Yin Wang: The So-Called Success | Original, translated by AI
Many times, people have suggested to me something like this because they couldn’t stand the mockery I faced online: “First, take down those traditional internet companies whose founders have already grown old. Once you become successful, just casually publish an article online, and they will all flatter you. And most of the time, it’s impossible to make those people listen to you. Only when you achieve results and dominate will they submit.”
In fact, these people completely misunderstand my values and principles, they don’t carefully ponder the meaning of my words, nor do they absorb any energy from them. That’s why they care about the words of those who insult me, encouraging me to enter the game of “success”.
The so-called “success” recognized by the Chinese public is actually a trap. If you care about it and strive for it, you are being controlled by these people, you become their slave. Those who care about others’ opinions and strive for success according to the standards of the masses are just slaves. I don’t care about these people’s opinions at all.
Why do many Chinese people care so much about “success” and like to compare themselves with others? Because they are accustomed to being graded. Since childhood, they have been graded by parents, teachers, participating in various competitions, exams, rankings… They have never looked at the world from their own perspective, from a higher standpoint, and have never examined those who grade them, what qualifications do they have to judge themselves?
After leaving school to work or start a business, they start to be graded by leaders, colleagues, public opinion, women, and mothers-in-law. The so-called “success” in Chinese society is such a kind of grading. The graded person always has a lower status than the one who grades them, so those who are eager to make others think they are “successful” and especially care about others’ opinions actually have a low status.
I have despised all those who try to grade me since a long time ago. I have never felt that the organizers of competitions have any qualifications to evaluate me, so I haven’t participated in any competitions since university: ACM, IOI… Now when I see these things, I look at the organizers, question setters, and judges, and find it ridiculous. Of course, I won’t care about whether anyone thinks I am “successful”.
Whether I am successful or not is for me to determine.
If, as he said, many people flatter me or submit to me because I have money, I am “successful”, would I be satisfied? What I care about is a person’s intrinsic qualities, whether they genuinely identify and respect me from the heart, not what they show on the surface. So when I have money and status, casually saying garbage remarks and attracting a large group of people to flatter me, various media praising me, cannot satisfy my life goals. I am very disgusted with those who flatter me, they always make me feel sick and disdainful.
So I don’t care about using “success” to make people submit. I have my own standards for “success”, I do things that make me happy, I attract people I like and approve of. I don’t care about the taste of the masses, because it often means being low-level.
If I really pursue the so-called “success”, and then make others “flatter” or “submit”, then I am no longer myself, my value disappears. What difference is there between me and the “successful people” recognized by the public? I am following the old path of those people. So this kind of statement is like saying: “You go make a lot of money, succeed, become a billionaire, then many women will flatter you.”
What I need is genuine admiration, genuine respect, I also respect them, not a group of opportunistic scum.
Are those “successful people” recognized by the masses really successful? Do you think many well-known internet companies are really making money? They just create a bunch of garbage information. I advise these people to study the accounts of these companies, study how this game is played, study what real value they bring to society, study what “bubble” means. Bubbles are a cancer on the socio-economic system. Once they burst, they will spread and worsen throughout the body, harming everyone.
If I could sell my conscience, I would have been “successful” long ago, but my standard of “success” is different from most people’s. I don’t care about the “successful people” in the eyes of the public, because they can’t even speak a decent word. Many “successful people” are actually tumors. I don’t want to become another tumor.
Since I left Tsinghua more than ten years ago, I have had “fame”. At that time, someone even estimated the value of my blog according to “attention value”, a very substantial number. However, I have never used fame to obtain what many people desire: money and status. I only use my fame to spread the beliefs I believe in. I cannot be bought, I cannot be used.
In every company I have worked for, I have relied on my abilities to make a living. Every line of code I wrote, every word I said, somehow translated into real wealth. Of course, due to various political struggles, much of my energy was wasted, some of it turned into the reality of “judging people”.
When my bank account was empty, and I lived day by day on credit cards, I never considered selling my conscience. Many times, someone would offer me a lot of money and say, “Come on, put your name on our website and soar to success together!” Looking at their faces, I directly refused. When I knew they were doing things that betrayed their conscience, I deleted them directly.
It’s a pity that I see many “successful people”, senior executives of well-known companies, senior engineers, and even professors from Ivy League schools unable to resist the temptation of money, helping vulgar and insidious people to stand on the platform. Some of them once had some status in my heart. When I saw them do such things, their image was instantly destroyed. In the eyes of ignorant people, they are “successful people”, but in my eyes, they are trash.
I have said long ago, my words themselves have value, they have their own persuasiveness. I don’t need “success” and money to convince others. There are always people telling me, “Do something and they’ll shut up.” However, unfortunately, even if you are “successful”, no one will shut up. There are many people mocking and insulting me online, but if you look closely at who they are, what kind of quality they have, what level of words they spit out, you will find that none of it matters, and you don’t care.
People will never shut up, even if you are successful. Successful people walking on the street will inevitably encounter little hooligans swearing at them. Do you want to convince them? You just need to ignore them.
A wise man said: “Wisdom can never overcome ignorance, you can only wait for ignorant people to die slowly.” That’s the reason. Ignorant people will never see your “success”, so even if you succeed according to other people’s standards, they will still say you haven’t succeeded, and there will still be all kinds of rumors.
The things I write are for those who are willing to see them, I inspire those who are upright and kind. I don’t want to convince those who oppose me, my “clients” are only high-quality people. Those who insult me can be directly regarded as low-grade scum encountered on the street, and they can be ignored.
So the best approach is not to try to succeed according to the standards of the masses, otherwise you will be controlled by the foolish words of these people. Many people have not realized how many people support me, they only see those low-quality deniers.
So I suggest that those who pay attention to me directly read my blog and Weibo less on forum websites, because those places are often where low-quality people gather. Many people think that forum websites are a kind of “socializing”, but think about it, if a person spends all day on such websites, how bored must he be in reality, without a genuine friend to come out for tea and chat?
Many young engineers, researchers, and even professors of the younger generation have grown up reading my articles. I don’t need to awaken their hearts with “success” and money. My words themselves have value and can directly enter people’s hearts. These people will grow up stronger than those who ignore me and mock me, and they will be more upright. By then, you will know who truly holds the value.