Success at Every Level Stems from Responsibility

Today, let us talk about interest versus disinterest. Interest is one of life’s great enigmas: if I cannot do something well, I am not interested; if I do it well, I am interested. People ask, What will you do in the future? I will do what interests me. I have rarely seen anyone succeed because of interest alone. I seldom hear of someone succeeding in their career, in the church, or at any level, simply because it was their interest.

Everyone must understand that the Olympic gold medalist who said she used her prehistoric powers – that became the most popular phrase online! Why? Because she did not say it was her interest that led to the gold medal. You must realize that Olympic training is like hell. It is no joke. If you say you are interested, you will never get the gold medal. You approach training with a tenacious, responsible spirit, pushing your body to its limits. It is a challenge to constantly break through physical limits, to overcome oneself. That is why she used prehistoric powers to win the gold medal. She definitely would not say, I was very interested and easily won the gold medal. That is simply not the case.

If you want to reach a certain level, interest alone will never get you there. When I was working at the polytechnic, I often mentored young people, helping them with career planning. One girl told me, I am not interested in this, I am not interested in that. I asked, What are you interested in? She said, I am interested in multimedia. I knew this was an illusion. In fact, she did not even know why she was interested in multimedia; it was just a random thought. She felt she was interested in multimedia, but deep down, she felt it was unreliable.

So, I said, Great, then show me a website you have made. Half a year passed, and the website was still not done. I asked about her website. The website ran away with her interest. Then she said, I am no longer interested in multimedia. I asked, What are you interested in now? She became interested in something else. Ultimately, when you really ask her to deliver, to create something, her interest wanes. In reality, it is an excuse for being irresponsible. Having interest or not is a myth. So, do not ever say, I am interested in this, so I will do it well, or, I am not interested in that, so I will not do it well. Today, if any of you as parents develop your child based solely on their interests, you will ruin that child. Do you believe me?

If you survey elementary school students, asking them, Are you interested in learning? Are you interested in studying? They will all say they are not interested! Then why do they study? Because it is their responsibility. They are students, so studying is their duty. Behind this notion of interest, using Christian terminology, is what we call indulging the flesh. The concept of interest is a carnal desire. Do not think that interest is something special. Are there genuine interests? Yes, some interests are real. But often, it is just an excuse, a myth.

Today, we must break free from this myth of interest. Let me ask you, do you want to earn ten thousand yuan a month? Yes. If you are currently earning three thousand, like Hai Xia mentioned, she used to earn three thousand. She came here for about half a year, a little over half a year, and now earns ten thousand. Is that good? Very good! Do you want to earn twenty thousand a month? Thirty thousand a month? Everyone wants that, right? But if you only pursue money out of interest and have no interest in the work itself, you will not get that money. Today, brothers and sisters, you must begin to understand that our service is absolutely not because we are interested in serving. It is not because we are interested in leading someone in prayer until late at night, is it? It is because we have a sense of responsibility, right?

Break free from the myth of interest. Do not believe in interest, and do not believe in disinterest. I do not know what kind of people you are, but I have found that there are people who will be very successful. What kind of people are they? They are not particularly interested in anything, and they also seem to be interested in everything, without being overly consumed; they just do everything well. These are the remarkable people. Those who constantly talk about interest or disinterest are generally unsuccessful. I have never seen someone who tells you they succeeded because they were interested in something. Those are mostly stories fabricated later.

If you are someone who is neither interested in anything nor obsessed with anything, you should be a very powerful person. When I was in university, my roommates would set up tables in the hallway and play mahjong. I was not interested in playing mahjong. You might say I did not know how to play, but I did. However, I had no interest in it. I found it boring. I also knew how to play Go, but I was not obsessed with it, nor was I interested in it. But later, this became my strength. I do everything according to my responsibilities. I do things not out of interest, but out of duty. You must realize that doing anything involves a considerable degree of boredom and monotony.

Everything is Responsibility, Believe It Is Your Duty, Strive for Excellence as a Character Trait

When an Olympic gold medalist stands on the podium while the national anthem plays, you know that one minute on the stage is the result of ten years of hard work off the stage. Try running ten kilometers around the track with sandbags tied to your legs. Do you think you are interested in that? I believe no one is interested in that. Sweating profusely under the scorching sun – what is that driven by? It is not driven by interest. It is driven by pursuing a goal. Therefore, if a person decides what to do based on interest or disinterest, they cannot be successful. What kind of person can be successful? Someone who sets a goal and runs straight towards it, saying, I want to achieve this goal, I want to win an Olympic gold medal, and I am willing to pay the price.

Today, I want to reshape an education system. This is my goal for the next few years. In previous years, my goal was to build a glorious church. I paid a heavy price for that, but that is okay. So, people who believe in interest or disinterest must break free. I have never seen such people succeed through interest or disinterest. If they are not interested, they do not do it; if they are interested, they do it. Such people generally have no future. Therefore, today, I want to share a very important concept with you: everything is responsibility. Believe it is your duty.

If you are a mother, you know that no one says they raise their children out of interest. If you get tired of raising your child one day, would you just kick them away? Of course not! Do not just look at other people's cute children and happily decide to have one yourself. You will find that it is a life-or-death responsibility. Someone might like children, but if you become a kindergarten teacher, you will find that it is not fun at all. Constantly cleaning up poop, pee, washing bottoms, and so on. Is that fun? Not at all. But it is your responsibility. I believe in responsibility, and I believe that striving for excellence in everything is a character trait. Believe in pursuing excellence, not in interest. Believe that this is my responsibility. I came into this world to live for this, to be born for this, and this is my duty.

If you raise your child well, it is your responsibility, and you will be fine. So, pursuing excellence is a character trait. I increasingly believe, through these testimonies, that the education system I endorse shapes a person's character, and that is crucial. Recently, I saw an article on WeChat about Song Chuan Dao's six children. Who is Song Chuan Dao? Her six children are Soong Mei-ling, Soong Ching-ling, Soong Ai-ling, and T.V. Soong. This Song Chuan Dao must have had deep insights into education, and she spoke about how shaping a child's character is crucial.

Therefore, today, we must begin to pursue excellence as a character trait. Do not start with negativity, give up easily, or think everything is hopeless. That will not work. So, today, pursuing excellence is a character trait. No one would say that pursuing excellence is an interest. Pursuing excellence is a character trait; it is a responsibility. When a person is pursuing this kind of excellence, I tell you, they will pay a heavy price. But what will this heavy price bring? It will bring excellent returns. Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must begin to understand a very important concept: interest is not important; responsibility is important. So, if you ever tell someone, Pastor, I am not interested in this, I am not interested in that, so I do not want to do it! That is worthless. Saying that tells me you are not a successful person. Do you understand?

So, today, those of you who are doing pastoral work, have you heard people say, I do not want to do this, I do not want to do that? Perhaps some of us still have this mentality. I do not want to do this. Can I do that instead? If a person's character is such that they only do what they like and refuse to do what they do not like, they are finished. In a person's lifetime of work, whether it is as a doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer, or anything else, 80% to 90% of it is trivial and annoying work.

I recently bought a book called The Game of Capital. Do you know it? It talks about how Company X went public and made ten million or twenty million. Hearing those numbers is terrifying. We are full of myths about finance, investment, and making money. However, the author of this book says that you only see the glamorous exterior but forget that these people actually pay a very heavy price behind the scenes and do a lot of very trivial things. No job is just a glamorous exterior; behind it, there is hard work and a lot of effort, no matter what you do. For example, we watch modern computer-generated movies. They are good, aren't they? The sound effects are great. Do you know how many people pay a heavy price behind the scenes? That five-minute movie could take a month or two to make. If you are drawing cartoons, you have to draw each frame, one by one. It is no joke.

If you are a content creator, your followers increase one by one. It is no joke. If you are an engineer, you have to meticulously overcome numerous technical problems for a plane to fly into the sky. Otherwise, every flight will crash, right? I once saw ancient training methods for surgeons. What did they use? They used animal bladders filled with air. You had to cut off the right part, but you could not puncture the bladder. Your knife had to cut precisely. You had to cut off what needed to be cut off, but you could not cut off what was not supposed to be cut off. Therefore, today, we must realize that everything behind the scenes is a manifestation of a character that pursues excellence.

If we look at those who eventually climb up and become leaders, not followers, heads, not tails, they actually pay a considerable price behind the scenes. That price is the pursuit of excellence. I cannot speak for others, but personally, I do not like doing things half-heartedly. If you are a Christian, I think you should be a respectable Christian. If you are a doctor, be a respectable doctor. If you are an engineer, be a respectable engineer. Do not be a jack of all trades, master of none. A mediocre doctor can cost lives. A mediocre engineer's designs can cause plane crashes. Anyway, being mediocre in anything is dangerous. If you are a mediocre accountant, that is no joke. You can end up in jail without even knowing how you got there. Your work has legal responsibilities.

Turn Responsibility into Interest

Today, brothers and sisters, do not stay within the realm of interest, because there is no probability of success there. But with responsibility and in the pursuit of excellence, you will definitely embark on a very successful path. (The concept of success is also very vague. We will not talk about success today. One day, I will give you a dedicated sermon on what success is.) Turning responsibility into interest is a very important process. A person who is habitually responsible will make it their habit, and a person who is habitually responsible will make it their interest.

Career Planning

Why has our church started promoting career planning today? It stems from my experience as a manager. I used to be an engineer. I was fascinated by networks, computers, and servers. I was so fascinated that I grasped their essence. After that, computers and networks became easy for me, and I could solve all problems very quickly. Later, I became a boss, and my subordinates could not diagnose network problems as quickly as I could. If a symptom appeared, I would say the problem was definitely here, and when they went to check, the problem was indeed there.

Why? Because I turned responsibility into my interest. When I first started in technology and reached this level, I was promoted to a managerial position. To be honest, I was not interested in management at all. It was boring. You know, after doing technology for a long time, you are not interested in management. It is easier to manage machines. You tell them what to do, and they do it. But try managing people! You tell them what to do, and they do not do it. You assign them work, and they do it poorly. It is very frustrating. I did not like this job for any other reason than the salary. To be honest, engineers and managers definitely have different salaries. A manager who manages twenty engineers will definitely have a higher salary than an engineer, so you could not have made me go back to being an engineer. So, I did something that was very painful for me.

I turned this painful thing into my interest. Why? Because I am a responsible person. I studied. I spent a lot of time researching how to be a good manager, how to be a good leader, and how to build a good team. And after researching, I came up with a result called career planning. For example, if one of my engineers told me, Boss, this job will take a month, if he said he needed a month, then there was nothing I could do. He said what he said, because it all involved technical expertise. Especially when there were problems that no one had the answer to, someone needed to work through them. If he said it would take a month, then it would take a month; if he said it would take two months, then it would take two months.

When I was underneath doing technology work, I was also doing things this way. I was very clear about this. This is mental labor. For physical laborers, there are many ways to manage production line workers: 8 AM to 5 PM, piece work, hourly work, etc. But you cannot manage mental laborers with these methods. They are completely ineffective. What to do? How can you get the things out of their heads?

One day, General Shi told me, “The few people who can successfully put thoughts into other people’s heads and take money out of other people’s pockets are: first, the abbots in temples, and second, pastors.” Actually, I did not do things like this after I became a pastor; I was already doing them before I became a pastor. How could I get the technical personnel to release the abilities inside their heads? So, I developed career planning. Career planning was a tool for me to motivate employees, and as a result, I became very thorough in the matter of career planning.

Motivating People is Key

I had an employee. I said, Xiao Zhang, what do you want to do in the future? Boss, to be honest, I really don't know what to do in the future. I said, if you don't know what you want to do in the future, then what are you doing today? He's definitely an inefficient person. If that person said, Boss, I want to become a very professional talent in networking and software in the future, that would be called having a career development direction. Having a goal would motivate him.

So, whether you are doing management or being a pastor today, you are constantly giving the person hope, a goal, and something to pursue in front of them. When they have a goal and something to pursue, they will naturally release the things inside their heads and do their work well. So, motivating people is key.

So how do you motivate people? It is to give the person a goal, called career planning. Next, you make plans for him. So how did I do it as a manager? I said, So, you want to do this in the future? You are currently earning 3,000 a month doing this. Do you want to earn 7,000 a month? Do you want to earn 10,000 a month? Yes! But people who earn 7,000 have to do this kind of position. Do you want to do it? Yes! So if you want to do this position, how are your current skills? My skills aren't good. So if your skills aren't good, then how can you make your skills good? You need to learn this and learn that. So what if I don't learn? What if what I learn isn't right? So you help me solve a problem, wouldn't you learn these things? So what my logic system eventually does is have the person go back to doing a good job, and, preferably work to doing a good job.

So every time I had a challenging task, everyone would fight to do it, because if I solved this challenging task, it would have a profound impact on my future. I would tell them, if someone invites you to do a high position in the future, I will absolutely be able to write you a letter of recommendation. If my friend needs someone, can can pay him a very good salary, then it’s okay for me to bring him to you, and that, I can look for new people and just train them, right?

Once a person reaches a certain level, you can't keep him. When people achieve the top there is no way to motivate them. I never recruit employees who can 100% satisfy my job requirements. I want to recruit the recruit %60 and the others %40 they want to train an change while working at the Company and being motivated. This is why I became oiled manager. I had the essence of management’s essence is to motivate your employees, release their mind and wisdom in people. This also became my interest later.

Grasping the Essence of Things

A person must transform his responsibilities into his interests, not the other way around where interest precedes responsibility. When responsibility becomes an interest, you will enjoy the work of your hands. Why do you enjoy the work of your hands? Because you have discerned the essential nature of things. If you grasp the essence of how things develop, you will certainly do the job well, and you will certainly be interested in it. This kind of interest is true interest; the kind that is conjured up is false interest, only liking the glamorous appearance without grasping the core essence inside.

Cultivating a Habit of Responsibility

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we must cultivate a habit, a habit of being responsible. Suppose you are responsible for a ministry in the church. When you look for a job in the future, and they need a letter of recommendation, you say, Pastor, can you help me write a letter of recommendation? How can I help you write it? You do the ministry so poorly; you complain about the pressure all the time. Then how can I write for you? I have to write the truth. I have known so-and-so for three years. During these three years, he has been responsible for such-and-such ministry. In this ministry, he is often negative. That's what I would have to write.

But if, on the other hand, you are very proactive and conscientious in your ministry, with a responsible attitude, then I can write, He is very responsible, helping us solve this problem, this problem, this problem... That would be great! He manages our WeChat official account, increasing our followers from zero to ten thousand... And also grew our Weibo followers from zero to ten thousand. In this process, he developed this strategy, this strategy... How does such a recommendation letter sound? Although the closing signature is his pastor, our church is full of substance!

That being said, you carry a large stack of books published by our church, all written by the pastor. When the interviewer sees it, is there any need to ask questions? There is no need to ask anything; it's all in the books. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us cultivate the habit of turning responsibility into interest. If you are a student, you must turn learning into interest. It is not that you can only learn if you have an interest, but rather that you can only have interest if you learn. That is grasping the essence of things.

Grasping the Essence of Things Leads to Interest

When you grasp the essence of things, you will have interest. For example, yesterday brother XF said to me, A headhunting company called me, saying they would send me information so I could send back my resume, but after the call, they ignored me. They spoke so well over the phone. As soon as I heard this, I asked him what he said. What's your name? Are you married? He answered, Married... Such answers may work. If everyone answers like that, then you may still have a chance, but if some people don't answer like that, then you may have no chance. So, what is the essence of the matter? I asked him, Do you know why the headhunting company didn't contact you? I don't know, he said. I said, I'll tell you why they didn't contact you: because they found someone suitable.

It's like we go to a store to buy something, one store, two stores, three stores. I will be back later, but then I never come back. What happened? I bought it at another store and left. Why come back? Because they found someone suitable. If they find someone suitable, they will not come back to you. We all know roughly how headhunting companies operate. They get a list of twenty names, call three of them. If you are in the top three out of the twenty, they will ask you to send your resume. If you are ranked fourth, they are too lazy to bother with you, or if you are ranked twentieth, they will also ignore you. That is the key. Grasp the essence of the matter, and you will be successful.

So, even when looking for a job, you have to grasp the essence of the matter. Can finding a job be turned into your interest? Not that you have an interest in finding a job, but that you comprehend the essential principles in finding a job. When you comprehend the essential principles, your mind will react very quickly in whatever you do because you understand the essence.

During the Warring States period, there was a man named Shang Yang, who went to the State of Qin, and Duke Xiao of Qin gave him the position of prime minister. Shang Yang had not served several countries before coming; he had not been a prime minister. So, why could he find a position as prime minister as soon as he arrived at Duke Xiao of Qin's court? Because he had grasped the essence of things. So, no matter how you change, you cannot deviate from the essence of society. If you master Newton's three laws, you can calculate the operation of the solar system, and you will know how the earth operates because you know the law of universal gravitation, Newton's laws.

Interest Is Grasping the Essence of Things

What must we learn about what it means to have interest? Interest is about grasping the essence of things, that's what true interest is. Newton was very interested in this thing because he found the essence of things. So today, whenever you grasp the essence of things, you will have interest. That is why later I became a pastor, and the more I do it, the better I feel. Some people say that the most challenging profession in the world is the President of the United States, and then the pastor. I later found out that this is not the case. Why are these people so miserable as pastors? Because they have not grasped the essence of being a pastor. I have grasped the essence of being a pastor; I have grasped the essence of being a manager.

Because I am a person who pursues excellence and constantly studies. Over the past few years, I have continuously studied in depth, studying how to do this thing well. If I am going to do something, I will do it well. I am definitely not just interested, I love everything I do, and I love everything I do to the extreme. I took the measurement drawings myself to measure, and when I went to find the renovation team, they said, Are you in renovation? I said, I'm not. They thought I was in decoration. Because my mind is rarely idle, I think about this all the time, and then I suddenly understand.

Learning to Be a Person Is the Essence

Whether it is work or shepherding, what is it all about? The essence is being a person. Many people do not know how to be a person, and many people do not know how to do things. The essence is that you can be a person. If the boss likes you, won't you find a job? If you don't know how to be a person, can't you learn to be a person? Church work is about teaching people how to be a person. If you think you are doing a good job as a person, show me the results of your being a person. If a person lives to be seventy or eighty and is still poor, then he does not know how to be a person. You see others living to be forty or fifty and becoming more and more prosperous, then they have grasped the essence of being a person.

Learning to Speak

To be a person, you must know how to speak. The state released in the entire process of being a person infects people, and they like you at first glance. If others hate you, what do you do? Doing the essence of being a person, the sum of the law and the knowledge of the prophets is that you should not do to others what you do not want others to do to you. You want others to treat you as you treat others.

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

Some people do not succeed in being a person. Where is the problem? The problem is that they think about themselves all day long. They do not consider what others want. If you do not consider what others want, you only consider what you want, then being a person will certainly fail. When I work, I consider what my boss wants, what my customers want, and what my employees want, not what I want. What I want is not important. What is important is what they want. I have to figure out what the recruiter wants. What can I give him? And if I can't give it to him, I have to find a way to give it to him.

Today we come to China, to be a person is to build relationships, if you don't know how to build relationships, what will you do? I do my best in this regard. I will give some things to others, it is not a matter of price, it is being a person. How can you be a pastor if you don't even know how to be a person? If you don't even know how to be a person, how can you be a manager and manage people?

Successful People Have Responsibility, Vision, Dreams, and Goals

I think career planning is not about personality tests, skill training, it is about changing your personality to become the personality of a talent. Everything is training. Training is the foundation.

The church must become a base for training talents, training people's personalities, a base for training people to become talents. That is the foundation. It doesn't matter whether you are interested or not. It is not that I am interested in doing this, and I am not interested in doing that. Because I have this responsibility, a dream, a vision, a goal to pursue, then you will live out prosperity. What I am considering is not whether I am interested in this, but what my God wants from me. I will give an account when I get to my God in the future.

I believe in God, I only have one interest, and that is loving Jesus. I love Jesus and I love him well, and then I have to give an account of what Jesus wants to Jesus in the future. How to give an account? So I began to learn to understand the essence of things. Understanding the essence of things becomes an interest. Then everything you do in your life becomes your interest.

I encourage every brother and sister to turn what you do into your interest. I even clean the toilets to a professional level. It's not that cleaning the toilet is my interest, it's my responsibility. Brothers and sisters, learn to be a person. Learn to do things and the place where you are will be blessed.