I am not very different, I just don’t like to admit defeat - Lao Gao’s ten-year entrepreneurial self-report (Part 2)

　　The pain and love of escaping from the big city of Xi'an

　　"Yangjun (not called Lao Gao at that time), come to Shanghai, there are everything here, as long as you have ambitions..."

　　One day in June 2004, a college classmate called from the Magic City, completely hit Lao Gao's dream that had been floating in his heart for a long time. You can see the fate at the end by looking at it, and do some work that can’t see the result even if you work hard. Lao Gao thought, why not change the direction? So what if I go? Biggest is nothing?

　　After thinking for a whole week, on weekend night, Lao Gao bought a train ticket to Shanghai, and then turned on the computer and sent the resignation email to the leader's email without hesitation.

　　Wearing a pair of big trousers and a pair of shabby slippers, and with the remaining 800 yuan, Lao Gao began his "dream journey". After more than 20 hours' drive, Lao Gao finally arrived in Shanghai.

　　As soon as I got off the train, there were dense crowds everywhere, and the subway aisles were full of footsteps.

　　"Wow, it turns out that life in Shanghai is like this." Lao Gao felt a little happy in his heart, and it was not in vain.

　　Although he didn't know whether he belonged to the city or when he would leave- maybe a week, maybe a month... but that didn't matter.

　　A week later, Lao Gao found a job as a sales manager. Because the company is small and has no reputation, and the products are newly developed, it is particularly difficult to open up the market. Several of Lao Gao's exes were fired due to poor performance.

　　Changing the sales strategy of the previous few pros - Lao Gao changed the previous one-to-one single-point breakthrough model to a free one-to-many training model for customers, and opened up the market through free training. Six months later, the situation reversed, the market was suddenly activated, the company turned losses into profits, and the boss directly asked Lao Gao to take over the entire marketing department.

　　By the end of 2007, Lao Gao's company had expanded to more than 20 people. Why did a young man from other places who had only been here for half a year manage the marketing department? Some people expressed dissatisfaction and intrigues began to emerge.

　　"Some people often tell their boss that I scolded him once or twice... If you say too much, the boss will believe it himself, and in the end he was taken away by the intrigue of the company." The old Gao, who was aggrieved when he recalled the anger, still remembered the anger of the history.

　　He has fallen into the workplace and is extremely disappointed in not letting work. This disappointment also brought great pain to him. "In the northwest, people are very simple, but everyone is too smart in Shanghai." For the first time, Lao Gao felt the frustration of living in Shanghai.

　　This time, he did not shed tears. Instead, I endured silently and thought about "how to survive".

　　Entangled and confused darkness

　　In the past few years of work, after deducting rent and eating, Lao Gao basically has no savings, and he has no relatives or reasons, how can he survive? Lao Gao began to feel anxious about the future.

　　I dared not tell my parents about resigning, and I did not mention it to my girlfriend (I followed her shortly after coming to Shanghai). It was not until one day that my girlfriend found that there were suddenly some scattered items at home that she realized that something was wrong. Under the inquiries from his girlfriend, Lao Gaocai truthfully explained that he was resigned by the company.

　　After telling his girlfriend about his idea of ​​setting up a street stall, his girlfriend burst into tears on the spot and immediately gave Lao Gao 800 yuan. That night, cars outside the window were bustling, and the room was quiet like water. The two of them hugged their heads and cried bitterly.

　　With the cheap products from Taobao shopping club, Lao Gao wandered around Qibao Ancient Town for several times, like a thief preparing to commit the crime. He looked around and felt very nervous, but he didn't make it.

　　It’s not because of the product, nor because of urban management. In Lao Gao's own words, "I can't do it to keep my dignity on the ground."

　　"Have you read books for so many years in vain? Why can't I dominate my own destiny?" This is not only a doubt about the education I have received over the years, but also a question of my own life.

　　After the failure of setting up a street stall, Lao Gao did not blame others, but soon woke up while sighing. "So many things can't be wasted, why don't you try it if you hang them on Taobao."

　　By 2007, this year was the year when Taobao and Ebay regrouped after the battle. Although the war was coming to an end, whether in terms of product volume, viewing volume, and transaction volume, Taobao exceeded eBay and occupied nearly 80% of the market share, Taobao, which became famous in one battle, was exhausted and needed to recuperate and set off again.

　　At that time, everyone's trust in Taobao was not as high as it is now, and Alipay was not popular. Many of them used bank transfers and went to the post office to make payments, so the buyers were relatively weak.

　　After spending a few days studying Taobao, Lao Gao began to register a personal store, hang up the product, and gave the store a name that seemed very atmospheric at the time: noble elements. This also became the origin of the title of "Lao Gao" in the future.

　　To Lao Gao’s surprise, there are still many buyers in the store, and they can earn more than 10 orders a week. After gaining some complexion, Lao Gao began to study e-commerce and began to realize that e-commerce may have great potential in the next three to five years.

　　Where does the source of goods come from? If you purchase goods, how can you get 400 yuan of funds? The tension between ideals and reality makes Lao Gao feel embarrassed.

　　In the end, Lao Gao decided to rely on his many years of sales experience to chat with the owners of major shopping malls and stores from door to door. From selling daily necessities to selling flowers, from being a mother and baby to selling home appliances, from self-employed to chain stores, through clerks to bosses, online advertising to offline talks, step by step, follow the map.

　　For stores with relatively old qualifications, it is not that easy to get agency rights from them. The bosses who encounter the most wallets are asking "Do you have qualifications?" Where can the company get the qualifications? In order to obtain the agency rights of these chain stores, Lao Gao wrote plans and cooperation plans day and night. In the end, many businesses were touched with sincerity, and more and more businesses were willing to cooperate with Lao Gao.

　　During the cooperation process, Lao Gao found that this was a killing two birds with one stone. The seller did not need to suppress goods, and he also added new channels, and he obtained the brand agency rights. In this way, Lao Gao opened four Taobao stores in succession. From negotiation, product selection, photography, copywriting, art, operation, promotion... everyone is all on the same page. I woke up on time at 6 a.m. and worked until 2 a.m. During this period, Lao Gao tried his best to devote more than 20 years of knowledge and experience to this matter.

　　At the beginning, I earned 800 yuan a month and could barely pay the rent. As for household expenses and daily expenses, I rely entirely on my girlfriend's subsidies. Although I don’t know how long it will take to last such a life, Lao Gao was very happy.

　　Foresee the moment when business opportunities are at risk

　　In June 2009, Taobao launched a new product - Tao Gang.

　　This is a community product based on Taobao social network application Taojianghu. Members can post text, pictures, data, etc. on it for free. The purpose is to help strangers strengthen communication and communication, so that users in need can easily find "organization".

　　To a certain extent, the establishment of Taobao gangs is for a new store. If it is popular, it can greatly increase the store traffic, which is a very effective free promotion channel favored by Taobao store managers.

　　Before the Taobao gang was launched, Lao Gao noticed Wang Xing's Fanfu (Wang Xing had not founded Meituan at that time), and Chen Yizhou's Renren. Lao Gao began to feel that a business revolution triggered by social media was coming.

　　After confirming his participation in the gang, Lao Gao resolutely decided to close the four Taobao stores he had previously operated and also established local community gangs in first-tier cities such as Shanghai Home, Guangzhou Home, and Beijing Home.

　　In this gang, merchants find the feeling of home, and can communicate freely with each other and talk about their ideals. With the help of this community, Lao Gao helped merchants to conduct various joint flash sale and group buying activities locally. Many merchants have gained a lot of traffic and sold a lot of goods because of Lao Gao's help.

　　This year is a year full of hope for many businesses. People are full of expectations for the future and yearn for it.

　　For Lao Gao, his own spring has just begun, and the real change was in 2010. The arrival and appearance of two things completely changed Lao Gao's life trajectory: one is the integration of word-of-mouth network into Taobao's local life; the other is the convening of the World Expo.

　　In October 2006, Alibaba acquired Kou Renwang, one of the early domestic local life service network platforms; in June 2008, Kou Renwang merged with Yahoo China; in 2009, Kou Renwang was integrated into Taobao local life, and continued to operate on the platform to provide users with various life services through B-end merchants.

　　At the beginning of 2010, Lao Gao, who had accumulated tens of thousands of merchants through gangs, began a two-day negotiation with Kouyu.com, and finally won the webmaster of Kouyu.com Shanghai. At that time, the conditions offered by Kou Word-to-Net was: as long as 5,000 new merchants were added every month, 20 to 30 places for eating, drinking and having fun in Shanghai Home (gang) could be provided for free every month. For Lao Gao, adding 5,000 new users was not a big problem. The key was to solve the problem of gathering places for gang members. As it turns out, the effect of the activity far exceeded Lao Gao's expectations.

　　A few months after winning the Shanghai website of Word of Mouth Network, the world-renowned World Expo was held in Shanghai, the international financial capital. This is another world-sensational conference after the Beijing Olympics. On October 1, 2010, heads of state of several dozen countries gathered in Shanghai to share this grand event. Tourists from all over the world came to witness the rise of this ancient oriental power. The tourists who come to Shanghai to observe are no less than the Chinese Spring Festival travel rush, and the tickets for visiting are hard to come by - even if you have money, you may not be able to buy them.

　　Fortunately, one month before the opening of the World Expo, Lao Gao received nearly 100 tickets. When Lao Gao posted the news to the gang community in the form of an event, the community suddenly broke the blame and everyone rushed to tell the news. Within a few days, the gang members had skyrocketed from tens of thousands to 600,000, many of them were Crown sellers.

　　"Lao Gao, why don't you set up an e-commerce circle? You can organize it so that everyone can get together regularly." A member said at a party.

　　Lao Gao didn't say anything at that time, and the member's idea had been brewing in his heart for a while. Lao Gao is very clear that operating in the current agency model will not get the bargaining power or the brand will not be able to accumulate. The key is still unstable. It is hard to say what advantages it has. There will not be much hope in the future.

　　There was no concept of circles at that time, but merchants lacked such connections. In the e-commerce field where information is extremely asymmetric, many merchants wanted to learn because they didn’t know each other. Even if they knew each other, others would not be willing to pay attention to you and needed a bridge to make links. This bridge can open everyone's hearts and allow merchants to exchange experiences and cooperate normally. During the first event hosted in July, although Lao Gao had not yet fully figured out what to do next, he realized that running a circle would be a good business.

　　"At that time, we invited several waiters on Taobao search. I remember very clearly that we held the first regular meeting of the Crown Club in Xujiahui. At that time, the number of people in the regular meeting was 13. In addition to these members, some partners also participated, with a total of about 20 people. The party lasted for an afternoon, which was very good. From that time on, we had the Crown Club step by step." When recalling the first gathering of the members, Lao Gao couldn't help but feel excited and proud.

　　From July 2010 to March 2011, in just six months, Crown’s membership surged from 13 to 87. The reason for the explosive growth was that at that time, Lao Gao and Taobao reached a number of cooperations. The gang run by Lao Gao had already received official support and recognition from Taobao. The activities published and the content provided can be directly on the homepage. The unique resource advantages made Lao Gao ecstatic. At the highest point, hundreds of new members were added a day.

　　Since then, Lao Gao realized it was time to register a company. As the days get better day by day, the challenges are getting bigger and bigger. Lao Gao, who had not made any money, could only rent a two-bedroom and one-living house near the apartment. He could not afford office equipment. If he could save, he would save. If he could not save, he would buy second-hand ones on Taobao. At that time, the office had only two girls and his girlfriend, and there were four people in total. The grass-roots team was formed like this.

　　Because every gang event can bring huge traffic and sales to merchants, as soon as each event is released, thousands of people are rushing to sign up. There are more than 100 administrators in various regions. Although they are all part-time jobs, if they are to pay their salaries, they will probably owe millions of dollars to the bank based on their salary today.

　　When operating a gang, Lao Gao usually posts an announcement in various groups: "We are going to start corporate operations, but the salary is unknown. Anyway, we just earn money and give everyone the salary." Everyone did not think there was anything wrong with this, but was moved by Lao Gao's sincerity.

　　In this way, Lao Gao began his own entrepreneurial journey.

　　Only you can save yourself when you encounter obstacles in entrepreneurship

　　"Entrepreneurship is like walking through the gates of hell. Although it is not like Li Ka-shing risked his life at that time, it is almost the same. If it is not done well, it will be ruined and lost all its fortunes, and it may be a divorce between his wife and children. This is not a joke."

　　Lao Gao often talks about this metaphor. During the process of starting a business, I was often tortured by pain, and I was also confused when I started. Without a team, I have to hold my left hand and warm myself. Sometimes even my girlfriend doesn’t know what I’m doing. It’s not that the world is cruel, but that many times, the person I’m closest around me may not understand. Only you can understand the pain. Then go and resolve it yourself.

　　When starting to run the Crown Club, only twelve or three members joined. Many peers are not optimistic about this, and some even judge that this business will not last more than two years (survival), and everything is full of variables and unknowns, and Lao Gao himself is not sure.

　　In April 2012, Lao Gao made a difficult decision to increase the initial membership fee from 5,000 to 9,800. Due to insufficient brand influence, this increase exceeded the payment and cognitive ability of many people. The direct result was the company's three months of continuous losses. Those three months can be said to be the most unforgettable moment since Lao Gao started his business. "At that time, I felt that the company was about to go bankrupt, and the entire team was filled with a fear of the coming night." When talking about the adjustment of the membership fee, Lao Gao was still scared.

　　The most difficult thing is that in 2014, Lao Gao moved his company from a private house to a business building, and his team expanded from 13 people to 30 people. Two years after founding the company, Lao Gao realized that he could no longer operate like the charity and the charity team in the past. He had to have a set of strict rules and regulations, and the corporate culture and promotion mechanism must be carried out simultaneously. Some old employees who are used to being free from coming and going have begun to be uncomfortable. Coupled with the pressure of KPI, some employees feel like they have put a tight curse on themselves. So the resigned and the slacked off work. In order to ensure the normal operation of the company, Lao Gao had to cut off his arm.

　　"At that time, I felt like walking on a tightrope at high altitude, like walking on thin ice. I was afraid of leading the company to death." Because of these things, Lao Gao cried no less than three times, and once he secretly cried in the quilt and cried. After crying, he motivated himself.

　　Famous take off on the air vent

　　In August 2009, the Chinese portal Sina launched the internal beta version of "Sina Weibo", becoming the first portal website to provide Weibo services, and Weibo officially entered the mainstream Chinese Internet access field.

　　A year later, Lao Gao opened his personal Weibo. At that time, the Weibo was the same as the message board. He opened the Weibo account and clicked to send it. There was nothing else. At that time, many people were not optimistic about the future prospects of this thing. Lao Gao analyzed it for more than a month and soon devoted himself to this gadget that could only send 140 words.

　　At the end of 2010, Weibo ushered in a large-scale explosion. The report "28th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" released by the China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) in July 2011 showed that in the first half of 2011, the number of users of China's Weibo increased from 63.31 million to 195 million, an increase of about twice. The popularity of Weibo among netizens has increased from 13.8% to 40.2%.

　　For a time, big Vs in various fields such as Han Han, Yao Chen, Kai-Fu Lee, Xie Na, and Chen Kun joined Weibo, and "Weibo Anti-corruption", "Weibo Anti-trafficking", and "Weibo Marketing" were booming. Looking at the rising good trend, Lao Gao led the entire team, tank-style, one button-by-one study, one peer-by-one analyses, from data to layout to copywriting optimization... After two weeks, Lao Gao basically figured out the tricks of Weibo, began to concentrate and firepower started to start. The fans exceeded 800,000 in one month.

　　This seems to be a miracle in the e-commerce world, and almost everyone knows it for a time. Immediately, Lao Gao registered multiple Weibo accounts and copied the previous successful model in the same way. In 2016, Lao Gao became the top e-commerce big V on Weibo. As of 2017, this is the three consecutive times he has been named one of the top 10 Weibo e-commerce self-media of the year by Sina Weibo (since Weibo established the award in 2015).

　　微博让老高在社交媒体上名声大噪，影响力日渐显著，然而，真正让老高赢得电商从业者芳心的皇冠俱乐部和金冠俱乐部。

　　The Crown Club was established in July 2010. At the beginning of its establishment, it had already had one or two hundred members. By June 2011, it had expanded to more than 500 people. Lao Gao told the 500 members that each company could bring 2 people. In an instant, the 500-person conference became a thousand-person conference, and the newcomers would become members one after another. That time, Lao Gao invited more than 20 waiters, and many small sellers and members were shocked. At that time, the waiter's position in the seller's mind was like a god. Seeing them is like seeing gold. These merchant members have never seen a non-governmental organization that can invite so many waiters. It is worth it to see the "God" with their own eyes, and the membership fee at that time was only 3,000 yuan.

　　Crown Club is a place for resource integration, including information, connections and business opportunities. It mainly covers three sections: through large-scale regular meetings of hundreds of people, everyone knows more people; through club study tours and club tour groups, they can share experiences with each other; after similarities, everyone can cooperate and communicate with each other and visit them in private.

　　Golden Crown is very different from Crown. Golden Crown’s mission is to be a brother for life. Based on this mission, we will establish a learning experience exchange, and then provide some courses, study tours, training, etc. The threshold for access to Jinguan must be that the annual sales of the product reaches more than 70 million. Unlike the regular meeting of Huang Crown, the regular meeting of Jinguan once every two months, each time for five days and five nights (the regular meeting of Huang Crown is also two months, but each time is two days and two nights). Jinguan’s regular meeting is centered on brothers, and the theme is more about brothers’ feelings and how to build relationships. There will also be a supporting learning and communication. There will also be internal internal training and internal study tours every month.

　　Competitive challenge in your heart can only be invincible in the world

　　In January 2011, a product that changed the life and communication methods of Chinese people - WeChat - was born in the history of China's Internet. At that time, everyone didn't care much about this tool that could only chat and post pictures. Until one year later, its user base exceeded 100 million.

　　At this time, everyone began to realize the commercial value behind the huge user base. Late at night on January 15, 2013, the WeChat team announced on Weibo that the number of WeChat users exceeded 300 million. Jack Ma expressed shock! A special force was specially organized to develop new social tools to block WeChat. A few months later, various enterprises and institutions that use WeChat marketing were everywhere.

　　The rise of WeChat has had a huge impact on Weibo and e-commerce. Weibo's activity began to decline, and for e-commerce, a new potential energy - WeChat business began to explode on a large scale.

　　Among them, Gong Wenxiang, a big V who serves the micro-business group, established the Electric Shock Club, Zong Ning (the online name of Universal Big Bear), who is known to fans, established the Big Bear Club, and subsequent promotionists have successively established their own e-commerce circles in the form of member recruitment. The most famous is WeChat business.

　　If the era of Weibo is an era of elites leading the masses, then the era of WeChat is an era of complete collapse of authority. Independently from Taobao, the booming development of micro-business, vertical e-commerce, Jumei Youpin, Vipshop and other Vipshop has put Alibaba in a lot of pressure. Although Tmall still occupies the top spot in e-commerce, an indisputable fact is that e-commerce is becoming increasingly polarized (Tmall + JD) and has developed diversified.

　　At that time, Weibo also began to land on Nasdaq. A decentralized era has arrived. Big Vs began to withdraw from the Weibo stage. Following this, the mid-Vs and small Vs in various vertical fields have risen. They have gained hundreds of thousands to millions of fans, especially after Alibaba's investment, Weibo has increasingly tilted towards commercialization and entertainment. With the de-big V-likeization of Weibo, the emergence of WeChat, and the booming development of official accounts, an industry called "self-media" is becoming popular in China.

　　Judging from the total number of fans of Weibo e-commerce, fans in Laogao's e-commerce circle rank second in the e-commerce field. Unlike other "big Vs" who only rely on Weibo to gain influence, Lao Gao can be said to have started team operations in the early stage. In addition to Weibo and clubs, Lao Gao also deployed e-commerce knowledge, Lao Gao's e-commerce classroom, traveling with Lao Gao, Lao Gao's Crown Club, e-commerce seller circle, Toutiao, Qianniu seller, and dozens of personal WeChat accounts, WeChat groups, QQ space and other self-media matrix. These matrices combined have nearly 7 million followers.

　　Among them, what Lao Gao is most proud and talks about are several communities he runs: a reading group, a happy life group and a healthy and healthy group. For Jinguan members with annual sales of over 70 million, making money is no longer their first life goal. What may be bothering them is family education, husband and wife relationships, physical health and mental leap. Most of these require long-term time and energy to maintain. The staff reminds members to check in, make data tables for them, and count who exercises every day who has not exercised, who has lost weight, and how to reward and punish them. There must be a standard process and guidelines for formulating and implementing these rules requires the company to invest manpower and financial resources. In order to set an example and set a good example among the group members, Lao Gao lost 30 kilograms in three months, from 170 to 140.

　　None of these groups can be directly cashed out or profitable in the short term. No matter how much changes it can bring to members in the end, Lao Gao believes that this is a meaningful thing worth doing for a long time.

　　"Other colleagues won't do this, but I can do it. This is a very big difference between me and my friends in many industries. I never look at industry competition, and I don't have that much time to study competitors every day. Do yourself well enough and excellent enough. You don't have to worry about the future."

　　When talking about the differences with competitors, Lao Gao said confidently, "I never treat them as enemies. I rarely see how they do it, because invincible in my heart can be invincible in the world."

　　I want to be the first to welcome the change

　　"If we can achieve 50 to 60 million in performance this year through some means. But customers hate us, I think this is a failure. I have never thought of how much money I make or not. What I care about is that users recognize and respect us, even if the performance is much less."

　　Lao Gao himself doesn’t know how much money he has earned over the years, and his wife is in charge of it. The car doesn't drive, and I eat noodles most of the time I eat. I am used to the same life when I have money or not. Lao Gao said that only in this way can I focus more on doing things well. During the process of starting a business, Lao Gao occasionally doubts himself, and after doubting, he will be freed from it.

　　Although his development has been smooth in recent years, sometimes Lao Gao still shows inexplicable anxiety, and the well-known anxiety comes from his thinking on the future development form of e-commerce. What Lao Gao is worried about is that there will be no e-commerce in the future, and e-commerce will become the standard for all companies, and it will become more vertical and diversified. Today's e-commerce is no longer Taobao + JD.com, but a mixture of a series of new things. It is not entirely driven by internet celebrities, fans, and products. It requires a lot of elements to promote it. With the development of technologies such as AI, new retail, unmanned stores, the boundaries of all businesses will become increasingly blurred, and new species that replace mobile phones and people will also appear.

　　Now, although the company is on the right track, Lao Gao still has to think about many questions every day. Whether it is sleeping, eating, traveling, or talking to others, the company has become a cell in him.

　　In terms of company creation vision and system management, Lao Gao has always regarded Jack Ma as an idol and spiritual mentor. Alibaba is a company with strong founder characteristics. Lao Gao also admits that a person's personality is decisive to the company's culture and taste. All startups are like this, and Jack Ma’s taste is the taste of Alibaba.

　　"I especially admire Jack Ma for this. His education is mediocre, he can unite so many outstanding people, and continue to bring Alibaba from a poor small business to the international community and attract world attention for decades."

　　At this point, Lao Gao’s genes constitute the current corporate culture and also show his unique courage.

　　"As long as I decide on things, I will do my best. I don't even look at the bad market. There are always more methods than difficulties. First, I will work until the boss. All difficulties are for the weak. There is no reason, no excuse. Nothing cannot be broken through, so our company can sometimes create some small impossible."

　　Nowadays, despite being very busy, Lao Gao still keeps studying every day. When he has time, he will draw some books to read. When he is working, he will read some books in economics, management and marketing, and on weekends, such as history books and popular science books in "Records of the Grand Historian" and "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine". "After all, people are almost middle-aged, so they always pay attention to things other than making money," said Lao Gao.

　　When answering the secret to entrepreneurial success over the years, Lao Gao replied: "I am not very different, I just don't like to admit defeat."

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