On Feb. 10, 1963, a pair of twins was born to a poor family surnamed Chen in Anding village in Yangzhong, Jiangsu province. As there had been a son and a daughter, the arrival of the twins not only failed to bring joy to the couple, but also made them worry, after all, with the family's conditions, it is difficult to feed so many children. It was also on this day that a fetus was also born in the Shi family.
Unfortunately, it died shortly after birth, which made the Shi family sad. After all, the child they had managed to conceive with great difficulty did not survive, and in their grief, they were especially looking forward to having a child.
So, after negotiations between the Shi and Chen families, the younger brother of the Chen twins was given to the Shi family and named Shi Zhengrong, and his fate took a turn for the worse. The Shi family is not rich, but compared to Shi Zhengrong's original family, it is still naturally more generous. The family's generosity, although they later gave birth to their own children, but they still treat Shi Zhengrong as if he were their own, not only to his heart, but also continue to provide him with education.
Shi Zhengrong has known about his birth since he was a child. Although his adoptive parents treated him well, he always had no sense of peace. So he grew up very understanding, filial to his adoptive parents. Especially learning, he is hard and diligent, the results are constantly second to none.
The 16-year-old Shi Zhengrong is the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination, he successfully entered Changchun University of Science and Technology, studying in the optical instrumentation major. After graduating from the university, 20-year-old Shi Zhengrong, and then enrolled in the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Optical Fine Mechanical Research Institute, studying for a master's degree. At that time, China is short of talent, about the cultivation of talent is also spared no effort, like Shi Zhengrong such talented people, naturally got the attention of the state. So, after obtaining his master's degree, he studied at the University of New South Wales in Australia at public expense, and studied under Prof. Martin Green, an international authority on solar cells.
During the study period, Shi Zhengrong quickly gained the attention of Prof. Martin Green through his outstanding performance. He not only published a number of high-quality doctoral dissertations, but also obtained a number of patents through his research from time to time.
In 1993, after obtaining his doctoral degree, Shi Zhengrong did not think of serving his motherland, but became a researcher of a research institute under the recommendation of Prof. Martin Green. He then took Australian citizenship and married and had children there, leading a fairly affluent middle-class life.
But Shi Zhengrong is not satisfied with this kind of quiet and affluent life. He was still young, and that kind of ordinary life apparently bored him too much.
At the time, China was in the midst of a wave of change and opening up, and many people were going into business, including many winners. Looking at these people on the rich list, Shi Zhengrong also hoped that one day he would be among them.
Being compared to those who go to sea to do business with the lucky children, Shi Zhengrong thought, I have more advantages than them. On the one hand, I have a deep research in the photovoltaic specialty, and there are more than 10 patents alone. This is equivalent to he has others do not have science and technology, with photovoltaic in China is still in the blank area. In other words, he will be the first to eat crabs, and this of course makes it easier for him to win.
So Shi Zhengrong quit his lucrative job as a researcher in 2000, sold his family's assets, and returned to China with his wife and children with 400,000 U.S. dollars in his pocket.
At first, Shi Zhengrong lobbied around, and he said to people, "Just 8 million U.S. dollars, I can invent a world's first big enterprise."
At that time, although some people made a lot of money, but 8 million U.S. dollars is still a lot of money. Coupled with the "photovoltaic" is a rusty vocabulary, in the business of the sea of business people understand that people can never earn outside the cognitive wealth, unless by luck. And this kind of luck to get the wealth, often with the strength of the loss, so they are very cautious about investment, not to mention Shi Zhengrong looks so god, very some of the temperament of the salesman.
Not only did the businessmen distrust Shi, but government officials were also unimpressed with him and thought he was a fraud, so he was often kicked out of his office.
But Shi Zhengrong, a self-satisfied man, wasn't discouraged, and after he tried again and again, he finally met someone who was willing to believe in him -- Li Yanren.
Li Yanren is the former director of the Wuxi Municipal Economic Commission, then once retired from the second line, is planning to make a pen investment.
So, when Shi Zhengrong to Li Yanren depicted some photovoltaic industry after the beautiful prospects, two eyes light Li Yanren, immediately resolved to collaborate with Shi Zhengrong.
Li Yanren applied his years of contacts, not only the support of the Wuxi government, but also the name of the state-owned enterprises, are enlisted to stop financing. Eventually, under his efforts, a **** financing of 6 million U.S. dollars. Plus Shi Zhengrong's 400,000 U.S. dollars and his 1.6 million U.S. dollars worth of patented technology, set up the company's capital is considered to be in place.
Subsequently, under the support of the Wuxi government, Shi Zhengrong was not only granted free industrial land, but also to get the tax and other aspects of the preferential policies. Thus, the Sino-Australian joint venture Wuxi Suntech Solar Power Co.
While everything is haphazardly stopped, but in Shi Zhengrong's view, entrepreneurship, after all, is not like doing scientific research. In the beginning, he also experienced a lot of difficulties, and even due to the business orders are only a few, the operation of several times are facing a dilemma. The company's personnel activity is also very large, several important center of the technical staff also jumped ship.
The most unforgettable thing for Shi Zhengrong is that at that time, because of the shortfall in income, not only with his collaboration with the enterprise to move the company's equipment to pay off the bill, and even cleaning the company's employees, due to the contract of 20,000 yuan, but also pointing to his nose, he spoke out of turn.
Just when at a loss, Li Yanren again stepped forward. Under his lobbying, Swan, Mountain Harvest Pharmaceuticals and many other enterprises again contributed 50 million yuan of money. Wuxi government also in order to set up the model of attracting investment, for suntech solar power limited company pulled 50 million low-interest loans. Also in the ability to reach the scope, has given Shi Zhengrong 11 consumer projects. After many efforts, Shi Zhengrong finally through the difficult times.
With the full support of the government and the financial backing of many corporations. But the most fortunate thing is that it happened that Germany announced the New Energy Law. This not only makes the countries on the huge increase in demand for photovoltaic, at the same time the government sizable subsidies, but also for photovoltaic energy has played a role in fueling the fire.
Suntech Solar Power Co., Ltd, mainly consumes photovoltaic cells and modules. Because of the quality of production, plus the value is 2 points lower than that of foreign companies. So foreign companies have signed orders with Suntech Solar Power, which made Suntech Solar Power quickly turn a loss into a profit. And in the 3rd year of the company's establishment, the performance has been doubled dozens of times more, just one year's sales are billions of dollars, such performance myth, at that time stunned all the people.
Shi Zhengrong, as a leading figure in the photovoltaic industry, naturally attracted the attention of the media, and he was not only called "China's first photovoltaic," but also a mention of him, people will be on him to use all the words of praise. Indeed, it is his introduction of the rusty industry of photovoltaic into the country, so that the gap between the domestic photovoltaic industry and the world's level has been shortened by as much as 15 years. So in everyone's eyes, he is not a simple industrialist, he is a scientist-style industrialist.
At that time, the photovoltaic industry became the most promising green industry, more than 300 cities across the country are scrambling to create a photovoltaic industrial park with an output value of more than 100 billion yuan, and the country also listed the photovoltaic industry as the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan". And the state in order to encourage the photovoltaic industry, but also gave a higher subsidy.
In a good situation, Shi Zhengrong but proceeded to get rid of his hands and feet of the public administrators, and the first to separate the company is the company's founding of the great achievements of Li Yanren.
Li Yanren, who has been an official, became chairman of the company, and he knew how to use political tricks to build up his authority in the company and gang up to form his own power. Executives who refused to submit to him were ostracized by him and eventually had to jump ship to other companies.
And Li Yanren was often so proud of himself that he thought Shi Zhengrong only knew technology and basically didn't know how to deal with people. So he thought that the company is he applied him those relations to form up, which also let him to Shi Zhengrong is very not in the eyes. Not only often in front of the staff to belittle Shi Zhengrong's talent, but also repeatedly without Shi Zhengrong consultation, they nodded some important resolutions.
In Shi Zhengrong's view, the management of the company, had presented a big problem, so he started from Li Yannian, and Li Yannian hold power gradually pulled out. For example, when Li Yannian left, he only took away 1 million yuan of money and the Flying Spur car that he drove for many years.
Then Shi Zhengrong paid for the shares of the eight state-owned enterprise shareholders who financed the project in the first place, and made them quit the board of directors successively.
By this point, Shi Zhengrong felt that no one would ever tell him what to do again. So with his efforts, Suntech Solar Power Co. went public in the United States in the second half of 2005.
To say, at this time Shi Zhengrong is really a legend, because in just 4 years, he let the money like a snowball, quickly reached more than 18 billion assets. And as a result, he refreshed the list of richest people and became the first generation of the richest.
The victory came so quickly that Shi Zhengrong seemed a bit oblivious. He said, "From today onward, I will no longer earn a penny, I only spend money."
Shi Zhengrong practiced his resolution. If in the early days of his business, he often visited workshops and crowded into cafeterias with workers to eat boxed lunches, today he rarely makes an appearance at the company. He spends a lot of time abroad, either having dinner with U.S. Vice President Al Gore or talking business with Britain's Prince Charles, or he attends events with Australian movie queen Cate Blanchett.
To be worthy of the title of "richest man", Shi Zhengrong also traveled very ostentatiously. He went to participate in the Davos Forum, spent 200,000 U.S. dollars chartered a business jet, while he also hired six bodyguards to protect him and his family.
Shi Zhengrong, who has always been fond of luxury cars, has purchased three Lexuses, a BMW, a Flying Spur S600, a top-of-the-line Bentley, a Land Rover and a Volvo. He emphasizes on etiquette, and when he meets different people, he always drives different cars according to the status and temperament of the other party.
Being out of the country, Shi Zhengrong's reputation has spread abroad, with Britain's Guardian naming him one of the "50 people who can save the planet". The Suntech Solar Power Co., Ltd. he founded was also called "the Microsoft of the photovoltaic industry" by Wall Street in the United States.
At that time, Shi Zhengrong was almost so popular in China that reporters waited outside his home or company every day just to interview him. Many serious activities and celebrity gatherings would invite him to add color.
Enjoying the feeling of being surrounded by stars, Shi Zhengrong's style is also getting bigger and bigger.
By the end of 2000, as the market of photovoltaic industry started to go downhill, in the summit of the new energy industry, Shi Zhengrong was very nonchalant in front of the crowd, pointing at the government officials and counterparts, saying: "You should go back to reflect on the right."
What goes around comes around, and Shi Zhengrong's brilliance didn't last long.
Because of the rapid expansion of the domestic photovoltaic industry, the price of silicon from the initial 20 U.S. dollars a kilogram, rose to 200 U.S. dollars a kilogram. Shi Zhengrong in order to have a stable silicon supply company, after some talks, he signed a 10-year contract with the silicon supply company at a value of 80 to 100 U.S. dollars per kilogram.
Who knows, soon after the contract was signed, it caught up with the 2008 economic crisis. And this economic crisis also let the photovoltaic industry overcapacity problem highlighted. So, the state in order to alleviate this phenomenon, suspended the subsidies to the photovoltaic industry. In this way, many photovoltaic industry as a result of the loss of economic subsidies, the rapid on the production of bankruptcy, silicon raw material prices also with the reduction of demand, the price plummeted.
This time, the silly Shi Zhengrong, only to terminate the contract with the silicon supply company early, and paid 210 million U.S. dollars in liquidated damages for this.
But next, Europe and the United States to implement the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy bill, more so that the domestic photovoltaic industry worse, suntech solar power limited company's market value also followed the loss of 60%. After that, Suntech Solar Power lost a lot of money every day and owed a huge amount of debt.
By 2013, Suntech was on the verge of bankruptcy.
At that time, the Wuxi government and the State Development Bank wanted to save Suntech Solar Power, but they proposed to Shi Zhengrong to put his personal assets as an unlimited obligation guarantee, which was opposed by Shi Zhengrong.
Later, the Wuxi government proposed to let state-owned company Wuxi Guolian receive Suntech Solar Power, which means Shi Zhengrong quit his personal shares, and this was also rejected by Shi Zhengrong.
Shi Zhengrong, who refused to sacrifice his personal interests, in turn told the Wuxi government, "I have so many employees, if you don't save me, I'll close down."
Shi Zhengrong and the Wuxi government did not reach a difference of opinion, eventually, Suntech Solar Power Co., Ltd. is as common as fireworks, in just a few years in the experience of the ultimate glory and the eyes of the decline.
But, at the last moment, Shi Zhengrong did not think of rescuing the company, but the application of all kinds of wrists, will be a large amount of wealth of the Suntech solar power limited company, transferred to the name of my own, and then he patted his butt and walked away. Suntech Solar Power Co., Ltd. this mess, he threw to the Wuxi government.
Shi Zhengrong's treachery accelerated Suntech's demise.
A reporter asked him why he refused to use his personal assets as a guarantee. But he indifferently said: "I have separated Suntech, why should I still take my money to give it as a guarantee."
Entrepreneurs attach great importance to credibility, but Shi Zhengrong did not think so. Although he has been abused by countless people due to the bankruptcy storm, he has no shame about it, he said, "I am a person with a guilty conscience, based on these, I reticence and do not feel wronged."
After that, Shi Zhengrong returned to Australia and stayed quiet for a while. Just when people had gradually forgotten him, he brought a new photovoltaic products, presented in the domestic new energy industry summit.
Not long after, people found that Shi Zhengrong with 2.5 billion wealth on the Hurun list, and his identity has become "on the new energy chairman".
Obviously, this once infamous person, want to rise again, just do not know the lack of credibility of his, can still be as lucky.