He has always given people a low-key and mysterious impression.

You may not have heard of his name, but you must have used the products he invested in.

Among the three BAT giants, he invested in two: Baidu and Tencent.

In addition, in more than ten years, he has invested in more than 800 companies such as JD.com, Meituan, Didi, Gree, Midea, Ctrip, Qunar, NIO, Mobike, and Blue Moon, and is known as

As "no one dares not to give face".

As a godfather in the field of "value investment" in China, he has always adhered to long-term value investment, buying and holding company shares for a long time, trying to be a positive-sum game and rejecting a zero-sum game.

Today, he has become one of the richest investors in China.

More importantly, he has profoundly affected China’s e-commerce landscape.

He is Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital.

In 1972, Zhang Lei was born in a "dual-income family" in Zhumadian City, Henan Province. His father was a cadre of the Foreign Trade Bureau and his mother was a lawyer.

Although they can't be called rich, they can still be considered a middle-class family.

When he was a child, his parents were very busy and had no time to discipline Zhang Lei, which made him very independent and creative.

Zhang Lei showed his business talent when he was seven years old.

At that time, his family lived near a train station. During the summer vacation, he put up small chairs next to the station and rented out his comic books to people waiting for the train, making some money.

When he was in elementary school, Zhang Lei's grades were very poor. Because he was close to the Shaolin Temple, he was thinking about "going to the end of the world with a sword" and wanted to "go to Songshan". He almost didn't even pass the junior high school entrance examination.

The minimum admission score for junior high school in the primary school entrance examination is 140 points. Zhang Lei scored 141 points, which is exactly 1 point more.

Although he doesn't like schoolwork, he likes to read all kinds of books.

He thinks that the books that others know are all in them; but what is in the books may not be known to others.

The world seen in books is much larger than the real world.

From a poor student to a top student, in addition to the enlightenment of life wisdom brought by reading more, Zhang Lei was also influenced by one person, Shi Yigong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Tsinghua University.

Shi Yigong is from Henan, half fellow villager with Zhang Lei.

After Zhang Lei read the article written by Shi Yigong, he was very inspired and felt that life should not be wasted and he should make some achievements.

So, when he was in his second year of high school, Zhang Lei began to study hard.

Zhang Lei has to be admired for being able to study and make money at the same time.

In high school, Zhang Lei mobilized his classmates to bring books from home to set up street stalls at train stations and set up mobile book borrowing stations.

During the summer vacation of his senior year of high school, while others were enjoying their first summer vacation without homework, Zhang Lei was expanding his book rental business, buying a large number of magazines and then reselling them. Later, he started selling mineral water, instant noodles and Hunan sausages.

In 1990, 18-year-old Zhang Lei was admitted to the Finance Department of Renmin University of China with the top score in liberal arts in the local college entrance examination.

When he left his hometown for Beijing, he had made a net profit of 800 yuan, enough to pay for his tuition!

You know, the monthly salary of civil servants at that time was only 100 yuan.

While studying at the National People's Congress, Zhang Lei spent four years thirsting for knowledge and accumulating network resources.

"Many of the very good friends I have made now were those I met when I was studying at the Renmin University. Some of them are now friends, some are partners with deep relationships, and some are engaged in some public welfare undertakings together." Zhang Lei recalled.

road.

After graduating in 1994, Zhang Lei hoped to work in a central enterprise, and he got his wish and joined the Minmetals Group.

At Minmetals, Zhang Lei often took trains and traveled across the country to acquire mining assets, which developed his ability to gain insight into society.

Since I had been doing this job for a long time, I felt that my future development was limited, so I wanted to study abroad.

In 1998, Zhang Lei went to Yale University in the United States to continue his studies.

The trip to Yale not only changed Zhang Lei's destiny, but also changed many "Liu Qiangdongs" who were eager to develop but lacked huge investment.

This is something.

Zhang Lei, who had just arrived at Yale University, was facing a serious financial crisis due to lack of money before the fresh energy had worn off.

The reason why I chose Yale University at that time was because I learned that Yale University was the only one that could provide scholarships.

Moreover, Yale is a world-class prestigious school with a history of more than 300 years, and has trained countless celebrities, including 5 U.S. presidents.

It is said that a common joke among Yale teachers is: "If you are not careful, you will teach a president." However, after arriving at Yale, Zhang Lei learned that what he received was only a one-year scholarship, and the entire postgraduate period lasted for three years.

, I have to pay for the tuition fees later on, and I urgently need to find a job.