Reading guide: The richest man is difficult to do, and it is even more difficult to keep.
Author: Man Jianfeng.
Article**: China Commercial Towers (HSTL8888).
In 1999, Hurun, an accountant at Arthur Andersen in Shanghai, published the first "China Rich List" after consulting more than 100 newspapers, magazines and statements of listed companies in his spare time. In the year when the average salary of employees was only 481 yuan and the average house price in Beijing was only 1,857 yuan, he told everyone that some people had accumulated a wealth of 1 billion yuan.
A wave of ups and downs about "China's richest man" has begun.
On Zhong's desk, there is "Don Quixote" with a sword in one hand and a book in the other, which is his favorite sculpture.
Don Quixote reflects dystopian sobriety and rationality, and Zhong Sui, who admires Don Quixote, has become the "richest man in China" for the third time this year, with a value of 450 billion yuan, as much as 170 billion yuan ahead of Ma Huateng, who ranks second.
Many people are eager for the "richest man", but Zhong is very uninterested in it, and even disgusted by it. He rarely appears in public, has never attended the bell-ringing ceremonies of his two listed companies, and has become more and more distant from the spotlight after being elected "China's richest man" three times in a row.
The 69-year-old wears tortoiseshell glasses all year round, wears a three-millimeter head, and walks alone. "A lot of people think I'm not social, and I don't talk much about people who can't talk to me, but I don't feel lonely, I have my own way of life, just suit me. ”
If you want to talk about the aura and pomp of the richest man, it has to be Xu Jiayin, a native of Zhoukou, Henan Province, who is four years younger than Zhong Sui.
At the end of 2018, in Gaoxian Township, Taikang County, Zhoukou, Henan Province, many villagers got up at six o'clock in the morning and rushed more than 10 miles of road, and both sides of the road were crowded with villagers.
A year ago, Xu Jiayin became the richest man in China with a net worth of 290 billion yuan, and this time he returned to his hometown with his 96-year-old father Xu Xiangao and his wife Ding Yumei, who made his first public appearance.
From the moment he got off the plane, leaders at all levels took turns to accompany him back to his old house, and some relatives, friends, and classmates were arranged to go to the scene to reminisce about the old days.
On that day, Xu Jiayin wore a navy blue coat with a blue turtleneck sweater, dressed close to the returned migrant workers, and he also had a "bitter rice" with his family members, sweet potato, black nest head, cabbage boiled radish, and sweet potato soup.
While recalling the difficult days of the past, Xu Jiayin did not forget to care about and support the construction of his hometown, as reported in the news at the time:
Ask about the construction of the school, ask the student admission rate, ask the opening time of the hospital, ask the greenhouse vegetable sales channels, Xu Jiayin everywhere, have a detailed understanding of the development and implementation of the project, in Gaoxian Township, Taikang County, see the green pepper is a big color, the growth is gratifying, Xu Jiayin personally picked two green peppers to be a spokesperson: "I hope that our green pepper sales channels are getting wider and wider." ’”
Xu Jiayin in the news also arranged for his subordinates to send 3,000 yuan in cash, a bag of 10 catties of Evergrande rice and a barrel of 5L Evergrande edible oil to the villagers.
This is also the last time Xu Jiayin returned to Zhoukou's hometown, ten days later, the old man Xu Xiangao died in the old house, Xu Jiayin did not show up, everything was handed over to his brother Xu Jiaqin to be in charge of.
This year, Evergrande Real Estate has a turnover of 466.2 billion yuan and a core business profit of 78.3 billion yuan, which is crowned "the first real estate enterprise in the universe" and "the king of profits" by the industry, but this is also the last highlight moment of Evergrande
A huge loss of 680 billion yuan a year.
That year, Xu Jiayin returned to his hometown and lost the richest man, and he was replaced by Ma Yun, who had drunk a lot of wine with him.
This year, Ali's annual revenue was 25026.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58%, the highest growth rate since the IPO, with a market value of nearly 500 billion US dollars, and all the way surpassing giant companies such as Face Book and Amazon in the United States.
The year before this year, Ma Yun defeated all kinds of martial arts masters in "Gong Shou Dao", and admitted frankly in front of Sa Beining that he was "not interested in money".
On September 10, 2019, Teacher's Day, Ali took over the newly completed Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou.
The number of participants reached 60,000, more than 1,500 buses in Hangzhou, temporary traffic control, Tmall, ants, rookies, Fliggy, Hema and other parade phalanxes, some people said, the first time to see the company's annual meeting like-
Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Gao Xiaosong held the guitar and sang the song "You at the Same Table", the big screen in the venue reviewed the bits and pieces of Ma Yun's entrepreneurial journey, and when the camera captured Ma Yun in the stands, his eyes were already full of tears.
This is Alibaba's 20th anniversary annual meeting, which is also Jack Ma's retirement party, and it is the largest annual meeting of the company in Hangzhou, China. Ma Yun said in his retirement speech: "For this day, I have been preparing carefully for 10 years, and today is not Ma Yun's retirement, but the beginning of the inheritance of the system, not a person's choice, but the success of the system." ”
That night, Alibaba's 20th anniversary annual meeting rushed to more than 50 hot searches on Weibo.
That day also happened to be Jack Ma's 55th birthday.
Brilliant fireworks lit up the night sky, the shouts of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center soared into the sky, Ma Yun wore dirty braids, sunglasses, and riveted clothes, sang Wang Feng's "Blooming Life" solo, and sang "You Raise Me Up" with Daniel Zhang, pushing the scene to the climax ......
Everyone believes that 2019 will be the beginning of a new glory, and no one would have imagined that in three months, 2020 will be like that.
In 1988, the Year of the Dragon, China, which broke through the customs strongly, had the highest record of retail price index since the establishment of the country, reaching 185%, overheating became the key word of the economy, and market forces began to grow rapidly.
This year: Liu Yonghao, who hatched 1 million quails, made the total assets of his family exceed 10 million.
The 34-year-old Zhong resigned from "Zhejiang **" and went to Hainan, the hot land.
Wang Jianlin, who is also 34 years old, took the initiative to ask Ying to serve as the general manager of Xigang District Residential Development Company, officially sounded the clarion call to enter real estate, and also ushered in the birth of his son Wang Sicong.
33-year-old Yang Guoqiang accumulated the first pot of gold by serving as the captain of the construction team of the housing management office of Beijiao Commune in Shunde.
31-year-old Zhang Yin, after resigning from her financial job in Shenzhen, founded Dongguan Zhongnan Paper.
19-year-old Huang Guangyu opened his first store at No. 420 Zhushikou East Street in Beijing. Many years later, he was still haunted by the fact that he had been deceived when he first arrived in Beijing: as soon as he left Beijing Station, a tricycle master asked him if he would go to a hotel, and then the master drove him through many streets to make him feel the bustle and bustle of the capital, but when he woke up the next morning, he found that:
The hotel is opposite Beijing Railway Station.
These future richest men in China planted the seeds of a "turning point of fate" in 1988.
Wang Jianlin took over the district housing development company, is a debt of 1.49 million yuan, long-term no one to accept the "mess", the whole company more than 20 people crowded in an old building office, downstairs is the boiler room, everyone after getting home from work the first thing is:
Clean the soot from your nose.
Wang Jianlin, who was dressed in a military coat, was full of enthusiasm and lectured everyone: "I have decided, if you don't do it, you will be fined, and the basic requirement for work is to order and prohibit." ”
In order to find a project, Wang Jianlin went to the city every day to squat and lead, and after a few months of hard soaking, he finally waited for a sentence: "Don't you want to develop?"The piece of land on the north side of the city ** is given to you. ”
Later, Wang Jianlin recalled: "I didn't expect that the land was too troublesome, and I had already sold three state-owned enterprises before, but no one was willing to do it." ”
This is a shantytown renovation project in the old city, and the estimated cost of the renovation is as high as 1,200 yuan per square meter, and the highest housing price in Dalian at that time was only 1,100 yuan per square meter. is destined to lose money, Wang Jianlin still decided to do it.
If the cost cannot be reduced, find a way to increase the price of the house. He led the team to remove the wooden doors and windows, install aluminum alloy windows, anti-theft doors, change the original dark hall into a bright hall, and even designed an independent toilet that could only be equipped at the deputy bureau level or above at that time.
After the renovation was completed, Wang Jianlin decided to sell out more than 1,000 houses in a month at 1,580 yuan per square meter, making a net profit of more than 10 million. Four years later, Dalian Wanda Real Estate Group Company was established, and later, Wang Jianlin gave a speech at a prestigious school
Harvard and Yale are not as bold as they are, and Tsinghua University and Peking University are not as bold as they are. ”
In the town of Macong, on the northwest border of Dongguan and Guangzhou, trucks laden with paper products come and go, and China's first richest woman was born here, her name is Zhang Yin.
Zhang Yin was born in a poor family, there are seven younger brothers and sisters, after graduating from university in 1982, she entered a fabric company in Shenzhen to do finance, a business trip to Hong Kong, she got acquainted with a papermaking factory director, and was changed by a few words from the other party:
Waste paper is the forest, and the paper industry will definitely develop from resource paper to recycled paper in the future. ”
At that time, the construction of domestic papermaking fast-growing forests was not yet complete, and high-grade papermaking raw materials relied on imported waste paper and wood pulp.
When Zhang Yin learned on the TV news that the domestic printing house at the time of the college entrance examination even had to suspend the publication of "Mao Xuan" in order to use more paper products for printing test papers, she was even more determined to buy waste paper from Hong Kong and ship it to the mainland for recycled paper manufacturing, there must be a broad market.
With 30,000 yuan in savings, Zhang Yin started to collect waste paper from Hong Kong and received it all the way to the United States. By 2001, her Zhongnan Paper had ranked first in the United States in terms of container transportation volume of all industries with a score of 210,000 TEUs.
Five years later, Nine Dragons Paper, which was upgraded from Zhongnan, officially landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Zhang Yin became the richest man in China.
Compared with Zhang Yin, who found a lifelong career as soon as she made a move, Zhong Sui, who resigned from "Zhejiang **" and went to Hainan, was not so lucky. He wanted to start China's first privately owned weekly newspaper in Hainan, the Pacific Post, but was ordered to cease publication as soon as he did.
After that, he opened a mushroom factory, resold curtains, and raised shrimp, and after many years of mistakes, he started to make water, and then changed from a few industries a year to an industry for ten years, and then relied on this industry to embark on the journey of Lianzhuang China's richest man.
In 1988, 43-year-old Zong Qinghou, relying on 140,000 yuan borrowed from everywhere, contracted the school-run enterprise distribution department in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, which had been losing money for many years.
In 1988, 24-year-old Ma Yun graduated from Hangzhou Normal University with a major in English and became a first-class lecturer in English and internationalWang Chuanfu, 22, is studying for a master's degree at the Beijing General Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals17-year-old Ding Lei and 15-year-old *** are still in high school;8-year-old Huang Zheng is still in elementary school, and 5-year-old Zhang Yiming is still ...... kindergarten
In 1988, Zhang Yusheng's "My Future Is Not a Dream" became popular on both sides of the strait, and he sang in the song:
My future is not a dream, I live every minute seriously, my future is not a dream, my heart is moving with hope......”
The Bund, Shanghai, October 2020.
Jack Ma, who has "retired", is ready to take the stage with a copy of his speech, and before that, no one knows what is written on it.
Ma Yun, who appeared as co-chair of the United Nations High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, began to be polite: "I am very confused about whether to talk about it today......I'm retired anyway, and I'll speak freely on unofficial forums."
And then, you're welcome:
There is a need for 'policy experts' today, not the Director-General's ...... of 'documentation experts'Today's banks continue the idea of pawnshops, and mortgages and guarantees are the earliest pawnshop ......”
The day before, Ant Financial's plan to issue A+H shares at the same time had been implemented, and according to expectations at the time, this fintech unicorn was about to hit the world's largest IPO, with a market value of more than 2 trillion yuan, and Jack Ma was also proud in his speech
Last night we set the price of Ant Group in Shanghai, the largest financing in human history, and the first time in five years that such a large amount of pricing has been done outside of New York City. ”
And then ......Then Jack Ma never gave a public speech again. Since then, he has been reported by foreign media to appear in Japan, Thailand, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy and ......It's not to experience agricultural technology, or to visit the old friends.
Occasionally, his news rushed to the hot search, but he never spoke freely and was full of spirits. Even if he was mired in all kinds of speculations and even conspiracy theories, he didn't say a word, but the night when Pinduoduo's market value caught up with Ali, he couldn't sit still:
Congratulations to Pinduoduo——
Ali will change, Ali will change. ”
Ma Yun can still change, and some people have no chance to change.
July 4, 2023, is Xu Jiayin's last public appearance.
On the same day, he presided over the management meeting of Evergrande Football Club, requiring all members of the club to further carry forward the spirit of the new Guangzhou team of "full of wolf nature, collaborative struggle, perseverance, and tempering elites", and contribute to the development and revitalization of Chinese football.
Two weeks later, China Evergrande reissued its 2021 annual report, 2022 semi-annual report and 2022 annual report, and the results did not "disappoint" anyone: a net loss of 6,862 in 2021200 million yuan, with a net loss of 1258 in 2022100 million yuan, as of December 31, 2022, the total amount of liabilities is 24 trillion yuan, but the book amount is only 143500 million yuan ......
Two years ago, when Evergrande's wealth was thunderous, Xu Jiayin stood up for the first time and sent a "family letter" to all employees of Evergrande
We firmly believe that Evergrande will be able to get out of the darkest moment as soon as possible and deliver a responsible and responsible answer to home buyers, investors, partners and financial institutions. ”
When the crisis broke out completely, Xu Jiayin never showed up again, and even Liu Luanxiong, a former shareholder, said: "I have no contact with him (him), but I believe that anyone who wants to contact him may not be able to contact him, and I doubt that anyone can contact him." ”
The building is about to collapse, Xu Jiayin can no longer "contribute to the development and revitalization of Chinese football", and is even more unable to "hand over a responsible and responsible answer sheet", but over the years, he has taken 50 billion dividends from Evergrande, purchased an irrevocable, irrevocable, and unrecoverable trust worth $2.3 billion for his son, and also had a "technical divorce" with his wife Ding Yumei.
Xu Jiayin, who has a big bad debt, prison may be his best destination.
There are no warblers singing and dancing, but there will be no danger lurking either.
There are "richest people" in prison, and there are "richest people" who are out of prison.
On February 17, 2021, the day after Gome's founder Huang Guangyu was released from prison, he said in a high-profile manner: "We will strive to use the next 18 months to restore Gome's original market position." ”
Eighteen months later, on August 19, 2022, Huang Guangyu said that he had indeed taken a big step forward, and then re-set a three-year strategic development goal of "1+1+1": "Achieve higher profitability in 2023 and reach the previous high level, reach the best level in history in 2024, and significantly exceed the best level in history in 2025." ”
Now it seems that this step is still a big step.
In 2023, the number of employees of Gome Group will drop sharply from 32,278 two years ago to 3,609, a reduction rate of nearly 90%. Gome's revenue in the first half of the year was only 41.5 billion yuan, a significant decrease of 96 over the same period last year6%。
A company's decline curve is always similar: first there is a wave of resignations, then a wave of unpaid wages, and finally a wave of closures.
Since the second half of 2021, the veterans of Gome's start-up period have resigned one after another, including Xiang Hailong, CEO of Gome, Zhang Deju, CEO of Gome Electric, He Yangqing, CEO of Gome Investment, Wang Wei, CEO of Gome Electric, etc.
Immediately afterwards, the external contractors began to come to the door to ask for arrears, and the wages of internal employees began to stop, and the employees even posted the salary information directly on the ** turntable of the Gome app: "Huang Xiuhong Huang Guangyu, shameless, arrears of wages, arrears of payment ......."”
On the 36th floor of Beijing Pengrun Building, Huang Guangyu's office location in the Gome headquarters, exclusive elevators, restaurants, bathing centers, cinemas, bedrooms, gyms, and 2 *** aprons on the roof, all of which are only for Huang Guangyu.
Now, when it comes to it, the associated word is, "People go to empty buildings."
Last year, Gome employees begged for salary, climbed up to the conference room on the 36th floor on foot, blocked Huang Guangyu at the door, and the two sides even had a physical altercation”
A generation of heroes who have won the title of China's richest man three times ended up in such an embarrassing end.
In the 24 years since 1999, there have only been five richest people in the United States on the other side of the ocean: Bill Gates (16 times), Walton (1 time), Warren Buffett (1 time), Jeff Bezos (4 times) and Elon Musk (2 times).
If nothing else, Elon Musk's richest man in the United States "Lian Zhuang" will continue.
Compared with the "solidification" of the richest man in the United States, China has focused on the "change" of the richest man in recent years.
Since 1999, at least 20 mainland entrepreneurs have been "China's richest men" based on the Hurun and Forbes lists, including Rong Zhijian, Liu Yonghao, Liu Yongxing brothers, Ding Lei, Huang Guangyu, Zhang Yin, Yang Guoqiang, Yang Huiyan, Wang Chuanfu, Li Yanhong, Zong Qinghou, Li Hejun, Liang Wengen, Wang Jianlin, Xu Jiayin, Ma Yun and Zhong Sui.
Except for Rong Zhijian and Yang Huiyan, who have a golden key, the rest are basically self-made, and even have a very hard background.
Xu Jiayin lost his mother when he was one year old, was half an orphan, when he went to school and lived in school, he carried sweet potatoes and sweet potato noodles on his back, and the nest in winter was frozen and hard, so he soaked it in hot water and then ate it.
When Ma Yun founded Haibo Translation Agency, he only had an income of 200 yuan a month, which was not enough to pay the rent of 700 yuan, so he went to Yiwu and Guangzhou with sacks on his back to buy goods, sell flowers, gifts, and clothing, and worked as a small trader to support the translation agency for three years.
Later, I went to Beijing to engage in the Internet, stepped through the threshold to meet people, was told that there was no appointment, and finally made an appointment, and I spoke so much that I was speechless, and the other party was expressionless, and before returning to Hangzhou, I could only cheer myself up:
I believe that in a few years, Beijing will not treat me like this.
In 1977, the national college entrance examination was resumed, he signed up twice, and unfortunately fell off the list with a gap of more than 20 points, and only obtained a ** college degree after work.
When Liang Wengen of Sany Heavy Industry resigned and went to sea, he was already the deputy director of the planning department of Hongyuan Machinery Factory, but his first project was sheep sales.
In 1997, Ding Lei founded NetEase in an 8-square-meter rental house, and three years later, NetEase successfully landed on the NASDAQ, and the ensuing Internet bubble burst, but NetEase's stock price once fell to 0$51, suspended for suspected financial fraud for a month.
Ding Lei later recalled: "Actually, I was very confused during that time, and I even had the heart to sell NetEase. The reason why I don't sell is not that I don't sell, but that there is a problem with our financial audit, and people refuse to buy it. ”
couldn't sell it, so he simply persevered. In 2002, NetEase took off completely under the drive of "Journey to the West", from 0$95 soared all the way to a high of $70, becoming the "first stock on the NASDAQ".
At the age of 32, Ding Lei became the youngest richest man in China.
In the first decade of the 21st century, China's richest man has changed generals, investment tycoons, real estate businessmen, technology upstarts, and retail kings have appeared on the list
In the United States, the richest man changes only once every ten years, but in China it changes once a year.
But from the second decade onwards, things are a little different.
From 2010 to 2020, Ma Yun won the championship four times, Wang Jianlin reached the top three times, and China's richest man began to have stability.
In 2003, Nine Dragons Paper received an email from Hurun to verify Zhang Yin's personal wealth figuresHe even sent a lawyer's letter to Hurun that she could not be rated on the list.
But in the end, it failed, and Hurun still ranked her 17th on the list of the richest people that year.
There is a reason why Zhang Yin refused to be on the list, although the rich list at that time was not yet called the pig killing list, but in Chinese culture, the word rich is always a bit eye-catching. Zhang Yin must be well aware of the righteousness.
At the same time that Zhang Yin is afraid, some people regard the rich list as a palace of glory, and the producer of a certain list once told China Business Taoluo that every year, some people want to spend money on sponsorship, just to have more valuation, and to stand more forward.
Of course, it's not just for vanity, but for fame and fortune. For a certain period of time, the richest man became a national idol, and with the glory of the richest man, it was convenient to do anything, including projects, fundraising and loans.
But in the end, it is Zhang Yin who sees it accurately, and avoiding being the richest man should be the main theme of Chinese society.
In June 2020, Pinduoduo's stock price rose wildly, and Huang Zheng's worth surpassed Ma Yun to become the hottest news, and a month later, he announced that he would step down as CEO and be replaced by Chen Lei, while increasing the shareholding ratio from 433% to 294%, rumors in the market, Huang Zheng during that time:
I will be scared to wake up when I sleep as the richest man.
Zhang Yiming, who is only 40 years old this year, has been the CEO of ByteDance for almost two years, although many people will be the next richest man, or even the first richest man in the world in China, but he may also be like Huang Zheng, "protect yourself".
Looking at it over the years, it can basically be concluded that those who don't want to be rated or even afraid of becoming the richest man are often more sustainable in their careers and wealth, and those who take the richest man as a symbol of glory and strength are often a little empty inside.
Whether active or passive, "China's richest man" is more like a reflection of the changing times, only the richest man of the times, not the richest man of the times. On the day of Country Garden's listing, Cai Hongping also received a **, thanking him for letting Country Garden go public:
You finally helped me get rid of it, in the past year, how many ** have I received, this richest man is really a big man, and I can finally be quiet this year, because this Brother Yang (Yang Guoqiang) has surpassed me. ”
The person who hit the ** was Zhang Yin, who became the richest man the year before because the company went public.
Stepping into the third decade of the 21st century, China's richest man seems to have become more stable, Zhong Sui has been re-elected three times, if Byte is not listed, he will probably continue to sit in this position, it is really hard for him, and once Byte is listed, Zhong Sui may also be like Zhang Yin, completely untied, and then, it will be hard Zhang Yiming. (The author of this article, Man Jianfeng, ** Yu Huashang Taoluo, the web3 boss has been authorized by the author, edited and published by the web3 boss, and the views in the article are the author's views and do not represent the views of the web3 boss.) ）