Why do we read biographies?
Dong Yuhui said the most simple reason: because role models are the best growth force.
He said that young people tend to grow up confused, they don't know what they want to do in the future, so we have to look at biographies.
You may see courage in some people, wisdom in some people, patience in some people, learning ability in others, you see different things in different people, and one of the most important purposes of reading a biography is to let you know what kind of person you want to become.
Today, I would like to recommend to you four biographies of characters repeatedly recommended by Dong Yuhui, each of which is a work of gods, which is worth reading and rereading, especially when you are at a low point in your life.
01 "The Biography of Su Dongpo".
The reason why life is not happy is because I haven't read Su Dongpo.
Dong Yuhui said: "If I were to find someone from all the poets who grew up and memorized them, the first one I wanted to share with you was actually Su Dongpo.
Why do we like Su Dongpo?It's not just because his words are good, it's more because he can still face life optimistically after experiencing ups and downs in his life. He is like every ordinary living being, but he lives more freely and calmly than us. ”
Therefore, Dong Yuhui has always regarded Su Dongpo as his male god, and he also repeatedly recommended Su Dongpo's biography in the live broadcast room.
Su Dongpo is innocent, kind, and outspoken, so his poems are always used by others, causing him to be degraded again and again. Even so, he still has the people in mind, and wherever he goes, there must be projects for the well-being of the people, and his political achievements are remarkable.
He is calm and optimistic, no matter how desolate the place he is relegated to, he can face the changes with a leisurely attitude.
He loves to make friends, and he loves to make friends with friends, and because he is talented, people everywhere they come to him to make friends.
Su Dongpo told us:
First of all, a person must be talented, so that even if you are in danger, there are still people who love and cherish talents to lend a helping hand to you.
Secondly, in life, unsatisfactory things are the best solution only by facing it with an optimistic and open-minded attitude.
In Dong Yuhui's words: before real luck comes, do two things, one is to accumulate knowledge, and the other is to love life.
02 "The Biography of Zeng Guofan".
He is a model of ordinary people's counterattack, his qualifications are mediocre, he has passed the imperial examination 7 times, he lost the war to the point of jumping into the river to commit suicide, his emotional intelligence does not seem to be high, and he often offends people in the officialdom. However, in this way, with his own efforts and strong self-management ability, he realized the counterattack in life and became a "half sage" second only to Confucius and Wang Yangming.
Why should we learn from Zeng Guofan?Because before he became a "half saint", he was an ordinary person, an ordinary person with problems all over his body, his qualifications may be mediocre than you and me, and his background is not higher than you and me, but because of this, we need to learn from him.
In ancient times, we can only look up to the mountains, and our hearts yearn for them but cannot get them. For example, Wang Yangming, he has a very high starting point, he has a good family background and a superior learning environment since he was a child, and his father Wang Hua is the champion of Ming Chenghua for 17 years. And Wang Yangming belongs to the level of genius, he is extremely talented in all aspects, what to do, as ordinary people, we really can't learn.
When we study Zeng Guofan, we can learn at least the following points:
One, clumsy can break the ingenuity.
Zeng Guofan said: "Only the sincerity of the world can win the hypocrisy of the world, and only the clumsiness of the world can win the ingenuity of the world." Although his qualifications are average, he is better than persistence, and it is this kind of clumsy and ingenious spirit that opened his journey of officialdom promotion after the age of 30, seven moves in ten years.
Second, keep reading.
Zeng Guofan insisted on reading and writing all his life, insisting on writing a diary every day, even when he was terminally ill. Keep reading, your knowledge, insight, and ambition will continue to accumulate, and when we encounter problems, the neurons of your brain will run rapidly, helping you get the best solution.
3. Self-management.
Zeng Guofan's enlightenment was not too early, he was 30 years old, and suddenly felt that he couldn't live like this, and he must change himself and be reborn as a new person. So he studied and summarized a set of self-management methods, and he set himself 12 daily lessons, 12 things that must be done regardless of wind or rain, including getting up early, reading, writing in a diary, practicing calligraphy, and not going out at night.
We say you have as much freedom as you have discipline. Zeng Guofan's experience tells us that no matter how ordinary your talent is or how humble your background is, you can change your destiny and be reborn through your own efforts.
03 "You should fly like a bird to your mountain".
I didn't read this book in one sitting, not because it wasn't good, but because I resonated with this book too deeply, so I read it very slowly, almost word by word. When I read it, I felt like I was reading my own memoirs, except that the main character, the author, Tara, was in a worse situation than me.
This book is about Tara, a girl born in the mountains of the United States, who never set foot in a classroom until the age of 17, and with the help of her brother, teachers and friends, she goes to Cambridge and becomes a doctoral student at Cambridge University.
Tara's childhood was made of scrap copper and rotten iron from a garbage dump, where there was no sound of reading, only the roar of cranes. His father, a man with a narrow religious mindset and absolute authority in the family, did not allow his children to go to school, did not allow them to go to the doctor when they were sick, and relied only on his mother's herbal medicine, believing that going to the hospital was against God's will.
Growing up in such a deformed family, Tara was cowardly, broken, and even self-doubting, until she escaped from the mountains and opened up another world, which forged the infinite possibilities of her life, and the world is education.
As a rookie author, Tara's autobiography is her first work, which appeared on the New York Times best-selling list in the first week of its listing in 2019, and still ranks first, with sales exceeding one million jobs in the United States, and Tara was also named "Influential Person of the Year" by Time Magazine.
When you don't know where to change, do every little thing around you well;When you don't know how to start, do the little thing that is closest to you, add up to it, and one day you will see a change in yourself.
04 "Life by Me".
She became a model at the age of 15, got married at the age of 22, and gave birth to 3 children in 3 years. So she decided to divorce, did not hesitate to spend all her money to hire a lawyer, and finally obtained custody of her three children, but at the age of 31, she became a bankrupt single mother.
In the absence of alimony, it is very difficult for a single mother to raise three children, but for the sake of the children's education, she traveled to three countries, developed her own business from scratch, in order to make money, in addition to being a model, she also worked as a salesperson in a department store, a guide in a dental clinic, and a shampoo ...... in a hair salonAs long as she can make money, she will do it.
She not only raised her three children very well, but also obtained two master's degrees while taking her baby into a career.
When her hair began to turn gray in her 60s, she returned to the modeling stage.
At the age of 69, she appeared on the cover of "Vogue" and became the oldest spokesperson for "Cover Girl", and her image occupied 4 billboards in Times Square in the United States.
She is Mayer Musk, Elon, the founder of Tesla, the "Iron Man of Silicon Valley". Musk's mother.
There was once a curiosity about how a middle-aged woman who suffered misfortune raised three excellent children, and also gave birth to a woman like Elon. A business wizard like Musk?
Looking at her experience, you understand, despite Elon. Musk is more famous than her, but her identity is far more than just an "outstanding mother", she is the queen of her own life.
Although life is full of difficulties, there is still a way to follow for successful transformation.
Although we can't be Meyer. Musk, but we can still get advice and experience from her on life issues such as beauty, career, family, education, and health.