable

• The method is repeatable
• The results are verifiable
• It is not an isolated case

1. There is feedback

• Action leads to results
• Adjust based on feedback
• Keep improving

Knowing something isn’t right for you is also a good outcome

• Giving it your all, then realizing it isn’t right for you:
  • That’s also the right outcome
  • Realizing you can’t do it is a moment of clarity
  • Cut your losses in time and change course
  • Better than refusing to see the truth
• Examples:
  • A year of livestreaming with no progress → give up being on camera and work behind the scenes
  • Realizing after ten years of marriage that you’re not right for each other → divorce is the right choice
  • Trying desperately and realizing it won’t work → change direction
  • Knowing you can’t do it → that itself is a success

Module Three: The Art of Reading People

The Four-Dimension Method for Reading People

识人 = 社会身份 + 职业属性 + 性格 + 气场

A Detailed Look at Each Dimension

Key Assessment

1. Whether their dress and speech fit their status

• No matter how affable a boss is, they must be ruthless behind closed doors
• Kindness cannot command an army; righteousness cannot build wealth
• Ruthless and a person of few words

1. Does your personality fit your profession?

• Weak people can't be bosses
• Police have to be more like bandits than the bandits themselves
• Doctors are meticulous; lawyers have strong logical reasoning

1. Reactions in the face of danger

• Fearless in a crisis → The makings of a great commander
• Wavering between two sides → Not someone to get close to
• Critical moments reveal true character

Module Four: Strategic Interaction and Guiguzi

The Core Difference

博弈 = 目的（输赢）
鬼谷 = 手段（方法）
初心 = 动机（帮谁赢，赢后干什么）

An inner battle between principle and desire

• Playing against yourself = Internal friction
• Manifestations:
  • "I should study" vs "Gaming feels great"
  • "He doesn't love me" vs "Hang in there a little longer"
  • Thinking too much and doing too little
  • Being at odds with yourself
• Breaking the cycle:
  • Take action to break the cycle of overthinking
  • Doing it once beats thinking about it a hundred times
  • Test and validate ideas
  • The more you do, the better you understand what's doable

The importance of action

• ❌ Internal friction mode:
• Think → Hesitate → Think again → Hesitate more → Doubt yourself
• ✅ Action mode:
• Think → Act → Get feedback → Adjust → Succeed
• The key:
  • Validate your intentions through action
  • Action generates energizing feedback
  • The more you do, the more confident you become
  • The more you do, the better you understand the limits

Module Five: Being Useless and Being Sincere

The "useless person" persona

• How ordinary people/losers can become content creators:
  • Show your authentic self
  • Even losers have value
  • Be sincere to the point of shamelessness
  • The way of utmost sincerity
• The logic:
  • Everyone is pretending to be a badass
  • Admit you're a loser
  • And you actually stand out
  • Sincerity touches people's hearts

The power of sincerity

• Fu Hang's example:
  • Admit you're a loser
  • But keep doing your best to get by
  • Move the audience with sincerity
  • Win the championship
• Core points:
  • Know you're a loser → You're actually strong
  • Don't know you're a loser and still show off → A real loser
  • Sincerity is unbeatable
  • Have no shame, and you're unbeatable

Find what you love

• Method: Experiment
  • Try different fields
  • Find what makes you different
  • A niche hobby could also be a talent
  • Gaming, diving, and cooking are all possibilities
• The key:
  • It has to make money
  • The prerequisite for parental support: Be able to support yourself
  • Let your child try an esports school
  • If they can't handle it, they can go back to studying

Module 6: Breaking Through Career Barriers

Overcoming internal bottlenecks

• No internal openings + infighting among coworkers
• Seek outside support
• Become a broker/front man
• Bypass internal competition

Historical Examples

• The Qing Dynasty structure:
  • The Great Qing (internal)
  • The Hunan Army (local power)
  • The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (rebels)
  • Foreign capital (external forces)
• Results:
  • The Great Qing + the Hunan Army + foreign capital → defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
  • Internal forces joining with external forces
  • Maintain stable rule

Modern applications

• When facing internal bottlenecks:
  • Don't put all your energy into internal matters
  • Network externally
  • Find the external resources your boss needs
  • Become the connection point between internal and external parties
  • Rise by bypassing internal competition
• Examples:
  • Build good relationships with sponsors
  • Have sponsors designate you as the host
  • Directly bypass internal competition
  • Even buy your own time slot and operate independently

Module Seven: Advanced Equity and Finance

Financial advancement path

出纳 → 会计 → 财报 → 税筹 → 股权 → 家族
(执行)  (执行)  (分析)  (设计)  (设计)  (战略)

Detailed breakdown by stage

The Power of Equity

• The role of equity:
  • Mediate disputes: help shareholders clarify value
  • Restructure: redistribute based on contributions
  • Capital increase and share expansion: dilute those who don't participate
  • Buyback: enable unsuitable parties to exit
  • Balance: resolve conflicts among shareholders
• Examples:
  • Three people split equity equally → different contributions → conflict
  • Equity expert steps in → reassessment → restructuring
  • Eldest: 20%, second: 30%, third: 50%
  • Not satisfied? Buy them out or dilute their stake through a capital increase
  • Resolve disputes

From doing tasks to managing people

• Career path in finance:
  • Cashier, accountant → execution
  • Financial statements, tax planning → analysis (design)
  • Equity, family → managing people (strategy)
  • The higher you go, the more valuable you become
• The key:
  • Don't remain at the execution level
  • Learn to analyze and design
  • Ultimately move up to managing people and shaping the game
  • From a cog in the machine to a designer

Practical application roadmap

Stage 1: Establishing Values (1 week)

• Clarify the standards behind your intentions
• Commit to supporting the weak and opposing the powerful
• Develop an ecosystem-balance mindset

Stage 2: Developing a Methodology (2-4 weeks)

• Find the right direction and methods
• Create a positive feedback loop
• Test your natural talents

Stage 3: Mastering Tools (1-3 months)

• Practice the four-dimensional method for assessing people
• Master strategic interaction and Guiguzi's tactics
• Break free from internal friction and take action

Stage 4: Building a Personal Brand (3-6 months)

• Show your authentic self
• Build a distinctive personal brand
• Win people's hearts with sincerity

Stage 5: Breaking Through Career Barriers (6-12 months)

• Seek external allies
• Become a broker/front man
• Get ahead by seizing unconventional opportunities

Stage 6: Advancing to a Higher Level (long-term)

• From doing tasks to managing people
• From execution to design
• From employee to boss

Core principle

• Intentions: Support the weak, oppose the powerful, and uphold justice on Heaven's behalf
• Direction and methods: The right, replicable path
• Reading people: Social identity + professional traits + personality + presence
• Strategic interaction and Guiguzi's tactics: Winning is the goal, tactics are the methods, and original intentions are the motivation
• The underdog's sincerity: Be sincere to the point of shamelessness; those without shame are invincible
• Breaking through career barriers: If there are no opportunities internally, seek outside support
• Financial advancement: Cashier → accounting → financial reporting → tax planning → equity → family wealth
• Support the Weak and Oppose the Powerful · The Path of Utmost Sincerity · Overcome Internal Friction Through Action · Advance to a Higher Level