"Not Making Mistakes is More Important than Doing Things Right — A Discussion on Wang Shi's Risky Operations"

Recently, the conversation between Wang Shi and Duan Yongping has left many feeling contemplative. Coupled with my readings of Wang Xing and Ding Lei, as well as some influential people I've encountered, I found that three things are surprisingly interconnected. I have some insights to share.

1. Maintaining a Calm Mind: It's Not About Wanting or Not Wanting, But About Whether You Can

On one side, there are former big shots who could easily turn the tide, and Duan Yongping has benefited greatly from this; on the other side, there are today's giants, calm as ever, but with their roles reversed over time.

One statement even made me feel a bit sad: Duan Yongping was surprised to hear that Wang Shi is still working, thinking he must enjoy it; otherwise, there’s no other logic. But for Wang Shi, it’s actually a matter of helplessness. Vanke is now on the edge of a cliff, and without equity awareness, Wang Shi has not gained much. His ambitious wife adds to the pressure, and Wang Shi can no longer maintain his composure and calmness.

When we read Duan's viewpoints, the idea of maintaining a calm mind is often mentioned, but it’s not about wanting or not wanting; it’s really about whether one can. One netizen commented that we shouldn’t glorify Duan, as he managed Vanke during a time of rapid expansion in real estate, and anyone would have ended up where they are today.

Another netizen, who knows Duan well, said: Duan would wonder why one must be the leader. Why must others grow for me to grow? If something is wrong, just don’t do it.

Wang Shi's Vanke, under his and later professional managers' leadership, created a financial platform that lent money to employees at an annual interest rate of 10%. The money came from the company's advance payments and loans from other banks at 2%, making an 8% profit from employees.

You might ask, why would employees borrow money at such high interest? There are two reasons: first, the lure of investment; if you invest this money in the company's investment department, they will invest it in the real estate business, giving you a 20% annual return. Second, coercion; if you don’t participate, you don’t believe in the company, and you’re out.

Employees lack financial knowledge, and with executives, teachers, and colleagues investing, would you invest? They might have. But a 20% return is something we’ve seen in the crypto space, and now the BOSS has entered.

So, is this the right thing to do? Would Duan Yongping let employees pay 10% interest and then invest their money into a pit? A series of operations left Vanke's professional managers profiting from interest, kickbacks, and dividends, making a fortune.

Wang Shi probably didn’t benefit much; on one hand, he accompanies his wife on hikes and only takes a salary each year, while on the other hand, he has delegated power and lacks the energy to manage everything.

However, the insights here are numerous; these operations have harmed employees and shareholders and jeopardized the future.

If Duan Yongping suddenly found himself in Wang Shi's position today, facing this situation, it would indeed be hard to maintain a calm mind, as there are too many mistakes and no timely corrections.

But the key to a calm mind is to maintain a good attitude in daily life; it’s not necessary to compete for first place or to be the strongest, just do the right thing at hand. Compared to Vanke's exploitation of employees, how strong are Duan's disciples and friends? The BOSS of OPPO, VIVO, Xiaotiancai, and Pinduoduo need not be mentioned. Even various general agents under him followed him to the U.S., and funds began to flow into NetEase and Apple, while he casually played basketball with Duan…

2. Ding Lei's Happiness and Not Following Trends

Ding Lei is known as China's happiest CEO because he is always cheerful. He is very laid-back and sentimental, running NetEase Open Courses, investing tens of millions each year without profit, simply because he once drove far and found a bookstore in a town and wanted to create one in China.

He said he never thought about building a great company; he just wanted to do fun things. However, in the past 20 years, about 1% of listed companies globally have had an annual capital return rate exceeding 20%, and in China, only two — Moutai and NetEase.

When his company went public, he wanted to take it easy, avoid complicated relationships, and focus on products, telling investors he would just handle products as CTO, and they could find a CEO for him.

However, when a stock market crash occurred, and the stock price fell, the CEO wrote a big character poster overnight for every employee, calling Ding Lei a pig. They argued in the company, and Ding Lei wanted to fire him immediately, but the CEO refused to leave, bringing several bodyguards, while Ding Lei's security didn’t dare intervene.

Eventually, he realized he had to take charge himself. The situation in the company was dire, and when he sought to sell, the other party backed out, leaving him with no choice but to take the reins. Ding Lei became CEO, and who would have thought that a few years later, he would become China's richest man? The journey from bankruptcy to wealth was not linear; he first created a game, "A Chinese Odyssey," inviting Stephen Chow to promote it, but it was riddled with bugs and failed, wasting two years. When he was about to give up, his partners suggested starting over, and this time, "Fantasy Westward Journey" became a hit.

Over the years, NetEase has weathered storms, while contemporaries like Sina have been acquired by their own Weibo, and Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang, who once enjoyed life on yachts with models, now talks about advanced mathematics on Douyin, entering a cultivation mode. Meanwhile, various trends like P2P, e-commerce, and AI have emerged, but NetEase has consistently adopted a seemingly laid-back approach, focusing solely on things they find interesting and worthwhile.

For instance, Ding Lei traveled far and discovered some good things that didn’t catch on in China, so he created NetEase Yanxuan, which is quite niche; he felt that pork wasn’t as tasty as it used to be, so he started raising pigs. A game like "Fantasy Westward Journey" sells point cards and continues to provide substantial revenue, ranking high in both PC and mobile gaming.

3. Wang Xing's Resolve

Today, we use Meituan a lot, but back then, there were thousands of group-buying websites across the country, with rounds of financing pouring in. Meituan had less funding and poorer data, making it inconspicuous, yet it ultimately triumphed.

At that time, everyone was inflating their data, similar to how we see in the crypto space today. For example, group-buying has discount prices, and everyone played the game of raising the original price and then offering a discount, inflating a 100 yuan item to 1000 yuan and then giving a 10% discount. The backend recorded the data and transaction volume as 1000 instead of 100, making it look impressive for financing, and various tricks were played.

Everyone was trying to make their data look bigger, faster, and prettier while heavily advertising. In contrast, Meituan was one of the few that insisted on using only real data and did not advertise externally. Wang Xing did this despite opposition from investors and within the company, who thought that with others growing so fast, his steady approach was pointless and would lead to his demise.

Wang Xing had one principle: to remain consumer-oriented, avoiding the fake and using good products to meet the huge demand on both ends. His approach was initially passive, but those who had received capital and were expanding wildly, much larger than Meituan, soon ran out of money and faced bankruptcy. The founder of the largest website at the time, before fleeing, famously stated in a media interview: "Capital is poison!" (He didn’t say this when he received funding; back then, he said: "We need to hire people who can spend money; those who can’t spend money are not needed. We need to quickly spend money to scale up.")

In our crypto space, it’s similar; during a bull market, exchanges, capital, and projects all "leverage" (misuse funds), but when a bear market hits, all the flashy ones disappear, while the low-key ones suddenly come to the forefront.

If I were to start a project now, I would definitely avoid any airdrops. I would align with community interests, not just give coins to anyone. I should first ensure the project can generate revenue and has a bright future, allowing those who believe in it to have long-term potential returns, even if they bought the coins. This is akin to stocks. Airdrops aren’t inherently bad, but as long as someone is focused on airdrops to attract new users, it’s bound to deviate from the first principle: a good product can succeed only if it meets user needs, not by pre-distributing future profits to everyone.

4. My Influential People

I believe that so-called influential people should not just be those who provide money or resources (though those are certainly important), but fundamentally, it’s about the thoughts and perspectives they offer that greatly help oneself.

Warren Buffett said that Munger helped him evolve from a monkey to a human. I think an influential person is someone who allows a flawed individual to reflect and improve in comparison, and ideally, there’s an opportunity to reciprocate, creating a mutually beneficial energy.

Years ago, when I encountered influential people, I didn’t initially recognize them. Only with the passage of time did I realize that in similar situations, everyone’s judgments differed — even if I thought I was right at the time, looking back, I found my views to be absurdly wrong, which was very beneficial.

The four seemingly different matters mentioned above actually share a common thread: doing the right thing is extremely important.

What constitutes a good or right thing? Deceptive actions, FOMO-driven actions, irresponsible actions that take others' money, and fraudulent actions are not right. Yet, in the examples above, only a very few people can persist in doing the right thing.

I hope that when I turn 70, even if I can’t be as carefree as Duan, I can at least be composed and adept.

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