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A new movie called American Dreams in China is hitting Chinese box office now, which features the story of how three young men build up a business empire from nothing. The movie based on the founding history of the New Oriental has grossed over 300 million RMB within 10 days after its release—also a dream-like figure for Chinese entrepreneurs. For winners, success brings them fortune, high status and reputation. However, not everyone can achieve such fame and glory and many failed. With this in mind, the reporter invited Ms. Liang Ning for an interview, talking about the story of building up her own business.
一部名叫《中国合伙人》的电影正在中国热映，影片以中国上市公司“新东方”的三位创始人的奋斗经历为原型，讲述了三名青年如何从一无所有到呼风唤雨。该片上映十天票房即突破三亿，而成就这样高票房数值的正是几乎存在于每个中国青年心中的“创业”梦想。对于青年人来说，创业成功往往代表着财富、地位、荣耀；但也有很多青年人因创业失败而庸碌一生甚至身败名裂的案例，这令很多站在创业门口的他们逡巡不前。为此，本刊记者对“旅人网”首席执行官梁宁女士进行了采访。她将与读者分享自己的创业经历。
“Simply Following Suit”
决定创业，最初源于跟风
Differently from the three young lads in American Dreams in China, Liang didn’t start her career when she first stepped into the society. Actually, she used to be a vice president in Lenovo Group and CNET Group. This might raise people’s curiosity: Why would she give up her promising career and choose to start her own business? To that question, Liang answered: “There were two reasons. First, it was people’s nature in growing up. During my tenure in the vice president offices in Lenovo and CNET, I didn’t even touch my boundaries and I was like a tree standing there the whole time. Second, I was affected by the fact that many of my friends chose to start their own businesses at that time and they talked about it at dinner parties. So I simply followed suit, and that also made me realize that it’s very important for someone to have a social circle.”
与《中国合伙人》不同的是，梁宁并非是刚踏入社会就选择了创业。事实上，梁宁在创业之前就有过在联想集团以及CNET集团任职副总的经历。在普通人的眼中，她的职业经历或许可以被称做辉煌。但令记者疑惑的是，为什么梁宁在如此优越的条件下却选择了创业。对此，梁宁将自己选择创业的原因总结成两点：第一个原因或者说内因是人自身的成长，梁宁认为，人的成长是一个自然的过程。在联想集团以及CNET集团的任职过程中，梁宁感觉自己并没有触碰到自己的边界，“就像一棵树一样”。在这样的心理状态下，梁宁想到了创业。而另一个原因则是源于外部，梁宁的许多朋友们都选择了创业，“聚会的时候，朋友们都在谈论自己创业的事情。那时候我就想是不是我也要和他们一样，所以说一个人的朋友圈真是一件非常重要的事情。”就这样，梁宁走上了创业的道路。
The Hardship
一路走来，饱尝创业艰辛
“Never,” Liang answered the question if she had thought about the risks and difficulties before she started. However, Liang has her regret for being so hasty, and she emphasized the importance of making evaluation when she recently addressed to a group of female college students. She also took the example of the story of La parure written by Guy de Maupassant: “Mathilde simply wanted to enjoy the limelight when she borrowed that necklace from her friend, but she didn’t expect that she would at last find out it was a fake after having spent so many years repaying the debt.” Reviewing her own history, she thought that her intention was wrong because she simply wanted to follow others’ footsteps without any assessments. “But the difficulties did exist.” Liang Ning soon realized that she didn’t know enough about the field she had dedicated herself to: “Each field has its own particularities and requires decades of time to achieve success, so why should an outsider accomplish that so easily?” Besides, Liang soon realized that she lacked self-knowledge. “I had been working under the best supervisors who knew my weaknesses and how to exert my advantages, and they would find someone to cover my shortages. However, I only found out about this problem after I had started my own business, and all my shortages were well exposed.” Liang said she thought this might be the reason why some entrepreneurs who had successful careers in companies and enterprises sometimes met challenges when starting their own businesses. Liang also mentioned that no one helped her determine a work rhythm: “I had to do it all by myself, because I had turned myself from a supervisee to a supervisor.” Liang thought that finding one’s rhythm is the key to success. “那您在创业之前想像过其中的风险与难度吗？”“完全没有。”梁宁干脆地回答道。显然，梁宁不认为这是一个正确的选择。梁宁告诉记者，在几天前的一个有关女大学生创业的会议上演讲时,她还向参会者强调称，在做一件事情之前一定要有一个正确的评估。梁宁以莫泊桑的小说《项链》为例，“马蒂尔德在借项链的时候可能只是为了出一个风头，但她没想到可能要为此付出很长时间的代价，最后你会发现这可能只是一个虚幻的（东西）。”在她看来，自己在创业这件事上的初衷是不对的。当时，互联网创业是一股潮流。很多人认为创业的人是最优秀的，梁宁也不例外，再加上梁宁也希望成为一个最优秀的人。“然后我就随着大流创业去了，但是存在的困难也是一个客观事实，即使一开始你并没有评估它。” 很快，梁宁遇到了问题。其中比较严重的问题是梁宁发现自己对所投身的领域并不够了解。虽然现在的梁宁对于这个问题已经有了很深的认识：“其实，每一个领域都有其深刻之处。别人在某个领域做几十年下来才有如今的成绩，凭什么一个外来人一进来就能成功？”另外一个严重的问题是梁宁对自己的认识也出现了问题，“之前在大集团中担任业务骨干时，我面对的是一个优秀的管理者。这个管理者充分了解我的长处并使之发挥效用，同时让其他同事的能力来补足我的短处，所以我在工作中从没有认识到自己的短处，而这些短处在创业过程中则会逐一浮现。那时候你会发现自己除了一个长处以外全是短处。”梁宁认为，很多在集团中业务非常优秀但在创业初期都不是很顺利的人也大多是因为这个原因，“长处非常长，短处非常短。”除此之外，梁宁在创业中遇到的第三个问题是没人能帮助其决定工作的节奏。工作中的一切都需要自己去找感觉，这种转变是从一个被管者到管理者的转变。在她看来，工作节奏是否正确是创业能否成功的一个关键点。
Relocation
坎坷难行，不惜重新定位
Liang said that she didn’t pick travel as her own career out of passion, and she simply made a judgment call after some data acquisition and analysis. However, the lvren.com we see now is not exactly what Liang has imagined. In the beginning, Liang wanted lvren.com to be a social website for travelers where users can login and share their traveling experience. But soon afterwards, she found that things were not so easy: “As a product, it needs to be attractive and commercially valuable or people won’t pay anything for it.” Liang said it was the hardest time for them: “There were dozens of people in our team, and we sometimes even worked until morning.” After some time, Liang changed the pattern and only posted limited number of high-quality travel articles, and sometimes only updated one article in days. “Some friends who also ran websites began to question me: ‘Are you insane? Our editors post hundreds of articles for each day and you only post one? Have you even noticed the statistics?’ But I chose not to waver and got rid of the statistics. A website should have its soul—something cannot be valued by simple statistics.”
梁宁告诉记者，她之所以会选择旅游这个领域去作为自己创业的方向并非是由于自身的热情。在数据收集和分析的基础上，梁宁判断这个领域的前景更加广阔。但是，今天我们所看到的旅人网也并不完全是梁宁当初所设想的样子。在创业初期，梁宁对旅人网的定位是一个旅游社交网站。她希望人们能够在她的网站上分享自己的旅游经验，但很快发现事情并不是想象中的那么简单，“这些产品必须具有两个价值，一是其产品能否吸引到人，二是其能否让人们愿意花钱购买该产品，也就是商业价值。”梁宁发现，旅游社交网站的商业价值并没有达到要求。对于旅人网来说，那段时候无疑是最艰难的时期，“整个团队不到十个人，天天工作到凌晨。”后来，梁宁不得不将旅人网的原有模式改变为发布少量精品旅游攻略的模式，这个少量代表着在一天甚至几天中网站只有一篇新的攻略更新。但是，这个模式遭到了一些任职于大型门户网站好友的质疑：“你疯了吗？我们的编辑每天要更新几百篇东西，而你的编辑只更新一篇，你注意网站的访问量了吗？”面对朋友的质疑，梁宁并没有动摇。相反，她做出了将流量统计撤掉的决定。对此，梁宁给出的解释是，每个网站都有自己的灵魂，而这是不能用简单粗暴的流量统计来衡量的。
Acquisition, the Resurrection
全资收购，转机中迎来新生 On October, 2011, lvren.com was acquired by Chinese IM giant Tencent, which made tremendous impacts on both lvren.com and Liang Ning. The app developed by lvren.com called the “Footstep” gained 12 million users almost immediately after being promoted by Tencent. “Holy shit, I couldn’t even imagine that, and I had some really complex feelings at that moment.” Today, lvren.com has become a major travel portal, helping people realize their dreams of traveling. Liang said: “Many people want to travel, and all they need is an opportunity: a vacation, a discount flight ticket or a hotel offer. That’s where I can help people with.” Liang said that lvren.com’s monthly turnover has now reached 40 million RMB, and she believed that the number will reach tenfold in the future.
在旅人网的发展过程中，一个重要的里程碑便是腾讯集团于2011年10月全资收购旅人网。这次收购对旅人网以及梁宁均产生了巨大的影响，其中一件事让梁宁至今记忆犹新。当时，旅人网正推出一款叫做“足迹”的应用程序。在腾讯集团强大的推广能力下，这款应用几乎瞬间拥有了1，200万用户。讲到这里时，梁宁的表情极为生动，甚至爆了一句粗口:“我靠！这种事我在过去完全不敢想，当时我真是百感交集。”梦想在突然间实现让当时的梁宁心情无比复杂，以至于到现在再次提及时还让她有些激动。幸运的是，梁宁并没有陷入伴随成功而来的困惑中。时至今日，旅人网已经是一个大型旅游门户网站，致力于帮助人们实现自己的旅游梦想，梁宁告诉记者：“其实很多人都已经准备好了去旅游，只是缺少一个契机。这个契机也许是一个假期，也许是一张特价机票或是特价酒店。在涉足这个领域以后我发现，至少特价机票和酒店是每天都有的，这也是我们可以帮助这些人的地方。”梁宁还告诉记者，目前旅人网每个月的流水已经达到了4,000万人民币。而在未来，梁宁有信心将这个数字翻十倍。
一部名叫《中国合伙人》的电影正在中国热映，影片以中国上市公司“新东方”的三位创始人的奋斗经历为原型，讲述了三名青年如何从一无所有到呼风唤雨。该片上映十天票房即突破三亿，而成就这样高票房数值的正是几乎存在于每个中国青年心中的“创业”梦想。对于青年人来说，创业成功往往代表着财富、地位、荣耀；但也有很多青年人因创业失败而庸碌一生甚至身败名裂的案例，这令很多站在创业门口的他们逡巡不前。为此，本刊记者对“旅人网”首席执行官梁宁女士进行了采访。她将与读者分享自己的创业经历。
“Simply Following Suit”
决定创业，最初源于跟风
Differently from the three young lads in American Dreams in China, Liang didn’t start her career when she first stepped into the society. Actually, she used to be a vice president in Lenovo Group and CNET Group. This might raise people’s curiosity: Why would she give up her promising career and choose to start her own business? To that question, Liang answered: “There were two reasons. First, it was people’s nature in growing up. During my tenure in the vice president offices in Lenovo and CNET, I didn’t even touch my boundaries and I was like a tree standing there the whole time. Second, I was affected by the fact that many of my friends chose to start their own businesses at that time and they talked about it at dinner parties. So I simply followed suit, and that also made me realize that it’s very important for someone to have a social circle.”
与《中国合伙人》不同的是，梁宁并非是刚踏入社会就选择了创业。事实上，梁宁在创业之前就有过在联想集团以及CNET集团任职副总的经历。在普通人的眼中，她的职业经历或许可以被称做辉煌。但令记者疑惑的是，为什么梁宁在如此优越的条件下却选择了创业。对此，梁宁将自己选择创业的原因总结成两点：第一个原因或者说内因是人自身的成长，梁宁认为，人的成长是一个自然的过程。在联想集团以及CNET集团的任职过程中，梁宁感觉自己并没有触碰到自己的边界，“就像一棵树一样”。在这样的心理状态下，梁宁想到了创业。而另一个原因则是源于外部，梁宁的许多朋友们都选择了创业，“聚会的时候，朋友们都在谈论自己创业的事情。那时候我就想是不是我也要和他们一样，所以说一个人的朋友圈真是一件非常重要的事情。”就这样，梁宁走上了创业的道路。
The Hardship
一路走来，饱尝创业艰辛
“Never,” Liang answered the question if she had thought about the risks and difficulties before she started. However, Liang has her regret for being so hasty, and she emphasized the importance of making evaluation when she recently addressed to a group of female college students. She also took the example of the story of La parure written by Guy de Maupassant: “Mathilde simply wanted to enjoy the limelight when she borrowed that necklace from her friend, but she didn’t expect that she would at last find out it was a fake after having spent so many years repaying the debt.” Reviewing her own history, she thought that her intention was wrong because she simply wanted to follow others’ footsteps without any assessments. “But the difficulties did exist.” Liang Ning soon realized that she didn’t know enough about the field she had dedicated herself to: “Each field has its own particularities and requires decades of time to achieve success, so why should an outsider accomplish that so easily?” Besides, Liang soon realized that she lacked self-knowledge. “I had been working under the best supervisors who knew my weaknesses and how to exert my advantages, and they would find someone to cover my shortages. However, I only found out about this problem after I had started my own business, and all my shortages were well exposed.” Liang said she thought this might be the reason why some entrepreneurs who had successful careers in companies and enterprises sometimes met challenges when starting their own businesses. Liang also mentioned that no one helped her determine a work rhythm: “I had to do it all by myself, because I had turned myself from a supervisee to a supervisor.” Liang thought that finding one’s rhythm is the key to success. “那您在创业之前想像过其中的风险与难度吗？”“完全没有。”梁宁干脆地回答道。显然，梁宁不认为这是一个正确的选择。梁宁告诉记者，在几天前的一个有关女大学生创业的会议上演讲时,她还向参会者强调称，在做一件事情之前一定要有一个正确的评估。梁宁以莫泊桑的小说《项链》为例，“马蒂尔德在借项链的时候可能只是为了出一个风头，但她没想到可能要为此付出很长时间的代价，最后你会发现这可能只是一个虚幻的（东西）。”在她看来，自己在创业这件事上的初衷是不对的。当时，互联网创业是一股潮流。很多人认为创业的人是最优秀的，梁宁也不例外，再加上梁宁也希望成为一个最优秀的人。“然后我就随着大流创业去了，但是存在的困难也是一个客观事实，即使一开始你并没有评估它。” 很快，梁宁遇到了问题。其中比较严重的问题是梁宁发现自己对所投身的领域并不够了解。虽然现在的梁宁对于这个问题已经有了很深的认识：“其实，每一个领域都有其深刻之处。别人在某个领域做几十年下来才有如今的成绩，凭什么一个外来人一进来就能成功？”另外一个严重的问题是梁宁对自己的认识也出现了问题，“之前在大集团中担任业务骨干时，我面对的是一个优秀的管理者。这个管理者充分了解我的长处并使之发挥效用，同时让其他同事的能力来补足我的短处，所以我在工作中从没有认识到自己的短处，而这些短处在创业过程中则会逐一浮现。那时候你会发现自己除了一个长处以外全是短处。”梁宁认为，很多在集团中业务非常优秀但在创业初期都不是很顺利的人也大多是因为这个原因，“长处非常长，短处非常短。”除此之外，梁宁在创业中遇到的第三个问题是没人能帮助其决定工作的节奏。工作中的一切都需要自己去找感觉，这种转变是从一个被管者到管理者的转变。在她看来，工作节奏是否正确是创业能否成功的一个关键点。
Relocation
坎坷难行，不惜重新定位
Liang said that she didn’t pick travel as her own career out of passion, and she simply made a judgment call after some data acquisition and analysis. However, the lvren.com we see now is not exactly what Liang has imagined. In the beginning, Liang wanted lvren.com to be a social website for travelers where users can login and share their traveling experience. But soon afterwards, she found that things were not so easy: “As a product, it needs to be attractive and commercially valuable or people won’t pay anything for it.” Liang said it was the hardest time for them: “There were dozens of people in our team, and we sometimes even worked until morning.” After some time, Liang changed the pattern and only posted limited number of high-quality travel articles, and sometimes only updated one article in days. “Some friends who also ran websites began to question me: ‘Are you insane? Our editors post hundreds of articles for each day and you only post one? Have you even noticed the statistics?’ But I chose not to waver and got rid of the statistics. A website should have its soul—something cannot be valued by simple statistics.”
梁宁告诉记者，她之所以会选择旅游这个领域去作为自己创业的方向并非是由于自身的热情。在数据收集和分析的基础上，梁宁判断这个领域的前景更加广阔。但是，今天我们所看到的旅人网也并不完全是梁宁当初所设想的样子。在创业初期，梁宁对旅人网的定位是一个旅游社交网站。她希望人们能够在她的网站上分享自己的旅游经验，但很快发现事情并不是想象中的那么简单，“这些产品必须具有两个价值，一是其产品能否吸引到人，二是其能否让人们愿意花钱购买该产品，也就是商业价值。”梁宁发现，旅游社交网站的商业价值并没有达到要求。对于旅人网来说，那段时候无疑是最艰难的时期，“整个团队不到十个人，天天工作到凌晨。”后来，梁宁不得不将旅人网的原有模式改变为发布少量精品旅游攻略的模式，这个少量代表着在一天甚至几天中网站只有一篇新的攻略更新。但是，这个模式遭到了一些任职于大型门户网站好友的质疑：“你疯了吗？我们的编辑每天要更新几百篇东西，而你的编辑只更新一篇，你注意网站的访问量了吗？”面对朋友的质疑，梁宁并没有动摇。相反，她做出了将流量统计撤掉的决定。对此，梁宁给出的解释是，每个网站都有自己的灵魂，而这是不能用简单粗暴的流量统计来衡量的。
Acquisition, the Resurrection
全资收购，转机中迎来新生 On October, 2011, lvren.com was acquired by Chinese IM giant Tencent, which made tremendous impacts on both lvren.com and Liang Ning. The app developed by lvren.com called the “Footstep” gained 12 million users almost immediately after being promoted by Tencent. “Holy shit, I couldn’t even imagine that, and I had some really complex feelings at that moment.” Today, lvren.com has become a major travel portal, helping people realize their dreams of traveling. Liang said: “Many people want to travel, and all they need is an opportunity: a vacation, a discount flight ticket or a hotel offer. That’s where I can help people with.” Liang said that lvren.com’s monthly turnover has now reached 40 million RMB, and she believed that the number will reach tenfold in the future.
在旅人网的发展过程中，一个重要的里程碑便是腾讯集团于2011年10月全资收购旅人网。这次收购对旅人网以及梁宁均产生了巨大的影响，其中一件事让梁宁至今记忆犹新。当时，旅人网正推出一款叫做“足迹”的应用程序。在腾讯集团强大的推广能力下，这款应用几乎瞬间拥有了1，200万用户。讲到这里时，梁宁的表情极为生动，甚至爆了一句粗口:“我靠！这种事我在过去完全不敢想，当时我真是百感交集。”梦想在突然间实现让当时的梁宁心情无比复杂，以至于到现在再次提及时还让她有些激动。幸运的是，梁宁并没有陷入伴随成功而来的困惑中。时至今日，旅人网已经是一个大型旅游门户网站，致力于帮助人们实现自己的旅游梦想，梁宁告诉记者：“其实很多人都已经准备好了去旅游，只是缺少一个契机。这个契机也许是一个假期，也许是一张特价机票或是特价酒店。在涉足这个领域以后我发现，至少特价机票和酒店是每天都有的，这也是我们可以帮助这些人的地方。”梁宁还告诉记者，目前旅人网每个月的流水已经达到了4,000万人民币。而在未来，梁宁有信心将这个数字翻十倍。