Looking at the man in the yellow jacket in front of him and following them into Lianzhong Company, Cheng Ran inexplicably had many quotes about him appear in his mind.
He once said: "Today is cruel, tomorrow will be crueler, the day after tomorrow will be beautiful, but most people die tomorrow night."
He said: "To be successful, you must have the spirit of never giving up, but when you learn to give up, you will start to make progress."
He also said: "Free is the most expensive thing in the world..."
He also said: "When you are successful, everything you say is the truth."
Of course, the last paragraph may be closer to the truth.
In his previous life, Cheng Ran had listened to his speech at an investor forum. At that time, this man had already received many blessings. Below him were many people who were either worshipping or admiring, applauding or laughing at his every move and witty remarks. There were also some people who sneered or gossiped behind his back, saying that his company's model and plan would fail sooner or later, but there was no doubt that he was always on the stage, and the audience was full of sentient beings.
He had been one of them.
Most of the admiration in the world comes from envying the fish by the river and feeling ashamed of the ducks standing on their feet to admire the cranes.
Everyone only sees the rich fruits of success, but ignores the elements of hardship and luck involved.
Just like the yellow jacket in front of him, he casually returned from the capital to the property in the suburbs of Hangzhou with only a chessboard. In fact, he had nothing as he failed in his business and could not make it in the capital. Apart from the chessboard that gave him a little spiritual comfort, "the world is like a chess game, with unpredictable winds and clouds", he had no other life-saving straw.
But in fact, some failures are not a bad thing. Strictly speaking, China Yellow Pages, which Ma Yun founded, was kicked out. At that time, Hangzhou Telecom invested 70% of the shares. The two sides had the most common and most bloody conflict of development concepts. Ma Yun wanted to be the Yahoo of China and focus on building the brand, while Hangzhou Telecom wanted to snowball and make money as the first priority. As a result, when his team returned from expanding business in the capital a few months later, they found that the wholly-owned subsidiary of Telecom had already taken over the resources and quietly expanded. So the road ahead of him was completely blocked. In fact, the two companies once quarreled to the point that the People's Daily came to interview.
The website his team built to help the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in the process of expanding business in the capital was of a much-hyped but little substance. A series of failures made him return to Hangzhou to start his own business, which should have been a few months after Alibaba was founded.
However, failure is not without value. It is these trial and error experiences that can avoid many fatal mistakes in the future. Just because you didn't make mistakes in the past and don't make them now doesn't mean you won't make them in the future. When the ship is in trouble and has to turn around, perhaps one mistake will lead to a complete loss. It is fortunate that some mistakes are made early.
Ultimately, the most frightening thing about failure is not that the hard work of building something turns into ruins, but that one's morale collapses as the ruins collapse. That's why in World of Warcraft, you need to stack DPS in PVE, and in the arena, you need to focus on tough equipment, thick skin and strong muscles to survive, so that you can output damage.
Successful people may have their own methods of success, which are difficult to replicate, but at least one thing is certain, that is, they have all more or less experienced some trial and error, or have seen failure and achieved temporary success by dancing on the edge of a knife.
So the famous saying "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" does make some sense.
In front of Cheng Qi, the entrepreneur from Hangzhou, Mr. Ma, although he was also a figure in the first wave of Internet entrepreneurship, his "reputation" was still much weaker. Lianzhong now had 100,000 registered users, and 20,000 online at the same time. In terms of momentum, Lianzhong was known as the No. 1 Chinese game platform, and Cheng Qi was even published in the newspaper. Everyone in the Internet circle knew about the inspirational story of such a college student who founded the Lianzhong platform. This was probably a lofty goal for the fledgling Alibaba.
So Ma Yun, who transformed into "Feng Qingyang", was still playing chess inside Lianzhong. At this time, it was unknown how many big guys were "lurking" in this number one gaming platform. Ma Yun mainly developed Go because of Cheng Qi, which made many professional players play Go games every week, which activated the Go section and attracted many people to watch the games. It was similar to the live broadcast in later generations and greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of fans.
"Recently I can only see you at games... Are you very busy with business?" While showing Boss Ma around, Cheng Qi smiled and asked about the daily life of this Hangzhou Internet entrepreneur.
Boss Ma smiled calmly, "Yes, there are some. We are not like you. We can naturally recruit people to join the game. I am busy negotiating business. Recently, some VC institutions have come to me, and I have to deal with various things."
There was a sense of calmness in his words, which made people feel that he was calm from his tone, creating the impression that "I am very popular". There was no doubt about it. In front of Cheng Qi, the words of Boss Ma, who was already in his thirties, had experienced "failures" and could make seventeen subordinates loyal and devoted to him after being beaten by his Tai Chi, were flawless. Coupled with the cordiality of meeting an online friend, Cheng Qi had no doubts.
But at present he still has not reached the level of cultivation in later generations. In Cheng Ran's eyes, he is not invincible. At least when he was saying these words, the slight flicker in his eyes and the lack of confidence in his tone were still visible to Cheng Ran.
Seeing the smile on Cheng Qi's brother's face when facing him, although he didn't know where it came from, Boss Ma could intuitively feel Cheng Ran's different and friendly attitude towards him. He immediately felt that this was a wing that he could fight for.
Boss Ma smiled and said, "Brother Cheng Ran also often comes to help your brother?"
"I attend classes during the week and come here occasionally on weekends."
From these words, Boss Ma has already obtained the information he wanted to know, that the two brothers are separated in terms of the company, and Cheng Ran is not at the stage where he can participate in Cheng Qi's company.
Boss Ma smiled and asked, "Which school?"
This time it was Cheng Qi who answered first, "My brother is in Rongcheng No. 10 Middle School, which is currently the best national key middle school in Xichuan."
"Then your grades should be good."
"good."
Boss Ma smiled awkwardly and changed the subject. He had nothing in common with the academic master, but that was not because he was not an academic master, at least his foreign language level was still top-notch. Although he took the college entrance examination three times, he only scored one point in mathematics in the first two times, and scored 19 points in the second time in 1983. That was not his fault, because when he first entered high school, liberal arts students did not have to take mathematics, and he wanted to study foreign languages, so he did not study mathematics in three years of high school.
The third college entrance examination he took, which was the mathematics paper in 1985, can be said to be "recorded in history". The question-setting group at that time adhered to the guiding ideology of "setting practical questions, testing basics, and testing abilities", and there were a large number of innovative questions that the students of that era had never heard of or seen before. There were not so many extended extracurricular tutoring books at that time, and many questions had never been seen before. The average score of candidates in Beijing was 17 points, the average score in Anhui was 28 points, and the national average was only 26 points. After taking supplementary math lessons, Boss Ma scored around 80 points, which was far ahead of the national average. Although he was still a few points short in the end, he was admitted to the normal school on the basis of his foreign language conditions. However, this kind of perseverance and achievement in taking the exam three times in a row under the pressure of family and reality, and reviewing and catching up in math from scratch, is not something that ordinary people can do.
Cheng Qi showed him around and explained some things to him. Boss Ma shook hands with Ren Qi again, then stood in front of the computer screen with his hands behind his back, listening to Ren Qi explain the data to him. An employee brought by Boss Ma, named Sun Yu, took a film camera and took a picture with a flash.
Boss Ma said to Cheng Qi, "When the time comes, I'll print out the photo and give it to you."
Nowadays, meeting an online friend, especially visiting Lianzhong, is a meaningful part of Boss Ma's trip to Chengdu. It is a way to check in and light up his life achievements. In the future, when Lianzhong develops bigger, he will surely feel proud when he takes out the photos in his photo album and looks at them.
Cheng Qi smiled and nodded shyly.
Afterwards, everyone chatted casually, and Boss Ma probably asked Cheng Qi about the founding process of Lianzhong and the future vision, as well as his views on the Internet. Cheng Qi mentioned that Lianzhong was founded with the support of Cheng Ran, and they were still aiming to become the number one online game platform in the future.
Boss Ma keenly noticed that when Cheng Qi mentioned Cheng Ran, he used the word "support", a word that implies equal status or top-down, but he didn't think too much about it.
Before they knew it, it was time for dinner. Cheng Qi mentioned that there was a small stir-fry restaurant near the Normal School that served delicious food, so everyone left the office building, walked under the criss-crossing overpasses, and sat down at the restaurant in the snack square inside Rongshi, ordering food around the round table.
All the people who came at this time were students from the Normal School. Cheng Qi was a celebrity in the school. When he sat down, many people passing by greeted him and called him "Brother Cheng".
When they came over just now, they were chatting all the way. Cheng Qi and Ren Qi, the two partners of Lianzhong, naturally couldn't talk to Boss Ma. Boss Ma was knowledgeable and experienced. When he talked about his own experience, such as the founding of China Yellow Pages, it was really full of ups and downs. The two of them were immersed in it. Sun Yu next to him looked at his boss and smiled without saying a word. He had seen Boss Ma's ability to fool people. The seventeen of them who had worked hard with him could be called his crazy fans. Now they were watching Boss Ma display his "magic talk" skills and confuse the two founders of the Lianzhong platform. I don't know how much sense of accomplishment he had. As for the cousin next to Cheng Qi, he was attracted by his boss's charm from the beginning and kept smiling foolishly, and he was not challenging at all.
At this time, Boss Ma was talking about his familiarity and deep friendship with Jerry Yang. He was very excited and rolled up his sleeves. "The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation invited him to come and see the webpage we made. I took him to climb the Great Wall at that time. We imagined the future of the Internet industry. They, Yahoo, are in the forefront and have a lot of things worth learning from. Of course... I later told Jerry that China's Internet is in its pioneering period and they can bring Yahoo's experience to China. I said this for a long time, but it was not until the second half of last year that Jerry Yang opened up Yahoo China. But unfortunately, opportunities are always fleeting. If you fail to seize them, others will step up. At this time, the Stone Company founded by Xie Qian was already ahead. You know Stone Company, which is now Tonglang.com..."
"Speaking of the origin of Tonglang.com, do you know it?" Boss Ma narrowed his eyes and tried to continue his eloquent speech to open up the topic. His language expression and desire to express himself were too strong.
Sun Yu, who was standing beside Boss Ma, poured tea for everyone with a smile, as if he was "all ears". First it was Cheng Qi, then Ren Qi, then his Boss Ma, and finally Cheng Ran. He and his colleagues in Hangzhou had heard more than once about the history and friendship between their Boss Ma and the current Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, and they were fascinated by it at one time.
The darling of the Nasdaq market, surrounded by countless capitals and a shining figure in the world's Internet industry, also looks at their own boss Ma differently and interacts with him regardless of the difference in status. This is a very face-saving thing to say no matter where you go, and it also proves the personal charm and outstanding communication skills of the boss Ma whom they follow.
Nowadays, no one who works in the Internet industry is unaware of the existence of Yahoo, the current world's largest giant. They thought that the powerful weapon of their boss Ma would shock the two young founders of Lianzhong.
Cheng Ran smiled and said, "Yes, when Xie Qian wanted to start an Internet business, he mentioned it to me. I told him to put the news online and buy advertisements to go the Yahoo route. He did it immediately. So the leader's decision-making and execution are both indispensable. The former determines whether you are on the right path or not, and the latter determines how high you can go on this path."
The boss Ma on the opposite side suddenly paused in his eagerness to speak.
Following that, there was also a stagnation in the water column pouring out of Sun Yu's teapot next to him.
They looked closely and saw that it was indeed the boy who had been grinning foolishly just now.
Where are the tickets!