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This article, from the latest issue of the Huawei People magazine, is a reflection by Huawei employee Li Jin on his thirteen years of working at Huawei. Now, more people in society know about Huawei and its strength. Behind all this, have we ever stopped to think about what the real driving force behind Huawei’s rapid rise and continuous growth is? In addition to Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, there is another very important reason: having a large number of employees like Li Jin, who, while making personal efforts to drive Huawei’s development, are also able to realize their own professional dreams. In this world, there isn’t a single professional who doesn’t want to realize their career dreams, but if we ask ourselves honestly, have we made the effort? Have we truly given our all? Have we truly put in our effort for the company? Have we truly dedicated all our professional efforts to improving the efficiency of businesses, optimizing management, and advancing technology? Below is the article written by Li Jin in \"Huawei People,\" allowing us to experience the journey of struggle and the joy of striving as a professional in the workplace. At the same time, it may bring some new insights to each of us managers and professionals in the workplace. As Li Jin said: I firmly believe that with an attitude of a \"empty cup,\" by putting in 100% effort and facing things bravely and happily, everything will work out smoothly! I have been with Huawei for almost 13 years, progressing from an administrative secretary to a manager in terminal research and development. Along the way, I have gone through several role changes, and each new position brought its own set of challenges. I have always believed that as long as one is dedicated and works hard, all goals can ultimately be achieved. In China, from foreign companies to private enterprises: In 1998, tired of my comfortable job as a white-collar worker in a foreign company and seeking new challenges, I joined Huawei’s office in Chongqing as an administrative secretary at an age approaching 30. From then on, my relentless journey at Huawei began. The job involves a variety of tasks: train shunting, personnel management, handling the supervisor’s daily affairs, communicating with clients from the railway authorities, and so on. I act like the chief administrator of the office, which often leaves me, who am used to a leisurely lifestyle, extremely busy. I set a \"simple\" goal for myself: to standardize and organize these straightforward tasks, thereby improving efficiency and reducing complaints. Through the joint efforts of the team members, the work of the administrative team in Chongqing has been recognized by everyone. Half a year later, I received an order from headquarters and became the first secretary hired locally at the office to be transferred to work there. After coming to Shenzhen, I worked as the secretary to the president of the International Marketing Department. In 1999, when our company’s overseas operations were just starting out, my manager had a multitude of responsibilities – ranging from business management and financial approval to local management and administrative procurement in different locations, as well as project analysis and final decision-making. To be able to assist him effectively, I needed to improve my ability to handle various tasks. The leader’s ideas are very dynamic, and turning his thoughts into written work represents a great challenge for me. He often would say as soon as a meeting ended or a task was assigned, “It has to be done by tonight.” I could only analyze what he meant while organizing the information; I often had to go to the company on weekends to write up summaries, and sometimes I would sleep in the office. I’d write a paragraph, take a short nap, then new ideas would come to mind and I’d write another paragraph... It was extremely stressful. The leader has very high standards; when reviewing the minutes, even spelling mistakes and punctuation errors must be corrected. He criticized me, saying, “You’re careless!” ”I retorted, “Why do you even need to pay attention to a punctuation mark?” ”He said, “If my leaders pay attention to it, why can’t I?” ”This taught me that one must be meticulous in doing anything. More than a year of experience in international marketing, along with exposure to the operations of the company’s senior management, has enabled me to remain calm and willing to take on challenges when facing significant difficulties in various positions I’ve held since then. Asia-Pacific: Participated in the establishment of the regional office. In 2001, I responded to the company’s call and voluntarily applied to work overseas; I was assigned to the company’s largest overseas office at that time, the one in Thailand, where I was responsible for managing the administrative aspects. As the company’s overseas operations expanded rapidly, a year later I, along with several colleagues from the Asia-Pacific region, was tasked with setting up the Asia-Pacific branch. Upon arriving in Malaysia, the first thing to do is to find an office space and legalize working there. Since Huawei was not well-known overseas at that time, we applied the bidding methods we used to \"fix\" issues with clients in our daily work to practical situations. Through bidding processes, shortlisting, as well as separate evaluations of commercial aspects and design proposals, we chose the Twin Towers as our office location. This approach not only helped us obtain legal work visas for our 200 employees but also enabled us to select the design and construction companies that were best suited to our budget. During those months of renovation, we were busy non-stop every day; we often worked overtime, with meetings sometimes lasting until midnight. The suppliers would often joke, \"The boss has never asked us to work overtime, but it’s Huawei that makes us do this.\" ”The two sides influenced each other positively, and the cooperation was very pleasant; after completion, they even gave us a souvenir with the Huawei logo and their company’s logo. Ultimately, we delivered the entire regional platform 2 weeks earlier than planned, ensuring the smooth launch of the company’s regional operations. For Dongtai, the first 3G data card order was placed. In 2003 I returned to China to work in sales management at a terminal company, but soon after I was sent by the company to Dongtai to handle sales tasks there. Here, I fulfilled my desire as a humanities graduate to switch careers and become a sales professional; I closed the company’s first deals for 3G data cards and 3G phones, and became a sales star. Before going, I told my boss, “I’m going to secure the first order, faster than Europe will.” ”To this day, I can still remember the exact date on which the PO was obtained—November 16, 2004. After nearly 3 months of technical efforts and negotiations, the procurement director of one of **’s operators agreed to issue a purchase order for Huawei’s 3G data cards, following our round-the-clock work to resolve all the bugs. That day I took the subway to the client’s location very early, and the contract was signed around 10 a.m.; after that, I had a big meal with the **client’s manager. Good things take time; the client needed the products delivered before Christmas. The person in charge of delivery said it would be too late, so I went to the production line in Building 7 of the technology park myself and helped with pressing the cards and packaging them... Then I carried a small bag and took a plastic bag full of data cards to the client’s warehouse. What I learned from this experience is that, in addition to good product quality, timely delivery is also an effective competitive advantage for a product. The mobile phone project also had its challenges; there were many bugs in the product at that time, which posed a great challenge for someone like me who had a background in academics. So I spent my days in the client’s office to understand the problems and requirements, and then returned to the office at night to hold video conferences with the development team in Beijing. However, this approach was very inefficient. I strongly demanded that the R&D team be sent to the front line, and in the end I almost banged the table to secure the resources. The final result was excellent – it **improved the quality and efficiency of technical communication**, and the developers also improved a lot; later, they even approached me to ask if I needed anyone to go there again. I was inspired once again—that only by staying close to customers and truly understanding their needs and demands can customer satisfaction be improved. South Africa: My first comic related to me. At the end of 2005, I was transferred back to the headquarters from East Asia; after working for some time on auditing terminal channels and managing large-scale operations, at the end of 2006 the company gave me another challenge – to take charge of terminal operations in the Southern Africa region. Although I was very nervous, after attending the regional department’s annual meeting, I set off for Africa with confidence and without hesitation. At that time, end-sales across Africa was still in its infancy: the teams were new, there was a shortage of staff, and the product range was limited. Upon arriving at the region, I first ensured internal communication; I presented the annual plan, action plans, and implementation measures for the outlets to the regional leaders, and after obtaining their approval, I began my monthly rotational work schedule in different countries across Africa. I chose to start with the most challenging and promising one — Angola. Angola, plagued by years of war, has a very difficult internal and external environment. The dormitories that the company managed to rent for everyone are like old-style student dorms – they lack private bathrooms. Just like in university, every morning people have to bring their toothbrushes and towels, and then stand in line in front of the faucets to brush their teeth and wash their faces. The row of houses next to it is used for bathing; there are mosquitoes all over, and one has to fight against them while taking a bath every night. Perhaps it is precisely because of such an environment that brothers are better able to share joys and sorrows together. At work, we work together on plans, meet with clients together, hold project analysis meetings together, and seek resources from headquarters to address challenging issues. In my free time, I go with everyone to Chinese farms to buy groceries, sing karaoke in the cafeteria together, and go to the beach to look for crabs. 28 days have brought me two major achievements: first, turning the Angolan market into a grain depot for Africa ； Secondly, the two gifts given to me by my brothers before I left: they helped me set up a blog so that I could keep everyone updated on my whereabouts regularly ； There is also a manga themed around me, “A Day in the Life of Classmate Li Jin”. After more than a year of effort, the performance of the sales teams in Southern Africa has tripled. This young team has also grown; two of its members are now heads of the regional sales teams there, and many excellent employees from this team have been assigned to other regions as well. Latin America: Emerging from the \"fire beds\" In 2008, I was transferred back to China to handle end-product procurement tasks, and I entered a new field – the supply chain. “Start over, learn from scratch, master the basics first, and then integrate everything together. By integrating the front-end and back-end systems, optimizing the procurement and delivery processes, and establishing risk early-warning mechanisms, no major incidents occurred in terminal procurement throughout 2008, during the snow disasters, **, and the Olympic Games. Even as business volume continued to grow, smooth deliveries were ensured throughout the year. My supervisors and colleagues also provided me, a newcomer to delivery tasks, with extensive support and recognition. Just when I thought I could enjoy the fruits of my hard work, the company approached me, hoping that I would go to Latin America. At that time, the Latin American end-user business was in a downward trend and faced great pressure; many people advised me not to take on this challenging task. I’m also very conflicted; on one hand, there’s the need to sort out the business matters, while on the other hand, things are extremely difficult. Yet the company’s trust in me and my indomitable spirit led me to choose to take on this challenge once again. Once in Latin America, various problems arose one after another: huge inventory levels, team conflicts, product shortages. Coupled with the distance between Latin America and the headquarters and the time difference, I spent almost every day at the office. Regarding the troublesome issue of \"inventory,\" team members had various opinions: \"It’s a legacy from the previous team; we just need to open up the market now,\" or \"Getting rid of it will affect our bonuses.\" What impressed me the most was having clients in Argentina help us clear out a pile of GSM inventory in Mexico; such cross-border clearance requires cooperation between the two teams, and it means Argentina will lose profits as well as have its market share reduced ； The sales volume of the Mexican team needs to be compensated for. We analyze the difficulties and opportunities, maintain constant communication, with both sides contributing their part to resolve the issues together and promote the common development of the market in the future. ““If we fail, we’ll fight to the death to save each other.” Step by step, it took 6 months to clear away nearly X hundred million worth of inventory and debts. At the beginning of 2010, I took on more responsibilities; areas such as product portfolio management, key markets, secure operations, timely delivery, organizational optimization, localization rates, and talent development were all things that required attention. After gaining an understanding of the local culture, bold attempts were made to develop marketing and promotion strategies for consumer products; efforts were also made to enhance capabilities in areas such as branding, promotions, and distribution channels, and initial results have already been seen. By the end of the year, the terminal business in the Latin America North region rose from being at the bottom to ranking among the top three among all global regions. What delights me even more is the high morale of the sales teams in Latin America, the significant increase in the level of localization, and the ongoing attraction of experienced professionals from the industry. In June this year, I received another transfer order, this time to what I considered the least likely department for me to work in – the R&D Management Department, where I am responsible for managing cooperation in terminal R&D efforts. This technology-intensive job will once again be a challenge to my abilities. I firmly believe that with an open mind, by putting in 100% effort and facing things bravely and happily, everything will work out smoothly.