Give Robin Li a Perfect Score

At the Baidu AI Conference on July 3, a troublemaker walked up to the stage and doused Robin Li with a bottle of water. The hall fell silent. Li, ever composed, broke the tension with: “On the road of AI, unexpected things will keep happening, but our determination to move forward will not change.” While we condemn the saboteur and applaud Li for staying calm, it is also a reminder to pay genuine respect to entrepreneurs who choose hard battles and keep climbing.

Some say, “If I had his resources, I’d do better.” Wake up. That person did not grow up with empty hands waiting for pies to fall from the sky—and neither will you. People who talk like that are doomed to complain their lives away.

When employees protest that 996 is unfair, tycoon Wang Jianlin—who once had nothing—wakes up at 4 a.m., shuttles through multiple cities a day, and works year-round.

When office workers gripe about nine-to-five exhaustion, a 66-year-old head of state spends June visiting five countries, attending 90 bilateral meetings, and tackling trade wars, the North Korea issue, and tensions with Iran.

When young people whine about bad cafeteria food and tedious work, an 88-year-old agronomist is still in the rice paddies breeding new strains.

When founders scramble, exhausted, to raise money just to make payroll and plead for every order, some employees idle away the day and curse the boss.

Most entrepreneurs will never reach Li’s heights. Their teams are small, their offices plain. Yet they keep pushing technological breakthroughs, experimenting with business models, paying taxes, and grinding to make the world slightly better.

You may dislike a founder’s product or personal style, but you cannot deny their humanity. They embody the spirit of risk-taking and relentless effort.

They are all dream chasers. They are all sprinting.

Please give entrepreneurs a little more respect.

Published at: Jul 3, 2019 · Modified at: Jan 14, 2026