1. Lacking a Desire That Comes from Within

Desire is what creates motivation. The desire to survive and the desire for something better are the wellspring that drives human progress. The stronger the desire, the stronger the motivation. An intense desire makes a person charge at the goal regardless of everything. To break through, passion matters more than reason.

2. Worn Out by Meeting Daily Physical Needs

There are physical and mental limits you cannot break through. Caring too much about food, clothing, shelter, and transport leaves you no extra energy or time to do something different. Things that predecessors have done and successors can do cannot reflect an individual’s value. The road others have walked leaves behind only their footprints.

3. Goals That Are Too Broad and Wide-Ranging

Better to cut off one finger than to wound ten. Trying a little in every direction is worse than persisting in one direction to the end and building a moat. Think about whether there is anything you have kept at for a long time, and transfer that feeling onto a field oriented toward the future.

4. An Ordinary Aesthetic With No Distinction

What ultimately determines how far you rise is actually your aesthetic sense. Experience and effort are available to everyone, but if your aesthetic cannot keep up, then even when something good is placed in front of you, you cannot grasp it, and you remain stuck at the level of mere diligence.