He went into politics first, then into business, which was easy to control.
Your family is rich, save the people from fire and water, win back the beauty, and realize the prosperity and unity of the country.
He went into politics for the first half of his life and helped a dying country become one of the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period. When his political career reached its peak, he retired in time and embarked on the road of business.
19 years, three times rich in the world, with a wealth of over a thousand.
When the country was in danger and the people were displaced, he used all his wealth to help the people, and was later regarded as the god of wealth by the world.
This man is the earliest businessman and economist in China, and also a politician, strategist and thinker. He is known as a generation of business sage-Fan Li.
It's a pity that for such a child prodigy, an official, and close to your prime minister, he is also very successful in business, and there is not much pen and ink in history.
Although Fan Li lived in an era more than 2000 years ago, his social environment, economic environment and even value orientation are different from today's society, but his many characteristics and incisive and original ideas are still worth learning from today.
Let's get close to Fan Li and learn about the legendary life of a generation of business sages and their business philosophy above technology.
Virtue is the foundation to build a strong foundation.
Fan Li was born in 536 BC, a native of Wandi, Chu, and was born into a poor family when he was a child.
However, Fan Li liked reading since he was a child, and he learned a lot in his teens.
What is even more rare is not his profound knowledge, but his unique thinking insights. He can quickly understand the essence of things and be humiliated calmly.
When Fan Li was young, everyone around him seemed to be crazy.
Fan Li is often different from the public's point of view, and sometimes his words are amazing and make people dumbfounded.
Therefore, people who come into contact with him say that he is crazy.
In fact, he sometimes disdains talking to people. More often, he accurately grasps the essence of the problem and thinks more deeply and thoroughly, which others can't understand.
Whether in business or politics, this ability to quickly understand the nature of things and make accurate and decisive decisions is very important, and it is also one of the essential qualities of a successful leader.
Fan Li met Wen Zi at the age of 20. They hit it off and agreed to build a great career and do something important.
Both Fan Li and Wen Zi are Chu people.
However, at that time, Chu was already the hegemon among the nations, the monarch was arrogant, the royal family was in power, the politics was chaotic, and he went to Yue to be an official.
When I first arrived in Yue State, Fan Li and Wen Zi were not valued by Yue King.
Soon, the relatively weak State of Yue was defeated by the State of Wu, and Gou Jian, the king of Yue, defeated Huijishan.
After the defeat of the State of Yue, many ministers defected to other places or to the State of Wu.
And he was attached to the King of Yue, so he was reused by Gou Jian and volunteered to go to Wu as a slave with Gou Jian.
Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, knew that Fan Li was very talented. He advised Fan Li to leave Gou Jian several times and made him an outstanding knight. Fan Li was unmoved.
After three years as a slave, Fan Li and Gou Jian lived and slept together, and did not forget to say goodbye to Gou Jian's subjects. He has always respected and protected the Lord for three years, never giving up, which made the prince full of praise and envy.
Once, the king of Wu threw a piece of gold on Fan Li's road. Fan Li crossed the finish line without hesitation and left straight away. Since then, the King of Wu has given up the idea of persuading Fan Li to surrender to the State of Wu.
In fact, Fan Li is loyal not only to Gou Jian, but also to his own personality. In modern society, people like Fan Li who keep their promises, are neither arrogant nor impetuous in prosperity nor doubtful in adversity are commendable.
Even according to some current values, Fan Li's performance is just a stupid loyalty. In fact, Fan Li's virtue not only won the trust of his partner, but also won the respect of his opponent.
How can a person with such personality charm and smart wisdom not have a big deal?
In today's enterprises, there are many leaders who restrict the development of enterprises because of the lack of personal virtue.
A small victory depends on wisdom, and a big victory depends on virtue.
In today's quick success and instant benefit society, I don't think many people can deeply understand this truth and practice it personally.
Those who do that may be laughed at by the mainstream of society for a while, or even suffer a little loss, but in the end, it is these people who are based on morality.
Thinking philosophy of combining Confucianism and Taoism
Confucianism advocates benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith. Founder's way of governing the country is the mainstream thought of governing the country in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and later historical periods, and it has even been passed down to this day.
Taoism pursues the nature of Taoism, quietism. Influenced by this concept, Taoist thinkers rarely go into politics.
Therefore, at that time, Taoist thought was basically not used to lead and manage the country's leaders.
However, Fan Li has an enlightened and wise mind and a broad mind. He has both the strengths of Confucianism and Taoism, and is more likely to accept the thoughts of a hundred schools, but he is not limited to a hundred schools, jumping out of a hundred schools and forming his own ideological system.
Such ideological characteristics constitute a unique one, that is, Confucianism's courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame, Taoism's compliance with the weather, integration with nature, adaptation to the environment, and relying on the environment's rigidity and softness.
At the same time, with an open mind, we should absorb and draw lessons from the laws of Legalists, Mohists, Yin and Yang schools, etc. to govern the country and unify the army.
Make Fan Li's thoughts and actions rock-solid, tough as leather, soft as turbulent streams, invisible.
During his political career, Fan Li showed a combination of Confucianism and Taoism and his personality characteristics. Only in this way can he lead the extremely declining Yue State out of the predicament.
In today's society, as an enterprise manager in a period of complex market environment and difficult enterprise survival, he should have the thinking of combining Confucianism and Taoism.
Only in this way can we lead enterprises to be unyielding in adversity, not arrogant and impetuous in prosperity, treat humiliation objectively and sensitively, and discover the opportunities behind them.
When Wu was a slave, he devoted himself to Gou Jian. When Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, wanted to go out, Gou Jian lay prone on the ground and let Fu Cha ride on his back. When Fu Cha was ill, Gou Jian licked his excrement to treat him.
Finally, the prince of Wu was moved. Three years later, Gou Jian's monarch and subjects were put back to China. These strategies were all formulated by Fan Li for Gou Jian.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were many politicians with the spirit of "scholar" respected by Confucianism, but few of them could adapt to the environment, compromise and come up with such a method.
Thanks to Fan Li's ingenious plan, Gou Jian became the only king in history who could endure great humiliation and torture, stubbornly survived in adversity, worked hard with great ambition, and finally destroyed the enemy and restored the country.
After Gou Jian was released by the King of Wu and returned to China, Yue needed it very much.
Famine is constant in China, plague is rampant, and people are in dire straits. The external state of Wu constantly monitored and suppressed the state of Yue, and there were other princes around.
In this environment, survival is a problem. How to get out of the predicament quickly, become strong and avenge the country? At this time, Fan Li really showed his outstanding leadership and management skills.
And planned strategic plans such as "Ten Years Reunion", "Ten Years Lessons" and "Nine Techniques to Destroy Wu".
As a defeated country, Vietnam is not allowed to have national defense, including not building city walls, not forming an army, and not making weapons.
Fan Li came up with some compromise methods:
Only three walls were built, not facing Wu, and Wu was told that the wall was built to prevent bandits and other vassal States from invading, but never facing Wu; If the army is not allowed to form, the "militia" will be secretly formed and trained in secret. Every family has weapons hidden in their homes, and in case of war, these people can participate in the war at any time; If weapons are not allowed to be made, the refinery will be moved to the deep mountains, isolated from the outside world and transported through secret passages.
When Gou Jian returned to China, he planned to attack Wu in the next year, but he was stopped. Fan Li believes that at present, the conditions of climate, geography and human harmony are not mature.
Three years later, Gou Jian proposed to attack Wu again, and Fan Li stopped him again.
He thinks that the geographical conditions are ready now-all the countries around him have established diplomatic relations with Yue, and the flood has been eliminated, but the time and personnel have not yet arrived.
Seven years later, Gou Jian proposed to attack Wu again, but he was stopped. Fan Li believes that after seven years of recuperation, Vietnamese soldiers are stronger than Ma Zhuang and have high morale.
On the other hand, Wu has been fighting for years, although it is still strong, but it is already exhausted, shuddering, and the people are tired of war. At this time, all the staff are ready, but there is still a lack of time.
10 years later, Wu competed with Jin for hegemony and made great efforts to form an alliance with Jin. At this time, Fan Li found Gou Jian and told him that the weather, location and people were all ready.
After the Vietnamese army sent troops, it attacked Gusu, the capital of Wu.
After the prince of Wu returned to the army, he made peace with Yue. Gou Jian wanted to beat Wu at one stroke, but Fan Li clearly saw that although the capital of Wu had been occupied at this time, all the soldiers and heroes of Wu were taken away by Fu Cha. Therefore, he didn't hurt his vitality. Even if he wins, he will lose both sides.
The experience of this attack triggered the turning point of Wu's national strength from prosperity to decline. We should not rush for a moment, but wait for the opportunity to completely destroy Wu in good times.
As Sun Tzu said in the Art of War: "Those who were good at fighting in the past were invincible first and won by waiting for the enemy. You can't win yourself, you can't win the enemy. Therefore, a good soldier can be in an invincible position and the enemy cannot be defeated. Therefore, it is said that knowing victory is not doing it. "
Fan Li is waiting for a chance to completely defeat the enemy.
As a result, the two sides reconciled and the State of Yue withdrew its troops. 10 years later, the foreign invasion of Wu continued, and the country suffered rare natural disasters. The State of Yue took the opportunity to send troops and completely destroyed the State of Wu.
Fan Li is a typical politician, strategist and thinker who combines Confucianism and Taoism, which can be seen from his life, governing the country, punishing evil and promoting good.
Know where the stakes are, know how to advance and retreat.
After the complete failure of Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, Gou Jian could not bear to kill him. He wanted to give him fiefs and make Fu Cha a vassal, but Fu Cha couldn't accept the failure and humiliation and committed suicide in shame.
This verifies the sentence: living is the winner. After the typhoon, the grass has the right to laugh at the towering trees that fell next to it. The victory of Gou Jian and Fan Li can also be understood as the victory of Taoist thought.
After Wu was completely wiped out, Gou Jian held a celebration banquet to enfeoffment heroes. Fan Li's rank is the highest, second only to Gou Jian, and above the officials.
At this time, he was not carried away by great achievements, but calmly analyzed the situation: Wu, which can now pose a threat to Yue, has perished, and other vassal States have either gone far away, or the surrounding small countries are weak, which poses no threat to Yue at all.
In other words, the world is at peace. At this time, it is very dangerous to cover the Lord with high achievements, which is easy to make the king feel threatened.
Coupled with years of getting along, Fan Li found that Gou Jian is a person who can suffer, but can't make a fortune with him. His official position is the best, and the big tree is bound to attract the wind.
Fan Li clearly understands the truth that "all birds are exhausted, but the bow hides, the sly rabbit dies, and the running dog cooks". When his political career reached its peak, he retired and resigned from Gou Jian.
Gou Jian stayed on the condition of sharing the world equally, but he quickly retreated and resolutely left the country to go boating with his lover Shi.
According to Yue Jueshu, "After Wu's death, he sent back to visit the five lakes with Wu."
When Fan Li left the country, he wrote a letter to me, in which he stated the fact that the enemy had broken and the counselor was dead, and suggested leaving immediately.
Unfortunately, in the face of high officials and generous salaries, the genre did not make a wise choice. Soon after Fan Li left, the literary school whose contribution was second only to Fan Li was killed by Gou Jian for no reason.
Wen Zhong is a typical Confucian. It is only natural for him to eat your money and repay your kindness, meritorious service and reward.
Did not think from more angles, did not see through the law of the development of things, and eventually led to a fatal disaster.
With a cool head and keen eyes, Fan Li saw everything from the perspective of the development law of things and the characteristics of human nature, and escaped from the gate of hell.
If Lv Buwei and Reese could see clearly the interests like Fan Li and not be carried away by them, they might not be beheaded.
Today's business leaders do not lack the spirit of rising in adversity, but they often rush in difficulties and obstacles, but fall in front of victory and honor.
Especially after an enterprise develops to a relatively large scale, it is very important for leaders to be calm and sharp-eyed.
More importantly, whether you can convince yourself before glory and interests and know how to advance and retreat.
After doing something, calmly analyze what to do.
"Inaction" is often an important factor in the success of enterprises.
Honesty, faithfulness, benevolence and righteousness make great men.
With his wife, children and disciples, he came to Qi under the pseudonym Li. From then on, Fan Li began another equally brilliant life journey in anonymity.
Fan Li bought some land at the seaside of Qi State, cultivated the land, engaged in fishing and opened a saltworks.
Fan Li farmed with his wife and children, dressed in coarse clothes and eating coarse grains. Fan is very generous and friendly to employees and opposes businessmen's careful calculation and exploitation of wealth.
In case of reduced production in a disaster year, land rent will be reduced, and a porridge farm will be opened to help the victims. At the beginning of the year, we signed commodity purchase contracts with some farmers and businessmen.
By the end of the year, if the commodity price rises, Fan Li will buy it at the current market price, and if the price falls, he will strictly fulfill the contract price.
Therefore, businessmen from all over the world are willing to do business with Fan Li, and craftsmen and farmers are also willing to work for Fan Li. Although it seems that they have suffered a little, they have a large number of high-quality and stable partners, which greatly reduces the total cost.
On one occasion, Fan Li had a poor cash flow and borrowed 654.38 million yuan from a rich family.
A year later, the rich man went out to collect debts with various IOUs and accidentally dropped the package into the river. Hundreds of thousands of IOUs and travel expenses were gone, so he went to Fan Li's house and went to Fan Li's house again.
Without an iou, Fan Li not only paid back the money with interest, but also presented an extra sum of money to the rich man. As a result, Fan Li's name of benevolence and love spread all over the world.
Later, in order to expand his business, Fan Li was short of funds for three times, and all rich households took the initiative to send money to his door, helping Fan Li to tide over the crisis and seize the opportunity. In just a few years, he became the richest man in Qi, with millions of wealth.
It is said that during the famine in Qi, the victims heard of his kindness and came all the way to alms, and were praised by later generations as "people rich in virtue".
The news reached the king of Qi, who invited Fan Li to the palace and worshipped him as the prime minister.
During this period, vigorously developing the economy promoted the trade between Qi and other vassal States, offset the trouble of material shortage in disaster years, and laid the foundation for the economic and cultural prosperity of Qi.
Three years later, Qi became rich and strong, and the people regarded Fan Li as a god, and the ruling and opposition parties were also full of praise for virtue.
At this time, Fan Li resigned again: "It is the greatest benefit for a civilian to make a lot of money as an official. I am afraid that it will be unlucky to be honored for a long time. "
So he hung up the golden seal, distributed all his wealth to friends and the poor, and then left Qi with his wife and children.
It can be said that Fan Li is a model of retiring after success, and he knows that everything will be reversed.
Good things will develop in the opposite direction to the extreme. Instead of waiting for the situation to reverse, it is better to retire at the right time.
This truth is very simple, but how many people can do it in the face of great fame and fortune?
Once successful, people's self-confidence will also increase, and they rarely take the initiative to retreat.
There are very few entrepreneurs who dare to retreat. It seems that business is a road that cannot be turned back, and the development of enterprises sometimes needs only turning back and reflection.
Retreat is for better progress, and reflection is for wiser. Just like Fan Li's quick retreat, this is not the negative thought of Taoism, but the wisdom of knowing.
Everything will decline when it is in full swing. When it is at its peak, you take the initiative to retire in order to have a chance to climb other peaks, instead of falling heavily and breaking into pieces.
The avenue is natural and goes with the flow.
Fan Li's family moved to Tao Di in the northwest of Qi State, and changed her surname and name to Zhu Gong. He once again started his family business with humble body and empty hands.
It is believed that Tao has a unique geographical location, bordering Qi and Lu in the east. Nantong Chu and Yue; Xi Daqin and Zheng; North, Yan.
Is the center of the world, very suitable for business.
Sure enough, driven by Fan Li, it soon became the economic center and trade center of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in the late Spring and Autumn Period.
Fan Li engaged in early international trade by virtue of his geographical advantage.
The understanding of commercial trade is: Yue takes sericulture as its profession, Qi takes ploughing and hoeing as its profession, Qin takes smelting and casting as its profession, and Chair Zhao takes civil engineering as its profession. Every country has its own characteristics and needs.
Doing business is to promote the exchange of goods between countries, exchange needed goods, and naturally benefit all countries.
At the same time, Fan Li also managed agriculture and aquaculture, and summed up many business strategies.
Its essence is to conform to the natural environment and trends, predict the development law of things, and then, with its strength and potential.
Fan Li believes that the weather determines agriculture, and the weather changes regularly, so the quality of grain harvest is also regular.
According to the replacement of the five elements, he summed up the general law of good years and bad years.
In the agricultural society, the fluctuation of grain price will inevitably lead to the fluctuation of other related commodity prices.
At that time, the trade was mainly agricultural products. Trading according to this changing law is equivalent to grasping the key links of the market and naturally gaining rich profits.
Fan Li summed up flexible and diverse management according to natural characteristics such as seasons, climate, people's feelings and customs. The business strategy is "people abandon me and take me, people take me and follow, let nature take its course and wait and see".
He said, "Water is the source of cars and drought is the source of ships"? It means to do car business in flood and boat business in drought.
Because, when there is a flood, people often use boats as a means of transportation, which will inevitably lead to the scarcity of boats and the rise in prices. However, a large backlog of land vehicles has no place to use, and the price is cheap.
At this time, a large number of vehicles are bought cheaply. After the flood, there will be few vehicles and the price will rise.
More than 2000 years ago, Fan Li judged the price fluctuation according to the relationship between market supply and demand. He suggested that "we can know the price by discussing its surplus and deficiency."
That is to find out whether the market is in oversupply or in short supply, and adjust the next business strategy accordingly.
He also found that price fluctuations are the same as natural laws.
The price of a commodity will fall after reaching the extreme, and will rise again after reaching the extreme, showing the so-called law of "one expensive and one cheap, extremely reversed".
This is completely in line with the argument of modern economic principles.
According to this theory, Fan Li put forward a set of principles and methods of buying and selling: when the price is cheap, it should be collected in large quantities. He said that "it is as cheap as pearls and jade", that is, treat the goods with reduced prices as much as possible, and then store them carefully like jewelry.
After the price of this commodity rises, what does Fan Li think should be done? "Expensive as dirt", like throwing away dirt, sell all the goods without stint.
Don't expect the price to go up all the time, because it will go up and down.
These theories are not profound and subtle today, but some natural laws and economic laws, but they are very effective.
We often lose these basic understandings in gorgeous technology and numerous temptations, chasing up and down, rushing around in front of simple natural laws, while sober people grasp the laws and make money easily.
We can't help but admire Fan Li's comprehensive consideration of climate change, agricultural production, social demand and other factors during that period of underdeveloped civilization, not to mention the developed agricultural society.
The world is duty-bound, and morality is on the shoulders.
There is a saying that "no business is dishonest", although it is a bit one-sided, it still has some truth.
Since ancient times, businessmen have been pursuing the maximization of interests, so they have adopted various means: opportunistic, driving up prices, magnifying scales with small scales, and even immoral means.
Fan Li not only achieved "a gentleman makes money, but also has chivalrous spirit"
Fan Li believes that it is the people, that is, today's consumers, who can profit from businessmen. Treat people with gratitude and give back to them, and people will be more willing to deal with you.
This coincides with peter drucker's view that "enterprises must create value for society and society will return profits to enterprises".
Laozi, the founder of Taoism, has the same view: "Heaven and earth are not born, so they can live forever."
Although Fan Li is a businessman, he is never eager for quick success. He only asked for 10% of the cost for the profit of the business, not much.
In case of special circumstances such as disaster years, this profit ratio will be reduced, or even help the victims at a loss.
In that historical period, the profit rate of 10% was very low.
Because the traffic was extremely inconvenient at that time, war and bandits led to great commercial risks, and few people did business, which was an absolute buyer's market.
And from the analysis of the economic development at that time, there was no accurate calculation method of profit rate at that time. Therefore, the profit of Fan Li 10% should be gross profit, not net profit.
Such a low profit margin can make Fan Li become a tycoon quickly, mainly because of its huge transaction volume.
Secondly, funds are never idle and turn around quickly. Fan Li's goods have never been overstocked, because he has a good reputation and is open for business. More importantly, the price of his goods is much lower than others.
Being able to lower the price than peers not only reduces the profit rate, but also depends on Fan Li's business philosophy: "People abandon me and take me, and people take me and give it."
Buy in large quantities when a certain commodity is surplus and cheap, and sell those scarce and sought-after commodities at the same time.
Fan Li moved three times in his life to avoid fame and fortune, but fame and fortune followed him all the time. The dialectical philosophy among them is worth pondering by our entrepreneurs today.
Sima Qian once praised Fan Li in Historical Records: "Fan Li moved three times and became famous all over the world".
Fan Li was the best official twice and rich three times in his life. Every time Fidelity gave money to the world, he quickly got it again.
In politics, Fan Li pursued the loyalty of a courtier, and in business, he fulfilled the conscience of a businessman.
Fan Lizhen is a wise man with a broad mind and compassion for the world. At the age of seventy, the family is rich and full of children and grandchildren. At the age of 88, he died of illness, and later generations called him Tao Zhugong.
Fan Li was also regarded as the god of wealth in South Road by later generations. Compared with the God of Wealth (East Road), Wu Caishen Guan Gong (West Road), Zhao Gongming (North Road), Duanmu Ci (Southwest Road), Li Zhaizu (Northeast Road), Guan Zhong (Southeast Road) and Bai Gui (Northwest Road), they all accept folk sacrifices.