One punch after another built his empire, but in the end, it was all lost to entrepreneurship.
In the summer of 2017, Zou Shiming stood at a crossroads in his life.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist and WBO world boxing champion, this Chinese hero who once swept through the global boxing arena suddenly announced his retirement.
Boxing was his life, his everything.
For an athlete who had been fighting on the ring for more than twenty years, this decision was almost unbelievable.
What was even more unexpected was that after retiring, Zou Shiming actually chose to start a business.
From being a world boxing champion to a new entrepreneur, he seemed to have left himself no way out.
However, the difficulties brought by entrepreneurship made him extremely anxious and confused.
Without the smoke of the boxing ring, what replaced it was day after day of anxiety and a sense of powerlessness.
At first, Zou Shiming and his wife, Ran Yingying, set out with hope, carrying their past glory and accumulated wealth into the commercial realm.
People had high hopes for them, believing that the aura of two Olympic champions would allow them to make a name for themselves in the business world. However, the reality turned out to be much more complicated than they had anticipated...
Those unspeakable disappointments
Zou Shiming and Ran Yingying's first entrepreneurial project was to open a boxing gym.
This was not a simple decision, but one where they poured in all their past glory and existing resources.
They chose to open a boxing gym covering 18,000 square meters in Shanghai, a city with a strong commercial atmosphere.
The gym was located in the core area of Shanghai, surrounded by luxurious malls and bustling streets, with an extremely advantageous geographical location.
However, reality soon dealt them a heavy blow. As a competitive sport, boxing does not have as wide a mass base in China as football or basketball.
Although Zou Shiming's fame was enough to attract many people to visit, the shiny boxing gym fell far short of their expected customer flow.
After all, boxing is still a relatively unfamiliar sport to most people, and attracting enough customers is no easy task.
Initially, many people came to the gym out of curiosity, but soon the customers began to dwindle.
The high rent and renovation costs kept their operating costs high, and every month they had to pay huge expenses for rent, employee salaries, daily operations, etc.
The actual income could not cover these costs, and the gym business became worse and worse.
Despite investing a large amount of money in marketing and doing extensive publicity through Ran Yingying's fame and Zou Shiming's championship status, they were never able to recoup their investment.
From the initial passion to later anxiety, Zou Shiming and his wife's entrepreneurial dreams gradually crumbled.
Every time Zou Shiming returned home, he watched as the balance in his bank account decreased day by day, feeling extremely anxious.
Ran Yingying also felt unprecedented pressure, as her former star status seemed to have no effect in the business world.
"On payday, when I open my eyes and see the bank's debit message, hundreds of thousands are gone in an instant, it really feels like a knife cutting into my heart," Zou Shiming said in an interview.
This kind of anxiety and sense of powerlessness is clearly not something that can be easily resolved on the boxing ring.
From assets to liabilities, selling off property
As the boxing gym business became increasingly difficult, Ran Yingying also began to venture into other fields, hoping to find a breakthrough.
She invested in the catering industry and opened "Ran's Private Hotpot," but the price positioning of the hotpot restaurant was too high, making it difficult for ordinary consumers to accept, and the attraction to high-end customer groups did not meet expectations either.
Ran Yingying once said in the media: "At first, our mentality was that we thought we could easily do big business relying on our fame, but it turned out to be trap after trap."
Their investments appeared to become increasingly scattered and lacking a core, and the ideals they originally held were swallowed up by the cruel reality of the market.
The most painful turning point occurred in 2019, when the couple could no longer afford the daily operating expenses and had to sell off their properties one by one.
To fill the huge losses of the company, they sold off multiple properties they owned in Shanghai, Beijing, Zunyi, and the United States, almost depleting all their assets.
Once living in luxury mansions, they could no longer enjoy the opulence of that lifestyle, but were instead mired in huge debts.
The sale of each property was a blow to their hearts.
Zou Shiming also understood that he could not escape the consequences of failure. They once believed that starting a business was like boxing, as long as they worked hard enough, they could overcome everything.
But the true challenges of entrepreneurship far exceeded their imagination. It was not just about sweating and effort, but also required profound business wisdom, market judgment, management experience, and even the courage to face failure.
Awakening behind the failure
Now standing before us today, Zou Shiming and Ran Yingying's entrepreneurial dreams have shattered, and their past glory seems to be fading further away.
But Zou Shiming has not given up. He began to gradually realize that failure is not the end, but rather a new beginning.
Although he has lost most of his family's wealth, he believes that entrepreneurship is not an end to being down and out, but another opportunity to start anew.
Even if he fails again, he is willing to continue moving forward.
Entrepreneurship is not just about how much capital you have; sometimes it's more about precise market grasp and the accumulation of management experience.
In today's fast-paced era, the pressure and challenges faced by entrepreneurs are much greater than imagined.
Every investment may bring unknown returns, and even celebrities and internet celebrities may stumble or even be shattered on the path of entrepreneurship.
There is a huge gap between ideals and reality, and the success of entrepreneurship does not depend on personal fame, but more on precise business strategies and solid management capabilities.
The path of entrepreneurship has never been smooth sailing, and behind success lies countless trials and struggles.
Editor: Zhao Cai Xiaolu
Information sources:
- China Entrepreneur Magazine: "Zou Shiming Talks About His Entrepreneurial Experience for the First Time, 'Giving Myself a Score of 3 Would Be Too Much'"
- Financial Magazine: "Entrepreneur Zou Shiming: From Olympic Champion to Business Newcomer"
- Red Star News: "Zou Shiming Couple Reveals Selling Multiple Properties After Seven Years of Entrepreneurship"
- "World Boxing Champion Zou Shiming: Life Is Not Just About Winning or Losing"