---
title: "Feng Lun: Making Money Depends on Four Skills Beyond Money"
description: "In Chinese historical tradition, there is no way to do things quickly; most teachings advocate doing things slowly. By being slow, one can do things well, hence the saying 'things slow then complete,' using slowness to find methods and completeness as the ultimate goal—this is Chinese wisdom. Feng Lun observes that successful entrepreneurs like Li Ka-shing and Bill Gates initially had many wealthier peers, but they succeeded due to abilities beyond money, such as humility, values, perseverance, and accurate judgment of the future."
author: "冯仑"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2016-12-10"
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# Feng Lun: Making Money Depends on Four Skills Beyond Money

> In Chinese historical tradition, there is no way to do things quickly; most teachings advocate doing things slowly. By being slow, one can do things well, hence the saying 'things slow then complete,' using slowness to find methods and completeness as the ultimate goal—this is Chinese wisdom. Feng Lun observes that successful entrepreneurs like Li Ka-shing and Bill Gates initially had many wealthier peers, but they succeeded due to abilities beyond money, such as humility, values, perseverance, and accurate judgment of the future.

**Introduction /** In Chinese historical tradition, there is no way to do things quickly; most teachings advocate doing things slowly. By being slow, one can do things well, hence the saying 'things slow then complete,' using slowness to find methods and completeness as the ultimate goal—this is Chinese wisdom.
**I** have noticed a very interesting phenomenon: when Li Ka-shing started his business, many people were richer than him, but later those people disappeared or their wealth ranked behind his. When Bill Gates started his business, there were also many people with more money than him, but today Gates has become the richest. Many Chinese entrepreneurs are similar. Why?
**Because, during China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy, from closed to open, and from a barbaric market economy to a civilized legal market economy, the most important factors happen to be those beyond money.**
Just like when you drive a car on a highway and need to change lanes or turn, you must not only avoid overturning but also maintain speed—this is very difficult. At this point, the problem is not gasoline but the driver's skill, and this skill is something beyond money. What exactly are the abilities beyond money? I will talk about four.
**Lower Your Posture**
One of the abilities beyond money is the ability to conduct oneself, especially one's posture. I have found that **those who do good business are good at lowering their posture. In Chinese culture, this is called giving face to others, meaning you must show respect to people.** When starting a business, their posture is very important—they are humble, modest, and deferential. In Beijing dialect, 'earn money like a grandson, spend money like a grandfather.'
**Values**
The second ability beyond money is values. Values are the simple standards by which we judge right and wrong, good and evil. **The reason you do this rather than that, or do it this way rather than that way, is values.** MBA programs often talk about differentiated competition; differentiation strategies in products, marketing methods, etc., can almost all be imitated. What truly cannot be imitated is values. That is why some people succeed and others do not.
So-called values mean that when you establish financial relationships with your partners, colleagues, and friends, you need a yardstick to measure and make decisions, and this will guide you in different directions. For example, **when looking at Ma Yun, we should not look at his success stories, but rather how he judges small right and wrong in micro-decisions.** For instance, when Ma Yun went public, he only took a 5% stake—that is values. Others might take 70% of the shares for themselves. And this value will lead to many different life stories and outcomes in the future.
**Perseverance and Patience**
The third ability beyond money is perseverance and time. Why is persistence important? Because if you have no ideals, you cannot have perseverance. **When all people do things, in the end, it is not about comparing results but comparing processes.** What determines the nature of a thing? I think it depends on two aspects. First, time: different times lead to completely different evaluations. Second, who you do it with.
The same applies to running a business. If we collapse after three years, people may look down on us. When we are still here after 30 years, people begin to show some respect. When the company still exists after 300 years, people start to worship it. So time is a good thing; it can test your values and your posture. In Chinese historical tradition, there is no way to do things quickly; most teachings advocate doing things slowly. By being slow, one can do things well, hence the saying 'things slow then complete,' using slowness to find methods and completeness as the ultimate goal—this is Chinese wisdom. So you must have perseverance.
**Correctly Judge the Future**
What I have talked about above are stories about how to earn money at the beginning. When a company has developed well, it actually faces greater challenges. The ability beyond money is whether your view of the future and society is accurate.
I have been chairman of my company for 17 years and have never been a manager for a day. I find that I can do few jobs, but they are very demanding. **Because I only do three things: first, see what others cannot see; second, calculate accounts that others cannot calculate clearly; third, do things that others do not do.**
This is actually very difficult. First, you must always see what others cannot see. When a company is developing normally, you need to see invisible things, including risks, opportunities, and many trends of future change that we do not yet know. These tasks require leaders to spend a lot of time. So I often say that I need to be neighbors with gods and prophets to see what others cannot see. We need a method to see trends, patterns, dangers, and opportunities—these are very important. These are things beyond money; it is not that spending money gives you this ability, but rather you need long-term accumulation, research, and learning.
Second, calculate accounts that cannot be calculated clearly. The simplest and most realistic is how much money we should donate to disaster areas; social emotions and public expectations are closely related to the amount. More complex accounts include, for example, when we need to find a partner, there may be five people standing at your door who can give you money: local money, foreign money, stupid money, smart money—who do you choose? Local money is characterized by fast decisions, big changes, and more intervention; foreign money makes decisions slowly, follows rules, and intervenes less, but where it should manage you, it never compromises. So as a company and a leader, this ability is how you find certainty in accounts that cannot be calculated clearly.
Third, do things that others do not do. For example, fulfilling corporate citizenship responsibilities, disaster relief, environmental protection, and various other things. These are things that managers are reluctant to do because they take energy and money; the chairman must do what they do not do.
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