My impression of Yu is still in the New Oriental period. After reading this book, I know that he not only turned New Oriental into an education group listed in the United States, but also established Hongtai Fund with Sheng Xitai to provide venture capital for young makers.
If New Oriental is Yu's first venture, then Hongtai Fund is his second venture. Why do others choose to start a business when they have a successful career in middle age? In this book, I give an answer to. The book is divided into eight parts, which comprehensively combs the entrepreneurial experience in different stages from eight aspects: entrepreneurial concept, management philosophy, investment principle, entrepreneur's cultivation and life philosophy, and puts forward some pertinent suggestions for young entrepreneurs.
Extract some clips that I find very rewarding:
When he and Sheng Xitai founded Hongtai Fund, Yu was 52 years old, which is the age when China traditional culture should "know the destiny". However, he chose a second venture. Why?
He said: "This is a good time to start a business." Both national policies and social atmosphere are becoming more and more open and positive. The government supports entrepreneurship, and young people dare to start businesses, so he decided to set up Hongtai Fund as an angel investor to provide venture capital for young people. "The world belongs to young people."
So, what does entrepreneurship mean? Does being your own boss without going to work count as starting a business? Not exactly.
Real entrepreneurship is something beyond your ability, and you must work hard to do it.
If you think you have a good idea and want to start your own business, you must first understand whether you are suitable for starting your own business. Yu proposed in the book that entrepreneurs need to have the following eight abilities:
A successful entrepreneur, first of all, must have his own clear goals, long-term vision, and understand what he wants, so that he can calm down and do things without rushing for success; Secondly, he should have a good professional level and insist on continuous learning and improvement; At the same time, I have certain social experience and background, be good at listening, dare to ask questions, be diligent in thinking and dare to try; Finally, we should have the vision of knowing people and the courage of employing people, attach importance to organizational structure and build excellent teams.
Looking back now, besides having a good idea (even without a business model), do you have any other abilities? It doesn't matter if you don't have it for the time being, as long as you are good at learning, everything will be in time.
On the way to starting a business, every entrepreneur will encounter countless pits, some invisible, some visible, some escaped, and some not. Therefore, every entrepreneur should learn to identify the pit covered with the cloak of "opportunity".
Yu summed up his own and others' entrepreneurial experience and shared it. He said that starting a business must pay attention to four kinds of people: customers, founders, partners and investors.
First of all, customers are the foundation. Without customers, your products are worthless. Be sure to find out what customers really want.
Secondly, the founder is the soul. A qualified founder should not only have the enthusiasm for starting a business, but also keep a cool head and not be confused by appearances. He must have excellent professional ability, broad mind and certain leadership charm in order to lead a good team.
Third, the partner is an important condition for a good entrepreneurial project to become bigger and stronger. Although "one person can be like a team", only a group of people can do things well, and this group of people must have clear goals.
Finally, investors are an important thrust for entrepreneurial success, and projects without investment cannot be sustained.
In recent two years, "entrepreneurship" has become a hot word, especially in the Internet industry. Numerous small companies were born one after another, but few survived and were well known to the public. Therefore, on the road to entrepreneurship, failure is the normal state, and success is the abnormal state. Even if it is as successful as Ma Yun, it failed several times before Alibaba was founded.
So, what should I do when I encounter difficulties and setbacks? Yu proposed "Ten Questions to Ask Yourself". Through these ten questions, you can inject new energy into yourself every day and let yourself not give up hope even if you are desperate:
Since the entrepreneur still needs to manage his team well, he also shared his "six self-management measures":
In my opinion, these suggestions and measures are also very practical for ordinary people who have not started a business. By constantly asking questions and answering yourself, you will find that you have a lot to improve, and then make plans to improve yourself step by step and achieve your life goals.
In addition, in the book, he shared his philosophy of life. He said that the biggest difference between people actually lies not in external conditions, but in themselves. At the same time, he constantly emphasized the importance of reading and learning. Only those who persist in learning and growing will not be abandoned by the times.
At the end of the book, Yu told me to learn to find the nourishment of life in life. No matter how busy you are at work, don't forget to look up at the sky, don't forget to care about your family and friends, and don't forget to live in every moment. Only in this way can our life become warm and meaningful.
Now is the right time. I hope you did the right thing.