In the standard economic theory, the so-called "decision-making" is to maximize the goal under given constraints. This decision-making model may conform to the behavior of most people, but it is far from the real entrepreneurial decision. For entrepreneurs, constraints are not given, but can be changed. They not only try to change the resource and technology constraints, but even try to change people's preferences. Because of this, they have become the real driving force for economic growth.
Perhaps, we can explain the difference between entrepreneurs and ordinary people with the old saying "A clever woman can't cook without rice". For ordinary people, rice is a prerequisite for cooking. Without rice, I really can't cook. Therefore, "a clever woman cannot cook without rice" also provides a legitimate reason for the inaction of ordinary people. But for entrepreneurs, no rice is not an excuse not to cook; As long as you want to cook, you can find rice-even if you can't find ready-made rice, you can convince people to grow millet, as long as the latter believes that he can pay a high enough price. In fact, it is precisely because most people think that they can't cook without rice that they give up the idea of cooking, and the rice cooked by entrepreneurs can also sell at a good price and earn a lot of money.
Of course, a great entrepreneur can't control all these factors, even if it can become a reality and is influenced by many factors. This is the uncertainty of business. Uncertainty means that an entrepreneur's plan may succeed or fail. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, when entrepreneurs' plans are not put into practice, they are "dreamers" or even "lunatics"; When entrepreneurs' ideas come true, they become "heroes" admired by everyone; But if the entrepreneur's plan fails, they are out-and-out "liars". To use the metaphor of cooking, if they do find rice and cook delicious meals for their customers, the person who lent them rice (or the person who sowed millet under their temptation) gets his own income, the customers who have had enough to eat and drink are satisfied, and the employees who get paid smile. But if rice can't be found, customers who want to eat it will say that they are "the king of cowhide" or, even if rice is found, the delicious rice is not prepared as planned due to water and electricity cuts or other reasons, so there is no income to pay for the promised rice. People who lend them rice will accuse them of fraud and they will be the target of public criticism. Therefore, entrepreneurs are such people as "the winner is king and the loser is coach". Unlike swindlers, swindlers always try their best to take other people's wealth for themselves, while entrepreneurs think about how to use their wisdom to create new wealth.
As an entrepreneur, Du Xia is a successful "king". But judging from the story told in this book, he almost fell into "kou" many times. Let me illustrate this point with a story.
Du Xia went to sea 1987. By consulting and organizing the "Li Ning Farewell Sports Evening", by the beginning of 1989, his "Chris Company" had accumulated 3 million yuan. At this time, he decided to invest 2 million yuan in foreign exchange trading in the Hong Kong market, hoping to become a financier. At the beginning, it was smooth sailing, and in less than three months, it made a net profit of 2 million, which was a lot of money at that time. This makes him overconfident (this is a common problem of human beings) and his ambition is getting bigger and bigger. He began to ask his friends to guarantee to borrow money from the bank to speculate in foreign exchange. He bet on the appreciation of the yen, but unexpectedly, due to the political turmoil in Japan, he changed three prime ministers in less than three months, and the exchange rate of the yen against the US dollar fell all the way. In June, he had to "lighten up", losing a total of HK$ 654,380,800, putting all the original money in, leaving 654,330.
If he lies down, he will become a complete "liar", which will not only bring trouble to his friends, lose friendship, become lonely, but even suffer from jail. He did have the idea of jumping off the 50th floor of Shenzhen International Trade Building, where the office building is located. But Du Xia is Du Xia. Like many excellent entrepreneurs, he is not easily defeated by failure. What he wants is how to make enough money in 10 month and pay off140,000 debt.
This is not an easy thing! But he soon had a wonderful idea.
After Soviet leader Gorbachev visited China in May, 1989, Sino-Soviet relations normalized. He concluded that with the normalization of relations between the two countries, all kinds of exchange activities between the two countries will be launched in an all-round way, and cultural exchange activities must be the first to thaw. He still remembers the greatest performance of Soviet countries on earth that he saw in Beijing from 65438 to 0957. If we take advantage of the thawing of Sino-Soviet relations and invite the most wonderful Soviet performances on earth to China for business trips, we will surely succeed. If this "whimsy" can be realized, it may be possible to pay off all debts in one fell swoop.
In order to realize this dream, he must first convince the Ministry of Culture. At that time, cultural exchange activities between China and foreign countries were funded and organized by the government. Persuading the Ministry of Culture to agree to entrust such an important activity as Sino-Soviet cultural exchange to him as a self-employed person is a crazy idea. Besides, he has nothing to do with the Ministry of Culture. But he did it anyway.
He discovered the truth that impressed the responsible officials of the Ministry of Culture. He said that hosting a commercial performance by him not only provided the Ministry of Culture with an opportunity to win the first prize, but also created a brand-new form of foreign cultural exchange activities, and also saved a lot of budget funds for the Ministry of Culture. For the Ministry of Culture, this is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.
His proposal did test the officials in charge of the Ministry of Culture, but the latter was still worried that if you lost money in the middle of the business trip and couldn't go on, you could go in Duxia, but the Ministry of Culture would be forced to take over the project again and spend twice as much money to continue to complete the mission. If this happens, it will not only be many times more difficult than starting from scratch by the Ministry of Culture itself, but also embarrass the competent officials in the Ministry. "Do you have any safety measures to reassure us?"
In order to dispel the concerns of the responsible officials of the Ministry of Culture, Du Xia promised to give the Ministry of Culture an irrevocable letter of guarantee of 500,000 US dollars, which was provided by the state official financial institutions. With this guarantee, the competent officials and the Ministry of Culture will not have any financial risks. The matter of the Ministry of Culture is solved in this way!
This is a real white wolf with empty gloves. If the official in charge of the Ministry of Culture had known that Du Xia was penniless and heavily in debt, he would never have authorized this Sino-Soviet cultural exchange project. But if a financial institution can really issue a guarantee of $500,000, why should the Ministry of Culture care whether it is rich now?
Where is he going to find half a million dollars? In fact, he planned this move on the train to Beijing on the second day of the Lunar New Year. Li Xiyuan, general manager of China Leasing Company, lives next door to his Shenzhen residence. He decided to persuade the latter to cooperate with him. After returning to Shenzhen, he suggested to Li Xiyuan: In this commercial tour that is bound to stir the whole country, I will arrange an important advertising position for you in nearly 100 large-scale performances in the gymnasium, and put on the banner live advertisement of China Leasing Company. Li asked him how much he needed to pay for advertising. Du Xia replied: Not a penny. If China Leasing Company is willing to issue a guarantee of $500,000, your advertisement will always be free. Li thinks he has found a bargain. This resulted in a letter of guarantee of $500,000.
The next question is how to invite the Soviet circus, which is the real "meal". Without this "rice", "rice" can't be done. But until now, Du Xia himself has never been to the Soviet Union and has no connection with the Soviet circus. If you want to invite the circus, you must go to the Soviet Union to negotiate in person, and officials from the Ministry of Culture must come forward, because the Soviet Union was still a planned system at that time, and foreign performances were arranged by government departments. It was impossible for the Soviet Ministry of Culture to accept self-employed people in China.
The delegation to the Soviet Union for negotiations needs funds. Without Du Xia's money, it is impossible for China's Ministry of Culture to contribute. He persuaded Li Xiyuan to pay the money and went to the Soviet Union with the delegation to participate in the negotiations. The latter agreed, because it was a small sum after all.
After arriving in Moscow, Du Xia learned that there were more than 80 circuses in the Soviet Union, all of which had wonderful programs. However, due to the small number of performances, even the salary can't be paid, so it is not a problem to set up a circus, but the performance cost. The negotiator is Maksimov, general manager of the foreign performance company of the Soviet Ministry of Culture, who has the right to decide all matters concerning the foreign performance of the Soviet Union. Maximoff is arrogant and uncompromising. His asking price is $5,000 per performance. He said that this is the most favorable quotation given after fully considering the actual situation in China market. Du Xia judged that $5,000 a game was really not expensive, but he immediately refused and made a counter-offer of 10000 RMB. The other party replied: "This is impossible." No agreement was reached.
Five days later, the China delegation returned to Moscow from Leningrad, and the negotiations continued. However, both sides insisted on their own prices, without compromise, and the negotiations were deadlocked. On the morning when the China delegation left Moscow, Maksimov reduced the remuneration for each performance to $3,500, but Du Xia refused, insisting on 10,000 RMB, not a penny more.
In this way, in the absence of an agreement, the China delegation left Moscow for home. The other members of the delegation were frustrated and regretted that the visit did not achieve the final result. They all think that the price of 3,500 dollars or even 5,000 dollars is acceptable. They don't understand why Du Xia screwed up this matter.
But Du Xia himself is not as depressed as other members. He has his own judgment. According to his analysis of the Soviet performance market, he firmly believes that the other party will eventually accept his offer. So when he said goodbye, he left a message to the other party: If he changed his mind within a week and agreed to an offer of 10,000 RMB, he could fax it to the Ministry of Culture of China.
Business negotiation is really a psychological war. After returning home, I was on pins and needles, but Du Xia won! On the last day of the agreed deadline, less than 65,438+05 minutes before Moscow got off work, Maksimov sent a fax and accepted the offer of 1 10,000 yuan.
A few months later, 83 Soviet actors and a group of tigers, lions, camels and elephants made up the "greatest performance of the Soviet Union on earth" from Manchuria to China, and traveled to seven cities for three months, with hundreds of performances and sold out tickets. The last performance in Beijing Workers Stadium was attended by all of The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC).
The tour of the Soviet Circus in China also created a commercial miracle. After deducting all costs, Du Xia's net profit was 654.38+0.5 million yuan. In this way, before the maturity, he still owed the bank a debt of 6.5438+0.4 million. He fulfilled every promise he made. He became a hero!
This story shows that entrepreneurs need many conditions to turn imaginary things into reality. These conditions are not ready-made, you need to create them yourself. Moreover, these conditions are interdependent: condition A depends on condition B, condition B depends on condition C, and condition C depends on condition A ... If any one of them cannot be realized, the whole plan will be aborted. Because of this, failed entrepreneurs can easily fall into the reputation of "liar". As you can imagine, if Du Xia can't successfully convince the general manager of China Leasing Company to issue a credit guarantee of 500,000 US dollars, in the eyes of the competent officials of the Ministry of Culture, he is a liar; If the general manager of the Soviet performance company insists on uncompromising at the last minute, even the general manager of the China leasing company will regard him as a liar; If the show doesn't make enough money, the bank that lent him money to speculate in foreign exchange will also think he is a liar. Fortunately, he put forward all the conditions. Of course, his success is mainly due to his entrepreneurial spirit rather than luck.
Du Xia's entrepreneurial spirit in this story is universal.
Cyrus westerfield, an American entrepreneur, is famous in history for laying the first transatlantic submarine cable. But because of his initial failure, he was also considered a big liar. When he put forward the idea of laying Atlantic submarine cable in 1854, scholars strongly opposed it and thought it impossible. Even Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, thought it was an incredible risk. Although the submarine cable across the English Channel was successfully laid at 1850, the transatlantic submarine cable connecting America and Europe is a completely different matter, and various factors are still unknown. The depth of the ocean has not been measured, and the geological structure of the seabed is only roughly understood. Whether the cable can withstand the pressure of seawater has not been tested. Also: where can I find a huge ship to carry a 2000-nautical-mile cable? So far away, where can I get a high-powered engine to continuously transmit current? Is the thermal insulation material reliable? Will the magnetic field in the deep sea lead to current evacuation? Wait, people have every reason to doubt his idea. Nevertheless, with the good reputation and firm belief accumulated in the past, Field persuaded some rich people on both sides of the Atlantic to invest in his career. His shareholder list includes the names of famous British novelists Thackeray and Mrs Byron.
August 1857 The first laying began in Ireland. On the sixth day, 335 nautical miles were laid, but on the sixth night, the cable was broken from the cable car. The broken end is impossible to find. The second laying in June 1958 also failed due to the weather. Two failures consumed half the capital, but got nothing. Shareholders quit, the chairman advocated selling the remaining assets, and the vice chairman resigned, indicating that he didn't want anything to do with this ridiculous thing.
But field's firm belief has not wavered. He explained that nothing was lost, and after such a test, it proved that the performance of the cable itself was very good. At his insistence, the third laying began. 1858 On July 28th, two paving boats met at a predetermined place in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and then set off in two different directions at the same time. By August 5th, the report of "Niagara" to the west reached Trinity Bay in Newfoundland after laying 1030 nautical miles, and the coast of America had been seen. The "Agamemnon" sailing eastward also reported that it saw the Irish coast after laying more than 1000 nautical miles.
It worked! On August 16, Queen Victoria's congratulatory message arrived in new york, and US President Buchanan also sent a telegram back to Queen Victoria. For the first time in human history, an idea can fly across the Atlantic in an instant! Global sensation! On August 17, the newspaper cheered the victory with a particularly eye-catching headline. On August 3rd1day, a grand celebration was held in new york. Field became a great hero, sitting in the first carriage of the parade, and the president of the United States sat in the third carriage to participate in the celebration. But at this time, the cable suddenly stopped working. After September 1, there was no telegraph signal! The bad news spread like wildfire and Field became a sinner. People say that he is a big liar, cheating a city, a country and a world. It is rumored that the telegram from the other side of the Atlantic never came, and the telegram from the Queen of England was completely fabricated by Field himself. Others said that he knew that the telegraph was broken, but he concealed the facts for his own benefit and used this time to sell his shares at a high price. The man who was regarded as a national hero yesterday now has to avoid his former friends and admirers like a criminal.
After six years of silence with the heavy cross on his back, Field stood up again. At that time, the United States was in the midst of a civil war. He raised 600,000 pounds from Manchester, London and Liverpool, England, and obtained the initial management right. Within two days, he bought the largest ship "great eastern" at that time and made the necessary preparations for sailing. Dadong Dongfang has a draught of 22,000 tons and can carry all cables. 1865 On July 23rd, the ship left the Thames with more than 9000 tons of new cables. Unexpectedly, the first test failed again-two days before it was laid to the destination, the cable broke and lost 600 thousand pounds. On the ground,1866 July 13, Dadong set sail for the second time and finally succeeded! The telegraph signal on the other side of the Atlantic is very clear. 1866 On July 29th, Queen Victoria and President Johnson exchanged official telegrams. Coincidentally, a few days later, the original missing old cable was also found. In this way, two cables finally connected the old continent and the new continent into a world! The cable operation service earned 1000 on the first day. Field also washed away his reputation as a "liar" and became a great hero again!
Elon musk is also a living example. This entrepreneur who immigrated from South Africa to the United States recently became famous because SPACE-X (Space Exploration Company) successfully launched the Falcon heavy rocket. Some people even think that he is a greater contemporary entrepreneur than Steve Jobs. However, Elon Musk's Tras Electric Vehicle Company and SPACE-X Company have been on the verge of bankruptcy many times. SPACE-X's Falcon 9 rocket failed three times in a row. By the time the fourth launch was successful, the company had to work hard to pay the salaries of its employees. Tesla has more than 1200 orders and has received tens of millions of dollars from customers. The money was quickly spent, but only less than 50 cars could be delivered. Musk had to risk imprisonment to misappropriate other people's property. In May 2008, the "Car Truth" website opened the column "Tesla Death Countdown", and one day there were even 50 articles about how Tesla would perish. In June 5438 +2008 10, an employee of the company even wrote an open letter accusing the company of cheating customers. After reading the company's financial situation, Musk himself suspected that the car could not go on, and his wife began to regard his life as a Shakespeare tragedy. At this time, the original investors also lost confidence and were unwilling to put money into this bottomless pit. Some investors even want to expel Musk from Tesla. In order to persuade investors to change their minds, Musk had to bluff and lied that he could borrow another $40 million from SPACE-X to complete this round of financing. In fact, the financial situation of SPACE-X is also in jeopardy. After several twists and turns, SPACE-X finally got a sum of $654.38+06 billion from NASA on February 23rd, 2008, and Musk left tears with excitement. This money is 12 transportation advance payment provided by SPACE-X for the International Space Station. Without this money, the company will declare bankruptcy within a few hours, and Musk will definitely go down in history as a liar, rather than being worshipped as an outstanding entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs need to change others' beliefs and persuade others to do what they want to do if they want to turn imaginary things into reality. In Jobs's view, this ability was summed up as a "reality distortion field". In fact, from my observation, all outstanding entrepreneurs must have such a distortion field, although the degree is different. In my contact with Du Xia, I really felt his "reality distortion field". I remember that in 2004, I made a rule for myself not to be an independent director of any company, and I did refuse invitations from several big companies and financial institutions. But one day, Du Xia, whom I hadn't seen for years, suddenly broke into my office. As soon as he sat down, he said he wanted me to join his board of directors. I said it was impossible, and I couldn't break my own rules. He told me not to refuse in a hurry, and then he turned on his laptop to talk to me about his company. It wasn't long before I broke my word and accepted his invitation. I have always felt that I am a person who dares to say "no", but his reality distortion field is too strong.
Of course, liars also have a "reality distortion field". The difference is that a liar makes you believe what he doesn't believe, while an entrepreneur makes you believe what he firmly believes.