A Quote by Zhang Xin

When we started out, we were among the first. Beijing had no and Shanghai had very few large buildings. At that time, it was all about building, building, building - and then selling, selling, selling. We were working like a manufacturer. Soon, however, we realized that land was running out in Beijing and Shanghai. So we started keeping our buildings, and managing and renting them out. We became landowners. That was the second act.
Our company has only been active in Beijing and Shanghai, two very market-dominated cities. This was an advantage. Land is purchased here in public auctions, in a transparent way. When you do real estate development outside Beijing and Shanghai it is good to have "guanxi" - good relations within the local government.
The first thing I think, I was building computers, I started to build a computer when I was 17 or 18 at home, an IBM compatible computer, and then I started to sell computers, and when I sold a computer to a company called Ligo I think, and they were selling systems which became blockbuster.
I came out of a culture in which my uncle, my father - they were all salesmen of one kind or another. My father was a manufacturer. He also, in effect, had to sell that stuff. And if he didn't literally do it, his men did. So, selling was in the air through my boyhood. The whole idea of successfully selling was very important.
When we started out, we didn't really think that the era of great opportunity would end one day. We were much too busy developing our companies. But in today's China you can build a city, even a mega-city like Beijing or Shanghai, within 10 or 15 years. And then you are done. So in real estate development, the Gründerzeit is over. But that is not the case in other sectors.
When I started Go Daddy, I tried many things - like building networks and selling education - and none of it panned out. I lost millions of dollars the first couple of years. I made a lot of wrong turns, but that's the process of being successful in business.
I started selling out comedy clubs before I got to town with no advertising. I was selling out theaters just on the rumor that I was going to be there.
When my books came out, they started selling but they started selling at a relatively consistent but low pace. And they started to pick up the pace.
For commercial customers, we have invested in specialist mobile-first sales capabilities, and we are building out our device-selling channel.
People don't understand what term "selling out" means. To me selling out means if I were to stop doing this and go work for McDonald's then I would sell out.
Selling out is a myth. Bill Gates isn't selling out, is he? Richard Branson isn't selling out. Why can't black people make money?
Starship was a whole different thing. It was pop rock. It made more money and had more hit songs than Airplane. There was no cultural or social ethic behind it. For me, it was like selling out. I was the only one selling out. The rest enjoyed doing what they were doing.
The touring business is obviously critical to selling records, building fan bases, selling T-shirts, fulfilling sponsorship commitments.
We have been investing in building a mobile-first selling capability by establishing the Consumer Channels Group to strengthen and align the device-selling motion and to expand our impact with OEM, retail channel partners and our operator channel, and by extending it with our opening of Microsoft Stores.
Initially, I had two thoughts. First, this is a very large conspiracy; and second, our children in Washington. We knew there were a few unidentified planes that may have been headed for the White House or the Capitol Building.
All I've got to say is if I'm a sellout, I'm selling out arenas all over the world, and I'd rather be selling out arenas than selling out of my trunk on the corner of my block.
I felt that we started to go through the motions. Our hearts weren't there. Because we were always working on the band, and it became more about selling records than about writing and being passionate. That's why I ultimately lost interest. I don't want to speak for everybody, but I personally started to lose interest because we were doing it for the wrong reasons. It became monotony and it just wasn't fun anymore. Yeah, an obligation.
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