Lead:

Everyone is faced with a variety of choices, and if there is a choice, the computer will pay the cost. When people are faced with decisions, they need to compare the costs and benefits of each alternative. Only by recognizing the opportunity costs and making sure that the benefits outweigh the costs will people take the next step.

Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the NBA, once had the problem of choosing an opportunity cost.

Yao Ming did not go to college. Why didn't he go to college? With Yao Ming's IQ, there is no problem at all in being admitted to university. However, it was a wise choice for him not to go to college because he had the opportunity to play in the NBA. When he first arrived in the NBA, Yao signed a five-year contract with the Rockets, who paid him $70 million. Coupled with the advertising revenue he usually represents, Yao Ming's annual income has exceeded 100 million US dollars. Yao Ming can also choose to go to university, and many schools at home and abroad will give him admission letters. However, once Yao Ming chooses to go to college, his high income will be lost. The opportunity cost of Yao Ming's choice to go to college is much greater than that of continuing. So, in the end, Yao Ming chose to go to the United States to play golf instead of going to college.

So Yao Ming is the smartest, he didn't let the opportunity slip away in vain, he seized the opportunity. Although Yao Ming sometimes sighs: "I am also a blue-collar worker now, and all the *** people are hard work!" "Although he also wants to go to college, it's the opportunity cost of something to give up in order to get that kind of thing.

There are examples of opportunity costs everywhere in life, and everyone is faced with a variety of choices, and if there is a choice, the cost will be calculated. When people are faced with decisions, they need to compare the costs and benefits of each alternative. Only by recognizing the opportunity costs and making sure that the benefits outweigh the costs will people take the next step. Let's take a look at how Bill Gates, the world's richest man and former president of Microsoft, is faced with a choice.

Bill. Gates entered Harvard Law in 1973, but he had no interest in law and a penchant for computers. At the age of 19, Gates had the idea to start a software company, and with it a choice: should he continue his education until he got the Harvard degree that many people dream of, or should he drop out of school and start his own software company?

For Bill Gates, who loves to learn, it is his dream to successfully complete his studies and get a diploma from Harvard University, but starting his own software company is what he is most eager to do at the moment. After some thought, he decided to give up his studies and start a software company.

Facts have proved that his choice is right, from 1995 to 2007 "Forbes" global billionaire list, Bill Gates has been the world's richest man for 13 consecutive years.

On March 27, 1999, when Bill Gates returned to his alma mater to participate in a fundraiser, a reporter asked him if he would like to continue to study at Harvard to make up for his regrets. To this, Bill Gates only smiled slightly and did not give any answer. It is not difficult to see that Bill Gates is unwilling to give up his career for the sake of a Harvard degree.

From dropping out of school to establish Microsoft to becoming the richest man in the world, Gates only took 20 years. This Americans, known as "the man who sits on the top of the world", has been sitting in the position of the world's richest man for 13 years.

Why is that? According to common sense, going to school is something Gates likes, and since he realized his desire to start a software company, he could have calmed down and continued to study and realize his Harvard dream, but why did he choose to give up?

If you look at it from an economic point of view, the question is no longer so confusing. Because, for Gates at the time, between giving up his studies and running a company, the opportunity cost of giving up running a company to go to school was greater. Moreover, as a computer wizard, his technical level in the computer field has long exceeded the academic qualifications and level of ordinary students of the same age, and for him, the benefits of going to school cannot be greater than the benefits of running a company, so of course he will choose the side with smaller opportunity costs and larger benefits.

Opportunity cost is not a cost in the accounting sense, but a purely economic concept. From an economic point of view, people generally calculate costs just to find the best combination of factors to get the most benefit overall.

Huang Yali, the youngest and youngest among the top ten national "Super Girls" in 2009, should have participated in today's college entrance examination like thousands of college entrance examination candidates. Because she was very disappointed in herself after failing the art exam in a university in the first half of the year, she wanted to study at the Communication University of China, so she resolutely decided to give up this year's college entrance examination. She is currently planning to study in Singapore for two months to learn about music. Regarding her choice to give up the college entrance examination, she said nonchalantly: "Studying in college is not for learning things, and now I can't go on a study tour and study?!" ”

As a rational person in economics, Huang Yali naturally weighs the cost and opportunity cost in economics.