The hardships and entrepreneurial stories of modern celebrities

With the rapid development of social knowledge economy, more and more uncertainties are appearing in social development. A country's competitiveness is more based on innovation and entrepreneurial development. In this entrepreneurial society, there are many celebrity entrepreneurial stories that inspire us to move forward. So below is what I share, I hope it will be helpful to you. 1

The "Father of Red Bull" went from an annual salary of 92 yuan to a net worth of 65 billion

On the "2015 Hurun Rich List", there is an invisible and low-key rich man. He personally built the Reignwood empire, whose business spans many fields such as sports culture, tourism and leisure, functional beverages, international trade, real estate and property management. He is Yan Bin, chairman of the board of directors of Reignwood Group, a legendary Thai-Chinese wealthy man.

When it comes to Yan Bin, few people know about it. However, when it comes to the "Red Bull" beverage he founded, Beijing Reignwood International Building, Beijing Wardland Park, etc., many people suddenly realize that he is the holder of these projects. From a young man who was living in a foreign country by selling blood to become the most wealthy Chinese businessman in the world; from an educated youth who went to work in the countryside to join the ranks of wealthy businessmen in China and Thailand; this poor boy who was once impoverished , how did he step by step become the "Father of Red Bull" with a net worth of tens of billions?

Afraid of poverty, he had no choice but to go to Thailand to find a way out

In 1954, Yan Bin was born in a poor family in Shandong and graduated from junior high school at the age of 16. As an educated youth who had to go to the mountains and countryside in that era, he came to Lin County, Henan Province to join the team. In this extremely poor area on the border with Shanxi, he worked for a whole year and only earned 92 yuan. In this year, he has never seen white noodles, and all he eats is sweet potatoes every day.

Later, he was too afraid of poverty, so he chose to go to Thailand to find a new way of life.

When he first arrived in Thailand, he had no money and no food to eat, so Yan Bin sold blood to survive. Therefore, when he found a boss who was willing to take him on, the boss asked him how much he would pay, and his answer was simple: take care of the food. Among the apprentices who worked with Yan Bin in Chinatown, there were two mainlanders from Kunming. All three of them ate a lot, and Yan Bin, a northerner, ate better than the two southerners. The landlady was unhappy and said: The Yankees eat so much! So he had to eat one bowl for every meal, and then used his salary to buy rice, cook it and mix it with soy sauce to eat.

During his part-time job, Yan Bin was particularly diligent. Other apprentices would sleep until 8 o'clock before getting up, but he got up at 5 o'clock to clean the yard and make preparations for work. As a result, within two months, he was appointed manager by his boss.

It is precisely because of this kind of perseverance and persistence that ordinary people cannot achieve that Yan Bin finally founded Reignwood Group in Thailand at the age of 30 after years of hard work, mainly engaged in property, tourism, and international trade. Waiting for business. Later, it gradually became a very powerful enterprise among local overseas Chinese.

The first pot of gold came from real estate

Yan Bin said: "The first pot of gold for every successful person is the most difficult. My real first pot of gold came from The real estate made money in that building. Now this building is still in the center of Bangkok. Although the decoration is a bit older, it is a witness of history. ”

The Reignwood Building in Bangkok, Thailand is located in Bangkok. Lane 6 of Sukhumvit Road in the city center has a commercial location equivalent to Xidan in Beijing. There are two buildings and more than 300 companies renting them. 8 meters to the left of the building is the five-star Sofitel Hotel, 10 meters to the right is the four-star Dynasty Hotel, 5 meters behind is the quasi-five-star international apartment Omni Building, and in front is an iron gate. A closed castle-style private garden villa for wealthy people.

Within a 200-meter radius of the building, there are also famous Marriott hotels and Sheraton hotels. Compared with these buildings, the Reignwood Tower is not of a high standard in Thailand’s real estate industry: the houses are old, the facilities are outdated, and security is lax... But in this building, Yan Bin has set up the main offices in Bangkok, including Red Bull Vitamin Drink Thailand Co., Ltd., Reignwood Apartment Management Company and other institutions.

Betting heavily on the "Beard Project", market sensitivity relies on understanding

People who can achieve success often have a spirit of adventure in their bones. Although Yan Bin is low-key, every investment he makes makes a difference. It was a big gamble, although it was carefully planned.

1995 was a breakthrough year for Reignwood. It was in this year that he bought an unfinished building in Beijing and later developed it into the Reignwood International Building, a top business building in Beijing's CBD.

At that time, the Reignwood Building had been delayed for 12 years. It was a "bearded project" and a hot potato that no one dared to take on. At that time, Yan Bin approached a commercial bank president for a loan. The president said teasingly: "This building has been standing next to Chang'an Street for 12 years. If anyone can still build it, I will jump off the building." Go on." In addition, China had not implemented housing reform at that time, and the real estate market was not yet market-oriented and commercialized, so one can imagine how complex its operation was.

But in this case, Yan Bin won the bet. Nowadays, it is common to see political figures from various countries, chairman of large companies and celebrities coming and going. High-end cars such as Bentley and Rolls-Royce are also displayed at the entrance of the building all year round. The Thai Embassy in China was also located in the building.

Yan Bin has his own understanding of market sensitivity. He said: "Market sensitivity is not found in books. The key is whether you pay attention to this thing and whether you look at the market calmly. Enterprises To a certain extent, the market comes first. If you don’t know how to market, you won’t know your own consumer groups, and you won’t know your own market space, everything will be fake.”

Yan Bin added: "The successful response to the Asian financial crisis in 1997 is an example. I am not ashamed to say that many people admire me. People who came to Thailand from mainland China were able to turn their property into money in the first half of the financial crisis. All the cash was transferred back to the mainland. I can’t imagine that while other companies were investing in US dollars, and the country’s currency had nearly doubled in value at that time, I was making money. When I mentioned this, the financial community in Thailand criticized me. Thumbs up. Neither Thai Chinese nor Thai companies have this acuity. This still depends on understanding. I go to bed late and get up early every day, read a lot of newspapers in Chinese and English, and use my brain to think about it. ” >

Of course, Yan Bin’s investment has not always been smooth sailing, and he has also suffered major setbacks. In 1994, Reignwood Group leased more than 1,000 acres of land from Changping Nankou Town to build Wardland Paradise, which will become the largest paradise in Asia. However, the project ultimately failed due to undisclosed reasons and became the largest unfinished building in Asia. As demolition began in 2013, the once fairy tale dream was finally shattered, which became Yan Bin's eternal pain.

Spending 200 million on promotion, “Red Bull” became popular in China

Red Bull functional drink was born in Thailand and has a history of more than 40 years. When this drink was invented, it was at the beginning of Thailand's economy. This drink, which is cleverly combined with various nutrients, can refresh the mind, replenish physical strength, and taste good, quickly won people's love. After long-term and unremitting hard work, Red Bull has gradually taken root in Southeast Asia, Central Europe, Australia and other places, and has covered various surrounding countries and regions, continuously expanding the market, and has now become a famous brand marketing in more than 140 countries and regions. In the world's functional beverage industry, "Red Bull" is famous for its total sales volume and the largest number of countries and regions entered. Among them, in Thailand alone, the annual sales volume has reached 1 billion cans.

In 1995, Yan Bin began to return to China to invest. At that time, he saw the huge potential of the Chinese market and the significance of the "Red Bull" beverage to the social population, so he introduced "Red Bull" to China and established a Sino-foreign joint venture Red Bull Vitamin Beverage Co., Ltd. in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Therefore, Yan Bin is also known as the person who led the way for Red Bull to enter China.

According to people familiar with the matter, when Red Bull entered the Chinese market, the Ministry of Health conducted a period of inspection abroad on the testing and approval procedures of functional drinks. Later, after approval by the Ministry of Health, "Red Bull" was able to enter China.

Since there was no concept of energy drinks in China at that time, the relevant departments defined Red Bull drinks as special-purpose beverages.

When "Red Bull" entered the Chinese market, there was no concept of energy drinks in China, so the relevant departments defined the "Red Bull" beverage as a "special purpose beverage." As a high-priced product with distinct functions, Red Bull spent 200 million yuan on marketing alone in the first year. It can be said that it was very difficult in the early days. After the second year, "Red Bull" became really popular all over the country. The advertising slogan "Drink Red Bull when you are tired and sleepy" is well known to hundreds of millions of consumers.

In October 1998, Red Bull established a Beijing production base and set up its headquarters in Beijing with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. It was one of the largest Sino-foreign joint venture beverage companies in Beijing at the time.

Yan Bin said: "When an enterprise reaches a certain level, the market comes first. You don't know how to market, you don't know your own consumer groups, you don't know how to find your own market space, what? It’s all fake.”

Later, Red Bull became one of the well-known companies in the country that supported the Olympic bid and organized various activities to support sports. The slogan of Red Bull at that time was: to strengthen the Chinese people who are constantly striving for self-improvement and prosperity in the reform and opening up. Up to now, Red Bull beverage still occupies a large market share of functional beverages in China.

Workaholics who sleep standing up, employing people in an eclectic way

Some companies are trying their best to go public, while some industry leaders insist not to go public, such as Huawei, Wahaha, etc. Yan Binhe Ren Zhengfei and Zong Qinghou also refused to go public. In an interview with the media, Yan Bin once said, "Corporates have more responsibilities. Some people have worked hard to save a little money. Don't play in stocks and just do something industrial."

Yan Bin is a true workaholic. In an interview in 2012, Yan Bin said that he sleeps standing up, "I get up at 5 o'clock, and my mind is clear only when I get up early. I am a horse, and horses sleep standing up." "I have flown more than 1,300 hours around the world in a year, and spent 117 days on the plane. The cost of one minute is RMB 400,000." When the Reignwood International Building was under construction, he could go up and down 20 times a day. Check each layer to see why something went wrong.

Yan Bin uses an eclectic approach to employing young people, and often achieves miraculous results. He believes that "young managers are energetic, have a broad vision, are good at learning, have keen and thorough observations, have rich and novel imaginations, have the courage to abandon the old and pursue the new, and are good at adapting to changes."

In 2003, Yan Bin decided to appoint Fang Weizhong, who was 33 years old at the time, to take over as the CEO of Red Bull China. Another general, Guo Jie, was originally just an agent in Fujian, and was discovered by Yan Bin by chance. Step by step, he became his right-hand man. The performance of the two at Reignwood was truly extraordinary.

Being low-key and looking down on prosperity

After more than 20 years, Yan Bin has grown Reignwood Group into a company integrating sports and cultural industries, tourism and leisure vacations, functional beverages, and international trade. , real estate and property management, mineral resources and other industries. The group has established branches in Singapore, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and other countries.

For making Reignwood Group such a huge enterprise, what kind of person is Yan Bin himself? Under the influence of his low-key style, the outside world naturally doesn’t know much about him. According to an employee who once worked in his group, Yan Bin has a relatively "strong" personality and likes to live in the villa in Reignwood Manor most of the time.

Even when his president, Guo Jie, talks about his boss’s experiences, he will be very cautious in his words. When talking about Yan Bin’s experience and background, he will always make light of it. Although Yan Bin also has his own blog, except for the analysis of his "Red Bull" beverage development strategy, there is no introduction to his personal situation.

Even with huge wealth, Yan Bin still keeps a low profile. In fact, as long as he wants, he can go to the United States to play golf, taste red wine in a French farm, or go fishing in Jeju Island, South Korea, with just a phone call. But in Yan Bin's eyes, riding in a luxurious Bentley or a high-end private jet is no different from riding a bicycle in the 1970s, and there is nothing worth showing off.

With such a broad mind, extraordinary courage and talent, we believe that the story of Yan Bin and his Reignwood International will continue to be wonderful. 2

The second time she started her business, she only delivered noodles. Now Brother Greed is valued at 20 million

“We not only have feelings, but also a secret weapon.”

This is the slogan of Brother Greedy’s store in Chengdu Software Park.

Tianhua Road in Chengdu Software Park is known as the "Snack Street" by Chengdu people. There are many noodle restaurants, Chinese food and special delicacies on the small street of a few hundred meters. There are some dangerous places in the world and military strategists. The meaning of place.

The small store is full of style and crowded with customers. According to founder Chen Lan, Brother Greed is an emerging catering company that was officially launched in October last year because through two years of technological research and development, it has solved the problem of noodles not being kept for a long time after being cooked.

With this unique core technology advantage and broad market prospects, Brother Greed has opened up the reputation and market in the software park in just six months with the precise positioning of "we only deliver noodles".

It is said that this store was completed, decorated and opened in just one month.

“At that time, we discovered this store for sale by chance, but the landlord only gave us less than a week to raise funds, so we urgently launched a crowdfunding plan and within a short time In just three days, the crowdfunding amount was tripled." Speaking of the popularity of crowdfunding, Chen Lan couldn't hide her excitement.

This is Brother Chan’s first store.

According to Chen Lan, Brother Tan’s team is a cross-disciplinary professional team composed of advertising creatives, film and television directors, senior catering industry operations managers and executive chefs, with about 20 full-time employees.

Currently, Brother Greed has a production department, a brand department, and an operations department. In addition to quality assurance, it also has advantages that others do not have in the creation and promotion of its own brand.

Unique skills, only delivering noodles

In areas with dense office buildings and white-collar workers, takeout has naturally become a necessity.

And Chen Lan discovered the business opportunity.

Through research, she found that currently the only option for takeout is rice, but a large number of people like to eat noodles. Including my former colleagues from the north, they would rather eat two steamed buns than a box lunch.

Noodles, like rice, are staple foods and a necessity. Globally, the proportion of people who eat pasta is greater than that of rice. The proportions vary from region to region in China, but in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen where the majority of the immigrant population is, the proportion is relatively balanced.

“How big the takeout market is, the demand for outside delivery accounts for half of it.”

Finally, she raised a question. Is there a kind of noodles that can be taken out? She consulted many friends around her who like to eat noodles, and they all expressed that they really need such a bowl of noodles.

So, Chen Lan started a 2-year research and development journey, and this was Chen Lan’s second entrepreneurial venture.

They invested more than 1 million in product research and development in advance, including establishing infrastructure such as a central kitchen.

Currently, product standardization has been completed and a central kitchen with a target daily capacity of 2,000 servings has been built. The takeaway has been online for more than 100 days, and the proportion of regular customers has reached 60%.

More people will have this experience with takeaway noodles.

When the noodles are delivered to you, they are either lumpy or cold, which seriously affects the taste of the noodles.

In this regard, the technology that Chen Lan had painstakingly researched for two years finally came into use.

“Ensuring the taste of noodles is the core of our technology.”

She explained to i Dark Horse that noodles are actually connected through raw material selection, noodle production, product production and other links. buckle, and the final comprehensive result is presented.

Brother Greedy solved practical problems such as the noodles being unable to be stored for a long time after being cooked and the take-out affecting the taste by changing the ratio of flour, eggs and other ingredients in the noodles to never include any illegal additives.

As for the temperature issue during food delivery, Brother Chan maintains a constant temperature of 80 degrees throughout the process.

When i Dark Horse asked Chen Lan whether he would introduce other staple foods in the future, Chen Lan shook his head and said.

"'Taking out only noodles' is Brother Greedy's brand slogan. We want everyone to remember us at a glance. We want to achieve great results in the noodle segment"

It seems that when she said this, Chen Lan became more firm in her tone.

Of course, there are also some problems here in Chen Lan's view.

“In fact, this is a problem for the entire food delivery market, such as: the impact and restrictions of the platform on merchants, the troubles of third-party delivery customer experience, the early cost-burning of food delivery platforms, and the habit of consumers being greedy for cheap. ”

As for the claim that the food delivery platform is burning money, Chen Lan believes that Brother Greed will only invest relatively in infrastructure construction in the early stage of brand construction, and there is no such thing as burning money.

Nowadays, major platforms are constantly merging and reorganizing. I believe that through continuous adjustments, the market will become more rational and return to the essence of business, and the platform's money burning will gradually cool down.

Currently, Brother Greed’s valuation in the capital market has reached 20 million yuan. The repurchase rate for old customers can reach 60, and the repurchase rate for those who have consumed more than 10 times can reach 11.

Brother Chan’s next plan is to open 6-8 online *** stores within half a year.

Expanding the scope of distribution has also become a plan among its goals.

“Our future development model is physical experience stores that are takeout delivery points. In the future, we will cover the entire city, and office buildings within 2-3 kilometers of the physical store can cover our takeout.”

Second entrepreneurship, "painful" but also happy

Brother Greedy is Chen Lan's second entrepreneurship.

As a female entrepreneur, she has a heart full of curiosity about the world and the courage to try.

Before Chen Lan founded Senior Brother Greedy, he was the founder of Sichuan Sizhitang Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. It has been 7 years since then.

The establishment of "Senior Brother Greedy" is exactly what we mentioned before. She hopes to save this group of people in the office building who are "all-faced and unhappy". At the same time, she hopes to bring Chengdu's delicious food to Nationwide.

She said that she is happiest whenever she achieves a staged success or solves a major problem, and when she feels at her lowest, it is often when the company is short of money and talent.

“The most difficult thing is funds.” Chen Lan told i Dark Horse.

In her eyes, Senior Brother Yan’s team, direction, and goals are very clear, and the team members are also very professional and excellent in their respective fields, and everyone works hard.

For an idea to become a reality, the entire process needs to be continuously optimized, especially for a company with certain innovations like ours, so continuous trial and error in the early process is very important.

Entrepreneurship is a very wonderful process. You never know what will happen next moment. Life is full of infinite excitement, and of course it may also be scary. Entrepreneurs need to have a strong heart.

This is Chen Lan’s understanding of the meaning of entrepreneurship, and it is also a must-have for every entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is an ongoing state and a normal part of life.

In fact, it is not difficult to find that many entrepreneurs are unable to balance their own problems with their families.

For a female entrepreneur like Chen Lan, it is even more difficult to balance.

"Family understanding and support are the most important."

In her view, in the process of starting a business, family life can only be involved occasionally, and the quality of each activity must be improved to make the time together as enjoyable as possible.

In the absence of family members, you should communicate more with them and express yourself more to gain their heartfelt support.

“Now I may focus more on Brother Greed, hoping that it can become the number one brand of takeaway noodles in China.”

This is the last thing Chen Lan said to i Dark Horse. The words between the lines reveal the ambition of this ordinary woman, and at the same time, her love for Brother Greedy’s brand.

As said at the beginning, "We not only have feelings, but also have secret weapons."

I hope we can all receive this gourmet "business card" in the near future.

gt; gt; gt; Click on the next page to enter more related content