Writing to young people: young Internet heroes are not a miracle. There are a group of mentor behind them.

From: President network http://www.chinaceot.com Qihoo 360 Chairman Zhou Hongyi

Our company now has nearly 4000 people. I think it must be a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There are also 40 great talents. However, even if it is a genius, without the help of its predecessors, it will eventually become a mediocre talent. For example, a coach is behind every diving champion. Without a coach, you will have to make a detour and re-invent the wheel. Without a coach, you have been in the water for countless times and do not know where your mistake is. You may not be able to understand the truth until you break yourself down, it is clamping leg, leg stretching, abdomen, jump.

Everyone can understand this truth, but in the company, there will be a generation gap. Now, 70 of us are followed by the next generation of young people, especially those after 85, sometimes fall into an endless loop. Some post-85 do not agree with the experience and experience of the Post-70 s, or even a resistance mentality. I think it is necessary to talk to the post 85: there are countless mentors involved in every great commercial miracle.

From the post 85 s perspective, Silicon Valley is undoubtedly a constant wonder. Here we will produce Bill Gates from Microsoft, Steve Jobs from Apple, and pages and blins from Google. Today, Zuckerberg, who has never graduated from a university, created the world's largest social network with thousands of employees and a market value of $ more than 50 billion in a few years. Silicon Valley seems to be the world of young people. These young people who challenge their authority have been building legends.

In the past, I also felt very emotional, thinking that we are not lacking in arms and legs, not mentally retarded and lacking in mind. Why are we not turning around these miracles, but are these boys playing well? Like Zuckerberg, he has never graduated from a university, nor has he been in a business school. He hasn't even worked for a day. How can he manage a company with thousands of employees?

Later, when I went to Silicon Valley and had a lot of contact with entrepreneurs there, I found that many domestic entrepreneurs were misled by the story of the American dream. The truth is that there is no miracle in this world. Media reports only highlight the rendering of juvenile heroes, not the old-age heroes. The media aims to cater to the reader's interests and create a miracle in the story, so that the media can sell well.

The people behind the heroes are called mentor. The words closest to this word in Chinese are the "Masters" with apprentices. They are similar to the Yuda masters in Star Wars, zhang Sanfeng in "Yi Tian tu long Ji" and the Bodhi ancestor in "Journey to the West" often teach a skill or guide a direction.

For example, Mark?, the founder of Netscape, who once defeated Microsoft in the browser war? Anderson, a helper of Zuckerberg and a master of xiaoza. Like Mark? People like Anderson have both succeeded and experienced great failures. They will say to these entrepreneurial young people: Young man, your product direction should be like this, and you 'd better commercialize it like that, at this stage, you should find someone like this. What kind of VP can I find for you, and what kind of CEO can I recommend for you ...... These people can play a key role in the development of a startup company. However, the news media is fond of pursuing miracles, so it seldom reports such mentors. The reason is very simple. If you know that the young hero has so many mentors to help him, the story is not a legend.

Xiao za may be a technical genius or a product genius, but I don't believe he is a management genius. No one is born to know management, and management can be known without reading a few books. Management is a kind of practice. The so-called management experience is accumulated by time, and then sublimated by the management curriculum of the business school. Facebook grew very fast because of such experienced mentors.

Why do I emphasize that mentor is so important? I have suffered a loss in this regard. My first company was supposed to have failed. Later, I thought that if I had such an experienced and internationalized mentor to help me, or at least remind me of One Direction, I would not miss my first chance. Because I gave up 3721, then I gave up the possibility to compete with Baidu for hundreds of millions of dollars.

I have made many mistakes and have accumulated a lot of experience. There were a lot of people at the same starting line in that era, but some people fell down, and they could not climb any more, because they fell down and lost their spirits. This makes me understand some truth, and everyone's growth is all the way down. I have learned some lessons, but I have also taken a detour, which also represents the current situation of many Chinese startups.

Confucius said, "The Three man's industry must have our teacher ." I have many shortcomings, but my biggest advantage is listening. Even a grass-roots employee writes a letter to me, if it makes sense, it can also change my mind and prompt me to reflect on it. Listening and reflection. This advantage has allowed me to survive in the Internet circle.

I have always believed that young people are more keen, have a better understanding of users, have less restrained thoughts, and have more vigor and energy. However, to be successful, young people still need help. This is what I said. The experiences and lessons learned from the masters of the elders and uncles.

I often talk to young people about the dream of seeing anything other than money. However, we need to find a teacher who can really help you to avoid detours, as Newton said, "standing on the shoulders of giants ."

Think about it. Newton is a master of classical physics and has made outstanding achievements in physics, mathematics, and astronomy. But imagine that if there were no discoveries from previous physicists, such as gobaini, Bruno, Galileo, and kepura, can Newton make such a great achievement?

People like us after 70 were the first to contact the internet. At that time, even if we fell behind, no one told you that wrestling was because there was a pitfall in front of us, because there was no one who knew it was a pitfall earlier than us. When we fell over this road, the full history of blood and tears turned into experiences and lessons. I think we should learn to absorb and use the accumulated experience and lessons in the Post-85 s, so that we can make our life easier.