However, there is still a group of mature people who after considering their direction in life, still chose to start their own business. The founder of the only enterprise in Yangzhou to hold an agency operating permit for private entry and exit issued by the Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department, Huaxun Immigration’s overseas General Manager Helen Han Lei, was one of this group. I was fortunate to interview this entrepreneur who is full of entrepreneurial spirit when I visited the WCCO.

Before Helen started her business, she was learning and working in the law industry for 12 years. She first obtained her Bachelors of Law in the East China University of Political Science and Law, then her Masters in Law from the University of London before going to renowned American law firm K&L Gates’ Shanghai office. (Bill Gates’ father William Gates was partner at this law firm.) Anyone would have believed that Helen could have built a solid career in the legal industry and lived an upper-middle class lifestyle in Shanghai.

However, when she looked back on her experiences in those 12 years, she smiled and said, “What you learn may be completely unrelated to your work in the future. When I went for my university entrance exams, I didn’t know what I would do in the future. I read law at my parents’ advice. Even when I left the country to further my studies, I had only thought of working at a government agency or an international agency. But after studying for 4 years in the UK, I felt that the best option would be to return to my country, which I did.”

When speaking on why she gave up the opportunity to live a middle class life in Shanghai, abandoning it to start her business, Helen continued, “I was working in the office building in Shanghai’s Jing'an Temple, working from 9am to 9pm constantly writing up contracts and amending documents. When I was tired from work, I would often look down from the window and see other people drinking coffee and chatting about interesting things. That’s when I realized that work at a legal firm was not truly the life I wanted for myself.”

Of course, another important reason was:a lawyer’s work would cause you to become more cautious. I was born into a businessman’s family and hence nurtured an adventurous entrepreneurial spirit since young. But by being a lawyer, I would lose this adventurous spirit. When I understood the requirements for a career in law clashed with the adventurer blood within me, I decided to quit and do what I wanted to do.

The interview at this point revealed the first prerequisite for an entrepreneur: to anchor yourself as an adventurer. We find it hard to imagine that a person would be willing to forego the knowledge she had amassed in the past 12 years in order to do something that was wholly unpredictable. Just like entrepreneur Zhang Tianyi who, though equipped with a Masters in Law from Beijing University, did not work in a law firm but went to sell vermicelli. This is possibly something many are unable to understand.

Tycoons who succeeded in starting up, such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Li Kashing and Jack Ma, were not definitely the most capable, most intelligent or most talented. But they definitely were the most adventurous and most willing to set their life paths based on what they believed in.

After resigning from the law firm, Helen started her business in Shanghai focusing on helping Chinese students with issues such as visas to leave the country for studies and choice of schools. However, Helen’s start-up journey was not all smooth sailing. As the student visa industry in Shanghai was already mature and highly niched, Helen faced unprecedented pressures from her competition. Hence, Helen decided to return to her hometown in Yangzhou (a China’s third-tier city) to find space to develop.

This is akin to today’s mobile market which is dominated by intense rivalry amongst Apple, Samsung, Huawei and other Fortune 500 companies. Most internet hardware businesses would choose not to enter this competitive space but choose to enter the AI space which is less competitive but still full of potential.

After returning to Yangzhou, because of a chance encounter, Helen obtained a deal from a renowned high school in Yangzhou to help overstaying students and their parents obtain student permits. And it was through this collaboration that she discovered that there was demand and huge potential in second- and third-tier cities. Hence, she stayed in her hometown. She felt that her wealth of knowledge and experience as well as understanding of studying overseas was all the more suited to help the children in her hometown.

After resigning from the law firm, Helen started her business in Shanghai focusing on helping Chinese students with issues such as visas to leave the country for studies and choice of schools. However, Helen’s start-up journey was not all smooth sailing. As the student visa industry in Shanghai was already mature and highly niched, Helen faced unprecedented pressures from her competition. Hence, Helen decided to return to her hometown in Yangzhou (a China’s third-tier city) to find space to develop.

This is akin to today’s mobile market which is dominated by intense rivalry amongst Apple, Samsung, Huawei and other Fortune 500 companies. Most internet hardware businesses would choose not to enter this competitive space but choose to enter the AI space which is less competitive but still full of potential.

After returning to Yangzhou, because of a chance encounter, Helen obtained a deal from a renowned high school in Yangzhou to help overstaying students and their parents obtain student permits. And it was through this collaboration that she discovered that there was demand and huge potential in second- and third-tier cities. Hence, she stayed in her hometown. She felt that her wealth of knowledge and experience as well as understanding of studying overseas was all the more suited to help the children in her hometown.

Once again, Helen positioned her work reasonably: work based on her own core competencies and resources and not work on what looks to be most successful. Everyone knows that the overseas education market in Shanghai is much bigger than Yangzhou’s. But what was more important is finding the market in which you had competitive advantage. There is nothing more important than that.

And so, at the end of 2014, Helen quickly found her first pot of gold after returning to Yangzhou- helping the international class of Yangzhou’s best private school, Yangzhou Shuren Middle School, to obtain overseas education visas. Helen and an assistant spent 6 months, culminating in 54 students obtaining their visas at first instance.

Since then, Helen’s Huaxun Immigration developed rapidly in Yangzhou. Within a short 2.5 years, Huaxun Immigration’s staff strength grew from Helen alone to dozens; the scope of coverage grew from just Canada to now U.S., Australia, U.K. and other English-speaking countries. Every year, they help several thousand students and parents solve all kinds of problems related to overseas education and visa.

In concluding the interview, Helen shared her feelings about her start-up journey:

I believe that everyone’s life track is similar, as long as you work hard, treat your work seriously and persevere day after day, you will attain small successes. Ultimately, every small success will accumulate into big successes.

With respect to Wang Jianlin’s often joked-about saying of “Setting a small target of 100 million”, I would like to say, I generally do not set targets for myself. I don’t know what the future holds. The future is really unpredictable. I can only control the present, I want to ensure every step I take is taken well, helping every student smoothly obtain excellent development from their education abroad.

So, what is positioning? Positioning is finding a reconciliation point between what you want to do and what you can do. Then just do it. Helen did it, I believe that you can too. Come on!

Chinese：

从中国李克强总理在中关村创业大街喝下的“互联网咖啡”，到清华北大的创业讲座，到北上广深的自媒体大咖遇人必谈融资创业，创业早已成为很多人远远观望的热词。为什么要用“远远观望”来形容？因为大部分人都“成熟”了，不会像很多未经世事的大学生那样，来一次说干就干的创业。

但是，还有一群成熟的人，在思考人生走向的时候，坚持选择了创业。扬州市唯一拥有江苏省公安厅核发的“因私出入境中介机构经营许可证”的机构创始人——华迅海外的总经理韩蕾，就是这群人中的一员。笔者在拜访WCCO期间，有幸采访到这位极具企业家精神的创业者。

在韩蕾创业前，她经在法律行业学习、工作了12年。从华东政法大学法律学士，到留学英国伦敦大学取得法学硕士学位，再到后来的美国知名律所之一——K&L Gates（比尔·盖茨的父亲威廉·盖茨为该事务所合伙人）的上海代表处工作，谁都认为韩蕾可以稳稳当当地在法律行业工作，在上海过上中产阶级的生活。

但韩蕾回顾这12年的经历时，微笑着说道：你学的，和你将来从事的工作可能完全不相关。当年我参加高考的时候，也不知道自己将来要做什么，父母建议着，就学法律了。后来出国留学也是，当时就想着去一个政府机构、国际组织工作。但在英国留学四年后，我觉得回国可能是最好的选择，于是就回国了。

当谈及为什么要放弃在上海成为中产的机会，而下海创业时，韩蕾继续说道：我当时在上海静安寺的写字楼里工作，每天都是从早上九点到晚上九点，一直不停地写合同、改文件。工作累了的时候，我就经常从窗口往下看，看到别人在喝咖啡、聊各种各样有趣的事情时，就发现律师事务所的工作不是我内心想要的生活。

当然，还有一个重要原因是： 律师工作会让你变得更加谨慎小心。我出生在一个商人的家庭，我从小就被培养出商人的冒险精神。但是我去做律师的话，会丧失这部分的冒险精神。当我发现，律师的职业要求，与我血液里流淌的冒险精神相冲突的时，我就决定辞职，去做自己想做的事情。

访谈至此，创业者的第一个要素已经出现：把自己定位成一个冒险家。我们很难想象，一个人愿意放弃自己过去12年的知识积累，然后去做一件不知道明天会发生什么的事情。就像北京毕业的创业家张天一，一个北大的法学硕士，竟然不去律师事务所工作，而去卖米粉。这可能是很多人都无法理解的。

创业成功的富豪，如比尔·盖茨、巴菲特、李嘉诚、马云，绝对不是能力最强的，智商不是最高的，才华也不是最横溢的，但他们肯定最敢冒险、最愿意按自己的理解去定位自己的人生轨迹。

从律师事务所辞职后，韩蕾在上海开办了公司，专注于帮助中国学生解决出国留学中会遇到的签证、选校等问题。但是，韩蕾在上海的创业并不是一帆风顺的。因为上海的留学签证行业已经非常成熟，高度细化，韩蕾在上海遇到了前所未有的竞争压力。所以，韩蕾决定回到家乡扬州（中国的三线城市），寻求发展空间。

这就好比当今天的手机市场，在这个苹果、三星、华为等世界五百强激烈竞争的行，绝大部分互联网硬件创业者不会强行进入，而是选择竞争压力相对较小、但同样有前景的智能硬件领域。

回到扬州后，因为一个偶然的机会，韩蕾有幸获得，为扬州本地一所著名高中的中加班的学生与家长，提供留学签证服务。而正是这样的合作机会，让她发觉其实二三线城市有着巨大的留学市场与潜力。于是，她便留在了家乡。而她个人觉得自己的知识储备和经验以及对国外的了解更加能够帮助到家乡的孩子们。

再一次，韩蕾对自己的工作进行了合理定位：做与自己的能力、资源相匹配的事业，而不是去做看起来最成功的事业。谁都知道上海的留学市场比扬州的大很多。但这不重要，重要的是，你在什么样的市场里有竞争力，能把事情做成。没有什么比这个更重要了。

就这样，2014年底，回到扬州后的韩蕾迅速地挖到自己的第一桶金——帮助扬州最好的民办学校扬州树人中学国际班的所有学生办理出国留学签证。韩蕾一个人带着一名助理，花了6个月时间，将54名学生的留学签证在第一时间、一次性通过。

从那以后，一直到现在，韩蕾创办的华迅海外在扬州迅速发展，短短两年半时间，华迅海外的员工从韩蕾一个人发展到数十人；业务方向从只做加拿大，发展到美国、澳大利亚、英国等英语类国家；每年帮助数千位扬州的学生和家长解决各种留学及签证问题。

访谈的最后，韩蕾分享了自己创业以来的感悟：

我觉得每个人的生活轨迹都是共同的，只要你努力，只要你认真去对待你的工作，然后日复一日地努力，会实现每一个小小的成功。最终，每一个小小的成功会汇聚成一个大大的成功。对于很多人拿来开玩笑的王健林“设定一个亿的小目标”，我想说，我一般不给自己设定目标，我不知道将来会发生什么。将来真的无可预测。我现在只管当下，我要把我的每一步都走好，帮助每一位学生顺利地在国外取得优秀的发展。

所以，什么是定位？定位就是在你想做的事情，和你能做的事情时间，找一个重合点。然后放手去做。韩蕾做到了，我相信你也能做到。加油！