Lei Jun: How did I get out of the trough

On the evening of August 11, Xiaomi founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun held his 2022 speech.

The theme of this speech is "Always believe in good things that are about to happen". Different from the past, he took nearly 3 hours to share the trough he had encountered, and how to discover opportunities in adversity, and how to discover opportunities in adversity. Story of the move forward.

At the end of the speech, he summarized the life of life over the past years in one sentence:

"All the frustrations, failures you have experienced, and even those things that seem to be meaningless to spend time will become your most precious wealth."

Good evening everyone, this is my third annual speech.

In the past three years, the world has undergone tremendous changes, which has deeply affected the lives and work of each of us.

Faced with the huge changes in continuous continuous, many people feel uncomfortable, even a little confused, and some people are particularly anxious.

So this annual speech, I don't intend to talk about Xiaomi. I want to talk about a little different topics, talk about how I spend those troughs in my life, how I passed through confusion and anxiety.

Today I want to tell three stories.

01

Product failure

The first story is that when I was young, I encountered a product failure, business collapse, and even the company almost closed.

This story starts from 30 years ago.

1. Life and death approach

It was 1992. At that time, WPS was particularly popular, and almost every computer was installed.

But we still face huge hidden concerns, because that year, Microsoft, Windows and Office entered the Chinese market.

How do we compete with Microsoft? Jinshan must immediately start developing a set of new office software to survive.

The newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger, and we didn't think about it, so we immediately worked. I still remember that we gave the project a magnificent name, called Pan Gu.

We hope that Pangu Software can open up the world on the Windows platform and push the glory of WPS to a new height, so at the time we were very angry.

However, if you think about it, how can a small company in China compete with the global giant? This project is not so easy.

We tuned almost all programmers and took out almost all the company's family. In this way, we did it for three years, and there was no day or night. By April 1995, our Pangu Office was finally completed.

For three years, everyone waited for this day, and we even arranged even the celebration banquet, but no one expected that as soon as the product was listed, the sales volume was terrible, not even the expected 1/10. Our emotions quickly fell from the cloud to the bottom of the valley. What should I do?

I desperately fight chicken blood and encourage everyone to continue to fight.

At the beginning of the second year, the situation did not improve, and Pangu's sales did not improve. What was more troublesome was that WPS could not be sold. Our income was sharply reduced, and even the salary was a bit difficult.

I think the company is caught in an urgent juncture of life and death.

That year, I was 26 years old. I am the general manager of Beijing Jinshan. For the first time, I face this situation. I feel a little helpless, especially the days when I pay the salary every month. I feel particularly difficult.

The worst month is only ten thousand yuan on the account. Even the salary of the next month is very difficult. During that time, I often insomnia, and I often couldn't sleep.

I still remember many nights. I sat alone on the sofa and looked at the lights in the opposite building, extinguished one by one, and then saw the sky lit a little bit. People can understand deeply.

My colleagues were also particularly desperate, and then they left Jinshan one after another. Our very lively office became deserted little by little. It was particularly difficult during that time.

As a person in charge of R & D, I still don't know much about it. It is such a good signboard in Kingsoft. How can I not sell such a good software? I really can't figure it out repeatedly.

I decided to go to the end, I had to go to the front line, and I must make the problem clearly.

1) Selling goods on the station store

I made a lot of determination to go to the station store to sell goods.

This is Zhongguancun 30 years ago. I found a biggest software store and went to the station store. At first I was still confident. I think although I have not done sales, but the product is done by me, it is definitely okay.

On the first day, I went to the station store, and I saw every customer entering the store, just like when I met my loved ones, we welcomed them very warmly, and sometimes even endlessly.

I remember a lot of customers. I took a chat with others for half an hour. There was such a wave of waves. I kept talking about it. One day after get off work, I stood for 8 hours and talked dry.

I remember that I didn't even eat the meal when I went home, and I fell asleep in bed. What about such a hard day? Everyone said, I didn't sell it.

However, I comforted myself that it must be bad luck. For the first time to sell goods, it was normal to be sold. We will continue to cheer tomorrow. On the next day, I still didn't sell it, and I was a little covered.

On the third day, the granules were still unacceptable. Especially when I saw other clerks sold one after another, I doubted my ability at that moment. It was also at that moment that I really realized for the first time that it was difficult to do technology, but it was also difficult to sell. On the fourth day, I decided not to sell the goods anymore. what to do? I just see how others sell it. So I followed the clerk with the best sales performance and stood beside him to see how he received customers and how to sell products.

I just followed for a whole day. There are still a lot of gains in one day.

Let me give a few examples.

For example, as soon as a customer entered the store, I would like to welcome it enthusiastically and talk to the customers endlessly for half an hour. But he didn't talk much. He first listened to what the user wanted, and then followed the user, but instead made the user in a few words.

Also, I feel that I understand technology, I especially want to make the technology clearly. If people have different opinions, I still lift the bar with others. In short, "I must convince you, it doesn't matter if you don't buy a product. Explanation "is particularly true.

I was thinking later, I saw that he did not do this when he sold it. nailed it.

In fact, the purpose of our sales is not to explain the truth for users, and the key is to enable users to accept it comfortably. This gold medal sales, he communicated with users very easily.

And I am a programmer, dealing with a stranger, it is still difficult for me, so on the fifth day, I started thinking about it when I took a client.

After a long day, I finally dealt with the first order. At that moment, I felt like I won the whole world, which was particularly excited. After the first order was sold, I seemed to find a little bit, and the performance was better.

On the seventh day, I actually became a sales champion in our store, which was really incredible.

I told this story to my colleagues. He said that you are not a promotional story. I said that I am talking about a person in charge of R & D. After the product fails, in order to figure out the reason, I personally went to the first line of the sales of the 7 -day store.

The person in charge of R & D is rarely done that after the product cannot be sold, but I really did so. Because I went, I thought of it today, I felt huge.

2) Getting started

Regarding the gain, let me give a small example first.

In 1996, computers had just begun to popularize. When I was in the store, there were several users who asked me every day, whether there was software entry software.

I can't figure it out. I learned to buy a book when I learned a computer. Why do I still buy a software to teach? I always dissuade the user in annoyance. There is really no such software. Otherwise, you can turn around and have a bookstore in the left. You can buy a book to learn. I also told them very patiently.

Until I was asked countless times, I suddenly realized: Isn't it necessary to do (tutorial software)?

To be honest, this type of software has no technical content compared with Pan Gu. So, I immediately organized the team to develop a software immediately, called "Introduction to Computers", which quickly pushed to the market and didn't even do advertisements.

After launching, it will be sold soon, and immediately on the best -selling software rankings.

This process really gave me a huge shock, let me think back, and re -understand a very simple truth:

To make a product, be a product that users need, do not make those products that look tall. As long as this product is crying and shouting, sales are not a problem, and it is particularly easy to sell. Good products, it will have a long foot.

With such an understanding, it is not difficult to make a product.

Later, we produced a series of explosive products, including Kingsoft Ci Battlestick, Kingsoft Poison Battle, etc. (one or twenty), so soon Jinshan found the way to survive.

Let's review the problem of Pangu. In fact, it is very simple, that is, to get rid of the masses and build a car behind closed doors.

This incident has given me a huge inspiration. I am particularly fortunate that without this crisis in 1996, as an engineer, I have no chance to make up for this important lesson.

Looking back, it is no exaggeration to say that the experience of this station store is a huge and valuable wealth for my entire career.

2. retail industry

In fact, after standing through the store, when I went to see the store again, I felt different.

So I especially liked to visit the store. As long as I had a chance, I went to the store to take a look, and I went to other people's stores to see it.

Because when watching the store, not only pondering the products of others, I started to think about how the store decoration, how about the moving line, how the shelves are, how about the pile, how about the poster, his salesperson’s How about the training of the training, gradually felt a little bit of the door to look at the door.

Thirty years ago, I felt that our domestic retail industry was relatively backward, so I had the opportunity to go abroad for a business trip. I must take time to other people's stores.

Some stores abroad are very big. I still remember staying in the store for a whole day. I touched every wrapped box in it. I tried to remember every detail in my mind.

In this way, I have a certain understanding of the retail industry, and this understanding later helped me very much.

02

The darkest time 1. Lost

Kingsoft found the way to survive, but I fell into a greater confusion. I fell into my life, the darkest time.

First, I was too much expectations for Pangu at that time. After Pangu failed, I had been immersed in the emotion of Pangu's failure, which was particularly low.

Secondly, in the face of Microsoft's competition, there is no hope of seeing. If it is only a business that is barely alive, it is not attractive to me.

Therefore, my feelings at the time were that I lost my ideals and completely lost my fighting spirit. At the end of April, I submitted a resignation letter.

Many people may be in pain and confusion. I don't know how you encountered this challenge, how to solve and decompress it. Anyway, I didn't have any new ways to play at the time, so I often go to soak with a few friends.

This is a photo of the bar in Sanlitun before 2003, that is, during that time, I started to like heavy metal rock.

I used to think that these music was quite noisy, but when I was particularly depressed, I started to like this kind of music. I felt that immersed in music can temporarily forget all my troubles.

Because I often go to soak, I started to think about it seriously during that time, or I can open my own bar in Sanlitun. I also conducted a period of research to see how to open a bar.

But it didn't take long for me, I soon encountered a more interesting thing, the BBS Forum.

2. BBS Forum

At that time, I had enough time to soak on CFIDO all day. CFIDO had not yet become popular at the time in China. It was a group of enthusiasts built by a group of enthusiasts to enter the network by phone calls, mainly forums.

At that time, I was able to communicate freely with friends from afar. Wow, that feeling is really amazing.

I was fascinated at the beginning, so I found a new sustenance. Because this network is dial -up, the Internet fee is particularly expensive. If you put a bunch of water stickers in the forum, everyone will scold you. So you need to prepare each post very seriously and reply to other people's opinions very seriously.

At that time, I had a small advantage. I was a programmer who would blindly fight and typed very fast. At that time, I could write a hundred. I still remember that I wrote the longest, from the night to the day to light, and I wrote almost 10,000 words.

Because I wrote fast and long, I soon reached the CFIDO ranking, often in the top three.

There is often a friend PK, more than anyone else. I still remember to this day that that friend is also 100 every day, we are playing every day. However, he only hit two fingers and fought quickly. He was known as the "two -finger Zen" and his fingers were like flying. It is said that several keyboards were broken.

Because I often post, there are many posts, and soon I become a moderator. It's a bit like today's group owners. Don't look at the officials.

What is the most difficult for the moderator? It's a bit like the aunt of the neighborhood committee.

At that time, everyone in the forum often turned upside down because of inconsistent opinions. You need to do work for everyone, soothe emotions, and let everyone not pull the skin, so the moderator is quite tired.

At that time, I was always busy at 7 o'clock in the morning, and I started to be busy until the middle of the morning. I just joked, why is this moderator who seems to be busy than going to work?

At that time, I was particularly immersed in the forum. Some friends felt that this was not a matter. He felt that I was escaping and could not do business. There are even people who regret it for me and think that Lei Jun is such a good person, how can it become like this? I feel that I am wasting time and even waste my life.

To be honest, I especially thank these friends for their care of me, but I may be a bit different from their views.

I think life is not too strong. Even if you do something meaningless, it looks valuable.

I really did n’t have any purpose in that half a year. I played very purely and I was very happy. In this very relaxed atmosphere, my emotions began to recover step by step.

Many people think that watching novels, surfing the Internet, and playing games are all playables. But I think that as long as there is a certain self -control, entertainment sometimes becomes the best way to learn. Because without any purpose, learning things is particularly easy and fast.

Of course, I have to remind you here. I think it is necessary to play with a name. Do n’t play blindly. Sometimes it ’s a waste of time. I support everyone seriously, don't play blindly.

In the stage of the bubble forum, I met a lot of friends, and two friends later became famous. One was Ma Huateng, who was a programmer in a company, and the engineer of the Ningbo Telecommunications Bureau. His name was his name. Ding Lei.

It was in the half -year -old carefree day, and I returned to my state step by step.

03

Experience and reflection of Excellence.com

1. Return to Jinshan

In November 1996, I officially returned to Jinshan.

Why go back? I can't let go of the glorious and dream of national software inside, and I still want to play a protracted battle with Microsoft.

After we went back, we died with Microsoft on the front battlefield of the office software. On the one hand, we opened a guerrilla war against the enemy. We made a lot of software games to make money to support their families.

Such a small company that almost closed the door has re -emerged after more than 20 years of hard work. Today, the number of monthly active equipment for WPS exceeds 500 million. We can't simply say that we have won Microsoft, but I think it can be the size of today, to be the second in the world, and it is also very very remarkable. Just as I was reorganizing Jinshan, the outside world changed dramatically.

On the other side of the ocean, the Internet Company was founded in 1994 and launched in 1995; Yahoo was founded in 1995 and launched in 1996. The first wave of Internet waves flourish.

At that time, the world was in the upsurge of the Internet, and China followed up very fast. In 1997, Netease was founded. At the end of 1998, Tencent was founded. In 1998, Sina and Sohu were renamed after renamed. China's first wave of Internet waves also began.

By October 1998, I felt that the Internet wave was unstoppable for the first time. But at that time, we were half a shot. How to do it? I suggest the board of directors, or if you can buy it, it can be quickly attacked.

In the past two decades, there have been various rumors in the market. It is said that when Ma Huateng started his business, he would sell QQ to me, and then I didn't buy it. Also, when Alibaba started a business, I asked me to invest, and then I did not invest. It seemed that I was stupid and had no vision.

I took this opportunity to formally declare that neither of them had found me, which was all rumors. I really talked about only one, which was NetEase. At that time, they started a business for more than a year.

I especially like NetEase, so I asked Ding Lei and said that I would buy your company for 10 million yuan. 10 million yuan, at that time, there is still a small number. They were about five or six people at the time.

Then Ding Lei refused. Two months later, Ding Lei told me that he merged $ 10 million and the company valued more than $ 60 million. According to the exchange rate at the time, the valuation was more than 500 million yuan.

I was really shocking at the time, and I felt that the Internet was really crazy.

If you can't buy it, I decide to do it myself. But at that time, the energy was on the software, and the understanding of the Internet was only in the stage of use. After more than a year, I think I understand one day. I think I have a new understanding of the Internet.

2. Founding Excellence Network

I think all companies will use the Internet in the future, and e -commerce will have the most opportunities. This is the Internet I understood at the time.

So in May 2000, Excellence.com was officially launched. At that time, I was determined to gain and confidence in the Internet. At that time, many people wanted to invest in excellence, and I refused. The first financing of 20 million yuan was invested by Kingsoft's shareholders.

When it comes to doing excellence, I think e -commerce is essentially retail, which is nothing more than selected pricing and store decoration. I quickly transplanted these traditional retail ideas to e -commerce.

I think what is the second characteristic of e -commerce? It is operation. Many details need to be done. I still remember that I went to work every morning at that time, and I ordered all the links of last night. Everyone said that almost I have a link error every day.

I shared my point with my classmates at the time. I said I am a programmer. What is the most important truth learned in the software process?

Where there may be errors, there will be errors.

Therefore, you must check every place, as long as you use this serious spirit to do everything, you can do a good job.

At that time, I requested that after the end of each day, I must make a summary that day, and make a review that day. At the same time, see how the competitors adjust and improve the next day.

Moreover, in order to test the service of excellent networks, I bought a lot of things on the Internet every week, various books, movies, TV series, and music CDs.

In order to think about how to make e -commerce and service well, we have also made a lot of innovation. We created the earliest storage of many places in China, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

We also started to build their own logistics. In order to ensure the quality of service, we even exaggeratedly proposed that it arrived in 4 hours of Beishang, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. For 4 hours, everything must be delivered.

In this way, in two or three years, from 0, we became the largest B2C e -commerce in China at that time, and the business progress was smooth.

There is only one difficulty, no money.

Being an e -commerce platform is too burning. First of all, that time is the cold winter of capital. Secondly, VCs were foreign capital at that time. Local entrepreneurs like me are very difficult to financing with some foreigners.

At that time, our business was so good that no one was willing to invest, and it collapsed.

In the end, there was no way, a friend's company invested $ 1 million, and Jinshan's shareholders added another $ 1 million to barely complete the second round of financing.

We kept suffering in the early days. By 2004, I couldn't stand it anymore, and I could only sell excellence to Amazon, which was the later Amazon China.

A few years ago, I visited Bezos, and he told me sorry as soon as he met, and he did not take care of it. Recalling this process, it is very painful.

3. Sell Excellence Network

After half a year of selling, the new wave of the Internet began, and the prosperity of B2C e -commerce came, and the entire e -commerce industry rose in an all -round way. I concluded that after the crushing of the Internet bubble, it fell before the rise of e -commerce.

This is really an unforgettable pain. After selling excellence, there are always good people who do not regret it after asking me. I gritted my teeth and said it didn't regret it, but I was actually very painful and suffering.

On the one hand, entrepreneurs are like children, so they are particularly painful at that stage. I asked myself to try not to go to the office of Excellence.com, and try to see the old colleagues of the excellent network.

Secondly, for an entrepreneur, the greater pain is -we missed the entire Internet era.

During that time, I asked myself repeatedly where I lost.

Anyway, at the time, I mainly felt that I was unlucky. I also joked with them, saying that I would like to look at Feng Shui in the future, and I would have a life of two games and three feng shui.

This is a joke. But the more I think, the more we feel that we really don't care about the timing of the timing, dragging and pulling. Why was founded after the Internet bubble was burst? Why not earlier?

As soon as we came up, we lost on the starting line and missed the best time in entrepreneurship.

Then we were insufficient, and we did not persist until dawn came.

So this incident gave me a great inspiration. Starting really needed a little luck, it really needed a precise judgment of the general trend. Also, no matter how smart and hard you are, I don't think you should never underestimate the importance of the wind.

Why did I talk more about the air outlet later? I think a lot of smart and diligent people really don't really care about the importance of the opportunity. In fact, opportunities are very important for everyone.

04

Summarize

1. Thinking of the trend

In the process, I also asked myself, what is the Internet? Is there a chance for the Internet? What can we do next?

After repeated deep thinking, to be honest, the understanding of the Internet has really taken a big step forward.

I understand in 2005. I said that the Internet is not only a technological revolution, but also a key revolution. The second article is that the future of the Internet will integrate all walks of life. You may see nothing today, but this was summarized in 2005. In fact, it was the Internet thinking and Internet+that everyone talked about later.

With this high -dimensional understanding, I re -scanned all new opportunities in the industry. At that time, I faintly saw a huge opportunity -the mobile Internet.

After in -depth research, I firmly believe that the next 10 years will be the era of mobile Internet, and the mobile Internet will be larger than the PC Internet.

I was convinced of this at the time, and advocated everywhere and occasions everywhere. But it's useless to bragging cows, and I decided to act immediately.

Mainly do two things. First, I want to be the earliest real users. Second, I want to be the earliest participants in this wave.

Is it simple? Quite simple. But it is difficult to do.

Because the mobile phone was a function phone at the time, the screen was small, the network was 2G, 2.5G, and the speed was very slow. My thought at the time was no matter how difficult it was to use. From today, I try to use the mobile phone as much as possible without the computer on the computer.

In this particularly painful torment, I saw a lot of opportunities for the mobile Internet. So I think pain is not a bad thing.

Where there is the pain of users, there will be opportunities for entrepreneurs. I just use it every day, and I have suffered every day, but I still persist for about 10 years.

It's painful every day. This habit has adhered to 10 years.

In addition, I said that I would not only be a user, but I would also be a participant in this industry, and to go deep into the front line of the wave.

At that time, I was looking for the street and said: Who is doing the mobile Internet, I am willing to invest. I participated in a large number of startups in the way I invest in angel investment.

I remember that the first one was voted in January 2006, and later more than a dozen of more than ten successive voted. The most famous one is the UC browser. After investing in the UC browser, after in -depth practice in recent years, I have become more and more believed that a brand new era really comes, that is, the mobile Internet.

In 2019, Jinshan Software finally went on the market. I also left Jinshan Software, who had struggled for 16 years, and started a different life.

In the next three years, I systematically reflected a summary while making angel investment. In this series of reflection, carefully prepared for the next journey.

2. Always believe that beautiful things are about to happen

To sum up, today I share three stories that I have experienced the trough.

When I was facing these setbacks and failures, I was as confused as everyone, and I once shaken or even gave up. But standing on the stage today, I want to tell you that without these setbacks, without these failures, without the accumulation of these setbacks and failures, there will be no Lei Jun today.

No one likes setbacks and failures, but it is inevitable that each of us will encounter setbacks and failures.

Moreover, I believe that at this moment, many people should be in frustration and failure, in confusion and anxiety. So, since these pains are unavoidable, we should not escape. We have to face these pains and move forward in pain to let the pain to shape better. Essence

Finally, in a word to summarize my speech today, all the setbacks and failures you experience, and even those things that seem to be meaningless to grind time will become your most important and precious wealth.

Life is very long. In any case, let us maintain our belief: always believe that beautiful things are about to happen.

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