From Zhang Xue's success, we see the pure-hearted spirit of financial professionals

Ask AI · How does Zhang Xue’s success embody the spirit of long-termism?

(Author Yang Jun, a finance veteran)

Last week, stories about “Zhang Xue” went viral.

At the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) Portugal stop, in the middleweight class, Zhang Xue’s bike—ridden by French driver Valentin Debys—won the championship in two consecutive heats. In the first heat, he finished with an absolute advantage of 3.685 seconds. Industry insiders know that in a competition at this level, being ahead by 0.1 seconds is already a rout, and 3.685 seconds is truly “a dimensionality reduction.” In the second heat, when he found himself in a temporarily unfavorable situation, he managed to stage a comeback by relying on the motorcycle’s formidable performance, and again took the top spot. With two consecutive wins, Zhang Xue’s bike made an astonishing debut, and it broke the long-standing international brand dominance of Ducati, Yamaha, and others.

This suddenly emerging Zhang Xue had no illustrious background—he came from a poor family and only had a junior high school education. His entrepreneurship came entirely from “love.” From a car mechanic to the world’s top heavy motorcycle manufacturer, every choice he made was not because it could make money, but simply because he truly loved motorcycles.

Seeing Zhang Xue tear up with emotion after the race, I was also filled with emotion. In the financial industry, there are also one after another “Zhang Xues”—financial professionals who stick with the “heart of an innocent child.”

The heart of an innocent child is not naivety. It is holding on to purity in complexity, and never forgetting one’s original intentions in the face of temptation.

In the financial industry—especially in the wealth management sector—its original intention is to promote the development of the real economy by effectively allocating resources; to help people like Zhang Xue, who carry dreams but lack funding, turn their ideals into reality; and to provide products and services that genuinely help ordinary people withstand risk and achieve wealth appreciation.

But we also have to admit that in some corners of the industry, there really are certain chaotic practices. For example, focusing only on “money making money,” treating customers as traffic, turning products into tools for arbitrage, and reducing risk management to superficial work—going through the motions and doing for show.

However, please don’t let that lead you to deny the entire industry, and don’t deny yourself either. Because more financial professionals are working quietly.

Amid the market’s “short-sightedness,” they still believe in the power of expertise and kindness. For example, more and more people are putting buy-side and advisory investment into practice—they refuse to simply push products, choosing instead to truly stand on the customer’s side and help customers with long-term financial planning. In brokerage, third-party, and bank channels, there are such pioneers: willing to put customers at the center, to allocate resources, to stay by their side, and to create real value. They may not yet have changed the entire industry, but in their own roles, with professionalism and sincerity, they protect the most basic meaning of finance—so that capital flows to where it belongs, helping more ordinary people guard their wealth.

Sticking with the heart of an innocent child is not something you can achieve in a day; it is an expedition that requires careful step-by-step progress and long-lasting effort.

Zhang Xue’s motorcycle company has annual revenue of 7.5 billion yuan, but it is still operating at a loss; last year, it recorded a loss of 20 million yuan. The reason is that he has continued to invest in technological R&D and invest in high-cost events such as WSBK. He trades short-term profits for a ticket to enter the world stage in the next five to ten years. He is building technological barriers.

Many people don’t understand, thinking that if you’re not making money, then you’ve failed. But that is precisely the highest-level form of “long-termism.” The path he has taken is exactly the one pursued by BYD and Huawei. Didn’t BYD, back then, pour all its profits into battery technology R&D to achieve its world-class position in today’s new energy vehicle industry? And if Huawei hadn’t continued investing in R&D, how could it have held up the backbone of China’s self-developed chips when the United States cut off high-end chip supplies?

Zhang Xue’s 20 years of persistence tells us: if all you see is “making money,” your perspective is far too small.

The essence of business has never been a zero-sum game, nor is it about snatching value from others through clever calculations. Nor is it about chasing short-term interests right in front of you. Instead, it is first creating real value for society, and then earning long-term, steady, and reasonable returns. Even if you stumble and fall countless times along the way, you still carry the heart of an innocent child and sprint with all your might toward the direction you truly love. It is often precisely people like this who ultimately achieve returns far beyond expectations—heavier, more enduring, and longer-lasting.

The financial industry is the same, too.

More and more financial institutions are starting to give up the approach of simply chasing scale, and are shifting to a model that is truly centered on customers. Amid the clamor of the market, they persist in doing difficult—but correct—things. More and more practitioners are willing to accompany an enterprise customer from the startup stage to maturity. They are willing to design a retirement product that can truly weather cycles, standing guard for the public. They know that long-termism is never just a slogan; it means being willing to pay visible costs for a distant future that you cannot see.

These efforts may not yet have been seen by everyone, but they are seeds that help the financial industry take root again.

Although the market has been hard to endure lately, with the Russia-Ukraine conflict still unresolved, great-power games tugging back and forth repeatedly, and the situation in the Middle East affecting global nerves. Many financial professionals feel a deep sense of fatigue. Each day, they have to face performance pressure and scale rankings, while also bearing the distrust from the market and from others.

Even so, we can still see people who refuse to recommend products that don’t fit customers just to meet targets. We can still see people who, when the market is at its most pessimistic, patiently stay with customers and get through the low point. They have not given up, and they will not give up.

Zhang Xue waited 20 years for a world championship. Financial professionals perhaps don’t need to wait that long. Because our “heart of an innocent child” has never truly left.

May we all be like Zhang Xue: leave for half our lives, and return still young.

This article only represents the author’s views.

(This article comes from Yicai Finance)