--- title: "Ma Yun, Zong Qinghou, Zhong Shanshan, Tao Huabi: The Hidden Hardships of China's Top Entrepreneurs" description: "At the beginning of the month, Ma Yun gathered 40,000 Alibaba employees worldwide for a grand coming-of-age ceremony for the 18-year-old company, but behind the noise echoes his regretful speech about creating Alibaba. Chinese entrepreneurs are among the most exhausted groups, often living lives where work consumes everything, as exemplified by figures like Zong Qinghou, Zhong Shanshan, and Tao Huabi." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-09-27" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/ma-yun-zong-qinghou-zhong-shanshan-tao-huabi-the-hidden-hardships-of-chi-b23580db/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/ma-yun-zong-qinghou-zhong-shanshan-tao-huabi-the-hidden-hardships-of-chi-b23580db.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wyr2Ig0Sj-0WNjmk0SAh5w" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E9%A9%AC%E4%BA%91-%E5%AE%97%E5%BA%86%E5%90%8E-%E9%92%9F%E7%9D%92%E7%9D%92-%E9%99%B6%E5%8D%8E%E7%A2%A7-%E4%BB%96%E4%BB%AC%E9%83%BD%E6%9C%89%E5%93%AA%E4%BA%9B%E4%B8%8D%E4%B8%BA%E4%BA%BA%E7%9F%A5%E7%9A%84%E8%89%B0%E9%9A%BE-b23580db.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/ma-yun-zong-qinghou-zhong-shanshan-tao-huabi-the-hidden-hardships-of-chi-b23580db/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Ma Yun, Zong Qinghou, Zhong Shanshan, Tao Huabi: The Hidden Hardships of China's Top Entrepreneurs > At the beginning of the month, Ma Yun gathered 40,000 Alibaba employees worldwide for a grand coming-of-age ceremony for the 18-year-old company, but behind the noise echoes his regretful speech about creating Alibaba. Chinese entrepreneurs are among the most exhausted groups, often living lives where work consumes everything, as exemplified by figures like Zong Qinghou, Zhong Shanshan, and Tao Huabi. At the beginning of the month, Ma Yun gathered 40,000 Alibaba employees worldwide for a grand coming-of-age ceremony for the 18-year-old Alibaba, and the cheers of tens of thousands still echo over Hangzhou. However, behind this noise, Ma Yun's once somewhat bleak but deeply heartfelt regretful speech reverberates: "The biggest mistake I made in my life was creating Alibaba, because work takes up all my time... If there is an afterlife, I won't do this kind of business again... I don't want to talk about business, I don't want to work." Chinese entrepreneurs are almost the most tired group. For many first-generation entrepreneurs, their lives are almost entirely work. In many people's eyes, that kind of life is almost unimaginable. Chinese entrepreneurs have enterprises but no homes. This is by no means Ma Yun's sentimentality! At this moment, Ma Yun represents countless Chinese entrepreneurs. Wu Xiaobo has spent many days and nights lamenting over entrepreneurs who suffered major defeats, writing fervently about the "failure genes" that flow through them. However, the great defeat of Chinese entrepreneurs is not the sudden collapse of the business empires they built, but their lifelong existence of living like homeless people. **Zong Qinghou:** **From youth to gray hair, still holding the front line** Eye bags, wrinkles, age spots—all signs indicate that Zong Qinghou is aging. In his youth, he was vigorous and decisive; in old age, he appears kind and amiable. Born in 1945, Zong Qinghou has worked 16 hours a day for 30 years since starting his business, spending over 200 days a year on the market front line. Work is almost everything to Zong Qinghou. He doesn't work from 9 to 5, but from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., from the first day of the lunar new year to New Year's Eve, for decades. He has no hobbies or pleasures; he seems born to work. His subordinates say that although he lives in Hangzhou, he hasn't sat by West Lake for several years. Enjoying the scenery is a luxury for him. From youth to gray hair, Zong Qinghou is now over seventy. In 2017, Wahaha celebrated its 30th anniversary, and this 72-year-old food industry veteran still rushes about on the market front line. Regarding this, Zong Qinghou's most frequent saying is: **"I'm used to hardship. When I was young, I often went without meals. Later, doing business, I also endured much hardship. The money was earned bit by bit through hard work, but I really don't know how to enjoy life."** **Zhong Shanshan:** **The arduous path of agricultural production** In 2007, Zhong Shanshan went to Ganzhou, Jiangxi, and seeing the navel oranges covering the mountains, he thought good orange juice would be easy to obtain. So he quickly decided to develop an orchard there and build a factory to produce orange juice. What Zhong Shanshan didn't anticipate was that this hasty decision would require ten years of effort to make up for. Agriculture was far more complex than he imagined. Persist or give up? Zhong Shanshan chose the former. Some say it's because he's stubborn, refusing to turn back until hitting the wall; but in his own view, it was forced by circumstances. "The money was invested, the factory was built, what retreat was there?" **"It looks like just an orange and two bottles of juice, but Nongfu Spring took many detours, almost at the cost of life and death."** Zhong Shanshan said. **Tao Huabi:** **Life's path is never smooth** Tao Huabi, from Guizhou, is a rural woman who never attended school and can't even write her own name. Yet with a jar of Laoganma, she became a nationally recognized goddess and pushed a Chinese brand to the world. Her husband died early, leaving her a widow with a child. A woman with little education had to make a living with her child! She started from a street stall, gradually accumulating, carrying a burden of over 100 jin to sell rice tofu every day, which left her with severe aftereffects that persist to this day, requiring constant plasters. She was once pushed off a bus by a ticket seller and had to walk dozens of miles. But this unyielding woman managed to endure through astonishing perseverance. **Tao Huabi said: "From youth to old age, I feel that life's path is never smooth. Without experiencing wind and rain, you're not an entrepreneur; only after enduring wind and rain, sun and rain, can you be a true entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs, don't look at what they say; look at what they actually do. That's real skill, hard skill. If they can't show it, they can't face the sun; they grew up in a greenhouse. We can see the sun, having gone through sun and rain, wind and storms."** **Liu Yonghao:** **We are not overnight millionaires** This chairman in his sixties seems to have few marks of time on him. He walks briskly, has a young mindset, and seems to have an eternally young heart. "We are not overnight millionaires; we know the hardships and difficulties of entrepreneurship. Our company's foundation is steady and full of vitality, because our goal is to create a century-old Hope. We are pragmatic, avoid ostentation, don't seek fame, don't smoke, don't drink excessively, don't gamble, and our daily expenses don't exceed 100 yuan. We dress and eat casually, just as long as it's appropriate." Being wealthy but living a simple and fulfilling life is what distinguishes Liu Yonghao from many successful people; it's the reason New Hope has thrived and not collapsed over the years! **Niu Gensheng:** **With hard work, a 'loser' can achieve success** In 1958, Niu Gensheng was born in Hohhot. Shortly after birth, due to poverty, he was sold by his biological parents to his adoptive parents. According to Niu Gensheng's own description, "Because we couldn't afford food, my biological father sold me for 50 yuan." He was raised by his adoptive mother for 14 years. In 1978, he started working as a cowherd. In the 1990s, Niu Gensheng could never have imagined that he would later become a major figure in Chinese financial history. At that time, he was a 41-year-old "old man" who had to travel from the Inner Mongolian grasslands to Beijing to find work, sending out over 50 resumes without even getting an interview. It was this "loser" who eventually turned things around and created a miracle in China's dairy industry. **Chu Shijian:** **Don't be too calculating in life; keep moving forward** Chu Shijian was once the famous "King of Chinese Tobacco," making Hongta Group one of Asia's largest and world-leading tobacco enterprises. Later, he fell from the peak of life to the bottom, sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery. After being released on parole, at the age of 75, he started a new business, contracting 2,400 mu of barren mountains with his wife to grow oranges. His "Chu Oranges" became famous across the country, making him a legend once again. Now Chu Shijian is 89 years old and still struggling on. Chu Shijian said: "Society judges heroes by success or failure. Whether I'm the 'fruit king' is not for me to say. I'm a doer; evaluation is for others. I'd give myself 80 points." **Liu Qiangdong:** **JD faced bankruptcy crisis, hair turned gray overnight** What reflects Liu Qiangdong's "boss" temperament might be the small patch of white hair at his forehead. In 2008, after the first round of financing was used up, JD faced the danger of bankruptcy. It was during the financial crisis, and no one was willing to invest in a company that might not become profitable anytime soon. During that period, Liu Qiangdong met five investors a day, said the same words, and got the same answer: rejection. "The guilt towards my brothers and the pain surged up all at once." **Ren Zhengfei:** **Half a year of nightmares, often waking up crying** "I couldn't control it; for half a year, I had nightmares and often woke up crying," "If R&D fails, I'll jump off a building," these were the resolute words Ren Zhengfei said during Huawei's difficult entrepreneurial period. At that time, he experienced the betrayal of a beloved general, the death of his mother, domestic market being "snatched" by Harbor, international market facing a lawsuit from Cisco, and the loss of core staff... He worked over ten hours a day but still felt powerless. This business tough guy, who grew up suffering in the countryside and was tempered in the military for years, and appeared as hard as iron to outsiders, had once been so difficult. Later, in an open letter to Huawei employees with depression, Ren Zhengfei candidly admitted that he "was also a severe depression and anxiety patient," and his body suffered from multiple diseases, having undergone two surgeries due to cancer... **Wang Jianlin:** **The richest man's day, the most ordinary day** On a day at the end of November last year (11.30), from Jakarta, Indonesia to Haikou, China, and then to Beijing. Two countries, three cities. He met with the provincial party secretary, signed a 50 billion Wanda City project, flew 6,000 kilometers, from getting up in the dark before dawn to landing at nightfall. This was an extraordinary day, yet also an ordinary one for him. To be clear, the first thing he did upon returning was not to look for chive pockets, but to work, because the next day another major signing awaited him. Business commentator Wang Yukun, in his book "The Strong: The Dreams and Obsessions of Entrepreneurs," describes the hardness and fragility of Chinese entrepreneurs like this: **"Because the sun-like armor is too dazzling, people's eyes cannot penetrate it to reach their hearts. In people's eyes, they are as hard as that armor, until one day, when that hard body crashes down, people are shocked, not understanding why such a hard body would collapse without warning."** This can also be explained by a saying from Chinese history: **"When heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man, it will first test his resolve, exhaust his muscles and bones, starve his body, deplete his resources, and frustrate his actions, so as to stimulate his mind, harden his nature, and improve his abilities."** Entrepreneurs appear glamorous on the surface, but once they choose to become entrepreneurs, it means their lives will be accompanied by pressure, competition, fatigue, and anxiety, never to be relaxed again. Entrepreneurs bear both physical and mental pressure, moving forward with heavy burdens. But why do tens of millions of entrepreneurs still throw themselves into this "homeless life" like moths to a flame? Perhaps this video has the answer you're looking for: **Video source: Huatang Yishi** ## Text source: Shiyejia (ID: shiyehome) **The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference** will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology," inviting **1,000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions** to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration! **Core topics of this conference:** > * **How can the FMCG industry leverage B2B to achieve new growth opportunities** > > > > > > > * **How to build the new supply chain behind new retail** > > > > > > > * **How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development** > **Highlights of this conference:** > * **The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"** > > > > > * **Case sharing of excellent distributors in transformation and upgrading** > > > > > * **Upgraded conference + exhibition, Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthens connections** > > > > > * **Alibaba Retail Link, Puhua Financial, Eternal Asia Supply Chain, Best Store Plus, Yijiu Pi, Hdwell: leaders from the most well-known enterprises in various fields will give on-site speeches and share pioneering views.** > **November 8-9, 2017** **Xinyue Hall, Chongqing Yuelai International Conference Center** **Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register.** Add friend with note "Conference Registration" Click the links below to review the highlights of the 1st and 2nd FMCG + Internet Conferences: [2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum]() -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671