As the king of glass, Cao Dewang is now almost a household name, but what many people don't know is that his brother Cao Degan's experience is also legendary!
Cao Degan's resume is very clear: "Cao Degan was the secretary of the Zhangzhou Municipal Cpc Committee from 1993 to 1999; from 1999 to 2003, he was the vice governor of the Fujian Provincial People's Government; from 2003 to 2008, he was the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress..."
Obviously, Cao Degan was proud of the spring breeze in the official field, and the brothers, one as an official and one from business, actually made great achievements, and had to make everyone sigh a sentence of genetic astonishment.
But then again, for the public figure Cao Dewang, this matter is not so simple, in the past people did not know about his brother Cao Degan, but now when they think of Cao Degan, who has been an official in Fujian Province for many years, everyone can't help but think of four words - collusion between officials and businessmen.
Everyone is speculating that Cao Dewang's business was so successful that year, and he started from scratch step by step, was it really self-made or was there another reason? His brother, who was an official, could not have watched his brother being wronged and not help at all! For a businessman, political resources are more valuable than any amount of money.
The outside world has been questioned, so that the temperamental Cao Dewang had to personally find a reporter to respond in person, saying that since he started his business, he has never used any of his brother's political resources, which can be regarded as calming the discussion.
In fact, from the perspective of the timeline, when Cao Dewang was starting a business, his brother Cao Degan should actually be just a very small civil servant in the provincial government, even if he wanted to help his brother, he was afraid that he would not be able to do it, and when his brother rose step by step, Cao Dewang had already become a well-known rich businessman in Fujian Province.
Therefore, from this point of view, Cao Degan did not have the conditions to help his brother no matter what. So the myth of self-made has not been broken, and Cao Dewang is still an admirable businessman.
The beginning of the business
Cao Dewang's life can be said to be a legend, in the past, Cao Dewang was also a rich family, his grandfather was a rich businessman in Fujian, his father inherited his grandfather's property, but also did business in Shanghai, opened Yong'an Department Store.
Unfortunately, Cao Dewang's father's luck was not very good, at that time it was still the old society, although this part of Shanghai was full of gold, but there was a conflict where there were interests, Cao Dewang's father, as an outsider, could not stay in Shanghai, a mixed place, so he decided to stop the loss in time, sold the Shanghai family property, and returned to his hometown in Fujian by boat.
When Cao Dewang's father returned home, he put all his possessions on the freighter. But the unfortunate thing has been like a shadow since then, a sea accident, actually led to the sinking of the freighter, Cao Dewang's father worked hard for half a lifetime, and finally all the savings were given to the Dragon King, and the good life of the Cao Dewang family was temporarily over.
When his father still had money, Cao Dewang and his brother were also the little young master of Jin Zunyugui, and there were several nannies around him, but now there was nothing left, and the family could only struggle to make a living, but Cao Dewang was unexpectedly very talented in business, in order to supplement the family, he began to study how to make money from an early age.
However, when Cao Dewang was young, doing business was not an easy task, it was easy to be identified as a speculator, and the risk of reselling goods also had to risk squatting in prison, but he was reluctant to let the child set the wolf, and Cao Dewang began his own business exploration in a state of anxiety.
Cao Dewang first sold tobacco, this thing is highly profitable, widely sold, but it is also the most likely to be treated as smuggling, so after selling for a period of time, Cao Dewang felt that it was not OK, although he wanted to make money, but there was no need to really put himself into it for half a lifetime.
Therefore, in order to be a little safer, Cao Dewang changed to selling fruit, riding his bicycle to the town every day before dawn to buy goods, and then taking it to the market to trade privately with people.
At that time, most of cao Dewang's need to walk was mountain roads, and when the purchase returned, it was often noon.
At that time, the temperature in Fujian could even reach 40 degrees, people who walked on the road normally could not stand it, and Cao Dewang's bicycle back seat was still riding 300 pounds of fruit, Cao Dewang's whole person seemed to have just been fished out of the water, tanned a circle, but also tired of a thin circle, but at the end of the day, in fact, the income was only two yuan.
Of course, in that era, two yuan was quite a great income, but all this was exchanged for Cao Dewang's own blood and sweat, and every day when he returned home, Cao Dewang's feet were ground out of a layer of blood bubbles.
The mother looked at the pain and shed tears, Cao Dewang did not think that this was a big deal, making money, who did not suffer, if they were afraid of suffering, their own big son would starve to death.
Because he was busy doing business and supporting his family, Cao Dewang left school early. Although there is no way to continue to study in school, society itself is a big classroom, in this big class, Cao Dewang has sold cigarettes, sold wine, sold fruits, and later ran to other places to grow white fungus.
It can be said that he has tried and contacted people from all walks of life, in such an environment, less than 20 years old, Cao Dewang has become much more mature than his peers, and no one can deceive him.
Doing business is to be smart, stupid in the business field can not eat at all, and Cao Dewang is a very smart person, and willing to work hard, willing to endure hardships, so his later success is not at all unexpected.
In 1975, Cao Dewang carefully counted his wealth and found that he already had a full 50,000 pieces in his hand.
At that time, the country's economy was not too developed, a person had 50,000 yuan in his hand, which was simply money that many people could not earn in a lifetime, and Cao Dewang realized that he was born to eat the bowl of business.
At that time, there was not even a reform and opening up, Cao Dewang was able to make such a sum of money, and after the reform and opening up, Cao Dewang's road was wider.
In 1983, the town's glass factory was facing closure, so Cao Dewang immediately decided to pay for the contract of this glass factory that was about to close down, determined to be his own boss.
Prior to this, Cao Dewang had been a buyer in this glass factory for several years, and his main job was to sell the glass in the factory, which was a necessity, but if he wanted to make the business bigger and stronger, he also needed some wisdom.
At that time, the reform and opening up had just begun, in the eyes of many people, doing business is still not a serious business, besides, a glass factory that was already half dead before, even if it changes a master, it may not be able to come back to life, Cao Dewang does not believe in evil, he feels that as long as the assembly line can produce products, he is sure to sell.
In 1984, a chance gave Cao Dewang a huge inspiration.
The opportunity is rare
In 1984, Cao Dewang went to the scenic spot to travel, holding a bamboo crutch bought for his mother in the local area, when passing a car, the driver was very panicked to remind him to take good care of the crutch in his hand, do not scratch his car glass, otherwise he will lose a lot of money.
Cao Dewang had been the owner of the glass factory for a year at that time, and he had also done a lot of business, but in the face of the driver's words, Cao Dewang was a little suspicious. He thought, how much is a piece of glass worth?
However, Cao Dewang thought again, his brain suddenly turned a corner, before that, although he sold glass, he could not sell automotive glass, most of China's automotive glass needed to be imported, so the price may not be the same as the ordinary glass produced by Cao Dewang.
Full of curiosity, Cao Dewang decided to go to the auto repair shop to take a turn, confirm his guess, and sure enough, after arriving at the auto repair shop, the price of the car glass almost made Cao Dewang stare out of his eyes, a piece of auto glass The cheapest is 6,000 yuan, 6,000 yuan in the 80s, how big is that?
This price even today many people do not understand, the production cost of glass is not high, even if the car glass needs higher technology, it will not be so amazing, is the car repair shop really not sitting on the ground to start the price, fraud?
In fact, it is really not, because china did not have the manufacturing technology of automotive glass at that time, so it could only be purchased from abroad at a high price, and the price of automotive glass was not only very high, it was not easy to really change a good piece of glass.
First of all, it is necessary to book from the repair shop, and then the repair shop has to contact foreign manufacturers to ship, and when a piece of glass crosses the ocean, it may have passed a month, so the price of a piece of car glass is even more than all the parts on the car combined.
In this case, although many people can afford to buy a car, but do not dare to easily replace the car glass, sometimes the car glass really has a problem, you can only take the tape to paste, make it up, it is also a characteristic of the times. However, such a thing as glass can not be made up, and once it is made up, it is easy to have more serious accidents.
Cao Dewang's thoughts in his mind at this time came out one by one, he thought, Isn't it just a piece of car glass? If foreign countries can build, China can naturally build.
If you can make automotive glass, first, you can break the monopoly of foreign technology, and second, your own career can also go to a higher level. After making up his mind, Cao Dewang immediately ran back to his glass factory, saying that from today onwards, the business in the factory will be changed, and it will not be ordinary glass, but automotive glass.
But still that sentence, to open up new industries must have technology, at that time the whole country can have the only way to manufacture automotive glass technology is Shanghai Yaohua Glass Factory, although the big manufacturers in Shanghai and Cao Dewang, the local small boss has nothing to do, but Cao Dewang This person is not afraid of challenges, as long as people have, everything is easy to do.
He immediately ran to Shanghai, took out 20,000 yuan, said that he wanted to buy drawings, which was a sky-high price, so a drawing quickly arrived in Cao Dewang's hands, but Shanghai also had some doubts, what is the use of buying a drawing for 20,000 yuan? Cao Dewang has no materials in his hands!
At that time, everyone shook their heads, thinking that Cao Dewang this guy also dared to think too much, just to create an assembly line, I am afraid it will take him ten years of effort, but did not expect that within half a year, Cao Dewang excitedly told the Shanghai side that he has prepared the materials, and can start construction immediately, where did the materials come from?
Of course, Cao Dewangtian found it in the south china sea, in order to find these relatively scarce materials, Cao Dewang ran from Inner Mongolia to Xinjiang, and then from Xinjiang to Henan, in short, all the promising provinces have gone through, and sure enough, as long as they have worked hard, there is nothing in the world that cannot be done.
In the eighth month of Cao Dewang's purchase of drawings, his assembly line finally began to work, which is really amazing speed, very quickly, the whole country knows, there is a glass factory owner named Cao Dewang can actually make car glass, all of a sudden, Cao Dewang's phone was exploded, everyone has asked for it.
And Cao Dewang did not sit on the ground to start the price, but said that his glass is using domestic materials, there is no import fee, so as long as 1,000 yuan can buy a piece, compared to the foreign 6,000 yuan of high-priced glass, this 1,000 yuan is simply to make people feel that the pie in the sky, so the order like flowing water rushed to Cao Dewang's small glass factory.
In 1987, Cao Dewang officially named his company Fujian Yaohua Glass Factory, ambitiously preparing to do a bigger career, Cao Dewang's automotive glass manufacturing has become the leader of the country, everyone envied the red eyes, thinking, how did he not do it in the first place?
But success is definitely not accidental, being the first person to eat crabs requires courage, and only when you turn over the mountain will you find that the original mountain climbing is not so difficult.
Of course, as a pioneer, Cao Dewang is not without detours, in the initial glass factory business booming, Cao Dewang also thought, do you want to do something else?
To this end, he also really invested in some department stores or clothing production, etc., but in the end, Cao Dewang found that his income did not get the return he wanted, although it was not a loss, but it was far less successful than his glass factory.
At this time, Cao Dewang thought bitterly and thought to himself, do you have to be a fully flowering talent? Can you just focus on the acre and three points of land in front of you? This does sound a bit unambitious, any entrepreneur, which one does not want to develop comprehensively?
Especially those entrepreneurs in the United States and Europe, everyone is eager to monopolize all the industries in the country, but Cao Dewang said at this time that he only wanted to make glass, which seemed strange.
However, Cao Dewang's shrewdness can be more than others, of course, he knows what is the most correct way, sometimes, everything is wanted, but there is nothing, so if you can concentrate on doing the glass well, in the future, it will also be a world.
It is precisely because of this mentality that Cao Dewang once again changed his strategy, no longer considering others, but concentrating on making his own glass, not only to be the first in China, but also to be the first in the world.
Nowadays, we have to say admiration to Cao Dewang, concentrate on doing an industry, it is simple to say, it is too difficult to do, there are so many temptations outside, as if every industry is an opportunity, in this case, a big boss with a lot of family assets can only do glass with peace of mind, which actually requires more courage than getting involved in other industries.
After all, this matter, successful, is a model in the hearts of the world, failure, but it can be nailed to the column of shame and can not come.
Cao Dewang's concentration has been duly rewarded, his glass is getting better and better, when China begged Western countries to sell us glass, but now, instead, Cao Dewang has sold glass to China in large quantities, and now it is different from the past, we Chinese the glass we made ourselves, which has long been better than the quality of Western countries.
Over the years, Cao Dewang's glass has been exported to the world, the name of the glass king is well deserved, in his entire entrepreneurial process, in fact, did not get much help, most of the time, he is in front of the thorns. If his brother had been promoted earlier, he might not have encountered so many ups and downs.
However, with tempering, infinite courage and wisdom will be born, and a person who lives in a good situation all his life is certainly a blessing that dare not be imagined, but suffering is also wealth.
Cao Dewang still feels that his childhood and adolescent experiences have given him a lifetime of help, in his own words: "The poverty of a young age is a precious asset to my life."
The poverty of my youth did not make me feel that life was very hard, and I could suffer a lot and enjoy myself. Poverty is also a kind of tempering of the will, and after suffering, everything is more comfortable now than then. ”
Social responsibility
After the business became bigger and bigger, Cao Dewang had a new hobby, that is, to do charity, the poor are alone, and the da is also good for the world, which is an act that is admired by gentlemen in China from ancient times to the present. Cao Dewang had money in his hands, so he wanted to do something to the best of his ability.
Someone has given Cao Dewang statistics, in 1983 he donated for the first time, as of 2020, Cao Dewang's cumulative personal donations reached 12 billion yuan, which is the highest in China, so cao Dewang's money is enough to donate another richest man.
Cao Dewang is very capable of making money, but his name is always at the end of the rich list, so many young people do not know which Cao Dewang is, his personal assets are not much, and fighting with others is not dominant, but as we all know, Cao Dewang makes a lot of money, so where does his money go? Of course it was donated.
Everyone says that businessmen seek profits, although businessmen want a reputation for charity, but most of them are richer and more slammed, the more they earn, the more difficult it is to donate, some capitalists do not say to donate money, they are eager to cry poor, and take the money of the poor into their own hands.
In contrast, Cao Dewang is really much, he donates money and does not engage in any fancy name, that is, a lump sum of money, money donated, built a school, built a road, changed a hospital, Cao Dewang of course can not get any income, so many people admire him, saying that he is not only the king of glass, but also the king of charity.
However, when Cao Dewang heard people praise him for his kindness, he felt that he exaggerated too much, and he said very bluntly: "People say that I have a big hand, this is not right, I donate billions, may be and ordinary employees donate dozens of yuan is not too much, are doing their best, this is nothing to boast, others donate dozens of pieces are not exaggerated, so there is no need to praise me." ”
Cao Dewang's lifelong pleasure is of course not to be a scrooge, in contrast, he enjoys the fun of pioneering and enterprising, enjoys the process of making money, but he feels that there is no need to keep the money in his hands, over the years he has earned more and more money, but the donation of money is more and more generous.
Cao Dewang had already said that before he died, he had to donate the money in his hand.
Speaking of which, doing charity is not a whim, Cao Dewang originally made a little money, he ran to his original primary school, replaced the school with new tables and chairs benches, since then, wherever he meets the need for himself, Cao Dewang can help some, which is a sense of responsibility as an entrepreneur.
Shi Enmo forgot to report that Cao Dewang's mother often taught him that Cao Dewang himself was also living a poor life, so he could feel more empathy for the mood of the poor, and while doing charity, Cao Dewang also opened many of his branches to poor counties to create as many jobs as possible.
As the saying goes, poverty alleviation is the first to help the aspirations, the poor have a job, there is a head, charity is also a meaningful cause, to do a good job in this work, is a win-win thing.
The people thanked him and said that he was the first good person in China, but Cao Dewang said: "I am just a businessman, and the real first good should be a person like Yuan Longping, I am too small in comparison." ”
Decades of time have passed quickly, but Cao Dewang's state of mind is the same as before, he still adheres to his principles, engages in industry, and does charity, in the eyes of some people, Cao Dewang seems to have fallen a little behind, and now it is the era of network technology, but Cao Dewang has to continue to do his own industry.
Manufacturing industry does not have the tertiary industry to make money, but the manufacturing industry is the real backbone of the nation, Cao Dewang also had worries in the past few years, the manufacturing industry is indeed a bit outdated, coupled with the backwardness of some business models, the increase in social pressure, willing to devote themselves to manufacturing, into the assembly line of young people is getting less and less every day.
If this continues, it is really difficult to say what this industry will become in the future.
Even the glass king, can not help but feel confused in the tide of the times, but after the confusion, Cao Dewang still maintains an optimistic attitude, an era has an era of choice, manufacturing is the foundation, is not killed, he has experienced many different periods, each time can find a new way, this time, it is the same.
Cao Dewang also said: Even if you can't think of a way, the next generation of young people will always have new ideas, and there are talented people in jiangshan generations, and they can't give up hope!
His glass factory has long become a golden signboard, no one thought at the beginning, a small trader can finally go so far, but everything is not without a trace, self-help, god help, success needs luck, needs a doorway, but more need their own strong ability, the miracle, it is Cao Dewang himself.