On April 1, 2015, on the eve of Qingming Festival, in a remote mountain village in central Hunan, the sound of firecrackers was heard from time to time during grave sweeping. A woman wearing white jeans greeted the villagers enthusiastically and stuffed red envelopes worth 100 or 200 yuan into their hands. Everyone affectionately called her the richest woman. No, are these people just joking on April Fool's Day? There is a richest man in this poor country? This is really no joke. Half a month ago, the jeans woman's company was listed in Shenzhen. The market value of her shares was as high as 68 billion yuan, making her the richest woman in China. This is the first time since she became the richest woman that she returned to her hometown to visit her father's grave. She is Zhou Qunfei, the boss of Lens Technology.

At the same time, a post about "The Most Inspiring Mistress' Growth History" went viral on the Internet, saying that the newly minted richest woman left her hometown to work in Shenzhen and became the boss's "Mistress" and "successfully After taking the position, he set up his own business, poached most of the middle-level and senior managers of the original company and all the customers, and then married the original boss's driver... Suddenly, Zhou Qunfei became the target of thousands of people. So what is the truth? Let’s follow in the footsteps of Zhou Qunfei, the richest woman, and explore her growth path!

1

Zhou Qunfei’s hometown is Chongxi Village, Hutian Town, Xiangxiang City, Hunan Province, located at the junction of Changsha, Xiangtan and Loudi. Surrounded by mountains and with congested traffic, many people started to go south to Guangdong to work together in the 1980s. It not only produced one of the richest women in China, but also produced many bosses with assets worth tens of millions.

According to Zhou Qunfei’s neighbor’s aunt, Zhou Qunfei’s date of birth was not 1970 as is known to the public, but May 29, 1971. This was confirmed by Zhou Qunfei’s friend Li Yunhua, because they were born in the same family. Born on the same day, he called Zhou Qunfei "little sister" when he was a child. They chopped firewood, herded cattle, and went to school together.

Zhou Qunfei’s father is a veteran who likes to tinker with new gadgets. Unfortunately, he had an accident while tinkering with explosives. Two of his fingers were blown off and he was almost blind. At this time, the "little girl" Not yet born. When Zhou Qunfei was five years old, his mother committed suicide because she could not bear the pressure from the family, leaving her blind husband with three little mouths waiting for food.

This is such a poor and broken family, with almost no hope of life, but the father, who is the backbone of the family, has not fallen. In Xiao Qunfei's eyes, his father is simply "all-powerful". In order to maintain the family's livelihood, he once had eight masters. He knew how to build houses, bake bricks, tiles, and work with bamboo strips, and he also treated the villagers. Under the influence of his ears and eyes, Zhou Qunfei also developed the habit of loving learning. He has read the "Three Character Classic" and "Zengguang Xianwen" since he was a child. "The poor live in the busy city and no one cares about it, and the rich have distant relatives in the mountains." Sentences like "When people are not lucky" still come out of her mouth every time, and they inspire her to forge ahead all the time. This habit affected her throughout her life. The first place she went to work in Shenzhen was next to Shenzhen University. She studied accounting and computers, and also passed the customs declaration and driver's license exams. Later, she also participated in training classes at Tsinghua University and continued to study. It will undoubtedly benefit Zhou Qunfei throughout his life.

In addition to chopping firewood, cutting bamboo, and hunting pigweed after school, Zhou Qunfei sometimes leads his blind father to the streets to sell bamboo baskets. Although my father has poor eyesight, he can skillfully weave various baskets as long as he gets bamboo strips. At that time, the baskets sold for 8 cents each, which could be exchanged for some oil and salt money, allowing this difficult family to make ends meet.

When he gets home in the evening, his father will ask Zhou Qunfei to keep accounts. He remembers exactly how much he earned and how much he spent that day. This can be regarded as Zhou Qunfei’s earliest business enlightenment! Her father's education and bitter childhood have become Zhou Qunfei's precious spiritual wealth, which has always inspired her to move forward.

Despite the family’s hard work, the meager income could not sustain the tuition fees of their three children. Although Zhou Qunfei’s beautiful calligraphy and compositions were often praised by teachers, in the second year of junior high school, Xiaoqun’s Fei dropped out of school. At this time, the TV series "Foreign Girl" became popular in China, and going south to Guangdong to work became a dream of young people. Many students did not have time to say "goodbye" to their teachers and joined the torrent of going south. The skinny Zhou Qunfei was also a member of the crowd. Although she didn't know what was waiting for her in front of her, she had gone through hardships and wanted to get out of the mountains. The idea of ??one day becoming successful and returning home with great success was deeply buried in the heart of the 16-year-old girl.

Zhou Qunfei still remembers the scene when she first arrived in Shenzhen. It was a drizzly night. She got off the bus at Nanshan Hospital carrying a quilt on her back and a bucket. The road was dark, and if I accidentally stepped into the rice fields, my feet would be covered with mud. Just when she was in a panic, she saw a handsome boy who looked like a college student. She went up to find out which factory was recruiting workers, and the handsome boy took her to a factory called Aoya Optical. Zhou Qunfei still remembers that kind man, who helped him find the starting point of his career.

Aoya Optical is a small factory that processes watch glass. It is a three-story dilapidated small building. The equipment is all refurbished from old machines. The employees eat, live and work in that small building. The skinny Zhou Qunfei became an inconspicuous working girl on the assembly line. She worked from 8 a.m. to early morning every day, earning more than ten yuan a day for her hard work. In less than 10 days, Zhou Qunfei was familiar with the entire process of cutting, shaping and polishing the product. After working for three months, Zhou Qunfei felt that "there was nothing for me to learn" and resigned.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Qunfei’s resignation letter attracted the attention of the factory. Maybe it was because of her good handwriting, or maybe a resignation letter expressing gratitude from a working girl was so valuable at that time, but the factory director did not approve Zhou Qunfei’s resignation. , but asked her to start a new screen printing department.

In 1991, when Li Yunhua, a young friend from the village, went to work at Oya Optical, he had the impression that Zhou Qunfei, who always had mud on his face when he was a child, was already a manager who was very familiar with the glass processing process. At this time, Zhou Qunfei had some spare time. She did not go out to play like other girls. She spent all available time learning various skills. At that time, you couldn't learn to drive a car when you took a driver's license, you could only learn to drive a truck. The steering wheel of the truck was so heavy that her palms were blistered. When changing the tires, she couldn't turn the screws even though she pressed her whole body on the wrench. Even so, she still got a B license.

Zhou Qunfei also opened a clothing store and began to learn business. He would go to the store to shout when he had time. Hard work always pays off. As everyone often says, how you use your spare time determines a person's future. Before we knew it, the ignorant people like us had been thrown thousands of miles away from the richest man.

In 1990, Zhou Qunfei encountered a development opportunity. At that time, Aoya Optics was expanding, but halfway through the construction of the new factory, the boss was ready to divest. Zhou Qunfei took the initiative to find the boss and recommended himself: "If it works, you can set the salary; if it fails, I will work for you for the rest of my life." The boss looked at the perseverance in this thin girl's eyes and thought that instead of giving up halfway, he might as well give her a try.

This is a brand new beginning. Zhou Qunfei has done every step of the entire factory including house building, wiring, fire protection, filing, customs declaration, production, etc., which has laid a solid foundation for her to run a factory on her own in the future. . In this new factory, Zhou Qunfei creatively applied the self-taught screen printing technology to her work, and the results were very good. The entire factory ran well and became the most profitable factory in the company. The boss was also impressed by her intelligence and ability. The boss’s name was Yang Chengda. In 1994, Yang Chengda became Zhou Qunfei’s first husband.

In 1993, Zhou Qunfei felt that he was hampered by others everywhere and could not display his talents, so he left the factory.

3

At this time, Zhou Qunfei was already well-known in the industry. When they heard that she had resigned, many bosses rushed to invite her to join their companies. One of Zhou Qunfei's cousins ??said to her: "Everyone you work for is a working girl. You still have to suffer. How about we do it ourselves! If you can afford the salary, we will follow you. If you can't, we will follow you." She originally wanted to get ahead. Zhou Qunfei was moved.

On March 18, 1993, in a private house with three bedrooms and one living room in Huangtian, Baoan, Shenzhen (near the current Baoan International Airport), a small factory with only 8 people was busy day and night. This small workshop is engaged in the OEM production of watch glass. All the members are as follows: Zhou Qunfei, his brother and sister-in-law, his sister and her husband, and three cousins. It is a proper family workshop. The entrepreneurial capital came from Zhou Qunfei's salary and more than 20,000 Hong Kong dollars saved from opening a clothing store.

It was not as rumored that Zhou Qunfei took away all the customers of the original company. It turned out that the company's customers were all foreign merchants, and Zhou Qunfei's factory initially only made domestic orders. In order to find customers, Zhou Qun flew around to visit customers. Not to mention the humiliation, he was even "welcome" by a wolf dog. However, we finally received a few business orders, and the number of employees grew to dozens, and we gradually established a firm foothold.

It is worth mentioning that in the second year after Zhou Qunfei started her business, her current husband Zheng Junlong joined and was responsible for buying materials, taking orders, and delivering goods. Zheng Junlong is from Ningyuan, Yongzhou, Hunan. Zhou Qunfei and Yang Cheng got married in 2008, seven years after their divorce. Zheng Junlong is not a boss driver. If he is a driver, he is also a driver who delivers goods to his family.

Although starting a business is difficult, there is also joy. At that time, the OEM fee for printing a piece of glass was 1.5 yuan, and one person could print 7,000 pieces a day. The profit was considerable. Zhou Qunfei tasted the joy of success for the first time.

This small workshop lasted for four years. The turning point came from the Asian financial crisis in 1997. At that time, many customers could not afford the processing fees and used equipment to pay off their debts. Zhou Qunfei seized the opportunity, bought several machines at low prices, and became an independent watch glass supplier. The factory moved to a new building and the signboard of Hengsheng Optical Co., Ltd. was displayed.

By chance, Zhou Qunfei received an order to process mobile phone panels. She used the old watch glass technology on the mobile phone panels. Unexpectedly, this mobile phone was very popular. This was the very popular Korean woman at the time. TCL3188 mobile phone endorsed by Xingjin Xishan. Then other domestic mobile phone brands asked for cooperation, and Zhou Qunfei's career ushered in rapid development.

In 2003, Zhou Qunfei invested in technology and equipment to establish Lens Technology Company, and began to fully shift into mobile phone glass production. Lens is the homophonic pronunciation of the English word "LENS" for "lens". This name has brought Zhou Qunfei huge wealth. When foreign businessmen search for "LENS", they will jump out of her company.

4

In 2004, Lens ushered in greater development, but at the same time it also faced the biggest challenge, which almost caused Zhou Qunfei to suffer a disaster.

In this year, the then mobile phone giant Motorola came to purchase glass screens. At that time, Lens had less than 1,000 people. Customers were worried and asked such questions in a coaxing manner: " If the mobile phone screen is broken and cuts off our president or a big star, can you afford it?"

In order to meet the customer's requirements, Zhou Qunfei rushed into the factory and led the technicians to conduct experiments and find parameters. After three days and three nights, the glass screen's drop resistance test finally met the other party's requirements. The purchasing director of Motorola called and requested that "all Lens production capacity should be given to Motorola." Happiness came too suddenly, and Zhou Qunfei could not afford to hesitate. At that time, he could only say "YES OR NO", and Zhou Qunfei decisively accepted the order.

To be honest, Zhou Qunfei really had to bite the bullet and accept this big order at that time, because she needed funds but no capital, talent but no talent, raw materials but no raw materials, and the other party was in a hurry to get the goods. The partners just withdrew the 2 million they invested a year ago. There is not even a single person in the company who understands English. Moreover, competitors have come to add to the chaos. They have joined forces with Japanese raw material suppliers to choke the company and demand payment first before delivery.

With no other choice, Zhou Qunfei could only sell his only house at a low price and pay the Japanese supplier. Unexpectedly, the supplier still refused to deliver the goods after receiving the money. Zhou Qunfei ran to Hong Kong to find Japanese merchants to "rescue him", but the Japanese still refused and had a strange smile on their faces. This scene lingered in Zhou Qunfei's mind for a long time.

While waiting for the train at Hung Hom Railway Station in Hong Kong, Zhou Qunfei thought that he would go back empty-handed. The factory had used up the last piece of raw materials, and the employees were pitifully waiting for good news. The factory could not operate without raw materials. , the house was sold, the home was gone, and all the hard work was in vain. At that moment, Zhou Qunfei really wanted to jump into the railroad tracks.

During this trance, the mobile phone in the bag rang, and the sound of his daughter's milky voice came: "Mommy, when will you come back for dinner?" Zhou Qunfei suddenly realized that he I am the mother of my children, the wife of my husband, and the boss of thousands of employees. So many people need me, and I cannot leave them alone. Zhou Qunfei wiped the tears from his eyes, and this domineering Hunan girl bravely boarded the train back to Shenzhen. Just like this roaring train, there is always a road waiting for it ahead.

With the help of friends, Zhou Qunfei found another glass raw material from Switzerland, which was recognized by customers, and finally worked overtime to deliver the goods on time. After the launch of the first Motorola V3 with Lens screen, it became a hot seller around the world. Since then, orders from Samsung, Nokia, Sony, etc. have come one after another. From then on, Lens focused on big foreign brands.

5

In 2006, Lens once again reached an important milestone and reached cooperation with Apple mobile phones.

At that time, the factories around the Lens Shenzhen factory were fully rented, and large-scale expansion was no longer possible. Zhou Qunfei wanted to return to her hometown in Hunan to build a factory. In fact, this was also to respect her father's last wish.

As early as 2004, Zhou Qunfei returned to Hunan to inspect the site for building a factory. In October of that year, Zhou Qunfei, wearing a simple jeans and red jacket and carrying a backpack, came to Liuyang Biomedical Industrial Park in the dust. It is only more than 30 minutes' drive from Changsha Huanghua Airport, and the transportation is very convenient. It was time to get off work, and the director of the management committee warmly invited her to eat, giving her a feeling of home. There were rumors that Zhou Qunfei's backpack was full of money. In fact, everyone misunderstood. She was just like us ordinary people, and she also carried a change of clothes and toiletries in her bag. She said that she was not that "rich", carrying a bag of money everywhere and just carrying a credit card was enough.

After reaching cooperation with Apple Mobile in 2006, it was urgent to build a new factory. After inspecting Qingdao, Kunshan and other places, Zhou Qunfei decided to build the factory in Liuyang. Zhou Qunfei is deeply satisfied that the local area has completed land acquisition, demolition, land leveling and related facilities as quickly as possible.

In 2008, Apple came to Liuyang factory for certification. At that time, the entire production base was still a large construction site. It was a snowstorm, so Zhou Qunfei bought stainless steel plates to pave the way and shipped in precision machines. Zhou Qunfei, who had just given birth to her second child, knelt on the floor with a shovel, steel wool, and brush to clean the toilet, and greeted customers with the cleanliness standards of a five-star hotel. The Liuyang factory was put into production in April 2009, and Lens headquarters moved to Liuyang in 2018. Lens currently has multiple factories in Hunan, providing nearly 100,000 jobs and disbursing billions in wages every year, allowing locals to find jobs at their doorsteps.

On March 18, 2015, 12 years after starting his business, Zhou Qunfei took Lens Technology public. In the Hurun Rich List that year, Zhou Qunfei’s net worth reached 50 billion, and a generation of working girls finally became a woman. The richest man. In the latest Hurun 2020 Rich List, Zhou Qunfei and Zheng Junlong became the richest people in Hunan with 115 billion yuan, an increase of 79 billion compared with last year, and earned an average of 200 million yuan a day.

The biggest influence on Zhou Qunfei was her blind father, and she was also the most filial to her father. After her living conditions improved slightly at the beginning of her business, she took her father to live in Shenzhen. At that time, she was very busy every day, but no matter how late she worked, even when she came home in the middle of the night, her father would be sitting on the sofa waiting for her. The blind father couldn't turn on the light, so when he heard the sound, he stumbled open the door to greet his daughter. What a heartwarming scene of deep love between father and daughter!

Born in a fragmented poor family, she continued to learn and grew from a working girl to an outstanding entrepreneur. This is the arduous entrepreneurial history of a domineering Hunan girl. This is a story about the struggle for innovation and change. History, this is a history of blood and tears of a humble man unwilling to accept his fate. Zhou Qunfei used his own personal experience to vividly interpret the well-known famous saying: "When heaven is about to entrust a great responsibility to this person, he must first work hard on his will, his muscles and bones, and his body and skin...".

All greatness comes from hard work, and all greatness comes from humbleness. As Zhou Qunfei said, bosses are always forced to take risks. Force yourself, there will be a tomorrow even for the humble!