What is reverse thinking, and what are its five very important thinking models? The book 'Hitting the Essence' discusses this in detail, let's learn together.




Five very important reverse thinking models:


Success-failure model, change-unchanged model, addition-subtraction model, happiness-pain model, combination-reverse model.




Today specifically study the first success-failure model:


When most people are studying how to achieve happiness and success, Charlie Munger believes that to understand how to achieve happiness in life, one must first study how life can become painful; to study how enterprises can grow strong and large, one must first study how enterprises decline. Because Charlie Munger knows that sometimes positive thinking may not lead us to where we want to go, but reverse thinking can.


This is the reverse thinking that smart people love to use. So, what is reverse thinking? Reverse thinking is a way of thinking that considers things or viewpoints that are commonly accepted and seem to be conclusive from the opposite perspective.




With a filter, we can say 'no' to 90% of things within 10 seconds.




The Great Defeat


Wu Xiaobo has written two books; 'The Great Defeat' discusses the cases of corporate failure and specifically studies the fundamental reasons for corporate failures.


Jack Ma also said: I don't know how to define success, but I know how to define failure, which means giving up.


There are various methods for success, but there are only a few reasons for failure.




Pre-mortem analysis


It is a method for thinking about the possibilities and reasons for failure in advance, used to make preliminary decisions after developing an action plan and before taking action.


This thinking method coincides with the theory of (The Art of War). Some may think that (The Art of War) considers how to win a war. But in fact, (The Art of War) considers problems with failure as a premise.


This is the benefit of reverse thinking - studying where mistakes come from to avoid failure.




Not on the list


Duan Yongping (who founded two well-known brands, Subor and BBK, and later created the OPPO and Vivo brands) mentioned a very key term in reviewing his entrepreneurial experience - not on the list.




The general 'not on the list' that Duan Yongping set for himself is as follows:


A. Do not blindly expand your circle of competence. The things that people can do are limited; what you say and what you can say are not important; what matters is what you do and what you can do.


B. Don't make 20 decisions in a year. Making 20 decisions in a year is bound to go wrong; that is not value investing. Making 20 investment decisions in a lifetime is enough.


C. Don't invest in what you don't understand or are not familiar with. Don't place heavy bets on things you don't understand or are not familiar with; seize the opportunities you can grasp.


D. Do not take shortcuts; do not believe in overtaking on curves. Overtaking on curves is something that people who do not drive or ride say; overtaking on curves will always be surpassed.