The third session of the Living Library series, initiated by Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, was held in Room A164 of Building 2 in the evening of May 17th. Ziyan Qian, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of M-Flex for the Asian region, and a graduate of both Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, was invited to be the Living Library book. M-Flex is a listed company in the United States. Mr. Qian gave an introduction to the students on how to make their life successful.
With a first degree from XJTU and an MBA as well as CPA from Singapore, Ziyan Qian has also been selected as the “Best CFO of 2011 in China” by Finance – a professional journal under the Ministry of Finance. He has had six years’ working experience as a CFO in European and American companies so far.
Look actively for life’s awakening moments
The lecture began at 6:30 pm, when Ziyan Qian first shared his views on young people. He said, “As a young person, you should have a certain amount of life experience through part-time jobs, voluntary work, or even a long trip. All these experiences not only provide a chance for society to know you, but also put you on the guaranteed path to success.” He encouraged the students to actively look for life’s awakening moments: “The earlier one becomes self-aware, the greater her chances of success in the future will be.”
Mr. Qian noted, “First of all, young people should have dreams, which are not tangibly confined by time or money. Second, you should critically analyze the people and things that you put on a pedestal, and conscientiously record everything that attracts and moves you. Last but not least, have a good understanding of your own ability, and develop a career that is worthy of your lifetime. From these will spring your own awakening moments for you to be a person that can influence and change society.”
“Keep your dreams alive; be a storied person”
Ziyan Qian believed that independent living was the most important step for young people setting foot in society: “Devoid of our parents’ protection, we learn to grow through trials and tribulations, facing up to and overcoming the various challenges life throws at us.”
He advised his audience to “keep your dreams alive; be a storied person.” Mr. Qian added that he hoped the youth of today would pay attention to the cultivation of their inner qualities: “The vaguer the beauty of the exterior things, the clearer the beauty of the inner things.” A resume filled with flattering epithets such as “excellent team leader” cannot, in his opinion, outshine an interview candidate with a precious life experience.
Hoping to enlighten his listeners, especially those who are buried in their books to the exclusion of everything else, the speaker continued, “Many students these days focus more on their studies than the value of life experiences.” “Yet, one student in Ningxia province won a full scholarship to Harvard University on the back of having established several non-profit organizations in high school, even though that student had failed to top the university entrance exam.”
Carefully record every little step in your progress to achieve success
Mr. Qian told of his own story serving as the finance director in Siemens in Wuxi as well as working at the headquarters in Germany. He described the “shortcut” he took, which entailed spending one year learning German, from being a novice to a master who could speak German fluently and take charge of the headquarters. “I had merely learned one foreign language in the whole process; compared with other challenges, only perseverance is needed to overcome language learning difficulties.” Mr. Qian then availed of the opportunity to remind the students to ask themselves what they could do to change the prevailing circumstances, and drew their attention to their inner self, instead of lamenting the unfavorable objective factors.
Mr. Qian concluded that no matter how rapidly the world around us changes, we must most certainly continue to improve and extend ourselves, develop our abilities, and carefully record every little step in our progress so as to achieve success. “It takes many droplets to make up the ocean; only by seizing every little story we have can we author the important events that determine our lives.”
Mr. Qian also had active interactions with the students present in the lecture.
“How do you select and nurture your successor in the various loosely formed student clubs?”，one student asked. Mr. Qian explained his perspective from two aspects: short term and long term. “In the short term, we should give them free rein and pay attention to the development of their thoughts and ideas by granting them authority and reducing intervention. In the long term, we should focus on records. Record all kinds of ideas and creative thoughts after each activity, summarizing the reasons for success as well as the deficiencies in a timely fashion so that the successor is better able to inherit the tradition and make reforms accordingly.”
Another student raised a question on individual extracurricular development. It was understood that the student was concerned about the marketing and promotion of a new brand in Suzhou, so he asked Mr. Qian for a solution. Mr. Qian pointed out, “Promotion is a very good training exercise for people. The sales team has to have the courage to break through themselves in order to communicate with others successfully. It is through breaking the bottleneck of oneself that the salesperson can begin to solve other problems head-on.
After the lecture, University Librarian Xin Bi awarded a Collection Certificate to Ziyan Qian. Meanwhile, Mr. Qian donated his latest books to the library.
Zhihao Zhang, a freshman from the Department of Mathematical Sciences, reported that the lecture caused him to have a more concrete plan for his life. “Owing to ‘group-think’, many young people have lost their independent judgment. University study does not have to be so hectic that students have no time for the wealth of extracurricular activities available. Instead of playing computer games, we should allow ourselves to experience a rich social life so as to fully prepare ourselves for the work we will embark on in the future.”
Contributors: Kaiming Yang，Library
Photography: Yuhui Qi
Editors: Jingjing Zhang, Xianshu Meng