It took the British BBS 49 years to make a great documentary, the fate of the rich and the poor. Then completed the last seven years of shooting in 2012, these former 7-year-old children are already 56 years old, so they are also known as "56UP".

Under this proposition of growth and wealth, we have found a crueler reality than any fictional work.

Upper-class private school kids Andrew and JOHN have been reading the Financial newspaper or the Observer every day, and they know exactly which high school they are going to attend, and then go to Oxford and become famous lawyers and famous people.

Middle-class boys also have some dreams of opposing racial discrimination, helping people of color or where to go to school and have a career, while girls want to marry and have children when they grow up.

On the other hand, the children of the lower class who live in boarding schools in the slums of poor areas do not even have any dreams. Some people want to be horse trainers to make money, others hope to have a chance to see their father, and it has become their wish to eat less and stand less and be beaten.

Of course, there are exceptions. Nick, a farmer's son, went to the United States to become a professor at a famous American university after graduating from Oxford Physics. In his second marriage, he married an American wife with excellent appearance, and he was the only one among them who successfully made it to the elite class. Nick was born poor, but later became a professor in a famous school. It can be seen that there is a fish missing from the net in the palm of fate's hand.

This documentary fully tells us the Matthew effect that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but we are fully curious about how Nike has changed his destiny. We hope that he is not an isolated case, but a traceable way to change his life.

Is the Matthew effect the cruelty of reality?

The Matthew effect refers to the phenomenon that the strong is stronger and the weak is weaker, reflecting the social phenomenon of polarization, the richer the rich and the poorer the poor. Why is the Matthew effect so cruel and realistic that it is difficult for people to cross classes?

We generally believe that the poor are poor because they are ideologically fixed, lack of ability, and do not work hard enough to get good jobs and considerable wealth. These further affect the backwardness of thinking and resources, forming a vicious circle. Similarly, the rich are rich because the rich are better at learning, enterprising and more radical than the poor. These values in turn affect their lives, allowing them to get better jobs and start bigger careers, and have more money to make themselves better and stronger, thus forming a virtuous circle.

Therefore, in order to break the Matthew effect, we must first jump out of the thinking of ordinary people and manage our lives and wealth with the thinking of the rich; to make ourselves stronger, we will be encouraged in the process of becoming stronger and stronger. Only in this way can we maximize the positive effect of the Matthew effect.

What is the rich mind?

If there is such a thing as "poor thinking", then I think it should be a "scarcity mentality", because of scarcity, we will be short-sighted, will only focus on the current "peep view", will fall into the quagmire of debt and spending.

Correspondingly, "rich people's thinking" should be "venture capital thinking", understand long-term doctrine, take a long-term view, learn to invest in themselves, invest in contacts, and invest opportunities.

So what should the poor do?

Slowly solve the scarcity first.

Be ruthless to yourself, save some money, and first break the chain of peeping and shortsightedness, so that you have some room to move and freedom of choice when faced with decision-making. Learn basic economic knowledge, know that in choice and decision-making, use simple but effective concepts such as opportunity cost and input-output to make rational analysis, understand the basic knowledge about investment, and choose a way that suits your risk preference and capital scale.

Find the starting point and breakthrough of success and enter the virtuous circle of success

Digging the first bucket of gold in life is the premise of surpassing the strange circle of Matthew effect. The first bucket of gold here refers not only to money in the sense of wealth, but also to experience, friends, abilities, knowledge, and contacts. That is, in the economic sense, the stage of primitive accumulation of capital.

There are many ways to accumulate the first bucket of gold, such as long-term investment in funds from now on, which can not only cultivate our long-term thinking, but also slowly accumulate considerable assets and redeem them after steady growth. We will also be satisfied with our victories, which will increase your resources and increase your chances of winning again, so you should pursue victories that can continue to bring "added value" to you.

If you change the rules of the game or the place of the game, it is possible for the salted fish to turn around.

Why can't you play the cards according to the rules? Because in the winner-take-all society, the rules of the game are made by the strong, and the strong can make use of their own advantages to become the makers of the rules. once such rules are formed, they will strive to consolidate the existing rules and hinder the new ones. For example, the difficult reform of state-owned enterprises, and DiDi Global Inc., who was boycotted by taxis, all played a subversive role because they changed the inherent rules.

If you want to change the rules of the game, you must have foresight and a sense of foresight. You must not be limited to the present field of vision and choose new things that you have not touched before to try.

Concentrate all your resources and focus on one thing.

Resources are the core of Matthew effect and the internal driving force to promote Matthew effect, so the process of getting rid of Matthew effect is also a process of integrating one's own resources. therefore, how to make use of limited resources to achieve success is the most troubling problem for the weak.

What we often need is not a perfect "barrel effect", but the "long board". With a board long enough and a brain with a "complete bucket" consciousness, we can make up for our shortcomings through cooperation.

However, Niuniu must admit that it is more difficult and helpless for a person to get rid of the spell of Matthew effect. Even if we achieve the above three points, there is no guarantee that we will get out of this strange circle. But this is not a reason for us to be content with the status quo.

The waves behind the river pushed the waves in front of them, and the waves in front died on the beach. This is the posture of evolution. Evolution is not achieved through the sustainable development of a species, but by constantly eliminating the former "strong"-the strong is not defeated by anyone, but is not needed and marginalized.

Therefore, asking "how to break the Matthew effect" is tantamount to asking: how to be chosen by the times. The future is unpredictable and opportunities cannot be created, but as an individual, it is possible to pose and prepare.

Let's try another battlefield, just like Google does not fight with Microsoft Corp PC-- will jump out of the corner of the workplace, embrace the new market of investment, and be curious about unknown things, just as people embraced the Internet, e-commerce, mobile Internet, embraced VR, 3D printing, 5G, blockchain and other new areas of capital.

Since it is an investment attempt, it is necessary to control the risk and not let yourself be hurt by the failure of the investment-the assumption can be bold, verification must be cautious, small steps must be taken quickly, fast iteration, and persistent thinking is the long-term way to practice the thinking of the rich.