The story of Lei Jun, the Chinese Steve Jobs who tore Samsung and Apple with his smartphones

In 2014, Lei Jun (founder of Xiaomi) declared that he wanted to conquer the world with his smartphones. A boss at Apple mocked him. Today, in addition to having made a big splash all over the world, he announced that he also wants to build electric cars.

Today I want to tell you the story of this visionary man. I didn’t compare him to the legendary Steve Jobs by accident.

Xiaomi ranks first in Italy and second in Europe for mobile phone sales. On a global scale, it is between first and second place.

It is an incredible achievement, in just 10 years since the creation of Xiaomi.

Lei started from scratch. Slowly, he found enough money and made a lot of attempts with start-ups. Suddenly he faced a difficult choice that was fatal.

We’ll talk about this later. For now, please keep reading. He is another entrepreneur, among those I have already talked about, who has a history we can learn a lot from.

You may already be thinking this…everyone has something to teach us. Anyone who achieves great results like him becomes a master of how to become a super entrepreneur.

Let’s start from the beginning since Lei Jun had…

FACE TO FACE WITH AMAZON

The beginning of Lei Jun’s journey was very normal; he studied and worked as an employee. But then something changed…

He graduated in 1991 with a degree in computer engineering from Wuhan University. Soon, he started working for Kingsoft in Beijing. He made software.

He soon became the company’s CEO.

In 2000, he founded Joyo.com, an e-commerce company whose success was immediate.

He receives a magnificent proposal that will unlock his future, or destroy it. He could find himself holding a lot of money with no business to make it profitable.

Or carry on that little gem he created, develop it and make it grow. But intuition tells him to sell.

He could have screwed everything up and it could have ended badly. It was a really difficult choice!

“Amazon bought Joyo.com for $75 million, four years after its creation.”

Now he had to start from scratch. He had a big project in mind. With that amount of money, Lei already knew what to do. He had a plan.

In fact, 2010 was decisive. He left Kingsoft and founded Xiaomi, along with other investors. He immediately became the president and CEO.

This was his breakthrough. But he started from scratch.

THE ESCALATION TO THE SUCCESS

Xiaomi began by producing only smartphones, focusing on quality. Remember this word; quality.

I am an almost millionaire Italian entrepreneur. I often see that marketing cannot work if you do things wrong. This was one of Lei’s principles which made him a mess in the East.

He revolutionized an entrepreneurial philosophy!

He wasn’t alone in making this bold choice. Beside him, was a friend who is still at Xiaomi.

I’m talking about Lin Bin, an engineer who has remained in the shadows over the years but he was Lei Jun’s, right-hand man.

After embarking on this new venture, with his capital of $75 million, growth begins. It is constant and continuous. Lei is a real entrepreneur.

A year after the creation of Xiaomi (2011), he decided to invest in over 20 Chinese startups. Every year he invested the same amount of money in startups.

Thanks to this attitude, today the company has a truly diversified structure. It is strong and has an added value through many innovative sectors.

From smartphones to other hi-tech products: from routers to batteries, from tablet accessories to fitness bracelets and processors.

Here are the most important stages of his career. Hold on tight:

· In 2014, he became the eighth richest person in China, with a net worth of $9.9 billion.

· Forbes elected him the Asian businessman of the year. Meanwhile, his net worth has grown to over $35 billion.

· In 2018, Xiaomi was listed on the stock exchange with a valuation of around 54 billion dollars.

That’s when Lei came to a screeching halt. In 2017, he closed the balance sheet down by $6.8 billion. It had been a year since smartphone orders dropped.

The first quarter of 2018 also closed with a loss of over $1 billion.

But the CEO of Xiaomi was still convinced that he could dominate the world with his mobile phones.

In the same year, he declared the goal was to position himself among the top in at least 16 of the 70 countries in which Xiaomi was present.

This is what happened;

“Xiaomi now sells more smartphones than all the others in Italy. In Europe, on the other hand, it ranks second in terms of sales. In the world, it is second and breathing down the neck of Samsung, while it has left Apple behind.”

Lei’s company ranks 338 in the prestigious Fortune 500 Global 2021 ranking.

He doesn’t want to stop, he even announced a division that will build electric cars.

How did he get up there in the Olympus of businessmen? I wondered.

There are many elements that put together products with results. At least one lesson can be learned from every successful person.

I am enjoying a very tasty cup of coffee while I am writing this. Now I will explain what Lei Jun’s story teaches us.

HE PLACES PHILOSOPHY BEFORE HIS PRODUCTS

I’m going straight to the point. Here is what Lei recently explained.

“The same care that you dedicate to great works and to the universe must be dedicated to every single grain of rice.”

Xiaomi in fact means “small grain of rice” in Mandarin Chinese.

Therefore, the quality of the products that Xiaomi produces is important. This philosophy is also put into the production of electric cars.

Xiaomi Auto was created with a capital of 10 billion dollars. It is an operation the group is betting on. It has hired 500 engineers in China with a focus on quality.

The attention to detail might seem obvious. This was not when true for China 8 years ago. It may still be true of China today.

It is also revolutionizing the way they do business in the East.

Now you understand why I made the comparison with Apple’s Steve Jobs. It’s obvious that he was trying to imitate him even when with the black pullovers and the scenographic style he used to present the new products.

Today, he can say that he has done more than Steve Jobs. Who knows what he will be able to do with electric cars by challenging another genius like Elon Musk.

Now if you want to find out more information and crazy news to share with friends follow my Twitter profile. Click here and follow me https://twitter.com/SirNickNite

Nico Nobili —Alias SirNickNite