How much money you earn is determined by your economic position. Many people complain all day about low wages, investment losses, and difficult business conditions, and even feel hopeless about switching jobs. In fact, they have never understood the most fundamental truth: how much money you can earn is never determined by how hard you work or how capable you are, but by your position in the entire economic network.
The economic position I'm talking about is never metaphysics or motivational nonsense, but hardcore logic that can be explained thoroughly by both political economics and social psychology. Look at your WeChat Moments, where people are constantly showing off their salaries and bonuses, competing with each other. Most of them are basically at the bottom of the social ladder, and they feel like they've achieved a breakthrough in life just by earning an extra 2,000 yuan. But the truly wealthy rarely talk about hard work. They always talk about "vision" - and the so-called "vision" is essentially your position in the social wealth hierarchy.
You run a small restaurant, working twelve hours a day, with pitifully low profits. No matter how hard you work, you can't catch up with the bosses of chain stores. Your position has long determined the upper limit of resources, information, talents, and funds you can access, as well as how much money you can earn in your lifetime. To understand how to make money, you must first understand how wealth flows.
Money is never evenly distributed. No matter how diligent and down-to-earth you are, the market will only grant you limited opportunities. Similarly, in the e-commerce industry, some people master supply chains, channels, and traffic, easily earning tens of millions of yuan; while others can only open a small personal store, staring at the daily order volume, and even after a year of exhausting work, they can't earn more than 100,000 yuan. This is not luck, but a stark economic disparity.
Your position directly defines the boundaries of your resources and the ceiling of your profits. Even if you work five times harder than others, it's difficult to break through that shackle. Some might argue, "Can't hard work also lead to making money?" Yes, it can in the short term, but what you earn is merely the hard-earned money in a low-end economy, the kind of money that can be earned simply by putting in effort.
Competing on physical strength, time, and resource consumption, one's income is forever locked at the average level at the bottom. To put it more bluntly, the gap between developers and ordinary real estate speculators has never been about who works harder, but rather about the former's control over a complete network of resources including land, policies, and financing. Ordinary people work hard to save up for a down payment, putting in 16 hours a day, but they can only get a small share of the market; while developers, on the same wealth chain, rely on capital, scale, and influence to make tens or even hundreds of times more money - this is the power of location.
This logic holds true in the corporate world as well. You work hard at the grassroots level, earning year-end bonuses, striving for promotions, and earning performance bonuses. These are all rewards for your efforts. However, you are always trapped at the departmental level, unable to touch the core of the strategy, unable to share core resources, and your income ceiling has long been fixed. Meanwhile, the top executives meet daily, review reports, allocate resources, and profit is directly tied to decision-making power. This is the positional difference. The correlation between effort and income that you see has long been obscured by the rules set by those in higher positions.
From the perspective of political economy, the total amount of social wealth is limited, and resource allocation is essentially a zero-sum game. Even if the economy is growing, if those at the bottom do not improve their position, they can only get a little bit of scraps, and there will always be a dilemma where effort does not match reward - this is the root cause of why many people become poorer the busier they are and the more they struggle, the more they remain stagnant. On the contrary, those who occupy high positions can put most of the growth benefits into their own pockets by allocating resources, controlling information, and gaming policies. Even if the market is prosperous, those at the bottom can only get a little bit of the pie.
The psychological differences are equally evident. Those at the bottom are accustomed to linear thinking, firmly believing that hard work should be rewarded. When they see others making money, they feel anxious and always blame themselves for not working hard enough. However, those at the top have a clear perspective. Their efforts are strategic, with the core being to seize positions and expand boundaries, rather than simply selling time.
Those big shots, investors, and traders, their efforts are never just repetitive labor like moving bricks. Instead, they weave networks, snatch resources, and set rules - every step they take can leverage huge funds and interests. While the grassroots may work hard, they can only leverage their physical strength and a little money. Many people will despair when they hear this, thinking that ordinary people have no chance to turn their lives around. But it's not like that: positions can be moved, but it can't be done by brute force. The key is to understand the flow of resources and find the entrance to squeeze into the high-level network.
Entrepreneurship is not about running a small workshop to barely make ends meet, but about engaging in high-level activities that can access capital, channels, and talent. The workplace is not about working overtime, but about doing things that can affect the company's profits and decisions, making oneself an irreplaceable core node. The core message is: place yourself in a position where you can touch resources and make decisions, rather than being locked in a low position by resources.
In the real estate industry, some people spend their entire careers in sales, visiting properties, making phone calls, and signing contracts, with a ceiling of tens of thousands a year; while others transition to supply chain management, financing, and land acquisition planning, easily achieving millions or even billions in income. This is not a difference in ability, but a difference in position - whoever controls the upstream and downstream has the say. The same applies to the Internet industry. The gap between low-level programmers and top-level partners and product decision-makers has nothing to do with IQ, but rather who controls the value distribution and traffic discourse power.
There is another most realistic truth: the lower your position, the more your income relies on physical labor, which can only achieve linear growth; the higher your position, the more your income relies on networks, information, and resources, which can achieve exponential growth. This is the fundamental reason why the rich get richer and the ordinary people fall further behind. It is also the Pareto principle in economics - 20% of the people take away 80% of the resources and benefits. Your position directly determines whether you are among the 20%. Efforts cannot change this distribution, but they can change your own standing.
Economic status is also strongly correlated with systems and policies. People at the bottom are influenced by policies, but they lack the qualifications to participate in their formulation; those at the top are not only not subject to policies, but can also rely on their discourse power, industry influence, and resource networks to steer policies in their favor. This logic holds true in any country, whether it's the development journey of China, the industry giants of the United States, or the financial circles of Europe. Behind the income gap lies a comprehensive game of policy, resources, information, and connections.
What can ordinary people do? Let me just say two most practical things: First, recognize your current position and distinguish between things that can improve your position and those that are just a mere exertion of physical strength; second, invest all your energy in things that can elevate your position, rather than meaningless overtime and internal friction.
Too many people waste ten or twenty years, spinning their wheels at the bottom rung, earning only scraps, with their efforts and returns being completely out of proportion. In fact, as long as you move up one rung, the same amount of effort will yield exponentially more returns - this is the real game of wealth. Moreover, you need to understand that position is never achieved through solitary struggle, but through networking, information asymmetry, and resource integration.
Behind every high-income earner lies a robust network: industry resources, capital support, networking collaboration, and information channels. Without learning to build networks, integrate, and leverage opportunities, ordinary people can only remain trapped at the bottom, no matter how hard they try. Those in lower positions are always trapped in the illusion that "hard work is justice", believing that diligence can change one's fate. Those in higher positions have long seen through that hard work and income are never linearly related. They only choose paths with high leverage, abundant resources, and rich information, amplifying the value of effort a hundredfold or even a thousandfold.
This is why some people can leverage hundreds of millions of wealth with just one plan, one opportunity, and one connection, while others can only earn tens of thousands after ten years of hard work. To put it bluntly, this is a comprehensive game of information, resources, policies, connections, and abilities: the higher your position, the greater your choice, and the greater the value you can leverage; even if people at the bottom understand the rules, they will be stuck by the boundaries of reality, while those at the top are the ones who set the boundaries.
Economic position refers to your influence and leverage in this wealth game. I'm not afraid to say something harsh: many people complain about injustice throughout their lives, but the greatest injustice is that they have never realized the power of position. You can study hard, improve your skills, and make up for your deficiencies, but as long as you don't break out of the low-end economic network, your ceiling will always be visible. You must constantly ask yourself: Is my current effort to earn some small money, or to elevate my economic position? If it's just the former, then even if you work hard all your life, you are just adding to others' profits.
That's why I always say that making money is never a matter of hard work, but a matter of strategy. You should approach life and wealth with a strategic perspective, rather than just toiling away like a mere tool. By strategy, I mean understanding the economic network, resource flows, policy logic, and social psychology to find your own high-level entry point.
Only in this way can you transform your income from linear growth to exponential growth, and shift your life from passive compromise to active control. Finally, I'll give you the most practical conclusion: economic position is the core factor determining your income. Hard work can ensure you have enough to eat and wear, and intelligence can help you avoid pitfalls, but what truly determines the ceiling of your income and whether you can achieve financial freedom is always your position in resources, information, policies, and social networks.
Once you grasp this concept, you will no longer complain blindly, rush around aimlessly, or be lulled by small successes. You will understand that what people truly strive for in life is not strength or diligence, but position, strategy, and layout. Looking back at reality, the wealth and influence of Li Ka-shing, Jack Ma, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons have never been related to effort, but solely to position - this is the most authentic rule of wealth. Where you stand determines how much money you can earn, how many resources you can access, and how big your achievements can be.
Once you grasp this, you will no longer suffer from internal friction, but will instead use your limited life to do things that can create infinite value.
|
