Chapter 4 Chapter 3 From the ivory tower to the real world

Without "Silicon Valley Fever", Zhou Hongyi would not have established a correct product view so early.Without a product view, he can't tell the connection and difference between technicians and product managers.Because of the establishment of Yang Bu's product concept, he knew that he needed to step out of the ivory tower and exile himself into the vast world of society. The anti-virus card was made and won an award.But Zhou Hongyi didn't stop there.At this time, the first year of graduate school was over, and his thinking became more mature, and he began to think about how to sell the anti-virus card.

Students who only do scientific research in school cannot establish a product concept.For them, it is not so much a product as a work that gives them a sense of accomplishment.In this respect, Zhou Hongyi is much ahead of them.On the one hand, it was because his previous social practice was different from others, and on the other hand, he benefited from reading a good book. He read "Silicon Valley Fever" over and over again for many years.The origin of this book began in 1991 when Zhou Hongyi took the train to Shanghai for an internship.The teacher who led the team took this book to read on the road, and Zhou Hongyi naturally came into contact with another world.It was a world that he did not pursue, a world that could only be experienced by going abroad.Although in the form of words, everything in this world fascinated him.

"Silicon Valley Fever" is divided into three parts.The first part is "The Rise of Silicon Valley", which tells the development history of Silicon Valley with the legend of Apple Computer as the main line.The second part is "high-tech civilization", which describes the ecological status of Silicon Valley from various aspects such as venture capital, entrepreneurial stories, and legends.The third part is "Tomorrow of Silicon Valley", which tells about the spread of the Silicon Valley model in the world, the global competition that Silicon Valley faces and its far-reaching influence.

Hewlett, Jobs, Grove - Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Intel - personal computer revolution, semiconductor legend, software myth - characters, companies, technology and capital, etc., together describe a new world of entrepreneurship and sudden wealth. In fact, this book is not the best of its kind to describe Silicon Valley, and its wide spread may be due to its author Everett Rogers.Rogers is a well-known communication theorist. His book "Diffusion of Innovations" published in 1962 became the foundational work for the study of new technology communication, and his name has become synonymous with the study of "Innovation Diffusion".

In 1973, he and F. Shoemaker made a comprehensive analysis of the research on innovation diffusion.They believe that the process of innovation diffusion includes at least four obvious links, awareness, persuasion, decision-making, and verification; the audience of innovation diffusion is divided into five categories, innovators, early adopters, and early public. majority), late majority, laggards. This theory directly inspired Jeffrey Moore.After modification and development, Moore applied it to high-tech marketing, and achieved the masterpiece "Crossing the Chasm", and became the most influential figure in the field of high-tech marketing because of the "chasm theory".

The book "Silicon Valley Fever" was published in 1984. Although it did not involve the personal computer revolution in the mid-to-late 1980s and the more spectacular Internet wave in the 1990s, its content is not outdated even today.Whether it is venture capital, ecological characteristics, living environment or highly competitive atmosphere, you can find correspondence, reference and reference in reality: the garage where the founder of Hewlett-Packard maintains oscilloscopes, the warm hut of Microsoft, and the bloody youths of Fairchild The inspiration of the young man who created the CPU, the bar where Intel's genius flows...

One episode that many will never forget is about Bill Gates. In a Seattle square, he snatched Popular Science from his buddy Paul Allen.On the cover of that issue was a thing called a "personal computer."He almost jumped and said to Alan: Go to the airport immediately!One day we'll make it available to everyone in the world! "Silicon Valley Fever" ignited people's frenzy for Silicon Valley all over the world, including China naturally.Technology is so romantic, and entrepreneurship is so heroic! That kind of personal heroism ignited the desire for freedom and creation that had long been buried in Zhou Hongyi's heart.Before he bought the book, he also copied a lot of content to read at any time, and after buying the book, he couldn't put it down.

Those who changed the world turned out to be very close, not far away.It turned out that these geniuses were just like him, wearing slippers and looking sloppy.Zhou Hongyi even more deliberately imitated this style in his daily life. Perhaps, no one will know that the soul of a "pure local turtle" is filled with dreams of "foreign schools".In fact, this desire existed in the hearts of almost every aspiring young man in China at that time. Although it is difficult to accurately count how many people are touched by "Silicon Valley Fever" and have dreams of high-tech entrepreneurship, and how many people's life trajectory has been changed because of this little book, but we can still get a glimpse from some people's memories , such as Wang Zhidong, like Zhou Hongyi, this is also his favorite book.

"Financing abroad has something to do with a book that has been influencing me subconsciously. When I was a sophomore and a junior, I was familiar with a book called "Silicon Valley Fever" that told many stories about Silicon Valley. From Apple's success story Here, I learned about venture capital for the first time, and it had a great impact on my later career.” Zhou Hongyi and Wang Zhidong are not special cases, they are generally representative.Human nature is restricted and influenced by various factors, but one of the most important points is: what does the aroused enthusiasm turn into in the end—is it as gorgeous as fireworks and then falls silent, or is it condensed into a fire in your heart, warming you looking up at the starry sky? When the dream, also illuminate the road when you falter forward?

"Virus Gate" hit Zhou Hongyi not only on a psychological level, but also affected his continued research on anti-virus cards.A collaborator of the anti-virus card did not want to cooperate with Zhou Hongyi anymore, thinking that he was useless and all he did was leftover work.This may be Zhou Hongyi's first experience of the sadness of "separation". The anti-virus card was later made with his efforts.But people who have watched "Silicon Valley Fever" are different from those who have not. He understands the difference between a work and a product, and understands that the value of a product must be used by others to realize it.That is to say: the product must not only be produced, but also be sold; the more sold, the more people use it, and the more fully the value of the product will be realized.

In the beginning, Zhou Hongyi didn't think of selling it himself. What he thought of was transferring the results to other companies, so he talked with the two companies in Xi'an and Xianyang respectively.In fact, those two companies were scam companies, but at that time he had no social experience at all, so he couldn't say anything about them.Although Zhou Hongyi felt that the other party was unreasonable, he just couldn't tell where he was unreasonable. After thinking about it again and again, he couldn't cooperate with the company he doubted, so he decided to give up.He thinks that there are many companies in Beijing, and he went to work in Zhongguancun, Beijing when he graduated from university, and then went to Beijing again. He first lived in a guest house next to Tsinghua University, and later found an empty bed in a dormitory of a classmate in Tsinghua University.It was hot summer, so Zhou Hongyi took an empty bottle and filled it to cool it down, and went to Rising Company. This is his first time dealing with Rising. In a room on the second floor of Rising, he was particularly aggressive at the beginning: "I made an anti-virus card, which is better than yours, and I want to chat with you." When the person receiving him heard this, he was pushed out of the door without raising his eyelids.So, the first intimate contact with Rising ended in tragedy. Jiang Min hadn't come out at that time, otherwise he would have had a first time with him.Later, he went to Lenovo, and because he didn't know anyone, he went directly to Lenovo's Zhongguancun store. Lenovo had a big presence in Zhongguancun at that time, next to Stone.But Zhou Hongyi came into contact with middle and low-level employees. He demonstrated it to others, and they thought it was very good, but they said that Lenovo did not have this business.He couldn't find middle and high-level people to negotiate with, so naturally he couldn't cooperate. Later, he got in touch with Xiaojun's computer.In Zhou Hongyi's eyes, Wu Xiaojun is an honest man, but that vice president is too shrewd.In fact, Zhou Hongyi didn't want to ask for a lot of money. He thought that it would be fine to exchange tens of thousands of yuan for two computers, so that he would not have to borrow other people's computers to use in the future. The most fashionable 386 SX notebook in Zhongguancun at that time, with a 16-level grayscale LCD screen, 2 megabytes or 1 megabyte of memory, and similar configurations, it was already his dream machine. But after talking about it, Xiaojun Computer's conditions are too harsh: the technology is given to them, and the products are also given to them; as for the money, it depends on the situation after they have done it.No matter how stupid people are, they can see that this matter is unreliable, let alone Zhou Hongyi, he hastily got out of the way. After running around Zhongguancun for a while, he felt bad, and finally had no choice but to return to Xi'an.He thought to himself, if no one does it, he can do it himself. After constant introduction and contact, finally several companies are willing to help him sell.After all, at that time, anti-virus cards were still a relatively popular thing, and even Rising was doing it.The school and the surrounding areas of Xi'an were promoted by Zhou Hongyi himself. The method of putting up posters in schools had very limited effect, and only a few dozen cards were sold.And these dozens of cards also caused him a lot of trouble, because the card installed on the user's computer is not the same as on his own computer. There are all kinds of problems here: many are circuit problems; some are conflicts of various software;Then, he began to be exhausted, and he had to provide after-sales service to users at any time. In the process of doing after-sales service, he would inevitably be scolded, so he had to listen honestly, who told him to take other people's money.Of course, after the baptism of "Virus Gate", his psychological quality is no longer what it used to be. Neither scolding nor ridicule embarrass him the most. What embarrasses him the most is the kind of contempt that seems polite but cannot be concealed. The company in charge of sales helped him sell the card to some factories and mines, and he had to go to solve any problems during use. This process was of great help to him.Although the anti-virus card did not achieve the brilliant achievements of those in Silicon Valley and was almost a failed product, what he gained from it was much more meaningful than money. First of all, this is the first time he has stepped into the real world from the ivory tower and directly faced customers.The thinking of a customer is different from that of a technical person. The customer's demand environment is far more complicated than the laboratory environment, so the most important thing is to consider and solve problems from the customer's perspective. As a student or technician, it is indeed good to win the second prize in the National Challenge Cup, but once the works are sold, you will find that these works still have many problems and need to be revised repeatedly.Even, even if he himself feels that he has done a perfect job, but the user is not satisfied, it is futile. Zhou Hongyi’s sense of superiority and arrogance as a technician was cut off from this time, because his dream was to start a company, how to earn money to prove himself, and how to spread his value to others.Although he had not established a company at that time and was affiliated with someone else's company, the concept of the product was already deeply rooted in his mind. The second particularly important achievement is that he has an understanding of the concept of channels. The company that acted as his agent at that time was called Xi'an Kite, and now it is also a listed company called Xi'an Broadcom.Such a company is willing to act as an agent for him, and he has learned a lot of knowledge beyond books. When negotiating, Zhou Hongyi believed that since the other party was an agent, naturally he should take the lead.But the price of a card is at least three or four hundred yuan, and the purchase price given to him by the other party is only 99 yuan, which is only a fraction. At that time, the cost of a card was more than 50 yuan, not counting labor costs.Zhou Hongyi wondered if they were crazy about money, otherwise why would they give this price.The other party didn't do anything but sell things for Zhou Hongyi, how could he get the big head?Still several times the bulk.But this time, he didn't give up immediately, because he still believed in the sincerity of the other party intuitively, so he suppressed his anger and continued to talk and grind. Later, a supervisor of the other party gave him a detailed explanation: I am a sales channel, and I want to sell this product in the end. I have to promote and advertise, and I also need to develop secondary agents. Then the executive told him about the layer-by-layer space: how many sheets do I buy at a time, it is risky to press so many goods, and there is a cost to press so many goods, if they cannot be sold, they will be dumped up.If your asking price is high, then I will settle with you after selling out.Are you willing to speed up the flow of funds, or are you willing to share the risk?Feeling that it was really difficult to sell by himself, Zhou Hongyi finally compromised. Zhou Hongyi got two gains from it.The first is to know the importance of vision.If you have never seen it, and you can’t even talk about imitation, how can you talk about creation? If Zhou Hongyi had never even seen a computer in high school, it would have been difficult to establish his dream of a computer.Furthermore, if what he saw were ordinary computers instead of the most advanced IBM computers and Macintosh computers at that time, if he hadn't appreciated the beauty of them under the guidance of that college student, and hadn't read the stories about entrepreneurs building machines in magazines, It is also difficult to turn this dream into a career. Many people have also studied computer science in college, but their later careers have nothing to do with computers, let alone entrepreneurship, largely because in their minds, computers are just a tool, not a wonderful thing that they can strive for all their lives. thing.Moreover, some people's choice is just to find a job after graduation. And the "Silicon Valley Fever" that he came into contact with in the early years, not all people who study computers have read it or can see it.If it wasn't for the teacher who led the team, it would be hard to say when Zhou Hongyi would get in touch with him.The reason why the teacher was able to obtain such a book is not unrelated to her father being a professor at Fudan University. In such an era of poor information, the vision of people around you is very important.The importance of a good book is that it can change people's way of thinking.Of course, the premise is to be careful. Without "Silicon Valley Fever", Zhou Hongyi would not have established a correct product view so early.Without a product view, he can't tell the connection and difference between technicians and product managers.Because of the establishment of a preliminary product concept, he knew that he needed to step out of the ivory tower and exile himself into the vast world of society. Second, try to go as far as possible when you are young.The reality is very close to us, but it is too far from our expectations. Now many college students make a product and feel that everyone should come to buy his product. In fact, this is just a laboratory product. When it is really put on the market, you will find that it is worthless. If the interpersonal communication, negotiation ability, and understanding of business rules are too poor, no matter how good the product is, it will be difficult to succeed. Zhou Hongyi went to Zhongguancun twice.The first time was to go shopping after graduating from senior year. It was like grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden. Everything was fresh.But it was the first time he plunged into it by himself, and he had a feeling for some of the details. The first time he took the money to buy something and was very popular.But the result of the second time was reversed, he was going to make money.He saw the cruel side of business, and was finally forced to sell products by himself.Xi'an Kate's bid was low at the time, but he did sell one or two hundred anti-virus cards, earning him tens of thousands of dollars.He originally wanted to sell it for a few thousand yuan, and he had achieved his goal. But without these two trips to Zhongguancun, he might not be able to negotiate with Xi'an Kite, and he would not even be able to earn tens of thousands of yuan, let alone the experience gained in after-sales service. The vision understood by many college students is often equated with travel knowledge.At most, it stayed at the stage when Zhou Hongyi went to Zhongguancun for the first time.Even if it is a trip, simply looking at the scenery is completely different from having economic exchanges with the locals, and it is different from staying and living with the locals for a period of time. The true broadening of vision depends on the things that are left behind after going through the brain and then the heart.