Chapter 9 People from Wenzhou: There is always a paradise for speculators

There is only one Buffett in the world, but everyone in Wenzhou wants to be Buffett. The originator of this sentence is a Wenzhou friend of mine. There are too many cases written about Wenzhou people. Some are far away, such as "The Mystery of Wenzhou--The Successful Model of China's Poverty Elimination and Prosperity". People”, and a little closer is the army of frying oil going to Xinjiang. The investment stories of Wenzhou people that I know are basically from some Wenzhou people who are investing in the front line. I believe that such stories have never been told. When my friend went to manage a coal mine in Xinjiang, I didn't know he would come back so soon.

A group of them—about 20 of them—invested 10 million in coal mining in Shanxi. My friend is a very small shareholder. The money he invested came from 5 or 6 other Wenzhou friends and his own savings. Seven or eight hundred thousand—the major shareholder of this mine is this friend's cousin, so he has the opportunity to invest in a share. When we went, he told us, 700,000 to 800,000 yuan, if it is good, we can come back in half a year.I smiled and didn't take this seriously. When he went to Xinjiang, he was responsible for managing the coal workers as a management team. His cousin basically had no time to do these things because of public relations and business. He felt that the money was invested, and it was still necessary to take a look, so he agreed. .

The friend did not immediately enter the management state. For several days in a row, he watched his several Wenzhou buddies, including his cousin, playing cards in the office next to the coal mine. He was surprised to find a detail: people from all over the country walk into this office every day, some of them are from cement plants, and they need good coal for firing kilns; They must; some come from coal-fired power plants, without coal there would be no electricity.Almost all of these people came in lightly and with a haha. They are all buyers.But why when the buyers come, the sellers don't even raise their faces, and still sell their JQK?

Once, his cousin was annoyed by a person who asked for coal, and yelled at him, saying that if you want to buy it, you have to wait ten days, and you put down the money first. The money his cousin said was not a small amount, a total of 200,000. The man opened the purse he carried with him without saying a word, and 200,000 in cash was placed on the table.His cousin waved his hand, and the business was done. He couldn't help but asked his cousin, the buyer had never been arrogant, and he had never seen such a humble buyer.Why? His cousin said, do you know where you put your money now?We dig out hundreds of thousands of cash every day, and we don't do any business at all.

His cousin also told him that in another coal mine last year, a person who came to buy coal with an order from his boss couldn’t buy coal. Cinder said, if you want to buy them, you can buy them. That person thought about it, and kept saying yes, and ordered someone to dig up the cinders that had been used to pave the road, and bought them back as low-quality coal that basically could not be used as coal. "This kind of business is called investment." His cousin said. My friend couldn't bear this kind of atmosphere, so he started to hire mine managers the next day. Now, he finally knew what he was investing in.

In this coal mine, almost all workers have to work for more than 14 hours. They eat underground every day. In order to save time and money, they only eat two meals a day, and absolutely no one eats in the canteen built by the boss, because It's too expensive there.After working for 14 hours, they can get 20-25 yuan, and most people's wages are around 600 yuan, but in the local area, migrant workers from different provinces yearn for such wages. There are no necessary protective measures in their working environment, because the danger of over-exploitation, flooding and gas explosion is always present.

He told his cousin about it, and his cousin was very helpless, so my friend ran away, but he didn't get back the money he invested.He said that soon he will be able to help other Wenzhou friends recover their investment.However, such a business is still good. When we arrived in Hangzhou, he drank with us and looked back on this time. We called him a coal boss, which hurt his feelings a bit. He said that he didn’t know how many friends he had making such an investment, but business is business, and the returns are huge. High, the risk is also great, if you don't do it yourself, others will do it.Many of his Wenzhou friends have been in the coal business since the middle of the last century, and some of them are now worth tens of millions or hundreds of millions.

He also reviewed the coal mining history of Wenzhou people for us. He said that from Shanxi to Xinjiang, from Xinjiang to all other places with coal, Wenzhou people have no idea who started the first coal mine business. Some said it was a down-and-out cotton merchant, and some said it was a Yueqing man who sold shoes in Shanxi in his early years. Contrary to what my friends said full of emotions, the "Research Report on Wenzhou Private Enterprises Investing in Coal Mine in Shanxi Province" published by Zhejiang Provincial Economic and Technological Cooperation Office mentioned that Wenzhou private coal mines investing in coal mines in Shanxi are distributed in Shanxi There are more than 300 enterprises in the province, with a total investment of more than 3 billion yuan, and the total annual coal output is more than 20 million tons, accounting for about 1/25 of the annual coal output of Shanxi Province and 1/100 of the national annual coal output. "21st Century Business Herald" believes that 60% of the small and medium coal mines in Shanxi have been contracted and operated by Wenzhou people, with an investment amount of more than 4 billion yuan, and this number is still increasing.The coal mines they control have an annual output of more than 80 million tons, accounting for 1/20 of the country's annual coal output.

The numbers are different, but they are not important. What is important is that there are Wenzhou people in almost all coal-producing places, and there has been no shortage. A friend from Aojiang, Pingyang came to Hangzhou for business and brought me this wonderful story. The story was about a middle-aged woman in their town. This Wenzhou woman is very ordinary. Like thousands of Wenzhou people, she came out early to do business and make clothes, but she was not very successful. From this city to that city, from the north to the west, she is the most beautiful among Wenzhou people. family.

In 2002, she went to Xinjiang and opened a down jacket store in Urumqi.Because of the poor management, she invested more than 300,000 yuan, which turned into overstock in the end. When the early spring of 2003 came, she couldn't see it anymore, and planned to transfer the store out. One day a customer came to the store, she was a professor of geology from a certain university in Xinjiang. This woman was very good at chatting, so she chatted with him about mountains.Speaking of occupation, the professor said that he just went to survey the oil field a few days ago, and he found that many oil wells in a village were abandoned there.

She curiously asked if the abandoned oil wells could produce oil?About how much to invest?The professor said that these oil wells are located in the middle of two large oil fields, and the specific location is near Kuqa County in southern Xinjiang. There is no need to worry about oil, and of course there are risks.As for investment, it depends on who you are looking for, and it is also abandoned if it is abandoned. The woman smiled, for this business, she offered the lowest discount since it opened. Wenzhou people seem to never give up any opportunities. The clothing business is difficult. The woman thought, anyway, it is a loss, and it has been a loss for so many years. It is meaningless to go back to Wenzhou.The next day, she issued an announcement about the shop, and went to the village the professor mentioned by herself.Within a few days, the store was sold out, about 100,000 yuan, and then for a while, the woman disappeared with the money—she settled the relationship with the oil well, and then spent 200 yuan, please The professor came to see the well, and finally spent about 60,000 yuan to quietly buy the first well. The details of buying the well stop here. There are some tricks and gray operations in the legend. My friend can’t go deep into it, but the result he described is brilliant: she was lucky, and the first well came out very well. crude oil, and caught up with the energy shortage, so the worth doubled. The woman didn't withdraw the money. She bought a second well through the same method. It didn't take long before she bought 2 more wells, and then 4 wells. By the end of 2003, the desperate woman had owned 20 wells. well. A friend said that in the past, this woman was unknown to many people in Pingyang. Walking on the street, she was just an ordinary woman who could not be seen. But now, everyone in Pingyang knows that there is such a person. She seized an opportunity , Xianyu turned over and is now alive and well. indeed so. In 2004, each woman's well was said to be worth more than 10 million yuan, so this woman became the most famous female oil king in the border areas of Xinjiang. The luck of women has become a new legend in Aojiang, Pingyang - friends say that there will be three or four hottest figures in the folks of Pingyang every year. In 2003, it was her. In 2004, I don't know how much it cost to buy 20 oil wells, but I can be sure that 100,000 yuan is probably not enough to even manage relationships. "Southern Weekend" published an article warning of the risks of digging wells and investing in the fringe areas of oil fields. At one point, some media pointed out that the cost of opening an oil well can easily reach 100 million yuan, while the value of abandoned oil wells is no longer high. The story of buying the oil well has also attracted other voices from Wenzhou people. Huang Yinrong, the president of the Xinjiang Zhejiang Enterprise Federation and a Wenzhou businessman, said that industry legends and media reports are pure hype. He believes that some Wenzhou companies are indeed operating this project. Trying to squeeze into this industry, but it does not mean that private capital in Wenzhou has entered on a large scale. From a professional point of view, the veracity of the oil well story is very doubtful, but so what?No matter how many excuses, in the face of the myth, they are all insipid and tasteless, and will only increase the mystery of the incident. The woman who bought 20 oil wells has become such a myth. She kept drumming and shouting in midair in Wenzhou: go west, go west, buy wells, buy wells. As a result, Wenzhou people who heard this story flew to Xinjiang in batches, and flew to the northwest to find a second place where they could buy wells. Many people in Wenzhou believe that they will also find a paradise, where oil wells are very cheap, and they can make millions of profits as soon as they change hands.Including the friend who told me this story. I've heard two claims about villa keys. The first one comes from Xinhua News Agency, saying that "a boss of Wenzhou International Trade Building has 35 keys hanging on his waistband. At the end of 2002, he bought 35 villas in Shanghai. After a year, each house has increased by 100." ten thousand yuan." According to folklore, this boss has 38 keys, and he only invests in large-scale real estate, likes to buy villas, and spends tens of millions at every turn. He is a real "rich" rich man. But in Wenzhou, the most amazing story is not the 38 villa keys, but a Wenzhou woman who took 100,000 yuan to Shanghai to speculate in real estate in 2002.There is a saying among Wenzhou people that most Wenzhou people who go to speculate in real estate are wage earners, even housewives, old men and women, rather than businessmen with strong funds.The protagonist of this story is the former. The woman had no money, so she sold the family property, and then collected tens of thousands of yuan before arriving in Shanghai with the army of real estate speculators. The woman is not smart. When Wenzhou people say which real estate is good, they go to see which real estate. If there are too many real estate, the woman thinks there is no way, and she has nothing to buy with this little money. She also heard about real estate speculation, so she thought, with this little money, I can see if I can buy a real estate number. The woman, like many people in Wenzhou, was sure about one thing, that is, to invest boldly, regardless of the cost. She found a sales lady of the real estate, gave them a room number for 1,000 yuan, and "buy" the numbers of 6 houses at once. Zi, "Reform begins with breaking the law" is a popular saying among Wenzhou people, and she has learned it well. In 2002, housing prices started to rocket. The woman waited until the good time. With the cooperation of the sales lady, within 20 days, her six houses were sold quickly, and each house earned nearly 40,000. She continued to do " The reform started from breaking the law", and the lady was divided into 20,000 yuan, and then started to buy a house number for the second time. Throughout 2002, she did such a thing, buying houses and selling houses. According to the folks, she had nearly 10 sales girls at the time, and they cooperated with each other, selling almost 200 houses. By the beginning of 2003, the woman's money had reached nearly ten million.At this time, the market was getting better and better, and the sales lady's communication was no longer a matter of 1,000 yuan, so she changed her approach and bought a dozen houses at once. She heard from a friend in Wenzhou that the house could be mortgaged. She thought that the house would be free anyway, and money would be better, so she took out a loan. "Did the reform start from breaking the law" and it was still effective. She started to find a bank relationship to make a loan, and continued to buy and sell houses with the loan, but she didn't move the ten houses. By buying and selling, in 2003, she earned the second 10 million.After thinking about it, she had earned enough. She kept all the houses except the first 10 houses, returned to Wenzhou, and then went to other places with others to be a house broker. Among the people, many people are not sure whether such a woman really exists, but there are many people who say it, but most of them are fascinated.Wenzhou people believe in all economic miracles. They believe that Li Ka-shing can earn more than 100 billion in one transaction. They believe that Buffett can earn more than 5 billion Hong Kong dollars by buying PetroChina in one or two years. They believe in the wealth stories created by ordinary Wenzhou people, such as This woman's real estate wonders. Some people say that Wenzhou people buy houses with cash, some people say that Wenzhou people buy dozens of houses, or even an entire apartment building, some people say that Wenzhou has hundreds of billions of private capital in real estate investment, and some people say that Wenzhou people have no With so much money, they make more use of those gaps to obtain intermediate profits when the property appreciates. Some people say that it is Wenzhou people who have pushed up the housing prices in China, but no matter what they say, Wenzhou people still buy houses everywhere, and even buy bad ones. The last building, go abroad to buy real estate. There are too many myths out there, and there is no other force to stop their impulse to invest in real estate. I always think about why Wenzhou people dare to invest, and what is their original impulse to invest? In my opinion, Wenzhou people are changeable but conservative, Wenzhou people are adventurous but stubborn, Wenzhou people are upright but often take advantage of loopholes in laws and regulations, and even create loopholes. I made a strange discovery while interacting with many Wenzhou people. I found that people in Wenzhou don't eat a lot of things. This is really a strange phenomenon - they dare to do anything, why don't they eat a lot of things? Some Wenzhou people do not eat snails, this was one of my early discoveries.When I was studying, I mixed with a group of Wenzhou people, and I never ordered snails when I ate out. When I asked why, the classmate from Pingyang said at the beginning that few people ate this food in their place.Ask again, everyone doesn't eat, why don't you eat?He smiled and said that he was too ugly.But after eating, he must order snails, and every time he orders snails, he is always the first to serve the chopsticks.This is the first time I know that there are things that Wenzhou people dare not eat. Later, when I was a friend from Wenzhou, he said that he would not eat crayfish. I was shocked and asked why? "We don't eat this stuff over there, it's not clean, we eat it from the sea." He said, it's understandable that this friend lives by the sea in Yongjia.But the result was the same—we got together again on the third day, and he was the first to propose a spicy crayfish.I smiled, this time I won't ask why. Later I learned that eating or not eating snails, crayfish or other things is just a characteristic of the diet of a small city in Wenzhou, but why do friends like it more and eat it more fiercely?Isn't this the same as investing?Unlike many people who think that people in Wenzhou get rich only by taking the first sip of water, I think the most important thing is that they are more likely to learn from other people's experiences.The secret of their extensive success is precisely because of a kind of trust in Wenzhou people of the same kind and in friends - when someone eats snails and lobsters, they will choose to eat or not to eat based on the experience of their predecessors, and then, the current situation is formed. Wenzhou people do business everywhere. Over the past decades of reform and opening up, Wenzhou people have owned the world's largest information network, and they are doing different businesses throughout China and around the world.It is against this background that more Wenzhou people will hear the news of the former and follow up with determination. It is precisely in this way that this ethnic group has grown into what it is today. In addition, you will find that many Wenzhou people are actually very poor, and it is these poor Wenzhou people who have created the most unimaginable wealth stories.Why do Wenzhou people who are poor themselves have money to invest?I believe in integrity. In Wenzhou, credit has almost become the consciousness of the whole people. Wu Xiaobo told the story of raising the meeting (a form of private financing) in "Wenzhou Suspense". In my opinion, poor Wenzhou people rely on the credit of private financing to complete their work. The process of getting rich - I have several Wenzhou friends, as long as a Wenzhou friend who is doing business abroad calls, they will send money, and it is often used as an early investment, that is to say, as project research funds. If the project research fails, They also never think about getting it back and treat it as a normal event. In August 2002, a certain media in Hangzhou conducted a questionnaire survey. In this questionnaire, a total of nearly 20 topics related to honesty were listed. Nan Cunhui from "Chint" and "Delixi" participated in the questionnaire. "Hu Chengzhong is a well-known Wenzhou boss in China.One of the questions is "For the next generation, how important do you think the following qualities are? Please rank: A, kindness B, compassion C, keeping promises D, innovation spirit E, others", 20 entrepreneurs put "keeping promises" "Ranked first, accounting for 55.6%, and 11 entrepreneurs ranked "innovative spirit" first, accounting for 30.6%. So, I take off my hat to all Wenzhou people.