It is of utmost importance to market oneself. Some individuals possess a wealth of talent, yet remain unknown, unable to promote themselves, and thus fail to realize their potential value. Any item left unsold in storage, though valuable, cannot be converted into tangible worth. By marketing yourself effectively, you could command a value of two thousand, four thousand, or even more. Therefore, we must consider how to promote ourselves.

Firstly, Skill is Crucial in Self-Promotion

Do not assume that as a believer, I need not promote myself, that good wine needs no bush. The current era is far removed from such notions. Even the finest wine requires promotion. Without it, others will seize the opportunity. Observe closely in the workplace, and you will notice that some individuals occupy positions not because they are inherently more intelligent or capable, but because they are adept at self-promotion. Those who lack this skill may struggle to find employment.

This statement should not be dismissed as mere superstition. Even as Christians, blessed by God, we must learn to market ourselves. What skills do you possess? What value can you create for others? What unique qualities or talents do you offer? Some may argue that Apple iPhones require no promotion, but this is not the case. Their marketing is exceptionally effective.

Consequently, we witness Apple stores selling out of new phone models upon release, even experiencing shortages. This is due to promotion. Virtually no one can enter the workforce without promoting themselves.

Self-promotion is a vital skill. Some may believe that as believers, God will bless them with a job. However, self-promotion is still necessary. Why do I say this? Because self-promotion essentially presents you to the leaders of prospective employers, allowing them to assess your character and qualities.

Packaging oneself is one thing; possessing genuine substance is another. However, possessing genuine substance without external packaging is not ideal.

For instance, would you purchase unpackaged food in a store? If it could fetch $50 with packaging, it might only sell for $10 without it, or even remain unsold. People often prefer to spend $50 on a packaged item rather than $10 on an unpackaged one.

Whether packaging and promotion are synonymous is debatable, but I believe that effective self-promotion requires both inner substance and attractive packaging – genuine quality coupled with appealing presentation.

Can you imagine an Apple iPhone wrapped in rags? It is incongruous. Observe closely, and you will notice that the packaging is exquisite, and the contents are meticulously arranged. Therefore, a talented individual must possess both the ability to promote themselves and genuine skills. These two are indispensable.

Secondly, Character is Key to Education

Whether one possesses character or not, the image they project, even with the same skills, differs vastly. Character, when expressed, is highly compelling. We must change our educational philosophy. As times evolve, we constantly discuss educational philosophies. While not yet universally adopted, this forward-thinking approach allows us to anticipate that our educational philosophies may become commonplace in the next ten to twenty years.

The Core of Character is Confidence

What is our educational philosophy? Character development is the most crucial aspect of education. The core of character is confidence. Therefore, we build people's confidence, instilling in them a sense of optimism about the future. This, in turn, manifests as a particular character, which is key to education. With this character, you will find that they still need to be shaped in their skills.

Experience Yields Skill

Educational practice shapes character and skill, not just knowledge. We were once taught that "knowledge is power," but we later discovered that much knowledge is unusable and powerless. We often say that someone is experienced, implying that they are knowledgeable. However, knowledge does not necessarily equate to experience.

An experienced person undoubtedly possesses relevant skills, and with those skills comes relevant knowledge. Conversely, possessing knowledge does not guarantee skills, and possessing skills does not guarantee experience.

What is experience? It is the accumulation of using one's skills to solve problems, or using one's skills and knowledge to solve problems. The educational philosophy should be to shape a child's character and skills. What about experience? Experience should be tested in the market, or accumulated to some extent in school.

Experience is Gained Through Practical Application

Practical application is practical application. School is not yet a battlefield, but it would be ideal to bring students into a controlled and managed practical environment, training them to become experienced individuals.

Therefore, the key to self-promotion is to showcase the appeal of your character. The character you project to others is crucial; character is a form of charisma.

Thirdly, Character is an Intrinsic Quality

What is character? It is not merely an external attribute but an intrinsic quality. For example, a child with resilience will exhibit that resilience in their words and actions upon closer interaction. Similarly, a confident character will be evident in their manner of expression.

Therefore, character is a vital component. An individual lacking character is unlikely to succeed in self-promotion.

Thus, training character in school or in one's personal life is paramount. Self-promotion is promoting one's character.

Consider someone attending a job interview and promoting themselves. It is intriguing if they project a distinct character. Poor exam results can signify various things. In fact, a person with character should generally perform well in exams.

Why do many struggle with exams? Because their character lacks something, leading to a distorted state that results in poor exam performance and a lackluster character. In an interview, they might say, "Although my grades are not good, it does not mean I cannot learn. I am resourceful because I have focused on developing my expertise in a particular area, which has been overlooked."

If the interviewer finds these explanations and stories acceptable, then it is fine. Some stories may even be far-fetched. For instance, a young man encountered difficulties during an interview and said, "I fell in with bad company for the past three years and learned to play computer games, but I am now determined to change. I am not unintelligent; I can still learn if I apply myself." He still secured the job.

Do not assume that poor academic performance undermines everything. Academic performance only represents the past; what matters now is projecting a particular character to others.

For example, if someone is asked why they only have a junior high school diploma, they might say, "My family was poor, and I had to work." While many families are no longer impoverished, you can still demonstrate your abilities. For instance, despite a poor background, you have been self-studying for years and may even surpass someone with a college degree due to the skills you have honed in the workplace. This is also a form of character.

Therefore, in the process of promoting yourself, cultivate the habit of promoting your character. Character is highly appealing. For example, being persevering, resilient, focused, or decisive; being able to make accurate decisions and judgments; being resourceful and adaptable; and possessing a character that fosters easy rapport are all part of character.

Fourthly, Promote Your Core Competencies

A prominent figure once said that many young people today possess a wide but shallow knowledge base, about an inch deep and a mile wide, which is useless. The market demands core competencies, leading to a more defined and specialized division of labor in society.

If you excel in one particular area, you will be highly valued. However, many become frustrated when they lack core competencies. Without core competencies, you are promoting an empty shell. You cannot simply sell a box without a phone inside, as it serves no purpose.

Therefore, today, we must identify our core competencies. A brother once told me he was going to pursue a master's degree, and I told him that packaging himself would be good. But the question is, if we use the time spent on a master's degree to build our core competencies, which would be better? I believe that having core competencies is very, very important.

Chinese society is shifting from an emphasis on diplomas to an emphasis on core competencies. You must possess skills. Without genuine abilities and relying solely on deception, you will not last long in any job. Therefore, you must present your core competencies. To build your core competencies, you must understand the market. If you are unaware of market demands and build your core competencies arbitrarily, you risk being淘汰 by the market.

Fifthly, Know Yourself, Know the Market Demand

We must recognize that everything is driven by the market. A market-driven society is a market economy. The difference between a market economy and a planned economy is that a market economy is driven by market demand. Without market demand, there is no business. Therefore, recognizing market demand is a crucial component.

Knowing yourself and understanding market demand will guide you in your development and the core competencies you need to acquire. Then, promote your core competencies, knowing how to clearly articulate them. This is promotion. In terms of market demand for core competencies, I believe that conducting market research, reading extensively, and gaining knowledge are good habits.

For example, reading the book "Industry 4.0" will reveal that many industries will gradually disappear in the coming years. If this is true, we must be cautious and avoid joining the ranks of those being淘汰 by the market. This is called structural unemployment.

Know yourself, understand market demand, and constantly adjust. Therefore, I believe that one must have a long-term vision. A prominent figure once said that to see the next few years, one must first look at 30 to 50 years. Only by seeing the market situation 30 to 50 years from now can you plan for the next three to five years.

Then, based on the three- to five-year plan, adjust your one- to two-month, or even three-month, plan. Know what you are made of, what you can do, and what you cannot do. Know what you have accumulated, what your strengths are, and what your weaknesses are. Then, understand market demand. This is crucial.

I once ministered to a girl who was already twenty-seven or twenty-eight but had essentially achieved nothing. She studied theology for half a year under the guidance of a traditional church, but accomplished nothing. Then, I bluntly addressed her most painful area. Although she knew I was right, she could not accept it.

Later, she went to a first-tier city to sell insurance. Did she truly understand the insurance industry? Did she truly know herself? Did she truly understand market demand? She did not. She knew neither herself nor market demand.

For example, let me share a veteran's approach to the insurance industry. If you do not have sufficient savings to support yourself for one to two years, do not sell insurance. But many borrow money to sell insurance, which is a recipe for disaster. Today, unless I say, "Believe that you have received it, and you will receive it," may miracles happen to such children. But the problem is that faith is important, but faith should not negate the need to know yourself.

## Point 6: Learn the Language of Salesmanship

If the business is not on the right track, the returns will barely keep it afloat. Therefore, **knowing oneself and understanding market demands are key to selling oneself**. How you respond to questions asked reflects the needs of the market and what you possess, what you can offer to meet those needs. Even if you embellish a little, it must be credible; you cannot fabricate an unreliable story.

Learn to speak, to use the language of salesmanship. Every industry has its own way of speaking. Diplomats have diplomatic language; salespeople have sales techniques; selling oneself has its own pattern of language. **Cultivate the habit of speaking** appropriately. So today, we, as brothers and sisters, begin to understand how to speak, what kind of words to use. It's not just asking if someone has eaten or had a drink; that is not the language of self-promotion.

The language of self-promotion **must be precise**. It has a **unique characteristic**: it never deviates from the core. What skills do you have, what problems can you solve, what value can you create, and what market needs can you meet?

I once taught people how to handle job interviews. If the interviewer asks an unrelated question, like, "What are you reading lately?" and you answer, "I'm reading *Water Margin* or *Legend of the White Snake*," the interviewer has no interest in that. You must learn to speak appropriately. You should say, "I've been **researching**..." If you're applying for a job in online marketing, you should be researching online marketing. "I even wrote a short article summarizing the key points of online marketing." Then, you take out a printed copy of your summary.

If you've written a short book, say twenty or thirty pages, on "How to Do Online Marketing," and you print it out, that's **the language of salesmanship**. Recruiters don't have time to hear about your reading of *Water Margin*; none of that matters. You need to write **your own legend**. You need to explain what you can do for them. So, what seems like an unrelated question is actually very relevant. Why? Because you must learn to speak pertinently.

Whether I am serving as a pastor or working as an entrepreneur, I wouldn't say I'm exceptionally good at selling myself, but I think I do a decent job. If I were to look for a pastoral position in an English-speaking country, I believe it wouldn't be too difficult.

For example, during my recent conversation with my pastor in Singapore, I promoted myself quite effectively. What did I promote? I promoted the books I've written. I mentioned that I've written over thirty books, and I presented him with one. He looked at it, and I highlighted a few key elements: building the church, my research findings, or a revelation from the Bible, some insights. A few words moved him.

I was leaving the next day, but he still wanted me to meet with one of his subordinates to provide some training. Why? Because I had successfully sold myself. He believed I had genuine talent and knowledge. Whether you have substance or not is one thing, but even if you are knowledgeable, if you can't speak well, you won't be able to sell yourself. Therefore, **you must learn to speak, to get to the point**.

If you are facing an investor, speak the language of investment. The language of investment involves your industry, whether the industry is on the rise, your business model, your profit model, and your team. This is the language to use when talking to investors. You need to understand the language of each industry. You don't need to understand what is irrelevant to you, but you really need to align yourself with what is relevant and learn to speak appropriately, avoiding irrelevant talk.

For example, if an investor asks me, "What are you reading lately?" I would say, "I'm reading *The Game of Capital*." Why? Because you are talking to an investor. If you are talking to a novelist, what are you doing? "What are you reading lately?" "I'm reading about how to write novels." What if you haven't read anything? Then read something!

But if you haven't read anything, what can you talk about? "I've heard this book is very good, but I haven't had time to read it." That's acceptable. I think everyone should cultivate this habit, equipping themselves to be useful members of society, to be good citizens.

### We Must Equip Ourselves to Become Talents in This Society

I think we should do what we can do and not do what we cannot do. As for systemic issues or institutional problems, those are for others to handle. **Let us be good citizens, equip ourselves well, learn to speak well, and promote ourselves effectively**. You might say it's the broader social environment. I think the environment in China is quite good. Is there a problem with the environment in China? There are problems everywhere. Don't be misled by these things.

Look at the amount of chaos and negativity abroad! Many people are pessimistic about China, but I am confident that the next twenty years will be the twenty years in which China becomes a strong, developed nation. China will become one of the leading powers in the world. You must **focus on the big picture**. Are there problems? Yes.

Your task is to equip yourself to become a **talent** in this society. This society needs many stabilizing factors. **We must become stabilizing factors in this society**. As Christians, we pray, but we do not cause trouble. We focus our energy and abilities on doing the right things, learning to speak, learning the language of self-promotion, and learning to equip ourselves.

## Point 7: Quickly Equip Yourself, Enhance Your Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

I watched a video of an old farmer sitting on a bench in a park. He's not a mayor, a Party Secretary, a county head, or a county Party Secretary. He's just sitting on a bench, and the video is quite long. He's talking about how this should be done and how that should be done. I tell you, that kind of person is just talking nonsense, not taking the time to equip himself properly.

In England, there's Hyde Park, a corner where people can say whatever they want. Singapore has also created such a corner where you can say whatever you want.

I think if you have time, **quickly equip yourself, enhance your knowledge, skills, and experience**. What is experience? It's what you gain after using your knowledge and skills to solve problems. It's the result of solving problems.

What is a skill? It's having a certain knowledge and then creating something with it. It's being able to operate something. What is knowledge? Knowledge is something from books that you put in your head after reading it. You don't know if it works or not. So, quickly equip yourself. **If you can, equip yourself with experience; if not, equip yourself with skills**.

But knowledge is, at best, just understanding. If you don't have experience in that area, if you don't have the skills, if you haven't worked in the market, you can't do it. You can still sell yourself by talking about knowledge.

There was a young man who studied computers and engineering. Later, he wanted to find a job in marketing. I told him to read Philip Kotler's *Marketing Management*. It has about twenty chapters, including one on direct sales and online marketing. He read the first two chapters and gained a little knowledge of marketing.

Then he went to the interview and got the job. Why? Because he knew how to speak. How do people measure you? Some interviewers are not good at interviewing; some can't see through things. It sounds reasonable, but wouldn't the book be reasonable?

So, **quickly equipping yourself allows you to continuously enhance your knowledge, skills, and experience**. Perhaps you can seize one or two **opportunities**. I think today we, as brothers and sisters, should begin to learn how to learn. Once you understand the market's needs and your own situation, you can start equipping yourself with knowledge, setting up topics, researching certain topics, and starting to improve your skills.

If you have the opportunity, you can gain some practical experience. Today, with computers and the internet, this era has truly changed. For example, circuit design can be done on a computer, and it looks almost the same as soldering. So today, there is too much knowledge and too many skills. There's also NetEase Cloud Classroom. Even if you haven't seen something before, you can watch many videos and become quite skilled. You'll know how things work.

### Successfully Promote Yourself and Find a Job That Suits You

Some time ago, I took everyone to my office. We were renovating, and we had to sand and paint the wood. We watched videos, listened to the master craftsman, and did a pretty good job. That's called painting experience. In the past, it was difficult, but today you can quickly equip yourself with practical experience. For example, to write a program, all you need is a computer, right? To do a live broadcast, all you need is a computer and a camera, right? Many things today can be done in an era of rapid self-equipment. If you say you have no experience, no skills, no knowledge, then what are you selling?

So today, you need to know what skills you have, what knowledge you have, and what experience you have. When you go out to promote yourself, you can reintegrate these things and turn yourself into something valuable. That's how a person's value is realized. Without promotion, there is no value. I think successfully promoting yourself will lead to finding a very good job. To summarize, if you want to successfully promote yourself, follow the steps I mentioned earlier. Are there limitations in this process? Yes, there are. For example, if you are a doctor and you haven't performed surgery, that's difficult. I once watched a Korean movie about training people to perform surgery. How did they do it? They used a lot of fish bladders and had people cut them. You couldn't cut the surrounding tissue, but you couldn't break the bladder. If you broke the bladder, you failed the exam.

So, successfully promoting yourself, I think, is about finding something that suits you. Some things must be trained in a very limited environment, such as doctors. I wouldn't teach people to do that. So today, there are many things that we, as brothers and sisters, can do and many things we can choose. Making a living is almost not a problem. If you are willing to work hard, learn, and figure things out, and then learn to promote yourself, you will be very successful. I think the path to promoting yourself also requires constantly accumulating experience. If you have the opportunity, go promote yourself. Even if you already have a job, occasionally send out a resume and go for an interview to see what the market is like. That's still good. So today, I want to share this with you. Now, let's see how God blesses you.

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