In 2014, I was in Shenzhen. Before that, I had been researching agricultural materials and the internet for two or three years. I have always believed that agricultural materials can achieve greater and deeper development through the internet.

At that time, I signed up for the internet sub-association and took a train from Shenzhen to Suzhou to participate in learning and training. Through this in-depth study, I realized how vast and wonderful the ocean of the internet is. I really wanted to pay to learn various courses because they were packaged so well, but my funds only allowed me to enroll in one course. I remember that the course I signed up for was about selling e-books.

Later, I attended an offline conference in Shenzhen about WeChat and e-commerce. It made me understand that mobile internet social e-commerce can achieve better sales of physical goods through such cooperation.

I was very happy and excited to hear this, and I seemed to have discovered a new continent. However, telling all this to those who did not attend was difficult for them to accept. The owner of the agricultural materials company I worked for was named Lin Junjie. I am a person who loves to share, so after attending these internal training sessions on the internet, I told Lin Junjie that the power of the internet is immense, and many people have made their first pot of gold through the internet, even achieving daily incomes of over ten thousand or even hundreds of thousands. After hearing my account, Lin Junjie scoffed and earnestly told me that he would not believe such packaging; it must be a scam. He also told me that, for example, those driving BMWs on the street are actually in debt and have no money; they are burdened with debt. Money is hard to earn and is made through sweat; look at us in agricultural materials, we have to drive and sell goods every day, which is very hard work, and only such money is earned solidly.

Since the boss said so, I couldn't insist on a few things because I knew that if he didn't go to the scene to experience such an environment and didn't communicate with relevant professionals, he would never break out of his own cognition. So in 2015, he went with me to attend the internet summit in Suzhou, which truly opened his horizons. He finally believed that the internet is so magical, and its potential for future development is immeasurable.

However, at that summit, there were two completely different viewpoints. One viewpoint believed that WeChat-based social e-commerce would become the main form of e-commerce for a longer time in the future, with huge hidden dividends. The other viewpoint believed that the so-called social e-commerce based on WeChat would not develop and that PC e-commerce would still be the mainstay. The two viewpoints were sharply opposed, yet at this conference, many people laughed together, not knowing whom to listen to. Since my boss had not had good exposure to PC e-commerce before, and at that time mobile e-commerce was still in its infancy while PC e-commerce remained dominant, he was attracted to PC e-commerce.

After attending the conference, he and I visited a woman. Who this woman is, I won't say here; her story is quite legendary in the circle, but outside the circle, even local people are not familiar with her, which may also indicate that her packaging in the circle is quite successful.

She packaged herself as having only created a website to sell auto parts and surprisingly broke into the global market, becoming one of the top three service providers. Of course, we cannot verify this; even when we wanted to collaborate, they did not let us see their backend transaction system or the volume of transactions, only packaging themselves as being so impressive.

There are two details that I remember vividly. One detail is that my boss was walking side by side with her, talking, while I followed behind. At that moment, the female boss suddenly turned around and walked back, then came to the beggar she passed and put a few one-yuan coins into the beggar's bowl. At that time, I thought this female boss was quite kind-hearted. The other thing is that after my boss expressed his intention to cooperate with her, she pretended to be mysterious and said that their system was very powerful, so such a powerful thing must be entrusted to the most important person they trust.

Many years later, I have been reflecting on these two things, especially after I entered the internet industry. I believe that the first thing, throwing coins to the beggar, can be seen as kind-hearted, but it is unrelated to industry capability. The second thing, after the cooperation, she required that their confidential information be passed on to the important people of the other party, which is not good because the internet itself is open; she made it seem like she was passing on something important, which destined her to fall behind in the future.

A few years later, things indeed did not develop positively because mobile internet was booming and spread across the country. Meanwhile, that female boss still insisted on PC internet, even dismissing mobile internet marketing e-commerce. At that time, I suggested she pay attention to this area, but she only said she was very good at this and didn't need me to explain; she just needed investors. Later, she had disagreements with many partners, the platform's development declined, and many people demanded refunds.

This included my boss at the time, Boss Lin, who also demanded a refund because since they established a partnership, the nuclear carving project they undertook had not brought any actual benefits and had been continuously losing money. That female boss also kept believing in SEO optimization, thinking that continuous keyword optimization on the PC side could bring a steady stream of traffic, which could generate a large number of orders. However, she overlooked that PC internet was being greatly impacted by mobile internet, and in the Chinese market, mobile internet had welcomed its spring. In other words, she was engaged in something that was declining.

Fortunately, one of the core partners of that female boss promised Boss Lin that he could refund him, and Boss Lin also stated that he did not want any profits, just wanted his principal back. In this situation, that female boss was very angry and even broke her promise, not wanting to refund him even the principal, thus blocking Boss Lin on WeChat. However, her main partner fulfilled his promise and eventually repaid Boss Lin's expenses in installments.

Boss Lin's decision at that time also proved to be a complete failure. This incident gave us a profound insight: the hottest things at the moment are not necessarily what we should pursue. What we should decide is how long this hot thing can last; whether it will be hot for just this year or can last for three to five years or even continue to thrive for the next five to ten years is crucial. We need to have a future-oriented mindset to make decisions in the present, rather than being deceived by the illusions of the present.

If Boss Lin had this future-oriented mindset back then, he very likely would not have chosen that female boss's project but would have opted for a mobile internet project. Engaging with mobile internet experts and partners might have led him to achieve greater wealth growth in the next three to five years due to such a decision, which is a very realistic issue.