The Teaching of Confucius - My Brief Interpretation of Analects, Part 2

Be a principle-centered leader and a good example for the people, treat the people the way you want to be treated. Build their inner qualities to be moral and ethical, and let these qualities act as their own guidance.

Do not treat your family like your dogs or horses, which you fulfill by providing food or shelter only. You should also connect with them spiritually with love and respect.

Be honest about your knowledge, if you do not know something, acknowledge that and learn about it. Learning should always be coupled with your own thinking.

A noble man is not a product, which has only one fixed function, instead, he can be whatever he chooses to be.

You can understand a lot about a person by the actions he takes. Likewise, a noble man should be able to do what he preaches, do not be a leader who asks people to do what he says, but do not do what he does. In addition to that, a noble man's actions should be congruent with his private heart, and not doing what he should do is cowardice.

The Teaching of Confucius - My Brief Interpretation of Analects, Part 1

The objective of learning the Analects is first to become a noble man, by personal influence, it then extends to benefit his family, country and finally, the world.

However, you must have the following expectations before deciding to learn the Analects:

i) It would be great to have the opportunity to apply all that you have learned to help the nation; -- however, if there is no such opportunity,
ii) it would still be great to have some friends who appreciate you for your virtues, knowledge and abilities; -- however, if there is no such person who can understand you,
iii) it would be still great because you know deep down in your heart, you have all the qualities of a noble man.
It is who you have become as a person that matters.
If you can accept the above-mentioned conditions, i.e. to apply all that you have learned to benefit the world by your effort to create whatever opportunities to do so, but worse comes to worst, you will be at ease with yourself and still feel great even if there is not a single person in the whole world can understand you and you do not have a chance to contribute to the world despite all your efforts, you are then qualified to learn the teaching of Confucius.

In order to become a noble man, a person must be true to his heart, the words and deeds must be congruent with his honest heart, he must always inspect his own conscience, to do what is right and ethical, to give respect to people and treat everyone with equality.

The monetary wealth has nothing to do with nobleness, you are who you are whether you are poor or rich, so you should act the same regardless of how poor or how wealthy you are.

Take whatever opportunities you have to learn from those who are wise, knowledgeable and ethical, correct your mistakes accordingly and improve yourself whenever possible.

You should not be worried if other people cannot understand you, but rather, be worried whether you have understood others.