Ren Zhengfei's internal letter: The mission is bigger, the responsibility is heavier

So many things have happened throughout the ages, just like a river of spring water flowing eastward.

When we were young, our mother told us the story of the Greek Hercules, and we admired him very much.

When we were young and ignorant, we admired great heroes like Li Yuanba and Yuwen Chengdu, and spread the absurd story of Zhang Fei "killing" (fighting) Yue Fei.

In the period of youth, I suddenly became sensitive to the fact that "Li Qingzhao's eternal lover is Xiang Yu, who is as strong as a mountain". So far, "Live as a hero and die as a ghost hero" has become our life motto.

Of course, this kind of personal heroism is not without meaning. It forces us to fight for our studies and achieve better results.

When I entered society, I realized many years later that what caused me to suffer so much was this “ignorant” philosophy of life.

I didn’t join the Communist Youth League in college, and I didn’t join the Communist Party when I served in the army for many years. I was in adversity everywhere and felt very isolated. When I understood the political connotation of the phrase “unity is strength”, I was already over 40.

When I think of the wasted years, I wonder how I could be so naive and ridiculous, not understanding openness, compromise, and grayness at all?

“When people realize their own insignificance, their actions begin to become great.”

I founded Huawei when I was forced by life and my life was narrow. At that time, I realized that individuals are the smallest in the long river of history, which is the true meaning of life.

I have seen the winding mountain roads in Yunnan. They are so dangerous. How did they determine the route and build it more than a hundred years ago? I admire the wisdom and hard work of the road builders.

I have seen thin silk clothes and was impressed by the vivid patterns on them. How could the weavers be so ingenious! Oh my! There is also the Great Wall, the trackers on the river, the high-speed trains running...

I deeply realize that the power of organization and the power of the people are infinite.

Only when people realize their own insignificance do they begin to act great.

When I founded Huawei, I was already over 40.

What does “no confusion” mean? In the feudal society of thousands of years, it was a measure of people’s psychological maturity. When I reached the age of no confusion, mankind had entered the computer age, and the world started to go crazy, and could not wait for me to reach no confusion.

I suddenly realized that I was becoming more and more ignorant.

It's not that I'm not confused, but that I need to start over and learn again. The times have left me with neither the time nor the opportunity to be confused, and the future is full of uncertainties.

When I first came to Shenzhen, I was planning to engage in technical work or do some scientific research. If I had chosen this path, I would have been thrown into the garbage heap by the times long ago.

I later realized that no matter how hard a person tries, he will never be able to keep up with the pace of the times, let alone in an era of knowledge explosion.

Only by organizing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people to fight together, and standing on them, can you touch the feet of the times.

When I turned to establish Huawei, I no longer wanted to be an expert, but an organizer.

"I was once called a hands-off manager. It's not that I'm hands-off, it's that I really don't know how to manage."

In the face of the times, I am becoming less and less knowledgeable about technology, finance, and management. If I cannot treat the group democratically and give full play to the roles of heroes from all walks of life, I will accomplish nothing.

Engaging in organizational construction became my later pursuit. How to organize thousands of troops was a huge challenge for me.

I founded Huawei, which was called a self-employed company in China at that time. For such a weak self-employed company, it was a bit arrogant and inappropriate to want to organize thousands of troops. It was like a fantasy of eating swan meat.

When I founded the company, I designed an employee stock ownership system to unite employees through profit sharing. At that time, I didn’t understand the stock option system, let alone the fact that the West was very developed in this area and had many forms of incentive mechanisms. Based on my past setbacks in life, I realized that I should share responsibilities and profits with my employees.

When I first started the company, I discussed this approach with my father, who had studied economics, and I received his strong support.

This flower that was planted unintentionally has blossomed so brightly today and has made Huawei's great cause.

When Huawei was first established, I allowed the "guerrilla leaders" in various places to do what they wanted. In fact, I couldn't lead them.

In the first ten years, I hardly held any office meetings or the like. I always flew to various places to listen to their reports, and did whatever they said, understanding them and supporting them.

Listen to the divergent thinking of the R&D personnel, the so-called R&D was in a mess. It was impossible to have a clear direction at that time. It was like a fly hitting the glass window. Listen to the customer's little request for improvement and strive to find opportunities...

Not to mention how to manage finances, I didn't understand finance at all. Later, I didn't handle the relationship with finance well, so they were promoted less, and the responsibility lies with me.

Maybe it's because I'm incompetent or stupid that I delegated so much power, allowing the talents of various leaders to be fully utilized and making Huawei a success.

At that time, I was called a hands-off boss. It was not that I was hands-off, but I really didn't know how to manage it.

Today's successors are all elites. Will they be as dull as I was and continue to delegate power, mobilize the enthusiasm of all, carry forward the past and open up the future?

They are in charge of bigger businesses and have heavier responsibilities. Will they be overwhelmed by the work and have no time to listen to the nagging from below?

I believe in Huawei's inertia and the wisdom of its successors.

"Huawei almost collapsed, and I was under extreme pressure, but fortunately the 'rotation system' saved us"

After 1997, there was ideological confusion within the company, with many different ideologies and warlords showing off their strength. I had no idea where the company was going.

I asked professors from Renmin University to discuss a "Basic Law" to gather everyone's divergent thinking. After several discussions, the "Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period" was silent before we knew it. The professors from Renmin University are so powerful. How did they unify everyone's understanding?

From then on, the so-called Huawei corporate culture began to take shape. People say how good and powerful this culture is. This was not created by me, but was realized by all employees.

At that time, I changed from a hands-off boss to a cultural teacher.

People in the industry always say that I am mysterious and great, but I know that I am not as great as I thought. I am not hiding myself to promote myself, but I am keeping a low profile out of fear.

The truly smart ones are the 130,000 employees and the tolerance and guidance of the customers. I just glue their talents together through the method of profit sharing.

Once the company has properly centralized its will, it must create the necessary systems to support this culture.

At this time, I, the fake shopkeeper, could no longer hide. From the end of the last century to the beginning of this century, about a few years before 2003, I was exhausted. My body was exhausted at that time. I had many diseases and had two cancer operations, but I was optimistic.

At that time, how many documents were needed to guide and constrain the operation of the company? At that time, the company already had tens of thousands of employees, and more and more people were pouring in every day. You can imagine how chaotic it was.

I began to understand why those executives who couldn't bear it chose to commit suicide. When the problem is focused on you, and you can't run without making decisions, and you are focused under the sun, you will know that it is not easy to be a CEO.

Even after working more than ten hours a day, I am still confused, my clothes are wrinkled, and I am conflicted inside and out.

I have no suitable management experience in my life. From school to the military, I have never been an "official" with administrative power. It is impossible for me to have the qualities to produce effective documents. I changed them left and right again, repeatedly making many mistakes, which caused many excellent talents to get burned and run away...

During this period, I was crossing the river by feeling the stones and almost drowned.

In 2002, the company nearly collapsed.

The IT bubble burst, and conflicts within and outside the company intersected, but I was powerless to control the company. I had nightmares for half a year and often cried when I woke up.

Really, if it weren't for the backbones of the company who ignited their hearts in the darkness to illuminate the way forward, the company would have long since disappeared. Chairman Sun has made great contributions to uniting employees and boosting their confidence during this period.

Around 2004, when an American consulting company helped us design our company's organizational structure, they learned that we did not have a central organization, which was unbelievable. In addition, the senior management was just an empty appointment and did not operate. So they proposed to establish an EMT (Executive Management Team).

I didn't want to be the chairman of EMT, so I started a rotating chairman system, with eight leaders taking turns in power, each for half a year. After two cycles, it evolved into this year's rotating CEO system.