Story 1: The story of Nixon’s defeat by self-confidence.
Nixon is an American president we are very familiar with, but for such a big man, his political future was ruined because of a mistake that lacked self-confidence.
In 1972, Nixon ran for re-election. Due to his outstanding achievements in his first term, most political commentators predicted that Nixon would win with an overwhelming majority.
However, Nixon himself was very unconfident. He could not get over the psychological shadow of his past failures and was extremely worried about another failure. Driven by this subconscious mind, he did something stupid that he would regret for the rest of his life. He assigned his men to sneak into the Watergate Hotel, the headquarters of his opponent, and installed bugs in his office. After the incident, he repeatedly blocked investigations and shirked responsibility, and was forced to resign shortly after his victory in the election. Nixon, who was guaranteed victory, suffered a disastrous defeat due to lack of confidence.
David Rockefeller is the third generation of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest among the brothers and the most outstanding and capable one. His career is not in oil, but in the famous Bank of Manhattan, which ranks sixth among the top ten banks in the world. After he became the chairman and general manager of the bank's executive committee, the bank's capital increased from US$2 billion to a net asset value of US$3.4 billion. David was born in New York City in 1915. Although his family already had hundreds of millions of assets at that time, the children could only receive three cents of pocket money per week. At the same time, each child had to prepare a small account book and transfer the three cents as required by his father. The usage destination is registered above. After inspection, if the usage is reasonable, you can also get rewards. The allowance children received increased with age: at age eleven or twelve, they received a dollar a week, to about two dollars a week at fifteen. So when David grew up and left home, he already had many ledgers. In order to educate his children about the value of money from an early age, David's father deliberately put his children under financial pressure. Pocket money is very limited, what if you want to use more? There is only one way, earn it yourself. When David was a child, he knew how to make money from household miscellaneous things: catching mice in the attic would earn him five cents each, while the wages for chopping firewood, pulling weeds and other chores were calculated based on time. David had a trick up his sleeve. He managed to get a franchise to shine the family's shoes. However, he must get up before six o'clock in the morning in order to complete the work before the whole family gets up. Polishing a pair of leather shoes costs five cents and a pair of boots costs ten cents. David did not enjoy any super-rich life in his childhood. He wore the same ordinary clothes as a hired worker, and his life was simple, simple, tense and happy. He had a classmate in college who was a wealthy kid who spent money lavishly and got what he wanted before he even asked for it. But David said: "He is the most unfortunate person I know. He has been married three times and changed jobs several times. He will never develop his abilities. Growth inspiration: Self-improvement and self-reliance are the basics of everything we do. Starting point. David learned to be self-reliant, persisted and aggressive throughout his life, and finally made his own mark.
Edison came from a humble background and lived in poverty. His "education" was only 3 degrees in his life. When he was in elementary school for only 3 months, the teacher was always dumbfounded by his weird questions, and even told his mother that he was a fool and would have no future. Although Edison did not receive a good school education, he relied on his personal struggle and extraordinary achievements. With his intelligence, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-reliance, he achieved great success. He stood up from thousands of failures with perseverance, rare enthusiasm and energy, overcame countless difficulties and became an American inventor. , entrepreneur. He invented the automatic telegraph motor, the phonograph, and experimented with and improved electric lights (incandescent lamps) and telephones. During his lifetime, he invented a new invention every 15 days on average, and he was therefore known as the "King of Inventions." ". During the Kangxi period, Liu Yinshu, the governor of Guizhou, wanted to use his life savings to build a bridge for his hometown after returning to his hometown. However, his children opposed him: "You have been a high-ranking official all your life, but we have not received any glory. It is difficult to wait for you. Back home, you ignored us so much. "Liu Yinshu was very sad. He felt that although he was innocent, he had neglected the education of his children. So he spent all his savings and spent five years building the bridge and named it "Yuxiu Bridge." After the bridge was repaired, he said to his children : “The reason why I used all my savings to build the bridge is to tell you with facts that you can walk your own path and create your own life. It is better to rely on yourself than rely on heaven and earth.
"In order to completely eliminate the children's dependence on their parents, he sold the bridge to the government for fifteen taels of silver. What Liu Yinshu did deeply moved his children. His children later became the pillars of the country.