Xu Dan's story is suitable to be written as a struggle legend. Born in 1983, a rural boy in Anhui province, graduated from graduate school for five years and jumped ship three times. He changed from an Internet company employee with an annual salary of 65,438+10,000 to an Internet analyst with an annual salary of several million. 20111February left Huaxia Fund, which had worked for two years, and joined American hedge funds. On the last day of this year, he boarded a plane to fly to the United States. As the only China employee of an American hedge fund, he took an analysis of all investment opportunities in China.
Xu Dan summed up the lessons of his success-from being very introverted and self-satisfied to forcing himself not to be introverted; By inadvertently forcing yourself to control the ability to govern; Force yourself to socialize more through people you know on the plane, and then constantly know and collect useful people. He said that another reason why he may be where he is today is: "No one is rougher than me."
"I went to primary school at the age of 5, and primary school is a five-year system. Primary school has always been the first in the class. Junior high school is more playful, and the whole junior high school doesn't study hard. I think there are many people in the class who are better than you and will never get the first place in the exam. When I started school in the third grade, that is, 13 years old, my father fell ill and died. Nobody cared, so I started playing billiards. I didn't get into high school. Because he is short and small, 13 years old is really too young, his family is poor and he has no financial resources, so he can't go out to work. Most people go out to work. Mom said, then repeat school for one year, and then go out to work after a long time. /kloc-when I was 0/4 years old, I liked a girl, didn't study, and played every day. One month before the middle school entrance examination, I had a quarrel with girls because of trivial matters, and then I started studying for a month.
There are three high schools in our county. I applied for the third best high school, but I didn't. I didn't expect to be admitted. I got the first place in the first semester exam, and I felt very lucky at that time! Because I was 20 when I was admitted to high school. By the end of the semester, I'm afraid I won't get the first place in the exam. As a result, I won two first prizes for a long time. Then I felt as if it didn't happen occasionally, and suddenly I felt pressure. Isn't it a pity that you can't get the first place in the next exam? I began to study hard. Once I didn't review well, and I was afraid I wouldn't get the first place in the exam, so I made up an excuse with my teacher and said I couldn't take the exam because I had something to do, so I avoided it. The class teacher disagreed and got the first place.
In my hometown, few people go to high school. Only two people in a village go to high school. There is an unwritten atmosphere in the college entrance examination-the ability to repeat is admitted to the university, and the number of repeat students and freshmen is 1: 1. My hometown is very remote. I only know that there are three universities in China, Peking University, Tsinghua and Anhui University of Technology, but these three universities are bound to fail. But I have to go home with a notice, and my parents will have dignity. I think my chemistry is better, so I signed up for Beihua University. It's pitiful for me to go to college. At that time, I thought I would definitely fail the exam, so I signed up for the repeat class so that I could get a certain score to avoid tuition. Later, I learned that my score could go to Peking University.
When I came home with the notice, there began to be contradictions at home. When I was a sophomore, my father and I had been quarreling since my family came. I have two younger brothers and a younger sister. In rural areas, sons are said to be a huge burden, and rural parents will lose their money for their sons' marriage all their lives. My father told me how to support three sons, so he let my mother fly away with him. My mother said she couldn't leave. The child is still young and still studying.
When I was a sophomore, I took the college entrance examination for others and became a gunman. Spent 100 yuan a day. 16 years old, from Anhui to Jiangsu to take other people's adult college entrance examination. After earning money, I went to my grandmother's house in the mountainous area of Shaanxi to find my mother. I said I was going to Shaanxi, and then my father left with my mother, so I had to run back to Anhui. My mother couldn't bear it anymore and went back to her hometown in Anhui. When I was a freshman, my mother felt that she couldn't afford to raise so many children. She once wanted to give her little brother to someone else to raise her family. I also agreed that our family can't afford to go to school, and we can still go to school if we send it to a rich family. But my family didn't recognize it and scolded my mother for selling her family outside. I feel a bit like a movie, and I will suddenly collapse:' Stop arguing and shut up!' Later, I gave my brother to someone else, and after three months, I got it back. I really don't want to be tried, and it's hard.
My mother promised my stepfather that I would go with him when I graduated from high school and could cook for my brother and sister. They acquiesced that I couldn't go to college. I went home with a storyteller, and my uncle and I came to my house to celebrate my period, but my dad was full of energy, poured a big bowl of white wine with a white bowl, drank it in one breath and broke the bowl and left. I was particularly sad at the time. I won the fifth place among the whole school 1500 students, which I think is quite good. Others were admitted to junior college and ordered songs on TV. I got a 2 1 1. I was so sad that I cried without eating and stayed out all summer. Stepmother quarreled with her mother:' Look, he has been admitted to college and is leaving. No one cooks for the children. You must stay here and not leave. He broke the plan and ran away from home. My mother had no choice but to take her sister with her. I didn't come back until school started. I'm particularly sad.
When I was in the third grade, before my father died, he left me thousands of dollars to go to college. Before he died, he planted many peach trees. As a result, I sold peaches, sold some money and raised some cows. Niu is a 3-year-old calf. When he grew up, he sold some money to make up for my tuition. Mom didn't come back before I left. Menstruation gave me an old box for her daughter, and I went to the market to buy a pair of shoes from 39 yuan. That was in 2000. The younger brother is only 1 1 year old, and the older brother is 15 year old. What should I do without them? I entrust my neighbor's grandfather to make dough for my two younger brothers every two days and let them steam steamed bread. My two younger brothers are not sensible enough to watch me go. I arranged for them not to fight. They won't say a word, and they won't say that their brother should be alert. They just stood there. I felt particularly tragic at that time. A person who has never been out of the county, a person wants to go to Beijing, and no family to send him. I cried until I came to the corner. How could I be like this? At that time, I especially hated my mother.
I stayed in Beijing for a month before calling home. My mother feels particularly guilty about me. I was unhappy in college for four years. I don't think I will go back in my life. In the first year, I went home during the Spring Festival, but I only went out to eat in the toilet, and the rest of the time I was crazy about reciting English in the house. Later, my father and I had a conflict and went back to our hometown, and my mother followed. I'm sorry, too. I bought a box of instant noodles, and my brother can only eat one bag of instant noodles every day. I'm still alive, and I'm still diligently wrapping up jiaozi. I felt so lucky at that time. I won't go back in the summer vacation. Take the train on New Year's Eve, go home in the afternoon of New Year's Eve, have New Year's Eve dinner, sleep in the next day and have lunch at noon. I left. This situation has been going on for several years. My mother wanted to see me off, but I ignored her. It's snowing heavily. She wants to give me an umbrella. I deliberately avoided letting her give me an umbrella. I walked on without looking back, and I began to cry after crossing the corner. "
When Xu Dan was studying at the University of Chemical Technology with a grudge against his family, there was another thing that bothered him-that school was too small!
On the first weekend of his sophomore year, he walked along the North Third Ring Road to Tsinghua and Peking University, the two most famous schools in China, which always attracted him. On the campus of Tsinghua, he saw signs of school activities on both sides of the road, and many lectures by celebrities. He is no longer willing to study at the University of Chemical Technology. So, he began to review high school textbooks and wanted to re-enter the university. He studies until two or three in the middle of the night every day, and then climbs over the wall and lives in the dormitory. The head of the department intervened by name, saying that you had a bad influence on everyone, but your confidence was fixed, so you ran back to your hometown to register for the college entrance examination. Xu Dan walked around the registration office for two days, but finally he didn't dare to go in. He is afraid that people will find out that he went to college. At that time, only one or two students in their county were admitted to Peking University Tsinghua every year. He is worried that if he is admitted, he will be followed by the media and then he will be exposed. Until the registration stopped, he still didn't have the courage to walk into the registration office.
Since she can't take the college entrance examination again, Xu Dan decided to take the postgraduate examinations in Peking University and Tsinghua. He measured that computer was a popular major in Tsinghua at that time, but he instinctively hated programming, partly because of his inferiority in the countryside, and he felt that he could not compete with urban children who grew up playing computer. It happened that Indian Prime Minister visited China in 2003, and Xu Dan found that India is a developed country in software. Although he arrived at programming, he was willing to do software-related business, such as marketing and management. So, he applied for a postgraduate degree in Indian language and literature in Peking University.
"My whole university is a very introverted person. I will concentrate on one's postgraduate entrance examination when I come back from my hometown. However, when I returned to Anhui during the Spring Festival in my junior year, I found that someone had taken a math postgraduate entrance examination book from Chen Wendeng, which was not available in the whole market. On a whim, I sold it. I quickly called the publishing house and asked how much discount this book could get. The publishing house said it could give me 6%. 1 discount, selling 7. 1 discount, one in 49 yuan, and I earn 4. 9 yuan. I knocked on the dormitory door with some books in my arms and hesitated for half an hour before I went in. Most people bought the first dormitory. I'm at a loss. Although it is a unified grade, I have made too many preparations and told them what books to use and what classes to take. Then I knocked on the back dormitory one by one and earned 4000 yuan a week.
It was the first time I forced myself to speak out, the first time I broke through, and I found that I was really ok. After school left, people called me, which was a change. But at that time, I was still embarrassed to change, even embarrassed to change my hairstyle. I realized that introverts are not easy to succeed, while extroverts are easy to succeed.
But I used to be too arrogant, especially poor, and I had a stepfather who had no money to buy clothes, wear my cousin's clothes and couldn't afford to eat. High school, no money to pay tuition, I am the first. My classmates each donated two dollars to me. Every year, the head teacher takes me to the headmaster's house to plead, which saves me half the pain. At that time, I ate apples every day, one dime a catty of apples, and five apples at noon, and I came over. I am more complacent when I go to college. Everyone is a city dweller, so I can only save money by eating two steamed buns at a time. Now my brother is taller than me. I suspect that he had overdrawn before, and now he is in a bad state.
After I was admitted to Peking University, no one in Peking University knew me anyway, so I made up my mind to pretend to be an open-minded person, dye my hair brown, dress up as a gangster and say hello to everyone. Really, the whole person has changed. Everyone thinks I am a super extrovert. I keep discovering that I can still be a big brother, and everyone calls me Shan Ge.
When I was a graduate student, I was the hottest online celebrity on the BBS of Peking University. I never knew the reason. My screen name is XDD. As soon as I said a word, countless people asked' what is my little brother doing', so I changed my screen name to' ‘XDD (I am not a little brother)'. Perhaps because of the distance in the network, everyone can make fun of my screen name and think that this person is very affectionate, so I became it. I'm going to hold a graduation party when I graduate. I thought I had the task of organizing a meeting, so I brought the rest of the people on the BBS together. Many girls come here just to see what XDD looks like: someone in our dormitory can't come to test, so I have to take a picture of you and go back.
I think everything is connected, and this is the starting point. Later, I began to organize various activities of Peking University, and organized a 150 gathering of Peking University graduates to Shenzhen. Before graduation, I had many parties, dinners and venues, and organized them for half a year. I am playing. I'm skateboarding, learning guitar and doing something. "
Xu Dan became a different person in this way.
After being admitted to Peking University, Xu Dan found himself making a mistake. Tagore studied literature for a year, but he studied this major to make money and do business. So, in the first year, he tried his best to attend classes, completed all the credits, and began to find a part-time job in the second year.
He went to several companies for internships. The first one is a tobacco company, doing human resources. He stayed in Guangxi for half a year and lied to the company that he was an MBA. Then Datang Mobile, followed by Lenovo's human resources recruitment team, is responsible for the organization of campus recruitment. After a month's internship at Lenovo, Xu Dan left because they got the opportunity to study in India, and they would give overseas students a scholarship of 4,000 yuan every month. But just before he left, inadvertently, he started a business and said to his tutor, I'm sorry I won't go to India.
There are many campus agents on the BBS of Peking University. Xu Dan cooperates with a birthday cake shop as a birthday cake agent. Through this business, he can earn several hundred yuan every month. Later, many people asked if they could also send flowers, razors and greeting cards when sending cakes. People want more and more things, so Xu Dan set up a campus discount network to sell sports shoes together. He also negotiated with restaurants, barbershops, KTV and postgraduate classes around the school to set up a joint card, and the fees for going to those places can be discounted. He recruited the ministers and chairmen of the external relations departments of various schools to do this. This company has only 70 employees at most. He said, in fact, that is the current group purchase. If he doesn't give up, he may be the founder of group buying.
While running the company, Xu Dan did another thing. In February 2006, he found Sister Furong, who was very popular at that time, hoping that she could become the spokesperson of the company. After seeing Sister Furong, he felt that she was different from the perverse image in everyone's mind. She is a very shy person, beautiful and kind. Xu Dan observed that Sister Furong was the leading role in many TV programs, but the appearance fee was very small, so she decided to give her a push. He became Sister Furong's assistant, doing some business negotiations, accepting media interviews and signing endorsement contracts for her.
Xu Dan's tutor is an academic, and he thinks business action is not good for campus fashion. The tutor said, either you start a company to close down, or you close the company to write a paper for three months. Xu Dan had a hard time, so he gave up the company and chose the thesis. He found a partner and gave him 30% of the shares to take over. But after this incident, Xu Dan's business addiction was aroused. Later, when Tencent applied for Peking University, it wrote a trade plan, hoping that Tencent could cooperate with itself. The manager of Tencent's product department thinks he has a strategic vision and recommends him to work in the strategy department of Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen.
"When I first started working in Shenzhen Tencent, I checked everything else at the airport, except for a box of books that was particularly expensive. I don't want to check, just holding a guitar in my left hand, a skateboard in my right hand, roller skates on my back, and the box of books. When boarding, everyone can only take three bags. Mine is super, so I asked the big brother in the back who only carried a small bag if he could help me with a book. That man was the first person to change the course of my life.
Because we took a very late flight and there was no one, so I sat next to that big brother and chatted with him to thank him. Although he looks very young, he is less than 30 years old, but in fact he is over 40, and his children are in junior high school. I happened to read many books on philosophy at that time, and discussed with him some philosophical topics I was thinking about, such as' Why do I live' and' What is happiness', and I also told him what kind of person I want to be. This eldest brother has achieved something in Shenzhen, and he thinks my little friend is quite interesting. He has some experience and told me that when he arrived in Shenzhen, he should play golf instead of skateboarding and guitar. I suddenly feel that I can't fool around anymore. I said otherwise, I will try my best to stop organizing alumni association activities. He said it was useless. It's all property that no one else has.
In Shenzhen, Tencent closed training 15 days, 120 people were divided into four classes, which easily increased people's feelings. I rented it with two colleagues. Before that, we were best friends. It's hard to have good friends after work. We rented it together for a year and a half. The two of them are still in Shenzhen Tencent. One of them, his father is the mayor of the provincial capital city and his mother is the CFO of a listed company. His school is very poor, on the edge of the college. His entry into Tencent is simply the most decent job that graduates have found in the history of the school. He has been working hard at Tencent. Shortly after joining the company, he began to negotiate with another person from Peking University, and planned to change jobs two years later. The friend heard this and he was very angry. Tencent is so kind to us that you want to jump ship. We were born in Tencent, but died in Tencent. You are a bad person, so we should draw a line with you. We think this child is really interesting. Because of gratitude, he finished his own work and took on other people's work. He sleeps in the office for two or three days a week, and his salary rises rapidly. He graduated with an annual salary of 70,000 yuan, and my graduate student earned 65,438+10,000 yuan. Half a year later, he saw me get a raise, but I didn't. After a while, he went up again, but I haven't. "
"I have invested a lot of time in the Peking University Alumni Association. 150 people who just started to go to Shenzhen, together with the 5 th and 6 th senior brothers and sisters above, formed the Youth Branch of Peking University Alumni Association, and I am the president. I almost know these alumni and organized many sports. Later, we merged with the official alumni of Peking University and became one. I am the Deputy Secretary-General, and I am the youngest. Almost all the other deputy secretaries-general are the chairman of the enterprise, and I am still a child sitting next to them.
I have a brother who is the second Zhu Xi in my life. He used to be the youngest fund manager in China and retired at the age of 28 or 29. This senior has become my good friend and my idol. No matter how late I worked overtime the day before, I would go as long as he told me' just come out for morning tea tomorrow'. I have made many friends with him, all of whom are high-level people.
Once he asked me to attend an activity. I didn't know it was a multi-millionaire yacht club until I went there. My idol brother, his wife and several other friends are sitting with me. My brother's friends have always told him that a villa near his home is good, and the yard is twice as big as his own. His yard has more than 900 square meters, let him buy it quickly. Two wives were discussing the quarrel between seven or eight servants in someone else's house. I'm shocked that people can live like this. I think I can make more money by investing, so I decided to enter the financial industry.
I didn't ask my idol brother for help when I was looking for a job, because I think a person can only ask him once in his life, so I have to do it myself.
I started to submit a lot of resumes. After sending more than 300 letters in three months, only three of them responded to the interview, one was a hedge fund in Shanghai and the other was 5 1 in Shanghai. He said I could be his assistant. Bought a plane ticket to Shanghai for an interview. The person who interviewed me at the hedge fund said I was not smart enough. I may have been given some math problems, but I didn't get them right. I was depressed, so I went to 5 1.com for an interview and made an offer on the spot. However, I still want to enter the financial industry. After the interview, I ran to Lujiazui, stood opposite Yaohan, and looked at the tall buildings of financial institutions next to Lin Biao. I thought the world didn't belong to me. After returning to Shenzhen, I continued to submit my resume, and securities and securities sent me an interview invitation. The result of the interview is that I feel that my accounting is not good enough and I have no financial background. I have been communicating with the department manager who interviewed me by email, which shows that my learning ability is extremely strong and may have left a good impression on the department manager. Some managers compete with the general manager for an opportunity: they come back for an interview after studying accounting for three months.
I study like crazy. I was so anxious that I couldn't sleep all night. I don't know whether to abandon 5 1. Com, because it is not easy for my senior to help me, and I am not in a good mood to refuse. At midnight 12, I got rid of it. I didn't go. The next day, I sent an email to my brother, saying that I still wanted to enter the financial industry.
Then prepare the accountant. I did well in the exam and the department manager passed, but the human resources department stuck me. I still feel that my professional background is not enough and I am very depressed. One day I had dinner with my idol brother and his friend, and a friend asked me,' What have you been doing recently?' I said I was looking for a job and was stuck in Enron Securities. That friend said that he knew an executive of Ping An very well. Please say hello to me. As a result, he went in easily. I finally entered the financial industry I wanted to enter. "
Because of her previous professional experience, Xu Dan decided to study the Internet. At that time, the Internet had not yet entered the China stock market, and most analysts were studying the media industry. Therefore, Xu Dan, as the lowest-level employee, sat on the bench for a year and a half. The company raised him for nothing, but there was no bonus, and his income was still not much higher than that of Tencent. It was an opportunity for him to meet the chairman.
One day, the chairman asked the manager of Xu Dan department to find someone to help him with the PPT presentation in his office. Because Xu Dan often works as a PPT in Tencent's strategy department, the manager sent him. He worked as a PPT in the chairman's office all night, and chatted with the chairman about his work as an assistant to Sister Furong at school. Later, he said that he was the deputy secretary-general of the Shenzhen Alumni Association of Peking University, and the chairman said that his wife was also from Peking University and could participate in the activities of the Alumni Association.
A few days later, the chairman asked Xu Dan to come to the office and told him that your senior invited you to dinner at home. Xu Dan went to an appointment, so his junior staff had mixed feelings about the chairman.
He found that the chairman was very busy at work, so he asked his secretary to help him buy 1 yuan soybean milk and fried dough sticks on the roadside every morning, and he often didn't have time to have lunch. Xu Dan said that there is an old restaurant downstairs, and the breakfast is not bad. He brings one to the chairman every morning when he is in line. He bought breakfast for the chairman for two months. Although he always gives it to the secretary of the chairman, who gives it to him, there are also many rumors in the company that he is a relative of the chairman's family.
He is not afraid of it. He regards the chairman as a friend and often tells him some miscellaneous public opinions in the company. Later, someone had something to ask the chairman, so he was asked to come forward. "Xu Dan, can you tell the chairman?" However, the advantage of gossip is that he actually avoided a layoff during the financial crisis. As a newcomer, Diben is sure to be laid off.
In September 2009, he fell ill. He has been in a crazy social state for more than two years since graduation. He knows many people in name, but not many intimate friends. He recalled the scene at that time: he was going to enter the operating room the next day. He didn't know who to find to deliver food to himself, so he had to call his ex-girlfriend and ask her to come and accompany him. A month later, he was discharged from the hospital, and his life changed dramatically. He changed from a social madman to a completely unsociable person, refused all meals, buried himself in research and wrote several representative articles.
Avoid layoffs and illness, and good things come faster than Xu Dan thought. Because of the financial crisis, the real economy all over the world is in a downturn, but the virtual economy has risen, and the Internet has suddenly become a hot topic. He was angry, too. He had expected to sit on the bench for three years, but he sat for a year and a half. () There is an internet investment demand in the market, and investors can't find anyone to do internet analysis, so there are no more than three people in the market, and he is one of them. Because his previous contacts are relatively basic, once someone looks for an analyst who invests in the Internet, he will be recommended by a friend, and it is not bad to have a Xu Dan.
"I never dreamed that people from top companies in the securities industry and fund industry would come to me. I was flattered. People who are about to be laid off from third-rate securities companies have never experienced an economic crisis, so there are many opportunities. Because I was in the seller's market at that time, I often organized people from fund companies to investigate. On the plane from Guangzhou to Hangzhou, the fund manager of Huaxia Fund sat next to me. Before the plane took off, I got a call asking me to go back to Guangzhou to talk, dig up my old job and hang up. The fund manager of Huaxia Fund asked me, are you going to jump ship? I said yes. He said that you should talk to me first and see if you can come over.
I'm going to CIC. The salary of CIC is much higher than that of Huaxia. I am faced with a decision, which is career thinking: if I am an analyst in a securities company, I will do 50% research and 50% marketing services, which will bring higher income. I think the future value is not to earn millions more, but to produce valuable research results. That 50% service only increased my income and did not bring me the core competitiveness in the future. I declined Huaxia Fund with high salary and low salary. "
His idol brother has some differences with him on this matter. He is worried that you can always give a speech at the brokerage firm and expand your voice so that enough people can hear it, but in the fund company, the voice can't go out.
Thanks to another good luck, Weibo's appearance helped Xu Dan find a way to make a sound. He wrote articles and published comments related to the Internet in Weibo with great interest. His sharp tone also brilliantly demonstrated his contact with the investment elite. In this way, his social scope has been expanded and he has lost enough attention. There are many people forwarding and replying to every Weibo. He broke the habit of silence of the buyer's researcher. In the eyes of his peers, he has become an out-and-out researcher of alternative fund companies, while in the eyes of more people, he is a star among analysts.
From Huaxia Fund to American hedge funds, Xu Dan is totally dependent on Weibo's influence. American funds found him on Weibo and invited him.
Because of Weibo, the bosses of many companies pay attention to him, and there are constantly bosses who know him one after another. As a result, he played the role of organizing salon parties in the industry. Once, he organized a gathering of more than 20 people, and decided that the coffee shop would end the land fee forever. Xu Dan had a brainwave and said that I would open one myself.
He made a fuss about it again. He named the cafe "3W" and invited a large number of leading figures in business and investment circles to join as shareholders, including,,,, Ni Zhengdong, Xu and so on. The snowball rolled bigger and bigger, and finally the number of shareholders alone exceeded 100.
Ma Delong, his collaborator, said that Xu Dan seldom accosted in the shop because he knew what kind of people he should know. One day, several Internet predecessors were sitting in the cafe, including Lin Hai, president of Shanda Games, and Zhang William, chief superstitious scientist of Baidu. Xu Dan sat in it, but the situation was well covered, and the aura was not lost to several predecessors. He is well aware of the goal of the first stage of this cafe: to be an advanced circle on the Internet; Later possibilities include 3W's own investment fund.
A friend who worked with Xu Dan once said that Xu Dan was the only person he had ever met who knew where his goal was, and everything he did was permeated with this goal. Xu Dan said that he has experienced many things in his life that others can't, suffered hardships and seen commensurate wealth, so it's no big deal, and he dares.