Studying hard is better than anything else

There are many good things to do during the Chinese New Year, but cleaning is not the best thing. It caused back pain and leg cramps. It's already 8:40 in the evening. No matter how much work there is, it's impossible to finish it all at once, so let's do it piece by piece and continue tomorrow.

Let’s talk about the life experience of running a small business for 18 years. The elders in Zichuan have a saying: "Business does not produce characters." I have pondered this saying for many years.

Don’t underestimate the dialect of your hometown. Many dialects and slang contain unbreakable truths. It’s just that we are limited by our life experience, life experience, vision, and knowledge, and we can’t get their essence for the time being. It’s not that these words are too vulgar, stupid, or useless.

Later, one day, I suddenly realized it.

Why does business not produce characters?

Doing business, especially small business, must be worth every penny. Fight every minute.

This dispute has two levels. First, the cost of doing small business is small and the profit is small. If you don't argue for a penny or a penny, you will not care about a dime or a dollar. If you do it three times, you will lose money.

Second, you can’t see this fraction at ordinary times, but once you start running, you will find that this fraction is crucial. I even earned it here and there, working for a long time, after taking into account freight, warehouse fees, door rental fees, taxes, market management fees, Internet fees, telephone fees, meal expenses, water money, electricity money, gas money,... and finally... Earned a small amount of money.

To dryly say that data is boring, let me give you an example. Anyway, more than ten years have passed since the incident, and I am no longer in business, so it won’t have any impact if I say it.

Do you remember the "XXX" health thermos cup that was a big hit in the winter of 2009? One is a straight cup and the other is an office cup with a handle. One package is 24 pieces. When our wholesalers deliver goods, a box of goods is called one piece regardless of its size or the number of packages.

At that time, everything was sold in pharmacies, and all you had to do was swipe your card. You can buy toilet paper, sanitary napkins, even oxygen bottles and oxygen concentrators.

At that time, I supplied several pharmacies in Zichuan. Of course, the volume of shipments is mainly from overseas customers. They sell the office cup style for 498 yuan each; the straight cup style, they sell it for 298 yuan each.

The net profit of each of them is (450) yuan and (270) yuan.

I’m not talking about making money, I’m talking about business. For each item, there are 24 pieces, and I can earn 40 yuan per day after excluding expenses. Less? Few indeed. Just make some hard money.

Even so, one drugstore still held off my payment for half a year, and their proprietress used me as a chestnut to pressure other suppliers. I became a humiliating joke in the wholesale market. Every time she called to ask for payment, she either said she had no money or she was attending a meeting out of town. I said there is a goods list and your purchase signature. I can just go to the accountant and get the money!

She said that others haven’t handled it and don’t know, so it can’t be done. She had to give me the money in person. Even calling once a week to ask for a bill won't do. I think I have to work hard. I have to call at least once every half a month to ask for a bill.

Finally, a bunch of returns were thrown at me. I can't even accept the return, there's nothing I can do, she's withholding my money. In fact, I lost money doing business with her family.

Don’t go into too many details. If you say too much, everyone will be right.

Let bygones be bygones. Hahaha, forget it. If she is happy, she cheats us, but if she is not happy, we will feel sorry for her.

What’s so sad about this? It’s a long story.

Back then, on January 12, 2003, I came to Zichuan Garment City to do business.

In the summer of 2004 or 2005, I went to the pharmacy to get medicine for my father who had coronary heart disease. I met the lady who ran the pharmacy at that time.

Why are you so impressed?

I took medicines from various pharmacies in Zichuan City at that time, and hers was the most frequent.

Because her pharmacy is right on my way home. Along the way.

Once, while she was chatting with another pharmacist, she grabbed three doses of medicine for me. And I didn't blame or make things difficult for her.

She separated the three medicines bit by bit with her hands.

If you leave this matter to others, they may not do it. I'm afraid that the three doses of medicine are not evenly mixed, so I might not take it anymore, and I'll give her a hard time.

There is a reason why I don’t argue with her. It’s not just that I have a weak character, I’m afraid of getting into trouble, and I like to forgive others.

Also because I majored in traditional Chinese medicine, I still had the basic skills at that time, and I prescribed the medicine myself. The square bottom is Master Zhongjing’s "Guard, Trichosanthes, and White Wine Soup". I can add and subtract myself. When I take medicines, I always give them orally, one by one, and I don’t leave prescriptions for the pharmacies.

I won’t ask for advice, so as not to end up doing bad things with good intentions.

Because everyone's condition and development status are different, it is not advisable to rely on trees and pictures to find success.

I can tell you one detail that proves that I am not talking nonsense. I used (xx) grams of Trichosanthes trichosanthes in the recipe.

Friends with a foundation in traditional Chinese medicine can understand that this dose is rarely used clinically.

Oral prescriptions and grams can be understood as being confident and careful; it can also be understood as being young and frivolous. But it worked great for my father's heart disease.

Later, the herbal medicines were so cheap that they couldn’t be kept for a long time, so I asked my mother, a classmate from a vocational technical secondary school who runs a health center at home, to help me buy Chinese herbal medicines in batches and put them at home. The classmate is a male and lives in Longquan, Zichuan. I used the traditional Chinese medicine scale I bought to prepare and prepare medicine for my father every day. Most people boil Chinese medicine twice, but I boil it three times. Finally, grate and press the medicinal residue again. Pursue maximum efficacy.

Ordinarily, as a long-time acquaintance, she should take care of my business. She eats meat and I drink soup, right? Moreover, in 7 or 8 years, her family's business has doubled many times. Pharmacies are an industry with high barriers to entry, so there is no shortage of money. Why are you pressuring me?

Not only did she not miss the old friendship, she also deliberately took advantage of me. After becoming rich, my face changed. This is what makes me really sad.

Very sad, isn't it? no way. Money is hard to make and food is hard to eat. Who told us that we couldn't study well when we were studying, so we could only do this.

It’s funny to say that many times, after hauling a tricycle full of goods, a business cost tens of thousands, and in the end, I earned a hundred or eighty yuan. But that’s how business is, if you want to increase sales, you must make a small profit.

Even though the profits are so thin, many people are still jealous. I'll put obstacles and traps on you, and try every possible way to trap you. Obviously, they are all colleagues. Seeing that you are busy with business, he feels unbalanced and angry. All kinds of evil tricks will harm you. The dark side of human nature is exposed.

In the past, the largest number of large trucks hauling goods had 22 wheels. At that time, I took more goods from Zichuan Tongguan Consignment Station. There are also other freight stations, which are relatively less frequent.

In the month when sales were the best, the owner of the cargo station said that three trucks came in a day, and my goods could fit into one truck. Because there are several kinds of goods. Even for one kind of product, sometimes the quantity is large and several manufacturers deliver it at the same time, and it may not be able to fit into one truck.

That year was probably the peak moment of my life, but also the darkest moment. I picked up a copycat mobile phone with a ticker and was blinded by the manufacturer's waiter.

Why?

I didn’t receive the goods they promised to deliver yesterday morning. The purchase volume was too large, they themselves were out of stock, and they were afraid of losing big customers, so they could only lie. I asked them what they wanted and she had it, but the goods couldn't be delivered. Delay things. I lost credibility with my clients, couldn't make any money, got scolded, and was scolded like a grandson. How could I not get angry? !

In fact, customers make the bulk of the money. All I earned was the hard work of a stevedore. I was often scolded and cried on the other end of the phone.

That really delays people from making a lot of money - take a product as an example, 24 pieces/450 soft sister coins, 24 pieces/250 soft sister coins. net profit.

There is no way, who told us not to study hard when we are studying?

That’s too far.

Because people with a background in business know that money is hard to make, they take money very seriously. If people take money very seriously, their vision will naturally become short-sighted. You will lose your human touch. Naturally, it is difficult to achieve a career.

However, if you really want to do big things, if you want to go long, far, and well, you must rely on loyalty, integrity, kindness, and human touch.

Postscript: I have been disliked by my wife for many years because of my lazy, casual and cowardly character. I didn’t make many friends at the wholesale market. I even wondered if there was something wrong with my interpersonal relationships.

Later, I wrote poems and novels to relieve the negative emotions accumulated in the business world. What I never dreamed of was that I would gain many high-quality friendships through writing.

Not only did I have literary friends from all over the world, I also met some experts, scholars, professors, outstanding entrepreneurs, as well as department and bureau-level leaders, retired leaders who have held important positions, and national-level artists. They never took the initiative to show their identity. They communicated with me on an equal footing like friends and were very tolerant. They were gentle and kind, without any airs.

I have never been criticized for my recklessness or the roughness of my works.

As a street vendor who has never had dignity and suffered from bullying, the happiness of being cared for and respected by others is a huge supporting force. It warmed me like a bright bonfire, and it also inspired me to have the desire to help others as much as I could, and I have already put it into action.

Be grateful for the past and grateful for the future. I wish everyone good health, happiness and peace in the new year! (Uncle Cha’s essay, January 19, 2022, 21:38)