Shi Ban Gong Bei Pearls
Shi Ban Gong Bei
Combining the wisdom of the East and the West
to accomplish things more successfully and efficiently
Dr. Ming Wang
Harvard & MIT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser physics)
CEO, Aier-USA; Director, Wang Vision Institute, 1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150, Nashville, TN, 37203
www.drmingwang.com,
“Sight” (FREE link: sight.drmingwang.com)
“Shi Ban Gong Bei” is a Chinese saying about accomplishing twice the work in half the time.
Dr. Ming Wang, a philanthropist and Kiwanis Nashvillian of the Year, is a Harvard and MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude) and one of the few cataract and LASIK eye surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics.
Ming grew up in China and came to this country with only $50, having survived the Cultural Revolution. Today, he is a world-class eye surgeon who holds two doctorate degrees, one in medicine (Harvard & MIT (MD)), and one in laser physics (UMD). H has performed over 55,000 laser vision procedures, including on over 4,000 doctors.
Dr. Wang invented amniotic membrane contact lens and donated his patent to the world. It is now being used by eye doctors from nearly every nation and millions of patients have had eyesight restored. He has published 10 ophthalmic textbooks and over 100 papers, including one that he first-authored in the journal “Nature,” holds several U.S. patents, and performed the world’s first laser artificial cornea implantation. He received the Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Chinese American Physicians.
Dr. Wang is the co-founder of the Common Ground Network, a 501c(3) non-profit dedicated to his life-long passion of helping people find common ground, and also the Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Business Group. He has also founded Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which to date has helped patients from over 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge.
“Sight” (FREE link: sight.drmingwang.com) is based on Dr. Wang’s autobiography “From Darkness to Sight”, co-starring Greg Kinnear.
Pearl One
In partnership, the person is more important than the project.
In partnership, who your partner is, is more important then what you will be doing together. Examine the character of a potential partner before entering into a business relationship with him/her. With the right partner, you may be able to do the right thing; however, with the wrong partner, you may never be able to do the right thing.
Pearl Two
In solving a problem, the matter is more important than the person.
When addressing a problem, you should not focus on the personal attributes of the individual who made the mistake. If you do, you will place the focus on the person himself/herself, which may incite his/her ego and create an emotional barrier that could cause him/her to never be able to see the issue itself. Therefore, you should focus on the issue instead of the person. The goal is to solve the problem and improve the system, not to blame a particular person.
Pearl Three
Life is a two-way street.
If you need someone to assist you with your project, you first need to do everything you can to help that person with his/her project. Then he/she will be more inclined to help you with yours. A person who always wants to just take but not give will never be successful.
Pearl Four
Make it easy for others to help you
If you need help with your project, you need to first accomplish as much of it as you can yourself. Don't be lazy. If the person from whom you need help sees that you truly care about your own project that you have already done as much of it as you can yourself before you asked for help, he/she will be more willing to assist you. Furthermore, the more you have done yourself prior to asking for help, the less he/she will have to do, so the easier it will be for him/her to do to help you.
Pearl Five
WHY am I here today?
Whatever you are doing, always be willing to step back for a moment, look at the whole situation, and ask yourself this key question: “Ultimately, what is the real reason or purpose of me being here today?”
Pearl Six
Identify the #1 task.
When faced with many challenges, RANK them in order of importance so you can devote most of your attention to the #1 task. The ability to rank is at the core of the human experience!
Pearl Seven
Apply logic to everything you do.
Apply logic to everything you do--whether it is big or small--and ask yourself, “Does it actually make logical sense?” and “How can I more logically solve this problem?”
Pearl Eight
Check things orthogonally.
When you check something for accuracy, try NOT to use the same method that you used to obtain your initial result to begin with, because if there was an error with that method, you will likely make the same mistake again! You are much more likely to catch an error if you use a completely different and unrelated--i.e., orthogonal (in logic)—method the second time.
Pearl Nine
Focus on content before form.
Content is more important than form, and substance is much more important than formality.
Pearl Ten
Focus ONLY on what YOU do, and the things you CAN control.
Don’t worry about what others do, focus ONLY on what you yourself can do. Do not waste any time on things that are not under your control; focus ONLY on things you CAN do or change.
Pearl Eleven
Learn from others’ mistakes.
Learn from the mistakes of others so hopefully you won’t have to make the same mistakes yourself.
Pearl Twelve
Stay focused on the point.
Don't be distracted by examples that people use; always keep your focus on the issue itself.
Pearl Thirteen
Don’t try to change someone else; adapt and change yourself.
You cannot change another person anyway, but you can change yourself. Your ideal work partner should be someone who, at the onset, already possesses many attributes that will enable you to work well together. If adjustments are needed after you begin working together, adapt and change yourself.
Pearl Fourteen
Success is measured by effort, not by the result.
Success is NOT defined by how much we have accomplished, but by whether or not we have made our best effort. If you have done your best in everything you have done, then you are successful!
Pearl Fifteen
People will do what others have done in a similar situation.
If you want someone to do something, first try to identify and then convey to him/her what others in a similar situation have done previously, since people generally feel more comfortable doing something which has been done by others who have been in their shoes.
Pearl Sixteen
Can I do this a bit better?
Whatever you are part of, whether it is a process or a product, always be willing to ask yourself: “Can I do this a bit better?”
Pearl Seventeen
Help others to RECALL the issue first.
When you follow up with someone on an issue, remember that although you are fully aware of it (since it is your issue), he/she may not be! So, first try to help the person recall what it is all about, so he/she won’t have to spend EXTRA time him/herself figuring that out. If the individual has to do that, he/she may very well end up NOT doing the things you want him/her to do because it seems like it would be just too much trouble and it is not even his/her project to begin with!
Pearl Eighteen
Always be prepared with a back-up plan.
Whatever you do, go into it fully prepared, with at least a plan B, and sometimes even a plan C. When something unexpected happens and you are not already prepared with an alternative plan, going “back to the drawing board” is a total waste of time!
Pearl Nineteen
Improve the SYSTEM itself.
When solving a problem, don't be satisfied with only solving the problem itself; instead, try to examine the SYSTEM from which the problem arose in the first place, and find ways to improve the underlying system itself.
Pearl Twenty
Identify the real intention of a person.
The real intention of a drunkard is not necessarily in the wine. Someone may appear to want something, but he/she may really want something else.
Pearl Twenty-One
Listen, and then speak.
Listen first, let people finish what they are saying, and then speak. If you wait, you will avoid speaking prematurely.
Pearl Twenty-Two
Among life’s uncertainties, identify the few things that ARE indeed certain.
When faced with many uncertainties, identify among them the few things that ARE indeed certain, and then hang your hat on them.
Pearl Twenty-Three
At least try.
If you don’t even try, you have zero chance to succeed; but if you try, even when you only have a 1% chance, it is still much better than the zero!
Pearl Twenty-Four
3 criteria to determine if you do need to solve a problem.
Does the problem indeed exist? Is it actually a big enough problem to merit the time/effort that it will take to solve it? Will solving it really matter?
Pearl Twenty-Five
On what does human happiness depend?
It is not how much you have, nor how much you want, that determines your happiness in life. Human happiness depends on the distance between how much you have and how much you want. The smaller that distance is, the happier you are.
Pearl Twenty-Six
Restate the question, please.
Before we hurry to answer a question, sometimes it is helpful to ask: “Could you please restate the question again?” Clarifying what has actually been asked of you is often half the battle.
Pearl Twenty-Seven
The goal of life
The goal of life is not about seeing how much we can accomplish; but rather if we are happy throughout the journey. Life is not about feeling that we “having arrived” at wherever, it is about enjoying the PROCESS of trying to get there.
Pearl Twenty-Eight
You CAN actually change the reality around you.
The traditional wisdom that you can’t really change your surroundings and the reality around you is actually wrong. In fact, you CAN! If you are always positive, always choosing to try to do something rather than not trying at all, always deciding to look at the glass as half-full rather than half empty, then eventually you will find that the people around you have all somehow magically CHANGED and now are all happy! How did your surrounding change like this? Well, this I because YOU have caused it to change! You have chosen to be positive, and you are actually the one who have CREATED a similar happy reality and environment around you! You CAN change it if you so choose. Your subjective choice DOES influence the objective reality around you!
Pearl Twenty-Nine
Do everything a little better.
Contrary to popular belief, people who are successful in life often do NOT have incredible, earth-shattering, unique skills and/or secrets that others don’t have. They are just slightly more diligent and alert, always watching with everything they do to try to find opportunities to MAXIMIZE their efforts in order to do a little bit better than others. They may do just 1% better than others in one thing, but cumulatively, they eventually end up doing much better in life overall than most of us.
Pearl Thirty
90% of what we think is happening to us, is actually our reaction to it.
Of all the things we think are happening to us, 10% is indeed the things that happen to us over which we have no control, but 90% is actually our reaction which we DO have control. So, if we can modify/improve our subjective reaction, we can in fact overcome/control 90% of what we believe are objective things that are happening to us.
Pearl Thirty-One
Yin and Yang.
Life is about balance, yin and yang. Going to one extreme often generates exactly the opposite effect of what you desire. If you are extreme in your efforts at something, you can actually end up being non-productive/bad at accomplishing the desired goal.
Pearl Thirty-Two
Before you speak, first rank your questions or answers.
People pay the most attention to what you say FIRST. So before you ask a question, or answer one, first think it through in your own mind, and then ask the most important question, first; similarly, when answering a question, figure out your top and most critical answer and state that, first.
Pearl Thirty-Three
A frog at the bottom of a well
Each of us is a “frog at the bottom of a well,” i.e., our perspective, basis for judgment and opinions are limited by our own experience and exposure. We look up and see a small round patch of clear sky and believe it is a beautiful day! However, when we climb out of the well up to ground level, and are now able to look around at the ENTIRE sky, we may realize it is actually a cloudy day! We see that the small patch of sky that we were able to see earlier when we were at the bottom of the well was actually not at all representative of the whole situation!
Pearl Thirty-Four
The GOAL of our communication
The GOAL of our communication should NOT be to just get a chance to just talk! The goal should be to make sure that our listener(s) do understand what we are talking about. Don’t just continue talking and be oblivious to whether or not you listener understands or even cares at all about what you are saying!
Pearl Thirty-Five
The best teacher
The best teacher is not someone who knows the most; but rather someone who knows the most about what his/her students know.
Pearl Thirty-Six
People may be wrong, but they still want to be respected and heard.
Although people may be wrong, they still want to be respected and heard, so respect them and let them fully express their opinion, and consider carefully what they say.
Pearl Thirty-Seven
Left and right brains: 1+1>2!
A right-brain dominant person is supposed to be creative and artistic, and one who is considered a left-brain is rational and logical. However, we should not be limited by these classifications, e.g., “I am a right-brain person, so I am not good at logical things.” Instead, engage your right-brain to help you with logical tasks, such as applying artistry to a precision eye surgery; and summon your left-brain to help your creative work, such as applying mechanical and physics principles in learning ballroom dancing. Rather than treating them as two isolated halves, our right and left brains are meant to work TOGETHER, synergistically. It is a situation where 1+1 equals actually MORE THAN 2!”
Pearl Thirty-Eight
Don’t do it, don’t write it
If you don’t want people to know what you are doing, then simply don’t do it; and if you don’t want people to read what you have written, then just don’t write it!
Pearl Thirty-Nine
Don’t criticize unless you have a better idea.
If you don’t have a better idea, then keep your mouth closed. If you want to criticize something, always be ready to offer what you believe is a better solution.
Pearl Forty
The ultimate drive in life
The ultimate drive in life is to LOVE what you do! If you don’t, then change what you do!
Pearl Forty-One
Maintain fairness, independent of human bias and favoritism.
A system is truly fair if it is independent of the identity of any particular person who is placed in that position/system.
Pearl Forty-Two
The ultimate failure
A human being, if left to his/her own devices, is bound to become corrupt since we are all selfish in nature. The best way to develop a solid, incorruptible system is to NOT rely upon any assumptions of the goodness/unselfishness of any human being. It should be a fair system, and no one should be above that system.
Pearl Forty-Three
Today is important too!
Yesterday is what we have done. Tomorrow is what we will do. But how about today? Should today merely just serve to remember what we did yesterday and prepare for what we will do tomorrow? That is not fair! Today has the right to be its own day! Focus on today, stay in the moment, and make the best of right now! Think about it: the reason that we need to actually constantly remind ourselves as such is because we naturally really DON’T do this; instead, we tend to just focus on the past or future, but simply just ignore today!
Pearl Forty-Four
A truly fair business deal
A truly fair business deal is one in which you can picture yourself stepping into your partner’s shoes, and when you look at the deal from that perspective, it is still fair. In all human interactions, always be willing to look at things from the others’ prospective.
Pearl Forty-Five
Establish validity FIRST, before you examine the efficacy.
If Johnny always tell lies, you are not going to listen to anything that he says! So before you consider what a person has to say, first spend some time examining his/her validity. Only evaluate what a person actually says AFTER you have the chance to first establish that he/she is indeed reliable and his/her opinion (whatever it is) is indeed worth considering.
Pearl Forty-Six
Never assume that you are the smartest person in the world.
If people do something in a different way than you do it, don’t just dismiss their way, believing you are a smarter person. You WILL be proven wrong! People do things in certain ways for a reason. It is better to be humble and study what they do and why they do it, as there is always something to learn from everyone.
Pearl Forty-Seven
Start with the big picture.
“You can’t see the forest for the trees.” So always start with the big picture (the “forest”) before being bogged down with individual details (the “trees”).
Pearl Forty-Eight
Kill many birds with one stone.
The best way to improve efficiency is to identify the commonalities among the tasks that you need to do, and try to do just one (or very few) thing(s) that will take care of everything.
Pearl Forty-Nine
Improve the methodology of doing something.
99% of us focus on accomplishing a job, but only 1% do more than that. After a job is done, 99% will move on to other things, but the 1% linger a bit longer, ponder and reflect: “Can I do this sort of thing a bit better the next time around? Has another person finished this job in a way that was actually better than mine? What can I learn from this experience so I can improve the way I do things in the future?” The nature of the work that we do will not stay with us (since we will do different things tomorrow), but, the improvements in our method of doing things, which are made by learning from this experience, WILL indeed STAY with us and will benefit us in the future.
Pearl Fifty
To be successful is to work selectively.
People say that to be successful, one has to be talented and work hard. While these two factors are indeed two of the top three qualities needed to be successful, however, NEITHER, is actually the #1! The most important thing to do if you want to be successful is to work intelligently, by selecting only a few things, focusing on them and doing the best you can with those few things. The goal is not to continue adding to your to-do list, but rather to work on subtracting various things on your plate until there is actually nothing left to subtract.
Pearl Fifty-One
Maximal alignment, minimal work
In a business collaboration, maximal alignment of interests in the beginning produces minimal work later. The opposite is also true, i.e., minimal alignment of interests among the various parties early on often ends up necessitating a lot and often unproductive work later.
Pearl Fifty-Two
Clearly define the issue first.
Clearly define the issue first, then you are actually already halfway there!
Pearl Fifty-Three
Fiduciary responsibilities
The fiduciary responsibility of a leader is to listen to and carefully consider a team member’s suggestion; and the fiduciary responsibility of a team member is to accept a leader’s final decision, and just do it!
Pearl Fifty-Four
More important doing things is to learn HOW to behave while doing it
More important than learning how to do something is to learn how to behave while you are doing it.
Pearl Fifty-Five
A dumb person eats something bitter
One is actually happier, if when things turn out to be not good but it was actually one’s own initial decision to do it, since there is now no one else to blame except oneself. This is just like a dumb person who eats something bitter and he/she can’t really tell others! The opposite is true also, i.e., one tends to be more unhappy if the initial decision to do it was made by someone else, so now one does have others to blame! So, in life, each person needs to make his/her own decision and take all of the responsibilities as such. As human being, we actually end up being happier that way!
Pearl Fifty-Six
A way to make yourself happier (which DOES work every time!)
Human being becomes unhappy when we unwisely compare what we have, with the ideal and often non-existent alternatives! So, the way to make ourselves happier – which DOES work every time, is to compare your current situation ONLY with other EXISTING alternatives. As long as your current situation is better than all other existing alternatives, you will be happy!
Pearl Fifty-Seven
Life is about picking the tallest, among dwarfs
We sometimes are stuck in inaction, because we feel that the method that we have is still not the perfect one. Well, the 100% ideal method actually does NOT exist! So, as long as what we are considering is the best, among the existing choices of method, then, let’s just do it! Ideal tall height does not really exist, at all. Life, is about picking the tallest, among dwarfs.
Pearl Fifty-Eight
Double security
For important things, always double security it. For example, when you send an e-mail to someone about an event, don’t type in just the date (or just the day of the week), type in BOTH, since the chance, of your making a mistake, in BOTH date and day, is very slim.
Pearl Fifty-Nine
Focusing on improving YOURSELF
Some people live by focusing on (the errors of) others, or even trying to sabotage others (e.g., a competitor); a much BETTER and productive way of living, however, is to focus on YOURSELF, i.e., how to improve YOURSELF.
Pearl Sixty
While in safety, think of danger
Even when things are going well, don’t become complacent, think of things that could go wrong, and if they do, and how would you deal with them.
Pearl Sixty-One
Don’t just trust what people say, look for system reasons that will ensure that what he/she said is indeed true.
If someone promises you something, don’t just listen and trust it. Look for system reasons, reality and facts, the will ensure that what he/she said is indeed true.
Pearl Sixty-Two
A road less travelled
Don’t crowd in on the road much travelled, it is hard to get ahead and it does not differentiate you. Identify and travel a road less travelled and build your life uniquely.
Pearl Sixty-Three
75%
When looking at anything, always examine the situation in a majority of the cases (75%), don’t get bogged down with exceptions.
Pearl Sixty-Four
WHY it worked?
When something worked in life, stop, and pause, and contemplate: WHY it worked? Are there any lessons that can be learned?
Pearl Sixty-Five
Discard it, if it was not a good idea.
No matter how good an idea was, if it does not actually work, move on!
Pearl Sixty-Six
Speak in the language of the listener, not the speaker.
The goal of communication is to be understood. So, speak in the language of the listener, and NOT that of the speaker!
Pearl Sixty-Seven
Lay out all available choices, FIRST.
Before making a decision, make sure that you have indeed examined carefully ALL of the available choices. Jumping into making a decision and then finding out that there are actually choices that were not considered, is a waste of time!
Pearl Sixty-Eight
Either involve someone in the whole discussion, or, do not involve him/her at all
Involving someone half way is the best to create confusion!
Pearl Sixty-Nine
A customer is always right when…
A customer is always right when in front of that customer.
Pearl Seventy
Life is an optimization process
If the vertical (Y) axis is productivity or happiness, and the horizontal (X) axis is human effort (from 0% to 100%), then life is always a bell-shaped curve. While 0% effort will get us nowhere (low values in Y axis), keeping on try while ignoring the writing on the wall (100% effort) is also detrimental and non-productive (also low values in Y axis). So life, is always, an optimization process, i.e., we keep on working and exploring, to find that particular location on the X axis (particular % of effort), where the vertical Y axis value (productivity/happiness) is at a maximum.
Pearl Seventy One
Subjective and objective evaluation
In assessing a person or a situation, be sure to have BOTH subjective and objective info.
Pearl Seventy Two
Focus on the problem that you can do SOMETHING about it
When faced with a list of problem, focus only on the problem that you can do SOMETHING about it.
Pearl Seventy Three
People are one-track minded
People are there, for one reason and one reason only, they don’t pay attention, to anything else.
Pearl Seventy Four
What ultimately matters
What ultimately matters, is NOT what you think you said, is what is being understood by the listener.
Pearl Seventy Five
Always think WHY
Whatever we do, always ask ourselves: WHY do we do this in this way?
Pearl Seventy Six
Commitment before how
Don’t worry about HOW to do something, until after you are indeed sure that you really WANT to do it!
Pearl Seventy Seven
What you want
Life has less to do with what it will give you objectively, but more with what you want subjectively.
