Work instead of being a boss

Chapter 8
During his entrepreneurship, Carnegie established his own steel kingdom through continuous expansion and annexation.When someone asked him what is the secret of entrepreneurship, he said without hesitation: "That is to constantly realize self-worth, and the pursuit of business profits is second." This kind of value orientation is very important for managers. very important.The ups and downs of profit and loss are necessary for the report and evaluation of stock market quotations, but they are not crucial for a certain project.This is especially true for private companies.More money doesn't really mean anything.Hurt, a senior expert of the famous American General Motors Manufacturing Company, once said such an intriguing sentence: "In a private company, the pursuit of profit is not the main purpose, but the important thing is how to use the money in hand."

There is a story that persuades people to manage their money well:

A great landowner one day entrusted his property to three servants for safekeeping and use:

He gave [-] coins to the first servant, [-] coins to the second servant, and [-] coin to the third servant.The landlord told them to cherish and manage their wealth well.Wait a year to see what they do with their money.The first servant took the money and invested it in various ways; the second servant bought the raw materials and made goods to sell; the third servant buried his money under a tree for safety.A year later, the landlord recalled three servants to inspect the results. The wealth managed by the first and second servants both doubled, and the landlord was very pleased.Only the third servant, whose money had not increased at all, explained to his master, "Keep the money in a safe place for fear of being lost by misuse. Return it unopened today."

The landlord was furious and scolded: "You stupid servant, you don't make good use of your wealth!"

The third servant is blamed, not because he misused the money, nor because he failed to invest it and suffered losses, but because he kept the money in a safe place and did not put it to good use at all.Depositing money in a bank is the most common way for Chinese people to invest and manage their finances, and it is also the biggest mistake made by corporate finances.Therefore, this book is here to provide readers with the first and most important financial management rule: don't keep money in the bank.

Most people think that depositing money in the bank can earn interest and enjoy compound interest. In this way, it is considered that the money has been properly arranged and the responsibility of financial management has been fulfilled.In fact, under the erosion of inflation, the real rate of return on interest is close to zero, which means that there is no financial management. Therefore, keeping money in the bank is equivalent to no financial management.

How much wealth each person will end up with is difficult to predict in advance. The only thing that can be determined is that it is extremely difficult to get rich by depositing money in the bank. Let me ask: "Have you ever heard of someone who became rich only by depositing in the bank? "It's not uncommon to hear people who put all their savings in the bank not only fail to become rich in old age, but often fail to achieve a level of financial independence.People who choose bank deposits as their financial management method focus on safety, but "money in the bank is the safest in the short term, but it is the most dangerous financial management method in the long run."

The poor think that the rich get rich because the rich get lucky or engage in shady or illegal trades.The correct view should be to attribute the reason why the rich get rich to the fact that the rich work harder than us or are more diligent and frugal than us.But these people never imagined that what really caused their poor wealth was their financial management habits.The financial management methods of the poor and the rich are definitely different. The property of the rich is stored in the form of real estate and stocks, while the property of the poor is stored in the form of savings.

From the perspective of Jewish businessmen, if investors want to join the forest of wealth management, they must be able to get rid of traditional thinking in their thinking mode.

There was an adult who didn't know how to ride a bicycle. He saw a child riding a bicycle and complained, "A child can only ride a bicycle with agility." Unexpectedly, the child retorted: "You don't have to be agile to ride a bicycle." .” So the child taught the adult to ride a bicycle.After the adult said goodbye to the child happily, he habitually pushed the car and walked home.

This is the power of traditional habits, and this adult cannot get rid of it.

Integrity, with gold content
The biggest pain in doing business is not being believed.Therefore, winning the trust of others is the most important thing in life.How can I win people's trust?As we mentioned earlier, honesty comes first, which is the minimum requirement to win the trust of others.During their business travels, the Jews suffered some unreasonable blows and discrimination, and encountered countless well-designed lies or traps, but they insisted on such a belief: abide by the agreement and be honest.

In the business world, they have a deeper understanding: gaining the trust of others is the basis for the successful completion of the transaction.The Jews abide by the contract, but they don't sign written contracts uniformly. They often only make informal promises verbally and non-written agreements. As long as both parties accept them, they will do things in accordance with the agreement. The Jews This virtue of keeping promises has earned them a good reputation.

In specific business transactions, the Jewish classic "Talmud" stipulates many rules, strictly prohibiting those deceptive marketing or publicity methods.For example: you can’t deliberately dress up slaves to make them look younger and stronger, let alone paint livestock to deceive customers; and the owner of the goods has the obligation to fully and objectively introduce the quality of the goods sold to customers. If there is a problem that has not been explained in advance, you have the right to request a return; and in terms of pricing, although there was no standard unified price at that time, both parties need to negotiate a reasonable price. Therefore, if the seller deceives the buyer by ignoring the market and makes the agreed price more than [-]% higher than the normal level, the transaction is stipulated to be invalid.

Jewish businessmen never do "one-shot deals", and the idea of ​​"as long as everyone is fooled once, I can get rich" is undoubtedly self-defeating in their eyes.It stands to reason that the Jews do not have their own homeland and are driven around by people, so it is easy to form short-term strategies and rogue tactics of "shoot once and change places" in the business field and even in interactions with people. There are very few such bad records, and they have a good reputation. The goods or services they operate are also high-quality products, and they never shoddy.Why?This is not only because of the cultural background of Jewish businessmen and their tradition of keeping promises, but also because of the true way of doing business that their people have realized in the combination of their fluid living conditions and the laws of commercial activities.

In the UK, the most famous department store is "Marks-Spencer Department Store", which was founded by a pair of brothers-in-law, Simon Marks and Israel Sif.

Simon's father, Michel, immigrated to the UK from Russia in [-]. He was a peddler at first, and later opened a shop in Leeds Market, which later developed into a chain of cheap stores. The chain store has further developed into a chain of cheap shopping malls with stronger funds, more complete goods, and functions similar to supermarkets.

Marks & Spencer Department Store, although it is characterized by cheapness, pays great attention to quality and truly achieves "low price and good quality".Originally, different social classes could be distinguished from people's clothes, but because the Marks-Spencer department store provided well-made clothes at low prices, people could dress like a gentleman or a lady with little money. The value concept of judging people by their appearance has also been fundamentally shaken.In England, the company's trademark "St. Michel" became a mark of quality, and a "St. Michel" brand shirt was the best quality merchandise that could be bought at the lowest possible price.

Marks - Spencer department store not only provides customers with satisfactory products, but also provides the best service.The company's salespersons are polite and thoughtful, which has become a model in Britain, which is known for its politeness.When Simon and Sif select their employees, they are as meticulous as they are selecting the products they deal in, which really makes the company a "shopper's paradise".

Simon and Sif satisfy their employees as well as their customers.They have extremely high requirements for their employees, but the working conditions they provide are among the best in the industry, and their wages are also the highest. They also set up health care and dental clinics for their employees. Due to all these advantages, Max- Spencer's Department Store has been called "a private welfare state".

Simon and Schiff are so thoughtful about customers and employees, how is the company doing?
Marks & Spencer is generally considered to be the most profitable enterprise in the same industry in the country and has attracted a large number of investors.The Sears Roebuck department store in the United States, which is the same department store retailer as the Marks-Spencer department store, also adopts the same business purpose. Apply to the whole society, and achieve harmonious coexistence with the whole society.

Julius Rosenwald, the son of a German immigrant who had worked in his uncle's department store, had become president of Sears Roebuck through investment.Later, when Cyrus Roebuck raised money, he invested $[-], accounting for about [-]/[-] of the total financing, and joined the company's board of directors.

Roebuck's department store has become one of the largest enterprises in the United States, with an annual revenue of [-] million US dollars.Rosenwall also takes cheap and high quality as its business purpose.Many of the products sold by the company are produced by the enterprise group itself, so the cost can be reduced and the quality can be guaranteed, but the real capital of Sears Roebuck department store is a rule made by Rosenwald: If you are not satisfied, you can return it.The truest expression of the highest commercial morality, which is now advertised in many shops, was then unheard of.Rosenwald was probably the first person to raise his business reputation to such heights.

Sears Roebuck department store has been widely welcomed by consumers for its product quality, price, reputation, and accurate forecast of the market. The company's product catalog has issued [-] million copies before Rosenwald's death. It can be seen in almost every American family.Observers believe that this serially published catalog almost constitutes a social history of the United States, from which the development of American aesthetic tastes and desires can be observed, and a considerable part of this development is predicted by Sears Roebuck To, even made.

Sears Roebuck was doing well and making huge profits.Rosenwald invested US$[-], and after [-] years of hard work, his assets reached US$[-] million.Backed by deep pockets, Rosenwald invests extensively in philanthropy.

Jewish businessmen firmly believe in the belief that wherever Jews live, they should take root.

They not only have a good reputation in business, but also live in harmony with non-Jews, and even try their best to help and shelter Jewish compatriots or non-Jews. They believe that only by treating each other with integrity and winning the trust of others, can Jews make real friends instead of making enemies on all sides. .

Unique sense of business

There are thousands of means in commercial warfare, but all great achievements are achieved by superhuman courage. The world-famous aircraft king Hughes made his dream come true with his superhuman courage.

In June [-], the United States' unmanned spacecraft landed on the moon for the first time, and the world was in an uproar.Landing on the moon has been a myth of mankind since ancient times, and it is now being realized.The manufacturer of this spacecraft is the Hughes Aircraft Manufacturing Company.

The name of Howard Hughes is as well-known in the United States as Washington and Lincoln.Because he is one of the few rich men in the United States who enjoys world prestige, he is a hero in the eyes of Americans.His life can be described as vigorous, full of adventure and excitement.His assets are [-] billion U.S. dollars. In his later years, he lived in seclusion, his whereabouts were unpredictable, and he no longer appeared in public.

When Hughes was [-], his mother died of a medical accident.Two years later, Hughes Sr. also passed away, leaving assets of about $[-].

Hughes, who was only [-] years old, got a bank loan four months after his father died, bought the part of the estate inherited by relatives and friends with cash, became the sole owner of Hughes Company, and succeeded the company's director long.

The young Hughes was very interested in movies, but his first step into the film industry was a bad start, and this made him even more persistent.

Howard Hughes loved flying airplanes.Once, when he was flying in the sky in a private jet controlled by one person, he had a whim: wouldn't it be very popular to make a film showing aerial combat?He thought of World War I in [-], when Lieutenant Colonel Danin of the British Air Force led several Sopeitz Camel fighter jets, took off from the battleship, and bombed the German Air Force Base in Donderen.It was an extremely successful transoceanic bombing. The British army lost only one plane and sank two enemy ships and two airships.Hughes decided to put this air battle on the screen.At that time, the film stunts showing aerial combat had not yet appeared. He planned to use real aircraft to make an aerial combat film that was more exciting and spectacular than actual combat. The title of the film was "Hell's Angels".

In order to make this movie, he spent 100 million US dollars on the use of aircraft alone, and rented dozens of aircraft, including French Spartan fighter jets, British SE[-] fighter jets, Camel bombers, German Fokker fighter jets, and more. There are more than [-] pilots and [-] extras; the number of photographers is as large as almost half of the total number of Hollywood photographers.The American film industry was amazed.

Hughes is very fascinated by airplanes. After filming "Hell's Angels", he once participated in a short-distance flight competition in the United States. Hughes won the championship with a speed of [-] kilometers per hour.But he is not satisfied with such achievements, he is determined to break the world record.

In [-], American pilot Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean in [-] hours and [-] minutes, which caused a sensation all over the world and was called "the hero of the century" by the Americans.In order to break the record set by Lindbergh, Hughes began to devote himself to the development of new aircraft. He had two excellent aircraft designers: Otikak and Palmer.They named the future aircraft the H[-].Otikak is a mechanical engineer and also has a passion for flying.Otikak had many bold ideas for building new types of aircraft. For Hughes, who was crazy about speed, he was a rare talent.In that secret aircraft factory, they continuously improved the shape of the aircraft, selected the best performing [-]-horsepower Pratt & Whitney engine, and spent a year and three months finally manufacturing the fuselage. An H[-] monoplane with a length of [-] meters and a wing length of [-] meters.Because the fuselage is very short, no one knows how long it can fly in the air, and the test pilots dare not fly the plane, so Hughes decided to test it himself.

On September [-], [-], when all work preparations stopped, the sun had already set to the west.The referee technician in charge of the speed test suggested flying again tomorrow.Because it was close to dusk and the flying backlight was dazzling, I was afraid of problems.Hughes couldn't wait any longer. He had already put on his flight suit, jumped into the cabin, started the engine of the plane, and the plane slowly flew into the blue sky.

The first test speed reached [-] kilometers per hour.The referee technician told him by radio: This time is not counted, because it violated the rules of the aviation association and did not make a level flight.So Hughes circled in the air and made a second horizontal flight.

"The world record, the speed has reached [-] kilometers per hour!" The referee's voice came through the earphones.Excited, Hughes didn't land immediately, but continued to fly, and wanted to set a new world record.

The third time was only [-] kilometers.He is not reconciled, fly again!
"[-] kilometers." Another new world record!
Still unwilling to stop, Hughes continued to fly again and again... Suddenly, the engine stopped working.

(End of this chapter)