Years ago, Yang Yuanqing once asked Musk face to face in an interview: “If none of us do advertising anymore, will your industry still have something to eat?”

(Meaning: Musk had fewer customers at the time—only 30,000 users—while Yang had 100 million.)
But that line has been slapped in the face today—Musk basically doesn’t need marketing, yet he’s become a walking global headline.
As for that conversation from years ago, who had the last laugh—everyone today already knows.
But Brother Cat wants to ask: Why is it so easy for very successful people to miss the next era? Maybe you and I should think deeply as well.
Typical examples include Nokia, Kodak, Yahoo, Lenovo, and many others and so on.
Many of them are the same: they aren’t stupid—they were once kings.
They wanted to use the methods that brought them success in the past, and still try to make money today.
So no one wants to change, no one wants to adapt, and they keep carrying on with the old playbook.
But until the times no longer wait for them.
Brother Cat feels that maybe many people think Yang Yuanqing lost to Musk—
because of misjudgment, and underestimating Musk’s potential.
But Brother Cat thinks—
He said something that many successful people would say: “I have over 100 million customers.”
That sentence sounds fine, but it may expose something dangerous: once he stopped thinking about change, it was like how Nokia was number one in phones back then.
Maybe this is the reason why many industry leaders
end up falling from the top eventually.
When someone starts saying, “I’ve been doing this for twenty years; I’ve seen too much—young people just don’t understand,”
isn’t it already quite dangerous?
The greatest value of experience isn’t to prove you’re right.
It’s to remind yourself: times may have changed—experience isn’t applicable in every era.
For example,
Ten years ago, nobody believed in electric cars and autonomous driving. Nobody believed in AI. Nobody believed short videos would catch on. Nobody believed live streaming would take off.
But today, they’ve gradually all become the mainstream.
Maybe the truly formidable aren’t the ones who get every judgment right—that’s not realistic.
They should instead never dare to assume they’re always right.
So have you noticed?
Real big shots are becoming more and more humble.
Meanwhile, many people who’ve achieved some modest success
actually prefer to stand on a high ground and teach others.
For example, the business and marketing methods of the older generation were: advertising, channels, sales, scale, and those kinds of things.
The business methods of the younger generation are: product, communication, word-of-mouth, and traffic.
Maybe it’s not really about who is right or wrong—it’s that the times have changed.
What do you think is the biggest enemy and obstacle to someone’s success today?