News & Analysis
Baidu founder says follow your passion
Rick Merritt
10/1/2012 12:10 AM EDT
'One of the nice ones'
Although, he is sometimes compared with legendary U.S. tech execs such as Jobs, Larry Ellison or Bill Gates, Li's passion does not boil over into the shouting fits that they are known for.
"I have to say I am one of the nice ones, a lot of people describe me as nice or soft, but I don’t believe personality defines your destiny," Li said. "What matters is how much you are willing to work and how good you are."
Li did two stints in Silicon Valley as a computer scientist working on search algorithms before he returned to China to co-found Baidu in 2000. "I was not that busy, and I had a lot of ideas, but no one would listen to them, so I wrote a book," he said, referring to his 1999 Chinese-language work, "Business Wars in Silicon Valley."
Raised in Yangquan, China, by parents who were factory workers, he is now considered the second richest man in China with a search engine that serves an estimated 500 million people.
"I never thought about starting my own business until a year before I started Baidu," Li said. "As a young person, my GPA was not high--I played a lot."
But Li eventually buckled down, got good grades and came to the U.S. for his doctorate degree. After school, he worked as a researcher for a time.
"I realized I was not cut out to be a professor, struggling for many years with hard problems," he said. "After I got into industry, I realized I wanted to build something many people could use."
Baidu went five years without anyone in the CEO chair, until the company took off and had to have a chief executive as it prepared to go public. Li took the job in about 2004 and still holds it today.
"I didn’t believe I was cut out to be a CEO," Li said. "I am an engineer, and my passion is products--I don’t like government relations, and I don’t like drinking alcohol late at night with people I don’t really like," he quipped.
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Although, he is sometimes compared with legendary U.S. tech execs such as Jobs, Larry Ellison or Bill Gates, Li's passion does not boil over into the shouting fits that they are known for.
"I have to say I am one of the nice ones, a lot of people describe me as nice or soft, but I don’t believe personality defines your destiny," Li said. "What matters is how much you are willing to work and how good you are."
Li did two stints in Silicon Valley as a computer scientist working on search algorithms before he returned to China to co-found Baidu in 2000. "I was not that busy, and I had a lot of ideas, but no one would listen to them, so I wrote a book," he said, referring to his 1999 Chinese-language work, "Business Wars in Silicon Valley."
Raised in Yangquan, China, by parents who were factory workers, he is now considered the second richest man in China with a search engine that serves an estimated 500 million people.
"I never thought about starting my own business until a year before I started Baidu," Li said. "As a young person, my GPA was not high--I played a lot."
But Li eventually buckled down, got good grades and came to the U.S. for his doctorate degree. After school, he worked as a researcher for a time.
"I realized I was not cut out to be a professor, struggling for many years with hard problems," he said. "After I got into industry, I realized I wanted to build something many people could use."
Baidu went five years without anyone in the CEO chair, until the company took off and had to have a chief executive as it prepared to go public. Li took the job in about 2004 and still holds it today.
"I didn’t believe I was cut out to be a CEO," Li said. "I am an engineer, and my passion is products--I don’t like government relations, and I don’t like drinking alcohol late at night with people I don’t really like," he quipped.
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iniewski
10/1/2012 1:01 PM EDT
Humble CEO, pretty rare!
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