Let's talk about "Yiwu Spirit"

Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, Yiwu has created an economic miracle that attracts worldwide attention. Behind the success, what supports, inspires and pushes the Yiwu people who create miracles? How to understand and interpret the spirit of Yiwu? The people who have the most say in discussing Yiwu spirit are, of course, Yiwu entrepreneurs who embody and inherit Yiwu spirit. Zhou Xiaoguang, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Zhejiang Guangxin Jewelry, is one of them. Not long ago, the reporter specially interviewed Zhou Xiaoguang to start a dialogue on the refinement, inheritance and innovation of Yiwu spirit:

What is the spirit of Yiwu?

Reporter: Yiwu merchants have become a large number, high proportion and widely distributed operator group in China. The rise of Shang Yi lies not in the omnipotent big enterprises, but in the deep folk foundation and huge group strength. Most merchants in Yiwu were born in poverty and started from scratch, growing from "grass roots" to "big trees", and your entrepreneurial process is no exception. So, what is pushing and supporting you?

Zhou Xiaoguang: Apart from the background of reform and opening up, good government guidance and market opportunities, mainly the humanistic tradition of Yiwu, are a spirit attached to Yiwu people for thousands of years. I am not an expert and scholar, so I can't sum it up in a few simple sentences. I can only explain it with my own understanding and words.

Reporter: What people want to see is the simplest and closest to the essence.

Zhou Xiaoguang: From the perspective of economic development, it can be said that Yiwu has no advantages. Located in the central Zhejiang basin, one is not near the sea and the other is not along the border. The environment is closed, the land is scarce and barren, and the production is not rich. I was born in Yiwu, a neighboring county, and the situation is similar.

In order to survive, our ancestors had to go out of their homes, so there was a business tradition of carrying the burden of vendors on their shoulders and shaking rattles for meager profits. Such a living environment and way of making a living have created the tough character of Yiwu people who can endure hardships, are not afraid of difficulties, and are good at adapting to various environments, as well as their unique business philosophy of not doing things honestly and not doing things for small profits. The success of Yiwu today lies in choosing a small commodity industry that no one looks down upon but no one can live without.

Reporter: When you started your business, you must have had a lot of hardships, right?

Zhou Xiaoguang: Yes. I was born in a remote mountain village in Zhuji, and I walked in and out completely. At that time, life at home was very difficult, because I didn't go to college after graduating from high school, and my family didn't have the money to study any more. At the age of 17, I went out to look for a job. My mother comes from 23 Li Town. She used to tell me stories about exchanging chicken feathers for sugar since she was a child. These stories gave me great courage and strength in the process of starting a business in the future. With borrowed funds of several tens of dollars and a map of China, I have traveled all over China in more than seven years, leaving my footprints in the snowy area of Daxing 'anling in the north and the ethnic minority villages in Yunnan in the south. Set up a stall to sell embroidery patterns during the day and sleep at the station at night. By saving a dime, I saved 20 thousand yuan, which is the initial primitive accumulation.

Reporter: Maybe without that life, there would be no light of Zhou Xiaoyun today.

Zhou Xiaoguang: Of course. Hard life can not only temper people's will, but also cultivate their ability to survive and adapt to the environment. You can also learn from it and accumulate many things that books can't learn. For example, when I set up a stall to sell embroidery patterns and needles, many girls were interested in embroidery, so I taught them manual embroidery. They learned to go back and embroider by themselves, and my business was completed, which made me understand what service consciousness is. For example, for a few days, business was bad, and I couldn't save the travel expenses, which delayed the time. So I have to sell more pieces in the next few days, or I will lose money, which makes my mind sprout the most primitive concept of cost accounting.

Not only me, but also most entrepreneurs in Yiwu have such a hard experience. These experiences have also created many characteristics of modern Yiwu businessmen: for example, they dare to take risks, where there are markets and business opportunities, there are Yiwu people, where they can take root; Diligent and thrifty, in the past few years, many people who delivered goods by tricycle in the small commodity market were bosses with a net worth of hundreds of thousands or millions. They don't want to hire people just to save transportation costs. Until today, there are still many operators who move goods by themselves. They are good at learning, updating their ideas quickly, acting faster than their ideas and paying attention to practical results.