China’s Social Entrepreneur Wu Shihong

One of my students, Pastor Shin sent me this article about this powerful lady, Juliet Wu Shi Hong… someone with no strong family background, no tertiary education, and on top of that, a woman, which in some parts of China is considered an inferior gender within the Chinese culture. She was a ‘nobody’ who made herself into ‘somebody’. 

I have seen so many people waste their time, instead of pushing themselves to grow, they choose to be governed by their fears, traumas, negative thoughts, opinions of others, low self-esteem and even laziness. I say this about others without being critical and humbly. When I read her story in these two articles below, I sincerely hoped that my blog readers would take the time to read and learn from this successful, self-made woman, who was under a difficult position in her life but chose to turn it into a motivational experience for self-improvement. 

Most successful people did not make it just by being smart. Anyone who reads at least three different biographies of successful people, will notice notable similarities between them, one being perseverance. Perseverance alone will not make you successful, but with it you can go further than most people… To not give up, but to keep going and find different avenues to achieve what you’ve set out to accomplish. We should never let a ‘bad experience’ bring us down, and definitely not let it keep us down.

I hope that by reading about Juliet Wu Shi Hong will inspire anyone who’s at a “I-Cannot-Do-It” mental state right now to think otherwise.

Tsem Rinpoche 

Jack Ma: If you’re still poor at 35, you deserve it!

Ambition is living a life of great ideals; a magnificent goal in life that must be realised.

In this world, there are things that are deemed unfathomable, but there is nothing in this world that cannot be done. The depth of one’s ambition determines the potential of one’ future.

The Story of Juliet Wu Shihong – one of China’s first-generation professional managers, who gained success by working her way up the ranks from a cleaner, a nurse, a marketing executive, through self-education and learning on the job.

She had been the general manager for the world’s most famous multinational IT groups’ Chinese branches (Microsoft 1985-1998; IBM 1998-1999). She is also China’s first successful international corporate executive to join the executive team of a domestic private firm. Wu was seen as a symbol of the new generation of business executives that China has produced in its economic reform and opening-up.

When Wu started off in a big company working from the lowest ranks, her daily job was to pour tea and sweep floors. Once, because she forgot her staff pass, the company’s guard stopped her at the door and denied her entry. She explained to the guard that she was indeed one of the company’s employees, and that she had merely left the building for a short while to purchase office supplies.

Despite her pleas, the guard still did not allow to enter. As she stood at the gate, she watched as those of similar age to her, but smartly dressed in business attire walking through without having to show their passes.

She asked the guard, “Why are these people allowed through without producing a pass?” The guard dismissed her coldly nonetheless.

That was the turning point for Wu – she felt great shame, her self-esteem trampled on.

She looked at herself, dressed in shabby clothes and pushing a dirty push cart. Looking back at those dressed in smart attire, her heart felt a deep ache from the sudden realization of the sorrow and grief from being discriminated. From that moment, she vowed never to allow herself to be shamed like this again, and to become world-famous.

Since then, she used every opportunity to enrich herself. Every day, she was the first to arrive at work, and the last one to leave. She made every second count, spending her time learning the ropes. Her efforts soon paid off; she was made a sales representative, and quickly progressed to being the regional general manager of this multinational company in China. Wu did not possess strong academic qualifications, and was revered as the ‘Queen of Part-timers’. Subsequently, she assumed the position of GM of IBM China. This is the Wu Shihong, the heroine in China’s business circle.

If not for the incident, Wu Shihong would not have had the ambition to become rich, and her life would have taken a very different path then.

• You are poor because you do not have the desire to become successful.
• You are poor because you lack foresight.
• You are poor because you cannot overcome your cowardice.
• You are poor because you lack the courage and determination.
• With ambition you can overcome all inferiority and maximise your potential!
• With ambition you can persevere, continuously learn new things and strive for perfection.
• With ambition you can defy all odds, and create miracles when others daren’t.

No matter how poor your family is, do not doubt your own abilities and lose sight of your ambition.

• When your family deems you worthless, no one will pity you.
• When your parents do not have money to pay the medical bills, no one will pity you.
• When you are beaten by your competitors, no one will pity you.
• When your loved ones abandon you, no one will pity you.
• When you have not accomplished anything by the time you are 35, no one will pity you.

Go big, or go home. Otherwise, you’re wasting your youth.

Adapted from: http://vulcanpost.com/7702/jack-ma-youre-still-poor-35-deserve/

Wu Shihong: To be a Social Entrepreneur

For her generation, or men and women who started their careers in the reform era, she has done it all – from being Bill Gates’ first China manager to being the first to translate Nobel laureate and Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus. But for her, something more exciting has just begun: “To be a social entrepreneur.”

Wu Shihong (known to her overseas friends as Juliet) says the words rather calmly. Yet that calmness doesn’t hide the devotion in her eyes. “That’s the way I’ve found for myself,” she tells China Business Weekly.

At the beginning of 2000, when Wu walked through the revolving door of TCL Group, China’s largest TV maker, she was already quite used to media praise.

She had been one of China’s first-generation professional managers – by working her way up from a cleaner, a nurse, a marketing executive, through self-education and learning on the job.

She had been the general manager for the world’s most famous multinational IT groups Chinese branches (Microsoft 1985-1998; IBM 1998-1999).

She was China’s first successful international corporate executive to join the executive team of a domestic private firm.

Wu was seen as a symbol for the new generation of business executives that China has produced in its economic reform and opening up.

Yet since she left TCL in 2002, she has kept a low profile. When she came back to the limelight at the end of 2007, she surprised the public again by being the translator of Yunus’ books about poverty-aid and micro-credit, and in her determined work with NGOs and NPOs in various social programs.

‘Social entrepreneur’

Wu says she feels proud of being among China’s “social entrepreneurs.” “The two words meld my past careers to my present interests and my social and philanthropic pursuits. They affect me greatly,” she says.

So what is a “social entrepreneur?” She gives her definition:

It’s a person who deals with a social problem in a similar way as managing an enterprise. Poverty-aid, social development, and even philanthropy should be understood as going somewhere, giving out money and things, and off you go, she argues.

“All of them need smart leadership and good management, because they don’t just distribute money, but should also generate development. To be successful and to grow into a sustainable process, they need as much entrepreneurship as a for-profit business does.”

Not every successful businessperson decides to shift their focus from making money to helping others make money. And certainly many do not. But from Flying Against the Wind (the title of Wu’s autobiography published in 2002) about her shift from corporate life to “social entrepreneur,” what was the cause of so much change?

“There have been ups and downs in my life,” Wu recalls, very calmly. “Life has taught me how important it is to be able to define my own way, and my own feeling of happiness, by working with others. As a businesswoman, I have seen all the fame and wealth that one can possibly see in her lifetime. But that shouldn’t be the end of a life.”

She says she spent much of the last five years, which she called her “rest”, reading classic books (of which some Buddhist readings are among her favorites) and considering the meaning of life.

“I was led by my reading experience to my turning point.” As she is saying this, her face is glowing with a kind of peace one seldom sees in the corporate office.

But her newfound peace is not just one woman’s own spiritual pursuit. It leads to action, and to facing challenges. It was in 2003, amid the national public health alarm for SARS, she decided that it was her moment to charge.

After persistent requests directly to the central government, Wu landed her a chance to volunteer with the Ministry of Public Health. She worked with the ministry’s international corporation division, and helped set up and manage some of the emergency conferences for international public health ministers to discuss the crisis-control measures.

“It is quite difficult communicating with different countries’ governments and companies,” Wu says. But the experience helped her learn how to leverage the power of the government, and the resources of the business community and the public, and to use all of them to solve a social problem.

Wu was glad that the campaign in which she played a part helped put the disease under control. And with that valuable experience, she began to spend more time thinking about how she can best use her managerial acumen for society.

“I had read some books about social responsibility to finish my MBA work. But that’s it. It was only when I felt the urge to do something that I felt the thirst for more readings and more information -about philanthropy and the management of non-profit programs,” she says.

Hence friends’ recommendation of her first book to translate – How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, by David Bornstein, who also wrote The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, about Muhammad Yunus.

One of the things that puzzled her was micro-credit and why it worked in some parts of the world but not in China. Hence, her second translation was Yunus’ Banker to the Poor, published in June 2006.

“I was so excited, and inspired, when I heard about what Yunus had done, by running a sustainable micro-credit business from his Grameen Bank, to help people earn their own way out of poverty. This is not just a business to lend money. It is to spark creativity. It is leadership,” she says. “I thought I must introduce his book to China.”

Translator

In the beginning, it was hard to reach Yunus, via electronic network. Then she turned to the traditional way of correspondence and posted a letter to him. “Juliet, how can I refuse such a pleasure? Go ahead!”, Yunus replied. These were the words which came to her in merely three days and have remained in her mind ever since.

Wu finished her translation in just two months. The Chinese book was published on June 2006, which “did not seem to arouse an immediate response”, Wu recalls.

But just four months later, when Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize, Banker to the Poor, and Wu’s translation was soon on China’s bestseller list.

In the meantime, Wu began to embark on exploration tours, to rural areas in China’s frontier regions, working with different charity and aid organizations, such as the ALXA Society Entrepreneur Ecology, founded in 2001 by Song Jun, a Chinese entrepreneur, who invested 50 million yuan in the Moon Lake Ecological Tourism Zone in Alxa League of Inner Mongolia.

As for TCL, Wu says, she only goes back to it once or twice a year as an independent non-executive director.

Now she says she is “exploring a commercially sustainable way of operating aid and philanthropy,” and continues her reading and learning quest. Recently, she published her third translation, Capitalism 3.0, a book by Peter Barnes about issues in corporate social responsibility. “It encourages us to consider the future of our world,” he writes. “Everyone holds the social responsibility to protect our planet and our coming generation.”

For Wu, her active “rest” in the last five years has been like a “self-renewal”, a change from a leading corporate force to someone with the knowledge and experience, along with her contacts, to launch a loftier social enterprise. “Something more down-to-earth. Something more practical.”

But what is it? She smiles and says: “I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”

(Source: China Daily 11/17/2008 page12)

[Extracted from: http://www.womenofchina.cn/html/womenofchina/report/96137-1.htm]

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