Many people in our company, from management to assembly-line workers, were questioning the necessity of building
such a facility. To them, having a product supply that fell short of demand was not such a bad thing; fast
sales and high margins brought us a pretty good life. So why throw the money we earned into this industrial
park, which wouldn’t produce returns for years? Why not build housing for employees instead? Why not give them
higher salaries? Having studied the national economic situation, I was convinced that building the industrial
park made sense. Even despite China’s policy, I felt certain the economy would grow at a fast rate so that our capacity
would be severely inadequate before long. And in fact, in 1993 China entered a period of overheated economic
growth. Many companies in our industry didn’t start their projects until then – at which point they had missed
the best opportunity for development. As I tell the story today, I sound assured, but at the time I feared that
I wouldn’t ride out the crisis. I wasn’t alone. The construction company also suspected I’d be unable to make the
remaining payments on the project. In that moment of doubt, I drew on my past experience. On the Lunar New
Year’s Eve of 1992, I came to the construction site and enjoyed dumplings with the workers. Together we celebrated
the New Year and talked about the project, and the confidence of the construction company grew.