The next famous saying of time is money is that efficiency is life. This slogan was born in Shenzhen Shekou Industrial Zone in 1979. It reflects the hard work of Shenzhen people in "pursuing efficiency" and is a concentrated expression of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone's spirit of breaking through numerous obstacles and fighting a bloody road. It is known as " A spring thunder that breaks through old concepts."

The slogan originally proposed by Yuan Geng was: "Time is money, efficiency is life, customers are the emperor, safety is the law, everything is managed, and everyone is managed." Yuan Geng's assistant Xiong Bingquan considered Due to the affordability of society at that time, it was proposed to remove the middle sentence, and Yuan Geng agreed. The construction team made a wooden sign out of plywood and erected it in a conspicuous place beside Prince Edward Road. Two days later, an illiterate migrant worker removed the sign and burned it as firewood. Yuan Geng ordered someone to make another piece. This time he only mentioned one sentence: "Time is money, efficiency is life."