Why Start Another Business?

Recently, I’ve been asked quite a few times why I’m starting another business. Summing it up, I think there are two main reasons:

1. I enjoy the current work and the team. Starting another business allows me to be happier, or rather, more fulfilled.
2. I still have some ambitions, and some abilities and energy that haven’t been fully utilized. I have a hunch that the current opportunity could allow me to create something with a broader impact and a stronger sense of personal accomplishment.

Ultimately, this second point is actually part of the first. Starting another business makes me happier, and of course, I also hope that it can bring a little more happiness to the people around me, and even to more people I don’t know.

Of course, I know I can’t make everyone happy or make everyone like me. That’s not my goal. Especially with this current venture, it’s much more socially connected, involving more people than my previous ventures. This means I’ll inevitably have to face some less happy things and some people who don’t like me. But coming back to my core, I hope that every day I can face myself honestly, feel at peace, and feel that I’ve done my best. If I can gradually develop the ability of selective memory—remembering the happy things and forgetting the anxieties and sorrows—that would be even better : )

A while ago, I was interviewed by Mr. Li Zhigang, and he asked me quite a few questions related to entrepreneurship. Mr. Li’s writing is much better than my own, so I’ll “borrow” a few excerpts here as a further answer to why I’m starting another business.

Li Zhigang: What do you think you’re doing entrepreneurship for?

Huang Zheng: In the beginning, because of the education I received since I was young, I felt that entrepreneurship was a good thing, so I wanted to start a business from the very beginning. The initial idea was to build a company that could make money, and at the same time, I could become more successful. Before starting Pinduoduo, I had nine or ten months of rest at home, and I reflected more on life. That is, the most important thing for a person living is to pursue personal happiness. I found two things that bring me a deep sense of happiness:

The first is deeply working with a group of like-minded partners to overcome obstacles and create something. This process truly brings me happiness—laughing and crying together, overcoming difficulties together. The feeling of the team is the same as the feeling of a family. I enjoy this process, and I look forward to a bright future for everyone. That’s one aspect.

The other aspect is that, for Pinduoduo, I hope to do something with a greater social impact compared to what I’ve done before—something that is useful to myself and also useful to others, that can to some extent promote the occurrence of good money driving out bad money. I used to give an example to my colleagues: why did melamine appear in milk? Its essence is actually a process of consumer pressure. It’s bad money driving out good money. Because in the beginning, there must have been a large number of dairy factories that didn’t use melamine, but they all went out of business.

I think in the whole Chinese business landscape—not just China, but the world as well—some cycles are about bad money driving out good money. Today, with what we’re doing with fruit, I think we have a little chance to create a situation where those fruits that aren’t naturally ripened and go into cold storage in large quantities have a disadvantage. To some extent, we’re creating a situation where those fruits that are naturally ripened, use fewer pesticides, or don’t use pesticides at all, can instead sell at higher prices. I think this is something with social value; it’s like I’m making a contribution to society.

Li Zhigang: How would you evaluate your team?

Huang Zheng: The analogy I use with my team is that life is a process. We’re like migrant workers coming to Shanghai to work. When I first started, my skill level was low, so I carried bricks. Later, I washed dishes. After washing dishes, I became a cook. After becoming a good cook, I opened a restaurant. Our process is like this. It doesn’t mean that what I did before has no connection to what I’m doing now. Even one day when I open a restaurant, I will go back and wash dishes, I will go back and be a cook. Everything is connected. So you see our team today; Pinduoduo looks like a new company, but you see that everyone is a veteran who has been starting businesses for many years.

Li Zhigang: What is your future dream?

Huang Zheng: Our team is probably 20 years behind Alibaba’s team. I think we might have a chance, with new forms of traffic distribution, new forms of user interaction, and new internationalization, to create a different kind of Alibaba. Of course, this might seem too ambitious right now, but taking it step by step, there might be a chance. It’s not just a dream; I’ve also analyzed it. First, if you look, the form of the entire e-commerce market is actually undergoing many changes. The form of Alibaba’s success today might not be the form of success tomorrow, but people’s needs still exist and will be further amplified, so the potential market is huge. Second, the older generation will always get old. The younger generation, or those of us who are gradually entering middle age, will always reach that stage. If it’s not me, it will be some other people of my age. So what I should do is have a normal mindset, steadily and practically do what I should do, and strive to become the most reliable one among my generation.