For a while I was very busy in the office, often working overtime until seven or eight in the evening. It was almost eight o'clock one night, and I found out that there was a newly established company that seemed to be able to cooperate, so I asked the assistant to dial the phone. My assistant smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, do you know what time it is? People get off work early." I asked her, "How do you know that people leave work early?" The assistant said, "Of course. It's eight o'clock now, and only we are still working overtime." I asked her again: "Since we can work overtime, why can't others work overtime?" Then, I insisted on calling her.
I was overjoyed that the phone got through, and I said humorously, "It's not easy, why are you still working!" The other party also said humorously, "Yes! If you don't think I'm still at work, how could you possibly call me? Are you working too?" As a result, we found that both sides were very hardworking and very efficient. Then we talked about cooperation, and it was concluded in two or three times. Let me tell you another story: One day I was writing a manuscript in the office by myself, and suddenly the phone rang. When I picked it up, it was a student who wanted to invite me to give a speech at his school. Because I was interrupted by Vance, I was a little unhappy. I asked him, "Do you know what time it is? How could you think I'm still in the office?" The student said, "Because I called during the day and your secretary said you weren't there, I'll try calling at night. Maybe luckily, you'll be there. Sure enough, I found you." In the end, because I was busy at the time, I had already skipped the lecture. The perseverance of this student moved me, and I actually agreed. The story of these two phone calls is to say: in the world, those who can suddenly emerge and achieve great achievements are often those who "know that they can't do it". Therefore, there is a saying in the West - "The greatest adventure is not to dare to take risks". Many people fail, not because they are incapable or inexperienced, but often because they dare not try. Just like the assistant I mentioned earlier, before I tried it, he said arbitrarily: "He got off work early!" When you should call, you don't call, and you make excuses to say that people must be off work, which is speculation and arbitrariness. When you find out that your previous view was wrong, and you still insist on not changing it, it is self-righteous stubbornness. Let's take another real example. One day, I went to eat Japanese food with a couple. The husband said he wanted coffee. Before asking the waiter, the wife had already laughed: "Husband! You eat Japanese food. They only have tea, not coffee." The husband asked his wife: "If you don't ask, how do you know? Maybe there is." Then, I called the waiter to ask, and sure enough, there was coffee, and it was served very quickly. The wife was very embarrassed and asked the waiter, "It's strange! I remember coming to you for dinner not long ago. I wanted coffee. You said that there is only tea and no coffee. Why is there today?" The waiter said, "Just because you asked for coffee last time, we didn't have it. Thinking that some customers might need it, we immediately entered a coffee machine." This incident gave me a lot of inspiration. That husband is "knowing that 80% of the time is not, but still asking." The wife is "presumably not, I think there is no need to ask". The restaurant is "since the guests need it, you can't stubbornly insist that Japanese cuisine does not sell coffee". Let's go back to the topic of phone calls. If your boss asked you to make a phone call when you were already off work no matter what you thought, would you be able to say no arbitrarily? "Knowing that you can't do it" is an important trait of a successful person!