Adeline Goh, GMBA Class of 2018

On December 20, 2016, along with 80 students, the Tsinghua MBA Student Finance Club welcomed a special guest – Mr. Daqing Mao. Since joining China Vanke in 2009, he has made significant contributions to the company, leading the company to become the market leader in Beijing, and held positions such as Vice President of Vanke as well as CEO of the Vanke Beijing office. He resigned in April 2015, turning to entrepreneurship with his first venture – URWork. URWork now covers 16 cities in China, with 36 locations, and has completed over 20 projects, with some early projects already seeing profitability. After several funding rounds, the company is now valued at nearly RMB 5.5 billion, and Mr. Mao has proved himself to have successfully transformed from a professional manager into an entrepreneur. It seemed natural, then, for the Student Finance Club to invite him to share his thoughts on his newly translated work, Shoe Dog, as well as his entrepreneurial journey.

After a brief introduction, Mr. Mao started to explain his affinity with the book. Describing himself as a “half-professional translator,” he chose Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog not only because it was recommended by Bill Gates or because it has ranked second among the world’s best-sellers, but also because it touches the hearts of entrepreneurs. The author, Phil Knight, is one of Nike’s founders. During the process of creating and building the Nike brand, there was never a day when he was not concerned with cash flow problems, getting sued, or getting fined. Even after stabilizing the business, he received news that his eldest son met with an accident in El Salvador. The details written in the book aptly characterize the mental, physical, and emotional dilemmas of an entrepreneur. He even touched on the tax evasion and industrial espionage rumors about Nike, which Mr. Mao felt was a true depiction of honesty, integrity, and confidence about Nike’s greatness. Mr. Mao recommended the book to students who attended the session, because the emotions and ideas conveyed are exactly what entrepreneurs are themselves often trying to convey.

Mr. Daqing Mao, seasoned entrepreneur and translation enthusiast, shares insights from his years of experience (top) and poses with the MBA Student Finance Club (bottom).

After the book-sharing session, we moved on to a Q&A segment. Some students asked which parts of the book moved him the most when he was doing the translation. He answered that he could relate to the author when he described the moment of loss after a partnership terminated, and he also felt the pain of loss when the author described the loss of his son in a foreign land. From these two instances, we are reminded how hard the path of entrepreneurship can be, as it requires us to constantly reflect upon ourselves and on our lives.

Other students also questioned the difference between China’s and Western countries’ entrepreneurial spirit, to which Mr. Mao responded by suggesting that China has a very strong spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. There have been many creations by Chinese that have made us proud throughout history, and since we have entered the technology era, we should leverage it in a way befitting of much of our innovative history. However, Mr. Mao feels that the motivation behind innovation should not primarily lie in profits, but rather in changing the world – food for thought for many of us as we pursue our own innovative paths and visions.