Text/Wang Xinxi
A few days ago, Dong Mingzhu mentioned Meng Yutong again at the induction ceremony of the 2023 college students of Gree Electric. Dong Mingzhu said that at that time, in the Xi program, he liked Meng Yutong's diligence and was selected to be a secretary, but he was unsatisfactory at work, and only thought of using the Gree platform to be an Internet celebrity himself, which had a bad impact in the company.
Dong Mingzhu said that just thinking about making more money is no different from the walking dead, money should not be the dream of college students, money is the result of struggle.
Money is the result of struggle, and young people have to learn things first
This has sparked heated discussions. In fact, people in the past era have a consensus, that is, young people should endure hardships first, learn things first, don't think about getting a high salary, want to succeed, you have to start from the bottom first, slowly temper your own experience and skills, and rise step by step. In Dong Mingzhu's view, as long as you struggle for a certain number of years, after reaching a certain position, money will naturally come, so she said, "Money should not be the dream of college students, money is the result of struggle." ”
But we know that in Dong Mingzhu's era, the workplace as a whole was stable, everyone worked hard in a company for several years or more than ten years, and there was an opportunity to rise slowly, in the eyes of the older generation, the company was home. In the past, there was no age discrimination in the workplace, and there was no so-called 35-year-old problem.
China's generation of post-70s and post-80s is actually significantly different from the post-90s, post-00s, and post-05s. They have endured no less hardships than the post-60s, and they have also eaten the dividends of China's development, and they are more respectful of changing their destiny through personal struggle, and they have also witnessed the great changes in China's reform and opening up in the past 50 years. Many of them have gone from being poor and white to having a car, a house and a career, in fact, they know that it is not easy for them to go all the way, they see the difficulty of China's development, and they also understand the difficulty of an enterprise like Gree.
This generation admires the spirit of struggle. In the past, when the post-80s first entered the workplace, they would feel that the entire job market atmosphere was that all companies needed experienced talents, and the longer the work experience, the more popular they were.
Therefore, at that time, the post-80s generation had a consensus similar to Dong Mingzhu, that is, young people should not think about how high the salary is when they first enter the workplace, but should precipitate well in this company, accumulate experience and contacts, and pave the way for their future promotions and salary increases or job hopping.
But today, the times have changed, and there are more and more insecure and unstable factors in the workplace, especially in today's market environment, which is very unfriendly to employees over 35 years old, which has exacerbated the mentality of this generation of young people who want to make quick money.
Since last year, it has been common for 35-year-olds and other older employees to be laid off and unable to find a job to run Didi and deliver food. When many of the author's post-80s friends tried to submit their resumes in the past two years, they found that they were sinking into the sea, which hit them hard. Therefore, the mentality of not daring to resign and "walking on thin ice" is very common.
When a 22-year-old young man graduates from college and enters the workplace, he will reach the age of 35 after 13 years of work, which is no longer easy to find a job at this age, which means that the past set of monsters and upgrades, the more experienced the more valuable the cognition is not valid. When people realize that the age of the workplace is getting shorter and shorter, it actually exacerbates the mentality of young people who want to make quick money, and also makes many people impatient to sink down, obsessed with the accumulation of years of work and experience precipitation, and prefer to make quick money in a short time.
Therefore, enterprises are too partial to young people, and at the age of 35 it has become an employment problem, "money is the result of struggle", and slowly precipitated in a position, with the rise of experience, qualifications and ability, the concept and path of slowly rising up has no longer become a consensus. Many people think about how to find a shortcut for themselves when they are young and find a stable back path after the age of 35.
It is too difficult to copy a Dong Mingzhu, but Internet celebrities give young people the opportunity to dream
And Internet celebrities actually give many young people a chance to dream.
As early as 2016, at the Beijing News "Looking for Chinese Makers" conference, Xu Xiaoping, founder of Zhen Fund, put forward a point of view: Internet celebrities are the most exciting phenomenon in 2016. Every entrepreneur should be an influencer. If you don't have the ability, potential, charm, and influence to become an influencer, then don't start a business.
The idea that every entrepreneur should become an influencer may be misleading for entrepreneurs. But today, it is undeniable that a successful Internet celebrity is also a success in the secular sense of the world, whether it is Dong Yonghui of New Oriental, or Li Jiaqi, the anchor with goods, and Brother Xiao Yang, who is a short video, are actually successful Internet celebrities, and their success is more attractive to young people.
After all, it is too difficult and bitter to copy a Dong Mingzhu, but although it is also difficult to become a successful Internet celebrity, there are many successful cases in reality. And the fame of Internet celebrities and the resources they bring are all for their own worth, get a lot of income, no longer have to look at the face of the leader, be cautious, from a personal point of view, isn't this a success?
And Meng Yutong was originally an Internet celebrity, he was running his own Xiaohongshu account before joining Gree, and when he joined Gree from a variety show, he appeared on the major hot search lists, and the topic of "Dong Mingzhu's successor" itself was created for the live broadcast to bring goods and drain traffic, but as a high-achieving student and Internet celebrity of Zhejiang University, he worked for Gree, and his monthly salary was only a few thousand yuan.
Of course, from a long-term perspective, everyone knows that if she reaches a certain number of years, her salary will increase much better, but this is facing uncertainty, because her fate is not in her own hands, but depends on how much Dong Mingzhu is willing to give.
Times have changed, and Dong Mingzhu needs to let go
In fact, anyone with a discerning eye knows that although Gree is a mixed state-owned enterprise, it can also be said to be a family business, and the successor in the future is not the Mingzhu lineage but also the shareholder lineage. Meng Yutong may also realize this and finally choose to leave.
And Meng Yutong, as a head Internet celebrity, can control his own destiny. According to a report by Zhejiang Daily Chao News, an internal personnel of an MCN company revealed that Meng Yutong has not signed any MCN company at present, but her number of fans is already the "top stream" in the head, and it is enough to start a company by herself. Previously, data from the Cicada Mother website showed that Meng Yutong's cooperation offer was 150,000 yuan/piece of pictures and texts, and 170,000 yuan/piece of video, while people familiar with the matter said that she currently has no offer on Xiaohongshu, and the price for a few months is between 180,000 yuan and 220,000 yuan.
If calculated at 180,000-220,000 yuan each, Meng Yutong's advertising revenue from Xiaohongshu alone may reach 4 million in a year and a half.
Dong Mingzhu may not realize that Meng Yutong is successful in the minds of young people, or in a secular sense, and she actually has a greater degree of freedom, is not constrained by the company, and does not need to look at the face of the leader, if she has her own team in the future, she has greater control over her life, and there is no so-called 35-year-old workplace anxiety, in fact, she is a success that is more envied by young people.
Dong Mingzhu believes that young people should start from the basics in a company and not work for money at the beginning, but the problem is that others can make more money at the beginning, have stronger certainty in life, and be able to control their own destiny earlier.
The world has changed, and everyone's success criteria and life choices are different.
Behind the collision of the values of the two generations, there is the great environmental impact of workplace insecurity, as well as the impact of the Internet era, the diversification of successful ways and life choices, and the more diversified values. Every life choice, as long as it follows the heart's choice, is not right or wrong. Everyone has their own path to follow and their own preferred way of life, and we should encourage diverse values and success criteria instead of imposing our own ideas on others.
Now that you have broken up, you should say goodbye with dignity. In today's era, the pressure exerted on young people by houses, cars, and children is very great, and young people work for money, and when it comes to dedication, young people no longer eat this set. Meng Yutong is a mirror, reflecting the mentality of young people at the moment, and Dong Mingzhu can't understand this mentality.
For today's mid-end manufacturing enterprises, they are actually facing the dilemma of not being able to retain people, which is due to the fact that there is a squeeze on employees in the manufacturing industry, and the pay is not proportional to the gain, and the lack of upward channels is related.
In fact, we have seen that in leading technology companies like Huawei, they all use real high salaries to retain talents, which is essentially treating talents as smart people. Therefore, if Dong Mingzhu still holds on to Meng Yutong, who has left his job, and preaches the view of not working for money, it is not conducive to young people entering the manufacturing industry. Gree is so good, why Meng Yutong would rather be an Internet celebrity than Gree's successor, the times have changed, Dong Mingzhu needs to let go and reflect.
Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission