Stay Hungry, Stay Young: Zhang Yiming’s Insights on Career Growth and Team Leadership

Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao and recognized by Forbes and Fortune, opens the session by introducing the theme "Stay hungry, Stay young" as a modern twist on Steve Jobs' famous phrase.

He explains that "Stay hungry" means maintaining curiosity, a thirst for knowledge, and a strong drive, while "Stay young" refers to preserving those youthful qualities—energy, openness, and relentless effort—throughout one’s career.

Drawing from his own experience, Zhang recounts joining a startup (CoolTalk) right after graduating from Nankai University in 2005, quickly rising to manage a team of 40‑50 people in his second year, and taking responsibility for both backend technology and product decisions.

He emphasizes three personal habits that accelerated his growth: (1) tackling any task beyond his formal responsibilities, helping teammates and learning from each problem; (2) refusing to set boundaries between technical and product work, actively contributing ideas across domains; and (3) working long hours out of genuine interest rather than corporate mandates.

After ten years of observing many graduates, Zhang identifies five characteristics common to outstanding young talent:

1. Curiosity – a proactive desire to learn new technologies and skills, enabling self‑sufficiency in debugging and implementation.

2. Optimism toward uncertainty – believing in ambitious goals (e.g., achieving billions of daily launches) and willingly experimenting despite unknown outcomes.

3. Refusal to settle for mediocrity – setting high personal standards and avoiding career choices driven solely by material comforts such as housing or salary.

4. Humility and delayed gratification – recognizing one’s limits, collaborating effectively, and resisting the urge to claim superiority without delivering results.

5. Good judgment on important matters – making thoughtful decisions about education, company, and career path rather than being swayed by short‑term incentives.

He illustrates these points with anecdotes, such as a former colleague who started as an average graduate but rose to become a vice‑president of a multi‑billion‑dollar company by consistently taking responsibility and learning on the job.

The talk concludes with a reminder that while short‑term salary differences matter little, the ability to maintain high standards, stay curious, and remain humble determines long‑term success.

For readers interested in deeper technical discussions, the author also promotes an architecture community and provides QR‑code links for joining the group.