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I graduated from BITS Pilani in 2010.After pursuing a couple of dead end internships, I accepted a job offer from a leading IT firm in Chennai for the role of Associate Software Engineer.My starting salary was 3.0LPA. Inclusive of bonus.Initially I wasn’t too concerned about the salary. I figured there was a distinct gap in my knowledge when it came to technology and I intended to bridge the gap by working for a year and then make a switch.But as months went by, I started to regret how I had not taken the most of the opportunities that were presented to me. Even the managers in the company were not sure what I was doing at the company. One of the first question asked to me when I joined the project was:“Which college are you from?”“BITS-Pilani”Puzzled look. “What are you doing here?”I was dumbfounded. It was at that moment that it hit me that I should not have been here. That I had messed up. The next few months were very hard. I had heard of people being in depression. But I didn’t quite understand how difficult it was for them. At that point of my life, I understood. It was hard. It was difficult to wake up in the morning, travel to my office that was located in the middle of nowhere. Perform routine maintenance work for a system that was already in place. I was contributing NOTHING to the project.I felt like quitting. Not just the job. But my life. I remember walking one evening outside the office. There was a railway station right next to the office. I left the office with the intention of jumping in front of an oncoming train.But I couldn’t. I remembered my mom and dad. They had sacrificed so much for me. And I messed up.I went home and cried.I remember waking up the next morning relieved that I chickened out. I vowed to myself that after screwing up so badly in college, I needed to get back on track.I vowed that I would never give up. If not for myself, for my parents. Because they deserve better than what I was giving them.I decided to attempt CAT. Maybe I can get a lifeline by cracking the exam and entering the hallowed walls of the IIMs. That could give me a second chance. All I wanted was a second chance.I gave up every pleasure in my life and studied for CAT. I practically destroyed all the weekends and left no stone unturned for my preparation.I attempted CAT three times. All the three times I ended up with a score of 98.XX. I was devastated. I was adamant I wanted to go to the IIMs. But I did not get a single call.Meanwhile, after a year, I changed my job. I joined an upcoming analytics firm. The work was by no means fantastic. But it was a lot better than the IT work. I got a pay hike to 5.0LPAI gave up my aspiration for CAT. I was 25 and I felt I would regret it if I continued to live my twenties in this manner. I joined a few non profits. The most significant of them being SlumSoccer. I played football with slum kids every Saturday evening. Seeing the happiness in their face made me happy. But seeing the poverty and the life that they had to return to everyday made me sad. I realised how lucky I am to have all that I have.I picked up a few other activities as well. I began to focus on my fitness and tried my hand at music.The most important activity I took up was running. I was never an endurance racer. I ran the 10km leg of the WIPRO Chennai Marathon in 2013. I don’t know what happened within me. I fell in love with running. I suppose I felt I was running away from all my problems.I started training for marathons. When I learnt about the triathlon, I started training for that too. I convinced my parents to sell our old car, used the entire money to buy myself a cycle. I went long distance cycling every weekend. I used to go out of the city for about 50 kms. In the Chennai heat. I came back exhausted. Then I would dive into the swimming pool in the afternoon and swim for 45 mins. I rounded up the day with 2 hours of intense football. Physically, I pushed myself to the limits.This went on for one year.And then my initial depression started to return.Back home my parents felt I was wasting my life away. I could see the pain in their eyes every time I went home. I had trouble sleeping at night.I began to look for an exit from my job. I got my first promotion 2 years into my second job. I was earning 8.5LPA four years after graduation. Not impressive by any standards. My father was not happy. It was not the pay that kept me unhappy. It was the fact that my parents wanted something better. That made me sad.I decided, I need to try harder to secure admissions in a top school. I was in no mood to write CAT every year. I decided to take up the GMAT. I took the GMAT after three months of preparation and scored a 720. I scored full marks in Quantitative section. So I did not bother to rewrite the exam again.I applied to six colleges in the US in my first year. I was wait-listed by one, rejected by all others without an interview. I did my utmost to get an interview invitation for the wait-listed college. The school suggested I join Toastmasters to improve my candidacy. I did. And it changed my life in ways I cannot describe.In the first meeting, I gave an impromptu speech. It was not great by any means. But I was given a thunderous applause for my efforts. I felt good. I felt appreciated after a long time. I was thankful to the school for recommending Toastmasters to me. The school ultimately rejected me. But I continued my journey in Toastmasters.I applied for a second time to five different U.S schools. I was rejected without interview in all of them. I was invited for an interview at ISB. But, I was rejected after the interview. This time I was devastated. I had put in countless hours of effort in order to write my essays. I had contacted more than a hundred alumni to help draft the essays. I attended numerous events and even visited the schools. I had hit rock bottom.Little had changed professionally. I applied for jobs at the top MNCs. I was shortlisted for an interview with LinkedIn. Upon making it past round 3, they flew me down to Bangalore. I had two rounds of interviews. I was rejected after the fifth round. I was invited for an interview at McKinsey. They flew me down to their office. I cleared seven rounds. I was rejected at the eight and final round. I interviewed with Google. I cleared five rounds. I was rejected at the sixth and final round. I asked for a feedback from Google. They said “I lacked the aptitude for the job.” It was the first time in my life that someone had told me I lacked aptitude. I felt insulted.The McKinsey and Google interviews happened within a span of two weeks. I felt like my world was falling apart.I tried my hand at European schools as one last ditched effort. I applied to the MBA program at HEC Paris and Oxford. Oxford rejected me without interview.HEC Paris invited me for an interview.I prepared for the interview to the best of my abilities. The interview consisted of a 10 minute presentation. My 16 month stint at Toastmasters helped me make a killer presentation. At the end of the process, even I was impressed at how well I had done. I told myself, if they reject me, B-School is probably not for me as no school in the world thinks I am capable. I did not know what else needed to be done to get an admit into a top school.On 9th May 2016, I was in my office when I got an e-mail from HEC admissions.“Congratulations…”I didn’t read the rest of the mail.I just closed my eyes and let it sink in. I took a few deep breaths and composed myself.I looked back at the screen to confirm that it was indeed an admit. I stood up from my workstation, walked towards the exit and dialled my dad’s number.I told him I have an admit. I have never seen my dad cry. I still haven’t. But I have heard him getting choked up.I called my mom. I have seen and heard my mom cry before. That day, I heard again.That night, I slept well for the first time in 5.5 years.There have been far too many downs and a few ups since I graduated. But what is unmistakable in my time here is that I made progress.Looking back it has been a very long and emotional journey. I was down and broken. All I ever wanted was a second chance. I felt helpless every time I was rejected. be it by a company or by a B-School. But every time I was knocked down, I got back up on my feet. Until they couldn’t knock me down no more. Until I made it to a top 20 school.I am grateful for this second chance that I have been given. I am aware that I did not save a life or change the world. But I changed my parents’ world. For the better. And that means a lot to me. I am aware that the journey has only begun. And hopefully someday, I can make a difference to the lives of people I will never meet.I am not sure if this answer will help anyone. But, I have learnt that in life you got to keep doing what you have to do, and trust that it will all pay off in the end. I started my Toastmaster’s journey to impress the school. But I continued it because I loved it. I didn’t know that one day it will help me make the killer presentation that would help me get the admit. I took up running because I loved it. I didn’t know that my interviewer at HEC would adore me for doing that. It helped me connect with him.To conclude, I would like to say that no hard work goes fruitless. Sometimes, the fruits take time to bear. When you are struggling to find motivation in your darkest hour, always ask yourselfwhy am I doing this?In my case, it was for my parents.Update 1:This answer has got way more traction than I expected. There are far too many comments and questions for me to respond. I am in no way qualified to answer some of the questions.Update 2:As my post has been misinterpreted by different people. I want to clear the air on a few aspects.There was a time when I was lost. Lost professionally and spiritually. I did not know what was right and what was wrong. I was a naive graduate who made some foolish decisions. Thankfully, I didn’t do anything that hurt anyone.Life is a precious gift. I am thankful for having a loving family and some amazing friends who have stayed by me through it all. I have learnt to appreciate what I have. I hope by reading this you will appreciate the good that you have in your life as well.I believe the human spirit is very powerful. When tested it helps to have strong faith. I remember I used to recollect one of my favourite dialogues from the movie “Evan Almighty”. There is a dialogue by Morgan Freeman’s character which is as follows:“If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”This is what I believe in.In order to be moulded into a strong individual you have to face the heat.The decision to pursue an MBA was solely mine. I took the decision to advance my career. I was in no way under any pressure from my family to get into a top college. In fact they just wanted me to stop trying and get into ANY good college. But I continued because it was MY ambition to attend my dream college . What was hard was the rejections I faced while pursuing this dream.I am satisfied it all worked out. I wrote this answer only with the intention to help anyone who might be in a similar boat as I was a few years ago.Update 3 (Addendum to update 1):There are a lot of online resources that are helpful in preparing for competitive examinations. Please refer them for guidance in that regard.If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend that you read The Untethered Soul. I have found it very relevant and useful.Update 4If you would like a little more details on some of the routines I used to pull this off, you can find them here Nithin Sebastian's answer to How do you cope with depression or when you think you can't do anything in life?

Great question! Many of us feel that in order to be successful, we just need to have a good idea, work hard, and have a bit of luck.But the world just doesn't work that way. All of these traits are necessary, but not enough to be truly world-class.For example, as of today in 2015, according to Forbes, there are 1,826 billionaires in the entire world. Right now, there are 7.3 billion people in the world. That means that the probability of someone being randomly born anywhere in the world and becoming a billionaire is .000025%.Seeing those numbers, it’s easy to wonder, “Are there some big secrets to becoming extremely successful and impactful that we can copy?”Well, I recently came across one such “secret” from billionaire Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, and he has an approach to business that I haven’t seen talked about anywhere else, but that has been followed by many world-class entrepreneurs we all admire.Countless books and articles have been written about Warren Buffett. He shares most of how he operates his businesses openly. Surprisingly though, very few have been written about his business partner of over the 40 years, Charlie Munger.Munger has stayed out of the public eye, giving only a small number of public talks, and he’s rarely been covered in the media. At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder’s meetings, he lets Buffett answer the questions, often times commenting, “I have nothing to add.”For two months, I read everything I could get my hands on about, said by, and written by Munger over his 70-year career, and what I found blew me away. His model for success, backed by research, is simple and game-changing. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom on career success.How This One Life Hack From A Self-Made Billionaire Leads To Exceptional SuccessA great deal has been written about how deliberate practice over 10,000 hours within a specific area of expertise is the key to success.While Munger has certainly worked long and hard to become one of the world’s top investors, the signature of his success is different. According to his own account, rather than focusing on investment theory like a laser, he has studied widely and deeply in many fields, including microeconomics, psychology, law, mathematics, biology, and engineering, and applied insights from them to investing.Bill Gates has said of Munger, “He is truly the broadest thinker I have ever encountered. From business principles to economic principles to the design of student dormitories to the design of a catamaran he has no equal… Our longest correspondence was a detailed discussion on the mating habits of naked mole rats and what the human species might learn from them.” Munger has, in short, been the ultimate expert-generalist.The Rise Of The Expert-GeneralistThe rival argument to the 10,000 hour rule is the expert-generalist approach. Orit Gadiesh, chairman of Bain & Co, who coined the term, describes the expert-generalist as:“Someone who has the ability and curiosity to master and collect expertise in many different disciplines, industries, skills, capabilities, countries, and topics., etc. He or she can then, without necessarily even realizing it, but often by design:Draw on that palette of diverse knowledge to recognize patterns and connect the dots across multiple areas.Drill deep to focus and perfect the thinking.”The concept is commonly represented by this model of the “T-shaped individual”:While the 10,000 hour rule works well in areas with defined rules that don’t change such as sports, music, and games, the rules of business constantly and fundamentally change. Being an expert-generalist allows individuals to quickly adapt to change. Research shows that they:See the world more accurately and make better predictions of the future, because they are not as susceptible to the biases and assumptions prevailing in any given field or community.Have more breakthrough ideas, because they pull insights that already work in one area into ones where they haven’t been tried yet.Build deeper connections with people who are different than them because of understanding of their perspectives.Build more open networks, which allows them to serve as a connector between people in different groups. According to network science research, having an open network is the #1 Predicator of SuccessCharlie Munger’s Approach To Being An Expert-GeneralistIn connecting the dots across the disciplines, Munger has developed a set of what he calls models, which he uses to assess investment opportunities. In fact, he’s identified over 100 of these models that he uses frequently as of the publication of Poor Charlie’s Almanack. No doubt he continues to develop and perfect them.What are these models exactly?The best way to explain is to take the case of one he uses constantly, which he calls Two-Track analysis. It combines insights from psychology, neuroscience and economics about the nature of human behavior. This model instructs that when analyzing any situation in which decision-making by people is involved, which of course covers every business situation, he must consider two tracks:How they would act if they behaved rationally, according to their true best interests.How they would succumb to the pull of a number of irrational psychological biases that seem to be “programmed” into the human brain. Researchers have identified a host of them, and Munger has incorporated twenty-five of them into his Two-Track analysis model.Another example is classical conditioning developed by Ivan Pavlov in the early 20th century. Pavlov discovered that with the right conditioning, dogs would salivate not just when eating food, but also in anticipation of it when he walked into the laboratory. Munger applies the same logic to business. In his book, he gives the example of how Coca-Cola (one of Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holdings) conditions its customers with the right frequency and type of advertising while using their logo as the trigger.The following is a summary of his rules on being an expert-generalist in his own words, excerpted and condensed from the various talks he’s given:Rule #1: Learn Multiple Models“The first rule is that you’ve got to have multiple models—because if you just have one or two that you’re using, the nature of human psychology is such that you’ll torture reality so that it fits your models.”“It’s like the old saying, ‘To the man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.’ But that’s a perfectly disastrous way to think and a perfectly disastrous way to operate in the world.”Rule #2: Learn Multiple Models From Multiple Disciplines“And the models have to come from multiple disciplines—because all the wisdom of the world is not to be found in one little academic department.”Rule #3: Focus On Big Ideas From The Big Disciplines (20% Of Models Create 80% Of The Results)“You may say, ‘My God, this is already getting way too tough.’ But, fortunately, it isn’t that tough—because 80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly-wise person. And, of those, only a mere handful really carry very heavy freight.”Rule #4: Use A Checklist To Ensure You’re Factoring in the Right Models“Use a checklist to be sure you get all of the main models.”“How can smart people be wrong? Well, the answer is that they don’t…take all the main models from psychology and use them as a checklist in reviewing outcomes in complex systems.”Rule #5: Create Multiple Checklists And Use The Right One For The Situation“You need a different checklist and different mental models for different companies. I can never make it easy by saying, ‘Here are three things.’ You have to drive it yourself to ingrain it in your head for the rest of your life.”The Expert-Generalist Approach In Different FieldsWhether or not you decide to follow Munger’s particular approach, one clear takeaway is the value of gaining a wide breadth of knowledge while also drilling deeply into your area of specialty.Many of the top scientists, business leaders, inventors and artists throughout time have also achieved their breakthrough successes by being an expert-generalist. Albert Einstein was trained in physics, but to formulate his law of general relativity, he taught himself an area of mathematics far removed from his expertise, Riemannian geometry. James Watson and Francis Crick combined discoveries in X-ray diffraction technology, chemistry, evolutionary theory and computation to solve the puzzle of the double helix. Steve Jobs, of course, drew on insights from his study of calligraphy and a rich understanding of design to create a new breed of computing devices.Here is an infographic I created with 25 of the top expert-generalists throughout history:Copyright Michael Simmons 2015. All Rights Reserved.Bain & Company chairman, Orit Gadiesh, attests to the value of being a voracious reader across many domains in her own career, saying:“Being an expert-generalist has helped Bain see things for our clients that others miss, as we provide unique insights from one industry into another. The approach has differentiated Bain from its competitors.”“I bring into my work everything I do; all of my past consulting projects, all of my readings [100+ books a year]. I read novels. I read about physics, mathematics, history, biographies, art. One reason I work well in Germany is that I’ve read a lot of German literature, German philosophers, German history, etc., even though I’m Israeli. They’re great writers. Likewise, I can work in France because I’ve read their literature. I’ve read Japanese literature, Korean literature, English literature, American literature, Israeli literature, and on and on. I bring all of that somehow into my work. And I think that makes me better at what I do. It also makes life more interesting.”What’s more, those who can bridge the gaps between silos are becoming more valuable than ever as the amount of knowledge in the world and its fragmentation continue to accelerate.Being An Expert-Generalist Will Become More And More ValuedThe discipline known as scientometrics is the science of science; it studies the evolution of scientific knowledge. Two of the key findings of this field are:The amount of academic research is doubling every 9 years (left image)The number disciplines is growing exponentially (right image).As disciplines emerge and mature, they develop their own cultures and languages. Each has its own terminology along with its own journals and annual conferences. This specialization has already become so extreme that those who are specialists in one subfield of a discipline often know little to nothing about the work going on in other subfields.Consider the increasing specialization that has led to one important new area of science, epigenetics. Epigenetics is essentially the study of how environmental factors affect how our genes are expressed. When biology emerged as a field of its own out of medicine and natural history in the 19th century, it would have been possible for any biologist to gain a good grasp of the whole field. Today, many geneticists would tell you they don’t have any real understanding of the findings in epigenetics.Given this state of affairs, many professionals have determined the best approach is to go into sub, sub, sub specialties, where they can hope to become one of the best if they follow the 10,000 rule. That can indeed be fruitful. But opportunities also abound for those who instead develop an aptitude for building connections across disciplines.Expert-generalists face far less competition. The more fields you can pull from, the fewer people you’ll find taking the same approach. When it comes to drilling into one domain,the competition is generally fierce. Narrowly specializing also leaves you vulnerable to the ever-more daunting forces of change. Orit Gadiesh offers insight in this regard:“As technology, globalization, geopolitical challenges, and competition accelerate the disruption of business, people are confronted with challenges, customs, and issues they have never experienced before. I find that experts – someone with deep knowledge limited to just one area – often lack the flexibility needed to adapt to change and can be easily flustered or, worse, be completely derailed.”Curiouser and CuriouserThe business world has placed great emphasis on focus, and rightly so. It is a vital ingredient of success. But more emphasis must now be placed on curiosity. Too often, we are so pressed by the day-to-day demands of work that we aren’t making time for exploration, diving into areas entirely outside our range of experience, letting our minds run, and finding inspiration from encountering new ideas with uncertain payoffs.So, when you find yourself pushing back, the inner voice of work overload screaming that you don’t have time to be reading that book you just picked up about the physics of time travel or the novel someone recommended by the Nigerian Nobel Prize winner, remember this: Bill Gates recalls that the longest correspondence he’s had with Charlie Munger wasn’t about an investment, it was about the mating habits.-Charlie Munger’s deepest secret to success wasn’t his investment strategy, his relationship with Warren Buffett, or even how he held meetings. It was in how he gained unique insights as a result of being a generalist.Have you worked on becoming an expert generalist? Or are you considering taking that step forward? I’d love to hear your experiences on the topic!Comment below!P.S., as a resource for this answer, I put together a 27-page report you can download at no cost. It summarizes the psychological biases that Munger has identified throughout his 70-year career. I put it together because I didn’t see another summary anywhere else that was easy to comprehend or apply.--This Quora answer is a modified version of an article I originally wrote for Forbes.

Thx for A2A. Solomon MalekaniFirst I would say that I’m just 1 of the 1.36 billion mainlanders, so my answer can only represent the opinions of myself.I think, the keypoint of HK’s autonomy, is not about whether it “should” be autonomous, but whether it “can” be.First we should know why China established a “One Country Two Systems” in HK. China did this in 1997 instead of direct administration because of many reasons:Economic status: Mainland China was super poor back in the 90s with a GDP per capita less than $1000, while Hong Kong was already a highly developed city then. If China chose to directly govern HK then millions of Mainlanders may flood into HK seeking better life, which may bring disasters to HK. Not to mention there was almost no mainland officials having experience of governing a highly developed city.Socially, HKers had developed very different/westernized life styles due to the longtime colonization. Their living standard was much better and much more fashionable than the mainlanders’ (which was also partly because of the developed economy).HK already had the rule of law and freedom of speech that the Mainland lacked and still somewhat lacks (though improves a lot compared with 90s).I believed the “1C2S” was also somewhat a compromise with the Britons. The Britons gave back the entire sovereignty of HK to China, as an exchange, China established a “1C2S” in HK to protect some of Britain’s interests.To do an experiment that makes HK remain a free international financial hub, thus HK can be a financial bridge between China and the West when necessary.So as we can see, China gave HK autonomy isn’t because China is a Saint, but a helpless choice. It’s more like a helpless concession to the reality (the two sides were economically and socially too different then) .BUT time flies, now 22 years have passed, what’s the current scenario like?Now China is no longer poor, but an upper-middle income country with $10000 GDP per capita (nominal) and $20000 GDP per capita (PPP). If we only look at the Chinese cities in eastern coast then they are even more developed.For example, Shenzhen, the mainland city just next to HK, now has a GDP per capita over $30000 and a GDP(PPP) per capita of $52000, the gap of development between Shenzhen and HK is not very big and Shenzhen is even more developed than HK in many fields of industry.Thanks to the economic development, Mainlanders’ living style has changed a lot too. If you know any Chinese born after 1995 or 2000, you will get what I mean. Their living style and mindset are not too different from young Hongkongers’, compared with their parents’ generation (“the red generation”).And the rule of law and freedom of speech have improved in Mainland too (though it’s still not enough, for example there is still censorship). Mainland officials are also much less corrupted than those in 90s.So as we can see, the reason why HK got its autonomy is because there was a huge difference between HK and the Mainland and HK was way ahead of the Mainland in nearly every fields. But the differences which makes HK autonomous are now disappearing and the gap of development between the 2 sides has narrowed a lot and will continue to narrow in the foreseeable future.In other words, HK’s qualification to be autonomous is now disappearing.Let’s say, when Shenzhen surpasses HK by GDP per capita (which is predicted to happen around 2026–2030 as current growth rate), when Shenzhen people especially the young generation have the same living standards as HKers do, when Shenzhen people have a more open and even more westernized mindset than HKers do (which is already somewhat true), can HK still keep the qualifications to remain autonomous? “Being autonomous” means you have something special, if you become the same with other developed Chinese cities, why choose you to be autonomous?There is a widely-spread theory:“HK is the only opening window of China, China needs a free city which has fully freedom of speech and rule of law to be an international financial hub and via which China communicates with the West. Thus HK is very important to China because it’s where China gets the important foreign capital and investments.”Unfortunately, this theory may be right back in the 1990s, but now, as the data shows, it’s no longer correct.Let’s see the data:创历史新高 2018年我国吸引外资8856.1亿元-新华网As the data shows, In 2017, the total amount of foreign capital in China is ¥ 885.61 billion which equals to $ 134.97 billion.Remember this number “$ 134.97 billion”, now let’s see some other data:Do you know where this is? This is Changsha, a mediocre Tier-2 city in central China. Do you know it? It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard of its name. Let’s directly see the data:长沙去年完成固定资产投资7567.77亿元 同比增长13.1%-掌上长沙As the data show, the total amount of investments in Changsha in 2017 was ¥ 756.77 billion which equals to about $ 115 billion.Remember the number “$ 134.97 billion”? Yes, the total amount of foreign capital that China needs is just slightly more than the total amount of investments in a mediocre Tier-2 inland city. Not to mention that some of these “foreign capital and investments” are not gotten via HK.So HK as a “opening window” maybe is not that important to China as someone may think.I’ve written quite a lot about my opinions, but please don’t misinterpret it, I’m not calling the Chinese government to cancel the “1C2S” now,I think the 1C2S boils down to a helpless program of a transition period. It will be eventually cancelled one day since it’s a mere “transition”.In fact, i support Deng Xiaoping’s statements about HK’s autonomy (unfortunately not many people have read his statements carefully):“对香港的政策，我们承诺了一九九七年以后五十年不变，这个承诺是郑重的。为什么说五十年不变？这是有根据的，不只是为了安定香港的人心，而是考虑到香港的繁荣和稳定同中国的发展战略有着密切的关联。中国的发展战略需要的时间，除了这个世纪的十二年以外，下个世纪还要五十年，那么五十年怎么能变呢？现在有一个香港，我们在内地还要造几个“香港”，就是说，为了实现我们的发展战略目标，要更加开放。既然这样，怎么会改变对香港的政策呢？实际上，五十年只是一个形象的讲法，五十年后也不会变。前五十年是不能变，五十年之后是不需要变。”—— 邓小平，1988年6月English translation:We have promised that our policy towards Hong Kong is “no change in 50 years after 1997”. This commitment is solemn. Why we said so ? There are reasons, not only to stabilize the hearts of Hong Kong people, but also to consider that Hong Kong's prosperity and stability are closely related to China's development strategy. The time required for China’s development strategy, in addition to the last twelve years of this century, still needs fifty years in the next century. How will it change in 50 years? Now there is one Hong Kong, we gonna build a few new "Hong Kong"s in the Mainland. In other words, in order to achieve our development strategy, we must be more open. In this case, how can we change our policy towards Hong Kong? In fact, “no change in 50 years” is just half of the whole image, it won’t change either after 50 years. It cannot be changed within the first 50 years, and after 50 years there gonna be no need to change.——Deng Xiaoping, June, 1988So in my opinion, the 1C2S will eventually be “abolished” one day when Mainland is highly-developed and open just like HK (this is happening). And that won’t be a big deal at that time because there will be no obvious development gap between the mainland and HK.China’s plan is to make mainland more like HK, not to make HK like mainland in old days.Don’t panic.