If you want to succeed, create your own work (product) — whether it’s posting a short video, developing an app, recording a course, writing an article, singing a song, dancing, even setting up a late-night food stall, or just dressing yourself up nicely before heading out — all of it is a work. Use this work to express yourself and, at the same time, capture society’s attention. Get noticed, and you succeed.

Creating your own work: at worst, it keeps hope alive in the darkest times so you don’t fall into despair; at best, it lets you earn attention and success through creativity. If you start doing this from age twenty, you will succeed within a decade. Yet most people spend their entire lives as nothing more than a cog screwed into someone else’s work (product), never producing even the simplest complete, usable, independent work of their own — and that is precisely why they fail.

Many people misunderstand what it means to create their own work. A work is not some cheap side hustle to make money. The core, the essential thing about a work is that it is “from the heart, for yourself” — not that you gather requirements, build something the masses supposedly need (or so you think), and then rake in the cash. The function of the work, the audience it serves, the money it makes — all of that is secondary, incidental.

For society: money (resources) is sitting right there, and it has to go to someone. Why should it go to you? If you want money, you need a work to position yourself in society. Your work sets your price, and society will pay it automatically. If you have no work, your price is “ordinary person” — which means a useless lump — and society gives you only the bare minimum to keep you alive.

For you personally: a work (product) only needs to express yourself. Don’t worry about whether it achieves worldly success — leave the question of whether anyone notices you to probability. Expressing yourself doesn’t guarantee attention, but not expressing yourself guarantees you won’t get any.

The most important thing about a work is individuality — being different.

A tree grows in a forest full of trees. It sprouts, it rises, it flourishes, it decays, it falls, it turns to soil — and in its entire life, not a single person ever notices it. Did that tree ever exist?

You — do not exist. You are a pack of instant noodles on a shelf full of instant noodles. You are a pebble on a beach of stones. You are one cog among seventy billion cogs. You are a drop in the Pacific Ocean. If you cannot distinguish yourself from others, you do not exist.

Your existence depends on your work. Your work sets you apart from others and makes you unique. It is not you who builds your work — it is your work that builds you. You are not creating a work; you are creating yourself. You are the sum of all your works. You are your work. Your work expresses and reveals you. Through your work, you converse with the world, and the world understands, recognizes, and positions you through your work.

What makes you you is your work. In Water Margin, Wu Song isn’t simply called Wu Song — he is called Wu Song the Tiger-Slayer. Even Wu Dalang is called Wu Dalang the Sesame-Cake Seller. If they hadn’t fought a tiger or sold sesame cakes, they would have had no distinctiveness, no identity, no one would know them — they would not exist. Your work defines you. No work, no you. Your work is you.

Spend your life adding bricks to someone else’s building, being a cog for others, making things according to their needs, and you will always fail. Because in that world, you do not exist — you are merely an appendage to someone else’s work. But once you understand that the work is for yourself, you will always succeed and never fail. Making work for others (the masses): if no one uses it or sees it, you fail. Making work for yourself: if no one uses it or sees it, you use it and see it yourself. A work made for yourself cannot fail under any circumstances — it is never a loss.

Go create. Make your own work and put it out into the world. In the process, solve complex problems, push things forward — the thrill, the stimulation, the rush that the work brings you. And when you release it, the satisfaction of people’s attention and discussion is something no amount of lying in bed scrolling through videos, browsing Zhihu, or playing on your phone can match. Anyone who has ever experienced creation finds that working for someone else, scrolling through a phone, and other purely passive behaviors are boring, dull, and utterly unstimulating. Once you’ve had the experience of creating your own work, you can never go back to the ordinary, mundane life of clocking in and scrolling feeds. You can no longer tolerate boredom. Your real stimulation comes from making your own work.

The act of “making something for yourself” can itself heal you, letting you find peace by following your inner self. Life is long and bitter. You can even rely on the act of “doing it for yourself” (not the work itself) to ferry you through the long, dark journey to the far shore of your ideals. And you might not even need to actually do it — just the thought of “I’m going to make it” can drag you out of the fiery spiritual hell. A “work dedicated to yourself” is more effective than any psychological or pharmaceutical treatment. It might not only save you from poverty — the very moment the thought arises, your depression and mental illness can begin to heal, because it brings you “hope.” That is the greatest gift a work can give you.

Don’t think about how to make money from your work. Don’t think about success or failure. Just have the thought, and your work will save you from the fire and pull you out of your current predicament. And if you not only think it but also do it — everything will come naturally.

Creating a work (product) is merely one means of achieving individual distinctiveness (the mainstream means, but not the only one). Creating a work is, at its core, about setting yourself apart from others through distinctiveness, thereby capturing society’s attention (money or other resources). And “being distinct from other things” is the essential purpose of every concept in the world. Note: not all people, not all living things, not all objects — but every concept that human civilization has ever known.

What do we live for? Everything in the universe exists for one essential purpose: “I am different!”

Your success — and your work’s success — depends on the degree of individuality, recognizability, and distinctiveness you and your work possess.

Where am I different from others? Think about it carefully. Your life will begin anew the day you find the answer.

Appendix: A work needs a medium to carry it. In essence, all forms of work are the same. But in reality, some forms are clearly better than others. If you don’t know what kind of work to create for a better chance of success, here are recommendations for popular contemporary media for works. Their characteristics are low barriers, low cost, low success rate — ideal for you, an ordinary person with zero resources:

Short video: The undisputed number-one work medium. The barrier and cost are extremely low (just a phone and a brain). Sometimes a ten-second short video can make you famous across the planet in days and capture everyone’s attention. Other short-video-related media — whether creating music, art, dance, or other art forms — as long as they are visual, rely on short video as the medium for release and distribution.

Internet application development: Apps, websites, mini-programs, and other internet applications. With AI-assisted programming, a person who only knows basic computer operations and software installation can master development techniques in a matter of days and produce a usable app. As long as you can solve a niche, specific problem (preferably your own problem — the big problems aren’t yours to solve), a 1% conversion rate among ten thousand users, a VIP subscription of ten yuan a month, that’s ten thousand yuan. One app can set you free.

Create tutorials: Turn your specialized skills and knowledge into text or video tutorials and sell them individually. From sewing clothes to building apps, from singing to flying drones — anything works, as long as you know something others don’t. This medium has been repeatedly proven effective.

Write articles: The classic traditional medium. If you have ideas and writing skill, publish articles on various public accounts and self-media (zimeiti) platforms, and you can become an influencer.

How to improve your work’s chances of success? Create gently, comfortably, slowly, bit by bit. The creative process should feel euphoric, with hormones flowing. Never pursue perfection with bitter struggle and hardship. The prerequisite for success is completion. A work is a lifetime endeavor — people who try too hard burn out. Let your work nourish you even as you create it.

Of course, people don’t have to succeed only through “works.” You could become an official, open a coffee/milk tea/flower shop, trade crypto, or do quantitative trading. But these things either have too high a barrier or cost, or require good luck — not helpful for you. Creating your own work is still the right path in life for contemporary society.