Cao Wangde, the same person, only donated 500,000 yuan to Gaoshan Town, Fuqing, his hometown, so that he later said that I was driven out of my village by the villagers in my own village. But as long as you know a little about his experience and personality, you will understand that his behavior is not abnormal, but it can reflect his personality characteristics. Cao was born in Fuqing, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province in May 1946. Before and after Cao was born, his family was quite good. His father was a shareholder of Yong 'an Department Store Shanghai Branch, a famous chain department store in Hong Kong at that time, and enjoyed the equity dividend. Later, due to the unstable situation in Shanghai, Cao's father returned to his hometown in Fujian with his family and all his property on a cruise ship for safety, but before returning, his father made a stupid decision to store all his property on a transport ship.
According to the story at that time, the ship sank during the voyage, but almost no one knew the truth-at least the Cao family did. From then on, Cao Yijia, which was originally rich, suddenly became poor. His fate was changed forever. 1954, Cao's family had little money and could hardly afford to go to primary school. Five years later, when the family was short of money, Cao had to drop out of school to help his father work to make a living. Since then, his life has entered an encyclopedic business period. During helping his father, he did almost all the business that could be seen in the market at that time. He sells tobacco and fruit, pulls scooters and repairs bicycles; He planted fungus and worked as a cook and repairman on the construction site. This experience of youth has influenced him in two ways. First, he got a comprehensive social training and edification, although he was forced to do so; Second, he has been under great psychological pressure for a long time.
The influence of the first aspect became the basis of his later career rise; The second influence is an important reason why he is keen on charity in the future. His donation to his hometown is also related to the second point. No matter which of these two aspects is emphasized, the understanding of Cao's character and behavior will be biased. /kloc-before 0/976, Cao's life was very monotonous: he endured hardships and accumulated capital. At that time, China implemented a planned economy system. At the whole social level, production, resource allocation and product consumption are all planned in advance. This kind of economic system, to a certain extent, facilitates the top-level design and control of national development, and at the same time is conducive to the equality of economic relations between people, thus promoting the equality between people. However, the planned economy also has great shortcomings. It can't fully mobilize the individual's subjective initiative, and then it can't maximize the development of productive forces, thus limiting capital accumulation.
Under the planned economy system, the economic relations between people tend to be absolutely equal in both urban and rural areas. For example, in cities, the gap in food, clothing, housing and transportation is relatively small. For workers in different industries, different units, different positions within the same industry or unit, from leaders to ordinary workers. Take housing as an example, whether it is government leaders or factory workers, the difference between housing area and housing quality is not huge. It is true that the area of leadership housing is generally slightly larger than that of employees, but this gap is strictly limited within a certain range. The overall situation in rural areas is not as good as that in cities, but in rural areas, the situation is the same whether it is during the people's commune period or during the household quota period.
Marx wrote in "1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts": Economic inequality must be reflected in the relationship between people. In other words, this sentence can also be established: if the economy is equal, equality between people can naturally be established. Taking housing as an example, because economic strength is the most important basis for dividing classes, and under the planned economy system, different classes have similar economic strength on the surface, naturally people will not care too much about the differences between different occupations and even classes. When an official's living standard and income are basically the same as that of a worker, workers will naturally not complain too much. On the contrary, under the market economy system, the differentiation of economic status and social status caused by different positions will be much more serious, which will naturally form a stronger opposition in the relationship between people.
However, even under the planned economy system, some people still make money through various means. Of course, they have to take great risks. On the one hand, they should be ready to be criticized and knocked down at any time; On the other hand, they have to face great discrimination and indifference. When he was young, Cao was constantly under pressure from these two aspects. 1966, Cao engaged in the reselling business of fruit tree seedlings. Although his income is good, he has become a unscrupulous and profiteering businessman in the eyes of his fellow villagers. As I said before, in those days, everyone was proud of being a proletarian and hated the proletariat. After years of business, he has become a property owner of Cao and naturally a thorn in the side of the villagers. He continued to do business under great public pressure. By 1976, he had accumulated 50,000 yuan, equivalent to more than10 million yuan now, which was rare under the social system at that time.
Cao accumulated huge assets in order to get rid of poverty. But even though the economic system at that time allowed him to accumulate so much wealth, there was no room for him to develop his business talents, but Cao had been accumulating strength and waiting for the opportunity. 1976, he saw the huge development space of the glass industry in the future, so he went to work in the special-shaped glass factory in Gaoshan Town, Fuqing, not to make money, but to learn more about the industry. Cao became a buyer soon after he entered the factory. This position requires a large number of contacts with people from all walks of life, so as to obtain relatively advantageous prices and promote sales and procurement. At that time, the water meter glass independently developed and produced by Gaoshan Special-shaped Glass Factory became the first product promoted by Cao. After the reform and opening up, he was allowed to go to the sea to do business, and Cao finally got his wish.
After experiencing the most difficult period of life, Cao's later career was generally smooth sailing. By 1998, Cao had accumulated huge assets, thus opening the road to charity. 1998, a major flood disaster occurred in Wuhan, and Cao personally donated 3 million yuan, plus 4 million yuan from enterprises for disaster relief; In 2002, it donated 4.2 million yuan to the project of caring for the next generation; In 2004, in order to build rural roads, he donated 5 million and 8 million successively; In 2005, it donated 3 million yuan to build expressways and 6 million yuan to build the teaching building of Fuqing Gaoshan Middle School. From the first donation in 1983 to 2020, he has donated 1 10 billion yuan.
Cao made such a huge donation, but only donated 500 thousand yuan to his hometown, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the villagers and kicked him out of the village. People think that Cao should give more rewards to the land where he was born and raised. In addition, the economic situation of Cao's hometown is also very general, and a series of infrastructure such as farmhouses and highways need to be built and repaired. However, Cao has his own views: first of all, individual donation should be based on actual conditions and needs, not a random act. Donating 500,000 yuan to his hometown is an act he made after full consideration. Secondly, when I was working hard in my hometown, I didn't say how much cold eyes and discrimination I suffered. Now that you have achieved success, you can forgive these past events, but it is probably not appropriate to repay evil with good.
In fact, if we carefully analyze Cao's character, we will find that his actions are very consistent with his character. The greatest feature of Cao's personality and the key to his success lies in rationality. From his early experience, to the early stage of starting a business, and then to success, these two words are inseparable. After fourteen, Cao had to drop out of school and go home because of his poor family. If other peers encounter this situation, they will either feel sorry for themselves or indulge themselves. However, Cao thought rationally about the situation he faced at that time. If he doesn't work, he will starve. If all he knows is hard work, he will never get rid of the status quo. Therefore, he made an independent choice: purposeful efforts. He didn't indulge himself, let alone be satisfied with his food and clothing, but he had the consciousness of capital accumulation at that time. Therefore, his behavior in that year was very reasonable in terms of his own conditions and environment.
Before the reform and opening up, with Cao's age and educational experience, it was an amazing achievement to be able to sprout his own entrepreneurial consciousness. Before 1966 to 1976 entered the glass factory, Cao's choice was also full of rationality. First of all, under the economic system at that time, he was able to see the market economic system that might come in the future with great foresight, which was remarkable, especially considering that he only had primary school culture. Secondly, his extraordinary endurance enabled him to stick to his judgment and accumulate capital under great pressure under the cold eyes of everyone around him. Later facts proved that his choice and behavior were equally reasonable.
Due to the serious defects of early education experience, among all Cao's charitable donations, the amount of donations to education is particularly huge. In 2006, it donated 2.47 million yuan to schools in disaster areas in Fujian. Since 2007, he decided to donate1500,000 yuan to Northwest University every year for ten years, and set up Cao Scholarship to help poor college students. 20 10/0 month, he donated 20 million yuan to Nanjing university for the construction of any building. 20 1 1 In April, he donated another 200 million yuan to Xiamen University. In addition to contributing to education, Cao made a very strict self-study plan for himself all his life to make up for his lack of education.
Cao once said: whenever he is free, he looks for books to read. No matter ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, he can read it from his eyes. Therefore, although his education time is only five years, his self-education time is extremely long, and there are a large number of books at home and in the office. In addition, Cao also knows Buddhism and Confucianism. He applied the seven words of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, faithfulness, courage and strictness in Confucianism to his philosophy of life and career. His contribution to all walks of life is the embodiment of his benevolence, righteousness and propriety; He has been galloping in the shopping mall for decades, and he has repeatedly lost and fought, which is the performance of his wisdom and courage; His high position and great influence in the business world are all manifestations of his faithfulness and preciseness. Cao is a person who thoroughly implements the philosophy of life into daily life and production. This sentence, which Cao repeatedly emphasized, may be the best footnote in his life: As a China native, you must remain excellent, and as an entrepreneur in China, you must remain excellent. Otherwise, I will not only feel ashamed of myself, but also affect the image of my motherland.