祝融说。

Welcome to the trenches.

The air here reeks of gunpowder, mud, and despair. There is no bugle call, no rousing battle anthem — only the sporadic crack of gunfire in the distance and the heavy, terrified breathing of the comrades beside you. Your pockets are empty, holding nothing but a few remaining bullets. Your enemy is the pressure of reality closing in from all sides — bills, doubt, hunger, and loneliness.

In this environment, what determines whether you live or die is not how sophisticated your weapon is, but how unyielding the belief in your head is. A soldier whose spirit has collapsed, even with the most advanced rifle, is nothing but a sitting duck. But a warrior with a will forged of steel, even with nothing but a bayonet in hand, can carve a path to survival through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

"The barbaric mindset" is the spiritual weapon you must equip yourself with in such extreme conditions. It is not innate; it is forged through blood and tears, in one brutal hand-to-hand struggle with reality after another. It is an internal system that keeps your brain calm and capable of making the soundest survival judgments in the most chaotic and desperate moments.

When your material resources approach zero, your spiritual strength must reach its peak. Because in the battle for survival, your only and most powerful capital is yourself. Your mindset is your entire fortune.

Now, let us forge the first piece of armor for this barbaric mindset.

1.1 Cost Accounting: Where Is Your Survival Baseline?

Before a war begins, the first thing any competent commander does is take stock of his resources and assess the battlefield. He needs to know how many soldiers, how much ammunition, how much food he has, and how long these resources can sustain the fight. This is not pessimism; it is basic military common sense. To charge into battle without knowing your baseline is not courage — it is foolishness.

For you, who are in a fight for survival, this "cost accounting" is even more critical and more brutal. It is not a financial projection in an Excel spreadsheet; it is the most honest and merciless demarcation of your survival baseline, conducted in the depths of your soul.

Step One: Calculate Your "Cost of Living"

Forget "quality of life." We only talk about "sustaining life" now. You need to calculate the minimum cost of keeping your "individual combat unit" operational, like a Robinson Crusoe stranded on a desert island.

Shelter (your foxhole): What is the lowest rent you must pay each month? Can you move somewhere cheaper? Can you share a bed with someone? Can you temporarily crash on a friend's or relative's couch? Here, there are no words like "comfort" or "privacy" — only "a place where you can lie down at night without freezing to death or being kicked out." Calculate this number down to the last digit.

Basic rations (your fuel): How many calories do you need to consume each day to keep your brain functioning and your body from breaking down? Forget restaurants, takeout, and coffee. Your diet now consists of only the most basic carbohydrates and proteins. Go to the supermarket and buy the cheapest dried noodles, oatmeal, eggs, and discounted vegetables. Calculate the minimum food cost to keep yourself "alive." This number may feel humiliating, but it is crucial.

Essential communication (your intelligence line): You need a phone that can make calls and access the internet. This is your only tool for connecting with the outside world and finding opportunities. Choose the cheapest plan, cut all unnecessary add-on services. What is this cost?

Basic transportation (your mobility): If your work requires going out, calculate the cheapest mode of transport. Is it the bus, the subway, or a second-hand bicycle? Delete the options of private car and taxi from your mind entirely.

Add all of the above numbers together to get a total. This number is your "monthly burn rate" — the price you must pay each month just to "exist" on this battlefield. This number is your survival red line.

Step Two: Take Stock of Your "Ammunition Reserves"

Now, open your bank account and add up all your savings, accessible cash, and even non-essential assets you are prepared to sell (gaming consoles, designer bags, collectibles). This is your "total ammunition reserve."

Divide your "total ammunition reserve" by your "monthly burn rate," and you will get a number.

This number is your "survival countdown."

It could be "6 months," "3 months," or even "3 weeks." Whatever this number is, you must stare it down, unblinkingly. It is the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head — the time you have left in this war.

Why is this cold, hard number so important?

Because it can shatter all your fantasies in an instant and drag you brutally back to earth from unrealistic daydreams.

It gives you the most genuine sense of urgency. When you know your life has only 90 days left on the countdown, you will no longer have time to scroll through short videos, no energy for meaningless socializing, and you will even stop agonizing over whether "this project is my dream." There will be only one thought in your mind: "I must find a source of income within 90 days, or I will die." This drive, rooted in the fear of survival, is ten thousand times more powerful than any motivational speech.

It helps you set the clearest short-term goals. Your first goal is not to "change the world" or "achieve financial freedom." It is to "earn next month's survival costs." Your goal becomes incredibly specific and clear. You must earn exactly your monthly burn rate in money this month. To achieve this goal, you can set aside all pride and every unnecessary nicety—but the bottom lines of law and morality do not move. Because this is no longer about "success"; it is about "survival."

It teaches you to respect risk. Many entrepreneurs fail because they have no concept of risk. They spend their parents' hard-earned money or borrowed loans chasing a vague dream, believing they have infinite time and opportunities to trial-and-error. But when you see your "survival countdown" clearly, you become like an engineer defusing mines in a minefield — cautious with every step. You will start evaluating the risk and return of every opportunity, prioritizing the projects with the lowest risk and the fastest results over the ones that sound the coolest and most grandiose.

Conducting this brutal cost accounting is like signing a "life-or-death pledge" before a battle. You acknowledge your vulnerability and see your cards. But this does not make you weaker; on the contrary, it makes you stronger than ever before. Because from this moment on, you are no longer a blind dreamer; you are a soldier with a clear objective and a sharp mind. You know where your baseline is, and you know what you must fight for.

Your barbaric mindset begins to take root from these cold numbers and this clear understanding.

1.2 Confidence Is Your First Seed Capital

After you complete the cost accounting and see your pitifully short "survival countdown," a wave of panic may wash over you. You look at your empty pockets, then at the well-equipped "regular armies" around you, and a thought — "I cannot win" — coils around your heart like a venomous snake.

It is in this most vulnerable moment that you must activate your second spiritual weapon — confidence.

The "confidence" I speak of here is not blind optimism, not the self-hypnosis of "I believe I can do it." On the street battlefield, that kind of cheap confidence is worthless and crumbles at the first touch.

The confidence I speak of is a reality-based, deadly, and unquestionable self-affirmation. It is a belief deep in your heart, regardless of how dire your external circumstances, that "I, as a person, am myself the most valuable asset."

Why is confidence your first and most important seed capital?

Because when you have nothing, you are the only thing you can "sell." You are not selling a product or a service; you are selling the trust others place in you. And confidence is the foundation of that trust.

Confidence determines your "presentation." Imagine two salespeople selling the same product. One has shifty eyes, a weak voice, speaks hesitantly, and lacks conviction in what he is selling. The other stands tall, has a steady gaze, a loud clear voice, and unshakeable belief in his product. Who would you choose to trust? The answer is obvious. How can someone who does not even believe in himself convince others to hand over their money? Your confidence is your best business card, the best packaging for your product. It radiates through your eyes, your posture, and your tone to everyone you meet.

Confidence attracts resources rather than repelling them. This is a brutal reality: resources always flow only to those who appear "strong." No one wants to invest in someone who looks like they are about to collapse at any moment. When you project strong confidence, even if your situation is difficult, others will see "potential" and "hope" in you. They will think, "This person may not be doing well now, but they have the aura of someone who can make things happen." Your confidence acts like a magnet, attracting those willing to give you opportunities, those willing to help you, even those willing to follow you. Insecurity and fear, on the other hand, are like a plague that makes everyone avoid you.

Confidence is your best bulletproof vest against rejection. During the survival phase, you will hear "no" a hundred times more often than "yes." Your product will be dismissed as worthless, your ideas will be ridiculed as fantasies, and even your character may face wanton insults. If you do not have strong confidence as your core, these rejections will pierce your psychological defenses like bullets, shattering you completely. But a truly confident person treats "rejection" as information, not as a verdict. They think: "Was my approach wrong? Did I pick the wrong person?" rather than "Am I really that worthless?" Confidence gives you the ability to turn attacks on your person into an analysis of the matter itself, protecting you from harm and allowing you to learn from it.

So, when I have nothing and have failed again and again, how do I build this "barbaric confidence"?

This is not about shouting affirmations in the mirror. You need concrete, actionable methods.

1. Start by mastering the smallest things. Confidence is not created out of thin air; it comes from small successes, one after another. Can you wake up at 6 AM sharp today? Can you do 100 push-ups? Can you persist in reading for 30 minutes? Can you clean your room until it is spotless? When you can completely control these seemingly trivial things, you send a signal to your subconscious: "I am a person with self-control. I am a person who keeps my word." This sense of mastery, born from within, gradually accumulates into the foundation of your confidence.
2. Put your body into "combat mode." Your physical state influences your mental state. Do not let poverty make you slovenly and dejected. Shower daily, put on your cleanest clothes, even if they are cheap. Straighten your back, walk with your head up and chest out, at a pace a notch faster than usual. Look people in the eye when you speak. These simple physical adjustments will, to a degree, improve your state in return, making you appear—and feel—more powerful; research supports this posture-to-mind influence, though the effect is usually modest, not a "trick your brain" switch. The body is the vessel of the spirit; a strong body is needed to support a strong soul.
3. Review your "success journal." Get a notebook. Every night before bed, write down three things you accomplished that day. No matter how small. "I successfully made 10 sales calls." "I overcame my fear and spoke to a stranger." "I resisted the temptation of junk food today." When you look back through this notebook, you will see that you are not a failure who has achieved nothing — you are fighting every day and winning every day. This continuous positive feedback is the best medicine for curing self-doubt.
4. Isolate all sources of negative energy. At this stage, your mental energy is extremely precious and cannot be wasted. Stay away from people who only complain, mock, and undermine you, even if they are family or friends. Their negativity will infect and drain you like a virus. You need comrades who encourage and support you. If you cannot find them, then solitude is far better than being surrounded by negative energy.

Remember, until you get your first investment or sign your first big contract, your confidence is your most important asset. You must guard it like you guard your last round of ammunition. It is the only light you can see in the dark trench.

1.3 Do Not Let Panic and Frustration Kill You

The deadliest enemy on the battlefield is often not the enemy's guns, but your own panic and fear. A sudden explosion can throw even a well-drilled unit into chaos, sending them fleeing in all directions, only to be picked off one by one.

In the battle for survival, panic and frustration are that explosion that can shatter you in an instant.

Panic comes from uncertainty about the future. When you watch your "survival countdown" shrink day by day while your income shows no signs of improvement; when an unexpected accident (like a computer breaking down or getting sick) suddenly disrupts all your plans — panic floods in like a tidal wave. It makes your heart race, your thoughts scatter, and renders you incapable of any rational judgment.

Frustration comes from the chasm between reality and expectation. The product you launched with full confidence is met with market indifference. The client you thought was a sure thing ends up choosing your competitor. You gave 120% effort, and the result was a complete rout. Frustration whispers to you: "You are not good enough. Give up. Everything you do is useless."

Panic makes you lose your composure; frustration makes you lay down your arms. Together, they are the most efficient "killers" on the battlefield — they kill more entrepreneurs than broken cash flow ever does.

A warrior with a barbaric mindset must learn how to manage panic and how to digest frustration.

How to Fight Panic? — Build Your "Battle Plan"

The root of panic is the "feeling of losing control." When things exceed your expectations and grasp, you panic. The best way to counter it is to rehearse the worst-case scenario before it happens and formulate a response plan.

1. Conduct a "fear rehearsal." Find a quiet time, take out a sheet of paper, and write down the things you are most afraid of happening. For example: "What if I still have no income next month?" "What if my most important client suddenly leaves me?" "What if I get sick and need money for medical bills?" Do not avoid these fears; write them down concretely and clearly.
2. Create a "response checklist." For every fear you write down, note three to five actions you can take next to it.
   1. "If no income next month" -> "I can take three part-time jobs: food delivery, designated driver, washing dishes in a restaurant." "I can ask three of my closest friends to lend me a small amount for emergencies." "I can sell a certain item for cash."
   2. "If the client leaves" -> "I immediately activate my backup client contact plan and reach out to 20 other people on the list." "I immediately review the reasons for this failure and optimize my sales pitch." "I take a day to reset my emotions, then start over."
3. Keep the plan at hand. Put the paper filled with worst-case scenarios and countermeasures where you can see it at all times. It is like a "battlefield emergency manual." When you actually encounter these situations, your mind will not go blank and spiral into panic. You will immediately activate the plan and tell yourself: "The situation is bad, but I know what to do." This "sense of control" is the best weapon against panic.

By doing this, you turn unknown fears into known, manageable problems. You are no longer a victim passively taking hits; you are a commander prepared for battle.

How to Digest Frustration? — Build Your "Review System"

Frustration itself is not scary. What is scary is the "devastating conclusion" drawn from it (like "I am worthless"). The key to digesting frustration is to transform it from a "judgment on your personal ability" into an "opportunity to gather combat intelligence."

1. Separate emotion from fact. When you suffer a major setback, allow yourself 15 minutes of "emotional release time." You can curse, punch a wall, or lock yourself away. But after 15 minutes, you must stop immediately. Then, take out a piece of paper and, like a cold forensic examiner, record only the facts without any emotional coloring. For example: "The contract was supposed to be signed today, but the client changed their mind at the last minute. Fact: The client said our price was 10% higher than another company's. Fact: I did not fully demonstrate our added value during the negotiation. Fact: I did not research the competitor's quotation in advance."
2. Find the "only controllable variable." Among all the factors that led to failure, the only one you can control is your own behavior. Do not complain that "the market is bad," "the client is stupid," or "the competitor is too cunning." These are beyond your control. Focus 100% of your attention on "yourself." Ask yourself three questions:
   1. What did I do right? (Even in failure, there are things you did right. Acknowledge them to protect your confidence.)
   2. What did I do wrong? (Honestly list your mistakes, no excuses.)
   3. How can I improve next time? (Turn mistakes into concrete, executable improvement measures.)
3. Take action immediately, even a small one. The best way to digest frustration is not through thinking, but through action. After you finish your review, immediately do one small thing related to your "improvement measures." For example, immediately go study your competitor's website, or immediately revise one page of your presentation. This small, positive action breaks the negative cycle of wallowing in failure and gets your brain back on the track of "solving problems."

Remember, on the street battlefield, there are no invincible generals. Everyone falls. Everyone gets hurt. The difference is that the weak lie on the ground moaning, complaining about the unfairness of fate; while the strong get up immediately, dust themselves off, lick their wounds, and pick up a stone from the very spot they fell to use as a weapon for the next attack.

1.4 Embrace Divergence: Endure What Others Cannot, and You Will Gain What Others Cannot

Our nature is to seek benefit and avoid harm, to pursue comfort and escape pain. This is a program written in our genes. But in the battle for survival, this nature is your greatest enemy.

Because in this war, everything valuable — opportunity, money, growth — hides behind pain. The comfort zone is for civilians and losers. The battlefield belongs to the warrior.

"Embracing divergence" is the most counter-instinctive and most central tenet of the barbaric mindset. It is not about self-flagellation; it is about redefining "divergence" from a negative experience to be avoided into a positive signal that you are growing stronger.

Why Must You Actively Embrace Divergence?

Divergence and difficulty can become material for growth, but they are not the only path, and adaptation in physical training cannot be transferred directly into a universal law of mental ability. Strain sometimes indicates learning; it can also indicate a mismatched method, inadequate resources, or accumulating harm. A sales call, revision, or saving becomes learning only when feedback is observed and changes the next action. Lost sleep and pain do not produce ability by themselves. The "filter" logic in the following paragraphs should be understood under this premise: what matters is not the wear itself, but the information the wear buys back. What the RC theoretical framework (see the positioning passage in the Preface) demands is precisely that deviations be returned to observation while preserving room for correction—not treating the endurance of damage as a virtue.

Divergence is the best filter. Why are most people mediocre? Because they are unwilling to endure pain. Anything of value, anything with a threshold, inevitably comes with divergence. When a road is crowded, it must be an easy, downhill path of comfort. The paths to the summit are rarely traveled, rugged, and overgrown with thorns. When you actively choose to endure what others are unwilling to endure, you automatically filter out most of your competitors. Your endurance is your deepest moat—provided you know what you are enduring for.

Divergence keeps you humble and clear-headed. Success easily goes to one's head. When you earn your first sum of money, get your first client's approval, you may feel invincible. Divergence is like a bucket of cold water, keeping you clear-headed at all times. It reminds you that you are still weak, that you are still far from true victory. It keeps you in awe of the market and humble before your clients. A general who has forgotten the smell of mud in the trenches is not far from defeat.

How to Train Your Ability to "Embrace Divergence"?

This ability also requires deliberate practice, turning it into muscle memory.

1. Set your "daily divergence quota." Every day, proactively do one or two things that make you uncomfortable but that you know are right.
   1. Physical divergence: Engage in high-intensity physical exercise, like running until exhaustion, or strength training until your muscles ache. These greatly exercise your willpower.
   2. Mental divergence: Force yourself to read a "hardcore" book you do not understand. Proactively initiate a constructive conversation with someone you fear or dislike. Give a speech or a presentation in public.
   3. Disciplinary divergence: Practice "delayed gratification." For example, set a rule that you can only eat or entertain yourself after completing the most difficult task of the day.
2. Change your "inner language." When you feel pain, do not say to yourself: "This is too hard, I cannot take it." Instead, say: "Good, this feeling is right. It means I am making progress." Build a strong association in your brain between the feeling of divergence and the result of you growing stronger. Over time, you may even begin to "enjoy" this divergence, because you know that each experience of divergence is an upgrade.
3. Find role models who can "endure" more than you. Read biographies of great people. Watch documentaries of top athletes. You will find that everyone who has achieved great things is a master of "enduring divergence." Their stories will show you that the divergence you are experiencing now is nothing at all. The power of role models greatly raises your threshold for tolerating divergence.

NVIDIA's founder, Jensen Huang, speaking with students at Stanford in 2024, said words to the effect that he hoped those present would experience plenty of pain and suffering, because greatness comes from character, and character is forged out of hardship. This is not a curse; it is the deepest love and hope of someone who has been through it. Because he knows that those who have never been tempered by hardship can hardly build a truly powerful life.

So, when you feel uncomfortable due to divergence, do not complain, do not retreat. You should feel fortunate. Because this is the universe, in a harsh way, filtering out your competitors for you and granting you an opportunity to grow.

1.5 Never Give Up: This Is Your Only Chance to Turn Things Around

We have finally arrived at the last, and hardest, piece of armor in the barbaric mindset — never give up.

This phrase sounds like the most cliched chicken soup for the soul. We have heard it countless times since childhood. But here, in the context of the battle for survival, it is not a slogan; it is a mathematical law.

Imagine you are trapped in a huge, completely dark maze with only one exit. You do not know where the exit is. The only thing you can do is reach out, feel the wall, and walk forward step by step.

• Every step you take could be bringing you closer to the exit, or taking you further away.
• You may walk into dead ends countless times and have to retrace your steps.
• You may want to collapse to the ground countless times due to exhaustion, hunger, and despair.

In this maze, what is the only strategy that can get you out?

It is to keep walking.

As long as you are still walking, you have a chance of finding the exit. This probability may be small, but it is always greater than zero. Once you choose to give up and collapse to the ground, the probability of finding the exit becomes zero instantly.

This is the mathematical essence of "never give up." It is not a form of spiritual victory; it is the only way to keep your probability of winning alive.

In the battle for survival, you are that person in the dark maze. You do not know which client will give you your first order. You do not know which product will become a hit. You do not know which path is the broad road to success. Most of your attempts, like walking into dead ends, will end in failure.

There are ten thousand reasons to give up every day.

Your family will urge you: "Find a stable job. Stop messing around."

Your friends will say: "Give it up. This is not for you."

Your body will tell you: "I am too tired. I need to rest."

The devil inside you will whisper: "Admit it. You are a failure."

But the reason you keep going is always the same: because I am not dead yet, the battle is not over.

How do you achieve "never giving up"?

This is not just about gritting your teeth and toughing it out. You need a system to support your "never give up" behavior.

1. Delete the word "give up" from your dictionary. You must give yourself the most decisive command: in this war, there is no "surrender" option. When you completely cut off your retreat, your brain will stop looking for "excuses to give up" and will channel all its energy into finding "solutions to the problem." This is the wisdom of "being cornered and fighting your way back to life"—but distinguish it from denying reality: cutting losses at the right moment, or pivoting after review, is correction, not surrender. What you are deleting is "self-abandonment without a fight," not the capacity to admit error and adjust course.
2. Focus on the process, not the outcome. If you stare at the result every day — "Did I make money today?" — you will collapse very easily. Because in the beginning, the answer is most likely "no." You need to shift your focus from the uncontrollable outcome to the completely controllable process. Your goal is not to "sign a client today," but to "make 50 effective sales calls today." As long as you complete those 50 calls, regardless of the outcome, you have won today. This process-based sense of achievement allows you to keep going through the long darkness when no results are visible.
3. Build your "support system." Fighting alone is hard to sustain. You need to find your "comrades." They could be friends who are also starting a business, or family members who support you unconditionally. You need to communicate with them regularly, sharing your struggles and your small progress. This support system is like the medic on the battlefield — when you are wounded and fall, it bandages your wounds and gives you the courage to continue fighting.
4. Celebrate small victories. Do not wait until you have achieved great success to celebrate. Finished a difficult task? Reward yourself with a movie. Persisted through a week of intense work? Reward yourself with a slightly better meal. These small rituals remind you: "I am still alive, I am still fighting, I am still moving forward." They are a way to replenish your spiritual supplies during this grueling war of attrition.

I have seen—or rather, every entrepreneur can count among their own acquaintances—plenty of people smarter and more resourceful than me who ultimately failed. The reason they failed was not because they were not good enough, but because they gave up too early. They collapsed to the ground when they were only one step away from the exit.

And those who ultimately survive and win are often not the smartest or the strongest, but the most "single-minded." They are like the earthworm that keeps burrowing, like the clumsy bird that keeps flying into the wall. With an almost foolish tenacity, they outlast all the clever ones.

So, engrave this sentence into your bones:

As long as you choose to never give up, you have never truly failed. You just have not succeeded yet.

Chapter Summary

In Chapter 1, we forged five core pieces of equipment for the "barbaric mindset." They are the most fundamental and most important weapons in your battle for survival.

Cost accounting is your battlefield map, allowing you to see reality clearly and stay urgent.

Confidence is your seed capital, allowing you to believe in yourself first when no one else does.

Managing panic and frustration is your bulletproof vest and first-aid kit, keeping you combat-ready through the hail of bullets.

Embracing pain is your personal upgrade training ground, making you stronger through hardship.

Never giving up is your ultimate belief, the only strategy that guarantees you will eventually find your way out of the maze.

Equipped with this mindset, you may still be poor and weak, but you have already made a fundamental distinction from the ordinary people drifting through life. You are no longer a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. You are a barbarian, a hunter with a killer glint in your eyes, ready to stalk through the jungle.

Now, take a deep breath. In the next chapter, we will step out of the trench and begin to learn how to find your first meal in the ruins.