Chapter 295: Our first business venture (Part 1)

After about a quarter of an hour, Zhou Ming lay back on his bed in his dorm room, his hands behind his head as he looked at the ceiling.

Although the conversation with Danny could be considered a minor victory for himself, some of Danny's words kept lingering in Zhou Ming's mind and would not go away.

The most important thing is always the idea, and only the idea is the source of all motivation.

In fact, Zhou Ming strongly agrees with Danny's statement. If we follow Danny's analogy and compare the shopping mall to a large supermarket, then every product in the supermarket is a business opportunity. The supermarket cannot be used immediately after purchase, and no one knows whether the products are good or bad until they are opened at home. Of course, the rich can buy all the products, just as people with entrepreneurial capital can try one thing at a time, but for more people, there is not so much entrepreneurial capital.

I remember that in later generations, whenever the exploits of successful people appear on TV or in the newspapers, I always hear some people say things like this: What about people like Xun and Tencent? Didn't they just catch a lucky break? At that time, what couldn't you become rich doing? If I had been there, I would have done e-commerce and instant messaging software. I would be a billionaire now!

Indeed, if they were given the chance to go back in time and seize the opportunity to do those things before certain cloud or certain tianxuan, they would have a good chance of becoming billionaires. This is also the root of countless rebirth novels in later generations.

So the question is, why must you be reborn? Why can't you do it now?

It all comes down to the idea, which is also a fashionable term often mentioned in later generations – a business project.

For many people, if they were to start a business, they simply wouldn't know where to start. They are worried about losing money and failing, so they can only watch others get rich by doing business and follow in their footsteps.

This is a common problem for the vast majority of people – they have difficulty making choices. You have to know that many people don't even know what to order when they go to a restaurant, let alone start a business.

In fact, if you think about it, you are probably the same now. You always say that you will definitely be able to make a great career in the future, and Danny and Mr Tiger also believe this without a doubt. In fact, with your own roots in the country and the one trillion yuan of capital still being operated in Northern Russia, plus your memories from your previous life, no matter what you do, you will succeed easily.

For example, the hugely popular YouTubers, Facebook and Twitter of the next life, and if that doesn't work, just buy Steve Jobs and Apple. Even if it's a bit early, as long as I keep throwing money at it, I'll always wait until the company becomes popular and I see the profits.

But in that case, wouldn't this book be reduced to a cheap imitation, and wouldn't I be reduced to a very mediocre protagonist?

On second thought, it seems that I have never really created a project on my own. Perhaps this is the reason why, despite possessing trillions of wealth, I still cannot touch that world. Both Li Cheng and Cheng Jun are evasive with me. I finally met a Mr Tiger, who also speaks highly of me, but he still keeps a lot of things secret from me.

If I really just plan to live off my past achievements, then why did I come to Harvard? I came here to hone my abilities and take a real step forward, didn't I? Whether it was the sudden change of Lawrence as the freshman representative or the fact that so many Harvard clubs came to me, none of it was something I could have predicted. Am I willing to be trapped by this invisible force?

No, of course not. I want to become a world-shaking business tycoon in the future, so how can I just lose my motivation?

Then...let me do my best! Without any help, I will rely on myself to see how much progress I have made since I was reborn, and to see if I really have the ability to become the business tycoon I want to be!

Zhou Ming thought to himself, while also clenching his fists.

At this time, the door suddenly opened, and Ye Ning walked in. 'I'm sorry, teacher, I saw that the door was unlocked and I came in. It's time for dinner now, and the students are going to dinner. Do you want to go together, teacher? Or shall we bring it back for you?'

After listening to Ye Ning's words, Zhou Ming realised that it was already evening. Since the students were not used to the Western food in the Harvard school cafeteria, Huang Yi introduced them to a Chinese restaurant in the east, where they had been eating ever since. Of course, since the Chinese restaurant was a bit far away, walking there was a bit of a hassle, so the students in the finance class usually took a group ride to eat, which was why Ye Ning had said what she did.

'Are the students ready?' Zhou Ming asked as he sat up.

Ye Ning nodded and said, 'We're all ready, we can go eat together at any time.'

'Okay, I'll go with you, I also have something to tell you.' Zhou Ming said, stood up and walked out of the room with Ye Ning.

About a quarter of an hour later, Zhou Ming and all the students in the finance class were sitting in a private room in the Chinese restaurant.

After everyone had ordered their food, Ye Ning asked Zhou Ming first, 'Teacher, you said you had something to tell us, I wonder what it is? The boss said that the food for more than 20 of us will take a while, so can you tell us now?'

Following Ye Ning's words, the other students also cast curious glances, especially the impatient Li Yang, who couldn't wait to ask, 'Yes, teacher, I think you must be announcing some important decision, right?'

Zhou Ming smiled, looked around at the hopeful eyes of his classmates, and nodded in agreement, 'Yes, I am going to announce an important decision.'

As soon as Zhou Ming said this, the students around him immediately cheered, as if he were going to establish the North American branch of the Communist Party. It made Zhou Ming feel a little helpless. He then waited for the cheers to die down before continuing, 'But before I announce the decision, I want to ask you a question. If we were to start a company now, what would you choose?'

'Finance, of course!' Li Yang was the first to raise his hand and say, 'The reason we came all the way to the United States is for this. In order to go back and help our motherland establish a complete financial order, we must first understand the way it works here. I think we should set up a securities or fund company, starting small and gradually growing bigger and stronger. I believe that with the abilities of our classmates, we can definitely become well-known across the United States!'

Zhou Ming did not comment on Li Yang's answer, but instead turned his attention to Chen Shu, the relatively stable monitor.

Chen Shu bowed his head and thought for a moment before saying, 'Teacher, I also agree with Li Yang's opinion. We should do something related to capital. Only in this way can we have a better, deeper and more practical understanding of finance. I dare not say that our company will definitely achieve a certain level, but at least we must ensure that we will not lose money, otherwise we will not be able to apply our knowledge to China when we go back.'

Zhou Ming still didn't say anything, and then looked at Ye Ning.

Since she was after the monitor and vice monitor, Ye Ning was even more cautious than they were. She thought about it for a while before saying, 'Teacher, although we are here mainly to learn about the Western financial system and its operation, and our class is therefore called the Finance Class, I think we may not have to be so limited to finance, or we may not be so hasty. We can think outside the box a bit, and it's not impossible to do some other business.'

Ye Ning paused here, and she looked at Zhou Ming carefully. She let out a sigh of relief in her heart after seeing Zhou Ming's encouraging look.

'After all is said and done, finance is something that requires a certain amount of capital accumulation to do. But we have only just arrived in the United States. To put it more directly, we don't even know which direction the doors of the stock exchange are open. We also only have a vague understanding of the financial system and operating methods here. Under these circumstances, I don't understand how we are going to do finance?' Ye Ning continued, 'And there is one more important point, and that is, we don't have any money!'

'Classmates, we all come from economics majors. You and I both know that finance is a business that simply cannot be carried out without money, regardless of our abilities.'

Ye Ning turned the topic to Zhou Ming: 'Of course, our teacher here has money, but that's his hard-earned money. As his students, would any of you be willing to squander it like this?'

With these words from Ye Ning, all the students in the finance class lowered their heads, ashamed of their previous arrogant thoughts.

Looking at the students, Zhou Ming was still very gratified. For them to spend their own money, it was actually no big deal. After all, isn't money earned to be spent? Especially since a lot of his money was ill-gotten gains, it didn't matter if he spent it on these lovely students. However, in order to better exercise himself and these students, so that they would not become extravagant second generation rich, Zhou Ming still decided to give them some good advice.

So Zhou Ming came out and said, 'In fact, whether it's Li Yang, Chen Shu, or Ye Ning, all three of you students have a very good point. For a very direct reason, we came to Harvard to study finance. But before that, I decided to teach you something more important first: business acumen.'

'Because whether it's banking, securities, or insurance, it all boils down to a means of amassing wealth in business, and it's part of business. So if we rush into this without knowing how to do business and without understanding the way businesspeople think, we'll make a lot of detours. Someone told me today that the most important course at Harvard is not about teaching us knowledge, but about teaching us how to develop a habit of thinking. So I will now give you this lesson.

Zhou Ming concluded, 'We can consider the following: without any outside help, I will provide a maximum of $10,000 in initial funding. What kind of project should we choose and how should we start a business?'

  'Please trust me. If we can succeed with this $10,000, no matter how much we make, it will be our first pot of gold. As long as we can use our business acumen to keep growing this money, then no matter what we do in the future, whether we set up a securities company, a fund company, or even a bank, no matter what kind of economic and financial activities we participate in, we will have the confidence to do it.' Ming Zhou said.