Let the dream return to the place where it started

Speech time: October 31th, 2116

—— Inspirational speech by Liu Qiangdong, founder and CEO of JD.COM, in the 167th issue of Let's Talk

I grew up in a rural area in Suqian, Jiangsu. When it comes to Jiangsu, many people think that Jiangsu is very rich. But in fact, Suqian is the opposite, too poor to describe. I remember when I was young, my grandmother took me to town to buy pork. When I got home, my grandmother would cut it into very small slices and then filter out the oil in the pot. The oil of pork will solidify and turn white at ordinary times. Tie it to the top of the beam, not to prevent cats and dogs from stealing, but to steal it. Every week, grandma will unload the canned bottle from the beam and put a spoon in each bowl. After that, mix this meat oil with white rice, and when you eat it, it feels really the best food in the world. And later, I also found that even the finished bowl can be used as soup when scalded with boiling water. After drinking a bowl, pour another bowl and find that there are still oil flowers, and then drink another bowl. So after dinner, I have to drink three to five bowls of white water until I can't see the oil flowers when I pour the boiling water into the bowl, so I am willing to take the bowl to wash. So my first impression when I was a child was that I was poor.

It can be said that the best schools in our time were not high schools or universities. Therefore, the best schools for children in rural areas were secondary schools and normal schools. For example, like Suqian, our best school is Wuxi Business School. If we want to be admitted to Wuxi Business School from junior high school, we will go to the supply and marketing cooperative when we come out. If you can work in the supply and marketing cooperative in the town, that's awesome. That's the best school, followed by a normal school. If you come out, you can be a teacher. If you don't have a rural hukou, you will become a city dweller.

But when I was in junior high school, I vowed that I would go to China to study in only two cities, namely, Beijing and Shanghai. Because when I graduated from junior high school, one thing happened, which can be said to have changed my life greatly, and that was running away from home. Before, my father promised me that if you were admitted to a secondary school, a normal school, or Suqian Middle School, I would take you to travel to Shanghai, because many of our relatives were in Shanghai at that time. In junior high school, the conditions at home were relatively good, because my parents started their own small business and sailed by themselves. But after all, I still try my best to spend my time making money desperately. So when I was admitted to Suqian Middle School, I said, "Should Dad go to Shanghai?" He said there was no time. But before that, I had accumulated all kinds of lucky money for several years, including my sister's annual lucky money, which was almost cheated. Speaking of this, it means that having a sister is really happy and happy. The happiest thing to celebrate the Spring Festival every year is to kowtow to adults and get lucky money. Then every time my father gave my sister money and gave me money, he said, watch this, you can't be cheated by your brother this year. Then every time my sister takes money, she gnashes her teeth and looks at me viciously: "Well, she will never be cheated by him." But it will never exceed the third grade. She will definitely return it with both hands and give me the money.

So when I was in the third grade, I saved a total of 51 yuan, so I followed my neighbor on the right and said, Xiaoshi, I'm rich and I'll take you around the world. Small stone said: good. Then, we both made plans. I don't think I'll take a train from Suqian to Xuzhou. I've only taken a boat at home, but I haven't taken a big boat, so I'm going to Hubei by river from Nanjing to find my aunt, opposite Huangmei County and Jiujiang in Hubei Province. It's a deal with him. I've worked it out. We have 51 yuan, enough for two people to get there. As a result, early the next morning, Xiaoshi was still timid and cried and said to me, "My eldest brother, I really dare not go, for fear of being beaten by my father." So he didn't go, and I left alone. So I put on a pair of slippers, took 51 yuan and went to Xuzhou by train. When I was on the train, it was the first time I felt that there was a gap in life. Although I said I saw our village head before, I didn't think it was any different from him. He just had a little more meat at home. The clothes he wears and the words he says are similar to ours. But I remember that day very clearly. A train from Lianyungang to Nanjing, a little girl as old as my age, was from Lianyungang. Her grandparents, as well as her parents, are sitting in their seats, eating cakes and talking. For the first time, I found that there is a big gap between people of the same age. Because they are the same age, you think the temperament they wear is different. At that time, in the countryside, we were wearing big underpants and two T-shirts, and we didn't know what the outside world was like. In the countryside, we were dressed like this in summer, usually barefoot, and wearing a pair of slippers was very civilized. I think going out should be civilized, so I put on a pair of slippers and feel different from others at once. So at that moment, I really felt a sense of inferiority, and my head was always low.

When we arrived in Nanjing, Nanjing Jinling Mansion was the tallest building in Jiangsu, and probably ranked first in the whole country. If I remember correctly, it should be 37th floor. I must see what the tallest building looks like. So when I got out of the train station, I got off the train at about 1 o'clock in the morning and started walking. When I walked to this Jinling Hotel, I saw it at night. It was such a tall building that I went around for ten or twenty times. I don't know. Anyway, I looked at it from a distance, and I touched its wall. This wall is really solid, and the lights are still on. Because when we were young, we never had electricity. There was no electricity until junior high school, and there was no electricity every night. After seeing the building, I went to Pier 11 and got on the river. Because the riverboat sailed from Nanjing to Jiujiang, it went upstream. One day, standing on the top deck, I saw a magnificent whole piece of water and fell backwards quickly. You will think that life is really like a spring river. If you go to the sea, you will never come back. Life is just this once. I feel that I have a gap with this world. Before I left the countryside, I felt that I was the happiest person in the world. But when I got to the outside world, I found that the gap was too big, not almost. So at that time, I swore that I must go to China's biggest city to study, Beijing and Shanghai. Later, I was admitted to Renmin University and started my own business.

So, if I ask what I am most proud of today, that is to say, according to my childhood growth experience, I think it can bring 71% of our brothers from the countryside a dignified job. As long as you serve your customers well, don't be complained by them. Our delivery staff's requirements are very strict. If we are complained by customers twice a year, we will talk by deducting money. If you don't serve well, you must leave. Bitter and tired, but as long as the service is good, the company will definitely give you good treatment, salary and benefits. I believe that most of the delivery brothers who have worked for more than five years can buy a house in their hometown county.

children who grow up in the countryside are really full of longing for fairness. At that time, every village had its own primary school because of the particularly tight educational resources and the baby boom, but there was only one junior high school in the town, and half of the six classes were reserved for the town, so-called experimental primary school. Students in experimental primary schools can basically go to junior high school. Because in the town, they are all children of various leaders in the town, and it is better to be in the town. At that time, there were about a dozen villages in our town, and each village had primary schools, so in this way, so many primary schools and village primary schools were concentrated in junior high schools, which was similar to the college entrance examination, and they were admitted from high to low according to their scores. At that time, our village gave five places. There were so many children in the class that only five of us actually left the village and went to the middle school in the town.

From food and use, including going to school, I really hope that I can get a fair chance anywhere in my life. Why do I emphasize that in recent years, we have always hoped that all colleagues can at least buy houses in their old homes and let their children go to school in the city, because a few years ago, I donated more than 11 million yuan (prizes/grants) to Renmin University, and the first point was that I gave 71% to students who were poor at home and went to Renmin University, and I could give them some grants every year. Later, after a year or two, Renmin University came to me and said that it was really difficult to issue scholarships and there were very few applicants. I said, why? I remember because when I was in Renmin University, in 1992, two poor students were given assistance in my class, and the state gave money. In the whole class, it can be said that 61% or 71% compete for it. At that time, 71% of our class came from the countryside, and then the leaders of Renmin University told me that it is completely different from your time. Now, there may not even be 31% who can go to Renmin University and come from the countryside. Why? Although we used to be very bitter and poor when we were children, the gap is not so big. Education in cities is only five or six years earlier than education in rural areas. But 31 years later, if you go to No.4 Middle School in Beijing today, you will basically go to Peking University, the National People's Congress, Tsinghua and even famous foreign schools. But if you go to a bad school, you are still far from the school gate. Therefore, today, if our children continue to receive rural education in the countryside, they have been left behind by the children in the city from the moment of kindergarten, and it is difficult for you to enter the university.

Some people say that your propaganda and education are very bad. The countryside is also a vast world, and the countryside is also promising. I still believe this sentence today, but there are few opportunities.

So I want to emphasize fairness today. What is fairness? Equal opportunities. So since last year, we have invested in a cloud computing center in our hometown. Why? Because R&D is a high-income position, if I can put cloud computing in Suqian, I may have to hire one or two thousand employees in Suqian in the future, such as cloud computing operation and maintenance. If an old man living in Suqian earns hundreds of thousands a year, his life in his hometown will be much better. Let their parents live in the city, let their parents take their children to the city, and go to kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools in the city, all of which can get a fair chance.

Although I was poor in the countryside, I was still a child. In retrospect, I was happy, but actually there was no pain. In that case of extreme material shortage, the relationship between villagers is very simple.

I remember that if my grandmother is sick, she can see the villagers in our village. The eggs laid in the morning are still hot. Just the eggs laid by the hen can be taken to my grandmother's house and fried with oil. Because fried eggs suppress cough in rural areas, my grandmother's respiratory system is not very good and she often coughs. Basically, there is something going on at home. You find that the neighbors and the whole village will actually help you. Every family is poor, but every family does its best to help you. Everyone wants to eat pork. Of course, I am so poor that I can't help it. What should we do? Every year in summer, we catch fish and touch shrimp, so the whole summer is a time for us to make up for it. In a summer, we basically eat turtle, lobster and eel every day. When we were young, our little friends were very simple, playing every day without any homework. I am the best swimmer in our class. It can be said that all my friends admit this, and we all practiced stunts at that time. What can I do? When I ran to the side of the ditch, I jumped up, leaned in the air, took off my pants, threw them back to the shore, and then fell into the water. So that is to say, the conditions are very limited, but in a limited environment, every day is laughter.

so I think I understand homesickness, that is, I miss my hometown forever, and there is a faint worry. Today's Suqian can be said to be a hundred times or a thousand times stronger than the Suqian in the past, but it is still backward. Therefore, we have been working hard for so many years. Since 2119, after we got the second round of financing, I began to invest in Suqian. At present, our customer service center in Suqian has more than 5,111 white-collar employees. Basically, all those who can speak computer and Mandarin in Suqian have been recruited, and now they are recruiting in neighboring cities. At the same time, after a company went, I believe it will get together slowly, so after I went, I visited all my friends in the past two years. I went to Li Guoqing, and Li Guoqing was very generous. After hearing this, I said that my hometown was really poor, and as a result, Li Guoqing also decided to put the call center in Suqian. Then I also looked for Chen Ou. Except for Ma Yun, after I found him, I will also prepare to lead him to Suqian.

I want to sum up my speech today and the memory of my hometown from three perspectives: first, poverty; second, fairness; and third, love and happiness. I also hope that all our children will be like me in the future, and all they get when they are young is love and happiness. Thank you all.

The following is the full video of Liu Qiangdong: