Chen Shaopeng’s growth experience

The time goes back to 1969. An ordinary farmer couple in the rural area of ??Jingtai Si Tan Township, Gansu Province, welcomed their sixth child. Because 4 of the previous 5 children were boys, the couple hoped that the sixth child would be a girl, but they were disappointed again. However, they must not have imagined at the time that this baby boy would become the president of Greater China, the world's third largest computer company, and a leader in China's IT industry a few years later. He is Chen Shaopeng.

Perhaps because he is already the leader of a large company, Chen Shaopeng has never talked about his childhood to anyone. But when he opened his heart to reporters, everything seemed to go back to 37 years ago.

Chen Shaopeng’s family was not wealthy at the time. In order to escape the successive wars and disasters, his grandfather moved his family from his ancestral home in Fujian to the northwest, settling in a rural area in Jingtai, Gansu Province, and living a decent life. A life of facing the loess and turning one's back to the sky. Shaopeng's father used to be a doctor at the village health center. Later, due to three years of natural disasters in the 1960s, Mr. Chen gave up his job and returned to the fields to pick up a hoe in order to feed his family. Continue the career of our fathers as "earth workers".

Chen Shaopeng recalled that although the family conditions were not good, his father attached great importance to his children's education. One year, my brother was admitted to a key middle school in the county. Since he was far from home, he needed to stay at the school. However, when his father took his brother to the school to report, he was told that all the school dormitories were full. This was hard for my father. Where could he find a place for his brother to stay in a county where he had no relatives? In order to let his children go to school, Mr. Chen went to the school gate and knocked on doors, hoping that someone would take in his son. "This is difficult for ordinary people to do. After all, you are knocking on a stranger's door." Chen Shaopeng said excitedly. "Fortunately, hard work paid off, and finally a dentist agreed to take my brother in."

Because of his good family education and his diligent brother who set an example for him, Chen Shaopeng loved learning very much as a child. When he was in elementary school, he had already studied all the junior high school textbooks of his brothers and sisters at home, and by junior high school, he had already studied high school courses by himself.

Chen Shaopeng said frankly that his parents and family had the greatest influence on him to be where he is today. "I have dreamed of being a scientist and studying knowledge since I was a child. I hope that my parents will one day be proud of me and let them live a comfortable life." This is the simple ideal of Chen Shaopeng in his youth, like many poor children.

In general, Chen Shaopeng was a good boy in the eyes of his parents when he was young, but he also suffered the same "sufferings of flesh and blood" as other Chinese children who grew up in that era.

"I have studied very well since I was a child, especially Chinese. I have always been the first in my grade from elementary school to junior high school. And science courses such as mathematics, physics and chemistry are always among the top three in the school." Now talking about myself Chen Shaopeng is still proud of his "achievements" that year. Even such a good boy was beaten by his father. "My father rarely beats me. Whenever he does, it's because I'm too stubborn about certain things. I do things I'm not allowed to do at home as long as I think it's right."

But being beaten doesn't matter. It did not change Chen Shaopeng's stubborn character. In 1985, Chen Shaopeng was admitted to a key high school in Baiyin. "At that time, there were three boys in the school and I both had very good grades. We all studied hard, trying to outdo each other for fear that the other would surpass us. It was this persistent personality that made me never relax when I was a student. Academics have made me who I am today.” In June 1988, Chen Shaopeng, who was about to take the college entrance examination, was determined to apply for the National University of Defense Technology, because in his opinion, this could not only put on the military uniform he had long dreamed of, but also achieve it. My dream is to become a scientific researcher. But the development of things often backfires.

The second brother, who has been engaged in education for many years, insisted on letting Chen Shaopeng apply for the computer major at Beijing Institute of Light Industry (now Beijing Technology and Business University), because the far-sighted second brother had already realized at that time that computers would be in the future. play a role in social development.

The stubborn Chen Shaopeng actually acquiesced to the decision made by his second brother for him this time, "Maybe this is fate. I don't know what I was thinking at the time, so I agreed."

"Although I majored in computer science, but before I went to Beijing to study, I had only seen what a computer looked like, but I had never even touched one," Chen Shaopeng said with an embarrassed smile. But it was such a decision that changed his life.

The first semester ended soon, and the school held a computer typing training class during the holidays. After careful consideration, Chen Shaopeng decided to sign up. In the final exam, Chen Shaopeng was chosen by the school's student affairs department with first place, and was responsible for typing documents for the school and helping teachers input papers on the computer. Chen Shaopeng valued this precious job opportunity very much, because although he was a student in the computer department at that time, due to limited conditions, he did not have many opportunities to come into contact with computers. But now he can use his position to deal with computers every day. In his spare time, he put the knowledge he learned in textbooks into practice at work. "So studying in the whole grade is the best, because I can have more practical opportunities than others. It was also during this time that I really became obsessed with computers." He said. Due to his rich theoretical knowledge and practical experience, Chen Shaopeng ranked first in the university when he graduated from university. He obtained the qualification to study in Beijing and was assigned to work in the computer center of a unit under the Ministry of Light Industry at that time.

In early July 1992, Chen Shaopeng, who was supposed to report to work in September, could not contain his joy and reported to his new unit early. The colleagues responsible for accepting the newly assigned college students were very surprised because the new office had not been vacated and the dormitories had not been tidied up yet, but since they were here, they had no choice but to accept them first. However, the first job assigned to Chen Shaopeng was not to research any topic, but to help move people to free up a new office, go to the Beijing Railway Station to pick up the luggage of out-of-town students and check it in... until other newly assigned college students reported for work. , Chen Shaopeng has already sorted everything out by himself.

"Perhaps I am born a person unwilling to be lonely." The slow and slow working environment of the agency made Chen Shaopeng, who wanted to do a big career, feel uncomfortable, so he decided to change jobs.

One day in February 1993, two recruitment notices in the Beijing Youth Daily gave Chen Shaopeng hope. One is that a communications company is recruiting technical personnel, and the other is Lenovo's recruitment advertisement. Chen Shaopeng still clearly remembers the slogan on Lenovo's recruitment advertisement: "If you want to stand tall and see far, please become a Lenovo person." "This slogan is very impactful and caught me right away. heart." Chen Shaopeng said with emotion.

In order to increase the chance of success, Chen Shaopeng sent his resume to both companies. Within two days, Chen Shaopeng received an interview notice from the communications company, but there was no news from Lenovo. With his last glimmer of hope, Chen Shaopeng made an appointment with the company to have an interview in two days, just to give Lenovo two more days.

Fortunately, two days later, just as he was about to go out for an interview with the communications company, he finally received an interview notice from Lenovo, so he immediately called the communications company: " Sorry, I won’t go for the interview.”

At that time, Lenovo was already quite famous in Beijing. Seventy or eighty people were interviewed at the same time as Chen Shaopeng. The interview location was near the old Lenovo headquarters. ——In a canteen next to Zhongguancun. The first level is the written test. What Chen Shaopeng didn't expect was that when he concentrated on answering the questions and looked up, he found that all the other applicants had already handed in their papers, and he was the only one left in the huge canteen. This made Chen Shaopeng couldn't help but wonder, "Am I so much worse than others?"

Later he learned that most of the people who went for interviews that day were non-computer majors, and the test questions Many of them are professional issues similar to translating "an English article about mouse technology" into Chinese. Therefore, many people hand in the paper in advance without understanding it. On March 3, 1993, Chen Shaopeng finally became a member of the Lenovo family with his solid basic skills and enterprising spirit.

In fact, Chen Shaopeng, who started his career in sales at Lenovo, was originally interviewed for a technical R&D position. Becoming a salesman by accident was the second major turning point in his life.

“After being admitted by Lenovo, I was assigned to work in a department. After working for two days, I realized that this was the sales department, not the technical R&D staff I originally applied for.” Chen Shaopeng said. Since I had just joined the workforce from a state-owned enterprise, it was very difficult for me to get into Lenovo. Therefore, Chen Shaopeng did not dare to make any further demands to his leadership, so he worked as a salesperson in the sales department for 12 years. "I found out later that I was transferred to the sales department." He said with a smile.

In 1995, Chen Shaopeng single-handedly came to the Chengdu market (Southwestern Region) where "Lenovo" was not known to be a computer brand at the time. Although the business card at that time was printed as "Lenovo Southwest District Manager", in fact at that time Chen Shaopeng was a veritable "police commander". He was the only Lenovo employee in Chengdu, and he had almost no Lenovo products.

Faced with this difficult situation, Chen Shaopeng made a decisive decision to open the first Lenovo store in Chengdu. After approval from the headquarters, Chen Shaopeng took a boy he hired locally, and the two of them worked for a full month, from adding furniture to decorating the store to interior furnishings, and finally opened Lenovo's first store in Chengdu. Specialty store.

Due to his outstanding performance, after working in Chengdu for a period of time, Chen Shaopeng was transferred to the "Northwest District" and "South China District" where Lenovo also had no local foundation. The Guangdong market, which has now become the top three sales in Lenovo Greater China, was also built by Chen Shaopeng.

“I never thought I would be in the position I am today, but I feel that since the leader has given me the responsibility, I should do it well.” Looking back on the ups and downs over the years, Chen Shaopeng said with emotion. Although a series of "accidental and unforeseen mistakes" may have caused the world to lose a scientist, it has added an out-and-out outstanding Chinese entrepreneur, and this person is Chen Shaopeng.