The richest man's bureau: First Wang Youling and then Zuo Zongtang, why are they willing to be Hu Xueyan's money-making tools?
No one in this world will always have a smooth life, even if he is born rich, the future is not guaranteed to be smooth. Especially for those men who have achieved fame who have not fallen to the bottom? As the saying goes, it is not difficult to be poor and difficult to become an adult, and without hitting the naïve, the hero is the victor who crawls out of purgatory, and holding on means everything.
The life of Hu Xueyan, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, can be described as a legendary story, and posterity says that Hu Xueyan must learn from Hu Xueyan as a businessman, which is an affirmation of Hu Xueyan's personality and success.
From the cattle herder to the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, his legend is the best chicken soup boiled out
Hu Xueyan's family is poor, he has been a cattle herder since he was a child, but people are not poor, he started from an apprentice in a money house in Hangzhou, doing all kinds of dirty work, starting from sweeping the floor and pouring urine pots, step by step to become the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, his success is of course because of hard work, but the most important thing is that he knows how to grasp the opportunities of life.
Hu Xueyan said:
Men who want to become a big tool must understand three sentences, no money, no one has no background, and they can seize the opportunity to get ahead.
First Wang Youling and then Zuo Zongtang, why were they all willing to be driven by Hu Xueyan? Richest man: Do all three
First: recognize the current situation, with the help of the current situation, understand the charcoal to take chestnuts
Hu Xueyan is a master who recognizes the situation and knows how to follow the current, at the beginning he opened a money house, suffering from no political backing, official backstage, through a series of operations to get acquainted with the alternate Zhejiang Yan ambassador Wang Youling, thinking that this is a worthy of being a patron and investment of the official object, so he resolutely moved to borrow 500 yuan of money and silver tickets to make up for the official position, just like this, the two set up interest cooperation.
As Wang Youling became bigger and bigger, Hu Xueyan's business also became bigger and bigger, and during Wang Youling's tenure as the governor of Huzhou, Hu Xueyan also ran the Huzhou Silk Shop and Pharmacy; Wang Youling was promoted to inspector of Zhejiang, and Hu Xueyan also opened more money houses in Zhejiang, and even took advantage of the taiping army's war chaos to be entrusted by Wang Youling with heavy responsibilities such as grain ordnance and transportation.
Later, Wang Youling died because the Taiping Army broke the city, and Hu Xueyan, who had lost his political backing, immediately switched the door and hugged Zuo Zongtang's thigh, thus truly embarking on the road of official business.
It can be said that the starting point of Hu Xueyan's life began from the turmoil in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the chaotic world is good to get rich, and his smartest place is not that he can see the hidden opportunities in the danger, but that he understands that he has no political backing and the weakness of the official background that cannot be developed for a long time, so he tightly hugged the thighs of the officialdom and used the political power to take advantage of the charcoal, that is, to help himself realize the accumulation of money and wealth, and also to help the other party achieve the promotion of official positions, which can be described as a win-win situation.
Second: If you want to do great things, you must learn to share the win-win situation of benefits
Hu Xueyan believes that people who achieve great things must learn to share benefits, so that they can win-win.
After defecting to Zuo Zongtang, Hu Xueyan traveled to and from major treaty ports as an official and businessman, and in addition to handling grain, military supplies, and money banks, he used his identity and background to engage in trade activities in all walks of life, setting up business names, opening silver trumpets, and concurrently operating shops such as silk tea jade and medicinal materials, and in just a few years, his family property exceeded 10 million taels of silver, becoming the veritable richest man in the late Qing Dynasty.
Most importantly, in all his business activities, he operated industries that could serve the Xiang Army, on the one hand, it ensured the demand point of profitability in wartime, on the other hand, it also became the object of priority protection of the Xiang Army in wartime, and also took advantage of the opportunity of communication with foreigners to train more than a thousand people equipped with foreign guns and cannons for Zuo Zongtang, comprehensively deepening the ties of interests between the two sides, which can be called a win-win move, with both vision and pattern, and the courage to do things is really strong.
Third: The only constant in the world is human nature: bustling is all about profit
Hu Xueyan believes that understanding human nature is the most important prerequisite for a person to succeed, and only by deeply understanding human nature can he avoid various social traps, and can he meet the source left and right in cooperation with others, whether it is backed by Wang Youling or turning to Zuo Zongtang, he is stepping on the point:
The other person needs money, and he needs power.
The other party has the right but no money, they can bring them money, which is the value of the other party's interest needs, combined with their own interests and needs, each other's warmth, and finally achieve a win-win situation.
However, relying solely on the social status and identity of power and money is not stable enough, it also needs another corner: benevolence and fame, so as to build an "iron triangle of success":
To govern the world, to help the people, and to govern the country, that is, money, fame, and power.
After becoming the richest man in the government and business, he vigorously expanded the affairs of the Relief Bureau: extensively set up charity halls, porridge factories, and righteous mats to help poor and poor families survive the hardships of war and ensure the safety of their most basic rations; repaired Taoist temples so that the people's spiritual sustenance could be restored; took the lead in persuading donations, and encouraged the rich families of officials and gentry to help resettle displaced people after the war and economic recovery.
Hu Xueyan thus won the name of benevolence and righteousness, his reputation is very good, his credibility is very high, and he is no longer a businessman who is full of copper stink and puts interests first, but a righteous businessman who cherishes his homeland and the world, and thus his name remains in history.
Throughout Hu Xueyan's life, from the low-level cattle herding baby counterattack, to the Qianzhuang guy, to Wang Youling, who climbed the official field, and then to the generation of war god Zuo Zongtang! He is doing the overall situation of life step by step, whether it is the boss of the qianzhuang, or the later party member Wang Youling, or even the late Qing Dynasty war god Zuo Zongtang, in the eyes of Hu Xueyan, they are the best tools to make money, and Hu Xueyan also uses his superb strategic wisdom to make them willingly "make money" for themselves!
Hu Xueyan, there is a set of extraordinary rules for doing things, even if the final outcome is defeated in the struggle between politics and businessmen, it does not hinder the high level of his wisdom, which is worth reading carefully.