How a programmer can increase his net worth 100 times in ten years

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About ten years ago, three grassroots entrepreneurs from Xiamen stood outside the Strait International Community (a high-end real estate project on the east coast of Xiamen, which has been built from the earliest phases one and two to the current phase seven) and made an agreement that if they could achieve something in the future, they would come here to buy houses and become neighbors.

Ten years later, in 2013, they fulfilled this agreement. (Of course, it must be pointed out that this was not their first time buying a house. Each of them already had other properties, and some even bought multiple villas, but they still decided to move to this community together and become neighbors.) It sounds like a story of a Chinese partner. But what needs to be explained is that these three people did not succeed in starting a business together, but in three different fields, and each of them achieved success.

One is Yao Jianjun, whose online name is A Fei. Feiyu Technology, which he founded, is listed in Hong Kong. One is Wu Xinhong, whose nickname is BMW Brother. I believe there is no need to explain the Meitu XiuXiu he founded. The other is Kong Dejing, whose online name is Wan Zi. Yiming China, which he founded, is the largest domain name trading platform in China. In addition, Xinchuang Yunduo Technology has invested in the field of smart hardware. Although it is not as famous as the first two, it has invested heavily in obtaining copyright authorizations from Disney, Marvel, Minions, etc., and its strength is also quite amazing.

But ten years ago, they were all unknown individual webmasters, calculating whether the money they earned was enough to support the server.

Some friends know that I have a mysterious group, which contains many bigwigs and successful entrepreneurs, but they generally have a misunderstanding that I have a lot of connections and put many great people I know into my group. But they are wrong. It is not the case. Ten years ago, when I created the group, I was just curious about social networks. At that time, there was a very popular concept called six degrees of interpersonal relationships, but I always felt that this concept was not very reliable, so I wanted to do a test. I didn’t know what six degrees of interpersonal relationships were, but I could test the second degree of interpersonal relationships myself, so I put together friends from different backgrounds who I met at different times to see if they would aggregate and interact. Of course, some people left, and some people are still there. What’s interesting is that in this group, all the people in the media circle left at that time, probably because there was no one in this group who they thought was valuable. They were all grassroots and talked about some low topics all day long. But I believe that if they knew the subsequent development, they would definitely regret their decision to leave the group. Then ten years later, the development of this group has far exceeded my imagination. Let me give you a number. The average increase in net worth is 100 times! I’m not wrong, it’s 100 times! (Unfortunately, I am far from being able to do that.) There are now several founders and CEOs of listed companies, and several who have sold their companies to listed companies. Some have gone from being part-time workers to entrepreneurs with a valuation of several hundred million US dollars. Even those who continue to work have seen their average annual income jump tenfold over the years. The three people mentioned in the above example are typical and representative of this group. I have been thinking about this for a long time. What is the magic that makes the success rate of such a group of people far higher than the industry average? Am I really blessed with a halo?

Looking for a reasonable explanation, I only summarized two points

1. Birds of a feather flock together. These people did not leave because they had common topics and interests, mainly because their values ​​were relatively similar. Simply put, reliable people like to be friends with reliable people. So survivor bias occurs.

2. When people from different backgrounds and fields intersect, everyone's vision and way of thinking about problems will be expanded. I believe this is also very important, and new opportunities for cooperation and complementarity will be formed.

Other things, such as the value and transmission of information, and the spirit of sharing, can actually be attributed to these two points.

So, back to the topic of entrepreneurship, knowing the best people does not mean that you have to know a lot of big guys, but you should be able to find such people around you and communicate and exchange more with them. So, how do you identify excellent people? Let's just talk about the simplest factors.

1. Sensitivity to information and a spirit of research.

When they encounter information that they don’t understand but is very valuable, these people will immediately record it and then obtain further information through search engines or other means. All successful entrepreneurs I have met have this trait.

2. Responsibility and accountability.

When encountering difficulties and setbacks, take the initiative to find the reasons and problems from yourself, do not shirk or slack off. Many grassroots entrepreneurs have long been accustomed to doing things without money, technology, or talent. They will never wait for the external environment to meet their needs before taking action, but will quickly practice and constantly explore based on the resources they already have.

Many entrepreneurs fail not because their business fails to develop, but because they fail to pass certain thresholds when they reach a certain stage of development. Instead of sitting back and complaining about the lack of talent and partners, it is better to think about how to solve the problem yourself.

3. Stay optimistic about the future.

Ten years ago, I actually looked down on those who did investment. I thought they knew nothing and invested in many projects indiscriminately. The projects they invested in were full of boasting and unreliable. I also liked to write articles to mock them. In most cases, I was right.

But in the past two years, I realized that I was wrong, extremely wrong.

Let's make a simple assumption. More than ten years ago, an investor invested in 10 projects, 9 of which failed and were completely game over. I used my taunt skill 10 times, and 9 of them proved that I was right, with a success rate of 90%. Haha, the investor is much dumber than me. However, among the 10 projects, the only one that the investor invested in correctly went public and received a 100-fold return. The overall return on investment is 10 times. So now, who should laugh and who is stupid? This assumption is actually not an exaggeration. More than a decade ago, weren't projects with a 100-fold return everywhere?

Among the first giants of China's Internet, whether it is Ma Huateng, Li Yanhong, Jack Ma, Ding Lei, Zhang Chaoyang, Shi Yuzhu, Lei Jun, we count them one by one, is there any who took the first step correctly and knew the correct roadmap for the future? Not a single one.

Therefore, since no one, including industry leaders, can clearly judge the future, those who are not optimistic enough will lose all opportunities.

I know there are still some circles that have been praising each other internally for more than a decade, as if they know the Internet better than anyone else. Today they call Tencent stupid, tomorrow they call Baidu a rogue, and then they comment on what others say. Do you really want to try it? Then they start complaining about the monopoly of giants, the lack of support from partners, and the lack of understanding of investors. In short, they have absolutely no problems of their own. Therefore, in their eyes, starting a business is a matter of life and death, and that is inevitable.