Zhang Hua'an, from the School of Materials at a university in Zizhou, earned his doctorate, stayed on at the university, and worked as a lecturer for five years. That autumn, at a faculty promotion meeting, two candidates competed for a single opening. From then on, he was dragged into a long, grinding ordeal: revising papers late at night, navigating personal favors on industry projects, losing a defense by a single vote, and receiving an anonymous denunciation letter. Promotion was a narrow door. Beyond it lay salary, dignity, and status; outside it waited things he found harder and harder to explain.
For years, the faucet at home kept dripping. His wife, He Liping, went from voicing one complaint to unleashing a torrent. A school-district apartment, whose parents to care for, and unspoken suspicions piled up, one argument on top of another, until they finally ended in divorce. Whether he got promoted or not, he still couldn't catch his breath. He handed in his resignation and started Lixin Materials in a garage with his old classmate, Wang Zhenyu. The technology was his, but who owned the results, whether clients would accept them, a swindler's advance payment, and a broken funding chain all taught him, one by one, how to start over.
By the time he rang the bell at the stock exchange and returned to the lectern at his alma mater, he was fifty-four. This is not a self-help book. It tells how an ordinary person learns to make things clear amid institutions, marriage, and business, because making things clear matters more than making yourself sound impressive.
It's a bit interesting,
A gentleman changes like a leopard, and his culture is also great