Diligentia et Sapientia | Seize the Day

When being invited to deliver a lecture to students of Diligentia College, Mr. Deng spared a whole week time without any hesitation, enabling us to organize the event with absolute freedom. Therefore, May 4, the Youth Day in China marks Mr. Deng’s first individual lecture to the College. Our “Diligentia father” shared with us how to seize the day as a member of the College and as an experienced person. 

▲Master Gu addressing students 

At present, Mr. Deng is a successful entrepreneur and a pioneer in humanity education. At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Gu, the Master of Diligentia College, briefed the students on Mr. Deng’s past experiences and his accomplishments. He turned from a graduate from the department of a civil engineer to a diligent engineer, to eventually a manager who employed more than four thousand people and sought to enter North American market. Every identity of his is beneficial, laying a long-term and solid foundation for his future life.

▲Mr. Deng and his “Genzon” spirit 

Genzon (meaning “right in the middle” in English): 
Confucius once said, “At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground”. This echoes to Genzon’s interpretation from a Confucian perspective, which means impartiality and appropriateness, while for Taoists, it also refers to the key point and the nature of things. When we develop ourselves, we should often reflect on what lies in the middle as well as how to be impartial and to plant our feet upon the ground. In the case of Genzon Group as an enterprise, the questions should be what the most important things are and how to hold on to them. As a student, we need to know the most significant elements in learning and find a good foundation.

Genzon’s mission: to create extraordinary value ecosystem

Genzon’s vision: to become a benchmark company that is also trust-worthy

Genzon’s core value: marketism

Genzon’s brand core values：leadership, pursuit of excellence, persistent creation and value-based system

How to make sure you will never be left behind?

Speaking of “persistent creation”, Mr. Deng recently wrote in his memorandum that, “how to make sure you will never be left behind? With the ever-changing society, what to do with our life to make sure that we will never be left behind and will always be in the forefront of the times is no easy choice. Therefore, Mr. Deng has been working hard for all these years, and he thinks that when young people measure whether they could be left behind, the key is to find out if they accept themselves. This is also one of his ideas to run the College. In his mind, Diligentia College should be a place to deliver youth and vitality, and to enable everyone to accept something that they once are not familiar with or accept. When we see such things, we should not refuse them in the first place; rather, we need to see the logic and value behind.  Here, we have to mention the recent “dorm moving” incident of our university. When dealing with this issue, students demonstrated their enthusiasm in freely expressing themselves, while CUHK (SZ), regarded by Mr. Deng as one of the most open University in China, responded quickly. These are the uniqueness of the university, where also lies its value and character, and thus it should be further explored and spread.

After that, Mr. Deng shared his views on how to seize everyday of our life. 

First, don’t hold anger. This often refers to a status of not easily influenced by the outside world. Sometimes, people pointing fingers at other things is a manifestation of finding reasons from the outside, while they may need to be open-mined enough to reflect on their own to find solution. Feeling one’s talent is not properly appreciated may lead to anger to some extent. However, such “depreciation” could be caused by his or her limitations. For this, the right mentality to deal with problems is to reflect on us with positive attitudes. 

Second, we should make people be willing to help us. Everyone is supposed to have friends with different knowledge structures and from different fields, and we should bring a sense of reliability and trust-worthiness when getting along with others. Mr. Deng also mentioned about when judging if a person is trust-worthy, we can see whether his or her past friendships last long enough. It’s impossible to avoid contacting with other people during our daily life in colleges, but rather than avoid seeing new people around, we should really develop an interest to “study people”. Only if you are sincere to your friends can you learn from them and let them be willing to help you.

Third, we should manage ourselves. Mr. Deng said that learning how to manage us is of great importance, even greater than our personalities and capabilities. We should manage our “life status”, planning well and managing our time and emotions to make sure we do things and eventually accomplish them all. Speaking of how to deal with people and things, Mr. Deng suggested us to be rational, mild, resolute and forgiving. 

Q&A

How to build more connections on our path to growth?

Mr. Deng said that we don’t need to build relationship with others purposely. The key should be to strengthen us first. Pleasing others without self-management won’t work in any case. Specifically, there are two kinds of people in business. One kind is like wandering monks, begging for alms everywhere; the other kind is like those monks building temples to wait for people from all over to visit. We should combine these two ways to get along with others in our lives. For one thing, we build our “temples” to attract others with our personalities and strengths; for the other, we show greater goodwill to others by being more open-minded to get to know more people.

What are the significant decisions you’ve made in your life?

Mr. Deng has his unique perspective to answer this question. Above all, we should realize that big decisions aren’t made at the point in time. Mr. Deng had two plans for his future career when he was a freshman--to be an engineer and a manager. For all these years, he has been sticking to his initial plans, and thus he finally accomplished what he always dream about. Decisions should be naturally made after a long-term gathering of strength. 

Without big empty theories, the experience that Mr. Deng shared was drawn from his life. He also illustrated to us some examples of his own on spot. Nobody can live his or her life without any difficulties; what “father Deng” taught us may not be able to prevent us from obstacles, but it can help us fight off them more calmly. Maybe it’s a status of working hard and fighting for a better us.

▲Group photo for Mr. Deng, the Dean Gu and part of faculty members and students present

Comments

Huixia Ma, graduate of 2015 HSS

I’m always appreciating those who have made contributions to education, for education can benefit both current and future generations of ours. When I first heard the name “Diligentia College”, I’ve been curious about what kind of person Mr. Deng is and been hoping that one day I can attend his lecture. During this Diligentia et Sapientia, Mr. Deng shared with us how to seize our day. There was no slogan, nor so-called “inspirational nonsense”; rather, he had no holding back, just like talking about his past experience. In terms of interpersonal relationship, he said that we should hold no grudge against others, letting them help us, and we should manage ourselves. Speaking of doing things, we should learn from others to find right solutions, and explore the meaning of doing them. These are all worth thinking and practicing. I look forward to having the opportunity to hear his business wisdom in the near future. I think it will be inspiring. 

Tian Xi, undergraduate student of 2016 SME

In his lecture, I felt like Mr. Deng shared his ideas and experiences as a peaceful and kind man. He had no holding back about his life experiences, and I can relate when he talked about the difficulties to start an enterprise and his latter success in business. I’ve learned so much from his life philosophy shared at the end of his lecture----to be rational, resolute and forgiving. 

Qihang Li, student of 2015 SSE

This is my first time to participate Diligentia et Sapientia. The intention was to find out the transference from a college student to an entrepreneur. Mr. Deng was quiet an open book to us, sharing all his life experiences and lessons he learnt with us. I might have some different views, but two points indeed impressed me. First, we should plan ahead; second, it’s important to be confident enough to do what others may be afraid to do. I believe these two are the qualifications for either a leader or a successful person. We shouldn’t also blindly follow the trend. At the end of the lecture, Mr. Deng repeatedly apologized for taking our time to prepare for the final exams and for listening to his talking about “nonsense”, which moved me a lot and demonstrated what an approachable person he is.  

Qingfeng Zeng, graduate of 2015 HSS

As a graduate majoring in simultaneous interpreting, I’m now facing with numerous choices, which often trigger my anxiety and worry. At this point in time, Mr. Deng’s experience sharing enlightens me. He said that no matter what career we would pursue, we need to try hard to make it successful, and that only when we are open-minded enough to absorb more nourishment from the outside world can we achieve better development. I hope one day I myself can be what Mr. Deng suggested----rational, modest, resolute and tolerant. I also want me to bear in mind that success will not come easy; I have to plan in advance and have faith in myself so as to achieve more and aim higher. 

Menghe Wang, student of 2016 SME

Mr. Deng offered us a life lesson by taking an example of Genzon group. He taught us not to bear grudge, to manage ourselves and try hard to make whatever we do successful. Personally, I think “bearing no grudge” is especially important. Some people may often be angry about some trivial things, with some complaining hardships in life and some social unfairness and other people. However, such complaints are hurting them. Instead of complaining, we should find solutions to improve our situation, which I believe is what makes Mr. Deng and hopefully us successful.      

Ziheng Mo, undergraduate student of 2016 SSE

He shared many original views in his speech. For example, we should do the things others may not choice to do. Though I’ve heard similar perspectives previously, I still very much admire and respect Mr. Deng for his remarks. These words represent much courage. In the face of great uncertainties and challenges, people who can step out of their comfort zone and eliminate the uncertainties are indeed admirable.