Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

The entire hall burst into applause.

Tang Yishu bowed, embarrassed. Then, she walked briskly off the stage. However, when she reached backstage, she tripped on a wire on the ground. Fortunately, she had been prepared and grabbed the curtains by the side. It was a false scare.

The students did not see that. As they continued to clap, they thought about the talk that they had just heard.

"That makes so much sense. The most valuable resource we have is not money, but our focus."

"He's encouraging us to spend the money on improving ourselves and to make better use of our focus. That talk was much better than those that encourage us to scrimp, save, or 'buy things that you like'!"

"Boss Pei really did not become so successful by chance!"

"Did anyone record that?"

"I did! I'll transcribe it and post it on the campus forum. After that, we can try to digest it more!"

The students had thought that this talk would be no different from other talks that they had attended on how to view wealth. They had expected the focus to be on how to spend their money.

Naturally, most people would think about that when they thought about 'wealth'.

However, Boss Pei's letter had provided a completely new perspective to them: they had to learn how to put their focus to good use. That was because, in reality, man had to use their own focus to earn money.

Squandering one's focus was more terrifying than squandering one's money. The latter would cause one to lose the money on hand, but the former would cause one to lose the ability to create value.

The talk was very short. There were no long theories or hardcore preaching. All it had done was providing a whole new perspective that most people would not have noticed. Thus, it was much more acceptable to ordinary people.

…

…

June 29th, Wednesday…

At Tengda Corporation's HR department…

Wu Bin and Cui Geng were sorting out the manuscripts that they had received recently.

Both of them had divided the tasks very clearly. Wu Bin was in charge of gathering material and confirming the interviewees while Cui Geng was in charge of transcribing the recording and organizing everything systematically.

The material would become interpretations of the Tengda spirit. At the same time, they would serve as a record of the way Boss Pei handled problems.

"The transcript of Boss Pei's speech at Handong University has become very popular on the campus forum. Should we consider adding that to our current materials?" Cui Geng asked.

Wu Bin considered this and then shook his head. "There's no rush.

"The transcript's sphere of influence is merely within Handong University. What's more, strictly speaking, the transcript was only a theory. Without specific examples, it would have very little persuasive power.

"Most importantly, Boss Pei was not the one who wrote the script. It did contain elements of what Boss Pei would have said, but Boss Pei is too busy. The script was most likely done by Assistant Xin."

After pondering for a moment, Cui Geng said, "Even so, the script expresses Boss Pei's mindset. It's about the same."

Wu Bin thought about this and said, "Hmm… that's true. Well, we can take that factor into consideration, but we would have to screen the materials very carefully. After all, what we want to create is notes on the Tengda spirit. Everything that we say has to be justified."

Both men's progress was not fast. In fact, it was quite slow.

That was because they wanted to use concrete examples to explain Boss Pei's mindset and the Tengda spirit. Of course, they had to avoid ambiguous interpretations, and they had to keep all of their content well-documented.

For example, Boss Li and the other investors' evaluations could be accepted as evidence. Concrete things that Boss Pei had done could also be accepted as evidence. If both were taken together, the contents would be more realistic and reliable.

However, it would not be appropriate to include a mere transcript of a speech in the book until there was corroborative evidence.

"It's time to go."

Wu Bin glanced at his watch. They were supposed to interview Liang Qingfan today, and it was almost time to get going.

Wu Bin had carefully selected the interviewees.

Boss Li of Fu Hui Investments could provide the perspective of Boss Pei's business competitor and partner. On the other hand, Liang Qingfan could provide the perspective of an elite professional from another field, who had just started working with Boss Pei.

Among all the department heads, Liang Qingfan had interacted with Boss Pei the least. Maybe they could obtain some sort of inspiration from his first impressions.

…

Half an hour later, Wu Bin and Cui Geng arrived at Block 9 of Binhu District.

The two buildings there were being urgently constructed. From the outside, one could tell that the buildings were dilapidated and had been unoccupied for a couple of years. As the construction team rushed this project, drilling of holes in the ground and smashing of walls could be heard from time to time.

After waiting downstairs for two minutes, Liang Qingfan came downstairs with a safety helmet on.

He handed his safety helmet to one of the workers on-site and then smiled at Wu Bin and Cui Geng. "The construction site is a mess. Let's go to the nearby park."

The three of them arrived at the man-made lake in the park and sat down on a long bench.

Wu Bin said, "Mr. Liang, we are here today mainly to ask about your impression of Boss Pei."

Before this, Wu Bin had already reached out to Liang Qingfan over the phone. Thus, both men were prepared for today's interview.

Liang Qingfan gazed at the subtle ripples in the lake, feeling sorrowful. "Honestly, at this moment, I don't understand Boss Pei at all."

Wu Bin smiled. "It's alright, that's normal. If Boss Pei were so easy to understand, he would not be called Boss Pei.

"We want to interview different people to collect as different groups of people's impressions of Boss Pei as possible. After that, we want to bring all of those impressions together to get a full and complete picture.

"We also interviewed Boss Pei's business competitor and partner before this and gained a lot of insight.

"As employees of Tengda Corporation who have been working under Boss Pei for a long time, we only get to see one side of him.

"You just joined Tengda Corporation, and you have not worked with Boss Pei for very long. Your first impression of him would definitely give us a fresh perspective."

Liang Qingfan nodded. "Alright, let me explain it briefly.

"Right now, I am sure of something: With regard to certain concepts, Boss Pei is on the exact same page as me, and many other outstanding designers. In other words, Boss Pei is one who pursues the best.

"That was something I learned when we were working on the renovation of the Sloth Apartments."

Liang Qingfan briefly described how the first Sloth Apartments had been renovated and decorated. He especially emphasized how Boss Pei abandoned practicality and livability in his pursuit of what he thought was best—extreme minimalism.

"It is the same for these apartments as well.

"Boss Pei's thinking is exactly opposite of ordinary people's. When ordinary people choose apartments, they would focus on things like location and ability to appreciate. On the other hand, they would save as much as they can on renovation. After all, they would be considering renting the apartments out and not living in them.

"Yet, Boss Pei does the exact opposite. He doesn't seem to care about the apartments' location and ability to appreciate. Instead, the amount that he's spending on renovations is close to half the cost price of the apartments themselves.

"I think this is enough to show that Boss Pei's pursuit of artistry is very extreme and never-ending.

"Boss Pei loves extreme minimalism, and so he injects his own personal preferences into the Sloth Apartments project.

"Although there's a huge possibility that doing so would lead to failure, Boss Pei shows no intention of backing down. Instead, he insists on his own pursuit of extreme artistry…"

At that point, Wu Bin frowned.

Liang Qingfan keenly noticed this. Thus, he paused and waited for Wu Bin to respond.

After much consideration, Wu Bin finally said, "But… that directly conflicts the way that Boss Li describes Boss Pei.

"According to Boss Li, Boss Pei is a calm and ruthless man. He's so calm that he can address any problem objectively and logically and that allows him to make the right decisions.

"In other words, Boss Pei should be choosing extreme minimalism based on business acumen. He must think that doing this would lead to great success.

"What's more, Boss Li's conclusion is backed by different examples. It is most likely reliable."

Liang Qingfan remained silent for a while. "I think it is impossible for Sloth Apartments to achieve 'greater success'. At best, it would be a small and beautiful project that earns a reputation but not profit."

Wu Bin fell silent once again.

Both parties seemed to make sense.

Seeing that the interview had resulted in a deadlock, Cui Geng said, "Maybe… both of those impressions of Boss Pei don't conflict. Perhaps both of them are different aspects of Boss Pei that blend together perfectly in ways that we cannot see.

"It's just like how Boss Pei can always find a way to turn decay into magic and cause seemingly-impossible projects to become popular overnight."

Wu Bin nodded. "Yes… that makes sense. We can look deeper into these conflicting views…"

…

…

July 1st, Friday…

Thriller Hostel had officially been completed!

Pei Qian stood at the entrance of the old industrial zone—no, Thriller Hostel—feeling very conflicted inside.

When he visited before, the entire project was still under intense construction. There were scaffolding and various construction materials everywhere, and it looked like a full-blown construction site. Pei Qian could hardly detect any change.

Yet, now, Thriller Hostel and all of its surrounding facilities had been completed. They were ready to welcome their first customers!

Although Pei Qian had been prepared for this before, seeing it before his eyes was still a huge blow.

Only a few short months had passed, but the change was huge! This was probably the shock that an infrastructure freak would cause.

Of course, Pei Qian was only thinking this way because Boss Li and the others had completely disrupted his original plan with their antics.

Pei Qian's original plan had been to build a loss-incurring haunted house that no one would care about in the corner of a barren and run-down old industrial zone.

Yet, Boss Li and the other investors had built facilities around the haunted house and even repaired the surrounding ground. At once, the entire place looked different.

Pei Qian felt extremely uncertain.

It looked so reliable now. Would it still incur losses?

He had worked so hard over two cycles for nothing…

Pei Qian sighed and walked in.