From "the world is unbelievably stupid" to "so am I"
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
Today I saw William share the story of DJI.
DJI's success is impressive, of course. From a flat in Shenzhen to the name that represents drones worldwide is a world-class startup story. But I remember watching an interview with its founder Frank Wang (Wang Tao) some time ago, and what really moved me wasn't how big DJI has become. It was how he reflected on himself, on the business and on the organisation.
He was very arrogant when he was young.
His line "the world is unbelievably stupid" used to sound like a genius's arrogance. But later he added: "The world is unbelievably stupid, and so am I."
That is something a founder can only say after being taught some hard lessons by his company, his organisation and human nature.
A deep obsession
Early DJI broke through on product and technology. Wang had been obsessed with model helicopters since childhood. His studies didn't go smoothly, and within the school system he wasn't seen as a good student. But he knew very clearly what he wanted to do.
His supervisor once advised him not to work on helicopters, and to make something easier to sell instead, like motor drivers or controller cards. He said he only wanted to make this, and this was all he could make.
Many startups don't begin with a beautiful business model. They begin with a deep obsession in the founder's heart. He may not be able to explain much theory, but he is determined to build that thing.
When the leaves grow too fast, the trunk can't hold
But once the company got big, the problems came.
Wang described DJI at the time as a wildly growing herbaceous plant. Everyone wanted to be a shiny leaf, building products, innovating and making beautiful things. Nobody wanted to be the branches and the trunk: management, process, oversight and rules.
When a company is growing fast, the front looks great. Sales are good, the products are strong, and all the outside world sees is growth. But behind the scenes, organisational capability, financial discipline, purchasing processes and access controls haven't really grown yet.
When the leaves grow too fast and the trunk can't hold them up, sooner or later something breaks.
Later, DJI uncovered corruption in its supply chain, and Wang realised the problem wasn't just a few greedy people. The whole organisational structure was wrong. R&D had the power to choose suppliers, purchasing had no checks and balances, and the company had split into fiefdoms where everyone was king of their own little patch.
When many bosses see problems in their company, their first reaction is that the staff are bad, that the people below are the problem. But one layer deeper, it's the system that gave human weakness room to go wrong, and a culture that failed to pull everyone back in the same direction.
What's rare about Wang is that he didn't just blame others.
He admitted he was part of the problem too.
He had believed too much in product, in cleverness, in results. If you could get things done, he thought you were great. But when the relationships inside a company come down to "are you useful", the organisation slowly turns into a transactional system.
Everyone wants to prove themselves.
Everyone wants to grab resources.
Everyone wants to do the part that shines.
And nobody wants to do the quiet, repetitive, hard management work that earns no applause.
The founder's "I" can become the bottleneck
That's what is so real about building a company.
In the first half, the founder drives the company forward on "I".
My judgment.
My persistence.
My product.
My refusal to lose.
But once the company grows up, that same "I" can become the company's bottleneck.
What used to be decisiveness can become autocracy.
What used to be high standards can become harshness.
What used to be a focus on results can become coldness.
I admire Wang not only because he can build products, but because he later saw that DJI's problem wasn't a single point of failure. It was an organisational problem, and behind the organisational problem was the founder's own shadow.
After building a company that big, being able to admit "I am part of the problem" is not easy.
Product success is making one thing. Company success is getting a group of people to do things well together, for a long time.
Those are completely different levels of difficulty.
What I admire about Wang isn't that he made DJI number one in the world. It's that he slowly travelled from "the world is unbelievably stupid" to "so am I".
Success amplifies a person's confidence. It amplifies their blind spots too.
Being willing to see your own blind spots after you've succeeded is what's truly impressive.