Click to read the original text for details -01- Is it this generation of common people that's failing, or this generation of intellectuals? For celebrities selling goods via livestream, failure is the norm; not failing is a stroke of luck. But only Wu Xiaobo has drawn such a large crowd of onlookers gloating over his misfortune. Celebrities in livestream sales have also faced criticism. But only Gao Xiaosong has been directly scolded by the crowd and driven out of the livestream room. Ma Dong and others also got into trouble. These two seem unrelated, but in today's internet context, they share a similar persona. Both consider themselves intellectuals, the kind who like to pontificate: Gao Xiaosong as a life mentor for young people, and Wu Xiaobo as a mentor for entrepreneurs. Gao Xiaosong needs no further introduction—an entertainment star who insists on posing as an intellectual with some random knowledge. For example, he once angrily retorted to a Tsinghua PhD student concerned about employment, bragged about America when he got carried away, and occasionally made shocking remarks like "Taiwan has not always been Chinese territory." This pretentious style easily annoys today's young people. With the severe pandemic and tense Sino-US relations this year, he planned a livestream on "reading classics," which caused many to lose their cool, and he was heavily criticized. To be honest, it's a bit unfair, but very understandable. Compared to Gao Xiaosong, Mr. Wu Xiaobo's situation is better, but more awkward. There are so many celebrities who failed in livestream sales—those entertainment stars, who are all more "plump and crispy" than Mr. Wu—why did he become the public's favorite gossip? An article jokingly calling for Wu Xiaobo to refund also garnered hundreds of thousands of reads online. Dong Mingzhu's first livestream only made 230,000 yuan, yet she didn't face such mockery. What did Wu Xiaobo do to deserve this? -02- Intellectual Wu Xiaobo once firmly spoke for physical enterprises In Lao Miao's eyes, Mr. Wu Xiaobo is an intellectual, and I respectfully call him "Mr." or "Teacher." From "The Great Defeat" to "The Thirty Years of Turbulence," he has published many bestsellers, and the sentiment and sense of responsibility in his books have influenced many Chinese people. In his books, we can see Mr. Wu Xiaobo's sense of duty to plead for the people, his advocacy for market system reform, his praise for entrepreneurial innovation, his admiration for entrepreneurs, his criticism of rigid systems, and his warnings against those seeking quick success. He wrote in his books: "Any myth that seems理所当然 is often unfeasible; the more flawless it appears, the more it deserves suspicion. We have always believed that the development of things is rough, with edges and flaws. When a business story appears before you in an extremely smooth and vivid manner, you must first suspect it." "Throughout the country, there are indeed people like Liu Chuanzhi who 'feel the warmth of spring first,' sensing the change of season and era in this chilly early winter." "A minor official in Wenzhou once said to me with emotion, 'Many times, reform begins with breaking the rules.' Everyone could hear the sobriety, helplessness, and determination in his words." "'Using four ounces to move a thousand pounds' and 'empty-handed catching a wolf' are undoubtedly two realms that many entrepreneurs yearn for in their business lexicon. But in most cases, four ounces cannot move a thousand pounds, and empty-handed wolf-catching will get you eaten by the wolf. Those business myths we call miracles are often irrational and full of coincidence." Every time I read these lines, I feel excited. I remember reading "The Thirty Years of Turbulence" in one night, staying up all night. At this time, Wu Xiaobo was speaking from the standpoint of the common people. He hoped the government would push for more vigorous reforms, and that entrepreneurs would be more down-to-earth in creating more valuable products and services, so that the common people could benefit, enjoy better consumer experiences, and have better job and money-making opportunities. There, the heroes stepping on colorful clouds were our physical entrepreneurs: Liu Chuanzhi, Ren Zhengfei, Zong Qinghou, Zhang Ruimin. Even the failures, like Li Jingwei and Wu Bingxin, did not diminish their halo; instead, their "tragic heroism" added more glory. Ordinary people cannot write such good words, nor are they so profound. But ordinary people are not fools. Speaking well of physical enterprise bosses, especially private enterprise bosses, benefits all of us. The physical enterprises they lead are the mainstay of China's economy, paying the most taxes, providing more jobs, undertaking more technological innovation, and being the fundamental driving force of China's economic development. -03- Why do intellectuals like to peddle anxiety? In recent years, "intellectual Wu Xiaobo" has become "knowledge merchant Wu Xiaobo." Like Luo Zhenyu, Mr. Wu Xiaobo has also become a "knowledge peddler" and a new-generation knowledge influencer. The Wu Xiaobo who once told us to stay calm now urges us to embrace change quickly, or we'll die ugly.
"What we consider abilities today will be gone in ten years." "We seem to have done nothing wrong, but we go bankrupt today." In Mr. Wu Xiaobo's recent speeches and articles, high-frequency words like "collapse," "reshuffle," "end," "structural destruction," "mutation," "disintegration," and "rise" appear frequently. He has also learned to redefine concepts, such as "tech-manufacturing era" and "hard tech produces slow philosophy," and of course, it all ends up with the "knowledge products" he sells. When we see Mr. Wu Xiaobo evaluate Luo Yonghao's entrepreneurial failure, no longer dissecting it like in "The Great Defeat," but giving a chicken-soup-style "dream too big, wrong industry"; When we see that "Tencent Biography," which took five years to complete, is mostly "official press releases" and "internal commendation letters" in the latter half; When we hear Wu Xiaobo tell us, "Those labor-intensive industries must accelerate their departure from this country"; When we see Wu Xiaobo and Luo Zhenyu endorsing Beimi Wallet together, Lao Miao's heart also turns cold: we have lost an excellent business intellectual. What is the advantage of intellectuals over us ordinary people? Or what is the advantage of those who consider themselves knowledgeable over us ordinary people? Of course, it's not solving equations or doing advanced math, but cognition. Intellectuals, in order to maximize the monetization of their advantage, often exaggerate this cognitive gap and the harm of low cognition. So those who "sell knowledge" are accustomed to creating anxiety and cognitive fear. You have a disease, I have a cure—it's the same routine as a private hospital. Intellectuals naturally like change and praise change. Because in change, the value of cognitive gaps can be better realized. "The era abandons you without saying goodbye" is their best brainwashing slogan. Because they need to embrace change, Mr. Wu Xiaobo naturally sat on the side of the rapidly developing platform companies in recent years. The intellectual Wu Xiaobo became the merchant Wu Xiaobo; the Wu Xiaobo who pleaded for the people became the knowledge peddler Wu Xiaobo. Although Bajiu Ling (Mr. Wu Xiaobo's company) claims its target audience is the "new middle class," in reality, it leverages the changes of internet platforms to drive modern urban youth to its "knowledge products." In recent years, the contradiction between physical enterprises and internet platforms has been very sharp. When Mr. Wu re-positioned himself, not many of his original fans supported him. Fans turned into passers-by or even haters, all eager to watch the drama. With so many people waiting for you to fail, of course the gossip is big! -04- The dual nature of intellectuals Chairman Mao understood the dual nature of intellectuals best. They "have surplus money and grain, with some left over after self-sufficiency," so their need for revolution is not urgent. Because they have more choices, everyone needs them, and they can work for anyone, making their stance not easily firm. There are revolutionary intellectuals and counter-revolutionary intellectuals. Before the Battle of Red Cliffs, Sun Quan's intellectuals all became capitulationists. Lu Su followed Sun Quan all the way to the toilet, stared at the sign "Take a step forward, civilization advances," and said the truly piercing words: "Everyone can surrender to Cao Cao, but you, my lord, cannot!" If intellectuals surrender, they can still get high salaries and be executives. If you, Boss Sun, surrender, will you still be the boss? You'd have to jump off a building. In the new era, intellectuals sell information asymmetry. Although they can't make big money, the risk is low and there are many escape routes. They can endorse anyone; it just depends on who does a better job of united front work. Should we therefore boycott intellectuals and knock them down? Of course not. Chairman Mao believed that without the participation of intellectuals, revolution could not succeed. Intellectuals are very precious to us. In many of his articles, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of intellectuals and the need to unite and absorb them. The most famous is the article "Absorb Intellectuals in Large Numbers." -05- Discourse power is the most powerful weapon of this era In recent years, internet platforms have taken away the discourse power of physical enterprises. All business concepts and gameplay are now defined by them. This is, of course, beneficial to platforms, but it's a plunder for physical enterprises. Although physical enterprises are the main force of the economy, their scale, number, and true social value far exceed those of internet platforms. There are two reasons for this. First, physical enterprise bosses are used to burying their heads in work and don't care about discourse power. Lao Miao has come into contact with many physical enterprise bosses, most of whom started from small shops, distributors, or small workshops, and a few started from technical, marketing, or production positions. Some bosses not only look down on intellectuals but also take pride in being "rough and uneducated." In contrast, the big shots of internet platform companies are mostly highly educated, with a large proportion from prestigious universities, and they better understand the importance of seizing discourse power. More importantly, it's a matter of intellectuals' alignment. Intellectuals are naturally sensitive to change, which resonates with the internet platforms that have been developing rapidly and advocating disruption and revolution in recent years. Every time a platform creates a concept, intellectuals transform into related "experts" to interpret and promote it, followed by self-media hype, and it quickly spreads across the internet and persists. Mr. Ma's "New Retail" was just a casual remark, and even Alibaba Research didn't fully explain it. It was hot from 2017 until the end of last year, and it's still mentioned this year. Who knows how many people it led astray. In recent years, Alibaba and other platforms have contributed half of the new business buzzwords, and knowledge merchants like Luo Zhenyu and Wu Xiaobo have contributed the other half. Losing one's stance is a fatal thing. About five or six years ago, a company in Guangxi held an internal forum and invited a Professor Huang from a university in Guangdong to give guidance. The professor went on and on about "internet thinking," "screaming products," "wool comes from pigs and dogs pay," and other nonsense. Not only was it nonsense, but it also stunned the boss. The boss quickly invited the professor to the company to lead reforms, which ended in a mess. These discourse systems, like a PUA master, attack you: you're not good enough, the era is abandoning you, if you don't change, you'll die... Many physical enterprise bosses are anxious because they have lost their stance. As a result, a bunch of people who have never run a business are helping companies with internet transformation, a bunch of people who have never been distributors are helping distributors transform, novices who only know "traffic × conversion rate × average order value" are teaching e-commerce operations, and people who just watched a few orders on Douyin are teaching companies to sell via livestream... Many have also been brainwashed into "traffic thinking," following the platform's gameplay, and are naturally exploited, with profits taken away, becoming "Yang Bailao." Physical enterprises must be clear about these basic stances. Lao Miao has said this before and will repeat it: 1. All business value is based on user value. Traffic has no value to users; users need products and services (goods). Traffic can only have value when it attaches to goods. 2. The relationship between physical enterprises and internet platforms is essentially that of goods owner and traffic owner. Traffic is important to the traffic owner, not to you. Goods owners and traffic owners are not only cooperative but also competitive. "The big store bullies the customer, and the big customer bullies the store" will never change. Only strong partners can win respect and profit. 3. Goods owners and traffic owners were originally in a client-vendor relationship. Now the roles have reversed, not because of a gap in strength, but because physical enterprises lack discourse power. -06- We must unite with intellectuals Internet platforms are booming in public opinion, while physical enterprises are much more desolate. No one really speaks for them; bosses have to go into battle themselves. In 2017, a CCTV talk show about the real economy invited Zong Qinghou, Dong Mingzhu, and Li Dongsheng. Old man Zong Qinghou said that except for new technology, Ma Yun's "five new" are all nonsense. Sister Dong said that young people nowadays prefer virtual economy over real economy, which is dangerous. These are all honest words, but unfortunately, not many people support them. Instead, various media mocked Zong Qinghou for being outdated. "It's not that the physical enterprise is failing; it's that your physical enterprise is failing." Wu Xiaobo, Qin Shuo, Wen Qian, Yuan Yue, and others took the opportunity to hold a big roundtable. Wu Xiaobo directly retorted to the entrepreneurs' remarks, saying things like "the internet is blood" and "it's outdated to see virtual economy and real economy as opposites," and also praised the then-hot shared bikes. Yuan Yue and Wen Qian were more objective, pointing out a key issue: "Alibaba not only has an internet platform, but also the Alibaba Research Institute, which forms strong policy lobbying capabilities and very strong media influence." "If Ma Yun (and his ilk) have high discourse power, Zong Qinghou (and his ilk) will certainly have lower discourse power. A country without manufacturing will collapse." The word "help" is interesting when you think about it. There's "helping out" and "helping idle," "supporting" and "assisting," and of course, "being an accomplice." Our physical enterprises have always been used to working silently. When there's a problem, they find someone to "help out"; when there's no problem, they find someone to "help idle." But they don't understand the value of "supporting" and "assisting." This is precisely the most important thing, and it's what intellectuals are best at. It's not enough for entrepreneurs to speak out themselves; besides, most of them don't know how. Party building, armed struggle, and the united front are the three magic weapons for revolutionary success. This united front is not just about your suppliers and distributors. Intellectuals who hold discourse power and can guide public opinion and even policy direction are even more important to you. If the public is brainwashed by platforms, then physical enterprises will truly be like meat on a chopping board. Whether it's braised or made into dumplings, it's up to others. All physical enterprise bosses and marketers, you must be brave in exerting your influence, do everything possible to make those around you speak for you, and mobilize more people to stand on the side of physical enterprises. And those intellectuals who have been singing praises for platforms, creating anxiety, and talking down the real economy, as well as the media that follow suit, wake up! Don't forget that physical enterprises are the ones directly creating user value and are the mainstay of our economy. As I said, ordinary people are not fools. Their understanding may not be profound, but they can feel who speaks for them. Otherwise, sooner or later, you will also be scolded out of the livestream room by the awakened public. Source: Lao Miao Tears Apart Marketing (ID: yiheyingxiao) Author: Miao Qingxian