The First Step to Making Money: Learn to Avoid the Old

I once heard a story like this.

A young man was taken by his cousin to work hard in a big city far from home.

Because the city was expensive and neither of them could find suitable jobs, within just a few days, they had almost run out of money.

The young man couldn’t help but complain to his cousin that they should have figured out what to do at home first before coming out.

His cousin replied: “You would never figure out how to make money staying there.”

Years later, when the young man had achieved some success in his career, he finally understood what his cousin meant.

Staying in the place where you’ve always been, meeting the same people you meet every day, doing the same things you do every day - a person can only repeat yesterday’s poverty.

Even if you have ideas about making money, they will immediately be suppressed by the familiar environment.

There’s a saying: “Avoid the old to welcome the new.”

Only by avoiding the old people and old things in lower-class circles can you better discover new opportunities.

So if you want to make money, especially big money, the first thing you need to learn is to avoid the old.

01 Old People Should Be Cut Off

Career blogger @Jin Hanmu once co-founded a company with a college classmate.

After working hard for several months without making money, the classmate withdrew from the company under the pretext of going home to get married.

Later, under Jin Hanmu’s hard work, the company finally began to get on track.

At this time, the classmate approached him again, saying there were no suitable jobs in his hometown and hoping to return to the company.

Thinking of their past friendship, Jin Hanmu arranged a position for his classmate in the company again.

But in fact, the classmate was completely unfamiliar with the business and always used his relationship with Jin Hanmu to boss others around.

After several rounds of trouble, the company, which had just shown some promise, fell into crisis again.

Zhang Xiaoxian once said:

“Never meeting again is, in most cases, actually a rare wisdom.”

In the vast sea of life, not everyone needs to walk with you from the past to the future.

Once someone’s magnetic field no longer matches yours, don’t even think about them anymore.

Blindly cherishing old feelings won’t make them appreciate your kindness, but it will exhaust you physically and mentally.

After web novelist Elbow wrote his first novel with over 10,000 average subscriptions, some friends he hadn’t seen for years began contacting him.

However, they discovered that Elbow had not only moved but also changed his phone number.

During that period, Elbow often received private messages on his social media accounts, saying he looked down on old friends after making money.

But he completely ignored these voices, spending his days either writing or reading various types of books.

Subsequently, he wrote several more hit novels and eventually made it onto the writers’ rich list, truly ending nearly 30 years of poverty.

There’s a famous saying on Wall Street: “The money you can make is the average of the total wealth of the five people closest to you.”

If everyone in your circle is accustomed to life without money, then whenever you have thoughts of making money, various resistances will make it difficult for you to take action.

What you can do is stop entangling and keep your distance.

Let go of those who always want you to go backward - this isn’t coldness, but responsibility to yourself.

02 Old Things Should Be Released

I recently rewatched the Hong Kong drama “At the Threshold of an Era” and was deeply impressed by one plot.

The protagonist Ye Rongtian invented an electronic pet machine and spent nearly three years trying to bring it to market.

But just when the pet machine was about to become popular, he had to sell the patent due to urgent financial needs at home, and the existing inventory had to be destroyed.

At the destruction site, a friend secretly took back one pet machine, wanting to keep it as a memento for him.

What did Ye Rongtian do?

He personally destroyed this last pet machine, then went to start businesses in other fields with a clear mind.

This reminds me of what writer A Lan once said:

“Strong people always pay the bill, leave the scene, review, and then never ask again.”

Past events, whether perfect or regrettable, are no longer related to the present.

Rather than clinging to old things, cutting them off when necessary can truly help you change your luck.

Investor Zhang Meiqi once valued an intern highly.

However, the first project this intern handled had various problems, and the client eventually canceled the order.

Afterward, Zhang Meiqi comforted him, saying the problem wasn’t his fault and he shouldn’t feel any psychological burden.

But she could still clearly feel that he was still carrying this matter in his heart.

Finally, when he made several low-level mistakes in other projects consecutively, Zhang Meiqi had to give up the idea of cultivating him.

In the following years, this intern remained at her company.

Although he worked hard, he mainly handled basic business.

Meanwhile, those employees she focused on cultivating, who eventually became her right-hand people, had mostly achieved financial freedom as the company developed.

There’s a line in “Upstream”: “Carrying the baggage of the past, you can’t do well in current endeavors.”

In this world, no one likes to associate with someone carrying overnight garbage.

Clear out those rotten old things - only a person with a clean heart can nurture the fortune to make money.

03

Writer Xu Xianjiang said:

“The prerequisite for making money is understanding the essence of making money.”

So what is the essence of making money?

It’s continuously solving various current problems, demonstrating your value through them, and monetizing your abilities and cognition.

In other words, if you want to make money, you need to focus on the present.

What is the essence of nostalgia?

It’s escaping the present.

Whenever you encounter work you don’t want to face, you think of old friends and the carefree times you had with them.

Or when you encounter irreparable trouble, you regret that if you hadn’t done something back then, the situation wouldn’t have developed into what it is now.

Those old people and old things make you avoid questioning from reality through emotions of nostalgia or regret.

In the end, it only continuously consumes your fortune until you’re trapped by current poverty for life.

When American football player Michael Oher first entered the league, he often returned to the slums where he grew up.

He would play ball with old buddies at the local court or go to places he had always wanted to visit but never had money for.

Every time he paid the bill, he particularly enjoyed the way his buddies worshipped him.

And if someone asked him to lend money or help, he never refused.

He reflected on a variety show:

“Now I’m afraid of being calculated when signing contracts, afraid of saying the wrong thing in interviews, and have to deal with many people I don’t like. So I prefer the pure friendship in the slums and those simple, happy things.”

The host told him:

“Understanding contracts, improving speaking skills, and dealing with people you don’t like - these are exactly what you need to do at this stage. You can’t use those people and things from the past to escape the problems you should face now.”

After that, the enlightened Oher began to keep his distance from the slums.

During holidays, he would also arrange double training schedules, leaving himself no time to find his old buddies.

As his personal abilities continuously improved, his income in the league rose accordingly.

And because he rarely associated with his old buddies anymore, most of his money could be saved, quickly becoming enough for him to settle down in the big city.

This poor kid from the slums finally completely changed his destiny.

Actually, in this world, there are no people you can’t leave behind or things you can’t let go of - it just depends on whether you’re willing to endure the withdrawal period.

Making money is a process of self-withdrawal.

Stop intersecting with the past, and you can force yourself to adapt to the present until you manage your life into what you want it to be.

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I deeply agree with this saying:

“Those who can forget the past essentially have countless more opportunities to start over than many nostalgic people.”

Always trapped in the magnetic field of the past means the money you couldn’t make then, you can’t make now either.

People who have scattered should be cut off; things that have happened should be let go.

Clear the old energy from yourself, always be ready to welcome new people and new things, and making money will naturally become something that flows naturally.