He went into politics first, then into business, which was easy to control. I have a lot of money to free the people from fire and water, bring back beautiful women and make the country prosperous and unified.
In the first half of his life, he helped a dying country become one of the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period, and retired at the right time when his political career reached its peak. He became the richest man in the world three times in 19, and his wealth exceeded 1000 dollars. During the national crisis, the people dispersed all their wealth to help the people, and he was later regarded as the god of wealth by the world.
This man is the earliest businessman, economist, politician, strategist and thinker in China. He is known as a generation of Shang Saint Fan Li.
Fan Li is a politician and entrepreneur who really understands the human nature of China/China, and even a person who really knows the secret. However, the secret can't be revealed, so history doesn't have much ink to describe such an unprecedented talented official, and it costs thousands of dollars to do business.
Let's approach Fan Li together and deeply analyze his strength!
1. The first half of my political career
How to strive to be a man?
Fan Li was born in 536 BC, and his family was poor when he was a child. However, Fan Li liked reading since he was a child, and he learned how to become rich when he was a teenager. What is even more rare is not his profound knowledge, but his unique thinking insight, which can quickly understand the essence of things, be neither humble nor humble, and handle things calmly.
When Fan Li was young, people around him thought he was crazy. Because Fan Li often has different views from the public, he sometimes makes amazing remarks that make people dumbfounded. So everyone who came into contact with him said he was crazy. In fact, he sometimes disdains talking to people. More often, he accurately grasped the essence of the problem and thought more deeply and thoroughly, which others could not understand. Whether in business or politics, this ability to quickly understand the essence of things and make accurate and decisive decisions is very important, and it is also one of the essential qualities of a successful leader.
Fan Li knew the literary genre at the age of 20, and they hit it off and made great achievements. Fan Li and Wen Shu are both Chu people. However, at that time, Chu was already the overlord of all nations, the monarch was arrogant, the royal family was party member-based, and the autocratic politics was chaotic, so he went to Yue to be an official.
When I first arrived in Vietnam, my writing style was not valued. Soon, the weaker one was defeated by Wu, and Gou Jian was defeated by Huijishan. The country showed loyalty. Many ministers of the State of Yue left their homes or defected to the State of Wu after the defeat of the State of Yue, and their writing style adhered to the King of Yue. As a result, they were reused by Gou Jian and volunteered to go to Wu as slaves with him.
Five Blessingg discovered that Fan Li was a great scholar and advised him to leave Gou Jian several times and made him a knight, but Fan Li was unmoved. After being slaves for three years, Fan Li and Gou Jian worked hard together, eating meager food and earning a living salary, never forgetting to be different from Gou Jian's monarch and minister. He always respected the Lord and protected him for three years, which made the prince of Wu full of praise and envy. Once, the king of Wu threw a piece of gold on Fan Li's road. When Fan Li passed by, he crossed the gold without hesitation and went straight away. From then on, the king of Wu gave up the idea of persuading him to surrender to the state of Wu.
In fact, Fan Li is loyal not only to Gou Jian, but also to his commitment to his own personality. In modern society, people like Fan Li believe in promises in prosperity, are not arrogant or impetuous, and do not doubt in adversity. This character is commendable. Even according to
A small victory depends on wisdom, and a big victory depends on virtue. In today's quick success and instant benefit society, not many people can deeply understand this truth and do it by themselves. People who do that may be laughed at by the mainstream of society for a while, or even suffer a little loss, but in the end, it is these people who are morally oriented.
Philosophical thinking on the combination of Confucianism and Taoism
Confucianism advocates benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust, and governs the country to level the world. It is the mainstream thought of governing the country in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and later historical periods, and has even been passed down to this day. Taoist thought pursues Taoism and nature, and governs by doing nothing. Influenced by this thought, Taoist thinkers seldom participate in politics. So at that time, Taoism was basically not used to lead and manage the country.
Fan Li has an enlightened and wise mind and a broad mind. He has both the strengths of Confucianism and Taoism, absorbs the strengths of a hundred schools more, and forms his own ideological system, instead of being confined to a hundred schools. This ideological feature constitutes a unique feature, that is, Confucianism's courtesy, faithfulness, ability, morality and courage, and Taoism's characteristics of adapting to the weather, integrating into nature, adapting to the environment and relying on the environment. At the same time, with an open mind and drawing lessons from the laws of Legalists, Mohists and Yin and Yang, Fan Li's thoughts and actions are as firm as a rock, as tough as leather and as soft as a torrent.
In the process of politics, it embodies a personality trait of combining Confucianism and Taoism, and only this trait can lead Yue, who is extremely weak, out of the predicament. In today's society, as an enterprise manager in a complex market environment and a difficult period for enterprises to survive, he should have the thinking of combining Confucianism and Taoism, so as to lead enterprises not to be frustrated in adversity, not to be arrogant and impetuous in prosperity, to respond objectively and keenly to insults and to discover the opportunities behind them.
When Wu was a slave, he and Gou Jian knelt down to him together. Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, was about to go out when Gou Jian lay on the ground and asked Fu Cha to step on his back. When Fu Cha was ill, Gou Jian licked his feces to diagnose his illness, and finally touched the king of Wu. Three years later, Gou Jian returned to China. Fan Li made all these compromises for Gou Jian.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were many politicians who were respected by Confucianism and had the spirit of "scholar", but few of them could adapt to the environment, compromise and seek perfection, and came up with such a method as Fan Li. Because of Fan Li's resourcefulness, Gou Jian became the only king in history who could endure great humiliation and torture, persevered in adversity, worked hard with great ambition, and finally destroyed the enemy and recovered the lost land.
After Gou Jian was released by the King of Wu and returned to China, the country of Yue was in ruins. Famine and plague are rampant in China, and people live in poverty. The external state of Wu constantly monitored and suppressed the state of Yue, and there were other princes eyeing around. In this environment, survival is a problem. How can we get out of the predicament quickly, become strong and avenge our country? At this time, Fan Li really showed his outstanding leadership and management ability.
Fan Li and his literary school made strategic arrangements such as "ten-year gathering", "ten-year lessons" and "nine laws to destroy Wu" to revitalize the country and destroy Wu. As a defeated country, Vietnam is not allowed to have national defense, including building walls, troops and weapons.
Fan Li came up with some compromise methods: only three walls were built, not the one facing Wu. He told Wu that the Great Wall was built to prevent bandits and other vassal States from invading, but it would never be built on the side facing Wu. If you don't want to form an army, you will secretly form a "militia" and conduct private training. Every family has weapons. In case of war, these people can take part at any time. If you don't want to build weapons, move the refining site to the deep mountains, cut off from the outside world, and transport it through secret passages.
When Gou Jian returned to China, he planned to attack Wu in 2000.
Seven years later, Gou Jian once again proposed to punish Wu, but he was stopped. I believe that after seven years of rest and recuperation, the Vietnamese army in Mazhuang has strong strength and high morale. On the other hand, Wu is still strong, but its soldiers are tired and its people are tired of fighting. At this time, all the staff are ready, but there is still a lack of time.
Ten years later, Wu Jin was fighting for hegemony, and Wu was empty. At this time, Fan Li found Gou Jian and told him that the time, place and personnel for sending troops were ready.
After the Vietnamese army sent troops, it attacked Gusu, the capital of the State of Wu, and the King of Wu returned to make peace with the State of Yue. Gou Jian tried every means to overthrow Wu, but he clearly saw that although the capital of Wu was occupied, all the elite soldiers of Wu were taken away by Fu Cha. Therefore, they have not damaged their vitality. Even if they win, they will lose. The experience of this attack triggered a turning point in Wu's national strength. It is better to wait for good weather to completely destroy Wu than to be in a hurry.
As Sun Tzu said in Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Those who were good at fighting in the past were invincible first and waited for the enemy to win." You can't defeat yourself, but you can defeat the enemy. Therefore, elite soldiers can be in an invincible position and defeat the enemy. Therefore, victory is known but impossible. Fan Li has been waiting for a chance to completely defeat this enemy. So, the two sides reconciled and the state of Yue retreated. Ten years later, Wu suffered from foreign aggression and rare natural disasters at home. The State of Yue took the opportunity to send troops and completely destroyed the State of Wu.
From Fan Li's behavior, life, governing the country and punishing soldiers, we can see that he is a typical enlightened and flexible politician, strategist and thinker.
Know how to advance and retreat.
After Beowulf's complete failure, Gou Jian could not bear to kill him, and wanted to give him fief and let Fu Cha be his vassal. Fu Cha couldn't accept the failure and humiliation and committed suicide in shame. This proves the saying that living is the winner. After the typhoon passed, the grass was qualified to laugh at the towering trees that fell next to it. The victories of Gou Jian and Fan Li can also be understood as the victories of Taoism.
When Wu was completely destroyed, Gou Jian held a celebration banquet and appointed the hero as a general, ranking second only to Gou Jian and above all officials. At this time, Fan Li did not get carried away in the face of great achievements. It is a calm analysis of the situation: Wu, which can pose a threat to Yue, has long since perished, and other vassal States are either far apart or the surrounding small countries are weak and unable to pose a threat to Yue at all.
In other words, the world is at peace. At this time, it is very dangerous to make the king feel threatened. In addition, after years of getting along, Fan Li found that Gou Jian was a man who could share joys and sorrows, but could not share wealth. His official residence is the best, and it is inevitable that a big tree will catch the wind.
Fan Li clearly realized the truth that "a hundred birds hide their bows, a sly rabbit dies, and a dog is cooked and slaughtered". When his political career reached its peak, he hurried back and resigned from Gou Jian, who saved Fan Li on the condition of sharing the country equally. But he rushed back, resolutely left Yue, and took a boat trip with his lover stone.
When he left Yue, he left a letter to Wenpai, stating the truth of the enemy's defeat and the death of the adviser, and urging Wenpai to leave immediately. Unfortunately, in the face of high officials and high salaries, the literary genre did not make a wise choice. Soon after Fan Li left, the literary school whose contribution was second only to Fan Li was killed by Gou Jian for no reason.
Wenzhong is a typical Confucian. He thinks it is natural to eat your salary, repay your kindness and reward your work. He didn't think from more angles, nor did he see through the laws of things, which eventually led to a fatal disaster.
With a cool head and keen eyes, Fan Li understood everything from the development law of things and the characteristics of human nature, and got rid of it.
Today's business leaders do not lack the spirit of rising in adversity, but they often charge in difficulties and obstacles, but fall in front of victory and honor. Especially after the enterprise develops to a relatively large scale, it becomes very important for leaders to be calm and sharp-eyed. More importantly, can they convince themselves in front of honor and interests, know how to advance and retreat, and calmly analyze after doing something? What should they do? "inaction" is often an important factor to achieve a lasting foundation.
2. My career in the second half of my life
How to become a business tycoon?
With his wife, children, apprentices and other guests, Li Yizipi, a pseudonym, quietly came to Qi. From then on, Fan Li began another equally brilliant life journey in obscurity. I bought some land at the seaside of Qi State, cultivated farmland, engaged in fishing and salt making. Fan Li farmed with his wife and children, dressed in ordinary clothes and ate coarse grains. Fan Li is very generous and friendly to employees, which is contrary to the businessman's careful calculation and exploitation. In case of reduced production in a disaster year, rent will be reduced and a porridge farm will be established to help the victims.
At the beginning of the year, we signed commodity purchase contracts with some farmers and businessmen. By the end of this year, if commodity prices rise, Fan Li will buy at the current market price. If the price falls, the contract price will be strictly fulfilled. Therefore, businessmen all over the world are willing to do business with Fan Li, and craftsmen and farmers are also willing to work for Fan Li. Although this seems a bit of a loss, there are a large number of high-quality and stable partners, and the total cost has been reduced a lot.
On one occasion, Fan Li's cash flow was poor. He borrowed 654.38 million yuan from a wealthy family. A year later, the rich man went out with debts to collect debts, and his bag accidentally fell into the river. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and travel expenses were gone, so he went to Fan Li's house and went to Fan Li. Without IOUs, Fan Li not only paid back the money with interest. Later, in order to expand business, Fan Li was short of funds for three times, and rich households from all walks of life took the initiative to send money to help Fan Li tide over the crisis and seize the opportunity.
After only a few years, he became the richest man in Qi, with great wealth. It is said that when Qi was in trouble, the victims heard of their kindness and came all the way to give alms. Later generations praised them as "rich people".
The news reached the king of Qi, who invited Fan Li to the palace to worship him as prime minister. During this period, the economy was vigorously developed, which promoted the trade between Qi and other vassal States, offset the trouble of Qi's lack of materials in disaster years, and laid the foundation for Qi's economic and cultural prosperity. Three years later, the state of Qi enriched the people and strengthened the country, and Fan Li was regarded as a god by the people, and people in the ruling and opposition circles also praised him. At this time, Fan Li resigned again: "Being an official makes you feel good about yourself. Running a family is worth 1000 yuan, which is the ultimate for a simple cloth. Being respected for a long time is probably a bad omen. So, he put up a seal, sealed the gold, distributed all his family wealth to friends and the poor, and then left Qi with his wife and children.
It can be said that Fan Li is a model of success and retirement. He knows that everything will be reversed, and good things will develop in the opposite direction at extreme times. It is better to take the initiative in time than wait for the situation to reverse. This truth is very simple, but how many people can do it in the face of great fame and fortune? Because, once you succeed, people's self-confidence will also increase, and they will rarely take the initiative to retreat. Few entrepreneurs are in a hurry to quit now. It seems that business is a road of no return, and the development of enterprises sometimes needs to look back and reflect. Retreat is for better progress, and reflection is for more wisdom, just like Fan Li's rapid retreat. This is not the negative thought of Taoism, but the wisdom of knowledge. When everything is at its peak, it will decline. When you reach the peak, you take the initiative to walk down in order to have a chance to climb other peaks, instead of falling violently and breaking into pieces.
Fan Li's family moved to Tao Di, northwest of Qi, and changed his surname-and started a simple cloth business from scratch. It is believed that Tao enjoys a unique geographical position, bordering Qi and Lu in the east, Chu and Yue in the south, Qin and Zheng in the west and Yan in the north. This is the center of the world, which is very suitable for doing business. Sure enough, under the impetus of Fan Li, this place soon became the economic hub and trade capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.
The Tao is natural and goes with the flow.
Fan Li engaged in early international trade by virtue of his geographical advantages. The understanding of commercial trade is: Yue is rich in sericulture, Qi is rich in hoes, Qin is rich in smelting iron, and Zhao is good at civil engineering. Every country has its own special products and needs. Doing business is to promote commodity exchange and exchange needed commodities between countries. While benefiting all countries, we will naturally benefit'. At the same time, Fan Li also manages agriculture and aquaculture. And summed up many management strategies. Its essential feature is to conform to the natural environment and trends, predict the law of things' development, and then use its power to drive its potential.
Fan Li believes that the weather determines agriculture and the weather changes regularly, so the grain harvest is also regular. According to the replacement of the five elements, he summed up the general laws of good years and bad years. In the agricultural society, the fluctuation of grain price will inevitably lead to the fluctuation of other related commodity prices. At that time, trade was dominated by agricultural products. Trading according to this changing law is equivalent to grasping the key links of the market, and the profits are naturally rich.
Fan Li summed up flexible and diverse management methods according to natural characteristics such as seasons, climate, people's feelings and customs. The business strategy is "people abandon me and take me, people take me for use, let nature take its course and wait and see". He put forward: "where there is water, there are cars, and when there is drought, there are boats", which means doing car business in flood and boat business in drought. Because, when the flood happens, everyone uses boats as a means of transportation, which will inevitably lead to the scarcity of boats and the rise in prices. However, a large backlog of useless road cars is cheap. At this time, they buy a large number of vehicles at low prices. When the flood passes, cars will be scarce and prices will rise.
More than 2000 years ago, Fan Li judged the price fluctuation according to the relationship between market supply and demand. He put forward that "only by discussing its advantages and disadvantages can we know its advantages and disadvantages." That is to find out whether the market is in short supply or short supply, and adjust the next business strategy accordingly. He also found that the price fluctuation is the same as the natural law, that is, the fluctuation law and amplitude limit of commodities. The price of a commodity falls to the extreme and rises to the extreme, resulting in the so-called law of "one expensive and one cheap, and the extreme is repeated". This is completely in line with the argument of modern economic principles.
According to this theory, Fan Li put forward a set of buying and selling principles and methods: when the price is cheap, a large amount of money should be collected. When he said "take cheap goods such as pearls and jade", he meant to treat the goods with reduced prices like pearls and jade, sell them as much as possible, and store them carefully like jewels. When the price of commodities rises, Fan Li thinks that it should be "expensive as dirt" and sell all commodities as discarded things. Don't expect the price to keep going up, because it will go up and down.
Today, these theories are not profound and subtle, just some natural laws and economic laws, but they are very effective. We are often lost in gorgeous technology and numerous temptations, chasing up and down in the face of simple natural laws, running around, while sober people grasp the laws and make money easily. Fan Li's civilization is still underdeveloped, let alone an economically developed agricultural society. We have to admire the comprehensive consideration of climate change, agricultural production, social demand and other factors.
The world has a responsibility, and morality is on the shoulders.
There is a saying that "nothing you do is right, you don't rape." Although the statement is somewhat one-sided, it still has some truth. Since ancient times, businessmen have been pursuing the maximization of interests, so they have adopted various means: opportunistic, driving up prices, small-scale entry into large-scale exit, and so on. Even against morality. Fan Li not only achieved the goal of "a gentleman makes money, but also has chivalrous spirit".
Fan Li believes that only people, that is, today's consumers, can create profits for businessmen. They should be grateful to the people and give back, so that the people will be more willing to deal with you. This and Peter? Drucker's point of view: enterprises must create value for society, and society will return profits to enterprises. Laozi, the founder of Taoism, has the same view: "Heaven and earth are not born, so they can live forever."
Although Fan Li is a businessman, he is never eager for quick success. He only asks for 10% of the operating profit cost, and will not take it again. In case of special circumstances such as disaster years, this profit ratio will be reduced, and even he will help the victims at a loss. In that historical period, the profit rate of 10% was very low, because the traffic was extremely inconvenient at that time, war and bandits caused great business risks, and few people did business, so it was an absolute buyer's market. And from the analysis of the economic development at that time, there was no accurate calculation method of profit rate at that time. Therefore, Fan Li 10% profit should be gross profit, not net profit.
Such a low profit margin can make Fan Li become a giant quickly, mainly because of his huge transaction volume. Secondly, the funds are never idle and the turnover is fast. Fan Li's goods have never been overstocked, because he has a good reputation and is open for business. More importantly, the price of his goods is much lower than others. Being able to make the price lower than that of peers not only reduces the profit margin, but also depends on Fan Li's business philosophy: "People abandon me and take it, and people take it." When there is a surplus of goods and the price is very cheap, buy in large quantities. At the same time, sell those scarce and sought-after goods.
Fan Li moved three times in his life to avoid fame and fortune, but fame and fortune followed him all the time. The dialectical philosophy in this process is worth pondering by our entrepreneurs today. Sima Qian once praised Fan Li in Historical Records: "Fan Li moved three times and became famous all over the world". Fan Li became the best official twice and a rich man three times in his life. Fidelity's daughter gave it to the world every time, but he soon became a daughter again.
In politics, Fan Li pursued the loyalty of a courtier, and in business, he fulfilled the conscience of a businessman.
Fan Li pursues the harmony between heaven, Tao and man. He said: "God requires us to eat well, be energetic but not proud, work hard but not boast of our achievements." This includes the courage of Confucianism to worry about the world first, and the thought of Taoism to retire after success. Fan Li vividly embodied these views in politics, war and business activities all his life.
Fan Lizhen can be described as a wise man with great ambitions and the world in mind. At the age of seventy, he was rich, full of children and grandchildren, and died at the age of 88. Later generations are called Tao Zhugong.