大家好，今天是我第三次年度演讲。 Hello, everyone. Today is my third annual speech.
这三年来，全球发生了巨大的变化，已经深刻地影响了我们每个人的生活和工作。 Over the past three years, the world has undergone enormous changes that have profoundly affected every one of our lives and our work.
如何面对这些连续不断的巨大变化，不少人感到迷茫，甚至非常焦虑。 Faced with these continuous and sweeping changes, many people have felt lost, and even deeply anxious.
今天的演讲，我们就不聊小米，聊点不一样的话题：我是如何穿越人生低谷，又从中获得了哪些重要的感悟。 In today's speech, we will not talk about Xiaomi. Instead, I want to discuss something different: how I made my way through the lowest points of my life, and what important lessons I gained from them.
这次我聊三个故事，第一个故事就是，我在非常年轻的时候就遭遇了“产品失败、业务崩盘、公司差点关门”的困境。 I will share three stories. The first is about how, when I was very young, I faced a crisis in which a product failed, the business collapsed, and the company nearly shut down.
故事要从三十年前说起。 The story begins thirty years ago.
DOS时代WPS非常流行，几乎装在中国每台电脑上，金山如日中天。 During the DOS era, WPS was extremely popular and installed on almost every computer in China. Kingsoft was at the height of its success.
同时也有很大的隐忧，微软已经带着 Windows 和 Office 进入了中国市场。我们要尽快研发出新的办公软件，才有机会正面和微软Office抗衡。 At the same time, there was a major hidden danger: Microsoft had already entered the Chinese market with Windows and Office. We had to develop new office software as quickly as possible if we were to have any chance of competing head-on with Microsoft Office.
初生牛犊不怕虎，我们也没有细想，直接开干，还给项目取了一个气势磅礴的名字，叫“盘古”，我们希望盘古在 Windows 平台上开天辟地，能把 WPS 辉煌推到一个新的高度。 Like young people who fear no tigers, we did not think too much about it. We simply got to work and gave the project a grand, imposing name: Pangu. We hoped that Pangu would create a new world on the Windows platform and take WPS's glory to a new level.
一个国内小公司，要抗衡微软，这个难度真的不是一般的大。为了这个宏伟的梦想，我们压上了几乎全部的家底，抽调了几乎所有的程序员，没日没夜，干了整整三年。到了1995年4月，盘古终于发布了。 For a small Chinese company to challenge Microsoft was extraordinarily difficult. To pursue this grand dream, we put almost all our resources on the line and reassigned nearly every programmer. We worked day and night for three full years. In April 1995, Pangu was finally released.
闭关3年，只等大成的这一天，我们连庆功宴都提前精心准备好了。 After three years in seclusion, waiting for the day of a great success, we had even carefully prepared our celebration banquet in advance.
01 01
生死关头 A Matter of Life and Death
1.1 盘古受挫 1.1 The Setback of Pangu
但谁也没有想到，销量极为惨淡，不及预期的十分之一。 But no one expected sales to be so dismal. They came to less than one-tenth of what we had expected.
我的心态直接崩了，同事们的心情也从云端直接跌落到了谷底。 My morale collapsed instantly, and my colleagues' spirits plunged from the clouds to the bottom of a valley.
没有办法，我拼命给大家打鸡血，鼓励大家继续奋斗，就这样，我们坚持到1995年底1996年初，盘古依然没有任何起色。 There was nothing I could do but keep trying to motivate everyone and encourage them to work harder. We held on through the end of 1995 and the beginning of 1996, but Pangu still showed no sign of improvement.
更大的麻烦是，WPS 也卖不动了，收入锐减。 The bigger problem was that WPS was no longer selling either, and our revenue fell sharply.
公司到了生死存亡的关头。 The company reached a life-or-death moment.
那年我26岁，担任北京金山的总经理，第一次面对这样的困局，有点束手无策。 I was twenty-six that year and general manager of Kingsoft Beijing. It was the first time I had faced such a predicament, and I felt completely helpless.
每到发工资的那天，都是我最难熬的时候。我记得，最惨的时候，账上只有十几万，眼看着下个月就发不出工资。 Every payday was the hardest time for me. I remember that at our worst, there were only a little over one hundred thousand yuan in the company account, and it looked as if we would not be able to pay salaries the following month.
同事们也都很绝望，不少人离开了，办公室开始有点空空荡荡的。那个时候我经常彻夜睡不着。我还记得，好多个晚上，我独自坐在沙发上，静静的看着窗外，眼睁睁地看着对面楼里的灯一盏一盏熄灭，再看着天色一点一点亮起来。这种痛苦，只有经历过的人，才真的明白。 My colleagues were desperate too. Many left, and the office began to look empty. At that time, I often could not sleep all night. I still remember sitting alone on the sofa on many evenings, quietly looking out the window, watching helplessly as the lights in the building opposite went out one by one, then watching the sky slowly grow bright. Only people who have experienced it can truly understand that kind of pain.
1.2 站店的故事 1.2 The Story of Selling Software in a Store
金山这样的金字招牌，盘古这么好的产品，怎么可能卖不动呢？ How could a prestigious brand like Kingsoft and such a good product as Pangu fail to sell?
我有点想不通，下定决心要“一杆子捅到底”，到第一线去把问题搞清楚。 I could not understand it. I made up my mind to get to the bottom of the problem and go to the front line to find out what was really happening.
我决定亲自去站店卖货。站店卖货，刚开始我信心十足。我特意选了当时中关村最大的一家软件店。虽然没有销售经验，但产品是我们自己做的，我相信我自己肯定没问题，一定可以搞定。 I decided to sell the product in a store myself. At first, I was full of confidence. I deliberately chose the largest software store in Zhongguancun at the time. Although I had no sales experience, we had made the product ourselves. I believed that I would have no problem and could definitely handle it.
每个客户进店，我像见到亲人一样，直接迎上去，热情接待，细心讲解。有时候，一个客户，我能滔滔不绝的讲上半个小时。一遍又一遍，一整天讲了八个小时，讲得口干舌燥，也累得晕头转向。当晚回家，连饭都不想吃，直接躺在床上就睡着了。 Whenever a customer entered the store, I would greet them as if they were a family member, receive them warmly, and explain everything carefully. Sometimes I could talk nonstop to a single customer for half an hour. I did this again and again for eight hours a day, until my mouth was dry and I was exhausted and dizzy. When I got home that night, I did not even feel like eating. I simply lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
我是一个程序员，每天都坐在电脑前写程序。第一次站店，就站了八个小时。辛苦的程度，大家想想就可以理解了。 I was a programmer who sat in front of a computer writing code every day. On my first day selling in a store, I stood for eight hours. You can imagine how exhausting it was.
如此辛苦的一天，业绩如何呢？ After such a hard day, how were my results?
真的不好意思说，我一套都没有卖出去。 I am embarrassed to say that I did not sell a single copy.
“一定是运气不好”，我给自己打气，毕竟是头一次干，没关系，第二天继续努力。 "It must just be bad luck," I told myself to keep my spirits up. It was my first time, after all. No problem; I would work hard again the next day.
第二天，同样八个小时站下来，还是一套没有卖出去，我就有些懵了。 The next day, after standing for another eight hours, I still had not sold a single copy. I began to feel bewildered.
到了第三天，依然颗粒无收，尤其是看到其他店员成了一单又一单，我都有点怀疑自己了，真心觉得销售不简单。 On the third day, I still sold nothing. Seeing the other salespeople close one deal after another made me doubt myself. I realized that sales was truly not easy.
第四天，我干脆就不卖货了。干什么呢？看看别人是如何卖货的。于是，我跟着店里最好的销售转了一整天，还真学了不少东西。比如说，我一见到客户，就会滔滔不绝，而他，其实话并不多，先听听客户的想法，再顺着客户说。我懂技术，总是希望把技术讲明白，反而容易把问题讲复杂了，而他，总是拿着产品或者宣传页，三言两语，客户就明白了。让我最羡慕的是，他和客户交流轻松自如。对我来说，和陌生人交流，始终是个巨大的挑战。 On the fourth day, I stopped selling altogether. What did I do instead? I watched how other people sold. I followed the best salesperson in the store for the entire day and really learned a lot. For example, whenever I saw a customer, I would talk nonstop. He, by contrast, did not say much. He first listened to what the customer was thinking and then responded accordingly. I understood technology and always wanted to explain it clearly, but that often made the issue more complicated. He would simply hold up the product or a brochure and explain it in a few words, and the customer understood. What I envied most was how naturally he communicated with customers. For me, talking to strangers had always been a huge challenge.
第五天，我一边琢磨一边练，到了中午，终于开张了！ On the fifth day, I practiced while thinking things through, and by noon I finally made my first sale.
那一瞬间，我激动得就像赢得了整个世界一样。 At that moment, I was as excited as if I had won the whole world.
我逐渐找到了跟客户沟通的感觉，自信心也开始恢复了。 I gradually found the feel of communicating with customers, and my confidence began to return.
第五天、第六天，我的业绩逐渐好起来。 My results gradually improved on the fifth and sixth days.
第七天，我居然成为了店里的销售冠军，太不可思议了！ On the seventh day, I actually became the store's top salesperson. It was unbelievable.
1.3 站店的收获 1.3 What I Learned from Selling in a Store
讲到这里，大家可能会觉得我在讲“一个促销员七天速成”的故事。 At this point, you may think I am telling the story of how a salesperson mastered the job in seven days.
其实，这是“一个研发负责人在产品失败后，深入销售一线，站了七天店面”的故事。 In fact, it is the story of a head of R&D who, after a product failed, went deep into the sales front line and spent seven days selling in a store.
站店，非常累，但收获巨大。 Selling in a store was exhausting, but the rewards were immense.
给大家举个例子。那个时候，电脑刚刚开始普及。站店那几天，每天总有几个客户，一进店就问，有没有电脑入门的软件。 Let me give you an example. Computers were just beginning to become widespread at the time. During those days in the store, several customers would come in every day and immediately ask whether there was any software for learning the basics of computers.
我有点想不通，学电脑，买本书看不就行了，为什么还要买个软件教吗？我总是非常耐心劝他们，“确实没有这样的软件，你出门左转就是一家书店，买本书跟着学就好了”。 I could not understand it. If you wanted to learn about computers, why not just buy a book? Why buy software to teach you? I would patiently tell them, "There really is no such software. Turn left when you leave and you will find a bookstore. Just buy a book and learn from it."
直到被问了很多次以后，我终于恍然大悟，既然这么多人想买，做一个不就完了吗？说实话，和盘古一比，这类软件确实没啥技术含量，我们立刻开发了一个，就叫《电脑入门》，以最快的速度推向市场。结果大获成功，迅速就上了软件畅销排行榜。 After being asked this many times, I finally had an epiphany: if so many people wanted it, why not make one? To be honest, compared with Pangu, this kind of software did not involve much technical sophistication. We developed one immediately, called Computer Basics, and rushed it to market. It was a huge success and quickly climbed the software bestseller charts.
这7天的站店卖货，我学会了：作为一个工程师，一定要做用户需要的产品，而不是做那些看起来只是高大上的产品。只要能做出用户想要的产品，销售就不是问题。有了这样的顿悟，再做产品就容易了。后来，我们陆续发布了《金山词霸》《金山毒霸》等十多款成功的软件。 During those seven days of selling in a store, I learned that as an engineer, you must make products that users need, rather than products that merely look grand and impressive. As long as you can make something users want, sales will not be a problem. Once I understood this, making products became easier. Later, we released more than ten successful software products, including Kingsoft PowerWord and Kingsoft Antivirus.
回头再看盘古的问题，原因非常简单，就是因为“闭门造车”。 Looking back at Pangu, the reason for its failure was very simple: we had built it behind closed doors.
我非常庆幸，如果不是这次危机，我可能完全没有机会补上这么关键的一课。 I am very grateful that, without this crisis, I might never have had the chance to learn such a crucial lesson.
这次站店经历，也成为了我日后职业生涯中最宝贵的财富。 This experience of selling in a store also became the most valuable asset of my later career.
站过店之后，再去逛店，感觉就完全不同。 After selling in a store, I saw stores in a completely different way.
我逛店就不仅仅在看商品，也在琢磨别人的店面，比如装修、动线、货架、堆头、海报等等，开始有点“内行看门道”的感觉了。从那以后，无论多忙，我一定会抽空到店里去转转。哪怕到国外出差，也会千方百计到当地最好的零售店去学习一下。我对零售行业有了一定的了解。 When I visited a store, I was no longer looking only at the products. I also studied the store itself: its decoration, customer flow, shelves, displays, posters, and more. I began to feel like an insider who could see the principles behind the details. From then on, no matter how busy I was, I always made time to visit stores. Even when traveling abroad for work, I would do everything I could to visit the best local retailers and learn from them. I gained a certain understanding of the retail industry.
就这样，金山找到了活下去的路！ In this way, Kingsoft found a way to survive.
但我自己却陷入了新的迷茫，开始了我人生最灰暗的一段时间。 But I myself fell into a new kind of confusion and began the darkest period of my life.
02 02
迷失彷徨 Lost and Confused
2.1 泡酒吧 2.1 Going to Bars
那时候，我一直沉浸在盘古失败的情绪中，非常低落。 At the time, I remained immersed in the emotions surrounding Pangu's failure and was extremely depressed.
和微软抗衡，完全看不到赢的希望。如果只是做一家挣扎活着的公司，这绝对不是我的追求。 There was no hope at all of defeating Microsoft. If all I did was run a company that struggled merely to stay alive, that was absolutely not what I wanted.
我彻底失去了理想，4月底，直接交了辞职信。求伯君反复挽留我，最后决定，让我先歇半年再说。 I had completely lost my ideals. At the end of April, I submitted my resignation. Qiu Bojun repeatedly tried to persuade me to stay, and in the end we decided that I would take six months off and see what happened afterward.
面对这样的人生逆境，这里问大家一个问题：你们是如何解压的？ Faced with such adversity in life, let me ask you a question: how do you relieve stress?
当时，我的方法就是经常和几个朋友去泡吧。那时，蹦迪特别风行，我们能疯狂蹦一晚上，都不怎么歇的。 At the time, my way was to go to bars frequently with a few friends. Dancing in clubs was very popular then, and we could dance wildly all night without much of a break.
也是这个阶段，我开始喜欢上了重金属摇滚。之前完全不能接受，但现在不一样了，沉浸在音乐中，能让自己暂时忘掉所有的烦恼。 It was also during this period that I began to enjoy heavy metal rock. I had never been able to accept it before, but now things were different. Immersing myself in music let me temporarily forget all my troubles.
那段时间经常泡吧，我还真的琢磨过，是不是干脆转行，在三里屯也开家酒吧。 Since I spent so much time in bars, I even seriously wondered whether I should change careers and open a bar in Sanlitun.
2.2 BBS论坛 2.2 BBS Forums
很快，我就找到了更有趣的事，那就是BBS。 Before long, I found something even more interesting: BBS forums.
我有了足够多的时间，整天泡在 CFIDO BBS 上。那时候，互联网还没普及，CFIDO是爱好者自建的电话拨号连接的网络，聚集了国内一大群极客。上BBS，可以自由自在地和远方朋友交流，这在当时，是件非常神奇的事情。这种神奇感，就特别像今天的元宇宙。 I had plenty of time and spent all day on the CFIDO BBS. The internet had not yet become widespread. CFIDO was a network created by enthusiasts through dial-up telephone connections, and it brought together a large community of geeks across China. On a BBS, you could communicate freely with friends far away. At the time, that felt truly magical, much like the metaverse feels today.
就这样，我找到了新的寄托。 That was how I found a new source of purpose.
那时候，在论坛发帖，要求还是蛮高的。大家都是拨号上网，上网费特别贵。如果你总是发水帖，就一定会被痛骂的。当时我有足够的时间认真准备每条帖子。而且我有个特别强的优势，就是打字超快，多的时候一天就能写一百帖。其中最长的一个帖子，从晚上写到天亮，大约有上万字。直到今天，在网上还能搜到几篇我当年写的帖子。 Posting on a forum required quite a lot in those days. Everyone used dial-up internet, and the connection fees were very expensive. If you kept posting low-quality material, people would certainly berate you. I had plenty of time to prepare every post carefully. I also had a major advantage: I could type extremely fast. At my busiest, I could write one hundred posts in a day. My longest post took me from evening until dawn and was about ten thousand Chinese characters. Even today, you can still find several of the posts I wrote back then online.
就这样，我的发帖量，经常都排在全站飙信排行榜上的前几位。像我这样疯狂的人其实还不少，当时我在论坛中认识一个朋友，每天也是上百帖，他打字也很快，但他不会盲打，只会用两个手指打字，弹指如飞，号称“二指禅”，据说打坏了好几个键盘。 As a result, my number of posts often ranked near the top of the site's posting leaderboard. There were quite a few people as crazy as I was. I met one friend on the forum who also posted more than one hundred times a day. He typed very quickly too, but he could not touch-type. He used only two fingers, moving them like flying piano keys, and was nicknamed the "Two-Finger Zen Master." People said he had worn out several keyboards.
帖子写得多了，我就成了版主。大家别看版主官不大，事还不少，有点像今天的“群主”。首先自己要发帖，接着要拉一大帮朋友来玩，还要负责搞气氛。最难的是，大家因为观点不同经常吵架，解决网友各种纠纷就成了版主最重要的工作。 After writing so many posts, I became a moderator. Do not think a moderator has a small title and little work. It was a bit like being the owner of a group today. First, you had to post yourself. Then you had to bring in a large group of friends and keep the atmosphere lively. Most difficult of all, people often argued because they held different views, so resolving disputes among users became the moderator's most important job.
为了当好版主，我经常早上7点就开始上网，一直忙到凌晨，好像比上班还累。不过，过得非常充实。 To be a good moderator, I often went online at seven in the morning and stayed busy until after midnight. It seemed even more tiring than going to work, but it was deeply fulfilling.
有朋友认为我在逃避现实、不务正业，甚至有人为我惋惜，觉得我是在浪费生命。对于这种关心，我非常感谢，但并不是特别认可。 Some friends thought I was escaping reality and neglecting my proper work. Some even felt sorry for me and believed I was wasting my life. I was grateful for their concern, but I did not entirely agree.
这半年，没有任何目的，非常纯粹的玩，玩得也特别开心。 For those six months, I had no particular goal. I played purely for the sake of playing, and I had a wonderful time.
就是在这样放松的氛围里，我的情绪也在一点点恢复。 In that relaxed atmosphere, my emotions gradually recovered.
2.3 意外收获 2.3 An Unexpected Benefit
多年以后，我才明白了这段经历真正的价值。 It was only many years later that I understood the true value of that experience.
2010年我创办小米，第一步要先把论坛做好。我们非常顺利，不到一年就成了最火的手机发烧友论坛。怎么做到的？其实没啥，就是靠当年玩BBS当版主时学会的那几招。 When I founded Xiaomi in 2010, the first thing we had to do was build a good forum. We succeeded very smoothly, and in less than a year it had become the most popular forum for mobile-phone enthusiasts. How did we do it? There was nothing mysterious about it. We simply used the few techniques I had learned when I was a BBS moderator.
很多人总觉得，看小说、上网、打游戏只会玩物丧志。 Many people always believe that reading novels, going online, and playing games can only distract you and ruin your ambitions.
我个人的体会是，只要有一定的自制力，娱乐也是很好的学习方式。 My personal experience is that as long as you have a certain amount of self-discipline, entertainment can also be a very good way to learn.
不带任何目的，学起东西来，反而特别轻松，也特别快。 When you learn without a particular purpose, it can actually feel especially easy and happen especially quickly.
不过，玩也要玩出点名堂，不要瞎玩，瞎玩只是浪费时间。 But you should make something worthwhile out of your play. Do not play aimlessly; aimless play is simply a waste of time.
当年在BBS上，我还认识了不少朋友，有的到今天，非常成功： Back then, I also met many friends on the BBS. Some of them went on to become very successful:
有一位，在一家叫润迅的寻呼机公司做程序员，叫马化腾； One was a programmer at a pager company called Ruxun. His name was Ma Huateng.
还有一位，在宁波电信局做工程师，叫丁磊。 Another was an engineer at the Ningbo Telecommunications Bureau. His name was Ding Lei.
当年他们为什么有那么高的热情、那么多的时间泡论坛，我没有问过。 I never asked why they had so much enthusiasm and so much time to spend on forums.
但我相信，这段经历，对他们后来的事业有着决定性的影响。 But I believe that experience had a decisive influence on their later careers.
沉浸在论坛的这半年时间里，逐渐恢复了状态。1996年11月，我结束了半年假期，正式回归了金山。 After immersing myself in the forum for six months, I gradually recovered. In November 1996, I ended my half-year break and officially returned to Kingsoft.
主要原因，还是放不下民族软件这份光荣与梦想。 The main reason was that I could not let go of the honor and dream of creating Chinese software.
我们下决心，要跟微软打一场“持久战”：一边在办公软件的正面战场和微软死磕，一边做各种应用软件和游戏，赚钱养家，以战养战。 We resolved to fight Microsoft a war of attrition: on the main battlefield of office software, we would fight Microsoft to the end; at the same time, we would make various application programs and games to support ourselves and sustain the fight.
一家差点关门的小公司，经过二十多年的苦心经营，重新崛起了。 A small company that had nearly shut down rose again after more than two decades of painstaking work.
到今天，WPS 月活跃设备数超过了5亿。 Today, WPS has more than 500 million monthly active devices.
我为 WPS 取得的成就感到特别自豪。 I am especially proud of what WPS has achieved.
我们在网上找到了将近20年前的采访视频，大家一起看下。 We found an interview video from nearly twenty years ago online. Let us watch it together.
03 03
错失互联网 Missing the Internet Revolution
3.1 环境变了 3.1 The Environment Changed
就在我埋头重整金山的时候，外面的世界已经天翻地覆： While I was burying myself in rebuilding Kingsoft, the outside world had already been turned upside down:
大洋彼岸，网景1995年上市，雅虎1996年上市……互联网的第一波浪潮已经蓬勃发展。 Across the ocean, Netscape went public in 1995 and Yahoo went public in 1996. The first wave of the internet was already flourishing.
很快，国内也开始了，1997年网易创办，1998年腾讯创办，中国互联网第一波浪潮汹涌而至。 Soon it began in China as well. NetEase was founded in 1997, Tencent in 1998, and the first wave of China's internet came crashing forward.
而我忙着做软件，不知不觉，与这一波浪潮擦肩而过。 I was busy making software and, without realizing it, missed that wave.
直到1998年10月，我才真正意识到这波浪潮已不可阻挡。我说服董事会，我们可以采用收购方式快速出击。 It was not until October 1998 that I truly realized this wave could not be stopped. I persuaded the board that we could move quickly by making acquisitions.
这些年来，网上有很多传言，有的说马化腾刚创业的时候要把QQ卖给我，我没买；还有的说马云刚创业的时候找我投资，我没投；这些传言整得我好像很没有眼光一样。这里，我要澄清一下，他们没有找过我，这些全是谣传。 Over the years, there have been many rumors online. Some say that when Ma Huateng was starting Tencent, he wanted to sell QQ to me and I did not buy it. Others say that when Jack Ma was starting out, he asked me to invest and I did not. These rumors make me look as if I had no business sense at all. Let me clarify: neither of them ever approached me. Those stories are all false.
我认真谈过的收购只有一家，就是网易。 The only acquisition I seriously discussed was NetEase.
那时网易成立一年多，公司大概五六个人，主要做个人主页托管服务，做得非常好，甚至还帮广州电信做了一套邮件系统。 At that time, NetEase had been founded for just over a year. It had only about five or six people and mainly provided personal homepage hosting. It was doing extremely well and had even built an email system for Guangzhou Telecom.
我开出了1000万的价钱，这在当时，真的算是一个不小的数字了，但丁磊很快拒绝了。 I offered 10 million yuan. That was a considerable sum at the time, but Ding Lei rejected it quickly.
仅仅2个月后，网易就融到了1000万美元，估值达到了6000多万美元，按当时的美元汇率，大约5亿元。 Just two months later, NetEase raised US$10 million and reached a valuation of more than US$60 million, or roughly 500 million yuan at the exchange rate then.
真是一个疯狂的时代，我看不懂，但大受震撼。 It was a crazy era. I could not understand it, but I was deeply shocked.
3.2 卓越网 3.2 Excellence.com
收购不成，我们只能自己干。试了差不多一年，对互联网业务有了一定的认知。 When the acquisition failed, we had to do it ourselves. After trying for about a year, we developed a certain understanding of internet businesses.
当时，我以为自己完全搞明白了，“互联网就是工具。未来所有的公司都会用的，电商最有前途。” At the time, I thought I had figured everything out: "The internet is a tool. Every company will use it in the future, and e-commerce has the brightest prospects."
做电商，说干就干。 So we decided to do e-commerce.
2000年5月，卓越网正式上线，在网上主卖图书和音像制品。 In May 2000, Excellence.com officially went online, selling mainly books and audiovisual products.
这次我信心爆棚，志在必得，力主自己掏钱干。就在这时，全球互联网泡沫破灭，进入了资本市场的寒冬。这样局面也没有动摇我们的决心，第一笔大约2000万的投入，全部来自于金山股东。 This time, I was overflowing with confidence and determined to win. I insisted on funding it myself. Just then, the global internet bubble burst and the capital market entered a winter. That did not shake our resolve. Our first investment, about 20 million yuan, came entirely from Kingsoft's shareholders.
电商本质还是零售，我把当年站店的经验全部用上了，选品策略、定价模式、店面布置等，我们迅速用到电商上。 E-commerce is essentially retail, so I applied all my experience from selling in stores: product selection, pricing models, store layout, and more. We quickly adapted all of it to e-commerce.
同时，我们在管理上也下了功夫。电商的核心就是运营，需要非常认真把每个细节做好。 At the same time, we worked hard on management. The core of e-commerce is operations, and every detail must be handled with great care.
每天早上一上班，我先把首页所有的 banner 广告和商品链接都检查一遍。我总是能发现一些链接错误的地方。这让我想起了，我从软件工程中学到的最重要的道理：“可能出错的地方，一定会出错”。 Every morning when I arrived at work, I first checked every banner advertisement and product link on the homepage. I could always find a few broken links. This reminded me of the most important principle I had learned from software engineering: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
每天晚上，我们坚持做当天业务的复盘和总结，做完后才下班。 Every evening, we insisted on reviewing and summarizing that day's business before going home.
每个星期，我在卓越网上都要买上好多单，来测试我们的选品和物流。于是，我书架上，堆满了各种图书、电影电视剧、音乐CD，很多连包装都没拆。那段时间，同事们特别喜欢到我办公室开会，离开的时候，到书架上带走几本。 Every week, I placed many orders on Excellence.com to test our product selection and logistics. As a result, my bookshelves filled with books, films, television series, and music CDs, many still in their original packaging. During that period, my colleagues especially liked holding meetings in my office. When they left, they would take a few things from the shelves.
卓越网还做了很多敢为人先的创新，开创了最早的多地仓储、最早的自建物流等，还有，北上广深4小时送达服务，很难想象，这些在20年前就已经实现了。 Excellence.com also pioneered many innovations, including some of the earliest multi-location warehouses and one of the earliest self-built logistics systems. We even offered four-hour delivery in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. It is hard to imagine that these services already existed twenty years ago.
我们从零起步，两三年时间，就成为当时最大的B2C电商。 Starting from zero, we became the largest B2C e-commerce company of the time in just two or three years.
现在还有不少朋友记得，他们在卓越网上买过《大话西游》、《小王子》、《东京爱情故事》等，这些就是中国电商第一代爆品。 Many friends still remember buying A Chinese Odyssey, The Little Prince, and Tokyo Love Story on Excellence.com. These were among the first blockbuster products in Chinese e-commerce.
3.3 融资 3.3 Financing
卓越的业务非常顺利，困难只有一个：钱不够。电商平台实在太烧钱了。 Excellence's business was progressing very smoothly. There was only one problem: we did not have enough money. E-commerce platforms burn an enormous amount of cash.
全球互联网泡沫破灭后，资本市场低迷，融资非常困难。那时的VC，基本都是外资。像我这样没有留过洋，英文又不好的本土创业者，找钱就更难了。我们至少谈了30家，把所有能找的VC基本都找了一个遍，没有一家愿意投钱。后来，实在没有办法，才从朋友那里融了100万美元，金山股东不得不又追加了100万美元，才勉强完成融资。但仅仅一年时间，又烧光了。 After the global internet bubble burst, the capital market was depressed and financing became extremely difficult. At that time, most venture capital firms were foreign-owned. As a local entrepreneur who had never studied abroad and did not speak English well, I found it even harder to raise money. We spoke with at least thirty firms and approached almost every VC we could find, but not a single one was willing to invest. In the end, we had no choice but to raise US$1 million from friends. Kingsoft's shareholders had to add another US$1 million, and that barely completed the financing. But we burned through it again in just one year.
卓越网创业历程，就是我们拼命找钱的过程，相当煎熬。 The history of Excellence.com was a history of desperately looking for money. It was extremely painful.
到了2004年9月，实在熬不下去了，我们只能忍痛把卓越网卖给了亚马逊，成了亚马逊中国。 By September 2004, we simply could not hold on any longer. We had no choice but to sell Excellence.com to Amazon, and it became Amazon China.
谁也没想到，仅仅半年多之后，新一轮互联网热潮又来了，B2C电商迎来了全面崛起的盛世。 No one expected that just over six months later, a new internet boom would arrive and B2C e-commerce would enter an era of comprehensive takeoff.
卓越网，创办于互联网泡沫破裂之后，倒下于电商全面崛起之前。 Excellence.com was founded after the internet bubble burst and fell before e-commerce fully took off.
这真的是一段刻骨铭心的经历。 It was truly an unforgettable experience.
3.4 痛定思痛 3.4 Learning from the Pain
很多人问过我，卖掉卓越，你后不后悔？我咬着牙说，不后悔。 Many people have asked me whether I regretted selling Excellence. I gritted my teeth and said no.
卖掉卓越网，对我来说，是一次重创，内心无比痛苦。 Selling Excellence.com was a major blow to me, and I was in tremendous emotional pain.
首先情感上，就像失去了自己的孩子一样，那段时间，我努力切割和卓越网的联系，强迫自己不再去卓越网办公室，不再到卓越网买东西，也尽量不见老同事了。 First, emotionally, it felt like losing my own child. During that period, I tried hard to sever my ties with Excellence.com. I forced myself not to visit its office, not to buy things there, and not to meet my former colleagues whenever possible.
更痛苦的是，作为一个创业者，错失了整个互联网时代。 Even more painful was that, as an entrepreneur, I had missed the entire internet era.
在那段痛苦的煎熬里，反复问自己，我们到底输在哪里？好像运气特别差。 In the midst of that painful struggle, I kept asking myself where we had actually lost. It seemed as if we had simply been terribly unlucky.
首先，“卓越网创办于互联网泡沫破灭之后”，一上来，我们就输在起跑线上了，错过了最好的时机点。 First, Excellence.com was founded after the internet bubble burst. We lost at the starting line because we had missed the best moment.
接着，“卓越网倒下于电商全面崛起之前”，我们融资能力不足，没有资金也没有信心坚持到胜利到来的那一刻。 Next, Excellence.com fell before e-commerce fully took off. We lacked the ability to raise financing, and without money we also lacked the confidence to hold on until the moment victory arrived.
创业，确实需要运气，需要对大势的精准把握。这也是后来我特别强调“风口”的原因。 Entrepreneurship does require luck and an accurate grasp of the larger trend. That is why I later placed such emphasis on the "windfall," or the right opening in the market.
过了大半年时间，我才慢慢缓过来，彻底想明白了一些东西。 It took me more than six months to slowly recover and finally understand some things.
“互联网不仅仅是一次技术革命，更是一次观念的革命；未来互联网将融合到各行各业。” "The internet is not merely a technological revolution; it is also a revolution in ideas. In the future, the internet will merge with every industry."
我想通的道理，本质上就是后来大家谈的“互联网思维”和“互联网+”。 What I came to understand was essentially what people later called "internet thinking" and "internet plus."
有了这样的思考，我看很多问题的思路发生了巨大改变，我用全新的视角重新扫描了产业里的一些新机会。比如，2005年，市场上一直传言3G网络即将开通。我隐约看到了一个大机会。 With this perspective, my way of looking at many problems changed dramatically. I used a completely new lens to scan the industry for new opportunities. For example, in 2005 there were constant rumors that 3G networks would soon launch. I vaguely saw a major opportunity.
04 04
移动互联网 The Mobile Internet
4.1 下一个机会 4.1 The Next Opportunity
经过深入研究后，我越来越坚定：我们即将迎来移动互联网时代，而且，未来十年都将是移动互联网的十年，规模会是PC互联网的十倍。 After in-depth research, I became increasingly convinced that the mobile internet era was about to arrive. The next ten years would be the decade of the mobile internet, whose scale would be ten times that of the PC internet.
想明白这些事情后，我做了一个决定：立刻行动。 Once I understood this, I made a decision: act immediately.
我主要做了两件事： I did two main things.
第一、我要成为最早一批真正的用户。 First, I wanted to become one of the earliest genuine users.
要真正了解移动互联网，只有一个办法，就是自己亲自用。这是一个“笨”办法，但也是最好的办法。 There is only one way to truly understand the mobile internet: use it yourself. It is a "stupid" method, but it is also the best one.
十多年前，市场上主要是功能手机，无线网络是2G。 More than ten years ago, the market was dominated by feature phones and wireless networks were still 2G.
这么小的屏幕，慢到无法忍受的网速，用这样的手机上网，是不是想想都很崩溃？ With such a tiny screen and internet speeds so slow they were almost unbearable, does using a phone to go online not sound maddening?
有电脑的人，绝对不愿意用手机上网。但不管多难用，我下定决心，从现在开始，所有事情都要在手机上完成，尽量不用电脑。 Anyone with a computer would never want to use a phone to access the internet. But no matter how difficult it was, I made up my mind that from then on I would do everything on my phone and use a computer as little as possible.
在这个痛苦的过程中，更深理解了：哪里有用户的痛点，哪里就有创业者的机会。 Through this painful process, I gained a deeper understanding: wherever users have a pain point, there is an opportunity for an entrepreneur.
后来我做移动互联网的各种产品思路，就是这样来的。 That is where the ideas for the various mobile internet products I later made came from.
第二、我要成为这波浪潮最早的参与者。 Second, I wanted to become one of the earliest participants in this wave.
最快的办法，就是用天使投资的方式投资一批初创公司。几个月后，我就投资了第一家，后来陆续投了十多家。 The fastest way was to invest in a group of startups as an angel investor. A few months later, I invested in the first one, and eventually invested in more than ten.
其中，最出名的就是 UC浏览器。 The best known among them was UC Browser.
在这个过程中，我越发确信：一个全新的大时代，真的来了。 Through this process, I became increasingly certain that a completely new era on a grand scale had truly arrived.
4.2 离开金山 4.2 Leaving Kingsoft
2007年，金山终于上市了。 In 2007, Kingsoft finally went public.
接着，我离开了这家我奋斗了16年的公司，开始了不一样的人生。 After that, I left the company where I had spent sixteen years working and began a different life.
接下来的三年里，我一边做天使投资，一边对过去经历进行系统性反思和总结。 Over the next three years, I worked as an angel investor while systematically reflecting on and summarizing my past experiences.
这一系列的反思，为下一段旅程做了充分的准备。 This series of reflections thoroughly prepared me for the next journey.
4.3 永远相信美好的事情即将发生 4.3 Always Believe That Good Things Are About to Happen
今天跟大家分享的是三个我经历人生低谷的故事。 Today I have shared three stories from the lowest points of my life.
面对这些挫折、失败，我也迷茫过、动摇过、甚至放弃过。 In the face of these setbacks and failures, I too have felt lost, wavered, and even given up.
如果没有这些挫折，没有这些挫折带来的积累，就不会有今天的我。 Without these setbacks and the accumulation they brought, I would not be the person I am today.
没有任何人会喜欢挫折、失败，但每个人不可避免一定会经历，甚至，不少人现在正在经历。 No one likes setbacks and failure, but everyone will inevitably experience them. Many people may even be going through them right now.
既然这些痛苦难以回避，那我们能做的，就是直面这些痛苦，在痛苦中坚持前行，让痛苦来塑造更好的我们，这就是痛苦的意义、挫折的馈赠。 Since this pain is difficult to avoid, all we can do is face it directly, keep moving forward through it, and let it shape us into better people. That is the meaning of pain and the gift of setbacks.
而你所经历的所有挫折、失败，甚至那些看似毫无意义消磨时间的事情，都将成为你最宝贵的财富。 Every setback and failure you experience, even those seemingly meaningless activities that merely seem to consume your time, will become your most valuable assets.
人生很长，无论如何，让我们保持信念：永远相信美好的事情即将发生。 Life is long. Whatever happens, let us hold on to our faith and always believe that good things are about to happen.
05 05
雷军首部商业思考著作 Lei Jun's First Book on Business Thinking
《小米创业思考》发布 The Publication of Xiaomi's Entrepreneurial Thinking
今天提到的站店、泡论坛和卓越网这三段经历，都为小米的创办做了至关重要的准备。2010年4月6号，在北京中关村一间不起眼的办公室里，我和十多个同事一起喝了碗小米粥，就创办了小米。 The three experiences I mentioned today—selling in a store, spending time on forums, and building Excellence.com—were all crucial preparation for founding Xiaomi. On April 6, 2010, in an unremarkable office in Zhongguancun, Beijing, I founded Xiaomi with more than ten colleagues over a bowl of millet porridge.
一转眼，小米已经12岁了。 In the blink of an eye, Xiaomi is already twelve years old.
小米十周年时，我们内部进行过长达半年的深入复盘总结，收获特别大。当时我就萌发了一个想法，要把这些思考和总结写下来，让更多小米同学们了解，并分享给所有关心小米的朋友们。 When Xiaomi celebrated its tenth anniversary, we carried out an in-depth internal review lasting six months. We gained a great deal from it. At that time, I began to think that I should write down these thoughts and conclusions so that more Xiaomi colleagues could understand them and so that I could share them with everyone who cared about Xiaomi.
但这件事情比我想象得要复杂，我们下了很大功夫，花了两年时间，忙到今天才出版，这就是《小米创业思考》。 But the task was more complicated than I had imagined. We worked extremely hard and spent two years on it. It was not published until today. This is Xiaomi's Entrepreneurial Thinking.
这本书包含了小米创办前后我大量的思考，以及小米创业历程、小米方法论和一些实战案例。刚在各个电商平台上架，大家如果感兴趣，现在就可以买来看看。 The book contains many of my thoughts from before and after Xiaomi's founding, as well as Xiaomi's entrepreneurial journey, methodology, and practical case studies. It has just gone on sale across the major e-commerce platforms, so if you are interested, you can buy a copy now.
大家还记得小米三大铁律吗？“技术为本，性价比为纲，做最酷的产品”。 Do you remember Xiaomi's three iron rules? "Technology is our foundation, value for money is our guiding principle, and we make the coolest products."
我们始终极度重视技术投入，去年我们的研发投入132亿元，今年预计会达到170亿元。 We have always attached the utmost importance to investment in technology. Last year, our R&D investment was RMB 13.2 billion, and this year it is expected to reach RMB 17 billion.
未来五年研发投入将超过1000亿。 Over the next five years, our R&D investment will exceed RMB 100 billion.
正是永不止步的创新精神和不断增加的研发投入，确保了我们能一直不断研发出最酷的产品。 It is precisely our spirit of never-ending innovation and our steadily increasing R&D investment that ensure we can continue to develop the coolest products.
稍后，我将为大家带来的重量级新品，还有我们在科技探索上一些新的进展。 Later, I will bring you major new products, as well as some of our latest advances in exploring technology.