Wang Qinggen was born in a poor family in rural areas of China. He won the Chemistry Olympiad in high school, was interviewed by university leaders, and entered Nanjing University without taking the exam. He was admitted to Stanford University in 1998 and stayed in the United States after graduation.
Now he should be working as a chief engineer at PayPal, with an annual salary of up to 200,000 US dollars.
This is an inspiring story of "a noble son comes from a poor family", and Wang Qinggen has indeed been a legend for a long time.
Until 2012, Wang Qinggen, who was only 40 years old, committed suicide at home.
At this time, Wang Qinggen was 35 years old, the same age as Li Shuqing. He was considered to be in the prime of life. However, he did not speak much at the gathering at Liu Zhiyuan's house and was somewhat silent.
Wang Qinggen graduated from Stanford and his home is in San Jose, California, which is far away from New York. However, he has close connections with Zhao Yaquan, Shen Rong, and Liu Zhiyuan. Zhao Yaquan and Liu Zhiyuan both graduated from Nanjing University. Zhao Yaquan and his
His wife was also a classmate. In addition, another high school classmate of Zhao Yaquan and Shen Rong was also an alumnus of Stanford with him.
In a sense, this is also a small circle of people.
In addition to the four Wei Qingfans, there were six people in this small gathering. Wei Qingfan was very concerned about two of them. One was Wang Qinggen, and the other was that "another classmate" named Wang Hai. Now
Works at Google's New York headquarters and is also a software engineer.
They are all good entrepreneurial team members, but Wang Hai seems to have a smoother personality, which makes him feel uneasy.
After all, the two people he currently likes the most, Zhang Yuanping and Wang Qinggen, both have relatively down-to-earth personalities. Zhang Yuanping is a bit of a "grumpy old man", but he feels more at ease when used.
Of course, entrepreneurship is not about making friends, ability is the key, and even in a research and development team, having a person with a smooth personality is not necessarily a bad thing.
What's more, people may not necessarily like him yet, and it's too early to dislike him now.
"Uncle Wang, what is your main job in the company?"
Liu Zhiyuan's house had a rectangular table. Wei Qingfan was sitting next to Li Miaoyu on one side and Wang Qinggen on the other side. After considering it for a while, he took the initiative to chat with Wang Qinggen.
Wang Qinggen was a little surprised that he took the initiative to ask such a topic, but immediately replied: "Oh, mainly software work."
This is nonsense, obviously I don't want to talk about too many specific things with him, a high school graduate.
Wei Qingfan asked: "I know that PayPal is engaged in online payment. Are you responsible for this project?"
Wang Qinggen was even more surprised, and said with a smile: "Yes."
He is now the chief engineer, and naturally all projects related to the company's business are within his scope of responsibility.
After answering, I probably felt that it was hard for a child to take the initiative to chat with me, so I asked again: "Do you know PayPal?"
"Well, there is also this kind of business in China now. I don't know if you have heard of it. Alibaba has Taobao and JD.com, both of which are engaged in e-commerce."
Wei Qingfan explained with a smile, "Where there is a market, there will naturally be services. Now in China, Taobao is the main one. JD.com is a little smaller in size. Moreover, Alibaba itself has also launched online payment. Now it is mainly bank payment."
Several elders who were chatting around them looked over at the same time. Li Shuqing and Zhao Yaquan were members of their own family, except for Liu Zhiyuan, and several others including Shen Rong looked a little surprised.
I was surprised that he, a high school student, could say these things casually, and even more surprised that his demeanor and tone when he spoke did not look like a quasi-college student at all. Instead, he seemed to be having an equal chat with elites like them.
.
Liu Zhiyuan knew more, and said with a smile: "Despite his young age, he has much more money than us. He invested more than 30 million in stocks alone, and he also opened an online store."
"More money than us" is a true statement.
Thirty million dollars is equivalent to five million U.S. dollars. Even if there is New York here, even if everyone here is a high-income group, even if they have people working on Wall Street, among the people here, there is really no one who can come up with such a large amount of funds.
.
High income does not mean high savings, but it certainly means high consumption.
In modern society, money means status, especially here. After hearing this, several people's expressions changed slightly, and Wang Qinggen couldn't help but look at Wei Qingfan again.
Born in a poor family, he undoubtedly understands the importance of money. When he was studying for a Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford, it was because he heard people said that computer majors are more profitable, so he studied for a master's degree in computer science during his Ph.D.
After graduation, he joined the computer industry.
"It's just luck, I just happened to catch up with the stock market's surge."
Wei Qingfan said a few words of modesty as always, wanting to wait for other people's attention to move away and continue chatting with Wang Qinggen, but unfortunately, everyone's attention would not be able to move away for a while.
Someone laughed and said: "That is indeed richer than us."
Wang Hai looked at Li Miaoyu again and smiled at Li Shuqing and Zhao Yaquan: "Did you just say that this is Miaomiao's classmate?"
The others had subtle expressions, mostly with kind-hearted teasing and smiles. Li Miaoyu naturally understood that everyone had "misunderstood" and couldn't help but feel his cheeks heat up.
Li Shuqing coughed and explained: "Yes, my classmate, I heard that U.S. stocks are easy to make money, so I came over to take a look."
Wang Hai smiled and said: "It's hard to predict the stock market now, so it's better to be on the safe side."
Shen Rong smiled and said: "People just think that the US stock market is going to fall, so they come to buy short. They don't think that it is going to rise."
Several other people were stunned when they heard this. They all have a lot of assets in the stock market, and naturally they know that the stock market is volatile now, but like most people at this time, they are still very confident.
Fluctuations are normal. How can you make more money without fluctuations? Only with fluctuations and upwards can there be room for operation.
But what the hell is short selling?
Even on Wall Street, short-selling institutions are very few and are very unpopular.
After all, everyone wants the stock to rise, and only when it rises can everyone make money. However, short-selling institutions really go "short-selling" and try their best to make the stock fall. Although it is targeted at individual stocks, it can easily cause a chain reaction.
There are many such examples in history, and many people have made a fortune while the country struggled to make money. Even during the Great Depression, some people took advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune from short selling.
"I just saw the subprime mortgage crisis and wanted to give it a try."
Wei Qingfan did not hide anything. Anyway, no one would believe the truth. As for whether he would regret it afterwards, that had nothing to do with him.
At this time, the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis had gradually emerged, but it was still far underestimated. Everyone believed that this was a short-term crisis that could be overcome quickly.
After all, so many financial institutions have been unlucky and stocks have fallen. Isn’t this enough?
How many years has it been since the Internet bubble burst?
How could another bubble burst so soon?
The attention of others was finally attracted by the subprime mortgage crisis. Wei Qingfan turned to chat with Wang Qinggen to learn about PayPal's business. He was not very interested in this, just to open up the topic.
Today, PayPal is expanding globally and is preparing to set up an international business headquarters in Singapore. As chief engineer, Wang Qinggen, even if he is not responsible for this aspect of business, has naturally heard about it.
The two expressed optimism about the future prospects of e-commerce and online payment related industries. After chatting for a while, Wei Qingfan casually asked: "Has Uncle Wang considered returning to China for development?"
According to the Xiaomi model, customizing the system UI is undoubtedly an extremely important part, and can even be said to directly determine the success or failure of the start-up. Software talents are naturally the top priority.
However, with the experience of later generations, Wei Qingfan is very clear about the development history and direction of the Android system. He knows what kind of system he wants to make, but he just needs others to come up with the system.
The difficulty is much lower than the original MIUI, and the requirements for the development team are naturally lower.
But if we can recruit better candidates, we should naturally try to be as good as possible. After all, we will face fierce competition in the future.
The person in front of me happens to be a genius in this field.
In other words, it may be more than just this field.
You know, he studied chemistry during his undergraduate, master's and doctoral studies. Just because he heard that computers are more profitable, he got a master's degree in computer science during his Ph.D. and became the chief engineer of PayPal.
There is no doubt about talent.
However, what if he had not changed careers to make money and continued his studies in the field of chemistry?
Domestic media are promoting the fact that he became the chief engineer of PayPal as a Chinese, touting his annual salary of 200,000 US dollars, and using him to prove the saying that "rich children come from poor families", but few people seem to discuss such a genius. If there is no
If you change careers and return to your country to develop, what achievements might you make?
After he committed suicide, many teachers, relatives and friends lamented and said, "It would be great if he returned to China."
However, the fact is that none of the elite geniuses such as "Wang Qinggen" have returned to China in these years.
We cannot stand on the moral high ground and say that they are unpatriotic. After all, they all have to eat, and the difference in treatment between those who return and those who stay is too big.
If we really want to reflect on it, maybe the responsibility does not lie with them. In this era, it can be said that the country is poor and weak. What will happen more than ten years later?
People on the Internet are starting to put their feet on the United States, as if they are pointing out the country with the attitude of "we are still recovering". How are scientific researchers treated?
Aren’t “question writers” still openly ridiculed by the media?
Wei Qingfan was unable to change the general environment, but he could still save a genius from his tragic fate and let him use his intelligence and talents.
First of all, this is undoubtedly a genius. He joined PayPal in 2004 and became the company's chief engineer in 2007.
Even though he had no experience in developing mobile operating systems, he believed that this person was capable of doing this job.
Secondly, the other party's dilemma lies in money, and he happens to have money, so success or failure is a matter of convenience.
In later generations, there were many speculations and rumors about the cause of Wang Qinggen's death, mainly focusing on depression. However, depression is not something you are born with.
Why does a talented person with great success and fame suffer from depression?
Later, one of his colleagues once said on the Internet: "He works very hard, seriously, and carefully, but when faced with pressure from his boss, he dare not say no, and he is forced to death."
This may be the real reason behind it.
Perhaps it is due to personality, or perhaps there are character flaws common to many Chinese who have come out of China in this era. Many Chinese will always have the so-called "ceiling" and the fact of being "bullied" in the workplace in a foreign country.
——According to Wang Qinggen’s colleagues later, Wang Qinggen’s salary was cut in half very early, from US$200,000 to US$100,000.
At the same time, his career success has made Wang Qinggen gain great attention and popularity in China. In his alma mater, whether in elementary school, middle school or university, he is a legend and has countless juniors and students.
He was regarded as an idol, and his teachers also used him as an example to inspire everyone.
Such glory and expectations are weighty. If you want your parents to live a good life, no matter what happens in your hometown, you will naturally think of this glorious man who earns US dollars abroad.
This may also be one of the factors that lead to depression and eventual suicide. The pressure of the workplace and the expectations of the body work together to lead to the tragedy.
Wei Qingfan had never had anything to do with him. To put it bluntly, he was willing to help and had good intentions, but it was more because of the other person's ability and the saying that he was "forced to death by his boss."
This may be a character flaw, but from the perspective of the boss, he is also a good employee who is as capable as a scalper and works hard without complaining.
The difference is that Wei Qingfan does not skimp on his salary.