Chapter 86: Learning From Successful People

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

On Sunday, as usual, Lu Zhou went to Mrs. Yang’s house to tutor Han Mengqi in mathematics.

The moment Mrs. Yang walked out of the door, the girl pulled Lu Zhou’s shirt and asked, “I heard that you solved Zhou’s conjecture?”

Lu Zhou looked at the girl weirdly and nodded before saying, “Yeah, that’s last week’s news.”

Upon hearing that, Han Mengqi bit her teeth and whispered, “Then… You won’t teach me mathematics anymore, right?”

Lu Zhou asked, “Why wouldn’t I teach you anymore?”

In a quiet voice, Han Mengqi said, “You already have a million… Do you still have to work part-time?”

What kind of logic is this? Is there such a thing as too much money?

Not to mention this is easy money.

Learning was fun, but Lu Zhou was not a machine. He could not study all day as he would get tired.

Tutoring was like a type of relaxation method for Lu Zhou. He could think about some simple questions and change his mindset and mood while was earning money. So why not do it?

Lu Zhou sighed. He took the book and lightly tapped her head with it before saying, “Stop wasting time and know that money is hard to make. Don’t waste your mom’s money and start studying. Take out your book of mistakes and your recent exam paper.”

Han Mengqi stared at Lu Zhou unhappily.

However, she remembered that she still needed his help, so she quietly took out her backpack.

Lu Zhou took the book of mistakes from Han Mengqi to check her situation for the month.

Overall, it was not bad. At least, after Lu Zhou explained the questions, she did not get them wrong.

As Lu Zhou was checking the test paper, Han Mengqi cleared her throat and asked, “I want you to teach me chemistry and physics… Is that okay?”

Lu Zhou thought carefully before giving her a reply, “I can, but I’m not familiar with the high school material of Jiangsu, so I’m afraid I can’t teach you much. At most, I can answer some questions for you.”

Lu Zhou heard that the exam rules at Jiangsu, a province, were different than where he was from. In addition to mathematics and English, they could choose from four other subjects.

There were also mock exams, reward points, etc. It was cumbersome.

Lu Zhou had heard this from Li Tao before as Li Tao was a native of Jin Ling.

Understood, Han Mengqi said, “No worries, this is enough.”

Lu Zhou then asked, “What universities are you applying to? Do you have a goal?”

“I want to go to the University of Jin Ling…” said Han Mengqi. She paused before adding, “… It’s because I promised my cousin that I would go to the same university as her.”

Lu Zhou looked at her with a puzzled look. He thought she would say something like, “I don’t care, as long as I’m away from that woman. I’d rather be overseas.” He had not expected her answer to be the University of Jin Ling.

Of course, he did not say this out loud.

After all, everyone had their own aspirations.

“If I remember correctly, University of Jin Ling requires students to have two A subjects. You have to work hard,” said Lu Zhou casually.

Han Mengqi nodded earnestly as she said, “Yes! I’ll work hard!”

…

By six o’clock in the evening, tutoring was over.

Lu Zhou was wearing an apron and cooking three dishes in the kitchen while he stewed a pot of onion ginger soup. Lu Zhou wanted to thank Mrs. Yang, but he could not afford to buy her anything. The least that he could do for her was to cook for her daughter.

Once he was done, he placed the food on the table before he hooked the apron on the kitchen door.

At exactly six o’clock, Yang Danqi returned home.

When she walked in and smelled the overflowing fragrance of the food, she looked at Lu Zhou with a surprised expression.

Lu Zhou smiled as he asked, “Do you want to eat together? I made enough for three.”

Yang Danqi smiled as she replied, “Well, then thank you. I’ll get a bowl of rice.”

Han Mengqi smirked and did not say anything as she went to the bathroom.

As always, the dinner table was silent.

If it was only two people, Han Mengqi would be chatting non-stop the whole time. However, since her mother was here, she was disinterested in talking at all and merely ate her dinner quietly.

Lu Zhou originally thought that because of Han Mengqi’s academic performance, the mother-daughter relationship would become better.

However, it seemed that he was being optimistic.

Every family has their own hardships…

Lu Zhou wanted to avoid the awkward silence, so he decided to ask a question.

It was about his Campus Train app.

He wanted to hear advice from a successful person like Mrs. Yang.

After Yang Danqi listened to Lu Zhou’s question, she asked, “You made an app?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Have you done a product analysis?”

To Lu Zhou’s surprise, Mrs. Yang did not ask about how many users he had or the software. Instead, she asked this question.

Lu Zhou thought and shook his head before he said honestly, “Nope.”

If he was in a venture capital meeting, he would not have been this honest. However, he was not in a meeting and as he was trying to learn, he did not fake anything.

Mrs. Yang thought and said, “From an investor’s perspective, I can tell you a very basic principle. A good investment always has to be N+1 than the industry standard.”

“N+1?”

“That’s right, this 1, is your innovation point,” said Mrs. Yang as she nodded. She continued, “Of course, that isn’t always enough. Investors will look at other projects similar to yours. Being able to innovate only gets your foot into the door.”

Mrs. Yang paused for a moment before she continued, “The first thing to talk about is industry analysis and market prospects. Don’t talk about market shares, that is useless. The era of dumb people with money is over. Right now, if you want to raise funds, you have to bring a unicorn to the table. You have to use short but attractive words to make the investors see the highlights of your project, that is also part of the +1.”

Uh, this looks so complicated.

However, Lu Zhou was listening intently.

He could not learn this kind of lessons in class.

“Once you have understood that +1 part, then the next is product analysis. For example, let me be an investor. You have to convey to me clearly where your users are, how many users you have, your competitors, where your competitors are, etc. Also, the most basic one which is when your product will be profitable.”

Yang Danqi looked straight into Lu Zhou’s eyes.

That piercing eyes of her made Lu Zhou stopped breathing.

Thankfully, that pressure was gone very quickly.

Mrs. Yang sipped the delicious soup before she gently put down the spoon and said in a calm tone, “It seems that you haven’t thought about all this.”

Lu Zhou went silent as he nodded.

This project was just for practice before it inexplicably went on trending. If it was not on trending, software department Professor Zhang would never have noticed this project. Professor Zhang would never make him open a [Campus Train Co Ltd] company, or give him a 500,000 yuan business loan…

When he was spending all of his energy on the mathematical modeling competition, he had pushed the app aside. After he returned, the back-to-school season was over and the user activity completely plummeted.

Therefore, the crowd on Weibo criticized his app. Even though Lu Zhou did not like criticism, it was not too unreasonable. There was a reason why venture capitalists did not contact him…

“Actually, after listening to your project description, I wanted to ask you. If your users are mostly students, why are you only dealing with train tickets? How many train tickets do students even buy in a year? What is user retainment like? What if software companies like QQ or Zhibao, made a direct booking system? Do you think your app will still thrive? I don’t think so, they’re better and have more resources than you.”

It was clear that the woman was strong as in a matter of minutes, she managed to stun Lu Zhou…

Lu Zhou suddenly realized that he had been underestimating the tech industry.

Mrs. Yang continued, “Of course, your project is still bright. You’re better than the majority app developers as most of them make a prototype and then try to look for venture capitalists. If you’re not interested in managing a company, you can consider hiring a manager. But I don’t recommend this, for a company that is still in the incubation phase, no one knows the project better than you. Also, no manager with real talent would work for your sh*tty small company.”

Mrs. Yang did not hold back her words.

However, Lu Zhou did not feel insulted at all. After all, he knew the situation of his company.

Lu Zhou gave it a thought before he asked seriously, “Then, do you have any good suggestions?”

“One person’s ability and energy is limited. In that case, why don’t you find a few like-minded people to do this project together? There’s a lot of scientific research professors at the University of Jin Ling that have their own companies. I know one of them that does materials science research and I think his company already went public. Doing scientific research and making money isn’t always in conflict. The key is to find a good balance and know what you’re good or bad at.”

Lu Zhou went silent for a long time before he nodded his head, “I will think about your suggestions seriously.”

This conversation had been immensely helpful to him.

At least, after this, he knew the general direction to work toward.

Mrs. Yang smiled and nodded her head in approval.

When Han Mengqi saw that her mother was talking to Lu Zhou, she felt a little uncomfortable and whispered, “Can you not talk about business stuff at the dinner table?”

Mrs. Yang was shocked by her daughter’s words and she stopped talking.

Even though Lu Zhou was an outsider and did not want to be involved, he still could not help but feel sad.

It was exactly like what Mrs. Yang said. A person’s energy was limited. It was a win some, lose some situation.

However, how many people could really find that balance between using the energy and giving up?

Even a successful businesswoman had shortcomings.

Her shortcoming was family…

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