Farming cattle, electricity, the Internet - the social attributes of entrepreneurs
(Article Brief History of Finance and Economics WeChat Official Account: caijingjianshi)
The lone warrior in academia
——A dialogue with Professor Zhang Weiying (3)
Inside the enterprise, entrepreneurs often say the same thing. Once the company grows and becomes famous, he will no longer simply be an entrepreneur of the company, and his identity will definitely be transformed into a social entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs often fail to realize this subtle change in time, ignore the social attributes of entrepreneurs, and unknowingly get involved in the storm.
- Yu Ying
Entrepreneurs make money, philanthropists spend money, and the two are both different and closely related.
- Zhang Weiying
Yu Ying asked me to talk about social entrepreneurs. I think entrepreneurs naturally belong to society. If you start a business, as long as you hire people, it will increase the number of people employed in society; even if you do it alone, it will increase taxes. In fact, the role of entrepreneurs is much more than that. Take the United States as an example.
The American Civil War ended in 1865. At that time, the United States was an agricultural country, and more than 80 percent of the population was farming. Thirty years later, in 1895, the United States became the world's largest industrial country. Who created the great changes in American society, including the change in his way of life?
In fact, there are just a few important people and just a few important industries. The first is the railway. The railway was invented by the British, but the United States has a larger territory and a larger application space. The important thing is that the United States has a railway king, Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt connected the United States from east to west and from south to north.
Next up is oil, the most important energy source to this day. At that time, the lighting was mainly based on whale oil, and the poor could not afford to light the lamp. Therefore, the poor have to sleep at night. In summer, it is better. When winter comes, people who live farther north go to bed earlier, because the sun goes out early. Then came the oil, and the fundamental change took place.
The advent of oil had a lot to do with Rockefeller. Rockefeller was either a rich man or an ordinary man, but he was full of fantasies and wanted to illuminate every family. As a result, he devoted himself to it, mining and refining oil, and eventually became the oil king. Not only fulfilled the desire to illuminate every home, but other application values and importance of oil were later known to everyone.
Next, let's talk about steel. At that time there was not much steel, and steel was a very precious material. When it comes to steel, we have to talk about Carnegie. Carnegie was a child laborer, a Scottish immigrant, immigrated to the United States at the age of 8, and worked part-time to deliver telegrams at the age of 12. His boss, Scott, values him and uses him.
Scott ran the railroad, an important business at the time was the transportation of oil. However, Rockefeller felt that the cost of transporting oil by rail was high, and he wanted to reduce the cost of transporting oil in an all-round way, so he began to lay pipelines. As a result, the railway company went bankrupt and Scott died of depression.
Carnegie was outraged and determined to avenge his boss. So he's been competing with Rockefeller all his life. Instead of competing on oil, he switched from railroads to steel.
Scott had envisioned building a 1.6-kilometer bridge across the Mississippi River, a bridge that had not been built at the time. Carnegie bravely accepted the challenge. The construction of the super-long bridge forced Carnegie to look for new materials, so he thought of steel. But steel production is low and expensive, so he spent a lot of time investigating. Emperor Carnegie did not give up his hard work. When Carnegie inspected the United Kingdom, he discovered a low-cost steel-making technology, and he decisively bought the technology patent.
Despite the difficulties of construction delays and lack of funds, Carnegie successfully raised funds and completed the bridge in four years. The success of building the bridge made Carnegie further see the potential of steel. He received a large order for steel transformation from the railway, and successfully raised funds to establish his own steel mill. He himself became the king of steel.
Let's talk about electricity. At that time, many households used kerosene for lighting, and the smell was very strong. Edison wanted electric lights to light up America, odorless and safe. Edison wanted to invest in JP. Morgan (John Pierpont Morgan). JP. Morgan took a fancy to the project with his imagination, but JP. Morgan's father firmly opposed the idea, thinking that they were both fools, and many people were waiting to see their jokes. Not long after, JP. Morgan's father died in a car accident, and JP. Morgan got his wish.
JP. Morgan saw an opportunity to change the world by imagination. He invested the equivalent of today's $83 million to establish the Edison Electric Lighting Company. They built the world's first central power station and a super-large generator in Manhattan, and laid 160,000 kilometers of power lines, which connected hundreds of homes and businesses in New York. He asked Edison to install a generator for his mansion on Fifth Avenue, and installed more than 400 electric lights up and down. Electric lights became standard in the homes of successful people, and a new era emerged.
And everyone knows the experience of the car king Ford. Their stories illustrate that it was the imaginations of these people who created America as a mighty nation and influenced the entire world.
Yu Ying's "social entrepreneur" may have another meaning. I would say that entrepreneurs make money, philanthropists spend money. The two are both different and closely related.
Many entrepreneurs donate hard after they make money. Take Rockefeller and Carnegie as an example. In the first half of their lives, they competed to see who made more money and who was the richest man. If you donate to the university, I will also donate to the university. If you donate to the library, I will donate to the theater and concert hall. The famous Union Hospital in China was founded by the Rockefeller Foundation. In the end, Rockefeller donated more money because Carnegie died early, and Rockefeller lived another 18 years after his death.
China is the same. Great changes have taken place in China in the past 40 years, and the innovation of Chinese entrepreneurs is also changing China. Of course, without the reform and opening up brought about by politicians like Deng Xiaoping, it is impossible for Chinese entrepreneurs to grow up, and the entrepreneurial spirit cannot be brought into play.
——Please pay attention to the dialogue series (4) from arbitrage to innovation
[Follow the Brief History of Finance and Economics WeChat Official Account to watch the wonderful dialogues in the past]
Dialogue with Professor Zhang Weiying (1) Imagination is more important than knowledge
Dialogue with Professor Zhang Weiying (2) Entrepreneurs - the fate of success and failure
