#193 The Difficulty of Going Mainstream, Meeting Friends Before the New Year (15/02/2025)

How to get to the next stage is something I've been struggling with quite a bit lately. Because it's usually extremely difficult to figure out how to do things from the ground up myself, my approach is to reference other companies that have already passed this stage I'm at, to see if there's anything I can learn from them. Unfortunately, I don't know enough people. It seems that the people I know either are at a similar stage to where I want to be, but perhaps aren't honest enough, or aren't serious enough about their products or customers, or are too harsh on employees, working only for "money," which is not what I want to do. At first, I thought some companies I admired were truly consistent in their words and actions, but it turned out not to be the case after getting to know them, so I just calmly walked away. The other companies are already too large-scale. They have completely surpassed what I can learn from and cannot be referenced. So it seems I need to learn everything myself from scratch, and can't try to find people to follow or ask. Or perhaps I'll wait until after the New Year and ask a senior for advice.

The core reason for pursuing scale is because I want my products to reach more people. I want to be able to make higher quality goods at a lower price, and for the money saved to go to the customer (this is important because many people want to pocket the difference; they grow for themselves, not for others. They forget that they, too, were once ordinary people who shopped and consumed and wanted to buy good products at good prices to solve life's problems). I want to make the company excellent in every aspect, including product design, quality management, human resources, retail service, after-sales service, and styles, and to deliver products to customers in the most efficient way, with the least cost flowing elsewhere. Of course, this is an extremely difficult task because I can't do everything by myself, so I need the help of colleagues. But delegating is another art, because delegation doesn't always go smoothly, and issues can arise during the handover, no matter who is responsible. On one hand, customers complain, "Why are you so bad? How do you expect to enter the mainstream?" On the other hand, you know that this problem only arose because of the handover process. You want to let go, but you can't. If you let go, problems occur. What should you do?

Navigating these positions is extremely difficult because in terms of money and strength, we are not as big as large companies, but customers' expectations will also demand "semi-large company quality" because "they don't think you're a small company." This is encountered at all levels, so perhaps that's why there are usually very few companies in this middle ground, neither big nor small, because they are prone to failure. Most of them do fail, and I am currently stuck here.

I am currently also closely observing the situations of companies of my scale across different industries, looking at both success and failure stories to see how they cross this chasm. Or, if they fail in the middle, where exactly was the point of failure? Why did they fail?

This past week, I had coffee with a renowned professional PR and also visited some friends. It really helped to calm me down a bit. Sometimes, after working for a long time, one can feel lonely and that the difficulties are misunderstood, and of course, wonder why they are working so hard, thinking it might be better to just find a job. I've realized that entrepreneurship is actually quite passionate and about dreams, and has little to do with making money. Having the opportunity to meet other people (who are kind and good-hearted) and support each other is very important.