Chapter 34 Figures in corporate history: Supporting education company

In the history of Chinese enterprises, Bai Fangli is probably the least entrepreneur-like entrepreneur-the reason why he is an "entrepreneur" is that he has indeed founded a company.Compared with all prominent entrepreneurs, he must be the poorest one, but the "wealth" he created for the society is unparalleled. In 1994, Bai Fangli was 81 years old.He is an old man who makes his living by riding a tricycle. He is illiterate and has a warm heart all his life. Since 1986, he felt that poor children have no money to study, so he donated all the proceeds from riding a bicycle to schools in Tianjin every year.In the spring of this year, he handed over the 3,000 yuan of hard-earned money he earned throughout the cold winter to a school. The school leaders recruited all the teachers and 300 poor students from the school to the playground, lined up in a neat formation, and raised their hands at him together. hand salute.After returning home from school, Bai Fangli thought about it all night and made a decision.Early the next morning, he knocked on the door of his children's house: "I'm going to sell the two old houses left by your mother and me, and then borrow some money to start a company and make money to support education."

In a few days, on a small site close to Tianjin Railway Station, a small kiosk of 7 square meters appeared. Inside, there were some cakes, cigarettes, alcohol, etc., and a sign was hung above the head - "Bai Fangli Supporting Education Company" , Bai Fangli became the manager.He announced to the employed employees: "The money we earn is called 'education', and it is settled every month and handed over every month." The small kiosk allowed Bai Fangli to increase a lot of financial resources to support teaching, but it didn't change his life of riding three rounds at all.He handed over the kiosk to the clerk to take care of it, and he still went out to do the work every day.He said: "I can always earn 20 or 30 yuan from driving a car for a day, which can provide a day's food for a dozen poor children."

In order to facilitate the work in front of the station, he simply built a small iron shed of 3 square meters next to the pavilion. Inside, a wooden board was built with bricks as a "bed", and blue sky was exposed at the seams of the roof.In summer, the temperature in the shed is as high as 40 degrees Celsius; in winter, putting a glass of water can freeze into ice cubes.Bai Fangli lived here for five full years. In order to save more money, Bai Fangli has been wearing clothes, shoes and hats from head to toe for more than ten years, and his three meals a day are often steamed buns and cold water.He told the reporter, "I have never bought clothes. You see, the shirts and trousers I wear are those I usually pick up. There are also shoes, two of which are different. Look, the lining inside is different! There are also socks, which are all picked up. Pick one up today, pick up another one tomorrow, and if there are more, they can be matched. None of the things I wear from head to toe, from inside to outside, are bought with money.” Once, he picked up a piece of steamed bun from the fruit shell box and ate it. His daughter felt distressed when she saw it. I picked it up and ate it, what a waste!"

Bai Fangli donated all the money he earned from the supporting teaching company and riding his tricycle to various schools in Tianjin. From 1994 to 1998, he sponsored more than 200 Tibetan students in Hongguang Middle School, subsidizing them every month until they Graduated from high school.He also donated 1,000 yuan to Nankai University every month, with a total amount of nearly 34,000 yuan, and more than 200 poor students of Nankai University received funding.According to incomplete statistics, his accumulated donations totaled more than 350,000 yuan, including the tuition and living expenses of more than 300 college students.Some people calculate that if the tricycle is charged at 50 cents per kilometer, the old man has contributed the equivalent of running around the earth's equator 18 times over the past ten years.

Bai Fangli's teaching support company has been in operation for 5 years. In 1999, Tianjin Railway Station was being rectified, and all the commercial booths were demolished. "Bai Fangli Supporting Education Company" was no exception. At that time, the old man cried. In 2001, at the age of 88, he could no longer afford to ride a tricycle, so he showed the car at the station. He put a dime or two in a lunch box, saved enough 500 yuan, and then donated it. On the morning of September 23, 2005, Bai Fangli passed away at the age of 93.His private property bill was a zero. Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, said in his last words, "It is a disgrace to die rich." Bai Fangli is obviously more thorough than him. Mother Teresa, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.Mother Teresa founded the "Children's Home Shishu Baman" in India to adopt abandoned sick children, mentally handicapped children, abused children or children reduced to child prostitution.Like Bai Fangli, she turned herself into the poorest person in order to save the poor.On the wall of the "Children's Home Shishu Baman" there is a poem: "Always help no matter what / Give the best you have to the world, you might get your teeth kicked / No matter what, Always give the world the best you have." Bai Fangli couldn't write poetry, and he couldn't even read, but he performed this oath perfectly.He is a saint.Over the years, whenever I see a lot of entrepreneurs talking about "social responsibility", I will suddenly think of the old Bai who wears socks of different colors.

After Bai Fangli passed away, the artist commemorated him with a bronze statue in Tianjin Qiyuan. Some college students specially created a website www.baifan-gli.cn for him. The color of the website is the simplest black and white. There is always a kind of ordinaryness that makes us burst into tears. Bai Fangli couldn't write poems, and he couldn't even read, but he interpreted this oath perfectly.He is a saint.Over the years, whenever I see a lot of entrepreneurs talking about "social responsibility", I will suddenly think of the old Bai who wears socks of different colors.