Should we listen to the words of successful people? Today, I accidentally came across a speech by Lei Jun. He said not to envy geniuses, nor to envy the schools they entered, because 80% of people will not use the specific knowledge learned in college to do things in the future. Taking himself as an example, he started with WPS and has done many things across different fields up to today. So, the most important thing in college is to learn how to learn, which allows him to quickly transfer between various fields and specialties and learn new things rapidly. The things learned in college itself, as well as scoring 100 points, are ultimately of little use.

Is Lei Jun right? Yes, he is right, but the comment section is full of people saying he’s just talking chicken soup, that he’s a genius so he’s speaking from a position of privilege, that even a successful person’s fart smells good, and some say that people come to listen to his lectures because he is Lei Jun, not because what he says is actually correct.

Yes, people do come to listen to his lectures because he is Lei Jun, not because of what he says. But everyone’s time is limited. If we don’t listen to successful people, do we listen to unsuccessful ones? Successful people’s words are not always correct, but if we do not filter the sources of information, and mix in a bunch of mediocre opinions into Lei Jun’s or Jack Ma’s speeches, we will not accept everything blindly either. We will discern for ourselves and only listen to what makes sense. So, how much time do we waste every day on “trash dumping”?

This is a question of weighting. Content published by successful people in their fields of success should naturally carry higher credibility—whether it’s ultimately correct or not, we filter and verify ourselves, but the credibility should be weighted like this.

Unfortunately, many people, out of dislike for successful people or Lei Jun himself, mock everything he says. This is a behavioral flaw: they judge based on personal likes and dislikes, first dismissing others’ success as “just luck” or “just chicken soup,” to avoid low self-esteem. They first make themselves feel good, then desperately find reasons to support their emotional reactions afterward—this will not lead to progress.

Moreover, people tend to believe that “things they cannot change anymore” are the key to success, such as family background, talent, luck, or even degrees that can no longer be improved. They blame their current “inability” on these factors, which allows them to comfortably accept their situation and “lie flat.” If someone points out that the problem lies in things “people can still change through effort,” many will reject it because once they accept that, they have to act—yet most people are lazy. To justify laziness, they even deceive themselves, which is also an emotional priority.

Of course, there are many factors that contribute to success, but first, do not deceive yourself. While feeling comfortable physically and finding reasons to justify your emotions may be tempting, it will undoubtedly greatly damage your chances of success.