What is the spirit of Yiwu?
Reporter: Yiwu businessmen have become a large number of the country, a high proportion of widely distributed operator groups. The rise of Yiwu merchants is not mainly due to a reigning big business, but a deep civil foundation and a large group strength. Most Yiwu businessmen are poor, starting from scratch, from the "grass roots" into a "tree", your entrepreneurial journey is no exception. So, what is driving, supporting you?
Zhou Xiaoguang: In addition to the reform and opening up the background of the times, good government guidance and market opportunities, mainly Yiwu this place of humanistic traditions and a spirit attached to Yiwu people over the centuries. I am not an expert scholar, can not use a few words to summarize it, I can only use their own understanding, their own words to elaborate.
Reporter: People want to see is the most simple, closest to the essence of things.
Zhou Xiaoguang: From the perspective of economic development, it can be said that Yiwu does not have a little advantage. Located in the central basin of Zhejiang, not by the sea, not along the border, the environment is closed, the land is less and barren, and production is not rich. I was born in a neighboring county of Yiwu, and the situation is similar.
In order to survive, our ancestors had to get out of the house, so there is a shoulder load of goods, hand rattles, to "chicken feathers for sugar" in exchange for a small profit business tradition. Such an environment and way of life, creating a Yiwu people can suffer, not afraid of difficulties, good at adapting to various environments of the tough character, as well as not to things not for, not to profit from the small and do not do a unique business philosophy. Yiwu's success today, also lies in the choice of who can not see who can not leave the small commodity industry.
Reporter: When you started the business, there must be a lot of hardship.
Zhou Xiaoguang: Yes. I was born in Zhuji City, a remote mountain village, in and out all by foot. At that time, the family life is very difficult, because the high school graduation did not go to college, the family is no longer able to provide me with the study, so only 17 years old, I went out of the house, to the outside world to find a job. My mother is twenty-three miles town people, from childhood often told me the story of chicken feather for sugar, these stories in the future course of entrepreneurship gave me a lot of courage and strength. Relying on a few dozen dollars of borrowed capital and a map of China, I have traveled half of China in more than seven years, from the icy Daxinganling Mountains in the north to the ethnic minority villages in Yunnan Province in the south, all of which have left my footprints. Daytime stalls selling embroidery pattern, night rush sleep station, relying on a penny a corner of the savings, save up 20,000 yuan, is the completion of the initial primitive accumulation.
Reporter: Perhaps without that period of life, there is no Zhou Xiaoguang today.
Zhou Xiaoguang: Of course. The hard life not only can sharpen the human will, cultivate the ability to survive and adapt to the environment, but also can learn from it, accumulate a lot of books can not learn things. For example, when I set up a stall to sell embroidery patterns, embroidery needles, many girls are interested in embroidery, I will teach them to embroider, they learned to go back to their own embroidery, my business is also done, which allows me to understand what is called the sense of service. Another example is that there are a few days of bad business, but go back to the cost of the road can not be saved, the time is also lost, so the next few days will have to sell a few more, otherwise we will have to lose money, which makes my brain sprouted the most primitive concept of costing.
Not only me, most of the Yiwu entrepreneurs have such a hard experience. These experiences have also created a lot of characteristics of modern Yiwu businessmen: for example, dare to break through, where there is a market, there are business opportunities, where there are Yiwu people, and no matter where you can put down roots; thrifty, some years ago, the market stepped on tricycles in the delivery of small commodities, many of which are hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars of the owner of the family, can not afford to hire in order to save a little bit of transportation costs, and until today there are still a lot of business owners to move their own Freight goods, there are good at learning, the concept of fast updating, action faster than the idea, focus on results and so on.