The first round of interviews ended, and several department heads from the Public Relations Department were enthusiastically discussing who could proceed to the second round.
When it came to Chen Pingjiang, Zhai Fei and Sui Yuan had a fierce disagreement.
"I'm very optimistic about Chen Pingjiang, I disagree with disqualifying him from the second round of interviews,"
Zhai Fei said with a grim expression.
Sui Yuan sneered and said,
"That's probably because he didn't contradict you to your face, right? If he had talked back to you like that today, you wouldn't be saying this."
Zhai Fei scoffed with disdain,
"If it were me, I wouldn't even bother asking that question. We're all just sophomores, are we already starting to put on airs? Are we going to apply the old ways of those third-year senior students to the freshmen?"
As if provoked by the words "putting on airs," Sui Yuan's chest heaved with anger, and her voice became sharp:
"Zhai Fei, explain yourself clearly. How am I putting on airs? His answer clearly had problems, can't I even ask questions?"
"If he weren't a freshman, and a sophomore or junior senior student were standing at the podium today, would you still criticize others for not knowing their place?"
Hit where it hurt, but Sui Yuan remained stubborn:
"Say whatever you want, I just don't agree. Department Head, what do you say?"
Cui Yuqi saw the ball had been kicked to her and immediately felt a headache.
After thinking for a long time, she slowly said,
"I do think Chen Pingjiang's attitude has some issues, he doesn't seem easy to deal with, but since Zhai Fei is so optimistic about Chen Pingjiang, he probably has his reasons. You two as well, why argue like this over a freshman? It affects harmony, and if word gets out, people will wonder what happened."
Sui Yuan rolled her eyes, thinking Cui Yuqi was indeed unreliable; her talent for mediating was unmatched, but when it came to truly taking charge and making a decisive call, she wouldn't make a peep.
"My stance is, if he's in, I'm out. You decide?"
After saying that, Sui Yuan walked out of the classroom door in her high heels.
Zhai Fei snorted, unable to stand this act:
"That stuck-up woman, relying on her ability to get a lot of sponsorships, pulls this stunt every time."
Cui Yuqi shook her head helplessly, thinking she should quickly step down next semester, letting whoever wants to be department head take the role.
Sui Yuan was also good at securing sponsorships, and without her, the entire department would be severely affected, but her words were so absolute, and causing Zhai Fei to lose face wouldn't do either.
After thinking for a long time, Cui Yuqi still chased after her.
Zhai Fei and Sang Xuegao exchanged glances, feeling even more helpless.
This was an old drama in the Public Relations Department.
Sui Yuan herself was very strong-willed, and she always used her dominant position to threaten and intimidate others to maintain her power, especially when she encountered something she felt she couldn't control, "I quit" became her only method of control.
Both the old department head and Cui Yuqi fell for this trick, which left Zhai Fei and others speechless.
Under such indulgence, the situation worsened when it was Cui Yuqi's turn to be department head.
Before long, Cui Yuqi returned to the classroom, with Sui Yuan following behind her.
At this moment, Sui Yuan was arrogant and full of triumph.
"Ahem, we're all classmates, let's not take what just happened to heart. I thought about it, and let's decide whether Chen Pingjiang can enter the second round of interviews by vote, shall we?"
Cui Yuqi said after sitting down.
Soon, the vote result was 3:1.
Zhai Fei, Sang Xuegao, and Cui Yuqi agreed for Chen Pingjiang to enter the second round of interviews; only Sui Yuan objected.
Facing such a result, Sui Yuan seemed unsurprised and stopped making a fuss.
Zhai Fei and Sang Xuegao couldn't really be happy either; even a fool would know that for Cui Yuqi to coax Sui Yuan back, she must have promised some conditions.
...
"That's how it is."
Chen Pingjiang listened as Zhai Fei finished speaking on the phone, and replied,
"Alright, I got it. Let's go out for drinks tonight."
After hanging up the phone, Chen Pingjiang couldn't help but laugh, never expecting that the appointment of a small Public Relations Department officer would cause such a huge commotion.
A small temple breeds many evils, and a shallow pond holds many petty tyrants.
He didn't take Sui Yuan seriously at all.
What was most important now was the subsequent startup plan.
He specifically took leave from military training in the afternoon, hunkering down in the library alone, drawing lines back and forth on a blank piece of paper.
Military training recycling was just a small project, suitable for ordinary students to earn some extra money, and clearly not sustainable, but it was a good way to build an initial team and select talent.
How to proceed from there was the key.
Easy to make a fortune, hard to start a business.
Using foreknowledge to buy Bitcoin was a windfall, but entrepreneurship requires opportune timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony; Chen Pingjiang didn't believe the fictional stories where an ordinary person from his previous life could just casually start a business and succeed.
Future short videos, manufacturing phones, and making cars were all viable directions, but those were the third or even fourth steps; the difficulty lay in how to take the first and second steps.
A good project must have a sufficiently large market, substantial profits, be continuous and stable, have a replicable model, be asset-light, differentiated, and so on.
Asset-heavy projects are too difficult to start, models that are not replicable have too low an upper limit, products or services with obvious peak and off-seasons lack sustainability, without sufficient profits, the team cannot be motivated to advance and it's difficult to scale, niche categories leave investors with no room for imagination, and undifferentiated products will ultimately die in price wars.
It's well known that in certain situations, choice outweighs effort, especially in this era of rapid updates and iterations and under fierce internal competition.
The most prominent examples of failure are Yahoo and Nokia!
Even if Chen Pingjiang knew which products would become hugely popular later, it didn't mean doing it now would necessarily succeed; without a mature external environment, anything said would be futile.
Starting a business one step early means seizing the initiative and having a first-mover advantage, but moving three steps too early makes pioneers martyrs.
Timing is crucial.
Penetration rate is a very realistic indicator.
A penetration rate below 5% indicates broad prospects but without industrial advantage, it may not be the best time to enter.
When the penetration rate is between 5% and 25%, the industry begins explosive growth, and this is often the best time to go all-in; miss this opportunity, and it's gone.
When the penetration rate further rises to 30%, marginal effects begin to appear.
Once it reaches 40%, it indicates that market growth is slowing, and the peak moment has passed.
For example, drones and new energy vehicles are good projects, but if one were to start them in 2006, they would have died in the winter before seeing the dawn.
Of course, while trends are important—standing at the wind's mouth, even pigs can fly—more pigs get stuck and fall to their deaths.
Choosing the right track and catching the trend is crucial, but being prepared, diligently practicing internal skills, and seizing the trend are even more important.
Otherwise, the trend will just be someone else's, and it will have nothing to do with you!
There are countless examples of those who ran alongside, only to end up bankrupt with founders becoming defaulters.
The luckier ones sold off in time to cut losses, exited at a loss, or even made a small profit.
The unfortunate ones, like OFO shared bikes, still owe billions in unreturned deposits.
Chen Pingjiang thought a lot throughout the afternoon and evening, writing back and forth on paper.
Analyzing the pros and cons of each industry, potential competitors, SWOT analysis, team building…
Constantly organizing his thoughts, he gradually formed an outline.
Forcing himself into a large project now, funding would be a major hurdle.
He only had about a hundred thousand yuan, and he wouldn't be able to find an angel investor in Dongjiang anytime soon; even if he did, they might not invest in him.
Therefore, he first needed a goose that lays golden eggs, to use the golden eggs to support other projects, so that even if investment was needed later, the diluted shares wouldn't be too much.
Moreover, to be frank, Dongjiang itself as a city couldn't compare to Beijing, Linzhou, or even Shanghai; its internet genes were inherently weaker.
A second or third-tier university was inherently weaker than a 985 university; those universities produced top students.
For talent that could truly help, Dongcai clearly wouldn't suffice.
So, he couldn't rush.
Impulsively rushing into things and still succeeding would be quite fantastical; opportune timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony were all indispensable.
Chen Pingjiang knew this well.
The immediate priority was to quickly find a cash cow with low investment, quick returns, and a replicable model.
(End of Chapter)
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