Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 71 3 "A sage does his belly but not his eyes", corporate citizens must be moral
Don't be confused by external objects, stick to the principles in your heart.

A sage's belly is not his eyes - "Tao Te Ching" Chapter 12

Laozi believes that colorful colors will damage the eyes; complicated sounds will damage the ears; rich food will spoil the taste; galloping and hunting will make people crazy; precious objects will tempt people to do bad things.Therefore, the sage gives up the way of enjoyment pursued by others, and maintains inner peace and happiness. The "belly" does not refer to the desire for food and drink, but refers to the inner self; the "eye" refers to the outer self or the sensory world.

Entrepreneurs are divided into two types: one is for "goal", for making money, for famous cars and mansions, for front and back; the other is for "belly", for inner sense of accomplishment, to realize life value, to let This society is better.The former type of entrepreneurs will show their "profit-seeking" nature, and even blatantly say that "it is the greatest immorality for a company not to make money"; "To operate.The latter is obviously more worthy of praise. Such entrepreneurs and the enterprises they lead are the pillars of modern business civilization.

It is Niu Gensheng who has always taken "Small victories rely on wisdom, and great victories rely on virtue" as his label. Together with Wang Shi and Pan Shiyi, he was voted "the most scolding person in 2008" by netizens.In fact, Lao Niu is still a little wronged. Compared with Sanlu, he is not a heinous sinner.And in this great shame and crisis, China's dairy industry, the world's dairy industry, dairy products, and even some daily crops have all been involved. Husband, Mars, Cadbury, Lotte and other international brands.However, Mengniu and Niu Gensheng received the most special "treatment": the most widespread attention, the deepest accusation and the greatest infamy.

Because his previous image in the hearts of the public was too high, he was a generation of idol entrepreneurs full of responsibility, especially his comments in "Win in China" won him many loyal "fans".So after Mengniu was found to contain melamine, Niu Gensheng's bright image was instantly destroyed due to the large gap between the front and the back.And his advertisement about "a catty of milk a day makes Chinese strong" was angrily changed by netizens to "a catty of milk a day poisons Chinese to death".

From another perspective, although the melamine incident is unforgivable, it reflects the overall decline of my country's manufacturing industry.Looking at the development of our country in the past few years, stock prices rose in 2006 and property prices rose, and they reached their peak in 2007.The root cause of this kind of bubble is not the overheating of the economy, but the recession of the manufacturing industry, the rise of the exchange rate, and the rise of costs, which make the profits of entrepreneurs investing in the manufacturing industry meager, so that a large amount of capital flows into these two industries.The hard-working entrepreneurs, faced with the plight of rising raw materials, could not raise retail prices, so they had to cut corners.

The general trend of low profits in the industry is unavoidable, but if the principle of being absolutely untouchable is touched because of interests, it will only bring greater disasters.Faced with many victims, entrepreneurs are always to blame.Some principles must be adhered to, and Shi Yuzhu is an example.Many years ago, Shi Yuzhu became the "leader" overnight, owed hundreds of millions of dollars, and was so poor that he even had no money to sue, but even under such circumstances, he still vowed: "Even if the giant Bankruptcy, I personally have to pay back the money of the common people.” This sentence was overwhelmed by various voices from the outside world at the time, because no one believed that Shi Yuzhu could still afford to pay back the money.Moreover, under the circumstances at that time, my country's legal system was not yet perfect, and the company law had not yet been promulgated. If he was asked to take advantage of legal loopholes, no one could do anything about him.

But Shi Yuzhu stuck to his principles. The biggest purpose of his second rush to start a business was to repay the money and pay off the 1.5 million old debts.He told his subordinates that our biggest goal is to pay back the money, and the people’s money must be paid back. I am not too old now, and I want to do something more. I don’t want to bear this stain, unless I am willing to be a a small boss.

Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi also admired Shi Yuzhu's debt repayment behavior. He said: "When he (Shi Yuzhu) made his first bucket of gold from melatonin, he was busy paying back the debt. I was very concerned about this at the time. I really agree, and I feel that it is not easy. People who have stumbled, even hungry, know how precious money is. After getting this money, they still think of paying off the debt that should be paid first, and then start again . I think he has the potential to do great things."

If Shi Yuzhu started his business with his stigma behind his back, no one would take a liking to him, and everyone would say: "This man has ruined the company, and he won't pay back the money owed to the people." It is impossible to make the company bigger in this way.Because when a company needs cooperation to grow bigger, people will be afraid of him if they know that he will not pay back the money he lost, and they will be even less willing to help him.Shi Yuzhu repaid the debt. On the surface, he lost more than 1 million yuan, but he was rewarded with more than 1 million yuan.Because this kind of responsibility and credit not only wins the trust of subordinates, but also wins the trust of collaborators, and can find partners more easily.Now Shi Yuzhu's company borrows from the bank, and the bank doesn't need them as collateral at all.They said that as long as Shi Yuzhu was around and signed by Shi Yuzhu, they could give them a loan.

Principles are the bottom line that an entrepreneur must stick to. This is the foundation of every entrepreneur's career.Shi Yuzhu rose up with the principle of paying back the money.Niu Gensheng has also learned a lot of lessons after experiencing the unforgettable memory of being almost acquired this time, and his Mengniu has also begun to come back to life.A lesson from the past, a teacher from behind.In this world flattened by the Internet, everyone's actions are open and transparent, especially the high-profile entrepreneurs.Only by sincerely "serving the belly, not the purpose" and sticking to the moral bottom line of the enterprise, can your "corporate citizen" become more and more famous and powerful.

(End of this chapter)