Code Brain | Lei Jun on Building Cars: Overthinking Creates Problems; Action Creates Answers

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Think back to March 30, 2021, when Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi was officially entering the new energy vehicle market. He declared: "Xiaomi Auto will be the last major entrepreneurial project of my life. I am willing to bet all the achievements and reputation I have accumulated in my life to fight for Xiaomi Auto!"

Just one month prior, Lei Jun had also revealed the core technologies of Xiaomi's first vehicle, the SU7, at the Xiaomi Auto technology launch event, and announced a comprehensive strategic upgrade for Xiaomi Group: the "Human × Car × Home" ecosystem. Lei Jun believes the automotive industry has evolved through three eras — from a simple means of transportation, to a mobile computing terminal, and now to a mobile intelligent space. This transformation has made car manufacturing the most critical component of Xiaomi's strategy.

And all of this began with a single book.

At age 18, Lei Jun had just enrolled at Wuhan University when he happened to read The Soul of a New Machine. He was deeply moved by the story of Steve Jobs.

He said: "After reading that book, a flame ignited inside me that was hard to contain. On the athletic field, I established a dream: one day, I must become a great person."

What followed — becoming chairman of Kingsoft, founding Joyo.com, leading Xiaomi to its IPO...

All of these achievements stemmed from Lei Jun's belief that "honest people have the best luck; the world quietly rewards those who are diligent and decent."

No success is accidental. This article comes from "Biji Xia" (Note Taker), which has collected Lei Jun's public speeches and books from recent years and compiled his insights on personal growth, talent management, entrepreneurship, and product philosophy. We hope it inspires you.

1

On Growth:

Great Because of Dreams, Growing Because of Persisting in Dreams

1. 99% of problems have standard answers — just ask someone

When I first started college, I had no idea what I was supposed to study. I puzzled over it for a long time and got nowhere. So I went to the upperclassmen dorms, knocked on doors one by one, and found some fellow townspeople. Sure enough, I found a few seniors who talked my ear off for hours, walking me through the entire university curriculum. In that moment, it was like I had opened my third eye — I suddenly understood how to navigate college.

Many people, when they encounter problems, prefer to figure things out alone. They think their problems are unique and can only be solved by themselves.

In reality, the vast majority of problems you face have already been encountered and solved by others, often with standard answers. You just need to ask.

2. Once you have the ability to learn, you can succeed at anything. What college teaches you isn't just knowledge itself, but the ability to acquire knowledge.

3. During school, I set a goal: publish a paper in a top-tier academic journal. As an undergraduate, this was quite difficult. Once I had this goal, I went to ask my professor, Zhang Dexiang, what I should do. He suggested, "Why don't you organize your previous research on computer viruses and send it to a journal?" Honestly, I had zero confidence, but I followed Professor Zhang's advice and mustered the courage to compile it into a paper. Six months later, I received a letter — my paper had been accepted. Looking back today, those seemingly ambitious goals aren't that scary if you just try. So I believe young people should have the boldness of youth. Don't listen to every piece of advice from others — daring to dream and act is what matters most.

4. Arrogance will make you do many foolish things.

5. All the setbacks and failures you experience, even those seemingly meaningless things that waste your time, will become your most important and valuable assets.

6. There are many things in the world we cannot change, but we can change our mindset. If your mentality becomes positive, and you face this complex world with a positive attitude, the outcome may be different.

7. Success is often not something you plan for, and crises are opportunities you never saw coming. When you encounter a major crisis, facing it and solving it with a positive attitude may create new opportunities.

8. In the torrent of changing times, how do you maintain inner peace? My answer is simple: growth. Only through down-to-earth growth can you have enough confidence, courage, and determination to meet all unknown challenges. Only through down-to-earth growth can you find inner fulfillment, have light in your eyes, and be filled with strength at every moment.

Life is a marathon. Temporary success or failure is not that important. All of life's difficult questions will find their answers in growth.

2

Team Management:

One Person May Walk Fast, But a Group Can Walk Far

1. No matter what kind of enterprise, finding excellent people is always difficult. There are only two solutions to this problem: First, the founder must spend enough time every day looking for people; Second, you must do your current products and business well, demonstrating the company's future development space and opportunities to attract talent.

2. Most entrepreneurs, after finding people, face a new problem — how to retain them? For this, I believe four things need to be done well:

  • Build a community of shared interests;
  • Truly invest in developing people;
  • Be tolerant in how you use people;
  • Earn the trust of your team.

3. One person may walk fast, but a group can walk far.

4. If I can't treat my employees well, how will they treat our customers?

5. My core management philosophy is actually: don't over-manage a startup. On this journey of exploring simplified management, I've summarized three points:

① Finding like-minded people is the most essential thing. People who don't need management have three key traits: competence, responsibility, and self-drive.

② Simple, mechanical KPI systems don't work. Real KPIs should be closely connected to the company's mission and values.

③ Maintain flatness. In a relatively equal atmosphere, every business unit has strong initiative.

6. Mr. Lu Xun said: "Before there can be genius, there must be soil to cultivate genius." Genius and innovation are both low-probability events. Genius needs soil; innovation needs atmosphere — an atmosphere that can tolerate failure and mistakes. We need a culture that doesn't judge heroes by success or failure, that supports every crazy idea, and respects every warrior who explores the unknown. Engineering culture is a culture that encourages innovation.

7. One person's abilities are limited no matter how strong they are. Finding complementary friends to work with greatly increases your probability of success.

3

On Entrepreneurship:

Go With the Trend to Thrive

1. People only think when they're in pain. When I turned 40, I realized that you can't push a rock up a mountain — it's exhausting, and you'll get hit by rocks rolling down at any moment. What you should do is climb to the top first, then casually kick a rock down.

2. Where there is user pain, there is opportunity for entrepreneurs.

3. All successful enterprises are actually created by opportunity. When you realize this, when you want to achieve something great, your analysis and judgment of the macro situation, your view of future trends, and your long-term vision become exceptionally important.

4. Every entrepreneur should not see themselves as an entrepreneur, but as a stray cat or dog. I think entrepreneurship is truly not something humans should do. If you don't have the determination of a stray cat or dog, don't start a business.

5. What is the essence of entrepreneurial mindset? It's about making products you think are cool and enjoying the process. No matter how many difficulties, no matter how many problems, we must enjoy the process. Looking back, on the road to today, we've eaten a lot of bitterness, stepped in many pits, crossed many hurdles — but what finally comes to mind aren't all the tears of being moved and the smiles of joy?

6. When encountering problems, people hope to use clever tricks to turn things around. This is wrong. When you encounter difficulties, it must be some fundamental skill that has failed. Staying the course matters more than clever tricks. In fact, enterprises defeat themselves. Only when you stay the course and establish yourself can you at most be a little better or worse; then you think about how clever tricks can help you win. Especially for large-scale enterprises, staying the course is extremely important.

7. The competition between innovative enterprises is essentially a competition of technology. Whoever possesses more advanced technology will have higher efficiency, better user experience, and be able to remain invincible in competition.

8. Every time you enter a new field, most of your past knowledge, experience, reputation, and honors are reset to zero. What you can rely on is only a heart that charges forward without hesitation.

9. I once studied what innovation means, including how to innovate. Only two things count as innovation: first, doing what others haven't done. Second, doing what others have done and failed at.

10. When capital markets are very depressed, there are great opportunities for entrepreneurship. At this time, you can quietly ponder your business model and your product — you have time. When capital is overheated, the market doesn't give you time. Some with strong fundraising abilities can crush you with a pile of money, killing good ideas and your enthusiasm.

11. Startups that can stand out are sharp enough from the beginning because they do fewer things and are more focused. But after following intuition to a certain scale, it's easy to lose direction. At this point, you need to consciously engage in convergent thinking, extracting the original intention of "why we started" — which exists vividly in your heart but was never articulated to the team — into concise, precise language. It will tell you the answer to the most essential question of "where the company came from and where it will go."

12. No success comes without risk. Only by facing risks head-on and going all in is there a chance for success.

13. The essence of the internet is actually traditional commerce taken to the extreme. That's it. Some may think the internet is lofty and powerful. Return to the essence: what perspective do you use to view users, what perspective to view products, what perspective to view employees and shareholders.

14. For a company's survival and development, without "focus," there is nothing. So when we talk about "focus," what exactly are we talking about? I've summarized four core propositions of focus:

  • Clear mission and vision.
  • Deep insight, understanding the industry, understanding user needs, finding opportunities.
  • Clear and firm goals matched with corresponding capabilities.
  • Restrain greed — less is more.

15. On major decision points, you need a longer-term perspective. It's better to be slower, think clearly before making decisions, move fast on tactical execution while walking more steadily on strategy. Being unstable and unsolid will definitely cause unnecessary, irrational haste, and problems will arise sooner or later.

4

On Product:

Good Products Grow Their Own Legs

1. When making products, you must make products users need, not products that just look impressive. As long as the product is something users are clamoring for, sales won't be a problem — it's especially easy to sell. Good products grow their own legs.

2. Hit products are built, not marketed. Regarding hit products, I believe there are three conditions for their creation: efficient industrial mass production, pricing that suits mass consumption capacity, and product experience-oriented innovation.

3. To build cars, you must love cars and understand cars. If you don't, it's impossible to make a good car. At the same time, I set a goal for myself: I must drive 100 different cars, seriously studying the strengths and excellent qualities of each one.

4. I always believe that excellence can be honed and trained. You need a heart that is never satisfied with the status quo, never content with mediocrity, and the patience to constantly pursue perfection through the dull, painful process of continuous improvement. In fact, product launch is not the endpoint, and product release is not the endpoint. Internet methodology tells us that when the product is sold, that's when the relationship with the user begins. Products also need continuous updates, generation after generation of iterative improvement, revise revise revise and revise again — this is a road without end.

5. When you roll up your sleeves ready to go all out, I suggest you repeatedly ask yourself three questions:

  • Is the excellence we pursue truly what users need?
  • Can the excellence we pursue become a core competitive advantage of the product/service?
  • Can the excellence we pursue form a long-term, sustainable competitive moat?

So, where you drive the nail determines the value of "excellence."

  1. Chairman Mao said, "Keep the land, lose the people — land and people both lost; keep the people, lose the land — land and people both preserved." Word-of-mouth is the living force and mass foundation of business. As long as the living force is not extinguished and the mass foundation is not destroyed, the next product, if handled properly, can still succeed. Therefore, in business decisions, word-of-mouth must come first. You must even be mentally prepared that some products, as long as their word-of-mouth is outstanding, are worth it even with limited sales or even losses.

  2. Facing word-of-mouth, especially negative changes in word-of-mouth, you must never hide illness and avoid doctors, or plug your ears and steal the bell. What's scary isn't negative word-of-mouth change — it's word-of-mouth completely dying out; just as what's scary isn't being cursed fiercely, but having no one curse you anymore. Those willing to chase after you and curse you, those who curse you the fiercest, are either die-hard fans or "water armies." Face word-of-mouth calmly, be prepared to take the worst cursing, then make the fastest improvements. In fact, sincere attitude and rapid improvement are also a form of word-of-mouth.

  3. Resources are always limited. The smaller the entry point, the greater the pressure, the more powerful the breakthrough. So whether it's laying out company business or defining a single product, for a specific business goal, based on insight and our fundamental capabilities, what we need to do is constantly converge, focusing on the necessary "minimum entry point."

After the car-making announcement, in a very short time, we gathered many elites from the automotive industry. Every person who came asked me, how do we plan our "model spectrum"? I asked them, what's a model spectrum? They told me it's actually product planning — car companies like to use one platform to make a pile of cars, and even taught me a phrase: "more children make for better fighting." But I thought differently: we don't need to make a pile of products. Can we first focus on making one car well?

On Passion:

Find What You Love Most, and You'll Have Enough Drive

  1. Do something that stirs the soul.

  2. When I thought of the idea for Xiaomi, I was incredibly excited. Because I had never done mobile phone hardware before — how could I actually pull this off? The first thing I realized was that this couldn't be accomplished by one person alone. So I thought the greatest value I could contribute was finding people who could do this and organizing them together. Whether as an investor, CEO, or entrepreneur, these three roles were completely identical to me. Each role let me search for very excellent people and do something stirring.

  3. I wasn't successful before, and I'm not successful today — I could do better but haven't reached it. In my view, I am a failure. Many people say I'm a success, but I don't feel it. I am an achievement-driven person. Such a person can endure all kinds of pain and keep moving forward.

  4. My desire to make money isn't as high as my desire to make something successful — otherwise I wouldn't have written code for 16 years.

5. I firmly believe that people are great because of dreams. As long as I have such a dream and realize one dream, I will have no regrets in this life.

6. Do what you love. I think only by doing what you love will you have enough drive and passion. I'm very fortunate because over 20 years ago I was a programmer, and I loved making software, so I participated in founding Kingsoft. I think doing what you love is the most wonderful thing in life.