I continue, almost against my own restraint, to write about management.

If you are merely in the business of buying and selling, you may skip this. But if you are operating an enterprise — or attempting to — then this book deserves to be read not casually, but with intention. It pairs strangely well with The Record of Wang Yangming. One steadies the mind; the other sharpens it.

Let me begin where I left off: exhaust every method; do not rest until it is achieved.

The third principle is this: harbor a strong desire — one so intense and sustained that it penetrates the subconscious.

This sounds mystical. It is not.

What does it mean for a desire to reach the subconscious? The book offers two methods: intense stimulation, or repeated practice. For those running a company, the second is more practical. When you think about revenue, margins, production, and survival every day, repeatedly and seriously, the mind continues working even when you are not consciously directing it.

But here is an addition from my own reflection. Repetition alone is insufficient. One must hold firmly to the goal — with the attitude of exhausting every method, not stopping until the objective is reached. Without that forward posture, repetition becomes routine. And routine drifts into indifference. Familiarity dulls urgency. The subconscious will move, yes — but toward what? If the direction is not held tightly, the mind wanders.

When entering an unfamiliar industry while maintaining this deliberate, persistent orientation, something resembling luck begins to appear. In another of Kazuo Inamori’s works — I believe it was The Way of the Heart — he speaks of fortune arising from sustained intention. When something occupies your thoughts continuously, opportunities surface in unexpected forms. “What you persistently hold in mind will eventually respond.” That line has stayed with me.

He cites the reconstruction of Japan Airlines as an example. The restructuring involved cutting debt, reducing staff, lowering salaries, shrinking routes, retiring aircraft. Within the first year, the company achieved 64.1 billion yen in operating profit. The second year surpassed that. By the third, it was relisted. The language used to describe it sounds almost like a manga: high morale, single-mindedness, unyielding determination, fierce desire, the resolve to realize a new plan.

In moments of economic stagnation, such examples feel invigorating.

Yet I would add something personal. Responsibility alone cannot generate sufficient energy to propel an organization forward. Responsibility functions more like a safety net — it prevents collapse. But to steer a ship across open water, responsibility is insufficient. An organization requires someone capable of generating powerful desire. That is who should stand at the helm. In that sense, Naruto makes a more suitable Hokage than Kakashi.

There is another subtle point. The same action, driven by different inner states, produces fundamentally different outcomes. In calm waters, the difference may not be visible. But when a “black swan” appears, it becomes unmistakable. In martial arts fiction, Xu Zhu and Jiu Mozhi both appear to use the seventy-two Shaolin techniques. In truth, they are powered by different internal methods. The external movement may resemble each other; the internal engine does not. That distinction can be explored deeply, though I will resist the temptation here.

Some readers may find this language overly abstract — too close to motivational mysticism. The book itself acknowledges the incredulity: how could such simple thinking bring success? It invokes James Allen’s observation that those with a pure heart more easily achieve their aims than those consumed by fear and corruption. The latter hesitate at the threshold of failure; the former step forward without excessive calculation.

If I were to translate this into simpler language, I would call it centeredness and purity of motive. My own mental framework leans toward what in Chinese philosophy would be called “mind-study.” Others may respond more bluntly: if you are unwilling to commit, step aside.

The fourth principle follows naturally: exert effort not inferior to anyone else’s — do the concrete work step by step, steadily, persistently.

There are no shortcuts. To merely “do your best” is insufficient in competitive environments. One must match or exceed the effort of peers. Yet here I allow myself a small divergence. The principle of exertion remains unchanged, but effort must be applied scientifically. Intensity and recovery, tension and release — these must be structured.

I learned this recently through training with a personal coach. There are two major advantages to having one: correction of form, and the quiet manipulator standing beside you saying, “one more.” After you complete that repetition, he often says, “one more.” You lift weights you believed impossible — and yet you do not injure yourself. Why? Because the external stimulus is timed correctly. The system is structured.

Contrast this with a recent incident in which I injured myself stretching alone. The movements were the same as those taught by the coach. The difference was tempo. With him, the pace was slower. When I believed I could push further, he restrained me. I heard “slow down” as often as “one more.”

Effort not inferior to anyone else’s is not reckless acceleration. It is a marathon measured in years. To charge blindly is not discipline; it is impulse. In war, there is orthodoxy and surprise. Forces are divided. Superiority is strategic, not merely numerical. Tenfold effort sounds dramatic; intelligent deployment wins.

The fifth principle states: maximize sales, minimize expenses. Do not forcibly chase profit; let income exceed expenditure, and profit will follow.

This is essentially an accounting philosophy. The book introduces the “Amoeba Management” system: large enterprises subdivided into small, autonomous units. Each calculates value added per hour — revenue minus expenses divided by total labor hours. Costs are itemized in fine detail — electricity, water, gas — not aggregated vaguely. Monthly performance meetings last days, dissecting projected and actual numbers. Management by numbers.

Growth is not an excuse for expense expansion. On the contrary, growth is the moment to refine cost discipline.

A friend in quantitative finance once asked why I bothered studying accounting. I gave a conventional answer at the time. In truth, I have paid the price for not understanding accounting deeply. Now, in a quieter period, I study it daily. This is one benefit of a downturn: time to build foundations.

The sixth principle: pricing is management. Pricing is the leader’s responsibility. The price must lie at the intersection of what customers are willing to pay and what allows the company to profit.

Ma Weidu once described antique pricing beautifully: a price must be just within reach — high enough that the buyer strains to grasp it, but not so high that he abandons the attempt entirely. That balance is art.

In negotiation theory, pricing often follows two models. One builds upward from cost plus margin. The other sets a target price first and works backward to engineer cost structure. One is bottom-up; the other top-down. Industry context determines which prevails. Luxury goods, for instance, trade on aspiration and scarcity; cost-plus logic alone fails to capture that.

In the book, a hypothetical scenario is used: how would you operate a late-night noodle shop? How thick should the fish cake be sliced? How much scallion? Where should the shop be located? Who is the target customer? Only after considering these variables can pricing emerge. Pricing determines survival.

What if the highest price customers are willing to pay still does not generate profit? That is common. It often results from cost-plus thinking detached from market reality. The solution returns to an earlier principle: maximize sales, minimize expenses. Costs must be reexamined thoroughly — even engineering processes adjusted. Pricing, procurement, and cost reduction must move in coordination.

There is an instructive story. When Kyocera was small, it secured an order for ten thousand units. The sales manager lowered the price repeatedly to win the deal. The founder responded: winning an order at the lowest price is not salesmanship; it is arithmetic. Pricing is art.

For entirely new products, reference points are scarce. Cost-plus becomes unreliable. Instead, consider value created — what additional benefit the product generates for the client. Let the customer propose what they consider acceptable, after understanding the value delivered.

The seventh principle: management depends on a strong will — a will capable of piercing rock.

This is not redundant with the earlier discussion of desire. Here the emphasis is on what the author calls a “quiet fighting spirit” rising from within. “Impossible” is not the end; it is the beginning.

I experienced a small metaphor for this today while walking home. After exercise, stretching can be painful. When pressure reaches the most painful point, you hold — quietly — and then deepen slightly. Pain is not necessarily a sign of error; sometimes it marks the precise place of growth.

The will described here is not theatrical aggression. It resembles the courage defined in On War — the capacity to remain constant amid uncertainty.

This book, in its patient tone, urges the integration of knowledge and action. It even reveals the shortcuts. With the right mentor, over years, one may not aspire to become a towering authority — but distinction becomes attainable.

And so, we begin again.

3：怀有强烈愿望——要怀有参透至潜意识的强烈而持久的愿望

是真的这书读来和《传习录》打着一起，是很配的。当成睡前读物，安神醒脑，沁人心脾。

接着上一篇的一句话来写今日的精读——千方百计，不达不休

这条是什么意思呢，就是说要有很强烈的愿望，强烈到什么程度？是可以驱动潜意识的强烈。怎么理解和怎么运用，还有这个的重要性怎么解读呢？我们先读完此条再来分析。

说到调动潜意识，书里说有两种办法，一种是强烈刺激，第二种是反复练习。对于经营公司的人怎么说呢？更实用的是第二条，反复练习。因为每天都会反复思考销售额，利润能到多少等问题，潜意识的就会调动潜意识去思考。这里我想补充一个小见解用来闭环‘强烈愿望’+‘调动潜意识‘：前提是一定要守着自己的目标，抱着千方百计，不达不休的态度去调动潜意识。为什么这个很重要呢？因为只凭借‘反复思考’来获取潜意识，会发现有时候会产生一种‘可有可无’的状态。忘记了目标和方向。因为太‘轻车熟路’了。所以还是得抱着‘前往’的态度来去反复练习。

当你涉足某个未知的行业或者产业，同时还保持着调动潜意识的态度去思考，那么就会有好的运气，可以说是‘念念不忘，必有回响’。在另外一本稻盛和夫的书（我记得好像是《心法》）里，有说关于运气的东西，也就是念念不忘会给你带来的惊喜。很受启发。

这里他讲了一个例子，就是重建日航的例子。当时他的计划是削减债券，裁员，减薪，缩减航线，退役大型飞机。做出的成绩是第一年实现641亿日元营业利润，第二年更多，第三年从新上市。这种‘热血漫画’似的例子，在现在比较萧条的日子里，还是很振奋的，他说：志气高昂，一心一意，不屈不挠，愿望强烈，坚决实现新计划！

我这里还是想增加一些自己的心得，在这种情况下，‘责任’所能调动的精力，是远远不够的，责任更多的是一种类似‘兜底’的力量。但是如果要让一个组织，一个公司‘远航’，‘责任’不太能掌舵航行。因此一个组织什么人来当船长呢，是那位可以带来强烈愿望的人。所以在这个点上，漩涡鸣人适合当火影，比旗木卡卡西更适合。

在这里我想补充的第二个心得是同样一件事情，是什么心境调动的，其实本质上是有区别的。风平浪静的时候可能看不到什么，但是遇到‘黑天鹅’的时候，或许有就能体现出来了。举个武侠例子好理解‘什么心境调动’这个问题，虚竹和鸠摩智在少林打架，看起来用的都是少林72绝技，但其实都是用的小无相功。这个还是能挖掘很深去讨论，还是我比较懒的继续往下写，或许日后好好写一下吧。

如果有人读到这里可能会觉得说的太玄乎，太鸡汤，而且是唯心主义的。用书中的原本就是说“依靠这种单纯的思想就能让事业获得成功，简直不可思议”。我怎么去解释这个呢？书中是依靠詹姆斯·艾伦的话进行解释的“对于目前目标的实现也好，对于人生的目的的达成也好，比起心地肮脏的人，心灵纯洁的人要容易的多。在心底肮脏的人因为害怕失败不敢涉足的领域，心灵 纯洁的人随意踏入就能轻易获胜，这样的事例不鲜见“。我是怎么解释的呢，或许是‘中正平和，动机至纯’来说更简单吧。坦白说我脑袋里装的思考系统确实偏心学的。那还能怎么去掰扯呢？或许会还会说“愿不愿意做，不愿意就滚蛋，废什么话”。

第四条是：付出不亚于任何人的努力——一步一步、扎扎实实、坚持不懈的做好具体的工作。

作者表示成功是没有捷径的，要做到‘不亚于任何人’是关键。如果只是做到‘尽自己的努力’这样的程度，是不能够在残酷的竞争中获胜的。在接着阅读前我得表达一下我这个阅历能表达稍微不同的一点点见解。付出不亚于任何人的努力这个前提不变，但发力和热身，还有张弛有度我个人认为需要科学的去搭配。这个是我从近期我找的私人教练，在和他运动中我体会出来的。听我细细说明：

和教练一起运动有两个很大的好处，一个是纠正姿势和辅助，第二个是在实在做不来的时候，旁边往往会有个骗子骗你说“one more‘,当你做了一个以后，这个骗子大概率会说‘one more’，直到确实物理条件不让你做为止。可是这里就有一个很tricky的问题，你做出了凭借自己举不起来的重量/数量，但还不怎么容易受伤。因为教练知道你在什么时候给你这个外部刺激。因为这个训练是科学的，是有系统化的。

而另一种情况发生在前些日子，我去自己拉伸反而伤到自己了。给了我一个机会去对比一下自己拉伸和与教练拉伸到底有什么区别。因为我所知道的都是教练教给我的，看起来并没有什么区别。但是，区别大了。这里的大区别就是节奏问题，我会发现同样是一组拉伸，教练的节奏会慢的多，很多情况下我感觉可以做幅度更大的动作，但还是被制止了。所以相比‘one more’这个话，我听到同样多的话是‘slow down’。

我举着个运动的例子是想说‘付出不亚于任何人的努力’是一个马拉松，是以年为单位的竞技。在横不浪荡往前冲的时候，最好有一番聪明的思考，在这里我临时想到努力的策略了：以正合，以奇（ji）胜；打仗要分兵；10倍兵力（10倍努力，听起来很拉风吧）。

书中说企业发展的要诀一点不难，认真做实事，一步一步，踏踏实实，持续付出不亚于任何人的努力....毕业在即，我也在寻找有这样工作环境的企业。

第五条：销售最大化，费用最小化——利润无序强求，量入为出，利润随之而来。

这一条实际是注重会计的经营哲学，里面有介绍一个‘阿米巴经营’的方式，大概意思是说一个大企业下有若干个小集团（阿米巴），他们经营各自的事业。结算时，需要算出每个阿米巴每小时生产多少附加值（NI），就是销售减去费用，再把NI除以当月总工时得到的数字，称之为‘单位时间刻度制度’。这个单位时间刻度制度可以反映上个月的实际业绩。同时费用会比一般科目分的更细，比如电费，水费，燃气等，都分别列出，而非大科目光热费。（里面虽然有可能出现内部过度竞争等潜在风险，但这个是另一个故事了）。

他们每个月会开‘业绩报告会’，而且一开就是2-3天。期间会排查各种科目的预定值和实际值。找出细小的差别。做到用数字经营。怎么做到扎扎实实，这个就是好的例子。所以不要总是抱着‘销售增加，费用也增加’的错误思想，因为企业增长的同时，正是好好扎实费用最小化的机会。

之前有个做量化的朋友问我为什么学会计，大概说不用那么懂（虽然会计我目前是入门），我就范范的说了一下重要性。但老实说我并不觉得我们达到了同一频道在我的解释后。有时候确实，我自己在上面吃过不懂会计的亏，所以知道其中的重要性。我现在最庆幸的一个选择就是每日花时间在学习会计上，也是低谷期给我带来的机会。这样子第二次机会，真是不易。

第六条：定价即经营——定价时领导者的职责。价格应该定在客户乐意接受，公司又赢利的交汇点上

记得看另一本‘国宝100’的书里，马未都有说这个定价：这价要开的恰到好处，什么叫恰到好处呢？就是让你卯足了劲儿，能够将将够得着，这个就叫恰到好处。如果你一开天价，这价钱我就够不着。我就彻底放弃了。说你这价太高，算了，你拿回去吧。

当然上述这个价格是买卖古董瓷器时候的价格。可是大体上，大多数商品也是依照着这个逻辑脉络来执行的。我以前上谈判课的时候也有说过怎么定这个价格的，站在己方，大概有两个思路，一个是垒积木，就是成本加一加，然后再加个利润，去报个价；另一个是先报个价，砍掉利润，再看用什么材料去完成这个利润。总的来说就是一个是自下而上，一个是自上而下。我试着努力去回忆接下来该怎么讲解这两种思路，但还是记不太清楚了。不过我猜，这个是根据什么行业属性来的吧。比如那些奢侈品，要的都是‘梦寐以求，少数拥有’的快感。自然自下而上就不太合适了。那怎么办，goodwill and branding吧。要不然近些年good will在报表里怎么越来越重要了呢。

回到我们这本书，作者用‘经营一碗面‘来考察合格的董事。题目就是‘如何经营夜间面条铺’。为什么用这个题目呢，因为一切都有价格，比如汤汁怎么做，鱼糕切多厚，几片葱，几片肉。。。还有店铺选在哪里，目标人群是哪里。考虑种种因素后，怎么定价呢？

所以作者坚信：定价决定生死。不过作者也相信上述提到瓷器定价的概念：顾客乐意购买的最高价格。接着往深了讲了一下，假如乐意购买的最高价格谈妥了，还是没法赢利，怎么办？事实上这个事情是常事。这个是什么原因呢？因为这类商家一般都是工厂，采用成本加利润来决定定价，即成本主义，就是我上问所所得自下而上。可是这样有可能导致价格偏高，和市场脱轨，从而陷入滞销。那怎么办呢？回到最初的那一点：销售最大，费用最小。就是需要深思熟虑的降低成本，连技术人员也需要在研发过程中怎么降低成本。另外需要注意的是定价和采购和降低成本需要联动考虑。

这书里有个销售定价的例子：

京瓷还处于小公司的时候接到一个1万件的订单，销售经理写好报价单后去报价，甲方嫌贵因此要求降2层。一来二去，销售经理自作主张，用最低的价格拿到了这个订单。作者回复说做销售取得订单是工作。但用最低的价格拿到订单确实是理所当然的。这个不是销售经理的能力，而是这个价格导致的。因此通过这个事情作者认为，定价是个艺术。

在面对新产品的时候，很少参照物，因此很难定价，特别是采用成本+利润的方式。作者采用了另一个定价的策略，代替了成本主义，就是产品能产生出多少附加值。就是客户用了这个产品后能够带来多少价值，因此先不急着报价，让客户提出一个能接受的价格。先做什么呢？先让客户看到用后会有什么样的好处。

第七条：经营取决于坚强的意志，需要洞穿岩石般的坚强意志

这一点看似有些重复，实则侧重点是不同的。用作者的话说就是指‘从内心涌起的“静静的斗志”‘。这里作者说’不行‘并不是通常所指的‘结束’，而是开始。我有个不恰当的例子，是我今天（也就是前几个小时）走路回家感觉出来的，类似‘不行’是‘开始‘的例子：我们运动后会做拉伸和rolling。当揉到痛点的时候，按摩的时候往往是静静的hold一会儿，然后再加深力道。所以痛所代表的有可能就是正确的点。我是想说学习新东西如此，工作也是如此。痛我一度以为只是‘不合理所带来的副产品’，但换个角度去思考，‘正是从这里开始啊’也是条思路。

这里要说明的是坚强的意志并不是提起那种斗争的心，而是《战争论》里面所定义的勇气——即维持恒定不变的。。。。

这本书真是不错，苦口婆心的让大家最终做到知行合一，还把方便法门透漏出来。如果这个时候出现个mentor以师徒关系加以指点，若干年后，此人虽不痴望成为泰山北斗，但也不难出类拔萃。