The following is the full text of the speech:
When it comes to entrepreneurship, Huang Nubo should be the representative of entrepreneurs. He comes from the national system. Actually, I'm also in the national system. We came out, in a sense, not only a rebellion against the system at that time, but also a youthful impulse. At that time, we were not yet thirty years old, and we were in the prime of life. Rebellion was a fashion for us.
Everyone knows that entrepreneurship, adventure and things closely related to young people are full of disgust at the so-called mature society, mature people and mature system. I don't think this is what a young man should do. Peking University is already a completely free place, but I think the air is stuffy. When I came out, many people I knew around me, including the leaders of Peking University and my friends, said that you couldn't see any business genes in Yu, and you would die if you went out. For a long time, countless people called me self-employed.
In fact, in that state, we still firmly believe that the future belongs to our generation. Now more than 20 years have passed, and we have changed from a young man in his twenties to a middle-aged man in his fifties. Not only has the age increased, but the whole body and mind have also moved towards middle age. Looking back, I find that I can never be a so-called mature person and live in a mature system and comfortable state. Because I know that the so-called maturity is to cover your eyes and make your spirit dull. The so-called maturity, intentionally or unintentionally, dominates the development of young people. The so-called maturity, consciously or unconsciously, sees things clearly, and these things are even stupid, irregular, destructive and subversive. The famous writer Mao Mu once said, "When you hear a young man's self-confident and arrogant nonsense, when you see his dogmatism and intolerance, what are you angry about?" ? Why point out his ignorance? Don't forget that you were so stupid, arbitrary, arrogant and arrogant when you were his age. When I said you, I also said me. "
In fact, when we think we are mature, we have left this world, left this era and become more and more distant. I have always considered myself a person who often deals with young people. Every year, there are 3 million students trained by New Oriental, and there are more than 2 million children aged 13-25. I still feel that I sometimes look at young people critically. This is an unconscious eye. You think that you have experienced vicissitudes and have a transparent and complete understanding of the world, but when we found my children playing ipad and mobile phone, and all their communication was in contact with the modern world, I suddenly found that I was behind the times. I always thought that I typed fast, and most people couldn't compare with me, but I suddenly found that my children could catch up with me in typing on ipad and mobile phone, and I found myself really behind.
The era of mobile internet is undoubtedly the world of young people. Whether you admit it or not, young people are coming towards us. They walked past us, farther than we did. In the past, the fourth-generation Internet entrepreneurs, such as Yun and Ma, spent ten years to achieve this scale, which is a remarkable thing. And we suddenly found that we can do one thing in an instant. Within a year or two, they (young people) began to influence the world, and the valuation of their company began to reach $1.2 billion. When we visited Facebook, we found that their founders had controlled a world with a market value of more than 200 billion dollars at the age of 30, and affected the living conditions of 800 million people on their system. I feel that our generation is getting old.
When we are old, how to participate in the world of young people becomes a very important topic. For me, I have actually done at least two things for young people. First of all, I give speeches to more than 2 million college students and middle school students every year. Through the speech, I can at least catch the spark of pursuing life and the expectation of pursuing the future from the students. Why do you go to the site to give more than 100 lectures every year when there are tens of millions of lectures on the Internet? I said they were only excited for one day when they saw the video online. If they hear my language on the spot, they may be excited for a month, and their lives may change forever.
Secondly, every year, a large number of students enter better universities in China and top universities in the world because of New Oriental training. There is no doubt that we have helped young people realize their better dreams. Eighty-nine percent of young entrepreneurs tell us that we are students of New Oriental.
Xu Xiaoping is about my age, but he really thinks of himself as a young man, and he is totally immersed in the world of young people. When New Oriental went public, Xu Xiaoping left the board of directors of New Oriental. His first thought was how to help young people. I remember this road is particularly clear. When communicating with young people, he suddenly found that all the help was empty and decided to use the money obtained from the listing of New Oriental to help young people. Before establishing Zhenge Fund, Xu Xiaoping invested in at least ten projects. Every time he goes to the bank to withdraw money, his wife quarrels with him because all he gets is his own money. Two years ago, you couldn't have any possible opportunities to make money. Now his wife is very supportive of him, because all three companies he invested in have successfully listed. Xu Xiaoping's success is not an angel in his eyes, but his love for youth. This is exactly what I did in New Oriental. We must always be connected with the youth, and we must always believe in the youth, so as to be connected with the hope of this era and the future.
It is no exaggeration to say that I get the most money from young people. Actually, I don't invest in young people First, young people invest in me. They gave us money so that we could reinvest. So there is no doubt that I can't just take young people's money. When we saw Xu Xiaoping as my role model, I actually had this awareness before. When Kai-Fu Lee was in innovation works, Xiaoping had not made angel investment. I am both a GP (General Partner) and his LP (Limited Partner) in innovation works. Later, as long as I felt that all the reliable funds related to young people were invested, I invested in more than a dozen funds. There is only one purpose, which is to help young people. In the middle of this process, I suddenly found that I am a person who likes to dominate, and I like the feeling of helping others personally. I think Xu Xiaoping has done a good job in this place. His enthusiasm and style of encouraging young people are more powerful than mine. I think I will step in and do it together. I'm also a general practitioner. If I break up with GP, will it steal his thunder? (Laughter) In addition, I think many people in China, whether PE or VC in China, really lack such courage and are willing to throw away their money without asking for anything in return. Frankly speaking, I dare not do it when I am alone, because I have never really done such an angel screening. I know the enthusiasm of young people, and I am afraid of my enthusiasm, but I failed to invest 300 million yuan. Therefore, to do one thing, we need the right time, the right place and the right people.
In fact, Sheng Xitai and I often meet, but we are always in a hurry. We had a drink together more than ten years ago, and our families were close. How did you feel when you first called? At that time, two guests came to my house. When I found that there was no wine, I called Sheng Xitai and said that I needed a bottle of Moutai. He said, come to my house and get it. I didn't expect him to send me a whole box of 12 bottles of Moutai, so I thought this person was very generous. In addition, his family is also related to Peking University, so they are closer. When I saw him again, he had devoted himself to angel investment for two years. He showed me successful cases, and I think such a partner is really needed. Then we decided to make a fund together. I believe that our angel foundation will have a lot of cooperation in the future. I believe that I will come forward to lead such a fund, at least to connect the eyes of young people with us. Because I just said, the future of this world will always belong to young people, no matter how many defects young people have, it must be the world of young people. I hope that when I leave this world, I can engrave a sentence on my epitaph: he is accompanied by youth all his life. If only one person came to see me that day, I hope it wasn't Xu Xiaoping, but a young man.