In 2015, Shi Yigong began to participate in the founding of Westlake University. The first problem he faced at that time was: it was difficult to find money. This problem made Shi Yigong, who had been proud for half a lifetime, unable to lick his face and ask for money from others. He even said bitterly: Why Internet celebrities can make money by taking pictures.
What happened behind this, we walked into the story of Shi Yigong's founding of Westlake University.
In the program "Face to Face", the host listened to Shi Yigong talk about the responsibilities of Tsinghua people. She looked at Shi Yigong and asked slowly: "It's hard for me to imagine what a scene would be like for a person with an academic background like you to ask for money from society."
After Shi Yigong thought about it, he summed up the process in one word: embarrassment.
According to his recollections, the first time he went to ask for money, he was looking for his good friend for many years, "Wang Donghui", the chairman of Rongzhilian.
I was asked why I was the first to come to him because he was the only entrepreneur I knew who was particularly wealthy.
But even so, when he went to find Wang Donghui, he was still helpless. He went to Wang Donghui's office and talked for a whole hour and a half about why Westlake University must have it, why it is so important to China, and why it is so important to the people.
He talked a lot about the mission and vision of Westlake University, but he couldn't say it, that one sentence: Westlake University needs to donate.
Because in half a lifetime, Shi Yigong never asked for money from others. What's more, he has a strong sense of bookishness, and he can't open his mouth to ask for money from others.
In the process of Shi Yigong's continuous narration, Wang Donghui interrupted his speech and directly pointed out Shi Yigong's intentions, saying: Professor Shi, I know that you need me to donate to Westlake University. Say, how much money do you need?
Shi Yigong listened, did not expect the other party to be so direct, his heart pounded. He replied in a hurry: Recruiting people to collect donations is indeed our plan. We want to have five or six founding donors when Westlake University is founded.
At the same time, we will also announce that everyone has donated 100 million or more funds. In this way, Westlake University has the first step to start.
One hundred million is not a small amount, Wang Donghui said directly after listening to it: Such a large donation, I need to go home and discuss with my wife and tomorrow morning.
Shi Yigong listened, such an excuse, this one hundred million is gone.
He was even prepared not to receive the phone the next day, who expected, the next day at eight o'clock, Wang Donghui's phone called into Shi Yigong's mobile phone.
Shi Yigong hurriedly picked up the phone and said: You said one hundred million, our family has decided to support you. But we have a condition, you said there must be five or six founding donors, so this money, wait until you find these people, we will donate.
This pressure returned to Shi Yigong, because Wang Donghui only gave Shi Yigong four months.
To find so many founding donors in such a short period of time, the pressure can be imagined.
Shi Yigong had to hurry to find the donor, in the process of fundraising for Westlake University, Shi Yigong, who has been an educator in the school for decades, came into close contact with the reality of society for the first time, and also understood too much helplessness. He has been rejected by many, but he has been touched by more people.
In the process of fundraising, it was not smooth sailing, and during that time, Shi Yigong's mind was all about finding money and finding money.
He saw some Internet celebrities, took pictures, and once downloaded, she could earn money. Sometimes, he would think about when Shi Yigong had such ability.
Such remarks are slightly sad.
However, there are also entrepreneurs who make Shi Yigong moved to tears.
Once, he and a small entrepreneur, Deng Ying, talked about the concept of Westlake University. In Shi Yigong's office, after Deng Ying listened, his blood boiled, and he immediately decided to donate 30 million to Westlake University.
However, Deng Ying's enterprises also have a turnover of 100 million yuan a year, and there are still hundreds of people to feed. These thirty million are already very rare for him.
After a few days, Deng Ying called Shi Yigong and said embarrassedly: Professor Shi, I'm sorry, I can only donate 10 million. Shi Yigong understands the difficulties of the other party, so small-scale enterprises, it is already remarkable that they can come up with ten million.
Shi Yigong said gratefully: Ten million is already very good, and you are not easy.
After that, Deng Ying hoped that Shi Yigong could have a meal with his wife, and Shi Yigong agreed.
It was this meeting that made Shi Yigong's heart deeply moved.
It turned out that when we met, Shi Yigong talked about the founder concept of Westlake University again as usual. After Listening, Deng Ying's wife patted the table with great excitement and said in a thick Henan accent: Brother, I also want to be the founding donor of West Lake University.
Shi Yigong hurriedly said that the conditions for the founding donors are not low, and the number of one hundred million is too much.
Unexpectedly, Mrs. Deng Ying said that our family left a property of 100 million yuan for the child. At this moment, Shi Yigong was stunned, he did not expect that the couple was so supportive of education.
What is even more unexpected is that after the children of Deng Ying and his wife learned of this news, it is very good that you donated money to education, and I am not unable to rely on myself.
All this made Shi Yigong moved.
He said that Westlake University was founded to give better soil for scientific research. What we have to do is to be at the forefront of the world and make very epochal scientific breakthroughs such as the Goldbach conjecture, Newton's three laws, and Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Such scientific research breakthroughs will bring pride to the Chinese and will fundamentally change the development of human beings in the whole society.
But these developments take time and require the understanding and support of society.
What makes Shi Yi open up is that people in the society not only understand, but also try their best to support.
In 2018, Westlake University was established, Westlake University was established with quality and scientific research, which is a private new type of university focusing on high-end research, drawing on the model of California Institute of Technology and Stanford University's educational philosophy, with "high starting point, small and fine, research-oriented" as the positioning.
In just a few years, Westlake University has also done a lot of outstanding things. And Westlake University's recent target.
It is to create the future intelligent manufacturing technology, for the current domestic high-precision electronic 3D printing, with new materials as the core to break through the limit of 3D printing accuracy, the design of a new 3D printing functional materials, can achieve 100 nanometers to micron level electronic 3D printing, mainly focused on microwave communications, photoelectric interconnection, high-precision three-dimensional packaging and other high-end areas of the system.
Westlake University is developing rapidly, which is inseparable from the leadership of President Shi Yigong, and even more without the support of various entrepreneurs in the society.