My Early Entrepreneurial Experience
- Created a new industry for investment promotion and franchising
- Created a new model of business publishing
In 1984, I left a job at a college in a fifth-tier city (Xiaogan) in China with take unpaid leave and started doing business. In 1985, relying on intellectual property transactions, that is, doing dust-free chalk training in a small town, became the first 10,000-yuan household in Xiaogan City. I have been in business for decades, and I have never worked in a entity industry, all in the field of intellectual property. I shared this picture with you earlier.
This picture is what I have summarized in recent years. The new cross-civilization wealth in the age of industrial civilization is intellectual property. However, to realize this point nearly 40 years ago and directly expand the new wealth of intellectual property rights, at least 99% of people in China did not have this awareness at that time.
In 1986, I entered Xiaogan City to start a business. This was our office building at that time. Although it was rented (because there was no such thing as a house purchase at that time), it was rare in a prefecture-level city.
In 1988, the gross profit exceeded one million. In an era when ten-thousand-yuan households were rare, one million was already astonishing. In this building, there is a headquarters, three managerial departments, and more than 50 people. It is already a group company structure. I chose Angel (homophonic Tianjiao) for the corporate name. I hope that my company will bring peace and happiness to the society like an angel.
This is me in that era. This certificate was issued by a national association and belonged to the same camp as the famous Chinese private entrepreneurs Lu Guanqiu, Zhang Ruimin, Liu Chuanzhi, Bu Xinsheng, etc., when I was 33 years old.
Created a new industry for investment promotion and franchising
In Xiaogan, we have created a unique intellectual property transfer model, which is to sell the technologies, information, and even business models that we consider valuable, through advertising, to people who want to make money and start businesses across the country. This model later developed into the current investment and franchise industry. This industry is still developing in China. For more than 30 years, it has helped at least 160,000 entrepreneurs at home and abroad.
The turmoil that occurred in Tiananmen Square in China in 1989 also affected my city. Many students took to the streets. At that time, I didn’t think much about it, so I organized the small partners of the enterprise to join their support team.
As the most influential in the city, it is also the only private enterprise that participated in and supported student petitions. In that era, it was a serious political event. I could only leave the company and come to Shenzhen to start my own business from scratch. During this period, I experienced various ups and downs.
Created a new model of business publishing
After unremitting efforts in Shenzhen, in 1992, I served as the president of Hong Kong Xinhua News Publishing House and published the “Manual for Identification of Chinese and Foreign Famous Brand Products” in cooperation with the State Technical Supervision Bureau of China. It is the following series.
Now, everyone knows that this is doing intellectual property protection. I didn’t have this concept at the time, and I realized by intuition that this is a hot industry in the future. I am the editor-in-chief of this series of books, and it is from this series of books that I have created a new model in China that first collects corporate advertising fees and then publishes books. The advertising revenue of a book was more than 1 million at that time. In 1993, this book held a first press conference in the Great Hall of the People. State leaders inscribed and attended, and reported by dozens of media including CCTV.
I spoke at the press conference in the Great Hall of the People.
Inscription by national leaders.
Group photo with national leaders in the Great Hall of the People.
All this happened in 1993, when I was 37 years old.
In China at that time, you could make a lot of money just by doing some very easy business based on the upper-level relationships in these countries, but I never thought of making money like this. Not only did I not want to make such money, but even commercial publications later felt unable to carry my feelings and dreams. So, starting in 1996, I gave up commercial publishing that was still profitable at that time, and resolutely entered the Internet industry that I was completely unfamiliar with and had no foundation. Therefore, I can be regarded as an Internet veteran in China.