A disastrous startup failure dug two big pits - what should he do next?

In 2009, he graduated from university and went to the countryside to start a business, saying he wanted to accomplish something big, but he suffered one disastrous failure after another and even dug two big pits. In 2012, carrying 1.7 million yuan in debt, he wanted to make a comeback. He sold strawberries for 80 yuan per kilogram and pears for 18 yuan each, and they were still in high demand. Three years later, his company's annual sales exceeded 5 million yuan. What exactly were his secrets to success?

Although it was a foggy day, early in the morning tourists had already come from Luoyang city to this garden in Yichuan County. As soon as they entered, the tourists were attracted by a lion dance performance, and some even started swaying along with it.

Reporter: "I can see you dance quite professionally. Show me a couple more moves. Let me see if you've learned it. How do you do the dance?"

Employee: "Let's give him a round of applause, okay?"

Tourist: "Are you the reinforcement sent by the Monkey King?"

The lion dance was just to liven up the atmosphere at the entrance of the park. What really attracted tourists here was something grown in the greenhouses. He is the owner of the park - Wu Di.

Tourist: "Give me one, so sweet. Give me one, delicious."

The first batch of strawberries in Wu Di's park had just ripened and had not yet entered peak fruiting season, but regular customers who got the news could not wait to come and taste them. In other local gardens, strawberries cost 30 to 40 yuan per kilogram, while Wu Di's strawberries sold for 80 yuan per kilogram and were still in high demand. Last year some customers did not get their fill, so this year they came to taste the strawberries as soon as they turned red.

Reporter: "Have you been here in previous years?"

Tourist: "Yes, yes, I have."

Reporter: "I see they've just come into season this year. Have you been thinking about these all along?"

Tourist: "Yes, yes, yes. The taste really is good. After eating these, you only crave his family's strawberries."

Reporter: "How much can you eat? Like this."

Tourist: "Eat until my belly's full?"

Reporter: "Right."

Tourist: "Then I'm claiming this whole patch."

These strawberries did not look particularly special, so why could Wu Di sell them so successfully? Wu Di told the reporter that it was not just strawberries - the other fruits in his park also sold very well. Watermelons sold for 20 yuan per kilogram, and pears sold for 18 yuan each. This made the reporter very curious. What kind of pear could fetch such a price?

Wu Di: "Come, let's take a look at the pear trees."

Reporter: "When is the peak season for picking these pears?"

Wu Di: "The peak season for the pears is in mid-October, around the Mid-Autumn Festival. By then they have already started being harvested and packed for sale."

No pears were found, only pear trees. These pear trees were only 2 m tall with very thin branches. What did the pears they produced actually look like, and why could they sell for 18 yuan each? Seeing the reporter's confusion, Wu Di decided to take the reporter to the warehouse. A small portion of pears had been kept in the warehouse specifically to be stored until the Spring Festival for sale.

Reporter: "Is this the pear that sells for 18 yuan each?"

Wu Di: "Yes, that's right. This is the pear."

Reporter: "From the appearance, there doesn't seem to be anything special about it?"

Wu Di: "That's right. This pear, as we can see, looks pretty much like an ordinary pear."

One pear for 18 yuan - selling ordinary fruit at an extraordinary price. Local people all say Wu Di has a pair of hands that turn soil into gold. Whatever he grows becomes valuable. Peers often come to Wu Di's park to learn from him and find out how he does it, and many media outlets have also reported on Wu Di.

Lu Xinsong, chief reporter of Rural Work Newsletter: "How are the fruits sold? Why can his sell for such a high price and still be in short supply in the market? Why can't other companies do it? This is my real intention in interviewing him."

Guo Guoning, general manager of a fruit and vegetable planting company in Luoyang: "It's truly remarkable. The prices, including his products, are among the very best in Luoyang. It's worth learning from."

Others envied Wu Di and called him a startup genius, but during the interview Wu Di told the reporter that people who said this did not know his story. In fact, after starting his business in 2009, he suffered one failure after another. By 2012 he still owed 1.7 million yuan in debt. At his lowest point, he felt there was no way out, and he even dug two pits 5 m deep on this land and said these harsh words.

Wu Di: "I even thought about digging a pit and burying myself in it."

Now he can laugh about the two big pits, but only Wu Di himself knows what those hard times felt like. In 3 years, he made a brilliant turnaround from 1.7 million yuan in debt. Now his company's annual sales exceed 5 million yuan. How on earth did Wu Di do it?

This is the ancient capital Luoyang, and Wu Di grew up in this city.

Wu Di: "Mom, Dad, this is Reporter Zhang from CCTV's agriculture program."

Reporter: "Hello. Hello, Uncle and Auntie."

Wu Di's father Wu Yuqian: "Hello. Let us show you our family photo album."

Reporter: "Okay."

Both parents were civil servants. Wu Di was the only child in the family, and his upbringing had been smooth. In 2005, Wu Di was admitted to the Air Force Command College as a locally enrolled student, studying computer science. When he graduated from university in 2009, he did not look for a job at all. He was single-mindedly thinking about starting his own business.

Wu Di: "Successful people have already reached the peak of life. I felt they were glorious and dazzling. I thought, would there ever be a day when I could become someone like that? Be a boss, manage some employees, go to work whenever I want, not go to work whenever I want. How great would that be?"

Fresh out of school, Wu Di was full of ambition and wanted to become an outstanding entrepreneur. At the time, in his view, starting a business was not difficult, and his family strongly supported his choice. Wu Di began searching everywhere for startup projects. In June 2009, Wu Di ate a type of watermelon in Mengjin County, Luoyang, and that one taste gave him the inspiration to start a business.

Wu Di: "I took one bite, and it was so sweet, and it was the same sweetness from the first bite to the last. Now look at this watermelon's rind - it's 10 mm thick, while that watermelon of ours was only 3 mm. Everyone was grabbing that watermelon. That's all it takes. Agriculture isn't hard. It's just growing watermelons. I thought it would be easy."

Having found a good watermelon variety, Wu Di thought that all he had to do was scatter the seeds and wait to collect the money. This project was easy and profitable - wonderful. Wu Di told his best friend Zhang Yang about his idea of growing watermelons. Zhang Yang was working at a company in Beijing at the time, and once Wu Di fired him up, he immediately quit his job and came back.