1 . He’s considered the father of the technological innovation, and apart from that, he was also known as a design perfectionist. There is no single executive or creator in the technology industry who is more creative and inspirational than him, and with that being said he was a one-in-billion creator.

On February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, United States, a baby named Steve Jobs entered the world. His parents’ inability to provide for him led to a difficult childhood, one in which he battled with his sense of self and felt constantly confused and unfulfilled. Nonetheless, who could have predicted that this person would cause such a dramatic shift in the information technology? The way Steve Jobs showed the world the new products and devices he was working on was truly out of this world, and that’s a big part of why he’s so beloved.

Steve Jobs was well-informed, but he was not a scholar. He possessed a high IQ but showed little enthusiasm for formal education. His main hobbies were playing tricks on people via phone and computer, goofing off with his best friends, and coming up with ground-breaking business concepts.

Steve Jobs’ philosophy on education is well-known at this point; he has stated publicly that he was only able to learn after leaving college. When Steve Jobs and his friend Wozniak were in their early 20s, they came up with the idea for the Apple Computer. Steve Jobs’ Volkswagen bus and Wozniak’s beloved scientific calculator were sold to finance the pair’s garage-based startup. Jobs and Wozniak have been given much of credit for democratizing the computer industry by making computers more user-friendly, portable, and affordable.

Wozniak envisioned a line of accessible and lightning-fast personal computers, and Jobs was put in charge of the company’s marketing and management. From the get-go, Apple sold the computers for up to $666. The unexpected greatness of their early success inspired them to develop more powerful machines. In the 70s, they accomplished what would become the company’s crowning achievement. Assembled by Apple, Inc. , the high-performance computer was an instant success in their home state of California, and its sales helped make Jobs a multimillionaire.

2 . Zong Qinghou, the founder and chairman of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, China passed away on Sunday at the age of 79. As one of the most respected representatives of China’s first generation of entrepreneurs (企业家) since the country embarked on reform and opening-up in 1978, Zong’s down-to-earth style and innovative spirit greatly impressed the public.

Born in 1945 in Suqian, Jiangsu province, Zong took over a small grocery store at a school in Hangzhou in 1987. In 1989, he founded Hangzhou Wahaha Nutritional Food Factory. In 1996, Zong launched Wahaha AD calcium milk, which became a great hit with Chinese consumers. The company’s products now cover more than 200 categories, including purified water, milk and yogurt drinks, carbonated drinks, fruit and vegetable juice, tea and coffee drinks, with its sales revenue reaching 51.2 billion yuan in 2022. It has nearly 30,000 employees and 8l production bases nationwide. Zong was ranked as the country’s richest person in 2010, 2012 and 2013 by business magazine Forbes.

However, Zong led a simple life, and it was common to see him dressed in a white shirt and black cloth shoes. He once said, “I am an ordinary person, but luckily I was born in such an era (时代).” He said that Wahaha would not exist without reform and opening-up. He said that Chinese entrepreneurs should fulfill their social responsibilities, and create wealth for the people, adding that they should create more employment opportunities and participate in public welfare activities, contributing to the country’s economic and social development.

Moreover, Zong attached great importance to technological innovation to ensure the quality and diversity (多样性) of Wahaha’s products in a highly competitive market, and provide strong impetus to the company’s sustainable growth. It is widely acknowledged that Zong’s management philosophy has set an example for the development of China’s private economy.

4 . Zong Qinghou, a soft drinks giant from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, died of an illness at the age of 79. There has been much mourning at his passing on Feb. 25, 2024 as he was well-known as the founder of a company, headquartered in his hometown in the late 1980s, which later developed into the Wahaha Group, a major soft drinks company.

He is known to the public for three things — his rags-to-riches rise, his long-term frugal (节俭的) lifestyle, and his devotion to promoting China’s national industries. Forbes ranked him, with a wealth of about $5.9 billion, No.53 among Chinese billionaires last year.

Yet besides, it is also worthwhile to think over the question about whether his success in business can be imitated today and what lessons policymakers can learn from his self-made business success as they try to enrich the soil for setting up business.

Before winning a contract (合同) to work as a salesperson of a small school-run factory selling writing materials, iced treats and soft drinks in Hangzhou in 1987, Zong worked as a traveling salesman for nearly a decade after working for 15 years on various posts in local farming communities with Grade-9 education.

His sharp business sense, which he owed to poverty instead of the genes (基因) of the Zhejiang business community, enabled him to recognize business opportunities at a time when the country had just carried out the change from a planned economy to a socialist market one.

The broad space he enjoyed as a sales representative of the factory enabled him to continuously sharpen his sales strategies and enlarge his network of business partners. That not only helped him gather the start-up funds he later used to contract the whole factory, but also influenced his later management style, which he summed up as always trying to make things simpler.

As he told the media, it is the spirit of adventure of his generation and their down-to-earth work style that deserve attention, not his lifestyle, which was a personal choice.

5 . Growing up in coconut-rich regions in India and with his father working in the related industry, Anees Ahmed heard of coco peat (椰壳泥) at an early age. After completing graduation in bio-technology from college, Ahmed worked as a researcher on agriculture in various places. He recalls that while studying about coco peat, he discovered that many countries used peat moss (泥炭苔) as an ingredient to keep soil rich. The extraction of this material leads to the release of carbon dioxide, which further contributes to global warming.

According to Dutch researchers, coco peat’s water-holding capacity, disease resistance, and renewable nature make it suitable for gardening and agricultural activities. Ahmed realized that coco peat could be a better alternative to peat moss and then started a company, Global Green Coir, in 2012. When Ahmed entered the market there were only few companies using this material as coco peat was not popular among people, and even coco peat was mostly considered as wastes. “At first people and companies used to give us coco peat for free.” he said.

Now Ahmed’s company gets coco peat from coconut shell to make varied products like pots, bricks, blocks, and grow bags that are exported internationally. However, Ahmed’s journey was not without challenges. He was met with doubts at the beginning. He insisted to demonstrate the potential of the material. His efforts paid off and gained recognition slowly at home and abroad. Ten percent of his business comes from India and the rest is from countries like the US, Europe, the Middle East, and more. Anyway, India is a huge market and most people are adapting to such products gradually.

Ahmed and his family made an initial investment of $5,000 to start the business. Now their sales volume of the last five years has been around $6 million. “With increasing focus on organic farming, coco peat will soon gain more popularity. It is estimated that the cos e pest market is expected to reach 5. 26 billion by 2030 from 3. 89 billion in 2023. ” Ahmed said.

7 . Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and thought, “Where is my life going?”

Patrick Mork, a former Google executive and tech marketer, hit that wall in 2017. He woke up one day terrified by the realization that what he had spent the past 20 years doing no longer excited him and that his passion for it was gone. Divorced, nearly bankrupt (破产) and at the edge of depression, his life and career were in ruins. Now, Patrick has become a successful entrepreneur, executive coach and motivational speaker and built a fast growing leadership development company based out of Santiago, Chile.

Step Back and Leap is an authentic and honest series of stories that trace the author’s life and challenges — from being bullied as a kid in Mexico, to becoming successful in a startup in Silicon Valley. Each chapter describes dramatic challenges Patrick faced and the 9 “keys” he used to overcome each challenge.

This book is for that person who wants to grow, and is willing to learn new tricks to help themselves in that struggle. Part workbook, and part story, this book provides a simple, but very powerful read promising to help the reader unlock their life. Less than a dozen chapters with 9 focused on KEY actions (find your purpose, uncover your values, unlock your goals, be accountable, ask for help, build a team, ask powerful questions, celebrate failures and manage your energy), each provides a concept to help the reader take a giant leap forward.

Interwoven through these chapters is Patrick’s own life story which serves to set up each lesson, and highlight the value of applying the lesson. Rather than focusing on a single aspect of his life, Patrick brings scenes into play that many readers will have been exposed to in their own lives.

A most thoroughly enjoyable, easy read that provided keen insight, had me read every word, and left me wondering for whom I would buy this book for this coming holiday season.

9 . Direction：After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word. Fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

ZHONG SHANSHAN was largely unknown in business circles outside China until a few years ago. But the low-key entrepreneur     1     (hold) onto his crown as China’s richest person for three years in a row. Zhong has also emerged as one of the very few who did not make their fortune in the tech industry. His signature company, Nongfu Spring, is an old-school enterprise     2    makes one of the plainest products in history ---bottled water.

Zhong’s inspirational journey to becoming a self-made (白手起家的) billionaire started with decades of perseverance (毅力) and hard work.     3     (get) to his current position, Zhong learned the hard way, gaining experience in media, sales and even farming.

At a young age, Zhong was forced to drop out of school. He struggled to help support his family,     4     (work) as a construction worker for 10 years.

After the gaokao was reinstated (恢复) in 1977, Zhong took the college entrance examination twice,     5     both times he failed to get admitted to a university. At the suggestion of his parents, Zhong gave up on another run and enrolled himself in a less-than-ideal college.

After graduation, Zhong worked as a reporter for the Zhejiang Daily. In 1988, the declaration of the Hainan Special Economic Zone (海南经济特区) inspired him to quit his job and move to the island province. There he established the Pacific Post newspaper and after its failure, a mushroom business.

The climate of Hainan did not favor mushrooms, and soon Zhong had lost all his money. He had more success selling curtains, but then lost all his money when he started a shrimp farming business.

    6     (inspire) by the potential in the health foods market, Zhong established Hainan Yang Sheng Tang in 1993 to launch various supplements (保健品). He had his first taste of success after rolling out a self- designed product. Despite a positive response in the market, intense (激烈的) competition in the industry prompted (促使) Zhong to think about other possible ways to grow. He concluded that     7     happened, people would need to drink water, and in 1996 he started Nongfu Spring.

The company became known for its obsession (执着) with water quality,     8    has been burned deep into the minds of Chinese consumers thanks to its catchy slogan, “Nongfu Spring, kind of sweet.” These simple words reveal a marketing strategy Zhong has mastered all too well, which is demonstrated by the entrepreneur’s famous quip (妙语): “We are not manufacturers of water. We are porters of nature.”

    9     his immense wealth and influence, Zhong has maintained a low public presence. In Chinese media, he is often referred to     10     a “lone wolf”. His reserved nature stands in contrast to the public personas of other famous entrepreneurs. This quality adds an air of mystique (神秘性) to his already fascinating story.