"If you endure hardships, you will not be the best among men; if you endure hardships, you will become the best among men."
The old man is helpless and aims for a thousand miles, and the martyr is full of ambition in his old age. This sentence is usually used to describe those who are still ambitious despite their age. Yin Mingshan fits the image described in this poem very well. Age does not limit his abilities and dreams.
Establishing a new enterprise is not always smooth sailing, and the success or failure of the enterprise is also related to many aspects. Opportunity is a very important opportunity for an enterprise. It is often said that opportunities and challenges coexist. Sometimes if you fail to grasp such opportunities, you may be eliminated. If you miss a good opportunity, challenges will follow one after another.
(1) Over the age of seventy, he gave up everything and started from scratch
Before establishing Lifan Motors, Yin Mingshan’s work had nothing to do with cars. He worked on a farm for twenty years and later worked in publishing-related industries. None of this has anything to do with business, but with the reform and opening up policy, many people have gone overseas to start business.
Yin Mingshan was not far behind. In 1992, the already very old Yin Mingshan ignored the persuasion of his family and invested 200,000 yuan, deciding to start his own motorcycle. cause. However, the dissuasion from relatives and friends was not unreasonable. They considered that Yin Mingshan had been in prison because of his capitalist tendencies and spent more than 20 years in a labor camp.
From then on, Yin Mingshan began his entrepreneurial journey. Lifan Motorcycle Factory was like a dark horse in the industry once it was launched. After establishing a stable and solid foundation, he developed Lifan Motorcycle step by step. However, gradually, he discovered that cars could also be considered as a development direction, so he took action.
Of course, cars have more development prospects than motorcycles and are much more profitable. Therefore, Yin Mingshan established Lifan Group with the business philosophy of "export, innovation, and good reputation". Lifan's assets grew from the initial 200,000 yuan to 520 million yuan in 2001.
In addition, Lifan Group is also involved in the field of football. On August 19, 2000, Yin Mingshan purchased Huandao Hongyan Club at a high price of 55.8 million yuan, paying an annual capital of 20 million yuan, and then spent 80 million yuan to acquire Chongqing Yanghe Stadium. Later, two more teams were acquired in 2003 and 2008 respectively. Striving to create a "Century Lifan" also shows Yin Mingshan's ideals.
Yin Mingshan’s son Yin Xidi once spent 30 million to buy a Bugatti Veyron. This car is very high-profile. This incident also made the public familiar with Lifan Motors. Yin Xidi is very interested in football and football. As long as a super sports car or performance car he likes comes out, he will definitely buy it. He has spent 300 million on football in nine years, but he is not that interested in his football career. Take heart.
This incident made Lifan Motors known to the public, and everyone also knew that Yin Xidi’s father, Yin Mingshan, was very wealthy. It is true that Yin Mingshan is very rich, but it is also because of his hard work that he got to where he is now step by step, starting from manufacturing motorcycle engines, then producing motorcycles, and later starting to produce cars.
As early as 2006, Lifan Group's annual revenue exceeded 10.3 billion, of which export earnings accounted for US$310 million. Yin Mingshan, an old man who is nearly 70 years old, has never given up on his dream of building a car. He has set a century-old Ford as his goal and continues to work hard to move forward.
(2) The competition is fierce, so we have to sell the factory to protect it
In fact, Lifan Motors includes cars, SUVs, etc., but it has never been able to compete. Seeing the rapid development of domestically produced cars such as BYD, Chery and Great Wall, Yin Mingshan felt very anxious. Moreover, Geely, which also started out by relying on motorcycles, has gradually occupied a position in recent years. When Yin Mingshan saw so many competitors, he began to realize that things were not simple.
Although Lifan Motors developed earlier, it has a comprehensive range of models. However, the pressure of market competition is too great. Lifan Motors does not have the unique creativity and competitiveness at the core of the brand, nor does it have newer and more advanced technologies. Therefore, naturally everyone's choice will not be fixed on Lifan Motors.
What’s more, many consumers prefer to choose foreign car brands. Coupled with the fierce domestic competition pressure. Lifan Motors suffered a blow from then on, and sales began to decline. In the end, I had no choice but to sell my car qualifications to other cars. Moreover, Lifan Motors' production plant in Liangjiang New District was also sold. Despite this, he still owed huge debts. Lifan Motors, which was once popular and at its peak, gradually disappeared and disappeared from the public eye.
(3) Survival of the fittest, it is important to seize the opportunity
At this time, the total liabilities of Lifan Group have reached 17.863 billion. However, this did not completely defeat this self-made entrepreneur who had gone through countless hardships. Instead of escaping, he faced it directly. He chose to sell the production plant first to relieve the current pressure. The automobile factory in Liangjiang New Area sold 6 billion yuan, which solved many problems for Lifan Group.
The six billion can only solve urgent needs, but does not fundamentally solve the problem. It is an approach of demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall.
Both sides are the hard work of Yin Mingshan. You can imagine how heartbreaking it is and how hard it is to let go. Yin Mingshan is already in his seventies. In addition to enduring these blows, he also has to bear the pressure of public opinion.
All this is because Lifan missed a good opportunity when the market prospects were good, demand was large, and government subsidies were available. Once you miss it, it will take hundreds and thousands of times to make up for it later, and your reputation will be damaged, and it will plummet from then on. But after all, it is a leading company in Chongqing, and the government is doing its best to help Lifan.
Because Yin Mingshan could not worry about himself and the country he had built with his own hands, he persisted until he was seventy-nine years old before retiring to the second line. Because of his long-standing admiration for Ford cars, Yin Mingshan also wanted to implement Ford's inheritance system. Choose a professional manager to come to the company and become the chairman. His son Yin Xidi, daughter Yin Suowei, and his wife Chen Qiaofeng will all hold equity in the company and are likely to become the company's heirs in the future. However, the turmoil at the top level also means that Lifan is gradually going bankrupt and its former glory is gone.
Conclusion
As a second-time entrepreneur and an entrepreneur, Yin Mingshan has also created brilliance, loves talents, is endlessly considerate of employees, and has done countless things in his later years. Charitable donation, he is the number one charity person in Chongqing. He once said that his company should not only benefit its employees, but also be kind to the society and be charitable. "Actively participate in charity, get rich first and help others, and achieve common prosperity for everyone." , this is the highest state of boss kindness."
Although few people know about Lifan now, there is no denying its former glory, and its decline is caused by countless reasons. Yin Mingshan was once the richest man in Chongqing. After failing to seize the industry opportunities and missing the opportunity for development, Yin Mingshan is now tens of billions in debt. The government once provided financial help in an attempt to save this crumbling group, but Lifan Group has long been unable to save itself. Huge financial loopholes have made the company unable to operate.
But when it comes to Yin Mingshan, he thinks about the source of his wealth and thinks about progress when he gets rich. He has been highly praised by many leaders. Among them, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji praised: "Yin Mingshan is a successful private entrepreneur!"