The Goddess Shines on America

Time, February 28, 1987.

The location is in an unremarkable office building in Longgang District, SZ City.

"Come on, it's time for a meeting."

An unattractive middle-aged man called his colleagues together. There were seven or eight big guys, and they filled the small room: "Old Wang, close the door, and don't let the ashes from the stairwell blow in."

"okay."

Another unremarkable man walked towards the door. Because the office building is close to the construction site, wind and sand would blow into the stairwell from the window from time to time. If the door is not closed properly, it won't be long before they have to clean the room all over again.

When the door was closed, the middle-aged man sat on a table, facing his partners who were all around the same age, he smiled with emotion: "Old Wang, Lao Sun, Lao Li, and all brothers Ladies and gentlemen, we are able to gather here today, and I, Lao Ren, must thank you very much."

Everyone was smiling, and some people looked at the ceiling, just thinking about something. Ren Zhengfei touched the table he was sitting on with emotion, and continued: "It is not easy to establish this company, and 21,000 yuan is not a small amount of money. If you leave Nanhai Petroleum to do a good job, you are willing to follow my old Ren." What kind of switch business are we playing together... To be honest, we can’t say big things now, but my old man can definitely assure everyone that as long as I have my old meat for one day, I will never let you down guys!"

"Good! Good! Well said!"

"Anyway, I'm committed to Brother Ren, Brother Ren's character is trustworthy!"

"I will definitely work hard and work hard, brother Ren, don't worry!"

Seeing how his companions supported him, Ren Zhengfei sighed in relief.

"Actually, I just want to do more for our motherland."

Speaking with a Guizhou accent, he said: "After all, I have been enlisted as an engineer since 1974, for the purpose of the chemical fiber factory that was just introduced. Now, since we are all working in the oil industry This job is not going well, and now the policy allows it, so it’s a way to serve the motherland, so why don’t you play with this new thing?”

There was another burst of laughter from the crowd, and Lao Wang, who had just closed the door, gave a thumbs up: "This is also called applying what you have learned. Brother Ren is a college student. Electronic computers, digital technology, and automatic control are all amazing. Technology. When he was engaged in chemical fiber, he was a well-known technician, engineer, and even the deputy director of the organization. Now he is doing things by himself, and his level is definitely not bad!"

Ren Zhengfei shook his head humbly due to his colleagues’ flattery, and said, “It’s all a thing of the past, and why do you still talk about it. No matter how good we are in this area, things like switches are all new things. In Before we can develop and manufacture our own products, we have to go to Hong Kong to sell them as a consignment, and it will take a long time, who knows what will happen.”

"Oh, speaking of it, the switchboard is really a treasure."

Old Wang sighed again: "And I've also heard that the company called Lucent is the top communication equipment company in the United States. It can be ranked among the top three in terms of switches. It's amazing."

Finding a major American company from Hong Kong to sell its switch products on an agency basis is exactly the result of discussions between Ren Zhengfei and his good buddies who started the business together after Absolutely started his own business.

As a person who learned three foreign languages ​​in college, Ren Zhengfei naturally has a much deeper understanding of international forms than others.

The Internet hardware industry is an emerging industry that just emerged almost the year before last. At present, there are only a dozen or so companies in the same industry in the world. But it is such an industry that has only been two years old, but several giants, led by Cisco Systems, have sprung up quickly.

The most eye-catching among them is, of course, Cisco, as the industry pioneer and leader. Although it is not a dominant company, it is definitely three blocks away from Lucent Technology. These things, when Ren Zhengfei went around Hong Kong to inquire about the news, he knew it clearly.

It's a pity that with his ability, he can only sell products from Lucent Technology's Hong Kong branch. For Cisco's super giant, he doesn't have that channel.

Of course, what he knows better is that no matter which American company's switch is, it is very precious to him now, and even to the current domestic industry.

It won't take too long for the meeting to be over, but Ren Zhengfei is very aware of the weight of his burden. The brothers are all about the same age as me, in their forties, there are old and young, and they have given up their good jobs in oil state-owned enterprises and followed me to work hard. If he feels sorry for everyone, he will have to torture himself to death just because of his guilt.

Wearing plain trousers and a long shirt, after walking out of the brick and tile office building currently rented by the company, Ren Zhengfei looked around and decided to have lunch first.

Shenzhen has been developed for several years. Longgang District was just at the beginning of large-scale construction projects. There are construction sites and noisy sounds during work everywhere, which is the most typical environment here today. Although it was worse, so bad that Ren Zhengfei had to close the doors and windows at all times to prevent dust from entering, but the low rent was more important than anything else.

It was time for a lunch break, and Ren Zhengfei walked into a small restaurant, surrounded by construction site workers who were also eating. When Chief No. 1 drew a circle on this city on the coast of the South China Sea, thousands of farmers left their homes and all gathered towards these coastal cities. After ordering a bowl of noodles, and watching the big guys working, Ren Zhengfei thought to himself, probably this phenomenon will be inevitable for many years to come, right?

Suddenly, his pager vibrated.

Those who can know their phone number must be acquaintances, and the number of people who can know that they have such a novelty as a pager must be even less. Feeling the vibration, Ren Zhengfei immediately stopped eating, and quickly removed the pager from his waist.

I saw it said: I am a Chinese-American businessman, and I intend to seek cooperation with you, please call after receiving it—”

After that was a string of phone numbers. Through the area code, it was clearly seen that it was an address in the downtown area of ​​SZ. It was obviously broadcast from a landline.

"Brother Guo, check out and pack a bag for me."

The owner of the restaurant came up from behind the front desk: "Hey, Boss Ren, you left a little early at noon today. Is there a big business coming?"

Ren Zhengfei quickly put away the pager and smiled modestly: "It's nothing, it's nothing, just someone calling me."

After quickly paying the bill, Ren Zhengfei quickly walked out of the restaurant, picked up the plastic bag containing the lunch box, and then walked towards the nearest public phone booth.

Chinese-American businessmen want to cooperate with themselves, what is the situation?

Ren Zhengfei has been completely confused by this situation. It stands to reason that he is just a demobilized soldier who is just preparing to start a business. People like him in China are like Jiang Zhiqing. It's not a big man who has already achieved great success, so how can such a Chinese-American businessman suddenly contact him?

After Ren Zhengfei thought about it, the way outsiders can get his phone number is nothing more than from his former colleagues, comrades-in-arms, or the leaders of the Nanhai Petroleum Logistics Service Base. Considering the social circle of those colleagues and comrades-in-arms, it seems that the answer...is already clear.

Not thinking too much, full of doubts, he first found a public phone booth and dialed the number on the pager.

Obviously, he was waiting for his reply when he sent it out, but after a while, a mature middle-aged man's voice rang from the other side of the phone.

"Hello, who are you looking for?"

Quite fluent in Chinese, Ren Zhengfei suppressed all kinds of curiosity and asked, "Is this Mr. Wang? James-Mr. Wang?"

"Ah, that's right. You must be Mr. Ren Zhengfei, right?"

"That's right, were you the one who sent a message to my pager just now? Where did you get my contact information?"

"I got it from the oil company after your army changed jobs. I know you must have a lot of doubts in your heart, so let me explain briefly."

The other party paused for a moment. In this short period of time, Ren Zhengfei stood in front of the phone, feeling as if he had lice all over his body. But fortunately, after only a moment's pause, that James King spoke.

"I am an investor, and I already had some industries in mainland China two years ago. After I came to Shenzhen this year, I visited Nanhai Petroleum Company and was invited to visit the logistics base where you worked before. There, I I heard that there is a very great engineer, and now he is planning to start a business with a few like-minded friends, is he going to... the switch business?"

The cause and effect are reasonable, which made Ren Zhengfei suddenly realized, and then sighed deeply: "Mr. Wang, please let me ask first, how do the old colleagues talk about this behind their backs?"

The other party also fell silent, but it was still only for a moment: "How can I hear any comments? In short, I am very interested in your plan to engage in the switch business, but I don't know if Mr. Ren is interested in accepting investment from angels. "

"Heaven, angel investment?"

This novel term really stunned Ren Zhengfei, but he knew that now is not the time to ask all the questions thoroughly: "Thank you very much, Mr. Wang. Otherwise, you can make an appointment at will, and we will find you How about meeting somewhere? I'm free anytime, how about you?"

The other party was silent for a while again, giving Ren Zhengfei the feeling that he must be checking the time: "If you are free at any time, then let's have dinner together tonight. I will give you an address, and we will meet on time at six o'clock tonight ,what do you think?"

Ren Zhengfei let out a long breath slowly, only to feel that most of the burden on his body seemed to be lifted in an instant.

"It couldn't be better."