First entrepreneurial failure, Lei Jun's annual speech: "Hell" style college entrepreneurship | Xiaomi | University
"I completed four years of credit in two years of college," "I failed my first business," and "I relied on my colleagues and cafeteria chefs to play mahjong and win meals at the worst of my career."
On the evening of the 14th, Lei Jun, the founder and chairman of Xiaomi Group, shared his past at Wuhan University, his entrepreneurial journey, and Xiaomi's high-end exploration in the past three years in his annual speech. He said that every experience, every transformation, is a cognitive breakthrough, and more importantly, a crucial growth.
Image Lei Jun said that only through down-to-earth growth can one enrich their inner self, have light in their eyes, and be full of power at all times. People are great because of their dreams, and they grow because they persist in their dreams.
Going to college in the "hell" mode
Lei Jun was admitted to Wuhan University in 1987. In his speech, Lei Jun stated that during his freshman year, he ignited the flame of his dreams with "The Fire of Silicon Valley". A young man who has just come out of the county town and knows nothing, but wants to start a great company, has such an outrageous dream.
Later, Lei Jun found it difficult and set his first goal for himself: to complete all four years of college credits within two years.
Lei Jun said that after completing the credits in two years, a large number of courses must be self-studied, and encountering areas that I don't understand is very painful. "Especially when I chose computer science, I learned professional mathematics, which is more than ten times more difficult than advanced mathematics."
"Later on, I came up with a solution. Anyway, I couldn't understand it, so I jumped over and went straight to the next chapter. The knowledge wasn't entirely linear, and after reading it repeatedly, sometimes it was easier to understand what was ahead," said Lei Jun.
Lei Jun also said that when learning and pondering, he would seek advice from senior students, and after chatting, he gained a lot. "99% of the questions have standard answers, so find someone who understands."
Having completed all the credits, Lei Jun's second goal was to become an excellent programmer, but the opportunities to use computers were meager back then. Lei Jun said, "I often queue up in the computer room to clean my computer, practice typing with a paper keyboard, and write programs on paper."
It is reported that after working hard and staying up all night, Lei Jun gradually became the "technical expert" in the eyes of his classmates. His Pascal homework was included in the new textbook by the teacher; The assembly language code written in my sophomore year is still under discussion more than 30 years later.
Lei Jun also stated that he achieved his third goal during his university years: publishing a paper in a first-class journal.
The first entrepreneurship ended in failure
When Lei Jun talked about his entrepreneurial experience, he said, "In my junior year, I started a three color company with my senior and quickly fell into trouble. At the worst, I relied on my colleagues and cafeteria chefs to play mahjong to win meals, and in the end, the company had to close. This was my first entrepreneurial experience."
However, Lei Jun also said, "In the summer of 1989, my friend Wang Guoguo and I worked day and night for 15 days to write the encryption software BITLOK. At that time, the software sold for more than 2000 yuan and was popular among programmers. We sold it for six or seven years and made a lot of money."
Lei Jun said, "No matter how strong a person's abilities are, they are also limited. Finding complementary friends to work with makes it easier to succeed."
"Xiaomi's high-end exploration is the most painful"
Lei Jun said that Xiaomi's journey of high-end exploration has been his most painful and rewarding growth in the past decade.
"At the discussion meeting, Xiaomi sparked the most heated debate in history: 'It's too difficult to become high-end, can we not do it? Can we make it high-end with the Xiaomi brand?'"
Lei Jun said that in the end, he convinced everyone: no matter how difficult it is, we must insist on using the Xiaomi brand for high-end. Only by becoming high-end can we force ourselves to seek breakthroughs in technology and win space for future survival and development. High end is the only way for us Xiaomi, and it's also a battle of life and death!
"Over the past three years, with billions of dollars invested, Xiaomi's high-end exploration path has finally achieved a breakthrough. Behind any small success in the high-end battle, there is a change and breakthrough in cognition. Only through cognitive breakthrough can true growth be achieved." Lei Jun said, this is his biggest gain in the past decade.
