Chapter 18 Main text Session 5 Whether you can succeed in starting a business has nothing to do with your degree

Whether you can succeed in starting a business has nothing to do with your degree, but it definitely has something to do with whether you study well or not. Player profile Xu Yang, 29 years old, from Guangdong, high school education.Worked in a government agency, later worked as a business manager, and founded a home accessories company. In 2007, he founded a convenience store chain company in Foshan, Guangdong, and is currently the general manager of the company.Xu Yang's entrepreneurial dream is to establish the largest chain of convenience stores in China. player project statement The project I brought is: Xiangjiali 24-hour chain convenience store.Why should I work in the convenience store industry?The first reason, from the perspective of the development trajectory of the convenience store model in the world and in China, under the current growing economic situation in China, its prospects are very broad, and it will become a must-have complementary to large shopping malls and supermarkets. An indispensable model, it is estimated that the market turnover will reach hundreds of millions every year.The second reason is that if you compare Dongguan, the fourth largest city in Guangdong, with Foshan, the third largest city in Guangdong, you will find that the population density of these two cities is similar, but Dongguan has 3,000 chain convenience stores, while Foshan has none. Therefore, The demand of the market determines our best time to enter.The third reason is that our Xiangjiali home textile products have been in Foshan for 5 years, and we want to use this to further promote the Xiangjiali brand.Our core team is a young, learning, innovative team with common values.We have summed up the development strategy of convenience stores: the key lies in location selection, success depends on scale, and development depends on innovation.In the next 3 to 5 years, we will position ourselves in the community market, and strive to open more than 500 stores through franchising. In the next 10 years, we will radiate to the whole country and even the world, and reach the goal of thousands of stores in thousands of cities. Thank you!

live playback Yu Minhong: So far, how much money have you invested in Xiangjiali chain? Xu Yang: A total of 3.2 million was invested. Yu Minhong: Is it the money you made from home furnishing? Xu Yang: Not entirely.Half of them were loans, and I mortgaged my house and car. Yu Minhong: You mortgaged your house and car? Xu Yang: Yes, because it needs to invest 2 million at the beginning. Yu Minhong: Actually, home furnishing stores can still help you make money now? Xu Yang: You can still make money. Yu Minhong: Then you said, you want to replace the home furnishing store with a convenience store?

Xu Yang: People's energy is always limited. I want to replace the home furnishing store because I need to integrate my resources. Yu Minhong: In fact, you want to replace the home furnishing store not because you don’t make money, but because you prefer to be a convenience store. Xu Yang: You can say that. Yu Minhong: But in my opinion, they all sell things and need to face customers, so the essence and service methods are actually the same. Xu Yang: No.We produce and sell household products together, and I think my advantage lies in sales, so I chose convenience stores. Yu Minhong: Is it not because of funding problems, or problems with partners?

Xu Yang: No.My partner is on site, we'll be fine. Yu Minhong: You have some learning experience, including studying in the Tsinghua EMBA short-term class. It can be seen that you are actively pursuing knowledge, but you did not write your degree. Xu Yang: I didn't have a degree, I just graduated from technical secondary school.Our family used to be relatively poor, and only one of the two brothers could go to college, and I was the one who regretted it.In 1990, when I took the technical secondary school entrance examination, my score was even higher than other people’s high school entrance examination scores, so in fact, I envied and admired those people with rich knowledge and high degrees.

Yu Minhong: In fact, there is no need to be envious. Many entrepreneurs I know do not have a high degree of education, and some of them are not even college graduates. Xu Yang: However, people who have read books can deal with problems in a more formal and systematic manner after all. Yu Minhong: Of course, sometimes a degree is useful, but sometimes it will also restrict entrepreneurship. In fact, the same is true in real life. Whether you can succeed in starting a business has nothing to do with your degree, but it definitely has something to do with whether you study well or not. Only by being eager to learn can there be room for growth.On this point, I still like you, including your proposal to our "Win in China" to change the four words "Win in China" to "Win in China, Imagine the Olympics", are you How did you have the guts to bring it up?

Xu Yang: As a Chinese, I should support the Olympics, because the Olympics marks the beginning of China's great rejuvenation, so we should all participate in the Olympics, including our "Win in China" players, not only to play well , but also to be a good person and do good deeds. Yu Minhong: What you said did not mean to cater to the country? Xu Yang: No. Yu Minhong: I personally think that the Olympic Games is only one point of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the Chinese nation is rejuvenating in many aspects. Xu Yang: Because the Olympic Games attract a lot of attention, I wrote it.

Yu Minhong: You started your business from Sichuan to Guangdong. What do you think is the biggest difficulty in starting a business in another place? Xu Yang: The biggest difficulty should be loneliness and helplessness. Yu Minhong: Lonely?So do you have a family now? Xu Yang: Yes.I have a very beautiful wife and a very well-behaved daughter. Yu Minhong: Because of being lonely, you found a wife and got married? Xu Yang: No, I met my wife when I first started my business. We both worked in Shenzhen at that time, so we met. Yu Minhong: Then she married you, which aspect of you did she like in you?

Xu Yang: She said that she bought a promissory note or an option to marry me. Yu Minhong: Treating you as an option, your wife is quite similar to my wife.I hope your wife can buy this option right.It is mentioned that you are very difficult and lonely to start a business in a different place, so what kind of spiritual support does your wife give you? Is it desperately encouraging you? Xu Yang: Yes, my wife is a very delicate girl, she can help me handle all the subtle things by my side. Yu Minhong: Actually, I really want to know how your wife encouraged you, but that's all for today.Let me ask you another question. You wrote in the middle of your resume that your strengths are confidence, conscience, and love. Your weakness is that you are careless and anxious.So what kind of harm do you think this shortcoming has brought to your entrepreneurship?

Xu Yang: It is not conducive to my rapid development, because the process of starting a business is a process of fighting while defending, so I must always remind myself not only to attack the market, but also to defend the market. Yu Minhong: Have you ever thought about how to get rid of this shortcoming? Xu Yang: Yes, now that I have written it, I have to think about it. Comments by Yu Minhong You are very passionate, but also very hard-working spirit.Sichuan people are very able to endure hardships, and I believe that you are not from the big cities of Sichuan, but from the countryside of Sichuan, so you still have a stronger will. After all, it is not easy for you to start a business, because you are starting a business in a different place .

But your will and your passion also reveal another state of you: your lack of understanding.Because you are in a hurry, if you are in a hurry, you will not think too much about the problem, and it will become "shoot when it is time to shoot".Of course, it is not a shortcoming for you alone, but when you start a business and grow bigger and bigger, your understanding will become the cornerstone of your success.I haven't seen your understanding in you yet.I think as you get older, you should show that advantage.I can see that you are very eager to succeed in doing things. For example, you opened many chain stores as soon as you opened, but major events in the world are done in a hurry. Although many entrepreneurs seem to do things very easily, they have been working behind the scenes for many years. For example, you can see that Mr. Shi Yuzhu is very successful now, but he has been in business for more than ten years, nearly 20 years; I have been in New Oriental for 14 years, and I have worked in other organizations for two years before that , Explore industry experience.

The chain industry you entered is actually very difficult, so you must think clearly and act quickly, and this requirement is just the opposite of your personality.So unless you can overcome your personality, it will be a test for you, and it may even affect the happiness and joy of your family.I hope you can balance them out fairly well.