Early this year, I heard the method of “Listing”; today, I learned another important concept  – “Stop Doing List” from famed entrepreneur and investor Yongping Duan. I have been practicing both through years but never have been systematically summarizing them to this level. Therefore I embrace it completely and also apply these theories to calibrate my thoughts.

First, I ought to clarify, “stop doing list” is also a method of listing, instead of listing things to do, you list things NOT to do. Behave cautiously, don’t do any silly deeds, you will end up better than most people. Why? Most people don’t spend the time to think what’s right, what’s wrong, moreover, even they know what’s right, what’s wrong, they stick to the wrong for temporary pleasure.

In the following, I cite the conversation he had with students with respect to his “stop doing list”:

1. There is no sales department (in his companies) because the product is the key. What ultimately matters is the product meeting the market requirement, not how fancy or powerful marketing/selling is. Price is uniform, no discount is granted, making the communication with clients direct and simple. Marketing is not as important as the core product, but this doesn’t mean you don’t do it at all. Still, marketing is part of the operation and is aimed to make it spreadable.
2.  Never been striving to change or improve character. Either introvert or extrovert, it’s useless to try changing. Either is good. According to Daun, what matters is integrity.
3. Anti-social. Social networking consumes a colossal amount of time. It’s not an effective way to improve or relax unless you are an extrovert, who tends to be more energetic by mingling with strangers.
4. Don’t rush, it’s fine to start late and progress slower than your competitors. What matters is to keep progressing to the right direction.
5. Don’t care too much on the market flucutation, focus on the business logic. Find the right people, right business model, stock of such companeis are worthy.
6. Don’t need to possess lots of skillsets. Focus on what you are good at, and know the limit of yourself.
7. This might be the most important rule. Don’t underestimate the importance of making judgment. What is right, what is wrong; What do you spend time, what do you not spend time; what do you reward, what do you punish. Down to the core, making this kind of judgment is equivalent to attain a clear view of your value system. So don’t be lenient on things that are pertinent to your values, no matter how trivial it seems to be. A current example quickly conjured up in my mind is the supreme court judge nominee, at present the judge Brett Kavanaugh, even his discretionary behavior in high school is dismissable, I think his lack of integrity manifested by his demeanor and lies certainly make him entirely unqualified for such a consequential job.  Duan list “smoking” as an example. He states people still stick to smoking because they don’t judge it as faulty firmly. They succumb the right judgment to short-term pleasure. “Yes, smoking is not healthy, but who cares since I am young and healthy now, ” they say.
8. Don’t loan. Don’t use leverage even it may cause lapse of opportunities. Because it’s risky. You can lose substantially.