Those who have fought tough battles are more likely to make a difference

Those who have fought tough battles are more likely to make a difference

“Paying War”, a book for tough business men.

Today’s global popularity of Tesla has made Elon Musk’s reputation soaring. He was once one of the founders of electronic payment PayPal. Elon Musk, now regarded as a business icon, was swept out by PayPal in a fierce internal coup. This “Payment War” is a story about PayPal, but it is not the story of Elon Musk alone, but the internal and external wars experienced by a group of PayPal people, and the tough business men experienced in these wars. In fact, there have been too many commercial success heroes from PayPal, and they are collectively referred to as the PayPal gang.

You can see why they are called by looking at their achievements. Peter Thiel (Peter Thiel), later became Facebook’s first external investor, the return on this investment alone was more than a thousand times. Max Levchin (MaxLevchin), he founded Slide (a company that develops virtual social applications for social networking sites) was acquired by Google in 2010 for approximately $200 million. RoelofBotha (RoelofBotha), later became a partner of Sequoia Capital. Reid Hoffman (ReidHoffman), then founded the world-renowned professional social networking site LinkedIn (Linkedin). Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim later created YouTube (online video site).

In addition, companies created, invested in or managed by the PayPal gang include Flickr (picture sharing site), Digg (news mining site), Yelp (review site), SpaceX (American space exploration technology company), Yammer (corporate socialization) Network service) and so on.

The PayPal gang has created a huge influence in Silicon Valley and has even been regarded as a model for the entire Internet. Today, when the Internet finance circle talks about the huge impact that Internet finance will have on China, senior predecessors often cite the PayPal gang as a case of how an electronic payment company shocked Silicon Valley in one tough battle after another and gave birth to many heroic.

It is no accident that a company has so many business heroes. This is because this group of people have all been in the electronic payment industry. They have truly experienced wars and fought tough battles, so they can be more independent. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that many professional managers from large companies have difficulty adapting to the ever-changing market after leaving large platforms and mature processes.

Electronic payment is not a single point product that can be sold to customers and everything is well. It needs to understand the complicated upstream and downstream links of various industries from regulatory agencies to card organizations, banks, customers, and users. It needs to be unremitting day after day Fight against all kinds of cyber crooks and hackers. It is necessary to face both supervision and ruthless squeeze from competitors. Risks and crises often suddenly emerge when the tides seem calm, and you will be caught off guard. Not to mention, we will encounter all kinds of misunderstandings and even rumors from public opinion and the market. You can read many wonderful stories from this “Payment War”. For example, PayPal defeated eBay’s previous payment platform Billpoint and was acquired by eBay (the founder of Billpoint is also one of the angel investors of Epay Pay. ).

In addition, trading is the core business behavior. Whether it is a large multinational company or a roadside stall, business is ultimately for transactions, and transactions are realized through payment, so it is easier to see the essence of business through payment. When payment revolves around different industries, it is even more so when the various links of the industry are linked together. Therefore, people from payment companies tend to be more likely to win in business battles.

When I was still working in Silicon Valley in the United States, I witnessed the rise of PayPal and the extraordinary achievements it has made. This is why the idea of ​​returning to my country to start a business was born, and this was how Epay was born. We are engaged in a business similar to PayPal in China, and electronic payment is as challenging in China as in the United States. Because of this, we have also talked with many people in the PayPal gang, such as Elon Musk, Lulov Botta, Reid Hoffman, Chen Shijun and so on. In fact, since its establishment in 2003, Epay has fought hard battles no less than PayPal. Today, the romance of Yibao’s group of people is also taking root.

I read the original English of this book many years ago. After fighting a tough battle in China for more than ten years, I read “Paying War” today. I am even more impressed. I am willing to recommend it to China with more dreams, especially for the Internet. Entrepreneurs or managers with faith. I would like to recommend it to the forerunners of the Internet finance industry. The history of the Internet in the United States is writing a glorious chapter because of an electronic payment company.

Yu Chen

Co-founder of Epay Payment

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