Chapter 16 When People Become Investment Goods

If it is the same company, the same money, and the same time, how do you guarantee your high returns?That actually depends on what kind of people you invest in.At this time, people decide everything.Everyone says that people are very important, but they often pay attention to money and ignore people when doing it.Personal value is actually manifested in many ways, but people usually tend to pay attention to a person's skills and external background. In fact, what is more important is a person's inner values, his ideals and beliefs, and his past credit records. Western venture capital pays special attention to people (including the management team).Once Wang Gongquan called me and said that they were going abroad for a road show recently, trying to get 300 million US dollars, and investors were investigating him, so they would call me to ask a few historical events and verify his resume.I said no problem, at best it's over.He said that it is not good to say, but the truth has to be said.He said that you can recall a few things for me, such as what we did on a certain day, month, and day, where did we invest in, and what position I probably have.He said you should remember it carefully, don't forget it when the time comes, and said it's okay, I'll think about it, this hesitation will ruin me, people will think I'm making up a story.

But others may not make this call, why?This is a method. Investors will first ask whether you are allowed to investigate.If it is allowed (generally no one will say no), people will think that you may be fine; if you say no, they will judge that you must be fine, and they will not vote for you.But after you say yes, they will then ask you to provide the phone numbers of 5 people, which 5 people do you think can truthfully introduce and prove that what you said is true.They may or may not make calls when they get these 5 calls, and the person under investigation will be very nervous. He will think: Tell these 5 people whether to tell them or not. It’s not that I’m showing timidity; if I don’t say it, people really want to ask, and the answer is not thorough, what should I do?

Investors are examining you all the time, and their questions seem to be very simple, but after asking three times, he has a judgment on your ability.In the end, the investor still didn't call me, and Wang Gongquan got the money.This example shows that it is very important for a person to examine his record of integrity, his values, and his beliefs. Wang Gongquan also told me a story: there was a project, they inspected it, everything was fine, and when they finally decided to invest, they found that there was no such person on earth.This is the most absurd investment case he thinks.Why is there no such person on earth?Because I asked him for an ID card, but I didn’t have it; I didn’t have an identity certificate; I didn’t have a household registration book, either.Which school did you graduate from? Do you have a diploma?The answer is still no.Later, the man told the truth that he was under 18 when he arrived at the school and did not have an ID card.He started to have a household registration booklet, but after moving to the school, his family’s household registration booklet did not include him, and he became a collective household registration booklet.When he graduated, he went to the place with the paperwork. He felt that the job was not very good and he didn't want to do it, so he tossed about it by himself. He didn't expect to lose the graduation paperwork in his pocket.He went to school to make it up, and the school said, you can't just say you lost it, and someone has to prove it.He was annoyed again, so he didn't do it, and five or six years passed in a daze.

Therefore, in all the files with written records in China, there is no such person.Gong Quan said that there is no such person legally, so how to vote?Finally decided not to vote.Investors think that this person can't even manage his own affairs well, so how can they believe that he can manage this enterprise well? Therefore, people must be carefully examined. Under the circumstances of the same time, place, amount, and company, people are the most important object of investigation and the only condition for deciding whether to invest.The mergers and acquisitions of China Resources in the past few years have been very successful, and it has become the number one in the country in the beer industry.I chatted with the bosses of China Resources, and found that they paid special attention to the human value of the original company, and arranged the executives of the acquired company in the right position, and at the same time gave them a good incentive to let these companies spend the same money In the case of the same machine and the same product, changing the people and system will completely change the entire enterprise.

So, investing in people, what aspects of people are you mainly investing in?There are many kinds of investment methods and many kinds of motivations, but generally speaking, it is hoped that there will be returns, monetary returns or other (safe) returns. First of all, investing in people is investing in people's talents, and the most typical investment in people's talents is investing in artists.One night I was hanging out at a collector's house and discovered how invested he was in human talent.He said he bought out a painter who was a meticulous painter.That person started to learn Gongbi painting from his family when he was five or six years old. Now he is forty-seven or eight years old. He has been practicing for 40 years. No one in China can draw better than him. The feathers he draws look real. It seems that it is truer than the photos he took, and he can draw that feeling.The collector bought the man out for 15 years.In the next 15 years, he will charge all the paintings of this artist, 4,000 yuan per foot.After the buyout, start packaging and promoting the person to the market.Now, the painter's work has reached 10,000 feet.But he doesn't need to pay the artist first, and he only pays once after the artist finishes painting.He said that this kind of painting is done very slowly. It takes two months to paint a larger painting. It is too fine, so the output will not be large.So why is this person worthless after 15 years?He said that after 15 years of painting fine brushwork, the hands will tremble, and the skill will not be good, so the value after 15 years will generally drop.This is called the ability to buy people.Another example is the current star, why the transfer fee is so high, it is all about buying out his ability.Therefore, it is a basic consensus to invest in people's abilities. Investing in people's special abilities is unique, and the value space in the market is relatively large.

Another is to invest in people's political future, and to obtain economic benefits by investing in people's political future.In this regard, there are two people who are the most successful in history. One is Lu Buwei, who invested in the emperor, and later Qin Shihuang became the emperor's father. After a tortuous story, he finally became the most awesome businessman.The other one is Hu Xueyan.From investing in Wang Youling to Zuo Zongtang, Hu Xueyan helped the court manage money and food, and finally became a wealthy man in the south of the Yangtze River.They all acquire wealth by investing in people's political future and then combining it with power.The risk of investing in people's political future is very high. For example, Zhang Rongkun invested in Chen Liangyu, and the result became a negative number.Because investing in people's political future can easily become an abnormal power-for-money transaction and form a high-risk investment, so it is a high-yield, high-risk investment.

The third is investing in human relationships.This refers to investing in a certain level of relationship or network of a person in order to seek a safe role, not necessarily for profit, but just an insurance and security approach.There are two investment methods, one is to invest in batches, which is called public relations.This investment method is to allow you to have a standard behavior, and then spend the necessary money to do those image promotions, or conduct special communication, in order to gain the recognition of investors or the society.China tends to turn public relations into private relations. It is obviously a matter of public relations, but in the end it becomes a one-to-one private matter.There are three most important types of people in the public relations departments of multinational companies. The first type is experts in mathematical statistics. What do these experts do?Design the questionnaire, select the sample, and distribute the questionnaire.

A mathematical statistician owns the technology in social surveys, and he is responsible for implementing this technology to ensure that the samples taken for each survey and the number of people interviewed are reasonable.The second category is social psychological experts, who specialize in the study of social psychological problems.The third category is economic or legal experts.How do these three types of people work together?If it is said that there are people in China who arrange dates, then they will design a questionnaire, send it out for investigation, and then bring up the questionnaire. These experts will sit together and analyze why there are dates. There are probably a few key points.For example, the visit of Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine is a sensitive matter, so they will design something together to make the public change their views and soften the visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.Maybe they will design an event, organize an activity, and then send out another round of questionnaires to see if everyone's status has changed.This is a very scientific way of doing public relations, and all multinational companies do it this way.

There is a street in Washington, D.C. called K Street. The entire street is full of specialized lobbying companies. Their main job (business) is to openly lobby these hundreds of senators and congressmen, and through lobbying to change the public and some people’s attitudes toward It is a kind of public relations to gain a sense of security and development by using one's own views.The other is to focus on investing in a certain person and gain some sense of security by investing in this person.There is an old saying in this regard, "It is better to dig a well than to dig ten holes." In fact, it is said that it is much better for you to make friends with a county magistrate seriously than to get acquainted with ten state officials.

Under normal circumstances, the relationship between people in a person's life is 10-30-60.What does that mean?When you are in distress, you can borrow money from no more than 10 people.You can think about it every day, who can lend you money?Even if you add relatives, friends, and parents, there will be no more than 10 people you can borrow money from at that time.The second floor belongs to acquaintances and friends, those who have frequent contacts and who have done something, probably not more than 30 people, and these 30 people also include the 10 people I mentioned earlier.So although you have a lot of people in your phone book, in fact you can't remember most of them, and sometimes you simply forget.The outermost circle is the so-called acquaintances, that is, the kind of "friends" who remember this person when they make a phone call, and also know his background. They may not see each other for a long time. At most, there are 60 of them. One also includes the 30 mentioned above.Therefore, in a person's life, he does not need too many relationships to cope.There are very few people who need to spend energy to understand, not many, not more than 60.As long as you make a list of these 60 people every day, it will be enough for your life. You don’t need to be fooled outside all day long like some people. Most of the results of fooling are actually useless.The smartness of an investor is to focus on making long-term investments in very few people, and the return he may get is much higher than that of general contacts.One of the most successful examples in history is Yuan Shikai's investment in Li Lianying.

Before and after the Reform Movement of 1898, Cixi summoned Yuan Shikai to discuss matters in the Summer Palace one day. Yuan Shikai saw Li Lianying standing behind Cixi whispering in Lafayette's ear from time to time, which had a great influence on her.So he knew that this Eunuch Li was very important.But it was inconvenient for him to contact him directly, so he began to invest in Eunuch Li.How did you vote?It's very simple. It couldn't be easier to give some gifts during the New Year and holidays.Li Lianying didn't know at first, and she said she didn't know this person very well, so how could she give gifts?But he is also used to it, because there are too many people who fawn on him.The key is that Yuan Shikai insisted on giving away for several years, and the more he gave, the bigger he gave. Finally, one day, Li Lianying felt uneasy, thinking why this person had been giving gifts for many years, and the gifts were getting bigger and bigger, why didn't he mention what he was going to do?So he always wanted to see Yuan Shikai, and thought that after meeting, he would help with something, and the matter would be settled.But Yuan just didn't see him, saying that there was nothing wrong, and he just paid respect to his father-in-law.The longer this time went on, the more uneasy Li Lianying became, and she felt that she must help Yuan Shikai with errands, but the more this happened, the less Yuan Shikai mentioned about errands.It took a long time.Finally, one day, Yuan Shikai took the initiative to make an appointment with Li Lianying to meet Li Lianying. Li Lianying was very happy and said that he could finally meet, and when he saw him, he would settle the matter and repay the favor he owed for so many years. big deal.When Yuan Shikai made an appointment, his subordinates didn't understand, and they all said, then, Li Lianying, the chief executive who is in full swing, we have nothing to do with him, so can we make an appointment?Yuan Shikai was very confident, so he ordered his subordinates to pass on the message, when and where to meet.The people below said, that’s not okay, right?Yuan Shikai said: "Don't worry about it, it will definitely work, just do it like this." When Li Lianying heard that Yuan Shikai had made an appointment to meet her, she was both uneasy and happy: I have been holding back for so many years, so I can see you soon.After seeing him, I thought there must be something important, but unexpectedly, Yuan Shikai gave another 200,000 bank note, which means that the bank note is for helping this time, and you still owe the previous favor.After Li Lianying received the bank note, she asked, "What's the matter, my lord?" Yuan Shikai said, "It's very simple. I don't have anything to do as an official. I just want to ask my father-in-law to take care of me and spread some news in the palace." Spread a rumor in the palace .What kind of rumors are you making?Create rumors about Yuan Shikai's political enemies.Specifically, a fake newspaper was printed for Cixi to read (at that time there was a newspaper in the palace, which was specially read by the emperor, called "Di Bao"), and rumors were spread in this fake newspaper that Yuan's political enemies were going to do bad things.This job seems simple, but in fact, most people can't do it.And this is too easy for Li Lianying, why not just make a small talk and take a fake newspaper!Anyway, these newspapers are only for Lafayette to read every day, and there is no circulation outside, so I just steal them and show them to read, and it will be over. Later, Li Lianying used this method to help Yuan Shikai bring down his political opponents with the help of Cixi.So investing in people, the longer and the more hidden, the higher the return.The investment method of batch investment is a process of changing public opinion, but the truly effective investment is actually invested in a very small number of people, and it takes a long time, and it must be hidden and unknown. Therefore, the return on investing in people, especially the return on security, is much higher than general investment or bank deposits.For example, if I have 600,000 yuan deposited in the bank, what will happen if I encounter trouble?First, if you go to the bank to withdraw money in the midst of chaos, the bank may say that you won’t be able to go to work; second, if something goes wrong and you need to eat food, the bank can’t turn it into food, and the money in it can’t be turned into food; third, the money still depreciates. , but also interest tax.But if you invest 100,000 yuan in 6 people, as long as there is one person who is relatively successful or has a good relationship, then when there is a crisis, he will definitely call first to ask what's the matter, or rush to help directly.If he gets rich, 100,000 or 500,000 yuan is not a big deal for him, and he will send it directly without you going to the bank.So it pays to invest in people.It is very short-sighted to simply store money in the bank, or turn it into a dead thing.A good company must invest in people, constantly discover excellent talents, and train them well.A good manager, in addition to making a good product and managing a company, is more important to continuously train many people. So, investing in people, what exactly is investing in him?Whether you invest in his skills or invest in his values ​​is very important.Generally speaking, most parents (also investors) of students invest in their children’s skills. In order to cope with exams, they may often force their children to do homework every three days, but they rarely spend three to five days talking to their children about values. Explain that usually people are more willing to invest in skills and believe that skills can be converted into a kind of ability.But in fact, skills are the easiest to learn.If a person is forced by you to do homework every day, he will do it.But his skill is often not competitive in the end, because everyone is so forced, the result is the same, and no one is better than the other.For example, if you are forced to learn how to surf the Internet, but everyone can also surf the Internet, this is not considered a skill.Therefore, the most important thing is to work hard on the cultivation of values.Investing in value is equivalent to installing a GPS on a person. The outlook on life is a satellite positioning navigator for a person's life. With it, the child can find the direction at any time in life, and if he finds the direction, he will have the ability to survive.This is equivalent to having a GPS in the desert or on the Gobi Desert. If you can use it correctly, you will know where to go and survive; but if you don’t have this GPS, or if the positioning is wrong, you will go wrong direction, even death. Investing in people's values ​​is to investigate clearly people's world outlook and outlook on life. The most important thing is to spend time to understand, discover, research, and shape his correct values ​​so that his life has a good GPS.There are many friends around us who have been separated because of the so-called "differences in different ways".The so-called Tao is this kind of value, which is a GPS and locator of your life.This thing will determine everyone's behavior. For example, some people are willing to be opportunistic. He always wants to get something for nothing. This is his value. Then this value determines who he will be with and what he will do. matter.Others hope to do long-term things and do things for the better, then these people will be together.Therefore, different values ​​finally differentiate people, and the happiness and direction of people's life will be different. The benefits brought by different values ​​are different.For example, the welfare curves of "Miss" and women from a good family are completely different. The welfare curve of "Miss" is ups and downs at the beginning, and then goes all the way down or flat at a low level.Her values ​​are carpe diem and making money.She stopped going to school at the age of 16 and came out to play. At the age of 18, her income reached its peak. At the age of 20, she began to get sick and began to get involved in right and wrong, and the curve immediately went down.Then I started to run into troubles constantly, sometimes I was reeducated through labor, sometimes I was tossed, and when I got old, I became poor and sick, and I couldn’t marry a good man, so I ruined myself in the end. But for women from good families, they are 24 years old after graduate school and only earn 3,000 yuan. Before that, it was all spent money; when they were 28 or 9 years old, they found a husband. The couple earned about 20,000 yuan a month and started to pay for a house. ;By the age of 45, the child has grown up and entered junior high school; by the age of 50, the child has gone to college, and the couple may have run out of housing.At this time, my husband's income is good, and my own income is also good. The older I get, the higher my income. I have insurance and everything, and I am decent and stable.After retirement, you can continue to work part-time to earn money, and the society respects it.In short, the older she is, the better, and the curve of her life is trumpeted upward. Women have different outlooks on life and values, resulting in different welfare curves throughout their lives.The same goes for men.If a person wants to make a fortune when starting a company and leaves, then there will be no story behind him.But if you are not in a hurry, follow along steadily. Even if you don’t earn a lot of money in your 30s or 40s, in fact, his welfare curve is like that of a woman from a good family.Just like Wang Shi, in the first 17 years, he earned less than 100,000 yuan a year; after the 17th year of his career, he started to make money, and now he is making unstoppable amounts of money. Not only has he become a working emperor and a billionaire Rich, but also fame, status and freedom.The people who were doing it at the same time as him, who hoped to make a lot of money in three to five years, all left him, and they must have made more than him then, but none of them are richer than him today.The older he is, the more he earns, and the more decent he earns. This is his welfare curve.Investing in people is actually to choose people's values. Different values ​​bring different welfare curves, and the returns are also different.