Jay: Welcome to a new Chinese dialogue - based overseas podcast - Overseas Relativity.
Q1: What insights have you gained from your consecutive entrepreneurial experiences? And how did they help you found SPO?
Coconut: Because we are not very successful people. When we were young, we always liked to look at those successful people. There is a saying: When you are successful, everything you say is right. For those people recognized as successful by the public, when their companies are doing very well, their inner egos will also be relatively large. I have also experienced these, but maybe not to such an extent, just a little less. Right now, we are in a start - up stage. After experiencing quite a lot, if we are sharing, and if some young friends are listening to our program, I think first, if you have just graduated, it is really important to strive to enter a large organization through your own efforts. The operation, organizational power, and methodologies of the entire large organization can all be learned through training. This has a much higher probability of success than coming out of school and starting to do something to change the world. I think this is the first piece of advice. Second, if you want to start a business, do something you really like. I started my business when I was about to finish my second year of postgraduate studies. At first, I was doing something similar to an advertising company. That didn't test organizational power much; it was project - based, similar to a 4A agency. After about two years of doing that, I felt it was really boring. You have to constantly deal with clients and there is no creativity. Then I started my first Internet - based business, creating a second - hand luxury goods app. It was 2014 at that time, and I should be among the first batch of people doing second - hand luxury goods business. That was truly my first start - up because you need to build a team. You need to recruit people. You need IT staff, partners, marketing staff, and people related to second - hand luxury goods, such as appraisers. At that time, I felt that every type of personnel was needed, including administrative staff and cashiers, with very detailed divisions. Maybe entrepreneurs of that generation were all like this, starting by building a team first, but it was a very inefficient manpower structure. At most, my company had 80 employees. Looking back, I probably didn't need that many people. Sometimes entrepreneurs ignore what they themselves can do and place their hopes on others. I think seeking funds, people, and directions is a huge misunderstanding, a very big one. Creating huge social value through a completely different business model like Facebook has a very narrow path. 95% of start - ups are not like this; they are not among the 5%. So I think this is a misunderstanding. That's why you should enter a large organization. You may be in an old business or enter an innovative one, to see how excellent enterprises do things, what each person can do, how everyone coordinates and cooperates, how they operate externally and internally, how internal interactions in the organization are carried out, how to promote projects, how to set milestones, how to set KPIs, and so on. Starting blindly on your own is too inefficient, wasting time, life, and money.
Reposted from Overseas Relativity
