In the Internet era, there is no shortage of myths of overnight wealth.
But after getting rich, it is rare for people to make money and have to beg for food.
There's a guy —
19 years old, determined to achieve financial freedom before the age of 40;
At the age of 37, he cashed out 30 billion yuan from Ma Yun and became a billionaire;
At the age of 40, he smashed all his wealth, started everything from scratch, and started a cross-field business.
And that's not all.
Starting his business again, he was soon targeted by Tesla, the "industry boss" in the United States.
It even attracted a lawyer letter from the other side to thoroughly investigate the fledgling Chinese technology company.
He is the founder of UC and the founder of Xiaopeng Motors today - He Xiaopeng.
Some people say that He Xiaopeng's second entrepreneurship is a "versailles for the rich".
While shouting "financial freedom space void";
Make yourself happy with a company.
In fact, if it is for entertainment, He Xiaopeng does not have to pick the "new energy" crab with its mouth.
Building a car is a chore, and it is already a well-known secret in the industry.
As early as before entering the industry, the big brother Lei Jun also warned He Xiaopeng: Be prepared to "suffer hardships"!
Not only the reduction of material conditions from business class to economy class;
It is also the transformation of thinking from the Internet to physical manufacturing!
So, what is it that makes the rich man He Xiaopeng "ask for food" without hesitation?
What did he do to the point of attracting endless bombardment from Tesla, even going to court with him?
If you have also expected to achieve financial freedom before the age of 40, and you also want to experience a handful of "the emptiness of more money and less things", you may wish to join me in He Xiaopeng's entrepreneurial story and see how he has challenged the limits again and again and reached the peak!
This decade can be described as a brilliant moment for He Xiaopeng, who has continuously expanded his branches while also expanding into other fields.
There are also rumors that He Xiaopeng may be eyeing B2C retail e-commerce such as Chaoduoduo app. Under the impact of the Internet tide and the epidemic, the concept of low-cost good things has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the original price of thousands of luxury goods, tide brands can no longer attract emerging users, and the main base price retail tide duoduo and other platforms began to receive more people's attention, many 200 or so Adi, Chanel attracted millions of young people into the tide of more crazy robbery, perhaps this is the social embodiment of rational consumption upgrade.
He Xiaopeng was born in 1977 in Huangshi, Hubei Province, to parents who were ordinary workers.
Like all wage earners, Xiaopeng's parents work hard to earn money while doing their best to provide a good education for their son.
Their idea is simple: they hope that their son will study well, find a good job in the future, and then marry and have children and live this life in peace.
But as the saying goes, children are not free.
In 1995, He Xiaopeng was admitted to South China University of Technology in Guangzhou.
On the way to school, he "met" the "woman" who changed his life.
That was he Xiaopeng's first flight.
The clouds outside the window were surging and beautiful, but they failed to attract He Xiaopeng's attention.
At that time, all his attention was attracted by a book next to him.
Successful careers, fragrant car mansions, tens of millions of deposits... The "shocking" words in the book directly hit this child from a working family so hard that he could not find the north.
In this way, the middle-aged foreign woman in the book inadvertently became He Xiaopeng's first goal.
"For a student, that's a huge number, it's the pinnacle of life!" Since then, I've set myself my first life goal of achieving financial freedom by the age of 40. ”
In fact, earning enough money before middle age, and then living the second half of life at will, is it not everyone's dream?
How did He Xiaopeng do it?
When he arrived at college, He Xiaopeng knew that he was only good at reading, and it was impossible to achieve financial freedom before the age of 40.
In addition to his studies, he did not miss any opportunity to exercise his ability: actively participated in various club activities, competed for the cadres on duty, and worked part-time for several off-campus jobs... Because of his introverted and poor expression, he bought a bunch of books about speech eloquence in one go, and after reading it, he went to the computer city to become a promoter, forcing himself to polish and improve his communication skills.
Any success is not a "dream".
Holding out the greatest hopes, doing the best, maintaining the best mentality, and preparing for the worst is what a successful person should look like.
Fast forward to graduation season.
The counselor took a group of senior students to the internship unit for an interview: "Today's arrangement is two state-owned enterprises and a private enterprise, which company you want to go to, just get off at the door of the company." Everyone can think about it, after getting out of the car, you can't go to the next one. ”
Many students have targeted the "iron rice bowl of state-owned enterprises": "I heard that in state-owned enterprises, even begging for wives has an advantage." ”
But who knows, when he arrived at the door of the private company AsiaInfo Group, He Xiaopeng jumped out of the car without turning back.
The real stability is not that you have food to eat in this company, but that when you are strong enough, you have food everywhere you go!
In 1999, China's Internet was still in a barbaric period.
The NASDAQ index on the other side of the ocean has soared from 2,500 points to 5,000 points, while the domestic Internet users are only 2.1 million.
At that time, the "Internet" in people's mouths was similar to today's "artificial intelligence": more people heard about it, and fewer people saw it.
He Xiaopeng, who studies computers, is very clear: china's Internet urgently needs a spark to ignite this spark and then ignite the plains.
Therefore, he will choose the "road that few people take" and join the AsiaInfo Group, which is known as the "Internet Architect".
It is also He Xiaopeng's jump that pushed himself out of the original track and ran on the fast track of life.
However, no one expected that the "wind outlet" in He Xiaopeng's mouth would come so quickly!
He Xiaopeng, who joined AsiaInfo, was as hungry as he was in college: he did not miss any opportunity to learn knowledge and exercise skills. From development to operations, to customer service... All the posts on the Internet, he did it all over again.
As for how much salary he can get, He Xiaopeng, who is "bent on financial freedom", did not care too much.
And surprises are often bred in this cycle of boredom.
A year later, He Xiaopeng, who was immersed in hard work, suddenly received "a piece of paper": "Our company is listed, this is an equity agreement for you." ”
What does that mean?
That is to say, He Xiaopeng, who has just been working for two years and is only 23 years old, has already received 30,000 US dollars and can properly return to his hometown to settle down!
His parents also want him to quickly cash in his equity and go home to live a stable life.
However, he is He Xiaopeng who "wants to achieve financial freedom before the age of 40"!
How can you give up when your career has just picked up?
So, you see, a lot of times, the reason why we become mediocre is not because of vision, because of ability, but because it is too easy to give up, too easy to compromise with the world.
In fact, as long as you insist on it, the distance between you and your dreams will take a qualitative leap!
However, He Xiaopeng, who wished to stay in AsiaInfo, was not as happy as he imagined.
With the passage of time, He Xiaopeng's Internet played more and more slippery, but his heart became more and more empty.
Especially seeing the boss's five-figure payroll, and then looking at the thousands of yuan he received every month, He Xiaopeng decided: he could not spend any more.
The ceiling of the workplace is visible to the naked eye, and you can't wait until the day of "topping" to think of a way out!
Therefore, in the fourth year of Yaxin's work, He Xiaopeng resigned.
However, he did not liquidate his equity, let alone return to his hometown, but persuaded Liang Jie, who was also in AsiaInfo, and the two ran to Beijing to jointly set up UC Youshi.
"My motivation for starting a business is very simple, that is, out of the 'jealousy' of the 'poor and lower-middle peasants'."
To put it bluntly, the theme of the first venture is always to make money.
And if you want to make money, the first step is to be able to "live".
What he would do, and then look at what customers needed, He Xiaopeng decided to start from the old bank's "mailbox".
UCMail came into being, focusing on mobile phone mailbox business.
But after all, this is the strength of the old owner, and the weak UC is not an opponent at all. In addition, at that time, people were more accustomed to contacting by text message, and the acceptance of sending and receiving emails on mobile phones was very low.
As soon as he struck, He Xiaopeng was defeated.
However, there are two sides to everything.
Although he did not make UCMail, He Xiaopeng got to know a noble man on the road to entrepreneurship - Ding Lei.
As we all know, Ding Lei, the founder of NetEase, is also from the mailbox.
Moreover, if Xu Xin had not pulled him at a critical moment, I am afraid that there would be no later 126 and 163 free mailboxes.
In 2004, Ding Lei, the new richest man in China, became a candidate for China's top ten IT figures. Also selected were Yang Yuanqing, Chen Tianqiao, Li Dongsheng, Huang Guangyu, Lei Jun, Ren Zhengfei, Li Yanhong, Tian Xuning, Liang Jianzhang, Zhang Chaoyang, Ma Huateng, Zhou Hongyi, Ma Yun...
Among them, Tian Sooning is He Xiaopeng's former owner, the boss of AsiaInfo Group.
Hearing that two young men came out from AsiaInfo to make mobile phone mailboxes, Ding Lei was very interested, so he asked He Xiaopeng to come out to drink.
Looking at the entrepreneurs who have "no money, no land, and no resources" on the other side, Ding Lei seems to see himself a few years ago.
Perhaps it is the sympathy between the heroes, Ding Lei proudly auctioned out 800,000: "No equity, it is a simple personal loan." ”
In addition, NetEase's servers are also lent to you. I have been in Guangzhou all year round, and the office in Beijing is always empty, so you should go there. ”
Probably, Ding Lei himself did not expect that one of his inadvertent actions had spawned a "second largest browser in the world".
He Xiaopeng, who got the money, "turned around in a small boat", turned around and started UGWAP, focusing on mobile phone browsing business.
This time, they first analyzed many problems of mobile phone WAP at that time, such as what is slow, less content, and out of sync with the network... Then, in response to these pain points, a mixed operation method of mobile terminal and network server is adopted to finally open up the interconnection between mobile phone and PC. Coupled with the popularity of smart phones, the use of UGWAP internet access has quickly become a new fashion for the public.
In just one year, UC has more than 1 million registered users, and the server has expanded from 1 to 50.
Not only that, He Xiaopeng also successfully won the project of China Mobile's national mobile phone office system.
The future of UCWAP is bright!
However, He Xiaopeng, who was preparing to do a big job, suddenly found that 800,000 had been spent!
Some things, come early, come late, must be just right.
At that time, Lei Jun, the boss of Kingsoft, had just sold his excellent network to Amazon for 75 million US dollars. And He Xiaopeng's "neighbor" Li Xueling in NetEase's office happens to know Lei Jun's old friend Yu Yongfu.
At the beginning, Li Xueling wanted to introduce He Xiaopeng to Yu Yongfu and let the vice president of Lenovo Investment help the old brother.
Unexpectedly, the UC project did not pass the decision-making meeting and was rejected by Lenovo Investment. And Yu Yongfu was very optimistic about UC, so he went to find Lei Jun.
"Brother Rei, you have money in your hands now, and I happen to have a good project that will allow you to make money lying at home in the future."
After listening to Yu Yongfu's introduction, Lei Jun was also very happy: "You go to UC, I will vote." ”
You know, at that time, UC did not have a dime on the account, and He Xiaopeng and Liang Jie had to go out to borrow money almost every month.
But any normal person will not throw away the "vice president" and jump into the fire pit of UC.
So, why did Yu Yongfu take this risk?
It turned out that since its inception, the top level of UC has only had founders, not CEOs.
He Xiaopeng knows very well that his strength lies in being a product manager, while Liang Jie is a 100% technical leader.
Neither of them has the talent to be CEO.
It just so happens that Yu Yongfu, who has been in the investment industry for many years, wants to personally start a business.
Coupled with Lei Jun's "harsh" conditions, the three parties hit it off!
In this way, Yu Yongfu took 4 million yuan of funds and became the leader of UC.
This money has also become Lei Jun's most successful investment, doubling a thousand times in 8 years. Of course, these are all afterwords.
With Yu Yongfu, who understands management and capital; He Xiaopeng, who has many ideas and strong execution; liang Jie, who is practical and good at technical research, UC Univision began to soar!
From JAVA to Symbian, from Saipan to Android, from single tool to multi-tool, from multi-tool to a combination of tools and content... He Xiaopeng, who has excellent product capabilities, has dominated almost every transformation of UC and won a big victory.
UC's users also exceeded 400 million in an instant, once becoming synonymous with "mobile internet access".
Yu Yongfu, on the other hand, has expanded the team for 15 consecutive months, using superb resource integration capabilities to acquire more than a dozen large and small companies in one go.
"In the future, the market will no longer rumor who UC is acquired, only who UC has acquired!"
In 2013, Yu Yongfu spoke bravely.
No one expected that a year later, he would be punched in the face.
As the saying goes, trees make a big move.
UC, which has gradually become the responsibility of mobile Internet traffic, is being targeted by more and more capital.
The strongest of these is Alibaba.
After a series of capital operations, UC's largest shareholder has become Alibaba.
Seeing that his "child" had changed his surname, He Xiaopeng made a decision that was both cruel and wise - he wanted to sell UC.
Instead of watching the company being cannibalized by capital, it is better to cash out decisively.
In this way, in 2014, Alibaba bought UC Youshi for 30 billion yuan, which became the highest transaction price in the history of China's Internet at that time.
This year, He Xiaopeng was 37 years old.
The "whimsical" teenager on the plane at that time, after ten years of entrepreneurship, really dreamed of coming true!
From abandoning state-owned enterprises to CICA, to absorbing nutrition regardless of returns, to resolutely resigning to start a business, He Xiaopeng's journey is not smooth, but there are traces to follow.
Dare to dream, calm analysis, bold action, plus a little luck, success, is close at hand!
However, it is like a person who has been burying his head for a long time and rushing forward, and suddenly finds that he has reached the end. In a television interview, He Xiaopeng's face did not have the joy of victory, but instead said with a sad face: he was very "painful, empty, wandering, and did not know what the next goal was." ”
He had followed suit and bought an ocean cruise ship, but had never driven it twice.
Once with Yu Yongfu to eat 7 yuan fast food, afraid of being recognized, the two people secretly ate against the wall, but they were particularly happy.
Poverty limits our imagination!
Could it be that the richer people are, the less interested they are in spending money?
At least, this seemingly tedious Internet upstart with limited hobbies is like this.
Two days after UC was acquired, Tesla CEO Musk announced on Tesla's website that all Tesla patents would be published for free.
This allowed He Xiaopeng, who had just stepped down, to see new hope.
He concluded that China's electric vehicle market will surely become a new outlet in the future.
Therefore, He Xiaopeng, who has money and resources, has he just plunged into the field of car manufacturing?
Things are not as simple as imagined.
After selling UC to Alibaba, He Xiaopeng did not cut off with UC. Instead, he stayed at Alibaba and served as the president of the mobile business group and the chairman of Alibaba Games.
After discovering a new opportunity to "build a car", he was the first to propose to the company's senior management to draft a new project.
However, Ali, who has been doing online operations, thought that it was too bold to rush into physical manufacturing, so he rejected He Xiaopeng's suggestion.
However, He Xiaopeng did not have a dead heart.
He took out the hunger and thirst he had at CICA and began to make angel investment while learning Alibaba's management and operation model.
The only object of his investment was the later Xiaopeng Automobile.
At the end of 2014, Xiaopeng Automobile was officially established in Guangzhou, with 3 co-founders: Xia Heng, He Tao and Yang Chunlei.
Xia Heng is a high-achieving student majoring in automotive engineering at Tsinghua University. After graduation, he joined GAC Trumpchi and participated in the whole process of the birth of Trumpchi, and is a talent who truly makes mass production models from 0 to 1.
It can be said that Xia Heng has a bright future in GAC, but he does not know which gust of wind has blown He Xiaopeng here.
He Xiaopeng said to Xia Heng: "I want to build a team to build a 'Chinese Tesla' so that Chinese can drive their own electric cars." ”
This idea touched Xia Heng, and after thinking about it again and again, he resolutely left GAC and started Xiaopeng Automobile with two friends.
At this time, He Xiaopeng is only an angel investor of Xiaopeng Automobile, and together with him, he "entered the pit" with Li Xueling, Yu Yongfu and several other Internet bigwigs.
Fast forward to February 2017, he Xiaopeng's son was born.
Holding a baby at home, he suddenly received a phone call: "The upgrading of manufacturing industry and the upgrading of the travel industry have become the trend of the times." If you don't come out again, the window period will be gone! ”
Putting down the phone and looking at his son in his arms, He Xiaopeng suddenly experienced a midlife crisis.
"I should have done something different!"
Half a year later, on UC's 13th birthday, He Xiaopeng officially left Ali.
Daniel Zhang asked He Xiaopeng: How long do you plan to devote yourself to starting a business for the second time?
He Xiaopeng replied firmly: All in ten years!
"A round of entrepreneurship, bitter, spicy, sour, sweet and salty, returning to be a teenager!"
On the occasion of parting, He Xiaopeng left such a sentence on social networking sites.
He Xiaopeng, who came back again, was no longer the teenager who sat opposite Ding Lei and wanted nothing.
It is a big guy with rich contacts in the Internet circle, investment circle, and automobile circle.
Two months later, Xiaopeng Automobile became the first qualified Internet car manufacturer in China and won the first "new energy vehicle" green card in China.
Four months later, the first mass-produced car, the G3, was officially launched, becoming the first electric vehicle on the market to achieve mass production at that time.
A year later, with 2 billion yuan in financing, He Xiaopeng recruited Gu Junli, former head of Tesla Autopilot machine learning, Liu Minghui, former vice president of FAW Technology Research Institute, Zhao Qian, former Mazda auto designer, and chairman of JPMorgan Chase Asia Pacific Investment Bank. And so on.
In 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile won the annual sales championship of domestic brands in one fell swoop.
The glory of the original UC is faintly visible!
However, behind the achievements, there are not only flowers and applause, but also all kinds of obstructions and difficulties from all sides.
At the beginning of 2019, Tesla filed a complaint against Cao Guangzhi, the "perception supervisor" of Xiaopeng Motors, in court.
The reason is that Cao Guangzhi was a senior engineer at Tesla and was suspected of code plagiarism.
Subsequently, on the issue of "whether Cao Guangzhi violated the law", Tesla and Xiaopeng had many disputes.
In a statement, He Xiaopeng angrily denounced what the other party did as a naked bullying of young competitors!
Of course, Xiaopeng will not sit back and wait to be bullied.
When Tesla Model 3 entered China, He Xiaopeng first posted that model 3 does not have automatic driving and is not competitive. When the Xiaopeng P7 comes out, it will definitely crush Tesla!
In November 2020, on the day of the launch of the Xiaopeng P7, Musk shouted again, suggesting that Xiaopeng Motors was suspected of technical plagiarism.
In the face of this blatant provocation, He Xiaopeng did not use the public relations draft prepared by the team, but directly responded on the social platform:
Starting next year, in China's autonomous driving, you have to be mentally prepared to be beaten by us and can't find anything, as for the international, we will meet.
In December 2021, in a TV interview, the reporter again asked about Tesla's relationship with Xiaopeng.
He Xiaopeng generously said: Xiaopeng Automobile and Tesla are both friendly and rival.
He believes that Tesla is a good benchmark in the industry, and the product styles of the two companies are more similar. But as for man (Tesla CEO Musk), "I'm not like him at all."
Undoubtedly, this air confrontation with Tesla, the other side has only one purpose: to slow down the development process of Xiaopeng Motors.
And He Xiaopeng will also face a more severe and long entrepreneurial test.
After all, the battlefield of new energy vehicles has just been rolled out, and no one knows who will eventually spend it.
However, with the listing on the New York Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, it is believed that in the future electric vehicle market, there will be a ticket for Xiaopeng Motors.
One day, his 2-year-old son asked He Xiaopeng for a toy.
He Xiaopeng said in passing: Dad has no money.
"Then I'll make my own money."
"How do you earn?" Do you wash the dishes for your mom? ”
"Go build a car from Daddy!" The childish voice of the child resounded throughout the house.
After having financial freedom, He Xiaopeng finally ushered in his own life freedom.
Life is short, and exploration is endless.
What do you think of He Xiaopeng's courage to "challenge yourself and not waste this life"?