19th December 2007

Now we have a new site and, for the first time, we have a company blog. It is a very interesting development. I did ask the manager of the website to write the first entry, but he declined. So I took the task and immediately realized that it is not easy to decide what to write down...

As the CEO of FutuVision Group, I think my colleagues might be wondering how they have ended up working in a company or companies led by a Chinese. I may be wrong, but in any case, I decided to write a personal story, telling my colleagues about my path over the past years. I decided to write in English to make it readable to my colleagues from 7 different countries. I also hope my writing will inspire my colleagues to share their life experiences with each other. After all, we have more things to share as a team than just work.

"Once upon a time..." I ended up in Finland, where I actually had no friends at first. I was, as you can imagine, very unsettled and prepared to go back to China or some other place at any moment if things wouldn't work out. Well, the Finnish people and this society actually received me very well. I worked as a visiting lecturer at Tampere University and as an employee in Finnish firms. Then, what's most important, I found my true love, my current Finnish wife, in Finland. It anchored me here and made me a home in Finland.

By a very fortunate coincidence, I started my career in Finland as a Taiji instructor. Well, I forgot to tell you, that I was first a student at Tampere University. As most of the students, I did not have a rich father back home in China. I only had a limited amount of money when I came from China, so I decided to support myself by taking on a part-time job. I tried to find work many times, but had no success.

I started to seriously consider what I should do if I ran out of money, and the idea of going back to China came to my mind many times. One day, I decided to stop worrying so much and enjoy my student life while I was in Finland. One day, at a sauna and pool party organized by a student union of Tampere University, I had a conversation with a Finnish guy from the union while sitting on the edge of the pool with a bottle of free beer in my hand. "What is the biggest challenge as a foreign student that you have faced in Finland?" the boy asked me. '"Work," I said. "I can't find a job to support my studies here and I don't have much money left in the bank." "Well, it is also difficult for Finnish students," he tried to comfort me. "You don't speak Finnish, and most of work requires Finnish, so in that sense, Finnish students do have an advantage," he further explained to me. 'But if you can do something that the average Finn cannot do, then you will have an advantage," he concluded.

Then I started to consider my options and think about what I could do better than a Finn. "How about giving massage therapy," I asked myself. Due to my previous martial arts experience, I had learned some massage techniques to help relieve muscle tension, but I was far from being a professional. "Well, you need a special certificate to do that in Finland, and in order to get it, you need to speak Finnish," my friend told me. Finally I decided I should try teaching Taiji, for I had practiced it for many years. My Finnish friend told me to speak about it to Timo, who works in the department of Philosophy at Tampere University and also teaches Taiji. The next day, I went to see Timo Klemola at the university. I introduced myself, and said I had come to talk to him about the possibility to teach Taiji in Finland. "Well, there aren't so many places to teach it here because it is not very popular," Timo answered. I was very disappointed.

At the end of our conversation, Timo asked me what style of Taiji I was practicing. "Chen Taiji," I told him. "Can you come to show us your Taiji on Wednesday," Timo asked. So on the following Wednesday, I went to the Atalpa sports center at the university. About a dozen students and Timo showed up to learn about Chen Taiji, and and the end of the lesson, they applauded me warmly and politely. One nice looking girl (Minna) asked Timo and me in English about where she could learn more Chen style Taiji. "From Mr. Zhao here," Timo told her. I was totally surprised, and even shocked, since I had not expected things to go this way. Later, when we went back to Timo's office, I said to him that I cannot take his job away from him, that it did not feel right to me. "Mr. Zhao, I have my regular work at the university and a steady income. Teaching Taiji is one of my hobbies. You need the job more than I do. Please do not refuse it, because the students want you to teach," Timo answered me firmly.

I was very deeply moved by Timo's remarks. I was actually speechless for a while and felt tears swell up in my eyes. But to make things short, this is how I actually started my career in Finland, as a Taiji instructor, which is very different from my current work as a businessman. But the experience of learning about the nature of Finnish love and sincerity from a then complete stranger had a great impact on me. Of course I feel very much indebted to Timo for his help.

The greatest lesson I learned from this experience was that I have to somehow make myself stand out in a crowd in order to be successful. This principle has strongly influenced me as an individual then and now. I have decided to not be 'average.' Encouraged by this experience, I dared to go and talk to the Dean of Tampere University, to Mr. Appuna, head professor at the department of International Politics and Foreign Relations, Mr. Oli, head professor at the department of History, Dr. Löfman and many other heads of various institutes in order to offer them my knowledge of China. All of the sudden, I was teaching over 20 hours a week at different institutes in Tampere and nearby cities, which probably made me the busiest student in town. This was a very hard time for me since sleep was scarce, but I also felt very happy.

To sum things up, the first two years in Finland were very hard and exciting times for me. I experienced a culture shock and went through some tough times trying to find work and redefining myself. However, it was an extremely important period in my life, since it left a permanent mark on my life. Those experiences taught me about how to present myself. I also realized how much people here lacked knowledge of China and how many misunderstandings there were about China. So I decided to build a company, which would stand right in between China and rest of the world. By teaming up with true professionals from both sides, we will build a bridge of understanding between China and the outside world. This concept has gone quite far and worked quite well.

If I had to find one word to explain the secret of our operations, it would be 'love.' We have to really love a group of people, a culture and a society in order to reach true understanding. Why? It is very simple, true love will help us open up to others. This way, we will acquire true knowledge, both good and bad, about our surrounding society without any prejudice. In my case, I was lucky to receive absolutely selfless love from a complete stranger in Finland, which, in turn, helped me deepen my love and understanding for the Finnish people, Finnish culture and Finnish society. As a native Chinese, the love I received from my parents, teachers and friends has helped me develop a deep understanding of the Chinese people, culture and society. It has also helped me feel at home in both societies. I created FutuVision Group to serve as a shortcut for people from both sides to understanding each other, finding opportunities and engaging in cooperation. Love will bring us passion, and passion will bring us positive action.

I would like to end this first blog entry by sharing a real story with you. One day, while I was delivering a speech about doing business in China, a Finnish student asked me what kind of tricks he should learn in order to do successful business in China. I told him that the trick is to give up all kinds of tricks, be honest and learn to love. This is the same answer I have given to the Chinese as well. Let us build a bridge of love and understanding together.

Zhao Yinong, CEO FutuVision Group