If a career is a towering tree, then the motivation for entrepreneurship is the seed. This seems to be a universal law. This is the case for most entrepreneurs. The seeds of entrepreneurship are planted when they are young, and so is Lao Gao.
How can children from the Northwest Mountain Village embark on the road to entrepreneurship?
As the ancient capital of the thirteen dynasties, the city of Shaanxi has a strong imperial culture and has produced many talents since ancient times. Lao Gao was born in a small village in Xi'an. He was deeply influenced by these cultural atmospheres since childhood. When he was in high school, he had dreams and wanted to do something big, but he didn't know what to do.
Later, when I went to college, I was admitted to Xi'an, and I studied marketing and trade. After working in Xi'an for more than a year, he felt a very big bug. The pace of inland cities was very slow and the efficiency was relatively low. When discussing business with someone, you have to eat 4-5 meals and drink several times, but in the end, it may not necessarily lead to results.
After thinking about it for a while, he decided to leave Shaanxi, with 800 yuan in his pocket, wearing a pair of sandals and big shorts, and came to Shanghai alone.
It is true that people step on the land of Shanghai are not familiar with each other, but watching the people on the road walk like running, Lao Gao immediately felt in his heart: Yes, that's the rhythm. He returned to the water like a fish, free in body and mind, and looked ready to show his strength at any time.
At this time, Lao Gao didn't know what he was going to do. No matter what he was doing, he had to find a place to settle down first. Back then, the rent in Shanghai was relatively expensive, about 1,000 to 1,500 yuan. Lao Gao couldn't afford the rent. He ran to Qibao Town, a little farther away from the land, and searched for rent advertisements posted by the old man and the old lady on the side of the road. He knew that this way could find cheap houses because there were no middlemen to make the difference.
This is a rental house with a monthly rent of 600 yuan. He still remembers it vividly. When he first entered the house, there were spider webs in the room. After renting a house, Lao Gao started looking for a job and started working hard in Shanghai. After several years of class, he still felt that it was very different from his life direction, and it was not matched by the seed of doing something in his heart.
Once, Lao Gao made a vow with himself: If you can't do something grand before the age of 30, it's better to die. For him, the influence he received since childhood was to succeed if he failed. Looking back at the age of 40, the promise made in his 20s was a very cruel oath.
This vow caused him a lot of suffering. Once he worked overtime until 10 o'clock in the evening, the bus stopped. It was raining heavily and the taxi was gone. He touched his pocket and only five yuan. He basically couldn't do anything and could even get a taxi. Lao Gao was alone in the rainstorm and walked home all the way, walking in the rain for about two hours.
That was more than two hours of his life unforgettable. As he walked home, he kept thinking and asking himself - what exactly should I do in my life! What do I have to do to calm my excited heart! This self-question made his soul very painful.
Later, by chance, Lao Gao came into contact with e-commerce, so he opened his own Taobao store. These three Taobao stores are quite profitable, so he packed it himself, shipped it himself, and made his own details page. In the two years since he opened a Taobao store, he has accumulated very profound e-commerce experience and has done all the positions in e-commerce companies.
Why give up Taobao stores and start an e-commerce club?
After opening a Taobao store for two years, Lao Gao did a self-analysis. He felt that his advantages were not very obvious. "First of all, the product is not a brand, and secondly, there are no strong supply chain resources such as his own factory." In this case, what should I do after the Taobao store is opened until the fourth, eighth and tenth year? Is there a future?
There is no way out, this is Lao Gao’s inner answer.
He recalled his experience and inner feelings during the two years of opening a store. He couldn't find someone or place to communicate, nor did he know the policies and direction of e-commerce (Taobao). His information was very blocked. His daily state was to face the computer . He got up at 6 o'clock in the morning and worked until 2 o'clock in the morning. Even in his sleep, he would jump up and take orders as soon as Wangwang rang out and sell one product at a time.
People in this state are very lonely, just like walking alone in the dark, and there is nothing else to do except walk.
Later, there was an opportunity. Taobao released a forum where merchants could build it themselves. Lao Gao used his years of marketing experience to build a gang called Shanghai Home. There are a lot of communications on the forum every day, and fans will write their own e-commerce entrepreneurship stories, and the forum has become a small community for e-commerce people.
Opening a Taobao store more than ten years ago was like picking up rags, and it was even worse than those who set up street stalls. Because people who couldn’t find jobs or people who live in poverty would open Taobao stores, everyone was ashamed to express what they did. Under this current situation, it would be a long time for those who open Taobao stores to have a forum, communicate with each other and make friends.
Not long after, more than 300,000 fans were accumulated. Lao Gao has built more than 30 Q groups and Wangwang groups, both of which are in e-commerce and Taobao, and everyone is very happy to communicate in it.
In 2010, there were nearly 400,000 fans in this forum. Some fans felt that everyone had insufficient communication online, so they suggested that they wanted offline communication because there was no depth of offline communication online.
With the encouragement of many fans, Lao Gao established the Lao Gao e-commerce circle and the Lao Gao e-commerce club in July 2010, and began his life journey of building a circle.
In the most difficult period of starting a business, have you ever thought about giving up?
"To be honest, I wanted to give up at least three times, which is at least." Lao Gao told frankly, because there was no precedent in the e-commerce circle and e-commerce club business that year, and there was no peers to refer to or catch up with, and there was no object to learn from. Unlike women's clothing, children's clothing, and cups, they all had their own industries.
Back then, Lao Gao’s biggest pain was that he didn’t know how to make a profit, how this business continued, and whether this model could go far. This series of "can it be", just like self-questioning in the rainstorm, made Lao Gao feel confused and tormented. Every step he took in the confusion was exploring, and every step was very painful.
Because he didn't know how to sell, how to promote the market, and how to design products, Lao Gao also tried to refer to some objects, such as a certain business school. But later, he found that there was a big difference.
The most serious time was in 2013, when he wanted to give up for at least half a year. I really couldn't stand the inner torture. At the end of 2013, he held a meeting for nine employees of the company and told the employees that he was going to find the meaning of his life because he was very painful and confused. "If you want to do it, do it well. If you don't want to do it, I hope you will kill the company and I will be relieved."
This is what Lao Gao said, and he still remembers it. After saying that, he left and looked for the meaning of his life.
Lao Gao traveled to many places, and others were very happy to travel, but he was not, he was very painful. Looking at the blue and blue water in Jiuzhaigou, he felt very distressed because he was looking for himself and his future direction. He didn't see the beautiful scenery, he could only see his painful heart.
Travel brought Lao Gao more insights and a reflection on human nature . So after 2015, Lao Gao started an e-commerce tour group. He felt that traveling can make people look for themselves better. "In fact, what you see is not the beautiful scenery, the scenery you see can make you think about your life." This is what he thinks is the greatest value of travel.
Lao Gao also went to many temples, and he went to meditate with Guijiaoqi and several vice presidents of Ali. In the Zen room of Living Buddha Jiacuo, we will discuss the meaning of life together. Lao Gao only asked one question, which is what is the meaning of life? Every master I met later asked only this one question.
After nearly a year of thinking and guidance from experts, he finally figured out the meaning of life, and then he was resurrected with full blood and started to get up early to go to work. When I was confused, it was very painful to go to work every day. When I arrived at the company, I felt like I had been stepping into hell. But after 2014, I found the root of my efforts again, and the feeling of going to work was overturned.
Later, Lao Gao formulated his company's mission, vision and values. The mission of "helping e-commerce success" was inspired by the answer given to him by his master. Several of his masters told him that the most important thing in life is to do something meaningful and continue to make this meaningful thing worth it to others.
Therefore, Lao Gao continued to move forward along the mission of "helping e-commerce success", creating value for members and fans along the way. He suddenly realized that creating value for others makes him very happy, and he thought it was interesting and beneficial .
Over the years, Lao Gao has not been traveling much, except for taking his daughter out for fun. He feels that the best trip in life is to find yourself. Only when your heart is happy can you really travel on the road of life. If your heart is not opened, your heart is confused, and no matter how beautiful the scenery is, it will turn into hell.
The best beauty must be your own heart. This is Lao Gao’s experience and discovery. After finding yourself, your heart will become quiet and happy. With such a heart, you will find that the best attractions in the world are your own heart. He will travel in his heart and will no longer look for joy through external travel.
What pitfalls have you stepped on in management and how have you come through it?
People who start businesses will experience temptation, and Lao Gao is no exception. He has experienced the mistake that most entrepreneurs will make, which is to be too arrogant. Around 2015, Laogao E-commerce Club did a good job. It grew to thousands of members in a short time and was recognized by various e-commerce platforms. At that time, it was a little bit arrogant and felt that I could do anything and could do anything.
With the recognition of the platform, the encouragement of members, and the recognition of employees, everyone around them showed great recognition and encouragement. Lao Gao began to lose himself and felt that he seemed quite awesome. He thought that e-commerce training was similar to an e-commerce club, so he organized an e-commerce training company.
This training company works with members of 7 Laogao e-commerce clubs. At the most crowded people, there were about 120 employees, and they invested 8 million yuan. It took 8 months to lose all 8 million yuan.
In this experience afterwards, Lao Gao discovered that he made these mistakes because he did not refuse temptation. First, you are highly conscious of yourself; second, you feel that you can do everything; third, you are too many partners, and many things are extremely inefficient . At the same time, a lot of management mistakes have been made. There are many shareholders and many opinions, they need to communicate and discuss, they do not know how to price, and they are not good at the mechanisms of equity and partners.
"This is a mistake that entrepreneurs often make, that is, they lose themselves after success, lose their judgments about themselves, and lead to failure." After realizing these, Lao Gao tried his best not to do things outside of their cognitive scope. He also summarized his own philosophical thinking: failure is the mother of success, and success is also the root of failure. The more successful a person is, the more likely he is to fail .
Doing e-commerce training and e-commerce clubs are completely different. E-commerce training companies need to support many people to make courseware and have many full-time lecturers. What they do every day is to study Taobao's rules and technologies, including the hot products of the express train. But it is different to work in an e-commerce circle. The e-commerce circle studies how to make the relationship between members closer and more full communication.
These are two completely different business models, so in less than 10 months, the e-commerce training company went bankrupt. Lao Gao has been impressed by the scene of the day of bankruptcy.
More than 100 employees who joined the company were very eager for this company. This is composed of seven very awesome people in the e-commerce field. These people have annual turnover of over 100 million, which is the top 1 in various categories. This entrepreneurial accident made Lao Gao realize that if he opened a company and gathered a group of excellent people, it would be a mistake in itself, because the more powerful people, the greater the differences, and no one could convince anyone. When everyone is right, everyone has begun to stop acting.
"No action is the most fatal thing, and this is also a big detour we have taken." Today, Lao Gao has a more mature understanding of entrepreneurship. He feels that when choosing a partner, he must not bring too many great people together. Two or three great people are enough, and then select some excellent executors or people with strong operations. This combination is very good.
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