为什么要再次创业?

Why Start a Company Again?

> By Colin Huang · 2016-03-20 · [Original link](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RdZ4lYDDabo2INvjg3K9Kw) (Chinese)
> Our translation from the Chinese original.

Lately quite a few people have asked me this question: why are you starting a company again? To sum up, I think it comes down mainly to the following two points:

1, I like what I'm doing now and the team, and starting a company again can make me happier, or rather more joyful

2, I still have some ambition, still have some ability and energy that hasn't been released, and I have a vague sense that the current opportunity might let me do something with wider influence that gives me a stronger sense of achievement.

In the final analysis, this second point is actually also the first point: starting a company again can make me more joyful, and at the same time of course I also hope that, going from near to far, it can bring a little more joy to the people around me and to more people I don't know.

Of course, I also know I can't make everyone happy or make everyone like me. That isn't my goal either. Especially with this current venture: it is more social, and the people it touches and involves are also more numerous than in my earlier ventures, which means I'm bound to face some not-so-joyful things and some people who don't like me so much. But returning to my true heart, I hope that every day I can face myself calmly, feel at peace, and feel I've done my part. If I could also gradually gain the ability of selective memory, remembering the joyful and forgetting the anxious and sad, that would be even better :)

A while ago I was interviewed by Mr. Li Zhigang (李志刚), and he asked me quite a few questions related to starting a company. Mr. Zhigang's article is much better than what I'd write myself, so here I'll "steal" a few passages to use, as a further answer to why I'm starting a company again.

What do you think you started a company for?

Huang Zheng: At the very beginning, from the education I got growing up I felt starting a company was a good thing, so from the beginning I wanted to start a company, and starting a company at first meant wanting to build a company that could make money, while I myself could be a bit more awesome. Before doing Pinhaohuo I spent nine or ten months resting at home and thought more about life, which is to say: being alive, the most important thing is that I pursue my own happiness, and I found two things bring me a deep sense of happiness:

The first is, very deeply, with a group of young partners I like, hacking through thorns and brambles to create something; this process truly does give me a sense of happiness: laughing and shedding tears together, getting through hard times together, the feeling of a team, which is the same as the feeling of a family. This, I think, I enjoy this process, and I hope everyone can have a happy and fulfilling future; that's one aspect.

The other aspect is that, as far as Pinhaohuo is concerned, I hope to do something with somewhat greater social influence than before, that is, useful to myself and also useful to others, that to some extent can promote good money driving out bad money from happening [Translator's note: the original reads 良币驱逐劣币种的发生; the 种 appears to be a slip, and the phrase is translated by its evident sense]. I once gave our colleagues an example: why did melamine [Translator's note: the original writes 三聚氰氨, a variant/miswritten form of 三聚氰胺, melamine] appear? In essence it was a process forced from behind by consumers; it was bad money driving out good money. That is, at the beginning there must certainly have been a great many of these dairy factories that didn't use melamine, but those all died.

I think that in China's whole business landscape, and not just China, the world is the same, there is a cycle where bad money drives out good money. With this fruit business we're doing today, I think we have a bit of a chance to make it so that the fruit that isn't naturally ripened, goes into cold storage and is wanted in huge quantities is at a disadvantage; to some extent we're making it so that fruit that is naturally ripened, uses few chemicals or uses none can instead sell at a high price. I think this is something with social value; it's as if I've made a contribution to society.

How would you rate your team?

Huang Zheng: The analogy I make to my team is that life is a process, and then, we're like migrant workers coming to Shanghai to work: at first my skill is poor, so I carry bricks; later I wash dishes; after washing dishes I become a cook; after I'm good as a cook I open a restaurant. Our process is like this, which doesn't mean what I did before has nothing to do with now; even one day after I've opened a restaurant, I'll turn back and wash dishes too, and be a cook too, and the whole thing is strung together. So look at our team today: Pinhaohuo looks like a new company, but look, they're all old hands who have been starting companies for many years.

What is your dream for the future?

Huang Zheng: Our team may be 20 years behind the Alibaba team. I think we may have a chance, under new forms of traffic distribution, new forms of user interaction and new international conditions, to build a different Alibaba. Of course this statement may look a bit too big right now, but walking toward it step by step, it's not necessarily without a chance. It's not only a dream; I've also analyzed it. First, look: the whole e-commerce market, its form is actually undergoing a lot of change, and the form in which Alibaba succeeded today isn't necessarily the form of success tomorrow, but people's needs still exist and will be further amplified, so the potential market is very large. Second, the older generation is bound to grow old, and the younger generation, or those of us gradually stepping into middle age, will always reach that step; if not me, then some others my age. So what I should do is keep an ordinary heart, do well, steadily and solidly, what I should do, and strive to be the most reliable one among my generation.

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