Zhou Qunfei Quotes
Billionaire entrepreneur quotes 🙂
“Entrepreneurs always need to be prepared for what’s to come. There are a few aspects to master. First, improve your overall competitiveness. Second, you must be mentally strong. Third, strengthen your understanding of the market and your competitors.”
“My experience while working as an assembly line worker and later as the manager for my first employer helped me gain confidence, which was crucial to Lens Technology’s early days. You must gather the courage to face failures.”
“I was always thinking about what I am going to say if they reject my proposals, because the rejections were constant. You need to prepare well.”
“Keep learning. The clients won’t give you a better price for your products simply because you have a higher degree, but your knowledge of the business will help maintain the competitiveness of your company.”
“When you have the ability to learn, you have the ability to continue to grow.”
“Opportunity knocks on anyone’s door.”
“The more we become wealthy or popular, the more level-minded we must be as success and failure in business are like the two sides of a coin, meaning that you never know which side flips in your favor and which side doesn’t.”
“Never give up. Many people would experience a serious blow to confidence when they encountered setbacks. But the key to success is to persevere, especially during the most difficult times.”
“For a team-building exercise, I once took 20 of my company’s executive team to climb the Dawei Mountain in Hunan Province, which is more than 5,000 feet above sea level. Some team members wanted to give up halfway up the hill. However, I insisted that they do not stop and march on. Because when you give up halfway, you won’t have the courage to come back and start from the bottom all over again, you will still give up. Only when we persist, can we succeed. Don’t give up because of a little setback.”
“It’s like a paradise seeing from afar and a bank when you come closer and a prison when you go into it. In order to make money, you need to work overtime like a machine.”
“If it wasn’t for my primary school teacher reminding me to be observant, I may not have had the inspiration to think of my invention.”
“During the period of China’s rapid economic growth, there were plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs, including women. It allowed me to develop my business.”
“I had a mentality back then that I only wanted to learn whether you paid me or not.”
“At age 16, I dropped out of high school to work as an assembly worker in a watch lens factory. I took accounting classes at night and dreamed of starting my own business.”
“I had a pursuit different from others because they all came from downtown areas with money, but I didn’t have any. All I wanted is to change my destiny with my own efforts.”
“I didn’t have capital and influence in this industry. So I bought yellow pages and knocked each door of the company located at industrial parks.”
“I lost my mother when I was five and my father went blind and lost a finger in a factory accident. I had to learn how to survive on my own. I had to constantly think about where my next meal is and how I am going to get it.”
“Twice I had to sell my house to pay my employees’ salary.”
“I realized that for my family and employees, I cannot give up. I had to carry on. With Motorola’s help, I overcame the financial issues.”
“I persevered and made something of my situation rather than cringe and blame the universe for my misfortunes. All the while I labored at the watch lens making factory I kept learning the trade and the gig at factory later turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Purely because I never stopped learning and making my way out of the predicament.”
“I went from a migrant factory worker as a teenager and went on to become one of the world’s richest self-made women.”
“My cousin, who helped me open the workshop and now serves on the Lens board, said: ‘In the Hunan language, we call women like her ba de man, which means a person who dares to do what others are afraid to do.’”
“I didn’t regret going into business. In the village where I grew up, girls did not often have a choice whether to continue their schooling, and would get married and stay in the same place for their entire lives.”
“I have encountered many difficulties and setbacks as an entrepreneur. If I gave up then, there wouldn’t have been Zhou Qunfei or Lens Technology.”
“I attribute my success to perseverance. My biggest challenge was when I beat other rivals and won the contract with Motorola in 2003. I seized the opportunity.”
“The words ‘determination and courage’ cannot be omitted. I knew how to pull out what I needed from life and not just accept whatsoever life threw at me.”
“Twenty-two years after I started the family workshop at that three-bedroom apartment, Zhou’s Lens Technology went public. Today, the company is valued at $11.4 billion, with over 82,000 employees across China.”
“In creating a global supplier, I’ve come to define a new class of female entrepreneurs in China who have built their wealth from scratch—a rarity in the world of business. In the US and Europe, most women who are billionaires secured their wealth through inheritance.”
“My choice of this business, and that I relatively enjoy innovation and research, is greatly related to my father.”
“My father had lost his eyesight, so if we placed something somewhere, it had to be in the right spot, exactly, or something could go wrong. That’s the attention to detail I demand at the workplace.”
“Inclusiveness is expanded by grievance. If I were a mistress, I would not need to fight for my career.”
“I chose to be in business, and I don’t regret it.”
“Even though my official routine takes all of my time, I consider work as my hobby. However, I do not give into the grind without taking time off to relax. I love mountain climbing and playing table tennis. This helps me to balance out the rigors of the entrepreneurial life.”
“I’m not qualified to be a high-profile person. I think it’s important not to get carried away when you are successful, and not to let yourself feel gloomy when times are bad.”
“My journey was not an easy one as I had to overcome poverty, sexism and harsh working conditions. Through perseverance, I was able to change my life and, on a wider scale, help make our big world feel a little bit closer. It’s an inspiration to the millions of migrant workers in China to consistently showcase the rare resilience that breeds success.”
“I’m another classic example of rags to riches story. My story is proof that poverty cannot be a barrier to dreams, but dreams can put an end to poverty. It shines as a beacon of hope to the many bootstrapped startups struggling to find their place in the competitive market. My life offers lessons which others can emulate in their efforts to overcome hurdles and attain their dreams.”
