13 In May, the "202 1 New Fortune 500 Rich List" released by New Fortune, with the listing of its shell, its net worth soared sixfold to 222 billion yuan, becoming the new richest man in the real estate industry.
Today, this eldest brother, who was named "godfather of intermediary" by the media, unfortunately left this world.
0 1
197 1 year, Zuo Hui was born in an ordinary family in Weinan, Shaanxi.
He has done well in school since he was a child and belongs to someone else's family.
1988, Zuo Hui, 17 years old, admitted to Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology, majoring in computer application.
Four years later, Zuo Hui, 2 1 year-old, graduated from school and was assigned to a factory in the suburbs of Beijing as a technician.
However, after only working for less than three months, Zuo Hui chose to resign, because he felt that the daily chores were too monotonous.
After resigning, he went to a software company in Zhongguancun to do customer service. His daily job is to answer the phone and communicate with customers. This kind of day and night work made him hear voices for a time.
From 65438 to 0995, he jumped ship to another software company and became a marketing salesman. This experience of direct contact with customers made Zuo Hui aware of his strengths and weaknesses. He has strong research ability and careful work, but he is introverted and low-key, so he is not suitable for the sales industry.
At a party, Zuo Hui and two college students from Beipiao became more and more excited. They hit it off immediately and decided to go it alone. So they each invested 50,000 yuan to enter a completely unfamiliar industry, the insurance industry, and became an insurance agent.
"If I want to perform better than my peers, I must be more complicated than their business."
In order to do better than others, Zuo Hui carefully studies the claims terms and details of several major insurance companies every day. Although he has no industry experience, Zuo Hui's research spirit made him find the breakthrough point quickly. He studied the claim clauses of major insurance companies word for word, and then trained employees with the analyzed key points. In less than half a year, Zuo Hui has become an expert in the insurance industry.
In that era of opportunities everywhere, Zuo Hui's insurance business developed rapidly, because it was more diligent than others, with an annual income of more than 5 million at its peak.
In 2000, due to a series of policy adjustments in the insurance market, Zuo Hui decided to quit the insurance industry and find another market. At this point, he has saved the first bucket of gold in his life.
Zuo Hui has accumulated certain experience and wealth, gained a firm foothold in Beijing, and started his career to a new level.
He decided to switch to real estate agency.
02
Zuo Hui himself has a deep understanding of the chaos in the real estate industry. At this time, he has been drifting north 12 years, moved a dozen times, and was cheated by the intermediary.
When buying a house, he found that "buying a house can't find a suitable house, and selling a house can't find a satisfactory buyer", which contains huge business opportunities.
So he resolutely chose to enter the second-hand housing transaction industry. In August, 2000, Beijing Jia Lian Real Estate Exhibition Center was established, and cooperated with Beijing Evening News to hold "Individual Real Estate Purchase Exhibition".
Zuo Hui's first housing exhibition
After careful preparation, exhibitors flocked from all directions and the exhibition was a great success. This makes Zuo Hui more confident. He felt that he was on the right path.
200 1, Zuo Hui founded Beijing Jia Lian real estate agency co., ltd.
At that time, black intermediaries were rampant in the second-hand housing market, and there were many swindlers.
In order to get rid of the image of "black intermediary", Zuo Hui boldly put forward the "real house action", that is, real houses exist, real houses are for sale, and house prices are real and effective.
In Zuo Hui's view, only by establishing credibility can we hope for better development. In the process of the company's development, Zuo Hui has also created a number of industry firsts:
Under his leadership, Chain Home has continuously improved its service quality and set industry standards.
20 14 After becoming the largest real estate agency in Beijing, Zuo Hui began to go out of Beijing.
In 20 15, Link launched a large-scale acquisition nationwide. Shanghai Deyou, Beijing Yijia, Shenzhen Zhonglian, Hangzhou Shi Sheng Guanjia, Beijing Gaoce Real Estate, Guangzhou Full House and Chengdu Yicheng Real Estate are all included in the chain.
This year alone, the turnover of Chain Home has increased fourfold, and its net profit has soared from 65.438+0.37 billion yuan to 65.438+0.10.96 billion yuan.
At this time, the chain home has officially become the Big Mac King with a transaction scale of 700 billion.
Running all the way's performance is also gratifying, but for Zuo Hui, a sense of crisis is indispensable at any time.
During the ten years of chain home development, Zuo Hui has been thinking about a question: Who will kill the chain home?
In his eyes, the biggest threat will come from the Internet.
Zuo Hui, with a strong sense of crisis, was actually prepared several years ago, and a great idea had already taken root in his mind.
03
Many people will have questions, "Why does the chain family do a good job, but Zuo Hui has to make a shell?" ?
Zuo Hui answered this question at an annual meeting of Chain Home.
"We don't make shells, we can grow well, we can make a lot of money, and even make more money. Because many of these things we do actually cost a lot of money, and many of them have no effect at all today, why should we do them? ...... We hope that because of our existence, this country can make this industry a little different. "
In Zuo Hui's view, Shell is a game-breaker, and he wants to make the industry better.
When you have a goal, you start to act.
In 20 16, the chain began to raise money crazily.
Zuo Hui first impressed Bao Fan of Huaxing Capital and obtained 6.4 billion yuan Series B financing including Tencent, New Hope and Gao Yan Capital.
Later, in order to get Sun Hongbin's investment, Zuo Hui and Sun Hongbin, who were still recovering from illness at that time, ate two meals and drank two cups, and got 2.6 billion yuan of investment.
To this end, Zuo Hui also signed a gambling contract. Chain Home must be listed before 202 1, otherwise the chain home needs to return 6.4 billion+2.56 billion interest to investors.
However, as a real estate agent, there is not much room for imagination to obtain high valuation in the capital market.
Therefore, with the hope of investors, Zuo Hui began to play a bigger game.
On April 20 18, Keholding Co., Ltd., which has been brewing for many years, was officially launched.
In Zuo Hui's view, Keke Holding Company is a game breaker. But in the eyes of other peers, Shell is a real big winner.
On June 20 18, just two months after the establishment of Keke Holding Company, Group 58 launched a property pledge meeting, and formed a famous "anti-shell alliance" with I love my family, Zhongyuan Real Estate and 2 1 century Real Estate, and the focus of this protest was Shell's behavior of "being both a referee and an athlete".
58 City Yao Jinbo
Yao Jinbo in the same city said meaningfully, "Some companies want all their colleagues to die, only me to live. This idea is wrong. "
Zuo Hui did not take these actions and remarks seriously, nor did it publicly respond. Shells are in his plan, running all the way.
According to the prospectus, the GTV (transaction amount) of Shell 20 19 was RMB 2 128 billion, up 84.5% year-on-year. By June 30th, 2020, Shell Group had more than 260 real estate brokerage brands, more than 42,000 community-centered stores and 456,000 agents in 65,438+003 economically active cities in China.
What followed was a sudden surge in annual income. In 20 18 and 20 19, the shell revenue was 28.6 billion yuan and 46 billion yuan respectively, and the growth rate of operating income was about 60.6%. At the same time, shells occupy the largest market share in the real estate transaction and service industry in China, with a GTV of 2. 13 trillion yuan in 20/9. The income mainly comes from the commission of housing transactions and services, of which the income from second-hand housing transactions and new housing transactions in 20 19 was 24.6 billion yuan and 20.2 billion yuan respectively.
On August 13, 2020, Keke Holding Company was listed on NYSE, becoming the first residential service platform in China.
On the opening day, the total market value exceeded US$ 42 billion, ranking seventh among China Internet companies listed in the United States at that time.
At such a high-light moment, Zuo Hui said frankly, "I have never found the excitement of IPO in particular" and "I should feel different if I can't find a reason to go public".
Zuo Hui doesn't care about listing or share price, but he has his own concerns.
At the scene of the cloud ringing the bell, he said that he hoped that all shell people would remember the difficulties of the residential service industry, and insisted on doing the right thing and creating one value after another before they got here today. "Please always believe in yourself. Although everyone is very small, as long as we are together, we can create great value and move mountains and seas. "
04
People often say that Ali has Ma Yun's "Six-pulse Excalibur", but what the world doesn't know is that Zuo Hui also has his three "magic weapons".
The first magic weapon: to achieve a positive cycle with values
"1992, graduated from university and bought the first house in 2004. In the middle 12, I have been renting a house and changed the house of 10. I was cheated in a mess. "
This is the story of Zuo Hui and an ordinary person. What he has in common is that this person may be you, me or someone else.
But what is unusual about him is that some people are cheated, but some people will consider changing him, and Zuo Hui is one of the few people who are willing to change this society.
In the second-hand housing market before Chain Home entered the market, industries such as jungle, consumers and brokers did not trust each other, and most intermediaries could cheat one thing, which made customers dissatisfied and even angry.
Therefore, he wants to make changes and introduce rules that run counter to the unspoken rules of the industry, such as "real house" and "no price difference".
Zuo Hui believes that once the market forms a positive cycle and continues to accumulate positively for a long time, it will have unparalleled advantages, even if other peers can't catch up in the same way, which is an "asymmetric competition".
Facing the emergence of more competitors, Zuo Hui said that he was not worried, because real competition would promote the growth of the whole organization.
Zuo Hui also has his own insistence on how to make a profit. "For business, profit is not important at all, but the value you provide is the most important." "As long as you create value, isn't it a matter of time before you make a profit?" .
The second magic weapon: kill low-dimensional talents with high-dimensional talents
In Zuo Hui's values, "the dignity of brokers" must be valued and implemented.
And to get "the dignity of the broker", Zuo Hui like Charles Munger's words:
If you want something, the best way is to deserve it.
In a screenshot circulated in a circle of friends, there are many agents of chain home who graduated from top universities in Beijing and Shanghai.
Why recruit undergraduates? Zuo Hui has his logic:
A student with a standard education of 16 years will certainly have more consideration when choosing a job, and finally choose the profession of broker to bear higher opportunity cost.
This kind of opportunity cost will be translated into more bottom line and more serious work with great probability.
After people are recruited, there is a corresponding cooperation system to provide good enough guarantee.
This is the different temperament of chain home and other peer companies. High-quality talents can not only bring better experience for serving customers, but also save management costs.
Only high-quality people can have a stronger sense of trust. Trust is the scarcest thing for an enterprise, both internally and externally.
The third magic weapon: fighting short-term anxiety with long-term doctrine
An industry with high customer price needs high trust, but the reality is that this industry is like a jungle where people don't trust each other.
In the real estate industry, brokers should be core assets, but the reality is consumables. Someone once described it like this:
Brokers are like towels, wringing one for another.
Why is this the result? There is no other reason. The word benefit is the fastest in the short term, and credit is the long-term benefit. Credit needs to be exchanged by giving up improper short-term interests.
Everyone is unwilling to do "long-term difficult things", unwilling to "accumulate through good reputation" and unwilling to "improve the industry ecology based on the future".
And how to make enterprises survive this long-term unrewarded "curse"? In Zuo Hui's view, two forces are needed.
One is the power of faith. I firmly believe that the direction of the positive cycle of quality is correct. If we keep doing it, consumers will definitely come back.
The second is the power of motivation. When brokers do the right thing, they will be encouraged by consumers. The encouragement of consumers can promote brokers to dig deeper into the industry, maintain better professional ethics, strive to improve their professional quality and provide better services to consumers, thus forming a positive cycle.
This is Zuo Hui's values, but also the values of shells.
05
"When you are not sure, choose the most difficult path."
Don't eat the price difference, build a real estate dictionary, push the real estate, and be a residential service platform. ...
Every decision made by Zuo Hui at the beginning seemed unwise at that time, but time has proved it. Along the way, he has been doing "difficult and correct things".
"It's easy to take shortcuts, but this is wrong. Generally speaking, it is difficult to do the right thing. Sometimes you can't figure out what is difficult and what is right, so you choose the most difficult way. "
Facts have finally proved that as long as we persist in being good to users, good to service providers and good for a long time, even if the road ahead is difficult, our vision will come true one day.
That's enough, Mr Zuo Hui. Have a nice trip.