Chapter 6 2. Partners

In 1988, I was appointed by the China Institute of Economic System Reform under the State Council System Reform Commission to go to Hainan to prepare for the establishment of the Hainan Institute for Reform and Development.My file was in Beijing at the time, and I was transferred to Hainan.At the beginning of the establishment, the Hainan Provincial Party Committee gave us 50,000 yuan, a car, and a computer, and we relied on these to set up a deputy bureau-level research institute.What's interesting is that the provincial government also gave us the approval document for 10,000 color TV sets, allowing us to use the money from the reverse approval document as the start-up fund.In this way, we must have a company that earns money from approval documents to do research for us.Therefore, the business of the Reform and Development Institute is divided into three parts, one part is engaged in research, the other part is engaged in business operation, and the other part runs magazines.I was in charge of recruiting people, organizing the research team, and managing New Century magazine, and another person was in charge of running it. Pan Shiyi was one of the recruited people.The business department also engaged in other businesses during the approval process. For example, Pan Shiyi opened a brick factory and also provided accounting training, so I always thought he was studying accounting, but he was not.At that time, I proposed that the selection of candidates must span two or more majors, and the knowledge and ability of people with a single professional background are relatively narrow, and they do not have much development.Wang Qifu graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology, and later went to China University of Political Science and Law to study law; Yi Xiaodi graduated from the Department of Geography of Beijing Normal University and a postgraduate student of Regional Economics at Renmin University.I met Yi Xiaodi for the first time at the Central Party School. He came with his girlfriend. After chatting with him, he went to our Hainan Institute of Reform and Development.

Wang Gongquan is a student of the Management Department of Jilin University of Technology and a student union cadre. After graduation, he was assigned to the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee and was a young reserve cadre trained by the Propaganda Department.He has ideals and passions in his heart. Just one week after his child was born, he took advantage of the opportunity of taking care of his wife and childbirth at home and sneaked to Hainan, where he met Liu Jun on the bus from Guangzhou to Hainan.Liu Jun graduated from Beijing Institute of Technology. He went to university at the age of 16 and was assigned to a state-owned enterprise in Chengdu. Hearing that there was an opportunity in Hainan, he ran to Guangzhou without saying hello to the unit.On the car from Guangzhou to Hainan, he chatted with Gong Quan all the way.At that time, they agreed that whoever finds a job first in Hainan will come to "rescue" the other person.Gongquan found a job first, and he did a good job. In a state-owned Xiugang industrial real estate company, he first worked as the office director and soon became the general manager.He was very interesting. After finally finding Liu Jun without a phone, Liu Jun also went to that company.Wang Qifu was the office director of that company at the time, and came to our research institute to apply for a job. He said that his boss was Wang Gongquan, a very good and passionate young man with ideals, and he must introduce us to each other.After meeting, we talked a lot and became very good friends.

In 1988, I first met Wang Qifu and Yi Xiaodi, and then Wang Gongquan through Wang Qifu, but at that time I didn’t know Liu Jun, nor Pan Shiyi. Later, Wang Qifu and Yi Xiaodi had some contacts with Pan Shiyi. In April 1989, the Jingfeng Conference was held. Because I was the propaganda director of the Beijing Youth Economics Association, I served as the deputy director of the organizing committee, and ran between Hainan and Beijing. In the summer of 1989, Gongquan was forced to leave Xiugang Company for some reason.The Institute of Reform and Development in Hainan was disbanded, and I returned to Beijing to work with Mou Zhong.Yi Xiaodi opened a local printing factory with very little money and hired some farmers from Hunan to print everything, including marriage certificates, but he could not earn 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a year.Wang Qifu has been unemployed for a while, Liu Jun has gone somewhere, and Pan Shiyi's company is still barely maintained.

After I arrived at Nande Mouzhong, Wang Qifu was the first to follow; after a while he told me that Gongquan had appeared.When we called Gongquan, he happened to be back in Hainan to go through the formalities. When we heard that we were looking for him, he ran to Beijing with his bald head without saying a word.Later I recommended him to Lao Mou.There was a particularly interesting plot. I told Lao Mou that Gongquan was very capable and had been a legal representative. Lao Mou said that let him bring the business license with the name of the legal representative.Gongquan hurriedly found it and made a copy. Lao Mou took a look and quickly reused him.The sign of reuse is to move the seat: Beijing is very cold in winter, and there are five or six people sitting in the office. The newcomers sit in the outermost row, which is the coldest; The same as in the "house", the bed was moved.This approach is probably related to Lao Mou's experience in prison.

After settling down for a while, Gong Quan started looking for Liu Jun again.Liu Jun is also a man of temperament. Although he doesn't know if he will be able to work after he comes, he is also happy to come to Beijing. In this way, all four people came to South Germany.Wang Qifu is the deputy director of the legal office, Gongquan is the deputy general manager of Tianjin Investment Corporation and the director of the Southeast Office, I am the director of the general office and the director of the Northwest Office, and Liu Jun is the deputy director of the Northwest Office.Our relationship has become closer, we often discuss our future life together, and we have formed a very mature basis for cooperation in thought.At that time, we discussed starting our own business and started thinking about setting up a Vantone agency.I came up with the name, "Agency Affairs" is a bit like "Three T" companies, and "Wantong" is Passepartout. What I can do is to help people with affairs, publish books, write articles, hold meetings, accumulate a little money and then seek development. .Although it was not done in the end, the name "Wantong" remained in everyone's hearts.Later, when I started my own company, no one objected to the idea of ​​using "Wantong" as my business name, as if the company had existed for a long time.

After I left Nande, Lao Mou was very angry and wanted to fire Liu Jun. Before he could fire Liu Jun, Liu Jun wrote a poem mocking Lao Mou, and then fired Lao Mou first. Back in Hainan in 1991, Yi Xiaodi's printing factory was our foothold.When we were preparing to start a business, Liu Jun and I talked to Gong Quan, saying that we must have him as the boss, because he is the only one who has done business.Gongquan agreed.One day, Yi Xiaodi and I were eating hot pot under a telephone pole. We started discussing how to raise money. Yi Xiaodi said that he would give as much money as he could.Looking back now, Yi Xiaodi is a person who is not petty and has a big picture.

We had no money, so each of us borrowed some according to our own situation: Gongquan borrowed some from his mother-in-law, Wang Qifu borrowed some from his family, I borrowed some from a boss in Shenzhen, Liu Jun borrowed a few thousand from a friend, Yi Xiaodi took 8,000 yuan from the printing factory, totaling more than 30,000 yuan.Most of the money was spent on the upfront expenses such as company registration. At that time, it could only be registered as a leather bag company with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. When the license was obtained, there were still a few hundred yuan left.After half a year, Yi Xiaodi recruited Pan Shiyi to be the manager of the finance department, responsible for the sales of our first real estate business, and his sales ability was revealed at that time.