Life is half effort and half opportunity

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People in their 70s are usually not at an age for reflecting, but after a busy day, they might occasionally recall some of the dramatic changes and turning points in their lives. Perhaps this is one of the signs of aging ； Because memories do not belong to youth. What I think about most often are probably some things that seem rather mysterious when I think about them later on ； And the most mysterious things in my early life were the college entrance exams and the business I started the year before that. The high school I attended was part of the top classes among the key high schools in the province; based on the admission rates of previous batches, it was around 95% ； In other words, as long as you’re not in the bottom ranks, it’s fine to attend a certain university, but choosing which one to attend is a tricky issue ； Back then, for the college entrance exam, it wasn’t like now where you take the exam first and then apply for colleges; instead, you applied for colleges first and then took the exam ； Therefore, after the exam, the score might be quite far from the ideal score one had in mind when applying for courses; **the reforms over these years have made things more user-friendly. I was in the top 15 students in my high school ； It can thus be inferred that the approximately 5 provincial key high schools in our county are all of similar strength; I rank within the top 15, which means I’m among the top 75 in the county ； And in the county, top-tier universities cost at least a few thousand per year as well ； In other words, no matter how badly things go for me, I’ll still get into a good university. So I applied to Nankai University for the college entrance exam; I remember that the admission score threshold the previous year was 598 points out of a total of 700 points ； My scores on practice exams are usually around 620 as well, so I think there shouldn’t be much of a problem. But when the college entrance exam results came in, I only scored 555 points ； Although the score is well above the threshold score by several dozen points, there are still countless candidates between this score and Nankai University’s admission score of 608 points ； What’s worse, I was very confident when applying; I didn’t apply to any schools other than those that are considered top-tier, so there were no entries for undergraduate programs or ordinary junior college programs. In the end, the teacher said I had to fill in one more application, so I just picked one at random. As a result, I was admitted to that junior college without even knowing which school I had applied to. Of course, that’s something that happened later on. Upon hearing the score for that subject, it was as if the world collapsed around me; I resolved then that I would never go to such a worthless school again. After more than 10 years of suffering, the outcome was nothing but tragedy. I didn’t dare to see my teachers or friends throughout the entire summer, and I stayed at home, silently helping my parents with farm work. My father is a superstitious man who cares a lot about his reputation; this blow was just as hard for him as it was for me. He had worked hard all his life hoping that I would succeed in life, but things turned out like this. What can one say? He went to fortune tellers more than once to have my future predicted, even my wife’s future ； Every time the fortune teller said that I had great potential and was capable of doing many things, my father kept telling me to continue going to school, as only by doing so could I leave home; otherwise, what other opportunities would I have? When I received the admission notice from that junior college program at a school I can’t even remember having applied to, I hesitated for a long time – wondering whether I should go or not. My family didn’t have much money, my sister was in high school and attending a poor-quality school; there were countless people pursuing bachelor’s degrees, while it was difficult to find jobs for those with only a junior college degree. . . . . . . In the end, my father borrowed a few thousand dollars and still sent me to school. Looking back, I still owe thanks to my father’s superstitious beliefs. If not for them, which led him to believe that I would surely be capable of achieving something great in life, I might now be a barefoot doctor in some small town in China or a doctor who works in the countryside (with the intention of going to the town with my grandfather to learn traditional Chinese medicine without attending school). Therefore, I have to say that life isn’t something you can achieve just by working hard, or just because you think you can ； Rather, there are too many natural and accidental factors at play that influence your daily life, existence, and success. If I hadn’t gone to school, my life would have been different. I don’t know whether it would have been better or worse than it is now, but it would definitely have been a different life. The choice of such a life has little to do with one’s own efforts; it might just be a random idea, or driven by a simple purpose. According to the aspirations of almost all college students, after graduating from university, they certainly want to find a good job with a promising career path; after working hard for a year or two, they aim to reach the position of manager, and then director, with the hope of eventually becoming the CEO of a renowned company or something similar. I’m the same; I’ve been having such dreams since the first day of my job, so I work hard every day to learn various kinds of knowledge – related and unrelated, technical as well as managerial. No matter how hard one tries, the salary doesn’t necessarily increase, and one still ends up running out of money by the end of each month. After working for three years, I always wanted to start my own business. First, I quit my job, borrowed money, and partnered with others to open a computer company that provided website creation services, computer repairs, and I also aspired to run an e-commerce website. Logically, this kind of planning is the most common type of activity for most IT companies. The type of e-commerce site I designed and planned back then is still being developed by many people today, but few succeed in doing so. In my opinion, the reason for this lack of success is that people underestimate the complexity of such sites, thinking that it only involves a few pages and some programs; in reality, it’s much more complicated than that. After struggling to make ends meet for half a year, the money was finally exhausted; by then there was no money left to pay the rent. Moreover, my wife was about to give birth. I remember those times were particularly difficult – we even took buses without air conditioning just to save one dollar ； My wife often doesn’t eat at noon either; she waits until I get home in the evening to eat together. So I went around looking for a job to work at; after all, one has to survive first, right? Thanks to my communication skills and abilities, I managed to find a job with a trial period salary of 3,000 yuan; after becoming a full-time employee, my monthly salary would be over 4,000 yuan. This is not considered a high salary in Hangzhou, but it’s not low either. Finally, I managed to get through the toughest times. During that time, my wife was pregnant with our child, so she spent her time browsing the Internet. On the 19th floor, she came across some handmade accessories that she found very beautiful, so she bought some of them. She also got in touch with the seller; the girl was very friendly, and they had a pleasant conversation. In the end, she said that if my wife wanted to learn how to make such handmade accessories, she could go to her place and she would be happy to teach her ； The wife went to take a class for an afternoon with a big belly. Perhaps it was that very afternoon that changed the course of our lives forever. After she returned, she told me that it was a good idea – we could sell it online ； So we used our only 500 yuan to buy a lot of very cheap crystal glass beads, and opened a handmade beading materials store on Taobao. At first, I was very happy to be able to earn a few dozen yuan per day; just the thought that I could make money from this made me happy. I work in the IT industry and have a good understanding of e-commerce. My wife suggested that I create a website for her, so I spent days and nights downloading website templates from the Internet, choosing the most suitable one and modifying it to meet my needs. It took me a week to get the website up and running; at that time, we only had around 80 products available, as we didn’t have the money to purchase more goods. In any business, popularity is of the utmost importance, and I certainly understand this. So I spent day and night learning about online promotion for businesses, digital marketing, e-commerce, and more; basically, aside from 6 hours of sleep per day, I devoted all my other time to figuring out how to make my business better. In this regard, my wife and I seem to be a natural match for each other. I study computer applications and have an interest in as well as expertise in areas such as networks, sales, marketing, and other aspects related to business operations. She, on the other hand, studies computer graphic design and has knowledge in image processing, accessories, and computer applications. After working for a month, the salary I received was gone after paying the rent. But business seems to be doing well; we can generate over 100 yuan in sales in a single day. My wife and I discussed whether we could withdraw the housing provident fund that our employer used to contribute on our behalf, in order to use it for purchasing goods We hesitated for several days, because there was over 6,000 yuan in this housing fund, which is a considerable amount of money for me. If the business doesn’t succeed, one might even lose all the capital invested. But in the end, we made up our minds to withdraw those 6,000 yuan; my wife and I went to Yiwu in person and checked out dozens of different varieties and new products. But many expensive beads still had to be ordered from others; we would go to various suppliers to place orders and then gather them together to send to our clients. As a result, our delivery time back then was usually 3-5 days ； However, not many people were making DIY accessories at that time, so customers had limited choices. After waiting for a while, we explained the situation and it was resolved. With the increased investment, the psychological pressure grew as well. My wife and I divided the tasks clearly: I was responsible for marketing and boosting popularity, while she took care of product selection, image processing, listing the products for sale, handling shipments, and providing customer service. She works full-time while I work part-time. Those days were really tough, because I knew that if I didn’t work hard, everything could be lost. The price of housing in Hangzhou was 10,000 yuan per square meter, while my monthly salary was only 3,000 yuan. My wife was pregnant and about to give birth, we didn’t have a house, nor any savings – so what would we use to support ourselves and raise our child in the future? . . . . . . Those days were truly terrible; I did nothing other than work on promoting the website every day. I used every possible method of promotion available, as I had no money for advertising, so I had to rely on my own skills and effort to move things forward little by little. Sending spam, optimizing keywords, running ads on blogs, posting messages on forums, email lists, collaborating with forums, starting a business project, and so on. Gradually, by putting aside some money from my monthly salary and earning a little extra on a regular basis, the variety of products available increased, and sales volume kept rising. In the first one or two months, sales were around 5,000 yuan per month ； By the third month, it exceeded 10,000 ； In the months to come, the growth rate will be almost 50% per month. Up to today, it’s been roughly 20 months I guess ； The current monthly turnover is around 180,000 ； The goal is to reach a turnover of around 250,000 to 300,000 by the end of the year. Now we don’t do everything by ourselves; we’ve hired four people – one to take care of daily household tasks such as cooking and doing laundry, one for delivering goods, one responsible for purchasing, and another in charge of counting various types of spare parts. My wife and I are mainly responsible for information gathering, new product research, customer service, and promotion. We no longer need customers to make payments first so that we can purchase goods and then arrange shipments; our inventory is at least around 500,000 yuan ； We no longer wait 3 or 4 days after the customer makes the payment before shipping; we can usually ship on the same day. We’re no longer afraid of not having rent next month, nor are we afraid of having no future, because we’re applying for our own trademark and planning our products and future direction. All these changes are the result of our hard work, but I want to make it clear that effort accounts for only 50% of the factor involved. Colleagues like me are working hard, my classmates are working hard, and my friends are also working hard, yet there are very few who truly succeed. Imagine: 1: If my wife hadn’t gotten pregnant, I would have had nothing to do. 2: If she hadn’t seen that post about the handmade ornament. 3: If she hadn’t become interested in it and had just looked at it without further action. 4: Even if she had been interested, if she hadn’t gotten along well with the seller, she wouldn’t have taken the initiative to learn from her. 5: If I hadn’t failed the college entrance exams and ended up studying computer applications. 6: If I hadn’t had those 6,000 yuan in housing savings......................... Without all these “what ifs,” we would still be struggling over whether to take a 1-yuan bus ticket or a 2-yuan one, and we would still be worried about the future, to the point of arguing. All of these are achieved through effort and opportunity. The ancients said that life and death are determined by fate, and wealth and honor are part of one’s destiny – this is not entirely superstitious. Everything in the universe exists in an orderly manner and is interconnected; some of these connections may be external while others are internal, and some may be accidental while others are inevitable. But please remember: everything is connected. Opportunity combined with effort is the true essence of life ； If you are still starting a business just for the sake of doing so, if you are still engaging in business activities merely for that reason, then please put aside your impatience and work diligently at what you need to do. Nothing can be achieved through haste or planning; it requires steady effort, taking things one step at a time, starting with small tasks. Don’t try to plan for too far into the future, as the future cannot be planned. What you need is persistence in working hard ； Opportunities cannot be seized; they are a kind of habit – something that becomes part of your life when you treat it as such. If you believe in yourself, then strive hard ； If you believe in life, then follow the opportunities. I write this as a reminder to express my gratitude to my wife and my family, so that my lovely daughter, Zhenzhen, can have some memories of her father’s experiences in the future.