A Hong Kong entrepreneur's business advice: perseverance and patience are worth it.

Editor's words: This article is written by Kenneth Chan, a Hong Kong continuous enterprise, and Kenneth is Gates2asia.com's founder and CEO who helped http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/ 9348.html "> Small businesses Buy products directly from Asian suppliers at a lower price.

"What do you need to know before starting a business?" "I have been asked this question many times over the years and have to admit that my answer has been changing and becoming more mature."

The first time I started a business, I was fearless and even arrogant. My attitude was "about the Internet what I know is no different from other people, but I will not be bound by what I have done, but I will look to the future." "More importantly, I have a strong sense of what needs to be done and I am the person who does it."

Back in 1999, I was a 30-year-old young man with confidence and enthusiasm. I can't make mistakes, because I won't let myself go wrong.

Like people who knew a little about the Internet at the time, I learned that internet entrepreneurship is seeping into every corner of the globe before the dotcom boom started in early 20th century.

Adhering to the "Can't go wrong" concept, I created the Gates2china Direct website, which, as the name suggests, helps small and medium sized businesses buy products directly from Asian suppliers at lower prices. We carry out product design, production and storage in mainland China and Hong Kong. We accept small orders (at least 6 items per product) and send them to any corner of the globe within 7-10 days. We received hundreds of orders a few days after the release of a large American product exhibition, and we were delighted at the success of G2C.

It should be noted that it is still just the first wave of the Internet, and we are trying to take advantage of the high efficiency of the network. Soon we found that customers were not very accustomed to trading and paying through the internet, and instead we received hundreds of orders by fax, phone, email, or even regular mail. What's more, we forget to remind these customers to continue to order a larger order when they are happy with the number of small orders. For us, logistics has become a nightmare, we pick goods from the warehouse, packaging for each customer, and ensure that we can deliver our 7-10-day delivery commitment.

So I learned a lot and realized that I was just getting started in the long road of entrepreneurship, when the promises we had claimed were not possible.

Here are some lessons I've learned over the last 13 years of continuous entrepreneurship. I know that experience and experiences vary from person to person, but I am confident in my experience, which is "What I want to know in advance before I start a business".

1. Insist: The road to entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs, sometimes you will suffer from the great pressure you can not bear. But remembering these persistence and endurance will be worthwhile in a few years.

2. When I was young, one of my spiritual mentors inspired me, "those who are afraid to take risks will be the ones who have nothing, for they will never learn, not to change, not to grow or to live, and the realization of a dream is based on adventure." ”

What I have learned is that people should not worry about risk, but should worry about how to deal with it, which is what entrepreneurs do every day.

3. In the case of stress and risk, there must be doubt, and entrepreneurs need to learn to coexist with questioning. This is the best helper for entrepreneurs because questioning sounds can force you to face the test, rethink, and reinvent your product or service.

4. Walt once said a word, I still remember, "want to start doing any thing, then don't talk, do it." "This is also my credo in life, when I was young I always had a lot of fantasies and ideas, but if I didn't do anything, I wouldn't actually implement them, and that would be nothing."

5. When you work for yourself, you realize that what you care about is not how much time you spend doing something, but whether it's done.

One of my partners, also a respected figure in the Internet community in North America, once reminded me that "when you repeat something for the first time, it is usually inevitable that you will make a mistake, because you will spend less time with it than you normally do, and if you want to, anything can happen two times, so your title, position, and so on is not important! ”

6. If you achieve a small success, you can take some of the money in return.

Most people (especially when I am young) want to "double" when they get a little bit of success. Of course money itself is not the motivation for me to work, but we need money to live, so it's wise to take some of the proceeds when you can.

7. Friends and family are the most important people in your life.

"You can't face so much pressure without their help. You wouldn't risk so much without their support. Without their encouragement, you can't face so many questions. ”

So are you able to see my changes over the years?

I found that in all these years of practice my spirit of adventure was flattened. Excessive self-confidence shows a person's youth and enthusiasm, but also shows the lack of experience and immaturity. Mature entrepreneur is to build self-confidence in practice, of course, self-confidence is not only from the experience of success, in many cases from "not afraid to make mistakes."

Now I have a new venture project Gates2asia, and I am also a consultant and investor in some other investment institutions. I really love the entrepreneurial life, I love the challenges and difficulties it brings. Maybe this kind of life is not for everyone, but there will always be brave people on the road to entrepreneurship, and I wish all of them well!