Stay at the Table and You’ll Win: The Power of Persistence in Uncertain Times

Let me start with a story.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics men’s 50-meter shooting final, Chinese shooter Jia Zhanbo and American shooter Matthew Emmons were the favorites to win.

However, as soon as the competition began, Emmons took an extraordinary lead, ahead of Jia Zhanbo by 3 rings.

Generally speaking, the margin of victory among professional shooters is measured in fractions of rings.

In most people’s eyes, the competition had already lost its suspense.

But Jia Zhanbo showed no signs of giving up.

In the following rounds of shooting, he worked hard to adjust his condition.

He prevented himself from falling from second place while gradually closing the gap with Emmons.

Despite this, before the final round of shooting, he was still more than 2 rings behind Emmons.

Then, something unexpected happened.

Emmons’ final shot actually hit another competitor’s target, scoring 0 rings.

Jia Zhanbo, who had been closely trailing, dramatically won the championship.

01

Seeing this, you might think Jia Zhanbo was incredibly lucky.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.

Feng Lun once mentioned in “Hold On and There’s a Way Out” a characteristic that many successful people share—never leaving the table.

This means that no matter how unfavorable the situation becomes, they never admit defeat and leave; they only focus on playing their hand to the end.

I know these past two years haven’t been easy for everyone.

And in the coming years, various industries may face even more challenges.

Many people, after hitting walls and stumbling, simply stop trying and give up.

But in reality, life is full of possibilities.

As long as you keep persisting, industries might suddenly recover, companies might suddenly improve, and competitors might suddenly make mistakes.

But once you leave the table, you’ll never encounter unexpected opportunities like Jia Zhanbo did.

Recently, while rewatching the Japanese drama “Hanzawa Naoki,” I felt deeply moved by the fate of Hanzawa’s father.

The parts processing factory he operated first saw sales plummet due to the collapse of the bubble economy.

Then, unable to repay loans on time, he had large amounts of equipment confiscated by the bank.

At this point, his hope was completely shattered, so he sold his business and spent his days drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

A few months later, an investor discovered that a rubber screw he produced was not only lightweight but also extremely durable, with great application prospects in the aviation field.

But when this investor found him, he discovered that his processing factory had long ceased to exist.

Hanzawa’s father thus completely lost his chance for a comeback.

Luo Zhenyu once said that life’s turning points are all endured through persistence.

No matter how great the difficulties, as long as the company hasn’t closed and the industry hasn’t collapsed, you must find ways to persevere.

Hold on until the end—either you become stronger, or the difficulties pass on their own.

02

A few days ago, a reader engaged in foreign trade complained to me in a private message.

The market is becoming increasingly competitive, and the company’s business continues to shrink.

Working overtime every night, and even after finally getting to bed, he often suffers from insomnia due to worries about layoffs.

Looking at monthly mortgage payments, aging parents, and a child who will start school in two years, he can’t help but feel lost and anxious.

I think this reader’s private message resonates with countless adults.

They’ve worked hard and fought for their goals, only to receive indescribable bitterness and the frustration of being stuck in place.

However, as stated in “Youxue Qionglin”: “Solitary yin cannot generate, isolated yang cannot grow.”

Life also has cycles—it won’t always be smooth sailing, nor will there be perpetual adversity.

The difference is that some people are defeated by bad timing, while others persevere until fortune turns.

Career blogger @Dona worked at a cross-border travel company in Thailand after graduation.

Then a sudden pandemic almost brought the entire cross-border tourism market to a standstill.

To survive, the company had to desperately cut expenses while trying every possible money-making business.

Dona, originally responsible for marketing, not only lost performance bonuses but suddenly had to handle everything.

Organizing camping activities, selling beer on the street, and even being pushed to do live streaming sales.

In just six months, Dona watched colleagues leave one by one.

But even when the company downsized to just 13 people, he remained at his post.

It wasn’t until 2024 when Thailand suddenly announced visa-free entry for Chinese citizens.

The entire industry was immediately revitalized, and Dona’s company recovered 70% of its peak business volume in just two months.

In this process, he also rose to become a company executive.

There’s a line in “The Great Defeat”: “All the difficult periods you think are hard are not meant to flip the table, but to reshuffle the cards.”

Don’t exit during the reshuffle, so you can be a winner when the cards are dealt.

Often, you win not because you beat everyone else, but because everyone else left, and only you remained at the table, so you won.

03

Bilibili UP host @Cheng Qian once visited several e-commerce practitioners in Yiwu.

Every morning, they rode old electric scooters through bumpy dirt roads to remote small villages.

Walking through narrow corridors that looked like construction sites, they entered closed, dark basements.

There, facing a wall, they packed the day’s shipments, sitting for hours at a time.

They also made do with meals at small village restaurants, with daily costs including rent and utilities totaling over a hundred yuan.

At the time, Cheng Qian had seen many large merchants with daily transaction volumes of hundreds of thousands, so he didn’t pay much attention to these people.

However, over the following years, Yiwu’s e-commerce circle experienced two or three downturns.

He discovered that many previously successful big bosses couldn’t survive due to broken capital chains.

Meanwhile, these small vendors in basements could easily break even with minimal effort and managed to persist until now.

This reminds me of a famous saying in entrepreneurial circles: “Those who laugh last are not those who earn the most, but those who survive the longest.”

In the past, opportunities were everywhere, and any move was a favorable situation.

But as opportunities gradually disappear, more important than playing cards is keeping your chips.

For those in business, stop spreading efforts too thin, reduce unnecessary investments, and save enough provisions for winter.

For daily life, save where you can—don’t buy things you can live without. Having a balance in your account keeps your mind at peace.

Self-media author Chang Qing recently mentioned in an article that he hasn’t bought clothes or shoes for several years.

He used to smoke two packs a day but has now quit completely; he declines social dinners whenever possible.

He even sold the C-class sedan he bought with a loan and switched to a pure electric car costing just over 100,000 yuan for daily commuting.

In short, he’s trying to cut all unnecessary expenses and maintain a low-consumption lifestyle.

He said: “Even if the coming days become so difficult that I can’t earn a single penny, I can still live purely on savings for three to five years. And in such a long time, I’m completely likely to encounter better opportunities.”

In an era of stock competition, no one has it easier than anyone else.

You think you have a bad hand, but others’ cards aren’t necessarily better than yours.

What you can do is stabilize yourself, don’t fold and leave early, and don’t go all-in and lose the capital to continue.

As long as you still have a seat at the table, you will eventually win back what you’ve lost.

▽

I’ve heard a saying that I deeply agree with:

“In life’s card game, leaving the table is just a matter of one sentence. But to stay at the table, you must constantly think and explore, continuously trying various possible methods. Such people, even if their current chances of success seem slim, can always expect things to develop in a positive direction.”

As long as people keep moving forward, there’s no valley they can’t cross.

Every bit of your persistence and every penny you save is to help you face life’s eventual breakthrough with a better posture.