360Buy CEO Liu Qiangdong on Investor Bullies and Not Fearing Failure

Mr. Liu's Weibo

Today, 360buy CEO Liu Qiangdong took to Weibo to share a story from several years ago, back when his company wasn’t the ascendant e-commerce giant it is today. We thought we’d share his words of wisdom with you since they’re probably applicable to lots of startup situations (and also since Friday afternoon is where news goes to die).

Three years ago, a certain industry investor wanted to buy a controlling stake in [360buy], and gently threatened me: ‘If you don’t work with me, do you think that with $500 million I won’t be able to kill you off?’ I said: ‘when I founded this company I didn’t have any money and I wasn’t scared, so why fear [that] now?’ and he angrily responded ‘this is your last chance in life to enter the retail industry.’ Today the news says that B2C website is stopping operations.

You heard the man. You had nothing when you started, so there’s no need to fear thuggery or threats about losing something you didn’t even have a few years ago anyway? Go your own way, avoid scumbag mentors and sketchy investors, and if things still don’t work out, hey, it’s not the end of the world anyway. In other words:

[Via DoNews]