Chapter 5 Chapter Four

In the office, in front of more than 30 people with Ph.D. and Master’s degrees, the supervisor said: I think Xiao Zhou may be a little promising among you.why?Because most of you are ordinary people, ordinary people.Among them, Xiao Zhou is the weirdest. He does things differently from ordinary people, always doing unexpected things.I think such a person either loses badly, or should be able to succeed. During the postgraduate stage, Zhou Hongyi started skipping classes.Exams are easier for him, he just wants someone else to do his homework for him.But he didn't skip class to spend time and drink, he had more important things to do.

Inspired by "Silicon Valley Fever", he began to realize the importance of foreign translations.Although he is not good at English, he has read almost all the translated works on library management of the School of Management. He read "High-Tech Management", "High-Tech Theory", "Z Theory", the earliest editions of "Pursuit of Excellence" and "Search for Advantage", and used the management theories in these books to analyze and guide practice. Zhou Hongyi is busy selling cards, after-sales service, and reading so many books every day, so he has no time to program, so the anti-virus card can’t go on, because the anti-virus card can’t be updated in time, and it can’t keep up with the changes of viruses .

And more importantly, he saw a new direction: graphic creative system.When it comes to the graphic creative system, we have to mention another company from Xi'an Jiaotong University: Sihan. In 1994, the mountain company launched a product called the graphic creative system.This system is made for those advertising companies outside the school, which can be used for photo editing, advertising production, layout design, etc.At that time, advertising companies basically did not have computers, and relied on scissors, glue, film negatives, newspapers, magazines... The graphic creative system of Mountain Company has been widely favored and sold well since it came out.At that time, a friend from an advertising company approached Zhou Hongyi and asked him if he could do the same thing.He researched it, and his head was "boomed" by lightning—it turns out that there is such a big market for this thing!For advertising companies, this is a major subversion of the shotgun change!

Zhou Hongyi pretended to be an employee of an advertising company and went to Shanshan Company to negotiate business. When he listened to the other party's explanation, he was shocked again: So this thing is the Sinicization of CorelDRAW and Photoshop software!Others don't know, but he does.It turns out that the system made by this company is to change other people's things. Zhou Hongyi was very excited at first, because his computer and software versions were higher than those of the advertising company. The only thing he could not compare with was: the promotional materials of the mountains were very good.If the system is to be sold to an advertising company, the manual must of course be exquisite and complete.It struck him, too: the importance of publicity.He used to sell anti-virus cards all by word of mouth.

The project plus the anti-virus card has changed, and he wants to start this new project immediately.It turns out that they made the virus card as a hardware idea, and they basically didn't think about upgrading it.A one-shot deal will definitely not last long, because it cannot keep up with the changes of the virus.Furthermore, the anti-virus card project team split.Shi Xiaohong still trusts him more, after all, he made some money by selling the products.But the other was very dissatisfied with him and thought that the money should be divided, but Zhou Hongyi was influenced by "Silicon Valley Fever" and thought that the money should be used to expand reproduction.He used the money to buy computers, books, and copied a lot of software, but the collaborator had no interest in it.As a last resort, he distributed some money to the collaborator, and the team broke up.

In 1994, people actually didn't know much about intellectual property rights.Being able to Chineseize foreign software is very popular.If they can Sinicize, why can't I?Zhou Hongyi thought so too. The first thing is to restructure the team.Zhou Hongyi called a junior high school classmate named Wang Hang.Wang Hang is a medical student. He has to study for 5 years as an undergraduate. He graduated in 1994.Another classmate named Ji Kai is engaged in design.He believes that computer and art should be combined.Adding Shi Xiaohong, the small team of 4 started to act. The resource editors are fine, but they lack a set of fonts.The Chineseization of that set of software is actually the most important thing is the font.In fact, many companies in the south and north of China are doing Sinicization, and Zhou Hongyi's classmate Li Zhao is also doing it.After cracking the font library of Shanshan, they found that Shanshan Company actually used someone else's font library.

At that time, Li Zhao was also a graduate student, Gao Zhouhongyi's class.He asked Li Zhao for the font, and Li Zhao said that he had to spend money to buy it, 3,000 yuan.He agreed and paid the money that night. In 1994, 3,000 yuan was not a small amount of money, and the living expenses of students from ordinary families were only 200 to 300 yuan a month, which was equivalent to their annual expenses.It is unbelievable that Zhou Hongyi accidentally participated in a creative competition for college students in Shaanxi that year, and after thinking about a few ideas, he won the first prize.He himself didn't know why he won the award. He guessed that someone else's creativity might be worse.But the happy 250 motorcycle that was rewarded helped him a lot.

The market price of the Xingfu 250 motorcycle at that time was about 5,000 yuan. Zhou Hongyi disposed of it for 2,500 yuan, and made another 500 yuan to go in, and won the set of fonts. After getting the font library, Zhou Hongyi's team rented a room in the school's guest house, and later added a classmate, and they started working day and night.They made a set of promotional materials and named the company "Confidence", because at that time the company had nothing but confidence. Sierra, of course, knew quickly that they were imitating, and certainly would not stand idly by.Considering that he had nothing to do with Xi'an, Zhou Hongyi and his party returned to Zhengzhou, Henan.On the one hand, Wang Hang and Ji Kai are both from Zhengzhou, and Zhou Hongyi grew up in Zhengzhou; on the other hand, he feels that there should still be a blank market there.

After returning to Zhengzhou, they cooperated with several other friends to set up "Zhengzhou Information Software Company", which specializes in selling graphic creative systems. In fact, many things may go out of shape once they are done.The few new friends who joined were all bosses of advertising companies, but they didn't understand computers.They thought computers were very mysterious, so Zhou Hongyi trained them first.After training, everyone felt that this thing was really good, but they would not buy it right away, because computers were expensive and software was more expensive at that time.

Inspired by the mountain company, they bundled the scanner and printer together, and automatically entered the functional interface when the machine was turned on.According to different configurations of such a system, as many as 100,000, as little as 50,000.This is also the price of the reference mountain company.Looking at this price, Zhou Hongyi felt pain in his heart. He only sells an anti-virus card for a few hundred yuan, how many cards do he need to sell? It's not uncommon for an office to have problems.As they were doing, this group of people began to fight among themselves, and in the end they couldn't be friends anymore.It was supposed to be a good partnership, but they took the computer away when they left.The problem is that they won't sell it even if they robbed it. In the end, Zhou Hongyi asked a mediator to mediate, and they returned the computer.

The internal division is divided, but the external market is like a monolith, which cannot be pried at all.No matter how dry their mouths are, they end up with nothing. They fail again and again, and their confidence is shaken.It is obviously a very marketable product, why can't it sell?Zhou Hongyi couldn't understand it. Later, the boss of an advertising company gave him an idea.The boss was about the same age as Zhou Hongyi. He didn't understand computers and had no experience in selling high-tech products, but he admired high-tech, so he suggested that he should fund the office and let everyone do it together.This is Zhou Hongyi's first angel investment. In 1994, tens of thousands of dollars plus office space was not a small investment.But after persisting for less than half a year, they failed.In a blink of an eye, it was 1995—after wandering outside for so long, Zhou Hongyi had to go back to get a master's degree. Influenced by the successful dropouts in "Silicon Valley Fever", he has no interest in a degree, but fate seems to arrange that he must go back. First, Shi Xiaohong went back to school.His mentor notified his family, who forced him to go back to study for a doctorate.At that time, it was still very tempting for a student to study consecutive masters and doctorates, not to mention that their second venture also failed (the anti-virus card was the first time). If Zhou Hongyi is willing to continue reading, he can also read master and doctor together.But at that time, he was so focused on starting a company that he didn't even want a master's degree, so he didn't want to go back to studying dead books.The family was pissed off by him.If the company hadn't failed, he might not even have thought about whether he needed the diploma. Before going back to school, they left the office provided by investors, laid off employees, contracted, and sold in Jinan and Qingdao in a down-to-earth manner.Although it seems that it is a bit embarrassing for angel investors to go back, they finally returned the money they earned to investors. Back in Xi'an, Zhou Hongyi admitted his mistake to his mentor, wrote a review, and got his understanding. In the office, in front of more than 30 doctors and masters, the supervisor said: I think Xiao Zhou may be a little promising among you.why?Because most of you are ordinary people, ordinary people.Among them, Xiao Zhou is the weirdest. He does things differently from ordinary people, always doing unexpected things.I think such a person either loses badly, or should be able to succeed. The students present were not willing to listen to the instructor's words, and Zhou Hongyi was also very ashamed. What he was ashamed of was not the instructor's comments on him, but the instructor's tolerance for him. It was the same after "Virus Gate", and it is the same now. It was the Spring Festival of 1995 when I went back to school.Zhou Hongyi went back to school on the second day of the Lunar New Year.On the one hand, it was because he owed a lot of debt.After going out for a year, I lost all the money I made from the anti-virus card, and even became a "negative man". I failed twice in partnership with others, and broke up unhappy. That feeling is really shocking. People are extremely depressed. After learning from the pain, Zhou Hongyi was working on his thesis after returning to school, and happened to meet Li Zhao again.Li Zhao had already graduated at that time and went back to school to see his girlfriend, who was a classmate with Zhou Hongyi.The two met one morning, and Li Zhao told him that he had gone to Founder Wangxuan of Peking University and told him about Founder of Peking University.Peking University Fang was the largest software company in China at that time, even better than Lenovo and Stone, and was highly respected among students.After all, the phototypesetting system, WPS Hanka and common typing systems used by everyone are all Founder. Founder of Peking University was still advertising on CCTV at that time, and he was also very famous in the society.Li Zhao said that Founder is good, he is very free, he can write software, and he can learn things. The only problem may be that Zhou Hongyi's personality is not suitable, because people there can't talk nonsense. In fact, Zhou Hongyi also participated in many recruitments and interviews. At that time, a company in Shenzhen was willing to hire him.A bank in Guangdong also wants him because he has a good resume and has won many awards. In the end, the reason that prompted him to go to Founder was that although his second venture failed miserably, his ideal remained unchanged.People who have failed miserably know it's time to learn.The second is that he had contact with Xiaojun Computer back then, and Xiaojun Computer also made Chinese cards.There were so many Chinese cards at that time, why did Founder's WPS Chinese cards be the most successful?Many people think it's because of Qiu Bojun, but Zhou Hongyi has another opinion: he thinks that Qiu Bojun found the right platform.The reason for this conclusion is that Li Zhao cracked Qiu Bojun's Chinese card back then.Qiu Bojun's Chinese card is certainly good, but because he defected to Fangzheng, and Fangzheng's laser phototypesetting system is very famous in the printing system, and there are so many branches in the country, he can succeed. Since Qiu Bojun can go to Fangzheng, why can't Zhou Hongyi also use this platform to succeed?Soon, Founder will welcome an unusual employee. Lesson 1: There is a big difference between building a product and building a company If they had been solidly cultivating in Henan at that time, it would be no problem to realize profitability.But they made two mistakes, and the result was different. The first reason is that new ideas emerged before this graphic creative system was completed.During the summer vacation of that year, Zhou Hongyi hired a few juniors to Sinicize other software, such as home decoration, and rendering renderings for the decoration company, but in fact he didn’t focus on it. At the same time, in order to do a good job in the Zhengzhou market, the friend who invested frantically advertised in newspapers and recruited sales staff with a high salary of 3,000 yuan. The company quickly expanded to fifty or sixty people.However, these high-paying recruited salesmen did not receive any training. After simple grouping, they were sent to various places in Qingdao and Jinan. Such impetuousness obviously violates the law of the development of things.Although he had learned a lot when making anti-virus cards, Zhou Hongyi only felt that he was unlucky and it was a problem with his partners.In Zhengzhou, he experienced twists and turns when he cooperated with advertising companies in the society. He didn't realize his real problem: bookishness. Compared with his classmates, Zhou Hongyi is a bit of a quack, but compared to those companies in the real quagmire, he is just a scholar.This bookishness resurfaced later in the cooperation with investors.People asked them to move there, and they moved there happily as soon as they thought they could save money in the office, but in fact they were controlled.They used other people's office for free for a month, but at the cost of losing a computer and a system. The second reason is that the company's employees lack joint efforts, and sales in various places cannot be opened. Zhou Hongyi and another partner had to go to various places in person.They didn't find an agent at that time, they sold all by themselves.They live in cheap guest houses, run advertising companies, and run newspaper offices. These dozens of people eat and feed and slowly get out of control. The R&D personnel who stayed in Zhengzhou didn't understand at first, but later found out that the boss was working on the Chinese version of Photoshop and CorelDRAW?They can also Sinicize themselves.Later, they didn't even Sinicize it, they just copied the software from the company, changed the name and quietly sold it outside. The problems within the company didn't stop there, salespeople everywhere were betrayed.The so-called high salary of 3,000 yuan promised by the investors was actually deceiving them. The actual basic salary is very low, only about 600 yuan, and the rest is all based on commission.Employees found out that they had been cheated only after entering the company, and their hearts naturally fluctuated. Of course, it was difficult to lead the team, and they dispersed. Furthermore, what the company originally made and sold was pirated copies.The sales staff will work together with the R&D staff at the headquarters to sell them privately, at a lower price than the company.Later, when those people divided their work, they simply installed the system from Beijing and stopped earning the company's money. In this way, the investor's 100,000 yuan can't stand the toss.On the one hand, there was an insider revolution; on the other hand, the competitor Shanshan Company also sent people to Zhengzhou to do sales.The one who came was a girl who didn't understand technology, but she talked with each other down-to-earth, and finally won the Zhengzhou market. Lesson 2: If you can speculate, others can take advantage of it It was a relatively gloomy period for Zhou Hongyi. He ran back and forth between Wuxi and Jinan alone. He needed technical support here and cleaned up the mess there. During this time, he met some friends.He stayed in Nanchang, Jiangxi for a long time and met many people who worked in advertising companies. .But what impressed me the most was in Shandong.The company's inner ghost and several Shandong people partnered to make black orders, and Zhou Hongyi had nothing to do. After going through these things, Zhou Hongyi swore that he would never take chances again.Opportunity seems clever, but he has understood a truth at this time: if you can speculate, others can take advantage of it. If there is no technical barrier at all, nothing can last for a long time. Although they failed, they inadvertently brought about a result: many similar companies appeared in Zhengzhou, and later found that it was not easy to make money and set up "output centers" one after another.These companies do graphic printing and joint design, and bought some high-end scanners to scan pictures and help people color separation.Later, because the investment was too intensive, few of these output centers were very successful, but they trained a group of people. After tossing around in such a mess for a year, Zhou Hongyi found that the reality was far from the situation described in "Silicon Valley Fever". Self-employed, doing opportunistic things every day, is completely different from my original ideal. After much deliberation, Zhou Hongyi decided to stop what he was doing and go to see how regular large enterprises do their products and management.