Rebirth: My 80s

Chapter 925: Seven Captures and Seven Releases, the Collapse of the World's Richest Man
Li Jiankun leaned lazily on the sofa, flipping through a business plan casually.

Sun Zhenyi stood beside him, hunched over, feeling a little nervous. It wasn't that he lacked confidence in his business plan, but he was worried that the other party would find an excuse to not give him the money...

Who knows if what he said that day was just an angry remark?
Regardless of whether his budget is enough for him, his purchasing power is still quite good compared with the society.

In fact, normally speaking, the richer people are, the less likely they are to spend money recklessly. They have clear goals and it’s a habit. When they spend money, they must create value.

It is a bit unreasonable to throw money at someone to start a business, and then be certain that he will fail and then wait and see.

At this age, Sun Zhenyi does not have a clear understanding of his own value, at most he is conceited.

Li Jiankun wanted to laugh but it was not funny, thinking that history had not deceived him:
"Publish a magazine?"

Sun Zhenyi nodded seriously and said:
"I was in the software wholesale business before, and the idea for this business plan came from the experience I learned from failure."

He paused and stared at Li Jiankun:
"I believe you will not doubt that something smarter than the human brain will definitely have a future, right?"

Li Jiankun shrugged: "So?"

Sun Zhenyi continued: "The reason why my software wholesale business failed is that the user group is too small and computers are far from popular.

“But in the process of running the business, I found that people were actually very interested in new things like computers.

“So I thought that if I could create a computer magazine that was popular and fresh, it would be a big seller.

"At the same time, this will lay a good foundation for my future career."

In Sun Zhenyi's view, this is a very good business plan.

Even Kitahara Sosuke and Yoshino Hideshi said that after trying, it was too early to start a software business and advised him to step back.

Sun Zhenyi didn't say one more thing: This move will be of great benefit to the development of the information age and the entire society.

It's a great plan.

He is confident and enthusiastic.

Snapped!
Li Jiankun put the business plan on the glass coffee table, curled his lips and said, "You will fail."

Although Sun Zhenyi didn't fight back, his expression showed his dissatisfaction. He thought, are you looking for an excuse?
"The budget is five hundred thousand dollars, right?"

Sun Zhenyi nodded.

"I'll give you a million dollars with one request: hurry up! I don't have that much time to play with you."

Sun Zhenyi opened his eyes wide. There was something he dared not say out loud. He thought, is this guy sick?
In addition to being shocked, he was also very excited: "Don't worry, with such sufficient funds, the speed will be very fast!"

It is not difficult to publish a computer magazine. This area is almost blank in the market, and he has plenty of materials.

It's nothing more than finding a printing company to do the typeset, printing, packaging... and produce the product.

Then market and bring it to market.

In fact, his budget of $500,000 was already more than enough.

A million dollars...keeping it is like riding a rocket.

……

……

In his previous life, Peter Clark, head of Cisco's business unit, once commented on Sun Zhenyi:

"He is not like the slow-paced Japanese, but more like a man of action."

half a month later.

The professional computer magazine "Oh! PC" founded by Sun Zhenyi was launched.

While the company was producing the product, he had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising.

He has always believed that marketing is the top priority for any project involving product sales.

In addition, although the earlier software wholesale business did not succeed, it was not in vain after all. He had business dealings with 42 Japanese benzene stores and 94 software practitioners.

This is a ready-made sales network.

On the day when Oh! PC was released, Sun Zhenyi carefully prepared an ordering meeting at the office of the rented SoftBank.

The business partners were very gracious and almost all of them attended.

This is closely related to the fact that although he failed in business, he took on all the debts by himself and did not let any of his partners lose money. This has accumulated a good reputation for him.

The atmosphere of the ordering meeting was lively.

Dealers were eager to purchase goods.

The first batch of 50,000 magazines prepared by Sun Zhenyi were sold out in less than two hours.

This made Sun Zhenyi very excited. That night, he took a few company employees to hold a team-building event. He drank two more cups of wine. At the table, he was a little unconvinced and said something that confused the employees:
"I admit that he is a rare genius."

“But no one can be right all the time.”

"He runs a big business, so it's normal for him to look down on small businesses, but he may not understand small businesses."

"What does it mean that dealers are so enthusiastic about placing orders? Everyone is optimistic about Oh! PC. How can the vision of so many industry insiders not be as good as that of an outsider like him?"

"He is too proud. But I can understand that. He is young, haha..."

The next day, Sun Zhenyi stayed in the company. In addition to arranging work and asking employees to continue planning activities or running errands in the market, he patiently waited until dusk.

He didn't eat well all day, but he didn't feel hungry at all. He was excited. He sat at the wooden table in the simple office and started calling dealers one by one:

"Hello, Akiyama-kun. May I ask how the sales of Oh! PC are going today?"

"Alas, it's not ideal. Many people read it, but few bought it. Only two copies were sold."

"what?"

The smile on Sun Zhenyi's face froze.

...

"Hoshino-kun, are you ready to get off work? You've worked hard. I want to ask how the sales of Oh! PC are going today?"

"Please don't mention it. Only one copy was sold..."

"what?!"

The corner of Sun Zhenyi's mouth twitched.

...

"Ms. Xue Na, hello, you are tired after working all day. I want to ask how the magazine sales are going at your place today?"

"Oh, Mr. Zhenyi, this thing is not selling well at all. No one is interested in it. I haven't sold a single copy all day. I got a thousand copies and filled up an entire shelf. It seems I have to remove them... Eh? Are you offline, Mr. Zhenyi, are you listening to me?"

Sun Zhenyi's forehead was covered with sweat and his face was pale.

……

……

Li Jiankun looked at Sun Zhenyi, who looked tired and had bloodshot eyes, as if he hadn't slept for a month.

So he said to Lao Sun: "Give him a cup of coffee to wake him up."

Soon, Lao Sun called a female staff member and brought two cups of coffee.

Sun Zhenyi took the cup behind and said thank you.

He didn't drink the coffee. He gently placed the cup on the glass coffee table and looked up at Li Jiankun:

"Mr. Li, I owe you this money. I will pay it back no matter what. Please give me some time."

Li Jiankun looked him up and down: "You seem very unwilling."

Sun Zhenyi: "I made two mistakes."

"Oh?"

“First, I didn’t identify my customer base correctly, and the magazine design, especially the cover, lacked appeal;

"Second, I ignored the fact that the general public knew almost nothing about computers. The contents of the magazine were too profound for them."

Li Jiankun followed up his question and asked:

"So if there is still a chance, what are you going to do?"

Sun Zhenyi stared at him in surprise for a while, and then a gleam of light flashed in his cloudy eyes. He spoke louder and faster:

“I plan to start another magazine and position my customers well—young people with higher education. I will simplify the content of the magazine and make it truly popular science, at least in the early stages.

"Also, I have a very good idea."

Sun Zhenyi became more and more excited as he spoke. He originally wanted to use the word "incomparable" to describe it, and did not care at all about leaking his ideas to Li Jiankun.

It's impossible for others to steal his ideas.

A boss of this level simply disdains to do such a small business.

Li Jiankun raised his hand casually, motioning him to continue.

Sun Zhenyi's eyes sparkled:
“I plan to create a new fashion that will not only make young people accept my magazine, but also let them use reading my magazine to show off their identity as a new kind of human being.

"For young people who are outspoken and unique, they will not miss this new fashion.

“This magazine will definitely be a bestseller!”

Li Jiankun asked a few more questions, and after understanding his general idea, he poured cold water on him mercilessly:

“You’ll still fail.”

Sun Zhenyi: “???”

He doesn't believe it!
He believed that he had learned from all the failures in this area.

No matter from which angle he envisioned the magazine in his mind, there was no possibility that it would not be popular in the market.

Li Jiankun showed a playful smile: "I look forward to you appearing in front of me in an even more miserable state next time. A mere one million US dollars will make me happier than earning this money.

"Come on, continue."

No matter how Sun Zhenyi wanted to scold him in his heart, his face was full of excitement: "Okay! This time, I will definitely not let you down!"

He emphasized the word "disappointment".

Li Jiankun: "Haha."

……

……

In the same month, another magazine founded by Sun Zhenyi, Oh! MZ, was published.

"MZ" is still a very advanced concept in this era.

In later generations in Japan and South Korea, it will become a common term.

They usually call people born between 1981 and 1994 "Generation M".

People born between 1995 and 2004 are called "Generation Z".

The characteristics of the MZ population are that they have lived in an environment filled with digital products since childhood and are proficient in using electronic technology, information technology, motorized devices, etc.

This is the new fashion that Sun Zhenyi wants to create.

Therefore, the overall design of the magazine "Oh! MZ" is more youthful, and its content is not limited to popular science computer knowledge, but also includes some electronic digital related information.

Except for the different products, Sun Zhenyi adopted the same approach in marketing for this magazine.

"Oh! MZ" soon appeared in many Japanese books and magazines, as well as electronic product stores.

The sales volume is... touching.

On the first day, a total of 1,112 copies were sold in Tokyo.

The next day, eight hundred and seventy-four volumes.

Day three, five hundred and twenty-two volumes.

Day 4, two hundred...

At the end of the month, dealers returned a large number of magazines, including both magazines, with a return rate of up to 85 percent.

The office space that SoftBank currently rents is just the third floor of an old and run-down office building, covering an area of ​​no more than 200 square meters. There is simply no room to store so many magazines.

Now, standing at the door of the operating room of a scrap recycling station, watching brand new magazines being put into the huge machine and crushed into pieces of paper by the sharp blades, what is bleeding in Sun Zhenyi's heart is not his heart, but his soul.

He failed again.

The creative idea that I thought was perfect after careful consideration failed miserably again.

Mr. Li hit the nail on the head.

why?
……

……

Li Jiankun looked at Sun Zhenyi, who seemed to have lost his soul.

I know that just casually saying "you will fail" is not enough to convince this stubborn guy.

Sun Zhenyi's main purpose for coming here today must be to seek an answer.

Li Jiankun sat on the sofa with his legs crossed and said slowly:
“I won’t go into details about the failure of the first Oh! PC magazine, as you yourself are aware of the problem.

"The second Oh!MZ magazine... I can only say that you have a wild imagination.

“Admittedly, your concept is good and the idea is great if it can be implemented.

"The problem is, trying to educate a young group just through a brand new magazine is just a pipe dream."

Li Jiankun lit up a Seven Star cigarette and slowly exhaled a puff of white smoke:
“Looking at society as a whole, no matter what kind of fashion or trend is formed, it is inseparable from two characteristics:
“1. Chance. For example, bell-bottom pants, which were born out of sailor work clothes, no one had expected that they would be so popular among young people in later generations.

"2. Create a strong momentum. A fashion can indeed be created, but if there is no chance involved, it requires a huge investment, which may include overwhelming advertising and a long time." Li Jiankun paused, looked at Sun Zhenyi and asked:
“Where do so-called luxury brands come from?”

Sun Zhenyi opened his eyes wide; these words were like enlightenment to him.

A miserable smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. The reason for his failure, which he had been racking his brains to figure out, was revealed to him without him even thinking.

The gap is too big.

Although they are of the same age, he and Mr. Li are like fireflies to the bright moon in terms of wisdom and business acumen.

Is he too weak?
No, he earned two million US dollars while he was still in college and founded a company. After returning to Japan, he exchanged the money with his partners and earned another two million US dollars.

Almost everyone praised him as a business genius.

But the opponent is too strong!

Even a genius cannot win every battle, but Mr. Li seems to never fail.

Not like humans...

Sun Zhenyi blushed and said, "The money from these two failed business ventures, plus the 2 billion yen, are all owed to you. I will -"

"Yoyo, you don't believe in evil, right?"

Li Jiankun laughed loudly, as if he really enjoyed this kind of thing, and raised his hand to point at Sun Zhenyi:
"Come on, I'll have fun with you, go on!"

"you--"

"Shut up! Just do it, you're in such a mess now, I'm sure you'll never succeed in any business you start."

rub!
Sun Zhenyi, a very gentle man, was also so angry when he heard this that he was furious.

Just go ahead. Those who pay money are not afraid, so why should he who is barefoot be afraid?

……

……

This time, Sun Zhenyi was extremely cautious and did not act rashly.

A man locked himself in his rented apartment and pondered for several days.

He believes that the experiences from past failures are equally valuable. Not to mention the money and time lost, those are painful lessons learned with hard work that can prevent him from making the same mistakes again.

So, to be on the safe side, he had no choice but to take the risk of entering a new industry.

The software is definitely not going to be developed because the timing is wrong.

He still plans to start a magazine.

This time, he simply left aside the computer field and even the electronics field, and set his sights on something that everyone would do - shopping.

After "coming out of quarantine", Sun Zhenyi conducted market research for several more days.

As the yen gradually appreciates, people's desire to shop becomes stronger and stronger, and almost every shopping mall is crowded with people.

He even went to Seiyu Department Store No. 1 and spent a whole day there observing people's shopping behavior.

He found that in this era of increasingly rapid product updates, people often lack sufficient understanding of a new product, and don't even know what it does. They want to consult the supermarket's service staff, but there are often too few service staff and it is difficult to take care of every customer.

This is exactly the same situation that Sun Zhenyi had imagined.

He plans to start a shopping guide magazine.

Cooperate with major supermarkets to integrate their major new products that will be launched in the near future into a weekly magazine, including the price, function, material, structure, characteristics, etc. of these products.

After consumers read his magazine, they will have an idea of ​​what the product is. If they want to buy a certain product, they can just go directly to the mall where the product is sold.

In this way, in addition to the income from selling magazines, he will have another source of income -

When the magazine is successful in the future, we will charge advertising fees from major shopping malls.

One business, make two profits.

After the business plan was made, Sun Zhenyi tried to find faults from every angle, trying to find the possibility of failure.

No.

Can't find it at all.

This magazine meets people's needs and its target customers are everyone who can shop. The customer base covers all Japanese families and all literate people.

How could it not be a big seller?
After everything was ready, Sun Zhenyi took the business plan that had been revised several times, went to the bank and found Li Jiankun.

In the same office as before, Li Jiankun took the plan from him and looked him up and down:
“Are you confident again?”

"..."

Sun Zhenyi nodded firmly.

Li Jiankun opened the business plan and read through it quickly. After a while, he smiled and shook his head: "You will fail even more miserably."

Sun Zhenyi: “???”

He didn't know whether to say it or not, his heart skipped a beat.

Then the corners of his mouth twitched, as if he was about to say something.

Li Jiankun had a playful expression: "As for why I failed, I won't tell you now, otherwise where can I find fun? Let's do it, it's just a little money, it's worth it."

Sun Zhenyi: “…”

Is there a list of the most weird people in the world?

He raised twenty fingers to vote for this guy to be on the list.

But it is strange that Mr. Li built his happiness on the suffering of others, but Sun Zhenyi did not resent him, he just felt unwilling to be looked down upon by him.

Dry!
Achieve results and slap him in the face!

Sun Zhenyi thought viciously in his heart.

……

……

After a period of careful preparation, Sun Zhenyi personally took care of every step, and his shopping guide magazine - "TAG" was born.

The marketing model is different this time.

In addition to advertising and selling goods to major bookstores, Sun Zhenyi hired a large number of students who worked part-time to form teams to run around the cooperating shopping malls to do door-to-door sales and hand out flyers to everyone they met.

If the customer is interested, he or she can buy "TAG" on the spot.

At noon, the sun is shining brightly.

Outside the Seiyu Department Store No. 1, Sun Zhenyi, wearing a green vest, stood with several hired students. Although the age difference was not much, he still looked out of place. After all, he was a little bald...

Yes, he even did this step himself.

"Hello, Auntie. This is a shopping guide magazine. It contains information about new products in major shopping malls. It will help you shop more conveniently and save you time..."

A female student was very dedicated and actively promoted her products to passers-by with proper manners and a sweet smile.

Sun Zhenyi decided to give her an extra bonus when the day was settled in the evening.

The aunt who was being sold something by the female student stopped, took the flyer, and took the reading glasses hanging around her neck to look at it.

Sun Zhenyi thought, she would definitely buy the magazine.

At this time, the aunt handed the flyer back to the female student and said apologetically: "Sorry, I don't need this."

Sun Zhenyi: “?”

How could you not need it? He almost blurted out.

I can't stand anymore.

He rushed forward and bowed first:
"Aunt--"

"Wait, how old are you to call me auntie?"

Sun Zhenyi felt that he had made a mistake: "Twenty-eight."

"I think you look about 48." Auntie snorted and ran away.

"Sister, sister!"

Sun Zhenyi immediately changed his words, chased after her, and tried hard to sell the magazine to the aunt, whose expression had eased a little. However, the result was no better than that of the female student.

He still didn't give up:

"Look, with this magazine, you can easily see what's new in major shopping malls. To be honest, there are so many different products nowadays that we may not know what some of them are used for just by looking at their appearance...

“How convenient isn’t it?

“Magazines are not expensive, but they can help you sell the products you want and save you a lot of valuable time.”

Auntie took out the money.

Sun Zhenyi was overjoyed. Although it was just a piece of money, it was of great significance.

After my aunt bought a copy of TAG, she said, "I bought this magazine purely because I was moved by your perseverance. I have already said that I really don't need it. My time is not valuable at all."

After saying this, the aunt left slowly.

Sun Zhenyi: “…”

I'm stupid and confused.

I finally managed to sell a magazine, but it turned out to be... from charity!!
"Stop!"

Seeing the aunt's surprised expression, Sun Zhenyi walked up to her, returned the money to her and took back the magazine.

Aunt:"……"

……

……

"Failed?

"Another blow?

"Okay, stop staring at me like that and tell you why."

Li Jiankun had a very happy face, and it wasn't all fake. Guess what? He actually felt the fun.

Especially looking at Sun Zhenyi, who looked so sad and depressed.

"First, in your business plan, you wrote that the target customer base of your magazine covers almost all Japanese people. This is a misjudgment. You think too highly of your magazine.

“Not many young people would ask for your shopping guide. Given their knowledge and ability to understand new things, how abstract would a product have to be for them to not understand what it is used for?
“The real customer group of this “TAG” is housewives of a certain age.

"Do you agree?"

Sun Zhenyi stood beside the sofa in a daze, not taking a seat. He felt really... embarrassed.

He nodded, now thinking about it it was true.

But he was also confused. For example, the aunt he met in front of Seiyu Department Store No. 1 earlier, wasn’t she a “housewife of some age”?

But why, despite such sales pitch, she still had no interest at all?

"Secondly, your main idea is: through this TAG magazine, introduce new and trendy products to people in detail, so that they don't have to walk into the mall and be confused when they see unfamiliar products."

"Another point," Sun Zhenyi added, "is that if they have a need, they will go to the target mall to buy it without having to take a detour."

Li Jiankun nodded, indicating that he understood: "To put it bluntly, these two concepts are actually the same, and they both point to the same vision: saving people time."

Sun Zhenyi nodded in agreement.

He thought, isn't it worth five hundred yen to save so much precious time?

The price of "TAG" is 500 yen, which is about two US dollars.

Considering Japan's consumption level, such a thick magazine is really not expensive.

Li Jiankun glanced at him and said, "The question is, are you sure that the time of these 'older housewives' is really valuable?"

Sun Zhenyi: “!!!”

Suddenly, he remembered what the aunt said outside Seiyu Department Store No. 1 - My time is not precious at all.

I didn’t think about it at the time…

Li Jiankun continued, "Housewives of this age, let alone whether their husbands are retired or not, their children are definitely not around often. What do they do in their daily lives? Washing clothes, cooking, cleaning, other than that, is there anything else important?"

Sun Zhenyi's face became increasingly ugly.

“They have plenty of time.”

Li Jiankun said slowly: "Going shopping is a rare opportunity for them to go out and relax, but you want to deprive them of most of this wonderful time?"

Sun Zhenyi's figure swayed.

"Even if you don't understand other things, you should know that shopping is a woman's nature, and they will never get tired of it."

Sun Zhenyi's eyes turned black.

“Let’s talk about trendy products. Why don’t manufacturers and shopping malls provide detailed product introductions?

"Don't you know that it's a great pleasure to discover new things and understand them clearly? This is an important pleasure for people when they go shopping.

"You're depriving people of their fun—"

"Stop talking!" Sun Zhenyi suddenly shouted, and his short body slid to the ground along the side of the sofa.

Li Jiankun raised his head and took a look, and it seemed that he was... devastated.

(End of this chapter)