Why Unrelenting Growth Beats Focus: Lessons from Wang Xing’s Startup Journey

Wang Xing, who returned from the United States ten years ago and has been an entrepreneur ever since, reflects on his three startup attempts—two failures and the ongoing struggle of Meituan since 2010.

1. Counter‑examples to Common Startup Advice

He stresses that rapid growth is crucial for a startup, quoting a blunt Silicon Valley saying: Keep growing, fuck everything else . As long as a company can sustain high growth, many problems are either tolerable, hidden, or will disappear as the business scales.

He warns against stopping to solve every issue; a startup should never pause, because any slowdown can cause problems to explode.

However, he also notes that growing too fast can backfire, citing the 2010‑2011 boom of group‑buying sites like Laishou and WoWo, which collapsed when they could not adapt to market changes despite massive funding.

He challenges the mantra of relentless focus, explaining that overly narrow scope can lead to stagnation, while broader ambition is needed to dominate a market.

2. “修身、齐家、治国、平天下” – Ancient Wisdom for Modern Entrepreneurs

Wang interprets the Confucian ideal of “cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, bring peace to the world” as a framework for entrepreneurship.

平天下 (Dominate the market) : Choose a large, valuable target market and aim to monopolize it, echoing Peter Thiel’s advice in Zero to One to eliminate competition.

治国 (Govern the enterprise) : Build an ecosystem around the company, evolving from a single‑function team to multiple business units and partners, similar to the ecosystems of Xiaomi or BAT.

齐家 (Align the team) : Treat direct reports as family; ensure the team is complete, roles are filled, and everyone’s efforts are coordinated, using “Regulate” as a translation of “齐”.

修身 (Self‑cultivation) : The CEO must continuously improve physically, mentally, and skill‑wise, learning from books, mentors, successes, and failures, because personal growth fuels the whole organization.

By progressing through self‑cultivation, team alignment, enterprise governance, and market domination, entrepreneurs can navigate rapid change and achieve lasting impact.

Source: “Wang Xing on Entrepreneurship: Focus Is Important, But There Are Counter‑Examples”.