"How far could this child go if guided properly?" Yang Lujia smiled faintly.
A heavy sigh interrupted his thoughts.
He looked down and saw a young boy sitting in front of him. The child was holding his head with both hands while staring at the test paper on his desk.
There was only one question left unanswered.
Yang Lujia looked at it.
Basic arithmetic.
The question did not involve algebra, calculus, or anything that should have required several minutes of thinking. However, the boy had already erased his answer several times. The portion of paper beneath the numbers had even become thinner because of it.
Yang Lujia did not say anything immediately. The boy wrote another number. He stared at it. Then he erased it again.
Yang Lujia pulled a matte-black stool closer and sat beside him. "Still stuck on the carry-over?"
The boy immediately stopped.
His shoulders became tense.
"I'm sorry, Teacher."
"Why are you apologizing?"
"I forgot where the extra number goes again." The boy looked toward the other students.
Most of them had already finished.
"I already tried many times. Everyone else understands it." He lowered his voice.
"I think I'm just stupid."
Yang Lujia looked at him.
He had heard those words before. More than once.
Some children said it because their parents repeatedly compared them with other children. Others said it because a teacher became impatient after explaining the same lesson several times.
Adults also said similar things. The words changed, but the meaning remained the same.
'I am not good enough.'
'I cannot understand this.'
'Something must be wrong with me.'
Yang Lujia had taught people in two of his previous lives. He had also mentored people after becoming involved in business.
Some of the most capable people he encountered had once believed they were stupid simply because nobody had bothered explaining something in a way they understood.
He placed one hand on the boy's head and lightly ruffled his hair. "Look at me."
The boy slowly raised his head.
"You are not stupid."
"But I still don't understand it."
"That does not make you stupid."
"Everyone else already finished."
Yang Lujia looked around. "Then let them finish."
The boy became confused.
"What does their paper have to do with yours?"
"Nothing."
"Exactly." Yang Lujia picked up the pencil.
He could explain the rule again.
However, the boy had probably already heard the same explanation several times.
There was no point repeating something that clearly did not work.
Yang Lujia drew a small person along the side of the paper.
The boy watched.
Then Yang Lujia drew another one beside it. Between them, he drew what was supposed to be a wall.
The boy leaned closer.
Yang Lujia drew a small stone beside the first person. "This person has an extra stone."
The boy waited.
Yang Lujia looked at him.
"Do you want me to explain the arithmetic or the life of this person?"
The boy covered his mouth. Yang Lujia could see that he was trying not to laugh.
He continued drawing. "This person cannot keep the extra stone, so he gives it to the person beside him."
He drew an arrow across the wall.
"The stone does not disappear. It moves to the next place." Yang Lujia pointed at the number above the next column. "This is the stone."
The boy looked at the equation.
Then he looked at the drawing.
"So when I get this number…"
"You carry it."
"To the next one."
"Yes."
The boy took the pencil.
He tried answering again.
Yang Lujia remained beside him but did not help.
The boy completed the first column. He stopped. His eyes moved toward the drawing. Then he placed the carried number above the next column.
He continued.
Several moments later, he finished the entire arithmetic.
The boy stared at his answer. "Teacher?"
"Yes?"
"Is this right?"
Yang Lujia looked at it. "It is."
The boy's eyes widened slightly. "Really?"
"Check it again."
The boy immediately calculated the answer for the second time. It remained the same.
"I got it."
"You did."
"I really got it."
Yang Lujia smiled.
The boy looked at him. "So I'm not stupid?"
"No."
"I just didn't know where the number went?"
"Yes."
The boy looked at the drawing again.
His expression became serious.
"Teacher."
"What?"
"How does he throw the stone over the wall?"
Yang Lujia looked at the wall he had drawn.
It was almost twice the height of the person.
He remained silent for a moment.
"He is strong."
"How strong?"
"Strong enough."
The boy laughed. Yang Lujia shook his head.
Teaching had always been like this.
Some teachers believed students needed to fear them.
Yang Lujia understood why they thought that way. A frightened student usually remained quiet. They listened whenever the teacher spoke and rarely caused trouble.
However, remaining quiet did not mean they understood the lesson.
Yang Lujia had encountered students who nodded every time he asked whether they understood, only to approach him after class and admit that they had been confused from the beginning.
They simply did not want everyone else to know.
That was a problem.
If a student was already afraid of appearing stupid, making that student even more afraid would not help.
"Can we answer the next one?" the boy asked.
Yang Lujia looked at him.
A short while ago, the child had been holding his head as though the paper was going to kill him.
Now, he wanted another question.
"Go ahead."
The boy pointed at the drawing. "Do we use the stone again?"
"You can."
He smiled.
"Let's help the neighbor."
The boy placed his pencil on the paper.
Then the classroom disappeared.
Yang Lujia did not feel anything unusual.
One moment, he was sitting beside the boy. The next moment, he was standing inside a university lecture hall.
The transition felt completely natural.
He did not question it.
Nearly a hundred students sat in front of him.
Most of them were senior students or fresh graduates. Some intended to enter accounting firms. Others wanted to become executives or establish businesses of their own.
Several laptops were open.
Financial projections, spreadsheets, and notes covered their screens.
Thick books involving accounting, finance, economics, and corporate strategy occupied the desks.
Yang Lujia, in his suit, was standing in front of them.
A student in the first row raised his hand. "Professor Yang."
"Yes?"
"I have a question."
The young man looked at the spreadsheet on his laptop.
"The textbooks say that business decisions can be optimized through proper planning."
Yang Lujia nodded.
"If we accurately project our cash flow, properly manage working capital, and maintain the right balance between assets and liabilities, then shouldn't failure become less likely?"
"Of course."
"Then why do so many businesses still fail?"
Yang Lujia did not answer immediately.
The student continued. "Some reports say that the majority of startup businesses fail. If we already have the formulas, the accounting information, and the financial models, what are they missing?"
He frowned. "Is there another variable?"
The room became quiet.
Yang Lujia looked around.
Several students were already holding their pens. Some had placed their hands above their keyboards. They expected an answer they could write down.
Perhaps even a formula.
Yang Lujia had seen that expression many times. Students were used to questions with predetermined answers.
They were given a problem. They were taught the formula. They applied the formula. Then they received a grade depending on whether their answer matched the expected one.
Business was different.
Even when the numbers were correct, something could still go wrong.
Yang Lujia walked toward a table beside the stage. There was a glass pitcher filled with water. He picked it up and placed it in front of the students.
Then he looked around. A decorative stone sat near one of the plants.
He took it.
"What are you doing, Professor?" someone asked.
Yang Lujia did not answer. Instead, he dropped the stone into the pitcher.
Splash!
Water spilled onto the table, which startled the students quite a bit.
Yang Lujia looked at the pitcher. "Let us make this simple."
He pointed at the glass.
"Assume this is your business."
Then he pointed at the water.
"This is your available cash."
His finger moved toward the stone. "And this is the thing you decided to spend that cash on."
The student who asked the question looked at the stone.
"The investment?"
"Anything. Equipment. Expansion. A new product. Another company. It does not matter."
Yang Lujia pointed at the spilled water. "You prepared your calculations before putting the stone inside."
He looked at the student. "You knew the amount of water."
"Yes."
"You knew the size of the pitcher."
"Yes."
"You also knew the size of the stone."
"Yes."
"Then why did the water spill?"
The student paused. "Because the stone displaced it."
"Correct."
Yang Lujia picked up a marker. He drew a small person on the glass.
The drawing was not particularly good.
Someone laughed.
Yang Lujia looked toward the sound. "What?"
"That businessman looks like he is drowning," the student replied, coughing.
"He made a bad investment."
Yang Lujia continued, "The point is that your calculations do not stop things from happening."
He tapped the pitcher. "You can prepare projections. You can estimate what will happen. You can prepare several scenarios."
Then he pointed at the water.
"But something will eventually happen that you did not include."
The young man nodded slowly.
"The market?"
"The market. Customers. Employees. Government regulation. Competitors. Your suppliers. Even the weather, depending on your business."
Yang Lujia paused. "Sometimes, the person you trust most."
For some reason, that sentence stayed with him for several seconds. He did not know why.
The student looked at the spilled water. "So the model failed?"
"Not necessarily."
Yang Lujia pointed at the laptop. "What does your projection tell you?"
"What we expected to happen."
"And what do your accounting records tell you?"
"What actually happened."
"Then compare them."
The student nodded. "The difference tells you where the assumptions failed."
"Yes."
Yang Lujia placed the marker on the table. "That is what the information is for."
He looked toward the other students. "You do not prepare a financial projection because you expect Reality to obey it."
Some students smiled at the wording. "You prepare it because you need a basis for making decisions. When something changes, you compare the actual result with what you expected and determine what caused the difference."
The student raised his hand again.
"Then there is no perfect model."
"No."
"That is unfortunate."
"It would be more unfortunate if you believed there was one."