Chinese factory girls are on their way to the top. Wang Laichun is worth 58 billion. What is the current situation?

Factory girls refer to girls who drop out of school early and stay away from home to work in factories in big cities. This is just a title, praise or criticism depends on people’s understanding. But to say that factory girls can reach the pinnacle of life and have been selected into the "Forbes" list of China's richest people many times, I'm afraid few people believe it. After all, in most people's minds, working in a factory means a boring assembly line life. Workers stand at their work stations, facing the conveyor belt, facing thousands of products, and only perform two or three specific steps...

Such boring and repetitive work rarely leads to improvement. space. But success or failure depends on the individual. There is indeed one of the most awesome factory girls in our country. She was born in a rural area, graduated from junior high school, and worked at Foxconn for 10 years. But when she was 46 years old, the Daily Telegraph said, "She is one of the youngest self-made female billionaires in the world." She is Wang Laichun, chairman of Shenzhen Luxshare Precision.

Ten years of hard work at Foxconn

“Foxconn is the last bottom line for young people.” This is what a Foxconn employee said. Every year, many not-so-excellent young people are thrown into the torrent of society. When they do not have a diploma to open the doors of companies and enterprises, and they are faced with the pressure of life, some people will choose to enter the factory and work hard in the factory first. Blood, sweat, time and labor are sold in exchange for money.

Foxconn is the choice of many people, giving them a buffer of time. It is also the first social university for many people who dropped out of school early. Most people think that here you work for a day and get a day's salary, and this is definitely not a place to stay for a long time. But Wang Laichun doesn't think so, which is also related to her identity.

In 1988, Foxconn built its first processing plant in Shenzhen and hired 150 employees. Wang Laichun was 21 years old at the time. She was born in rural Chenghai, Chaoshan. After graduating from junior high school, she went home to do farm work. At that time, Foxconn happened to be recruiting workers in Wang Laichun's hometown. Wang Laichun tried to apply and was selected. After that, Wang Laichun left his hometown and came to Shenzhen and became a "veteran" employee of Foxconn.

Many factories now have dirty, messy and remote locations. I also knew that the conditions of Foxconn’s first processing plant would not be that good. In terms of food and accommodation, these employees are treated quite poorly. Female workers have a large shop, and male workers have a large shop. Not only was it very crowded, but they lived on the top floor, not to mention how hot it was. Many people have no choice but to make a bunk on the floor rather than sleep in a bed. Their food was not good either. Not only did they often stop drinking water, but the quality of the water was also very poor. The food they cooked was hard to swallow.

As a worker, it is very common to be squeezed by factories. Nowadays, in order to save costs and increase output, ordinary factories want employees to work 24 hours a day without rest, which has led to the creation of second and third shifts. The factory where Wang Laichun works often suffers from water and power outages. If there is a power outage, the machines will not start and there will be a backlog of work. This also means that even if there is a call in the early morning, employees have to get out of bed and work. Moreover, when there is electricity, working overtime for four or five hours is also a routine operation.

Many employees who came in the same batch did not survive and left. But Wang Laichun persisted. She is very studious and motivated. In order to enable employees to produce better, management cadres at that time often trained employees. Wang Laichun not only listened to it, but also held himself to higher work standards. In addition, she also paid attention to some management experience and lessons, and gradually enriched herself.

Every company claims that it attaches great importance to talents, and talented people can be promoted quickly. Generally, new factories are in urgent need of talents, and it is indeed easy to get ahead. As a "veteran-level" employee, Wang Laichun is hard-working, motivated, able to endure hardships, and diligent. If she is not promoted, who will be promoted? In ten years, Wang Laichun went from an ordinary factory girl on the assembly line to a senior executive in charge of thousands of people.

Entrepreneurship reaches the pinnacle of life

However, generally talented people will not let themselves be inferior to others forever. Wang Laichun has accumulated enough management experience during her ten years at Foxconn. She started from the grassroots level and has a clear understanding of Foxconn's various ways. Ten years later, Wang Laichun resigned. Terry Gou personally came to persuade her to stay, but when he learned about Wang Laichun's plan to start a business, he was very supportive of her.

In 2004, Wang Laichun established Luxshare Co., Ltd. through Hong Kong Luxshare Investment.

Wang Laichun did not deliberately avoid the business scope of her old employer. In fact, her entrepreneurial direction can be said to be consistent with Foxconn's. However, the two did not break up and compete maliciously. On the contrary, Foxconn also provided strong support to Wang Laichun in his early stages of entrepreneurship. At first, when Wang Laichun had no orders, Foxconn would give her some orders. Foxconn has also been Luxshare's largest customer for several years. Luxshare will produce products through third-party processing and then sell them to Foxconn.

Six years later, Luxshare was successfully listed, and Wang Laichun’s net worth reached 2.3 billion. After its listing, Luxshare grew bigger and bigger, and Wang Laichun's net worth also increased. He was selected into the "Forbes" China's richest list many times. In October 2015, Wang Laichun’s total wealth was 12 billion. In May 2017, her net worth doubled to 22.02 billion yuan. In March 2020, Wang Laichun, with a net worth of 58 billion yuan, ranked fourth in the "2020 Hurun Global Self-Made Richest Women List".

Wang Laichun has a successful career, and the problem with her early academic qualifications is no longer a problem. However, she still took the EMBA—Executive Master of Business Administration—Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School. When she appears on the podium and on the rich list, how many people still remember that she was just a factory girl who was born in a rural area, graduated from junior high school, and worked early? It is no exaggeration to say that Wang Laichun is the most awesome factory girl. By working at Foxconn, she changed her destiny and reached the pinnacle of her life.

(Please don’t be too sensitive. This is just a contrast. It does not mean to look down on rural areas, junior high school graduates and factory girls. In a secular sense, these three labels are indeed important in the job market and blind date market. There are natural disadvantages.)

There is no fixed method for success, but we can learn from it

As the saying goes, there is no fixed method for success. People cannot copy the experiences of many successful people, but people can always learn from them. Learn something in middle school. Wang Laichun's starting point in life was not advantageous. She was no different from thousands of factory girls. There are several lessons that can be learned from her success.

1. You can endure hardship, but don’t endure hardship blindly. Let every hardship you eat have its own value. It can be said that enduring hardship and standing hard work is a traditional virtue of the Chinese people. But why are there thousands of people working hard, but few are as successful as Wang Laichun? That's because many people just pass the time blindly and fail to seize the opportunity to improve themselves. The training in the factory sounds long and boring, but Wang Laichun kept accumulating despite suffering losses and showed himself to be diligent and progressive. Only then did he win the favor of his superiors and get promoted step by step.

Second, we need some opportunities and good choices. At that time, Wang Laichun was Foxconn's first batch of employees in mainland China, and she had always been very down-to-earth and very loyal to the factory. Even if such a person is slightly lacking in academic qualifications, but has sufficient ability and high qualifications, he will naturally be easily promoted. In some very mature large factories, when competing with tens of thousands of people, it is difficult for one person to stand out. If you can adapt to the hardships of working in a factory, the newly built branches of big factories may not be an option.

Third, establishing a good relationship with the original employer requires some skill. Ordinary people start a new business, and if they compete for business with the original owner when they are still fledgling, they will easily be suppressed by the original owner. Wang Laichun's Luxshare was instead supported by Foxconn. This has to be said to be her ability - including many aspects of life and work.

In short, Wang Laichun was originally from a rural area and graduated from junior high school, so he has a natural employment disadvantage. But by working at Foxconn for ten years, she accumulated work experience, management experience and network resources, and finally succeeded in starting a business. She was selected into the "Forbes" list of China's richest people many times. It must be said that she has achieved worldly success, reached the pinnacle of her life, and can be said to be the most awesome working girl.

For ordinary people, there is nothing wrong with working in a factory, even if you keep working, it is just a personal choice. However, there are also channels for promotion in part-time jobs. When people are enduring hardships and hard work, they might as well put in more effort to ensure that their hardships are not in vain. If time passes year by year, jumping from one factory to another, the age is wasted, the salary does not increase, the qualifications are not there, and there are a lot of injuries and illnesses, then the gain outweighs the loss.