Wang Readme Entrepreneurial lesson sharing

Ten years ago I came back from the United States to start a business, the past decade has been an entrepreneur, I still am an entrepreneur today. I have three entrepreneurial experiences and the first two paragraphs are very unsuccessful. The third paragraph, the United States from 2010 to the current development is OK, but still in the trenches, in the struggle. I have a lot of lessons to share, but no experience is entirely applicable. Whether it's my own experience, or other people's summary, almost every seemingly correct suggestion, I can always find a lot of counter examples.

1 Counter-Example of "pioneering proposal"

For example, it is very important for startups to develop faster and grow. Silicon Valley has a maxim, a bit vulgar but very direct: Keep growing, fuck modifiable else. Only growth is important, everything else is unimportant, as long as you keep growing at a high speed, all problems can be tolerated at least in the short term, be concealed, or will not erupt, may be a lot of problems at that time is a problem, you grow up 10 times times, after a hundredfold it is not a problem, not even need to solve his natural disappearance. This sentence is to a large extent, because we have experienced many similar things in the process, the United States has a lot of problems today, but the most important thing is to maintain continuous growth, so many problems at least have the opportunity to solve.

Here's a suggestion. Must not want to say there are many problems, this question is very important, I want to stop to solve the problem, the start-up company must not stop, there is no problem is worth your stop, or even slow down to solve, otherwise only more serious, rapid outbreak to the entire company.

But there are also counter examples, all things have a counter case, you grow too fast, many problems are because they grow too fast he can't control, out of the question.

In my own experience, the United States Group is the first group of group buying site, but in the second half of 2010 to the first half of 2011, the market is extremely crazy, countless money smashed in, countless teams round and round of financing, digging each other, and then everywhere hit the money to burn money, there is a time handle and litters is run faster than the US regiment, They grew at very high speed, and at last they were in the second half of 11 to near the end of the the basic rapid collapse, that thing is not to say, because the United States to do something they have a problem, they run too fast, they originally set up at the start of the business said, after 1.5 to go public, Because there is an exaggerated example, litters group dug people's time to say that we are sure good 2011 years a few months the number of listed, and then use this way to dig people, so they all plan is to do this, when the capital market or outside environment bad, the company can not adapt, will quickly appear problems. So this is a counter example.

On the other hand, many suggest that focus is important. Rei said entrepreneurial Seven word tactic is, focus, Ultimate, word-of-mouth, fast. Focus is ranked first, because the entrepreneurial competition is the individual, team, all resources, like the blade, the more focused the more powerful, this is easy to understand. Especially for startups, your resources are relatively limited, no matter how much help and support, so focus is necessary, but there are also counter examples.

Focus first is focusing on things, not doing a lot of things. But if you set your business too small and sometimes stand still, you will eventually find that you are completely lost in the pattern, no matter how hard it is to win.

For example, a few years ago, Taobao did very badly, the capital is also abundant, he did a lot of things, in fact, did a lot of wrong, but the most important thing is that he chose a big platform of the way. Looking back, the companies that started up in the last 2003 years or so, if focused on being a vertical electric trader, are basically not winning the game, which was lost at the start of the strategy.

Rezoning self-cultivation, Qi Jia, govern the world "

So I think in the back, the real most valuable advice, is our ancestors of an idea, classics "university" there is a saying that the ideal of Confucianism, do a gentleman should do: self-cultivation Zi ping World. The last year I think of it more and more interesting, I give you understand why "self-cultivation, Qi Jia, the state, the world" to the entrepreneur Self-cultivation is an extremely good proposal.

From a certain point of view, Confucius was the entrepreneur 2,500 years ago, he started from Lu, has his own idea, and then a set of business plan, he wants to run the country, but he needs to be supported, not in the local support he walked around, to raise money, to obtain resources, hoping to put his Idea into reality to change the world, this is the story of Confucius's life.

Ping World

Say it in turn. First look at the "Ping World", the world's interpretation of the entrepreneur is that you want to dominate, you have to harsh, you have to completely occupy the market, "the world" is your target market, how you define what you want to do capable things is very important. You have to choose the right target market and have enough scale to be valuable enough. Because entrepreneurship is to solve the problem in the final analysis, if you solve the problem is not big enough, you create value is not big enough, so choose the right market, is your choice of the world. "Ping" means that you not only have to go in to do, but also to completely occupy and monopolize him. Recently a book is Peter Thiel wrote "Zero to one", which said a lot, especially for internet companies, competition is bad things, you have to quickly end the competition, you have to monopolize the market, in order to create maximum value. "Ping" means something like this, no matter what the way, the sooner the better. So this is the goal, the last thing to be a company is to "Ping the world."

Rule

So how are you going to "flatten the world"? You can't do everything by yourself, someone to write code, do design, talk about customers, you need to "govern", here "country" meaning, is your whole enterprise. I think it is really necessary to use the word enterprise, rather than the word company, because the company is only a form of enterprise, the enterprise may have many other forms, we can see, in Ali, millet or BAT development process, they are very focused on the construction of ecosystems. A company inside the beginning is only a single business, according to functional departments, and then more business, it is necessary by the cause of the group, or outside their investment companies, have ecological chain of the partners, this is the entire synthesis of a "country"

To "Ping the World", you need to rely on your business, the entire team to do. To govern the country is to design and manage the whole enterprise and the related ecological system.

Qi Jia

How to "govern the country"? One step back is "Qi Jia". For entrepreneurs, home is your direct subordinate, because no matter how large the size of the company, the CEO can directly control the people are limited, also about seven. Direct subordinates are like your family, no matter how big your company is, your personal energy is limited, and their quality, devotion, and effectiveness are crucial to your plan to govern the world. How do you understand "qi"? There are a few meanings: one is that you want to match this team, because the start-up company, any idea to do a thing, all need different functions, it is difficult to have a person in all aspects are geniuses, so it is necessary teamwork, each role must be matched. This is very important, otherwise it will affect the company's progress. The second meaning is regulate, it is interesting to read the English version of the university because sometimes we are too familiar with a language, and foreigners in translation, it must be to understand, choose the most accurate translation, so the "university" in English translation, "qi" used a word is regulate , the rule of regulation, sounds a little strange, but it makes sense. Team more than 10 people, although the number of small, but the idea is not exactly the same, how you make everyone's ideas as consistent as possible, is the heart to QI. The greater the energy of each person, the greater the final resultant force. Each person has the ability to be strong, the direction of the force to be consistent, in order to push things forward. The other layer is that you have to find ways to make them equal in ability, attitude, or you treat them, to be fair, to make the whole thing orderly, and to be aligned. Then you can bring the people around you, so that they believe you, and willing to invest. Their layers of downward influence. This is the meaning of "Qi Jia".

Slim

So how do you get to be a family? Need to "self-cultivation". As CEO, you are the backbone of the company, but also the ceiling of the company, if you can not continue to improve themselves, then the whole team and the entire company is impossible to upgrade, the whole thing can not be big. So I think the CEO to do a lot of things, but one of the very important thing is that you want to self-cultivation, is to my day Sungo, non-stop introspection, non-stop learning, and constantly try to improve. "Self-cultivation" you have to continue to carry out a number of levels, because of business, in the effort to promote, in the brain to upgrade, in physical strength to upgrade, after all, entrepreneurship is a very hard thing, to do a good job, need to be fierce and lasting. Learn from all places, learn from books, learn from people around you, learn from people older than you, learn from younger people, learn from your past successes and failures, or better, lower cost, learn from other people's successes or failures.

So I think it is necessary to self-cultivation and then to Qi home, and then to govern, and then the world, of course, the whole entrepreneurial context. This sounds more imaginary, but the more rapid the change in the environment, the more you have to seize the things that may not change. If you believe in the theory of singularity proximity and say that there will be a fundamental shift in human beings from 2045 to 2048, then you will believe that until then, everything will only get faster, and there is no chance of détente.