01 People do not have strengths and weaknesses, only characteristics.
We have a saying that character determines destiny. It is difficult for a person to change their character.
But when it comes to character, it is like this: when you are in a low position, your character is your weakness; when you are in a high position, your weaknesses become strengths, that is, "the winner takes all."
Let's take a look at Ren Zhengfei's temper, which has always been hot-tempered. When he was young, his hot temper prevented him from achieving anything, and for a long time, he couldn't even join the party. Later, in 1978, he participated in the National Science Conference, and the party branch of the party member group discussed that Ren Zhengfei could not participate. Why? Because he was not a party member.
You see, Ren Zhengfei was already a deputy regimental cadre in the army at that time, so why hadn't he joined the party yet? It was because of his personal relationships, he often expressed different opinions, and the branch did not approve. Later, the leader of the mechanical and electrical engineering troops designated Ren Zhengfei to immediately join the party.
You can see that Ren Zhengfei's weaknesses, when he became a leader in Huawei, "decisiveness" became a great strength. In fact, the person himself did not change, but in different levels of career, the application of these characteristics will have different results.
So I think people should not be in a hurry to change themselves, but there is a prerequisite that they must strive for victory. If you can achieve victory, your weaknesses will become strengths; if you cannot achieve victory, even if you are a perfect person, your strengths will become weaknesses.
This has been the case since ancient times. Although we say "heroes are not judged by success or failure," but everyone in this world does not live every day to pursue failure. Everyone wants to succeed. How to succeed?
It is what I said, "pay the price and strive for success."
Just like when Jack Ma applied for venture capital, he faxed a photo to Beijing. They said this person doesn't need to come for an interview, he's just a fraud. Because he looked too strange. Today, some people say Jack Ma is ugly? The media today reports on Jack Ma, calling him very distinctive.
Jack Ma's appearance hasn't changed. But what was once his most embarrassing weakness has now become a brilliant strength. The person hasn't changed, but the world has changed. How did it change? It's because you succeeded and rose to the top.
So I have always disagreed with judging people based on their strengths and weaknesses. We say that strengths and weaknesses are a symbiotic entity that together make up a person. In specific situations, they may be weaknesses, but in other situations, they become strengths.
In my judgment of a person, there are no strengths or weaknesses, only characteristics. In specific situations, their characteristics become strengths or weaknesses.
So I say, people should not focus on how to overcome their weaknesses, but rather on how to leverage their strengths, think about their strengths, and how to maximize their strengths.
In our military, there is a famous general named Han Xianchu. He had a low level of education, a shepherd boy from the Dabie Mountains in Hubei, but in 1951, he led three volunteer armies to occupy Seoul. After returning to China, many reporters surrounded him and asked him to summarize his combat experience.
When Han Xianchu tried to summarize his experience, he couldn't come up with the nature, significance, characteristics, and rules because of his lack of education. In the end, he came up with a sentence, "The enemy doesn't know how powerful I am." What a great statement.
So I say, if you want to be an entrepreneur today, you must be a distinctive entrepreneur like Ren Zhengfei. Don't always talk about your faults, such as loving to drink, smoke, and sleep in. I want to change my faults.
Don't always think about changing your faults, think about your strengths, where are your strengths, and you must create your own outstanding strengths, then you will succeed.
02 The key to leadership decision-making: be pleased with criticism. But in business management, leaders should have a critical spirit.
Chinese entrepreneurs are the most dynamic, never satisfied, always seeing the shortcomings and problems of the company. When Ren Zhengfei visits Huawei's branches around the world, if the branch manager comes to pick him up at the airport, he will be fired on the spot, "Your backside should face me, and your face should face the customers. Whoever wants to serve me well will be dismissed."
This is the entrepreneurial spirit, never giving up, and never satisfied with the status quo. Even when they reach the top, they still see the risks and problems that may exist.
In the past, we talked about Konosuke Matsushita as the god of management. I think Ren Zhengfei is the god of management in China after Konosuke Matsushita. The reason why Huawei has grown to what it is today is closely related to Ren Zhengfei's spirit and temperament. He left two deep impressions on me, one is the critical spirit, and the other is the spirit of seizing opportunities.
Ren Zhengfei said that there are too many people praising Huawei online now, and there is no opposition. So he suggested organizing a "blue army" to specifically find faults in Huawei. Every time a strategic brainstorming meeting starts at Huawei, the blue army is the first to speak and point out Huawei's faults.
Like Huawei's 2014 six development plans, all five of them failed; in the 2015 Huawei conference in Huizhou, which was a very important conference in Huawei's development history, several major spirits proposed were all in vain. Every year, they criticize one by one, and the criticism is very severe. In the end, the old man couldn't take it anymore and said, "Okay, Comrade Blue Army, you can go down now."
Another aspect is Huawei's spirit of seizing opportunities. I have attended Huawei's strategic brainstorming meetings and conferences on future development plans. All of Huawei's top executives were present. The materials for the meeting were not allowed to be taken away, only allowed to be placed in the meeting room.
But Ren Zhengfei told me that I could take the materials away. I said I wouldn't take them away, and according to Huawei's regulations, no one is allowed to take them away. He said that others cannot take them, but you can. He had a high level of trust in me. The theme of that meeting was how Huawei could seize the commanding heights in the situation of decoupling from the United States.
At the same time, Huawei's spirit of seeking truth from facts is very strong. On that day, there was an episode during the meeting. Ren Zhengfei instructed to play a video before the meeting. What video? It was a video of students from Hengshui Middle School doing morning exercises and reciting at 6 o'clock in the morning. The scene was extremely spectacular.
The old man told me that he personally did not agree with the model of Hengshui Middle School, and he still preferred a more Western-style, open, and divergent education. But in China, the model of Hengshui Middle School is very effective, and we must learn from their model. You see, Ren Zhengfei combines ideals with reality, and combines them very closely.
But then there was a problem. That night, in order to prepare for the video, the Huawei executives used my Huawei laptop, but it was very inconvenient during the preparation process. There were many problems with the video conversion between Huawei laptops and Apple laptops with the MAC system.
One executive complained, saying, "Mr. Ren, this Huawei laptop is not good, it's not working here, it's not working there, there are many problems. If it were an Apple laptop, it would have been done in two or three tries, but now it's been an hour and a half and it's still not done."
The old man was very happy when he heard this and said, "So the laptop has problems, right? Tomorrow, when Yu Chengdong comes to the meeting, you should bring it up." This is called "being pleased with criticism."
How did Huawei conquer the world? By seeking truth from facts and exposing all the problems. So Ren Zhengfei is always happy when he hears about problems and gets angry when he hears praises.
This entrepreneurial spirit is often something that cannot be sought. Sometimes we say "three mediocre people, top a Zhuge Liang." The power of the masses is infinite, and good ideas can emerge when people come together.
But in fact, running a business is not like this. The decision-making of business leaders is crucial, and their vision is also crucial. Therefore, improving one's own abilities is to give life to the company. The decline of abilities brings disasters to the company.
03 The road to destruction is wide, while the door to happiness is narrow.
We say that the beginning of correct strategic thinking is to have foresight and to surpass. But how many people today are full of complaints, complaining about the unfavorable overall environment, the unfavorable specific environment, the lack of funds, the market, and the stock market.
Opportunities lie within the complaints of others. This is strategic thinking.
Pay attention to this saying: the road to destruction is wide, while the door to happiness is narrow. Only a few people truly succeed. Only a few people can taste the huge waves.
So strategic thinking also has an important characteristic: never follow the crowd. If everyone is doing something, why should you do the same? Instead, you should "go against the grain." If they are doing that, I won't do it. I will do this. Never follow the crowd, have your own independent ideas, always look far ahead, and surpass the current difficulties and interests.
Why is it said, "Mount Tai collapses in front but remains unchanged in color, and the deer rises to the left without blinking"? It means that you must think clearly about what you want to do, what your goals are, be clear about them, be persistent in pursuing them, not be distracted by the deer rising to the left, and not be hindered by the collapse of Mount Tai in front of you.
But many people say that they don't have a specific place to practice. In fact, every day is a place for practice. Every day, we are being tested and trained. In the accumulation of time, we either grow or decline, either form strategic thinking or lose it. It is a process like this.
Since I joined the army, I have always written this sentence in my diary: Do difficult things, and you will gain something. No matter what you do, do difficult things, don't do things that are easy and familiar. Doing something that you can do with your eyes closed is called repetition, not improvement. Only by doing something you haven't done before can it be called a challenge.
Of course, there is also a kind of spirit. We see that Jack Ma was rejected everywhere before, and then he appeared. He has this kind of perseverance.
Our generation is full of smart people, with smart brains, but being smart alone is not enough.
So I tell my students, today it is not about whether you are smart or not, it is about whether you have the spirit to never turn back even when you hit a wall. What really brings you success is perseverance, not intelligence.
04 Knowledge is powerful only when applied.
Finally, I have talked about the decision-making and forward-thinking strategic wisdom of leaders, but how is this wisdom generated?
I think wisdom comes from two sources: learning and reading, and practice. For entrepreneurs, the latter is more important than the former, mainly from practice.
We have a saying, "Focus on application." What are we learning for? Learning an MBA, EMBA, learning a lot of things, but if you can't apply them, then it's useless. The knowledge you learn will always be something external to you, not yours. It's something that others have told you. When you apply it and it becomes your personal wisdom, then it is yours.
Learning is never empty. It is about how you apply what you have learned to your own practice, how you improve yourself through practice. This is the most fundamental progress.
So for entrepreneurs, you should not only learn from practice, learn while doing, learn while working. Another important thing is what? Learn through setbacks.
Experience is hidden in failures. When you are beaten up and bruised, experience emerges. Success studies and inspirational stories cannot provide anything beneficial. True experience is hidden in failures, not only your own failures but also the failures of others.
Mao Zedong once said that if a person can turn other people's things into their own, then this person is great. It is not about saying that I have to have a big fall and break my knees before I say that this place must not be crossed, there is a hurdle. If someone else has fallen, you don't have to fall, you can see how others fell and learn from their experience.
In addition to that, there should also be a kind of spirit. We see that Jack Ma was rejected everywhere before, and then he appeared. He has this kind of perseverance.
Our generation is full of smart people, with smart brains, but being smart alone is not enough.
So I tell my students, today it is not about whether you are smart or not, it is about whether you have the spirit to never turn back even when you hit a wall. What really brings you success is perseverance, not intelligence.