📖Thick face, black heart: the path to thriving, winning & succeeding

• p.7

  When you conceal your will from others, that is Thick.
  When you impose your will on others, that is Black.
  —Lee Zhong Wu
  

• Thick Face, Black Heart can be utilized for either good or evil purposes. → Thick Face, Black Heart is neither good nor evil
• Thick Face = The Shield
  • An adept of Thick Face creates his own positive self-image regardless of criticism of others. (p.10)
    • can put self-doubt aside
  • Thick Face can be humble and submissive. It is the ability to adopt to situation without regard of what others think of you. (p.12)
• Black Heart = The Spear
  • take action without regard how consequences will affect others (p.13)
    • ruthless, but not necessarily evil
  • has courage to fail (p.14)
• Progression → Thick Face, Black Heart progression
  • Phase 1:
    • stage 1. thick as a castle wall, black as a charcoal
      • thick but still penetrable, obviously black for anyone
    • stage 2. thick and hard, black and shimmering
      • more pleasant, not obviously selfish
    • stage 3. so thick it’s formless, so black it’s colorless
  • Phase 2: Self-Inquiry
  • Phase 3: The Warrior (combination of phase 1 and 2)
    • dispassion and detachment
    • fit for greatness
    • the union of spiritual and material world

• p.22

  a good man’s actions are not always gentle.

• p.23

  The natural way of Thick Face, Black Heart is beyond human manipulation, beyond the petty standards of human judgment.

• p.44 master the distinction between virtue and vanity

• p.77

  […] nothing is hard or easy. Competition for survival is the condition of life.

• (is startup a seek for instant gratification? it depends on the motives)

p.101

For a truly spiritual individual, the path of spirituality is like walking on a razor’s edge; it as a diligent pursuit of one’s perfection. […] It is impossible to attain the spiritual perfection if you have avoided discovering the path by which you can contribute to society as an individual.

• p.107-108 you are good as you are. people who promote positive psychology make you inferior for not being positive as if something is wrong with you → Telling people what they should be focuses then on how they are not
• p.109 success has no rules. it can come even for those with negative thinking (positive thinking skips this) → Success has no rules
  • this does not invalidate positive psychology. it’s just if you’re negative by nature, you don’t have to fix that
  • e.g. Mark Twain was pessimistic and sarcastic
  • Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway
• p.115 pessimism sometimes is realism

• _

  Only mediocre are always at their best. —Jean Giraudoux

• p.122 If you’re inconsistent, that might be a part of your power. Some people need a period on inactivity to jump higher. Enjoy your non-productivity as that’s part of your productivity → Periods of non-productivity as a part of overall productivity
• p.128 there is no universal negativity definition. it is created by humans and changes over time and place
• (what are my “negativities?”)

• first spear is outer battle
• second spear is inner battle

• p.200 3. work is not separate from your spiritual unfoldment
• p.201 work does not need you, you need work.
  • “the world does not need any book, but I need to write one”
• p.203 7. Life evolves through actions

• p.204 (common saying)

  The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.

• p.206 using intuition as a business tool
  • (re: dreyfus model)
• p.209 12. Discover your natural rhythm

• _

  If you perform the sacrifice of doing your duty,
  you do not have to do anything else.
  Devoted to duty, man attains perfection.
  —Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita
  

• provide for yourself and others
  • entrepreneurs provide work for self and others

• Tamas—inactivity
• Rajas—activity, struggle (red, orange?)
• Sattva—knowledge, wisdom, expansion (yellow, turquoise?)