"That day, I shed a lot of tears."
Text | Chinese Business Tao Strategy Zhang Jingbo
In 2006, under pressure, Ren Zhengfei had a meal in a restaurant.
During the dinner, he sat in the hall, eating while listening to several girls from rural Inner Mongolia singing.
Seeing them so excited, optimistic, and loving life, Ren Zhengfei thought: Poor farmers want to survive, why don't I want to survive?
[A letter to the Party Committee]
In 2015, Huawei's Voice community released a letter. The author's byline is:
Ren.
Unlike Huawei's other internal articles, which mostly talk about corporate strategy and business strategy, this warm article focuses on a special group:
Employees suffering from depression and anxiety!
The name of the letter is very special: "To Live a Life Full of Difficulties Happily - To Secretary Chen Zhufang and Party Committee Members".
In the letter, Ren expressed his concerns. He said he was disturbed by the increasing number of depression and anxiety among Huawei employees.
After thinking about it again, he decided to write a letter to Huawei people, hoping to guide employees to face life positively, decently, and openly.
Around 2000, Ren Zhengfei, who was worried about internal and external problems, also suffered from depression and once wanted to commit suicide. With the help of doctors and his own openness and optimism, his illness was eventually cured.
Ren Zhengfei used his own experience to give some advice to employees who suffer from depression and anxiety:
First of all, life is short, you don't have to torture yourself.
In Ren's view, depression is caused by torturing oneself. Life is already very hard, why torture yourself?
Don't lose faith in life at any time and in any situation.
Second, there is a gap in people, and we must acknowledge that there is a gap. Be contented and don't keep comparing.
Can the treatment be the same as the situation? Without a sense of satisfaction with the effort you put in, you will constantly torture yourself.
Finally, don't worry too much about your weaknesses.
In Ren Zhengfei's view, people have shortcomings.
"I myself have many weaknesses, and I am often teased by my family as a primary school student." The smart approach is not to make up for shortcomings, but to concentrate on one's own advantages and advantages.
In Huawei's words, it is 180,000 people, only charging at the same city wall.
"If I go all out to improve those weak areas, maybe I won't be able to be CEO."
Depression, to a large extent, is the loss of hope in life after a major blow in life, extreme devaluation of one's own life value, and finally falling into an endless cycle of despair.
Around 2000, Ren Zhengfei suffered such a blow.
[I have tried to commit suicide many times...]
At that time, Ren Zhengfei was worried about internal and external troubles.
After more than a decade of development, Huawei's scale has grown rapidly, but there have been major problems internally. Ren Zhengfei, who is accustomed to shaking his palm, found:
Due to long-term resignation to individual heroism, Huawei's internal thinking is chaotic and mountainous.
In order to break this chaos, Ren Zhengfei decided to implement a rotation system within Huawei.
As a result, Li Yinan, who had made many achievements for Huawei and was known as the "prince of Huawei", was rotated from the core technical post to the sales department.
The proud Li Yinan left Huawei in a fit of anger, and poached many of Huawei's backbones, founded the harbor network, and grabbed business with Huawei.
In business, Ren Zhengfei also bet on the wrong technical route.
At that time, the two technical routes of 3G and PHS were parallel. Ren Zhengfei believes that the former technology is backward and is betting on 3G. But the development of the market is eye-popping, and PHS dominates.
Huawei can only watch its competitors make a lot of money, but it does not make money, and it is in a dilemma.
Then came the bursting of the global IT bubble. The most powerful opponent, the American company Cisco, sued Huawei in an attempt to bankrupt Huawei.
Under internal and external troubles, the company almost went bankrupt.
At this time, his mother was accidentally killed in a car accident, and he unfortunately suffered from cancer.
More than a decade later, Ren Zhengfei recalled the scene in an internal article, full of sadness and helplessness: "I understand why those executives in society who cannot bear it choose to commit suicide." ”
The torment of the illness, coupled with the inability to control the entire company, made Ren Zhengfei once frustrated and almost collapsed.
"For half a year, I had nightmares, and I often cried when I woke up." He said.
Long-term mental depression caused Ren Zhengfei to suffer from depression and anxiety. Over the course of four or five years, he tried to commit suicide many times...
At the critical moment, open optimism saved him.
In particular, several trips have allowed him to rekindle his confidence in his career and life.
In April 2001, Ren Zhengfei traveled east to Japan to learn from experience. In a remote wine house, Ren Zhengfei met a group of elderly people who came out to travel after retirement.
They enthusiastically sang the Japanese folk song "Dragnet Minor" for Ren.
The enthusiasm and optimism of the old people infected Ren Zhengfei. In addition to being emotional, he sang the Hokkaido folk song "Northern Spring" with the old people.
After returning from Japan, Ren Zhengfei wrote the famous article full of the passion of the struggler, "Spring in the Northern Country".
In the text, he wrote:
"I've listened to 'Northern Spring' hundreds of times, and every time I burst into tears... A person who leaves home to struggle is to get a good life. ”
Five years later, at a restaurant in Inner Mongolia, Ren Zhengfei ate while listening to several rural girls sing.
Seeing them so excited, optimistic, and loving life, Ren Zhengfei thought: Poor farmers want to survive, why don't I want to survive?
"That day, I shed a lot of tears, and I never thought about killing myself again."
The confident and optimistic Ren Zhengfei rekindled his fighting spirit.
He quickly set up the "Hong Kong Raiding Office" and completely forced the Harbor Network and Li Yinan to stop with a powerful offensive, and then shook hands with the latter and made peace.
In the face of Cisco's suppression, Ren Zhengfei launched a strong counterattack, and he personally hired the US Hailu Law Firm to countersue Cisco for monopoly. In the end, the opponent was forced to reconcile.
He was even ready to fight the Americans on Everest after the failed Motorola acquisition.
In the end, with self-confidence, optimism, and a strong striver-oriented culture, Huawei waited for the explosion of the 3G era after 2009.
[Why don't you wait until that day?] 】
While defeating depression, Ren Zhengfei also shaped Huawei's striver's culture of strugglers.
In 2003, Motorola and Huawei reached a deal, with the former agreeing to buy Huawei for $7.5 billion. However, due to changes in Motorola's top management, the acquisition ultimately failed.
Afterwards, Ren called a meeting of senior executives to discuss whether Huawei wanted to sell it.
Sold it, everyone can immediately exchange the mink for wine. If you don't sell, you have to be prepared for a hard battle. As a result, the Young Zhuang faction unanimously said not to sell. Ren defended with the majority opinion, but at the same time warned:
Sooner or later we will meet the United States, at the top of the mountain, and we must prepare everything now.
A few months later, HiSilicon was founded in Shenzhen.
Before that, Ren Zhengfei found He Tingbo and gave her a task: "Give you 20,000 people, 400 million US dollars a year in research and development funds, make your own chips, you must stand up!" ”
In the end, HiSilicon lived up to Ren's expectations.
Immediately afterwards, Huawei also established the most mysterious department - the 2012 laboratory, which includes Noah's Ark laboratory, Shannon laboratory, Gauss laboratory, etc., responsible for the research and development of various cutting-edge technologies.
After making various preparations, Huawei finally waited for the decisive battle.
Since May 16, 2019, the United States has launched round after round of sanctions against Huawei, almost as a whole country, to jointly suppress Huawei.
In the face of this rare encirclement and suppression in the history of world business, in the face of all-round blocking from chips to databases, operating systems and other software and hardware, Ren Zhengfei and Huawei did not compromise.
Finally, after more than four years of struggle, the difficult period gradually passed.
In April 2023, after more than three years and nearly 1,000 days and nights of hard work, Huawei replaced all Oracle ERP with its self-developed MetaERP, thus removing the biggest thunder hanging overhead.
This means that Huawei's biggest risk has been eliminated, and Ren Zhengfei's face has a bright smile.
This 79-year-old man, who has experienced hardships, once made the strongest voice to the world at the founding meeting of the Huawei Legion two years ago:
"I believe that peace is fought, and we must use hard work and heroic sacrifice to create a peaceful environment for the next 30 years... Let no one dare to bully us again. ”
Seeing this, it is hard to imagine that just a dozen years ago, this was an old man who was plagued by depression.
And the power to help this old man out of the doldrums and finally rekindle his confidence is not only the grand goal, the help of doctors, but also a very simple optimism from the people.
Ren Zhengfei said that he once wanted to write an article "Happy Life" to dedicate to Huawei's friends suffering from depression and anxiety.
Although his idea did not come true due to time constraints, he still offered himself the easiest way to get out of anxiety:
If you have the opportunity to go to Beijing, you can go to Jingshan Park.
Entering through the West Gate, there is a sea of songs, hot as a tsunami. These are old people in their twilight years, groups of dozens, hundreds of people, all singing.
Perhaps many of them are laid-off workers, look at their sunset red, look at their transcendent pleasure of pain, why don't you wait until that day?
[References]
[1] "To Live a Life Full of Difficulties Happily: A Letter to Chen Zhufang and Party Committee Members", Huawei Voices Community
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